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Why Don’t We Develop Networked Shelf Video Strip When We Are Able To ?

Later in 2014, AOK Displays successfully developed shelf video strip that is made of die-cast aluminium housing , media player screen module and synchronizer(playback controller over the screens). Over the past 3 years, we got hundreds of inquiries from retailers, retail shelf makers, store furniture manufacturers, marketing company, retail signage app developer as well as content management system makers,  they loved our digital shelf talker, it is a great retail signage solution.

But they would ask almost the same question: Why Don’t You Develop Networked Shelf Video Strip When You Are Able To ?

Standalone Shelf Video Strip
Standalone Shelf Video Strip

This is a good question.

Every unique feature of our current stand-alone shelf video strip is wonderful except networking:

  • Die-cast made alluminium housing, flexible for different strip lengths with one time investment in tooling;
  • Super narrow bezel and super small between-screen gap, as narrow as 9.3mm;
  • Low-Power consumption to support battery driven option, each 4.3″ screen consumes less than 150mAh per hour.
  • Smart USB auto-copy with protection configurator & user-friendly animation
  • Smart folder-based playlist creator;
  • Smart Playlist editor built-in with one press on the switch to change between 100 playlists preloaded;

The reason we develop such a cost-effective solution is to address the scenarios that don’t need content update frequently.

People compare ours with some other Intelligent, Intel based, networkable shelf video strip. But don’t forgot the unexplained, hidden cost of those fancy demos, see the comparison below:

ROI analysis for networked and stand-alone shelf video strip
ROI analysis for networked and stand-alone shelf video strip

 

Assuming our stand-alone shelf video strip cost is 180USD; If we build a networked version on the current technology, except the hardware part upcost, let’s say 50USD; We still need to add the following to make the networking infrastructure in place to work as expected:

  • Content management system , let’s ignore this part as we could buy this service;
  • Cradlepoint: 3G/4G Ethernet modem to bring internet access to the retail shelf-edge, say U$200
  • Router: to connect RJ45 Ethernet cable; Say U$50
  • Monthly fee for content update: let’s say U$5/month
  • Maintenance: let’s say 1% faulty rate;

The total cost of networked version is U$545.4, it is triple times of stand-alone version. If cost is not an issue, the end-user also needs an analytical data pattern to regulate its daily operation and get a formula or answer: whether the return of investment ( ROI ) in the shelf-edge video strip advertising is POSITIVE.

The final answer to the question: ROI counts,  please remember, retail signage is a part of in-store advertising, if the ROI of networked shelf video strip is going to be negative, please hold on:)

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Soundbar Retail Demonstrator All-in-One Made For Sony

Sony has several great soundbars for its 4K LCD TV,  due to the limited shelf size of the retail demonstration bench. Sony decided to use an all-in-one solution: A Soundbar Retail Demonstration Media Player With Built-in Video Screen.

Sony Soundbar Retail Demonstrator
Sony Soundbar Retail Demonstrator With Built-in 23.8-inch Video Screen

It was originally designed with an all-in-one video player with 23.8-inch full-viewing angle screen, sitting all the connectors on the back:

Soundbar Retail Demo
Soundbar Retail Demo All-in-One Video Player

This is not a bad idea, but it would NEVER be installation-friendly or maintenance-friendly, since it would be a challenge to develop an easy-to-manage cable solution for 8 pcs of optical cables, plus 11pcs of Molex connector cables. In order to facilitate the installation & maintenance, AOK Displays team re-designed the solution to separate the soundbar demonstration video player board from the video player, re-assigning the cable installation to a boxed media player. With LVDS cable & Backlight cable being lined-out, the new solution is even more production-friendly:

Soundbar Demonstrator
Soundbar Demonstrator

The heart of this soundbar retail demonstrator is a versatile mother board as following:

Soundbar Demonstrator Audio Board
Soundbar Demonstrator Audio Board

This board will support video screens from 10.1″ to 32″, With One Single Board To Rule Them All,  for the mini-sized demonstrator bench to luxury big retail kiosk, it supports all the retail demonstration scenarios.

In Order To Simplify The Installation Of The Retail Fixture And Make The Whole System Maintenance‐Friendly, We Have Built‐in The Lighting & Power Distribution Interface To Help Retail Integrators Add Lighting Control To Their Fixture, And Send Power To Other Retail Accessories.

