Android For Digital Signage: A Closer Look At DC Media’s Offer

April 23, 2013 by Dave Haynes

cloud_overview1This is the entry #8 in a running series of closer looks at digital signage solution providers who have started working with the Android operating system and low-cost, ultra-small ARM processors.

At least 20 companies have introduced products based on the open-source Android operating system that is very widely used for smart devices like handsets and tablets, all of them using CPUs based on ARM reference designs. Most smartphones and tablets use ARM.

It is likely that much of the industry will shift to ARM-based devices using Android or Linux in the next 1-3 years because ARM devices now rival the processing power of lower cost x86 personal computing devices, but at a fraction of the cost and, in most cases, size.

DC Media

DC Media has been around this space for several years now, and I think of the company as South African – run by Richard and Trefor Brock. I have seen them at several trade shows like InfoComm and CETW and always thought the guys had a very solid, well-priced and intuitive platform. However, DC Media is now positioned as the software product of MediaSight Inc., which has its main office in New York.

dcmedialogoThe company has been Windows-based, but now has a native Android player, introduced last month and running the 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich “flavor” of the operating system. Its player can handle 1080P video. It looks to have much or most of the functionality of a PC-based system, though Flash is not supported.

The player is an Android app that’s free to download via Google Play. Subscriptions are $29 per month to manage the player using DC Media’s hosted (SaaS) management platform.

There is no specific player box touted at the moment, but Richard Brock tells me that is actively being sorted and negotiated.

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