What's new in PADS4 release 4 - BTX€¦ · What’s new in PADS4 release 5 A detailed ... The PADS...

For More Information Contact:

BTX Technologies, Inc.www.btx.com - [email protected]

What’s new in PADS4 release 5

A detailed overview

of new features

For More Information Contact: BTX Technologies, Inc. • www.btx.com • [email protected] 2

Table of Contents

1 PADS Content .......................................................................................... 5 1.1 TV element ...................................................................................... 5 1.2 PowerPoint element ........................................................................... 6

2 Data providers ......................................................................................... 7 2.1 Facebook data provider ....................................................................... 7 2.2 Twitter data provider ......................................................................... 7 2.3 Quividi data provider .......................................................................... 7 2.4 Bluefox data provider ......................................................................... 8 2.5 WSDL data provider ............................................................................ 8 2.6 SOAP data provider ............................................................................ 8 2.7 Genesys data provider ......................................................................... 9 2.8 Microsoft Exchange data provider ........................................................... 9

3 PADS Designer ........................................................................................ 10 3.1 Viewer types ................................................................................... 10 3.2 Flash element .................................................................................. 10 3.3 Shape element ................................................................................. 10

4 PADS Server ........................................................................................... 11 4.1 Automatic recovery ........................................................................... 11 4.2 Graceful degradation period ................................................................ 11

5 PADS Viewer .......................................................................................... 12 5.1 TV-cards ........................................................................................ 12

6 PADS HTML5 Viewer ................................................................................. 13 6.1 HTML5 XPRESS Viewer ........................................................................ 13 6.2 Supported player devices .................................................................... 13 6.3 Uninterrupted playback ...................................................................... 13 6.4 Formatted text ................................................................................ 13

7 PADS Desktop Viewer ................................................................................ 14 7.1 Active Directory integration ................................................................. 14 7.2 Enhanced tracking options................................................................... 14 7.3 Concurrent licenses ........................................................................... 14

8 PADS Messenger ...................................................................................... 15 8.1 Destinations tree view ....................................................................... 15 8.2 Recurring messages ........................................................................... 15 8.3 Read receipts .................................................................................. 15

9 PADS Scheduler ....................................................................................... 15 9.1 Destinations tree view ....................................................................... 15

10 PADS Agent ............................................................................................ 16 10.1 Desktop Viewer connections ................................................................ 16 10.2 TV channel management ..................................................................... 16

11 PADS System Management .......................................................................... 17 11.1 Active Directory settings ..................................................................... 17

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12 Miscellaneous ......................................................................................... 17 12.1 64-bit support .................................................................................. 17 12.2 Bug fixes ........................................................................................ 17 12.3 Documentation updates ...................................................................... 17

For More Information Contact: BTX Technologies, Inc. • www.btx.com • [email protected]

4

Introduction

When looking at PADS4 Release 5 you will see that we succeeded once again to add

very interesting new features to PADS4. In this document you find all details about it.

First of all, we have totally revised everything in PADS4 that has to do with live TV.

This has resulted into a brand new TV element, which is not only extremely powerful

but also simplifies the way of working for including live TV in your presentations.

Another new page element is an often requested PowerPoint element. Including

PowerPoint slides in your PADS presentation has now become a piece of cake. And

more important, you have full control about the playback of your PowerPoint

presentations.

In PADS Designer you can now choose to design your presentation for a specific Viewer

type like XPRESS or BASIC. Page elements that will not be supported are automatically

disabled, helping you to design the right content.

The PADS HTML5 Viewer has been upgraded and is now also available as XPRESS

edition. This makes the HTML5 Viewer a really interesting playback solution for non-

Windows player devices.

Our PADS Desktop Viewer has been enhanced to offer an even more powerful solution

for desktop communication. Organizations can now send messages to users within their

organization instead of computers.

Of course we again extended our collection of data providers. Quividi, Bluefox and

WSDL are just some of the new data providers. Our Facebook data provider is one of

the data providers that has been further improved.

