INTERACTIVE DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE POPSTAR APPROACH

By Steve Hagenlock, CTO Popstar Networks, Inc.

Copyright 2013

INTERACTIVE DIGITAL SIGNAGE: THE POPSTAR APPROACH

INTRODUCTION
Popstar Networks provides a platform for the hosting of both passive digital signage presentations as well as fully interactive digital signage and kiosk-style applications. Recognizing the rapid industry growth towards the merger of both large and fixed touchscreens, we have created a technology platform from which networks of interactive devices can be deployed, monitored and managed.

KIOSK TECHNIQUES IN DIGITAL SIGNAGE

There are many options for creating a standalone kiosk, ranging from starting from scratch with a kiosk authoring tool, such as Adobe Flash or Director, to low-cost software packages which provide some of the typical framework as a starting point. The most difficult issue to overcome in these scenarios is moving from standalone system to scalable network without a reengineering exercise. Issues such as mass customization, log reporting, maintenance, monitoring and content delivery are typical of the feature set of a digital signage software solution and are not being addressed by most of todays commonly used kiosk authoring tools. Popstar recognized this issue and built a digital media platform intended to marry the world of the kiosk with the digital signage network platform.

TYPES OF INTERACTIVITY
There are many types of interactivity being discussed in digital signage conversations today. This document focuses on user interactivity, however, its worth mentioning the range of interactivity that our digital signage platform integrates with or directly supports. Direct User Interactivity Touchscreen Keyboard Mouse Mobile Device Interactivity Bluetooth Broadcasting Wi-Fi Application SMS and Text services Device Integration with Triggers Serial Devices

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TRACKING AND METRICS

To provide an element of measurability to an interactive digital signage network, methods for tracking events within the system must be employed. Proof of Play logging Interactive Session quantitative data points such as user click trails. Interactive Session qualitative data points such as was the video watched to completion? At which percent was it stopped?

These logs are captured to the player device in the form of a date-stamped log file, which is then uploaded to a central location via a scheduled process. In this manner, the logs are backed up and not subject to network performance, availability or other errors. Once the log information is centralized, a combination of standard reporting and more in-depth analysis can be deployed against the data. A data warehouse storage technique should be used so that large data sets can be heavily queried without impacting performance of live network servers. The larger the network, the more important it is to have a reporting server in data warehouse configurations. Note that much of the in-depth, network-specific or behavioral data should be extracted using specialists with the appropriate statistical toolsets; much of the more qualitative analysis is beyond the scope of digital signage platform reporting tools.

CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

For complex interactive projects, it is often desirable to provide a Content Management System (CMS) backend, similar to the software platforms powering many websites today. The purpose of the CMS is to provide semantic and structured context to data and media. This technique is commonly known as Separation of Presentation and Content. For instance, if your project has a large and growing collection of media elements which are semantically related and coupled with text descriptions and thumbnails, having those relationships managed by a CMS gives the operator a central location to manage the content in a user-friendly manner. The CMS provides the structure while the digital signage player application provides presentation. It is recommended that any large interactive digital signage project consider making use of a Content Management System, particularly if there is a goal of mass customization or a great deal of semantic data best organized in a database.

INTERACTIVE PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES

The Popstar platform supports a handful of different techniques which can be employed to create an interactive digital signage application. There are pros and cons to each approach and many of the projects which Popstar encounters could conceivably be solved by all three.

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EMBEDDED WEB BROWSER

The Popstar player is capable of hosting a web browser object in the form of embedded Microsoft Internet Explorer. Using this technique, HTML (or other supported content) can be used for the presentation layer of the application. The content and presentation files can be served from the player device itself or from a web server available on the network. This is a very common way in which many companies create interactive kiosk projects. Popstar has used this approach in the past, mainly to accommodate clients who wished to utilize an existing set of resources. Popstar does not encourage this approach for large systems because the user interactivity is not as precise and robust as it could be and the technique presents potential security issues.

HOSTED CONTENT OBJECT

The Embedded Web Browser could be considered a form of a hosted interactive content object; however, inherently interactive content files such as Adobe Flash and Adobe Director can also be deployed into the network. This technique provides some of the advantages that the Embedded Web Browser approach lacks, such as smooth presentation. For small applications and networks not needing to be remotely managed, this approach is adequate. Mass customization tools must be built into the content file itself or not used and content updates require distributing the entire file out to the network again.

NATIVE POPSTAR PLAYOUT

The Popstar player supports interactivity as well as other software bindings encoded within its native presentation file format, a derivative of the xml format known as SMIL. For passive digital signage presentations, Popstars SMIL documents are created using our server products and distributed to Popstar Player devices. Popstar provides a method for encoding and binding complex interactivity and other software-style bindings inside of these documents using the inversion of control software design pattern, similar to the relationship between Adobe Flex/Flash player and the MXML encoding format. However, it should be noted that Popstars server products do not address interactivity from an authoring standpoint at all. Popstar has created a set of technologies deployed within Adobe Director that allow the authoring tool to be a WYSIWYG layout and development tool for the Popstar Platform. This workflow solution provides best-of-breed authoring software with extensions to export the project file to the Popstar players SMIL formatted XML. The SMIL document, media files and any custom behavior libraries are all that are required on the player for high fidelity playout of the application. Custom code libraries can be developed within the software for functions and behaviors not already present on the Popstar player. Popstar believes that this technique strikes the appropriate balance between nuanced and reactive presentation layers and the ability to modify, in a mass-customization manner, the end user experience at each location since the bulk of the application configuration is encoded XML, a software friendly and pliable data format.

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This technique is compatible with embedded content objects such as a web browser, flash movies and director files such that they can be embedded and synchronized as any video, image, text or sound file can. Popstar multimedia resources can be contracted to produce the application project quickly or provide consulting services to a third-party developer to help them understand the workflow within this environment.

BEST PRACTICES INTERACTIVE SIGNAGE

When utilizing the native Popstar Playout format of an Interactive SMIL document, we recommend adopting the Model/View/Controller design pattern, where a SMIL entity implements the applications Controller class, and utilizes classic MVC messaging and data management. Popstar has found that the MVC design pattern with the Popstar player has provided the most durable and high performance multimedia application framework for the platform.

ABOUT POPSTAR NETWORKS

Popstar Networks, Inc. empowers businesses to use innovative methods of reaching their audience in a cost-effective way. Popstar Networks, Inc. software and services are the foundation for creating rich media experiences for your audiences, reinforcing brand and influencing behavior to increase revenue. Founded in 2003, Popstar has been on the cutting edge of media advancements incorporating interactive media, multiple displays and high performance digital signage into superior audience experiences. Our digital media management platform offers modern, web-based content management and monitoring of digital signage, kiosks and other forms of connected media. In addition, Popstar offers a variety of system planning and design services to ensure that customers get the most out of their investment. Based in Olathe, Kansas and Seattle, Washington, Popstar continues to grow innovation in connected media solutions that enable customers to increase their revenue stream through impactful, effective media delivery.

www.popstarnetworks.com tel 888.476.7782 25055 w valley pkwy suite 120 olathe, kansas 66061

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