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Making the case for single-purpose digital signage players

Author: Bill Gerba on 2004-04-29 01:11:00

At WireSpring, our core focus has always been our FireCast kiosk and digital signage software, and the vast majority of our development effort has been on improving its usability and adding features. However, we have found that some customers, especially those that either do not have an internal IT staff or require single source project integration, will only purchase a combination of hardware and software certified to work together.

While WireSpring have relationships with a large number of vendors in both the kiosk and digital signage spaces, we ultimately decided that the best way to ensure a long product availability period and maximize overall product quality was to build a digital signage player ourselves.

However, after a great deal of research we decided that there was little benefit in introducing a new hardware platform into an already crowded industry, and the most economic and efficient path was to select an existing platform upon which to build our FireCast Media Appliance.

By choosing high quality commodity parts with long lifecycles, we can offer the best of both worlds: for those customers who insist on purchasing a media appliance, our hardware partners can assemble a reference platform including motherboard, RAM and CPU into an industrial enclosure designed specifically for the signage industry. For those clients who wish to purchase hardware separately, we can offer a complete bill of materials which they can utilize when making their hardware purchase. Or, as always, our customers have the option of simply selecting any brand name or white box PC to run their kiosks and digital signs.

In the coming weeks, WireSpring will announce its new Media Appliance and WireSpring hardware reference platform at http://www.wirespring.com. We're in the final phases of testing the standard hardware and optional peripheral components. If you're interested in learning more about our selection, or trialing our new media appliance hardware, I suggest you get in touch with the WireSpring sales department, at sales@wirespring.com

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LEGAL STUFF: The WireSpring Blog is written by Bill Gerba but may periodically include articles by guest authors. The author of each article is clearly identified at the start of the article. The opinions expressed in each article are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official opinions of WireSpring Technologies, Inc. All blog articles are copyright © 2004-2008 William F. Gerba or the guest author, as appropriate. All content besides the actual article text, e.g. surrounding branding and informational content, is copyright © 2000-2008 WireSpring Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. Except as provided in WireSpring's Republishing and Syndication Policy, no blog content may be reproduced, in whole or in part, without WireSpring's express written consent.

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What's this page about?
We created this journal to help share useful info about digital signage and self-service kiosk projects. Our articles typically focus on project planning, industry research, ROI analysis, and high-profile deployments. We post new, original articles about once a week.

Who's the author?
Bill Gerba is CEO of WireSpring and maintains an active role in the digital signage and self-service kiosk industries. An industry advocate since 2000, Bill is the chairman of POPAI's Digital Signage Awards and a member of the group's Education and Advocacy Committees. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences (including the Digital Signage Expo) and has been featured in numerous publications. If you would like Bill to provide feedback for a story you're working on, or you want him to speak at your event, please contact us.