HTML5 Playback Gaining More Traction in Digital Signage Via IAdea

July 31, 2014 by Dave Haynes

Smaller screens in retail settings and outside meeting rooms seems to be an increasingly hot little focus area in digital signage, and Taiwan’s IAdea appears to seeing the benefits.

IAdea and Scala did as 7,500 unit deal earlier this year involving small 10-inch signboards, and Taipei-based IAdea is now approaching 20 partners marketing a range of smaller screens that run Android or work with the HTML5 or SMIL markup languages.

The latest to sign on is Net Display Systems of the Netherlands, the developer of PADS digital signage software and the guys at DSE who turned me on to Dutch waffle cookies (they gave me a bag, ohmigod!).

The IAdea set-up with NDS is aimed for digital signage solutions that require displays to be OS independent and browser-based. With the PADS4 HTML5 Basic Viewer AV integrators can deploy signage projects with a low-end solution, but can also create a hybrid digital signage solution within one network. The NDS PADS HTML5 Viewer has been successfully tested and certified by IAdea and is compatible with the entire catalog of IAdea Signboard players.

This partnership offers various cost effective digital signage solutions highly suitable for industries such as Corporate, Hospitality and Retail.

“Combine the NDS PADS HTML 5 Viewer with the Android based IAdea Signboard and you will have a low cost, yet smart digital signage solution for effective display communication,” claims Willie-Jan Bons, CEO at NDS. “Think of dynamic door signs linked to your room reservation system, displaying scheduled meetings or use the displays for in-shelf communication and dynamically change your messages based on weather, time or even point of sales data.” 

The NDS/IAdea solution can also be used as a Shelf-Edge Interactive Catalog that provides detailed information about products and services.

HTML5 is one of the featured subjects of DSrupted, and IAdea was all over this technology earlier than many or most in the digital signage eco-system. I think HTML5 has the potential, combined with decent device management software, to negate the need for a full CMS in many simple digital sign projects.