PEI start-up unveils networked screensaver

June 12, 2008 by Dave Haynes

Mark Hemphill sent me a note yesterday to let me know about his new company ScreenScape, which is offering an entry level digital signage app that is a spin on the networked screensaver concept.

The company is based in Prince Edward Island and grew out of a university project in that pretty little part of Atlantic Canada.

Customers pay as little as $10 a month to use the Web-based service and set up a screen layout that includes the usual stuff like ad windows and RSS-driven news windows. It looks like there’s a lot of Flash happening, as well.

Users then map the Web browsers on a PC in a target venue to a specific IP address and run the browser in full screen mode. So the venue PC is not really running digital signage software as much as it is running a dynamic screensaver, like the old PointCast application and the one now being humped by NetPresenter.

I assume if connectivity drops off at a location there is scripting that keeps the browser playing out what it has from the cache on the local PC.

ScreenScape does a nice job on its website of stepping newcomers through its offer, including a video tour of the application. It’s not the sort of application that’s going to compete with the big enterprise guys in this space, but I doubt that what Hemphill has in mind.

Their could be a tidy little business simply enabling small business and institutions, and doing most of the sales and marketing effort online.