Maybe the least visible but very important new feature is our 64-bit support. This

means that you have more possibilities for playback of large content, like Full HD

videos.

Finally, you will find many small new features in this release, which are described in

this document. This includes all new features and bug fixes that have already become

available in the recent past via new build versions of PADS4 release 4.

As always, we encourage you to keep sending us your feedback so we can continue to

improve our products! Please send your suggestions to:

[email protected].

Arthur Damen,

Net Display Systems


mailto:[email protected]

5

1 PADS Content

1.1 TV element

The TV features of PADS4 have been completely redesigned and redeveloped. This has

resulted into a simple yet powerful new TV element.

When you are designing a PADS presentation in PADS Designer and want to include live

TV you no longer need a TV-card in your Designer PC. Only when you want to see a

preview in PADS Designer it requires the presence of a TV-card.

Adding live TV to your

presentation has become as

simple as selecting the

channel you want to see.

This is all based on logical

channel names (e.g.

BBCNEWS), so you don’t

have to know anything about

the technology behind it.

The logical channel list that

is used by the TV element is

shared among all users of

your entire PADS installation

and can be managed

centrally via PADS Agent. The mapping of the logical channel names to the right

frequency, polarization etcetera is done locally at each PADS Viewer.

Our new TV element fully supports MPEG-4 which means you can also include High

Definition TV channels.

The TV element supports all important type of both digital and analog TV. This

includes ATSC, DVB-T, DVB-C and DVB-S. (NOTE: Support for DVB-C, DVB-S and analog

TV may not be included in the initial release)

Since the new TV element is a native page element in PADS it also offers interesting

features that are available to all standard page elements. This includes semi-

transparency, rotation, shadowing, reflection, skewing and many more.

TV elements can now also be placed behind other page elements, making it possible to

show a logo or text in front of your TV element.

You can have multiple TV elements on one page of your PADS presentation. If your

PADS Viewer PC has multiple TV tuners you can use this for showing multiple TV

channels at the same time during playback of your presentation. (If it only has one

tuner, then both TV elements will be forced to show the same TV channel.)


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1.2 PowerPoint element

With our new dedicated PowerPoint element including PowerPoint slides into your

PADS presentation becomes a piece of cake.

Simply refer to the

PowerPoint presentation

files that you want to be

played. If the PowerPoint

presentations are placed in

the content library of PADS

they will automatically be

distributed to the PADS

Viewer PCs where they will

be played.

Optionally, create a playlist

of PowerPoint presentations

you want to be played or

make a selection of the

slides you want to be played. All this is possible with the new PowerPoint element.

A PowerPoint presentation can be played full screen or in a ‘zone’ of your screen,

combined with other PADS content. Choose to enable interactivity or to hide the

mouse cursor and play the presentation exactly the way you want.

When you include a PowerPoint presentation, then PADS will automatically calculate

the total duration of included PowerPoint slides. This makes that you can use options

like ‘Play once and show next page’ to automatically continue with your PADS

presentation when the PowerPoint slides have played.

The PADS PowerPoint element is compatible with Microsoft Office 2007 and higher.

Please note that a full installation of PowerPoint is required on your PADS Designer PC

and each PADS Viewer PC to take benefits of the PowerPoint element. The PowerPoint

element doesn’t work in combination with the PowerPoint Viewer application.


7

2 Data providers

2.1 Facebook data provider

The improved Facebook data provider makes using Facebook information in your PADS

presentations really simple.

Just connect to a Facebook page of a company or person by entering its name. You can

find this name in the URL of the Facebook page. A typical Facebook page url looks like:

http://www.facebook.com/<name>/<ref>.

Next you can retrieve nearly anything from this Facebook page. From photos in albums

to details about events or news. This makes Facebook ideal as CMS for your PADS

signage network to show interesting posts of your organization.

By using PADS4 and its Facebook data provider to collect statistics of a Facebook page,

including likes, followers, shares, etcetera you can compose and display your own

dashboard with social media KPIs.

2.2 Twitter data provider

PADS digital signage software has acquired the status of an official Twitter application.

