Now Playing: Digital Signage - Bringing in reinforcements (
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Schult, as the primary contractor, brought in Hammond, a Scala certified channel partner, to handle all Scala and Radiant software scripting, programming and integration. Conference calls involving Schult, Muvico and Hammond got under way in April. Schult brought to the table the customer relationship and the company’s experience with digital menu design and creation, networking, and installation. Hammond’s role revolved around software programming, content creation, animation, management and technical support.
Hammond set up the equipment and software in its development production area after the monitors, PCs and other necessary hardware and software were delivered.
“Our job is to take the graphics that were supplied to us by Schult and make it work on the Scala software,” said Craig Miller, vice president at Hammond. The company was also in contact with Radiant technical support as it worked on integrating the Scala software with the Radiant POS system.
“Specifically, we needed to get a POS Schult also requested that Hammond software engineers write a menu management system as a layer on top of the Scala software. “We wrote up a set of functional requirements for how the digital signage systems were going to be managed and how the content would be displayed,” said Clapes. Designing a flexible management system was critical to the success of the project to handle different locations’ requirements operating over a network. The menu boards run custom ScalaScript and VBScript programming and a Microsoft .Net application developed by Hammond.
Hammond software engineers built a prototype system that included POS, content update, animation, choreography and management components. With the digital menu system made up of three menu boards, it was important for Hammond to make the software easy to use for the client.
A key challenge in designing the digital signage system was to make a compelling presentation to draw the customer to the menu but not produce sensory overload. A second challenge was to ensure that the pricing system and content management system were transparent and easy to use.
Once the prototype was approved, it was shipped to Schult for installation at the Rosemont theater. Hammond software engineers were available online and by phone to configure and set up the software.
As the installation is replicated in other locations, each theater will get three media players and a Radiant system server running the POS software with an “One of the key benefits of working with Schult is that they provide a one-stop turnkey solution so we work with one project manager,” said Thollander.
More to go
Schult was responsible for the network configuration and hardware layout at the Rosemont theater. The system consists of Windows XP-based PCs running a Scala player that presents content to the large screens, as well as a TripleHead2Go box from Matrox Graphics for multiple-screen output. Schult ran Category 5 cable between the computers and screens. Although the Rosemont digital signage system has been up and running, the Radiant POS integration for dynamic output to the system is still being tested. For now, POS information is delivered in a text file sent by Schult.
Muvico is now upgrading to Radiant 7.0, the latest version of the POS software. “As they roll out the upgrade, we’ll follow up with the menu system,” said Schult.
Today, Hammond hosts the central server, also known as the content manager that drives content to all locations. “We expect to roll out the digital signage to about nine of our 14 locations beginning in February,” said Thollander. Some Muvico theaters, according to Thollander, are smaller or older or have physical obstacles that aren’t conducive to digital signage.
Both Schult and Hammond will remain involved in the digital signage rollout as it progresses through this year. At some point, perhaps in the summer, Muvico executives plan to relocate the host server to the company’s data center. About a half-dozen members of Muvico’s IT staff will maintain the digital signage network and work with the Scala software as a Web-based interface for easy management.
Lynn Haber is a freelance writer in Norwell, Mass. She can be reached at lthaber@comcast.net.
