--Review of NORCO’s new Digital Signage Player

Introduction:

For most of us, Digital Signage is still something miles away from the commonplace. However, just as the name itself suggests, it is some sort of cyber system dealing with signs, perhaps public or commercial, to be more precise. Actually, it was originally introduced to meet the increasing demand of all kinds of multimedia applications in advertising industry not long ago, and recently, the development of this piece of market is becoming faster than ever. NORCO, one of the leading manufacturers of embedded and industrial PC market, has lately rolled out a series of its own creative digital signage products, allowing more flexibility of playing commercials with less maintenance cost. In this article, we will conduct some tests on what we have just gotten from NORCO, the Digital Signage Player BIS-6550 and leave our review.

Appearance:

With metal casing, BIS-6550 is fully capable of working in a fanless configuration. The fine-cutting fins on the surface for better heat dissipation look extraordinary professional, especially with the black coating.

Pic 1: The Body

Pic 2: Top View

Pic 3: Power Button

Comment:

Digital Signage Player BIS-6550 is quite a remarkable product, being innovative and functional. Based on Intel’s power-saving Atom architecture, it combines its compact body with enough horsepower for digital signage applications, and full capability as a network terminal or controller, which makes it the ideal choice for hotels, supermarket chains, airports and other similar customers to perform digital content playback.

Ports and Other Details:

On the rear side lie the main input/output interfaces, including audio in/out, CF slot, SD slot, VGA output, S-Video, TV-out and DC-in.

Pic 4: Rear View

Traditionally, most digital signage systems are standalone computers, in which the physical media container (CF card or DVD) on each separate terminal must be replaced manually when people need to change the advertising content. That caused high maintenance expense and makes it very hard for people to perform an instant playback of certain multimedia content in one or several chosen terminals out of many. Therefore, the newly-designed network based digital signage players beat their standalone predecessors very easily, and enjoy the wide and fast adoption by the juicy advertising market, including hotels, supermarkets and high-level office buildings.

Tryout and Tests:

We chose a 46-inch LCD with HDMI input as the monitor.

Pic 9: PS/2 Keyboard & Mouse

Pic 10: Power-on Diagnosing

Pic 11: Windows XP Starting

Pic 12: Windows XP System Properties

The BIS-6550 we are testing is equipped with an Atom N270 CPU, running at 1.6GHz, 1GB memory and an 80GB HDD. The chipset of the motherboard is Intel 945. Such a combination is very similar to many netbooks in the market nowadays.

Pic 13: Power LED

Multimedia Playback:

A media playback software is pre-installed, supporting all kinds of media files.

Pic 14: Media Player Software

Pic 15: Video Playing

Meanwhile, any common media player, such as Baofeng can be easily setup in BIS-6550 as well by the user. Thanks to the embedded hardware decoder, BIS-6550 does very well when it comes to HD video playback. Hence, BIS-6550 is very much suitable for users who have HD Videos to play.

Pic 16: Playing 1080P Full HD Video

Pic 17: CPU Usage Diagram

Pic 18: Inside View

Pic 19: A Running BIS-6550

The Digital Signage Player from NORCO, as we tried out, is very much promising due to its unique design, with a compact structure and all of its functionalities. For example, each player can be connected to a network with a control center, where the user can manipulate every single terminal, performing scheduled maintenance and multimedia content update, all through the network. Moreover, in case a wired connection is not available due to the limitation of certain circumstances, the built-in WLAN will take its place and insure the connectivity.

A TV-Tuner is optional as well, when TV function is to be integrated into advertising applications. With the advanced graphic processor and HDMI out, the player can output digital or analog signals to the latest HD display device, and provide the customers with high-definition experience. The plug-and-play CF and SD slots bring more convenience to the advertiser and maximize the flexibility of digital advertising applications.

Features:

*Compact and fanless design
*Onboard Intel Atom processor
*Easy mounting with plasma and LCD
*Supporting Full HD playback
*Optional WLAN module and TV tuner
*Supporting different formats of audio/video and image files
*Remote monitoring of the status of the player
*Different types of display support (TV/CRT/LCD/Plasma)
*IP network connection and qualified network services, with different protocols support

Comments:

BIS-6550 is a competent solution for digital signage applications. It takes the advantage of the low power-consumption platform, anti-shock design, firmly-installed slots and ports, and long maintenance-free operation period, which enables BIS-6550 to work for 24/7 all year long under harsh conditions, with little manual maintenance needed. Besides, it features rather novel appearance, fairly good performance, and the global technical support provided by NORCO. For users who care much about the performance, maintenance and the solidity of ports, BIS-6550 has proven itself to be the ideal solution.

Applications:

*Marketplaces and supermarkets

Over 70% of the consumers in the market are emotional and more or less irrational. Digital Signage players such as BIS-6550 can deliver all kinds of information to the audience in a swift, precise and amazing way, to arouse the passion of the consumers for certain merchandise that the market wants to promote, thus boosting the sale.

*Business buildings

The setup of digital signage players in places around office buildings and apartment buildings, where people are likely to crowd or pass by, such as the entrance to an elevator, will help perform advertisements to certain group of audience, and lead to the rapid spread of high-end products and brands among them.

*Hotels & restaurants

The key for them to compete with their rivals in this industry is to provide their customers with better services. Digital Signage players have been adopted by many high-level restaurants and hotels as a necessary device, to visually deliver the multimedia version of the brochures or service guide, so as to attract more consumers and stimulate the sale.

Author: evo
Source: www.yesky.com
Editor: Lu, Hailong

Pic 5: HDMI Ready

Pic 6: Interfaces on the front panel

Pic 7: WIFI Ready

Pic 8: Fins on the side