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Ayuda Offers OpenSplash To The Industry

It’s only last September [1] at #DOOHBizKonf in Munich that Andreas Soupliotis, president, CEO and founder of Ayuda Media Systems first hinted at what his company might be doing in the Open Source space and at ISE 2011 on Monday in Amsterdam, Ayuda’s Soupliotis announced that his company will donate its Splash digital signage player to the industry as an open source initiative.

[2]Dubbed ‘OpenSplash’, it is a free, multi-platform open source player that can be driven by any content management and scheduling system.

“Offering a free, open source media player will enable a new wave of innovation in the signage industry,” says Soupliotis, “There are a multitude of software vendors in the space that basically all do the same thing – push content from a content management system (CMS) to a network of players. Some do it a little better than others but the differentiation of identity is just not there. If there was a standard open software player that the industry rallied behind, then everyone could focus on innovating next generation signage opportunities.

[3]“Each year at DSE, ISE and Screenmedia Expo, you’ve got the same vendors showing marginal improvements on their software. Innovation is stagnant. OpenSplash might hopefully change that. By embracing a copyleft-oriented [3] mindset, we expect to see exciting innovations and extensions to the player developed by an open-source community.”

Some of the benefits of OpenSplash as detailed by Soupliotis are:

Aside from operating as a simple SMIL-based player by consuming SMIL playlists and content, OpenSplash can also double as a more intelligent rules-based player that can manage dynamic loops and create playlists on the fly. Supporting video walls, frame synchronization across multiple players, zones, and dynamic content, it is designed to be driven by any SaaS-based CMS because the player consumes a set of standard Web services for pulling schedules and content.

The source code that makes up OpenSplash is written mostly in the modern C# programming language, and is built on open and platform-invariant standards such as Mono, FFMpeg, and MPlayer. As with most signage players, it has full support for H.264 1080p video, flash, HTML5 and many other formats. And it runs on Linux, Windows and Android operating systems.

OpenSplash is a project that was inspired and championed by Adrian Cotterill, editor-in-chief of DailyDOOH. Cotterill says, “There’s no doubt in my mind that this initiative will kickstart even more innovation in our industry. Screen manufacturers will be able to build robust players that support every inch and every feature of their displays, online aggregators will be able to collect data direct from players and network management tools will be able to better collect proof of play information, to name but a few uses.”

Further, Cotterill says, “This initiative will also attract new developers and even bring academia into the fold, fostering even more innovation. This is truly an exciting announcement.”

OpenSplash will be made available to the general public in Q2 of 2011. Current efforts include implementing an open source community portal for support forums, shared source code control, knowledge base articles, versioning of enhancements, and code documentation.

With this announcement, it appears that Ayuda is emerging as one of the leaders in the industry. Last November [4], at the DPAA Media Summit [5] it was announced that Ayuda had developed an Online Planning Tool for its members and, following on that, Ayuda announced a free platform called Symphony that essentially allows agencies to plan and buy both digital and traditional OOH easily across all networks. Free to network operators and agencies this is a platform that allows OOH buyers to put together and procure an OOH campaign in minutes.

3 Comments (Open | Close)

3 Comments To "Ayuda Offers OpenSplash To The Industry"

#1 Comment By DOOH Cynic On 2 February 2011 @ 14:55 @663

Congratulations Ayuda, you are now Xibo.

[6]

No, wait, Xibo actually gives you the server and the web management interface for free too. And Xibo actually has almost 1000 active installs.

So no, you are not even Xibo, you are simply 3 years late in releasing yet another open-source .NET based player.

Best of luck with your initiative.

#2 Comment By Alex Harrington On 7 February 2011 @ 22:08 @964

What Ayuda are doing here is certainly interesting.

I’ll certainly be interested to see the code and specs when they’re released 😀

Best wishes

Alex

#3 Comment By Matteo On 24 February 2011 @ 16:21 @722

Really interesting for me!
Will wait with patience to see the results

Good Luck