This means that connecting with Twitter has become much easier. All you have to do is

entering the credentials of your Twitter account and authorize the PADS software to

use it.

Enter the name of the Twitter page you want to follow or use the new search function

to collect your information. Use @ or # characters to get all results for a specific

Twitter account or hashtag.

2.3 Quividi data provider

Quividi is a leading provider of audience

measurement solutions. Using a simple video

sensor, Quividi collects all kinds of information

about the audience in front of your screens.

This includes number of viewers, attention

times, dwell times, gender and age estimations.

With the Quividi data provider you are able to

connect with the Quividi Audience

Measurement platform, providing accurate

audience metrics. It leverages the whole range

of real-time data generated by Quividi.

This gives a PADS presentation the possibility to trigger tailor-made content for a

specific audience in front of your displays, in real-time. For instance, you could get

PADS to react to an adult women approaching the screen and being around for more

than 5 seconds.


http://www.facebook.com/%3cname%3e/%3cref

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2.4 Bluefox data provider

Bluefox is a provider of high-quality content feeds for digital signage networks.

The Bluefox data provider enables you to directly retrieve (paid) content from the

Bluefox web portal and have it displayed on the screens of your PADS4 signage

network.

2.5 WSDL data provider

The WSDL data provider can be used to retrieve data from web services that can be

accessed via WSDL. WSDL stands for Web Service Description Language and is an XML

based interface for web service communication.

The WSDL data provider supports SOAP, Http Get and Http Post messages.

Various weather services share their weather information via WSDL.

2.6 SOAP data provider

SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol and is

another (advanced) way to communicate with web

services. The SOAP data provider can be used to retrieve

data from web services that require communication via

this protocol.


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2.7 Genesys data provider

The Genesys data provider enables you to interface with the Genesys Integration

Server service (GIS) produced by Alcatel-Lucent. This database is typically used by call-

centres to store a wide variety of information.

This data provider makes PADS4 the perfect solution for displaying a digital dashboard

with KPI information of call-centres running GIS.

2.8 Microsoft Exchange data provider

The period selection has been extended with additional options for selection of a

period, based on the current date/time.

This enables you to limit the amount of data that has to be retrieved from Microsoft

Exchange which leads to significant performance improvements.

The Microsoft Exchange data provider also works with Microsoft Office 365. However,

this requires an Internet connection and the right permissions within Office 365.


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3 PADS Designer

3.1 Viewer types

In PADS Designer you can now choose to design your presentation for a specific Viewer

type like XPERT, XPRESS or BASIC.

When you choose for instance to design for the PADS

Viewer XPRESS edition, then all page elements that

will not be supported by the XPRESS edition are

automatically disabled in your design environment.

This helps you to design the right content.

The Viewer type can also be selected in the

presentation preview window. This way you can

check how your presentation will behave for a

specific Viewer type.

3.2 Flash element

It’s now possible to include separators

with specific durations in playlists. This

means that you can create a pause

between two Flash items in your

playlist.

3.3 Shape element

The property binding collection of the

shape element has been extended with

the Angle property. With this, the

rotation angle of a shape can be

dynamically changed based on a real-

time value from an external data

source.


11

4 PADS Server

4.1 Automatic recovery

At startup PADS Server checks its system database. If the database got corrupted it will

automatically be repaired.

4.2 Graceful degradation period

There may be situations where the activation of your PADS software license no longer

works. For instance when the hardware of your PADS Server has changed.

If PADS Server detects such a problem with your PADS software license, the software

will no longer stops working with immediate effect, but instead we give you one week

time for correcting the problem.

In the meantime you will be informed about the problem by warnings during logon and

via warning messages in the PADS and Windows logs.


12

5 PADS Viewer

5.1 TV-cards

PADS Viewer supports plug & play when it comes to TV cards. On each PADS Viewer PC,

the PADS software will automatically detect the presence of a TV-card. When

detected, the system will try to automatically configure it so it can be instantly used

by PADS. The TV options can also be adjusted manually via the PADS Controller context

menu of your PADS Viewer or via PADS Agent.

