Content doesn’t just appear on a digital signage network screen or display magically. Take billboards or fast-food restaurants as an example. The humble digital signage media player is the behind-the-scenes hardware device that makes viewing possible. These devices work with dedicated software, connecting digital displays to content management systems (CMS). Essentially, their role is to push content out to the network of screens, but what if they could do a lot more?
Digital signage players can surpass their standard functionality when qualified by and connected to AWS (Amazon Web Services) IoT Greengrass. AWS IoT Greengrass is a cloud service and open-source runtime platform that extends the functionality of Amazon services and cloud capabilities to local edge devices.
When integrating the media player and Greengrass capabilities, the media player morphs into a hub, boosting device management, data, and content capabilities by drawing on the AWS ecosystem.
There are many reasons why you want your digital media player to be AWS IoT Greengrass qualified, but here are our top five:
- Data and Analytics
AWS IoT Greengrass enables edge devices to collect, manage and analyze data at the source, gathering and storing input from device sensors and cameras locally. - Reduced Latency and Reliance on the Cloud
Customers can decide which data to filter and transmit only selected data to the cloud, reducing data migration and storage costs associated with central cloud environments, also reducing reliance on the cloud and decreasing latency at the edge. - Content Personalization and Interaction Capabilities
Drawing on its edge data collection capabilities, Greengrass-connected digital signage media players have the potential to enable environmental monitoring. Coupling this with locally gathered insight allows personalized content, such as targeted advertising, to be served to audiences.Additional enhanced functionalities mean end users can also integrate physical devices like phones and kiosks to interact securely on local networks. For example, you can use your smartphone to order and pour drinks via touch-free kiosks in fast-food restaurants.
- Accelerated time to market and Optimize Costs
AWS IoT Greengrass makes it more accessible, efficient, and cost-effective to build, deploy and manage software solutions, reducing complexity and shortening development time cycles. The prebuilt components, local processing, messaging, data management, and machine learning (ML) inference available via Greengrass contributes to faster software build times. - Remote scalability
AWS IoT Greengrass facilitates software rollout on millions of devices remotely. Devices can be separated into groups so that device software deployment and over-the-air updates can be made to a specific subgroup or the entire fleet, significantly increasing management and cost efficiency.
Seneca has a vast range of industry-leading digital signage media players to suit all application needs. We work closely with system integrators and OEMs to deliver flexible, modular solutions that meet a range of performance, content, and environmental requirements. Our Element media player series is the first range of media players to be AWS IoT Greengrass qualified.