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4K (Ultra HD) Video Support General Availability

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We are happy to announce general availability of our 4K video support. With an increasing number of displays supporting 4K, along with ever improving player hardware performance, we are providing the option of enabling 4K video on any device in your account. There are a few things to keep in mind when deciding to make the 4K transition.

4K video is big! By that we mean the file size is much larger than even a 1080p video. 4K, or UHD, video is 4x the pixel resolution of a standard 1080p video. That combined with a higher bitrate can inflate the file size substantially. Keep this in mind if storage space is limited on your player hardware.GPU support for HEVC video decoding is necessary. Ensure your player is capable of decoding HEVC video in hardware. In most cases this will be specified in the tech specs or marketing materials for your player. Windows 10 has support for HEVC, but more recent updates now require the installation of an HEVC package from the Microsoft Store. More informa…
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New Stock Quote Gadget

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Hot off the press, a new stock quote gadget! We have tuned up our existing stock gadget and added a new one with a different display format. This is a 'large format' gadget for boldly displaying a single quote at a time. Multiple stock symbols can be configured which the gadget will then rotate through. We have also added an optional back panel with drop shadow to simplify adding a background.

As with our other gadgets, this one is freely available in the template editor. Just add a Gadget zone and select it from the Gadget chooser dialog.
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New Gadgets, Meeting Room & Mini Weather

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Two new gadgets are now available, one designed specifically for meeting room signage, and the other a minimalistic weather gadget. Both are free to use and available now in the template editor.

The new weather gadget displays a high/low temperature along with a condition icon in a compact format, great for signage with limited screen space.


The new meeting room gadget is designed to be used as a room status indicator with current and upcoming reservation details. Similar to our Google Calendar gadget, the meeting room gadget uses Google Calendar as the source of event details. Configuration of the meeting room gadget is simple, just configure with your Calendar ID and room/location name. The gadget takes care of the rest displaying current room reservation (if ongoing), along with the the date/time of the next scheduled reservation. More information on this gadget is available here:
https://support.reveldigital.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002538071-Meeting-room-gadget


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Custom CAP Feeds With Automated Alerting

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Automated alerting has always been a feature provided by the Revel Digital platform, but was restricted to emergency alerts from the NWS (National Weather Service) or EAS (Emergency Alert System). We have expanded on this to now allow monitoring for alerts from any CAP provider. CAP stands for Common Alerting Protocol which is a standard data format developed by FEMA for disseminating emergency information. Not only does the NWS and EAS now conform to this protocol, but any 3rd party is free to implement services utilizing the same protocol as well. This means services such as Blackboard Connect are able to provide emergency alert feeds which can then monitored by other services such as Revel Digital.

See our KB article for more information on configuring your digital signage to monitor CAP feeds.
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Digital Signage Gets Physical - Part 4: Face Detection and Audience Analytics

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This blog series has explored the various ways in which digital signage can interact with it's environment. In this post we will focus on the audience and how it's possible to adapt signage content in real-time based on viewer attributes. It's important to recognize that the data collected in this process is completely anonymous and can in no way be used to track individual viewers.
What is face detection? By using what's called 'computer vision', it's possible to algorithmically determine the number of faces in a video frame along with approximations for age, gender, and even mood. This data can then be used in real-time to adapt signage to better match the make-up of the current audience. For example, if the audience is primarily male, then adjust the playlist to include more male oriented content. By targeting the right demographic you are automatically improving the value of your content.
What is audience analytics? Audience analytics is taking the aud…
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Digital Signage Gets Physical - Part 3: The Button

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The button, arguably the most basic of computer human interfaces. The button is a powerhouse in the kiosk industry with screens everywhere urging viewers to 'touch here to learn more'. While it's true the button is intrinsically boring, it's also an essential element to a kiosk design. This blog series has been focusing on how users interact with digital signage. In this post we will explore the utility of the button and how to turn your digital sign into an interactive kiosk.

When I think of a button I envision something like this red 'push me' button which hearkens back to my days in the arcade. In the modern era, however, the button has been assimilated right into the display itself. With touch screens there is no longer the requirement for a physical button, but rather an image resembling a button, somewhere on the screen which reacts to touch.


Enough button prologue, let's create a simple kiosk.

Demonstration For the button demo we will create a simple…
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New Feature: Automatic Image Tagging

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We have rolled out a new feature to assist with managing a large collection of images. Any image uploaded to your account will now be analyzed and a set of relevant tags will be extracted. This works by using computer vision to determine what the image is composed of in terms of colors and basic objects. The generated tags are simply suggestions and can always be modified or removed.

The following video demonstrates uploading an image of a car. The tags generated include car, vehicle, and motor vehicle. Since the tags can then be searched for this makes it easy to find an image of a car regardless of how it's named in your account.


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