signagelive we think were the first to do this (June 2008) and a couple of folks have followed since but it’s interesting that Scala should now announce a special USB key that will reformat the flash drive or hard drive of a Samsung screen with Windows® Embedded and Scala 5 Player software.
The image key supports 690- or 780-based Samsung screens or Set Back Boxes basically overriding the image that Samsung embeds in their screen PCs and converts it to a Scala player.
This of course eliminates the need for customers to manually reconfigure their screens or Set Back Boxes, decreasing the amount of time required to install their network BUT as we have said before tacitly admitting that what Samsung supply as default is pretty much useless for anything of note in the signage world.
Yet another example of Scala thinking outside the box and innovating.
About Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2008 consolidated sales of US$96 billion. Employing approximately 164,600 people in 179 offices across 61 countries, the company consists of two business units: Digital Media & Communications and Device Solutions. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and
TFT-LCDs.
October 9th, 2009 at 13:16 @595
“Yet another example of Scala thinking outside the box and innovating”
Or just copying what signagelive did 18 months ago ?
October 9th, 2009 at 14:23 @641
Not newsworthy when Signagelive or RDM does it, but “innovative” when Scala does it. That would rate as either seriously curious word choice, or blind deference to a certain company. And for the record, re-imaging a device with one’s software is hardly thinking outside the box, regardless of who does it.
October 9th, 2009 at 14:24 @642
BroadSign had this long ago as well. Hardly an innovation.
Daniel Parisien
VP of Products and Strategic Initiatives
BroadSign International, Inc.
Office: +1 (514) 399 1184 ext. 107
Mobile: +1 (514) 463 6074
Email: daniel.parisien at broadsign.com
October 9th, 2009 at 14:43 @655
Let me answer Ken and Daniel’s comments (comments always appreciated, thanks guys)…
1. “Not newsworthy when Signagelive or RDM does it.” errr ….
A. It was DEFINITELY newsworthy and we covered signagelive’s announcement back in June 2008 http://www.dailydooh.com/archives/2048
B. We missed RDMs but it’s here http://www.realdigitalmedia.com/PressRelease/real-digital-media-to-deliver-integrated-digital-signage-display-powered-by-neocast-r.html
C. We were definitely not aware that BroadSign had done same. Perhaps that was announced during the time when BroadSign took their ball home and refused to send us press releases
2. Our line “Yet another example of Scala thinking outside the box and innovating” may have been misconstrued. If so that’s poor writing on our behalf and we hold our hands up. We have long beaten up Scala for lack of innovation – for heaven’s sake they have had 20+ years to get off the Windows platform. Most recently we have seen them ink deals with digital picture frame guys and others. Scala doing a deal with Samsung in such a manner as this is for them “thinking outside of the box” and an ‘innovation’ for Scala (themselves).
October 12th, 2009 at 17:49 @784
The scary thing is that Samsung screens can be completely reformatted by plugging in a USB key with an autorun. Forget TV-B-Gone, this is much worse!
October 14th, 2009 at 19:44 @863
Actually–there is no “AutoRun”.
AutoRun is disabled both at the Registry level and at the Group Policy Level in the XP-Embedded image. […and the OS-Partition of the XPE-Image is configured to be “Read-Only” via the “Enhanced Write Filter”–assuming that the deploying installer followed the “README.1ST” directions when configuring the unit!!!]
The Key is a DOS-Boot Device.
The USB-Key must be selected as the “Bootable Device” in the CMOS Setuo program–this requires both a Keyboard and, if the installer/Operator has any intelligence, an “Administrative Password” to access the PC’s BIOS Setup mode.
In any case–these keys are nothing particularly new in concept–only form.
While at Commodore I built Scala IC300 Player HD-Images for the Amiga computer that were distributed via bootable CDROM’s. [1993–a big deal then: 550MB blanks were USD$35/each and took almost two hours to burn!!!] Some images were also distributed via a combination of a Boot-Floppy and a DC250-Tape. [most Amiga’s had native SCSI controllers]
Over the mid-90’s we at Scala distributed both DOS-Based–and eventually Win95/NT4 Scala-Player hard disk images–either on Floppy disks–for the Philips PID5000 in 1996–and on a combination of a boot Floppy and a HD-Image CDROM for both Hewlett-Rand and Hughes Network Systems in 1998-1999.
Since 2000 or so we have been distributing bootable CDROM, and eventually DVD, “Ghost Restore Discs” that implemented “SYSPREP’ed” Windows 2000 and Windows XP pre-configured Scala Player images for a wide variety of machines from HP/DELL/IBM/LENOVO/etc.
We have been distributing XPE-Scala Player images since November of 2002. [initially for the NEC/Panasonic built-in Digital Signage Engines–then for other DS-Engines from iBASE/KONTRON/DTRI/TUFF/BlueChip/EQUUSCS/42Media/MediaVue.]
The only thing new is the “pretty little box with the imprinted “Scala/SAMSUNG” logos–everything else has been done many times before!
–JSS, Scala, Inc.
Nothing is new in this wold–every generation of teenagers discovers things that “…parents have no clue about!”
November 11th, 2009 at 09:32 @439
Innovation I dont think so Stinova had this technology a year and a half back and you dont need to erase anything just plug a USB key with the DMP software into pretty much any device and you have a Scalable Broadcast Digital Signage Solution.www.stinova.com