Eric – Page 13 – Digital Signage Blog by Mirada Media

Free (or almost) Tools for Digital Signage

Digital signage takes a certain level of work and care so that everything goes off without a hitch. A number of the tools used to construct and maintain a digital signage network can be a little pricey, but we’ve found quite a few software tools & services out there that are free (or relatively inexpensive) that can benefit digital signage operators, big and small.

Slowly but surely, we’ll be publishing reviews on our favorite inexpensive tools. Here’s our initial list of tools, which we’ll be adding to as we encounter more:

GIMP: Image manipulation and compositing for PC, Mac & Linux
Inkscape: Software Vector Graphics creator and editor
DrawBerry: Mac OSX vector editor
Pixelmator: Mac OsX image editor
Audacity: Sound editor/recorder
Aviary: A full suite of creative RIA’s, including image manipulation and vector editing
- Phoenix: Image Editor
- Raven: Vector Editor
- Peacock: Visual Laboratory…a modular image FSUpper
- Toucan: Color Palette Editor
Xara: Low cost graphics software
Blender: Open source 3D application
Swift 3D: Make 3D SWF’s
PhotoShop Express: Stripped down Photoshop RIA
VirtualDub: Simple video (AVI) editing
Toufee: RIA for creating Flash
Sumopaint: RIA image editor
Splashup!: Another RIA image editor
LogMeIn Free: Remote control
AVS: Video converter
Yammer: A Twitter clone but more “closed”, targeted to companies that want to modernize their corporate communications…why not use the feed in your digital signage?
Bluff Titler DX9: An inexpensive Windows app that uses DirectX to generate preset 3D text effects, backgrounds and other 3D animation.
Pixlr: Yet another online image editing program…so many of these! Who will win the war?
Adobe Kuler: An AIR app that until recently was online only used to explore and share color schemes. Great for inspiration or finding matching colors.
Seashore: An open source image editor for Mac OS X with Cocoa framework that enables the use of gradients, textures, text anti-aliasing, brush strokes, and other essential and basic image editing needs.
Daz3D: A free, feature rich 3D figure design and 3D animation tool that enables anyone to create stunning digital imagery.

Mirada Media Expands Digital Signage Offerings to Education Sector

École Secondaire Hormisdas-Gamelin, a public high school in Gatineau, Québec, has engaged Mirada Media to install digital signage in their high-traffic areas.

Digital signage for education

Montréal, February 5, 2009 – Mirada Media, a leading provider of digital signage integration for the province of Québec, is pleased to announce the recent installation of its ChannelView system at Hormisdas-Gamelin high school, located in Gatineau, Québec. The project marks Mirada’s entry into digital signage integration for the education sector.

Digital signage content Hormisdas-Gamelin needed a medium through which it could complement its oral announcements and reduce paper-based bulletins, as well as a means to increase the effectiveness of its communications to the over 1600 students who are enrolled at the school. With these objectives in mind, Mirada installed its ChannelView digital signage system with five commercial-grade 40-inch LCD screens at Hormisdas-Gamelin. Four of these screens are located in the cafeteria, where virtually every student will be able to view them. The remaining screen is placed at the front entrance, and is viewable by students, staff, teachers, and visitors upon entering and leaving the building. The system is used to keep people abreast of in-class news and extracurricular activities such as school trips, sport team performance, and interscholastic competition rankings.

The use of digital signage in the educational sector has largely been restricted to universities until recently, and installations in K-12 schools are becoming more popular, as children continue to be exposed to digital media at younger ages. Eric Morello, Mirada Media’s director of marketing, expects this trend to continue, arguing that “Digital signage is the natural evolution of audio- and text-based communications within schools. With today’s generation growing up in a media-rich environment, using printed and verbal announcements no longer has the same effectiveness that it did years ago. Digital signage is the ideal solution for communicating to students, as it is a visually engaging medium that can help in distributing the message to a media-savvy audience.”

Digital signage in a cafeteria

Ease of use was also a key selling point for Hormisdas-Gamelin in adopting Mirada’s ChannelView digital signage system. In just a few minutes, users can log into an intranet site, prepare the text, add images, and publish their content. Remi Racine, one of Hormisdas-Gamelin’s vice-principals, enjoys the ChannelView system, and says that “the system is easy to use and almost no training was required”. In addition, should any changes to the school’s content be required, modifications can be made in real time via the user-friendly ChannelView system without disrupting the display and cycling of content.

About École Secondaire Hormisdas-Gamelin

École Secondaire Hormisdas-Gamelin offers many vocational and training programs in addition to its general education (grades 7-11) offering. These programs can be consulted at http://web.cscv.qc.ca/030/.

For more information about this press release, please contact Mirada Media at (514) 789-1989 or visit www.MiradaMedia.com.

Mirada Media Outfits Trendy Montréal Clothier with Digital Signage

Finn Logo

Boutique Finn, a Montréal-based clothing designer, selects Mirada Media to install digital signage at their flagship outlet in Rosemère, Quebec.

Montréal, December 19, 2008 – Mirada Media, a leading provider of digital signage integration, is pleased to announce the recent installation of its ChannelView system at Boutique Finn, a retailer which sells its own line of clothing and accessories.

Boutique Finn was looking for a cutting-edge means through which to showcase its merchandise and clothing at its retail location. In addition, because of the regular changes in its clothing collections, Finn also needed a way to update its promotional material. Mino Kelechian, Finn’s owner, noted that “Our constant replenishment of new merchandise at the retail level requires promotion. The digital signage system allows that and fits in with the overall store concept perfectly.”

Furthermore, Mr. Kelechian noted that the ability to customize and change content on a regular basis was a valuable feature which would be almost impossible to replicate via traditional printed media. He also highlighted that selecting the proper marketing channel is of the utmost importance, especially in the retail industry, and added that Finn “needed to reach out and grab our media-minded clientele’s attention and that traditional, static, one-dimensional printed signs wouldn’t cut it.”

Mirada Media helped Finn accomplish these objectives by creating a customized solution integrating Mirada’s ChannelView system with two 52-inch high-definition LCD screens placed in key locations at Boutique Finn. Once finalized, the content is posted to the ChannelView system and displayed on the in-store LCD monitors. Thus far, Finn’s digital signage system has received considerable attention and praise, but Mr. Kelechian has ambitious plans to leverage the ChannelView platform even more: He plans to continue developing even more cutting-edge content through Mirvik Design, Finn’s sister company, which specializes in digital media production.

The use of digital signage by retailers is on the upswing, as it allows business owners to enhance customers’ shopping experience by offering memorable, captivating content. According to Eric Morello, Mirada Media’s director of marketing, “The benefits of digital signage for retailers to showcase their merchandise are definitely there, especially when merchants are catering to a younger, media-conscious audience. In a world where consumers have a plethora of choices for everything from clothes to electronics to food, digital signage offers merchants the opportunity to create a distinctive shopping experience and to get customers to come back.”

Finn has just released its Winter 2009 collection, which is available at www.boutiquefinn.ca. For more information about this press release, please contact Mirada Media at (514) 789-1989.