From the National Gallery of Canada to the Las Vegas Convention Center, X2O’s digital signage solution can be seen all over North America. With their award-winning Xpresenter™ platform, X2O has grown into a leading provider of digital signage, wayfinding and video wall solutions.
Before X2O grew to where it is today, they knew that they would not get involved with manufacturing their own hardware for the media players. They would instead focus on creating the best digital signage software in the industry. So a search for a partner with expertise in media player hardware was necessary.
The Challenge
X2O media players are often installed in harsh environments, so with some of the first hardware they tested, failing hard drives and power supplies created up to 20% failure rates. This added significant replacement expenses to the network operation, and also seriously affected the network uptime. The new hardware had to be rugged enough to withstand the harsh environments, giving the lowest possible failure rates.
The limited space for installing the media players was also critical. The screens were often installed in ceilings, behind screens or in very inaccessible places, so the players had to be compact and easily installed.
X2O’s HTML 5 player technology interacts with a wide range of 3rd party hardware or software systems. The 3rd party system can trigger or receive commands from credit card readers, Microsoft Kinect cameras, infrared, RFID, Crestron, AMX, RS232, and more. These commands can be interpreted by the X2O Platform, and the X2O Platform can also send out these commands. A good example of how this is used is with the Intel Audience Impression Metrics Suite (AIM), which adds powerful data collection and audience measurement tools to digital signage networks.
The Solution
Working with Lanner’s Toronto office, X2O have used the LEC-7000 series to improve the reliability of their digital signage platform and to improve the media performance of their demanding software. With its high-end media playing capabilities, robust design and compact size, the LEC-7000 series has become the secret behind many system integrator’s digital signage platform.
The LEC-7000 series features fanless design, industrial memory and hard drives that can thrive in environments that would be considered unbearable for normal commercial computing platforms. This managed to reduce the failure rates X2O were having in the operator network.
The compact design allowed placement right behind screens, saving time during installation and money since they could avoid lengthy wiring and mounting. With an easily opened chassis, maintenance is also quick and convenient.
The latest Core Intel processor coupled with the latest Intel GMA HD graphics chipset added tremendous performance for video and graphics.
The Result
Since Lanner’s office could offer drop shipments directly to X2O customers, X2O could execute their strategy of focusing on creating the best digital signage platform software.
Systems are customized with X2O branding and sent straight from the Lanner warehouse to the customer, which make for quicker and less expensive installation and integration costs. The devices arrive ready for the network and are so reliable that they can stay there for many years. Lanner has become a solid leg in this digital signage platform.
