Review: Omnivex, TTUFF Bundle Up

For years, the digital signage solution has been almost the Great White Whale of the computer and networking peripherals space. It looked good on paper, but harpooning the total solution was elusive for many solution providers as software was bulky, bandwidth was scarce and return on investment a nonstarter.

Now, a combination of more flexible display designs, better and more accomodating networking, oceans of bandwidth and cross-platform software has combined with easier content creation to just make digital signage solutions work.

The CRN Test Center took a look at a solution offered by a Tier 2 manufacturer, Omnivex Corp. of Concord, Ontario, and its partner, TTUFF Technologies, Mississauga, Ontario, which have collaborated on an out-of-the-box signage solution that provides for on-the-fly, as well as scheduled, content creation and management and remote monitoring.

On the hardware side, the TTUFF MPE-107 media player is a PC with a 1U, pizza-box form factor. It's built with a 1.74-GHz Intel Pentium-M processor, 1 Gbyte of RAM, and 80 Gbytes of internal storage. It has two USB 2.0 slots, two PCI expansion slots, a FireWire port and a video connector, and runs quietly and coolly. The device comes preloaded with Microsoft Windows XP and is integrated with a DVD drive on the front. According to the companies, the price of the bundle itself is less than the single unit price for Omnivex Director and Player software. Software pricing to the end customer varies depending on the number of client licenses.

On the software side, Omnivex provides the display management software—including Display Director 3 and Player—that acts as the glue between the administrator, the media box and the display. Once the hardware device is connected, the software installs on a PC on the network and a wizard guides its integration. The application also provides a console that enables content creation, although it's not yet as intuitive as it could be. A word of caution is in order: At first, the CRN Test Center ran into trouble installing the client software on a PC running Windows Vista. A second installation, on a PC running Windows XP, worked just fine. For the Omnivex-TTUFF bundle to gain any momentum in the channel, the software has to work better on Vista.

Once running, the software allows for professional-quality display messages—with high-end graphics, imported images, dynamic and changing text—to be created within the console. Navigation is a bit awkward. For example, Omnivex provides a template that has the look of Microsoft Paint, but doesn't let the user type text. Reviewers eventually figured it out through trial and error, so even though this feature looks like Microsoft Paint, it's not.

Once the content is created, though, uploading it from the PC over the network to the MPE-107 took about two seconds. It can scale out to multiple devices in different locations on the same network as well and administrative access to the console is both password and SSL-based. For the VAR, the bundle is an opportunity to deliver and install an entire solution with the potential for managed services.

Doug Bannister, CEO of Omnivex, acknowledged the software had not been significantly updated in several years, noting that as of press time, the company was several weeks away from shipping a fully updated version.

Omnivex itself is a Microsoft Gold Partner, and it provides its resellers with training, technical support and financial incentives. The company's intention is to provide the channel with one-stop shopping for an out-of-the-box digital signage solution. It comes close, and its model appears solid. And while the ease-of-use quotient of its software could be improved, it gets many functions and features right. The Omnivex-TTUFF bundle does come in short of the requirements for a recommendation—particularly on the technology side—and its channel program will have to provide significant differentiation before it can take a leadership role in digital signage in the U.S. commercial reseller channel. But consider this bundle a first step, and be ready for better in the not-too-distant future. For its part, TTUFF says it will be ready to launch a higher-performing media player—the MPE 102—in February and Omnivex is moving in the right direction.