Each PADS Viewer will scan for available TV channels and map these channels to the

logical channel names that you have centrally defined for your PADS installation. This

creates a provider independent solution in which live TV will always work, even if the

Viewers of your PADS signage network are located across different regions, countries or

time zones.

You can use TV-cards of different brands/models within the same PADS installation.

So, if a customer wants to extend its signage network and the TV-card you have used

before is no longer available, simply choose another TV-card.

You can even put multiple TV-cards in your Viewer PC and use it to have your PADS

presentation show multiple TV channels at the same time.

When you choose a TV-card, please make sure it is BDA compatible (Broadcast Driver

Architecture) for digital TV or WDM compatible (Windows Driver Model) for analog TV.

For smooth playback of live TV the PADS system uses standard LAV filters (=codecs for

video playback). This also offers de-interlacing and the possibility of hardware

acceleration for decoding the video signal. Of course only when support by the

available hardware.

Transitions from one PADS presentation showing live TV to another PADS presentation

also including live TV works much better now than with previous releases.

Handling extended desktop situations, where live TV is displayed across multiple

displays, has been improved.


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6 PADS HTML5 Viewer

6.1 HTML5 XPRESS Viewer

The PADS HTML5 Viewer has been upgraded and is now also available as XPRESS

edition.

The PADS HTML5 XPRESS Viewer supports the same page elements as the Microsoft

Windows based PADS XPRESS Viewer:

- Text

- Video/Sound

- Scrolling text

- Shapes

- Flash

- Interactive button

- Picture

- Web

- Formatted text

- Line

For the Flash element it’s required that the Flash plug-in has been installed.

6.2 Supported player devices

PADS HTML5 Viewer is a browser-based application, especially designed for (non-

Microsoft Windows) devices capable of running HTML5.

The recommended browser to use for the PADS HTML5 Viewer is Google Chrome. Other

browsers may work as well, but since each browser uses its own implementation of the

HTML5 standards, the results may be different per browser.

We have now tested and – with some limitations – found the PADS HTML5 Viewer

suitable for:

Samsung Smart Signage platform (based on SoC processor)

LG WebOS enabled displays

IADEA Signboard and Mediaplayers (IADEA XDS-10xx and XMP-2xxx series)

Linux based devices running Chrome

Please contact Net Display Systems to know all about the exact limitations per device.

6.3 Uninterrupted playback

Our PADS HTML5 Viewer is a real application and NO streaming solution like many

other products. This means that in most situations it will generate far less network

traffic than most other HTML5 based signage solutions. It also means that in case of

network failures the screen of a Viewer will not switch to a black screen, but will just

continue to play normally. A requirement for this is, that the platform on which the

PADS HTML5 Viewer runs must support local storage and the content indeed has been

locally stored.

6.4 Formatted text

We have added the possibility to automatically show the current date/time in a

selected culture language.


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7 PADS Desktop Viewer

7.1 Active Directory integration

With the new Active Directory integration capabilities of PADS messages and screen

saver presentations can now be sent to users instead of Desktop Viewer PCs. This

enables you to reach the users in your organization even better, no matter where they

are and what PC or laptop they use. It also gives them the flexibility to use any of their

PCs to access and confirm the messages that have been sent to them.

User authentication can

take place in PADS, but you

can also use Single Sign-on

through Windows

authentication. This means

that the credentials of your

Windows Logon will be used

and you don’t have to logon

again for the PADS Desktop

Viewer application.

With Active Directory you

no longer have to maintain

your Desktop Viewers in

PADS. Instead simply reuse the user information you already have stored in Active

Directory and use Active Directory as the central place to manage your users.

7.2 Enhanced tracking options

We have enhanced the tracking options for messages that you send to your Desktop

Viewers, so you always know exactly what happens with your messages.

You will be informed about your message being received, read and the read receipt

being sent. In addition the PADS Desktop Viewer will let you know if your messages is

actually playing, stopped or paused.

