Cost Ramifications Of Player Placement

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

In slight contrast to the TCO paper we published a few weeks ago from EnQii it’s worthwhile looking at this perspective from Minicom.

The “last mile” approach is Minicom’s business so it is no surprise what they suggest and recommend.

Jerusalem, Israel – Minicom Advanced Systems, a world leader in the Digital Signage “last mile”, has just completed a major white paper comparing the repercussions of different locations for media players in digital signage applications. The paper is called “Cost Ramifications of Player Placement in Digital Signage Networks” and it illustrates the major reduction to the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of digital signage networks that can be achieved by placing media players in a back room.

Ronni Guggenheim, President Minicom Europe says ‘Digital signage integrators and customers are always looking for ways of maximizing the return on investment from digital signage networks and protecting the total cost of ownership of their systems. This new white paper shows how extension technology safeguards their IT investment’.

While both media “player in back room” and “player at screen” technology are popular choices for the “last mile” of digital signage networks there are significant differences between the two which have major repercussions on TCO. The new white paper shows that extension technology in a ten screen Digital Signage network over a three year period can save over $10,000 dollars in service costs.

Some other relevant points:

  • Both the lifecycle and mean time between failures (MTBF) of an extension system is more than double that of a player at screen.
  • Players at screen are hard to reach (up near the ceiling or sandwiched between a screen and wall) and must be detached and reattached to the screens when being serviced.
  • If a player at screen malfunctions in the middle of the day you must wait until after store hours to service it.
  • Players at screen are located in uncontrolled environments that are often harmful to intricate PC-based devices such as media players.
  • Players in backrooms can be accessed at all hours of the day and do not need to be moved to be serviced.
  • Players in backrooms are typically located in secure, temperature controlled environments.

The new white paper is free though you need to give your email address (hate that but understand why one has to) and can be downloaded at Minicom’s website here


Leave a Reply