Right, but the Engine addresses this as you can set a different Ad package (i.e.: content / scheduler) per screen division.
Admin, I do not believe that the scheduling issue is at all addressed with the Ad Engine. It in fact does not help with enhanced scheduling for several reasons:
1. It rarely works properly because it has been in a beta mode and is virtually impossible to test. As an Enterprise user, I'm not at all sure of what I am paying for on a monthly basis.
2. It requires that a station be set up in order to even use it. This eliminates the possibility of using it with a web link or embedded signage project. Any scheduling enhancements that the Ad Engine may have are lost on those two output scenarios.
The current sequencer and scheduler DO NOT provide the tools necessary to schedule content properly with begin and expire days and times because it is designed to handle Timelines rather than individual content. This is inappropriate for a project that has, for instance, twenty recurring (non-expiring) items on a timeline along with say fifteen items that are time-sensitive and require scheduled start and stop days/times.
Duplicating timelines and scheduling or sequencing them leads to tremendous inventory and auditing issues as well as lots of manual attention, especially when multiple client projects utilizing the same content/resources scenario are involved.
There is a very easy and pretty obvious solution that may not require tremendous development time or resources!!! PLEASE review the suggestions submitted by AVGEEK in this post:
The Ad Component is a very big step in the right direction but the focus there is more on managing the advertiser / client relationship with the outgoing and incoming ad acceptance features. We need something similar for internal use, And the ability to have multiple playlists - not just the global one. I would like to have a separate playlist for each zone/region in a timeline per campaigns. Each playlist would rotate through resources independently of the other. I would schedule all of these resources in an easy-to-administer list view that would let me choose start/end date, days of week and times of day per resource - per playlist. When you add the ability to have transitions between resources, you could program that in the list view as well.
The main timeline metaphor would still have its place for overall programming. I can see scheduling additional resources in the timeline such as weather, rss - following a playlist component. This would give us great control over the balance of how things played out. (although these resources should be able to be nested inside the playlist component as well).
You have a great system and I don't want to sound negative. This feature would just add an enormous amount of additional programming flexibility.
I'm not sure why so much emphasis is put on an ad engine model that supports revenue based signage projects that have been proven to not be as affective as place-based relevant models. In any case, the problem with Media Signage lies with the inability to properly schedule content/resources.
Virtually every digital signage software provider out there provides the ability to schedule individual content within a zone rather than timeline groups. See Dynasign, X2O, Four Winds Interactive, Key West Tech, Scala and many others. Please, do not use the "We provide FREE DS Software" card. MediaSignage could truly be a world class solution but it seems with regard to scheduling, you're missing it big time.
As I've said before, effective DS software is not about how many bells and whistles you can cram into the package but more about how the software functions to make things easier for the end user. Specifically with regard to scheduling, if the software doesn't allow you to deliver the right message at the right time it's worthless because that is the inherent value of digital signage in the first place. Otherwise, I may as well play slideshows or worse, bail on Media Signage, both of which I would rather not do.
Proper scheduling of content resources is a major cornerstone of what makes a world class DS software product.
PLEASE READDRESS THIS ISSUE.
Thank you!