Except the above mentioned design innovation, the 2nd part of unique feature of our all-in-one retail demonstration solution is the text file based configurator to manage:

  • Customizable Default Play File/ List,
  • Customizable Default Volume Of Each Output;
  • Customizable Timeout Interval Of Each Output;
  • Customizable Volume Increments;
  • Customizable Playlist ‐Output Alignment To Assign Playlist To Different Product Group(s);

When Switching Music Output, The Audio Continues From The Previous Track So That Shoppers Could Easily Compare The Sound Quality From Each Soundbar. It’s Optional With Customer Device Line‐in To Let Shoppers Listen To Their Own Favorite Music.

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Why 512MB RAM is Competent For 4K@ 60fps Playback When Many People Stays with 2GB RAM ?

Is RAM Size Really Important For 4K UHD Commercial Playback ?

Most Of Consumer-Line Based Android TV Media Players Are Boosted To Deploy 2GB RAM For Use Of 4K UHD Video Playback, That Sent An Impression To People That 4K Commercial Video Playback Must Require 2GB Or 4GB RAM, Especially, There Is A RAM Race For Smartphone World When Android Is Frequently Releasing Updates 4.4, 5.1, 6.1, 7.1….

4K UHD 60fps Video Playback Doesn't Have To Use 2GB RAm
4K UHD 60fps Video Playback Doesn’t Require 2GB RAM For Most Of The Applications

But For 4K UHD Commercial Applications, Customers have to be clear and honest to ask themselves a simple question, Do I really need 2GB RAM ? or Does 2GB RAM give credit to the expected reliability ?

Some Typical 4K UHD Projects Working For 4K UHD LCD TV Retail Demonstration:
For 4K retail demonstration, there is really no need organic android, a simplified, light-weighted android with just a 4K media player app could be fine. Thinking 4K video decoding could be handled via hardware, 512MB RAM works pretty fine technically, and our testing has verified it, even with the highest bitrate of 4K UHD video’s 500Mbps. Most Importantly, The light-weight Android is even more reliable.

Retail Demo For 4K UHD TV Why 512MB RAM

 

Or Some 4K UHD projects with 4K resolution and need extra support from GPU acceleration for graphic-rich apps like sports-training assistant apps ? That Would Require Strong GPU and extra apps or Google service to make customer’s app run smoothly, in that case, an original android O/S must be in place, and 2GB RAM becomes necessary.

 

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3 Form Factors Of Retail Audio Demonstration Systems

These years, retail audio POP music demo player has become a recognized category thanks to the increasingly growing demands of the smart & mobile audio devices. To help shoppers experience, compare the music quality of the music devices in demonstration is going to be a challenge if customer’s budge or retailer’s shelf space is limited.

The basic goals of the retail audio demonstration is simple: to engage shoppers experience the genuine audio quality and understand the highlighted features to make purchase decision.

Then we would have 3 form factors of retail audio demonstrations:

  1.  Pure Audio Boxed Player
Headphone Demonstrator
Headphone Demonstrator Bench

This is the most popular form that is space-saving and cost-effective for retail integration.

With the strong decoder and high quality audio effect, it supports lossless music file like formats .wav,  .flac up to 320kbps. Shoppers will be guided with focus only in the audio part via push button activation to play, pause, next track, time-out, volume up, volume down, etc.

2. Video Player With Embedded Audio

Video Player Retail Demonstrator 3 form factor
Video Player Retail Demonstrator for Headphones

Some brands may create compelling video presentations for the headphones / speakers, they want to impress the shoppers with the highlighted features via the video presentation, with music files embedded into the videos.

This may be a good idea, and the ROI is obviously higher if audio quality is not a selling point for the headphones/ speakers under retail demonstration, because high quality audio files like .wav, .flac could not be embedded into the videos. Additionally, the video presentation has to be interrupted by users’ interaction like “next track”, “repeat”.

If the audio quality could be compromised,  it could be an ideal solution to get the best ROI.

3. Separated Audio & Separated Video Working Together

Retail Audio Demo With Separated Video 3 Form Factors
Retail Audio Demo With Separated Video Presentation

As explained above, the best retail audio demonstration should make the best use of audio & video, then we need to isolate the interactions of the video part & audio part to let them function separately according to user’s interaction.

In this way, serial port communication would be added into a master device ( audio board ) to control the slave device ( video player ). In this way, when shoppers push a selector button on the right (as per the above picture ) to skip a demo music file, the left video player doesn’t change its playback status, but can be changed when needed depending on serial commands incoming.

Following up to this creative solution, the master device could be a touchscreen tablet, and the slave device can be a simple video player or a sophisticated video strip / wall if needed.

In the retail field, lighting control and power distribution could also be integrated as our solution has built-in interface for lighting & power distribution.

Like being said, the only limitation is your imagination.

For retail audio demonstration, We custom build what you demand, on budget, on schedule.