7.3 Concurrent licenses

PADS Desktop Viewer licenses are now treated as concurrent licenses. This means that

you no longer need a separate license for each individual Desktop Viewer in your

organization. Instead it’s enough to have a number of licenses that meets the

maximum amount of users you expect to be logged on simultaneously.


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8 PADS Messenger

8.1 Destinations tree view

If you have configured your PADS system

to use Active Directory, then an additional

tab will appear in the destinations tree

view of the PADS Messenger application.

On this tab you will find your Active

Directory users, enabling you to simply

schedule a message for such a user or view

the scheduled messages for this user. It’s

also possible to send you messages to an Active Directory group.

The same tab with Active Directory users is also found at every other place in the PADS

Messenger application, where you need to select a destination for your message.

8.2 Recurring messages

The schedule options for messages have been extended with recurrence. So, you can

now have your scheduled messages automatically reoccur whenever you want.

All features for adding, changing and removing recurrence have been fully integrated

in the calendar view and the menus in exactly the same way as you are used to in PADS

Scheduler.

8.3 Read receipts

The read receipt features have been adjusted to support

the enhanced tracking options.

In the read receipts pane your can now also see the

actual playing status of the message you have sent.

9 PADS Scheduler

9.1 Destinations tree view

Same as with the PADS Messenger application, an additional tab will appear in the

destinations tree view of the PADS Scheduler application if you have configured your

PADS system to use Active Directory.

On this tab you will find your Active Directory users that represent your Desktop

Viewers. It can be used to simply schedule a PADS presentation for the screensaver of

a user or to view what has been scheduled for the screensaver of this user.

The same tab with Active Directory users appears everywhere in the PADS Scheduler

application, where you need to select a destination for your PADS presentation.


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10 PADS Agent

10.1 Desktop Viewer connections

In the Viewer connections window of PADS Agent the Desktop Viewer connections have

been separated from the ‘regular’ Viewer connections.

If you switch to the view

with your Desktop Viewer

connections you will find

all details of the PADS

Desktop Viewers currently

that are currently active.

Beside the user name

details like computer

name and number of

sessions can be found

here.

The restart Viewer,

reboot, shutdown and

wake-up on LAN functions

have been disabled for

Desktop Viewer connections.

10.2 TV channel management

With PADS Agent you can

centrally manage your TV

channel list that will be

shared across all users of

the PADS signage

network. Beside a logical

channel name (like RTL+),

you can define various

aliases (like RTLPLUS).

These aliases will be used

locally by each PADS

Viewer to automatically

map the logical channels

to the right scanned

channels.

In addition you can remotely scan for TV channels on a specific PADS Viewer PC, view

the mappings of the logical channels to the scanned channels or remotely adjust the TV

settings of a PADS Viewer.


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11 PADS System Management

11.1 Active Directory settings

The Active Directory settings have been

moved from the Server settings window to

the Servers window, where they can be

found among the other server properties.

The Active Directory settings have been

extended with a filter option. This option

can be used to force that a user must be a

member of a certain Active Directory group.

12 Miscellaneous

12.1 64-bit support

PADS now offers 64-bit support for all of its PADS applications.

For PADS Designer and PADS Viewer it means that you no longer have to deal with a

maximum amount of memory (around 1.2 GB) that can be allocated.

Especially for PADS Viewers running on 64-bit systems, this means that you get more

possibilities for playback of large content (e.g. Full HD videos) and supporting Ultra HD

displays.

The setup of PADS4 will automatically detect if you have a 64-bit operating system. If

this is that case the system will automatically install the 64-bit version of PADS4.

NOTE: Please note that your Microsoft Office drivers may have to be updated to 64-bit

after updating to PADS4 Release 5 on 64-bit systems.

12.2 Bug fixes

This release includes all bug fixes that have become available via new build versions

since the initial release of PADS4 release 4.

12.3 Documentation updates

The SDK documentation has been extended with a sample demonstrating how proof-of-

play information can be retrieved and written to an XML file.

Where necessary the PADS4 documentation has been adjusted to be up-to-date with

the latest adjustments and new features.


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