Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
SpinetiX could do a lot more damage in the industry if they just knew how to spin (no pun intended) what they have and create some real excitement about solutions that can be put into place using their Hyper Media Player hardware appliance, see for example our prediction a long time ago ‘Ultra Small Form Factors Will Drive New Markets’ rather than the continuous stream of technical and engineering announcements that do them little good in creating buzz.
In the latest announcement, ahead of #InfoComm2010, we see SpinetiX and Scala tell us that their systems can now be integrated together to create ‘cost-effective, flexible and reliable digital signage solutions without the need for a PC‘.’
Scala mind you have been supporting non-PC devices for at least 12 months (with IAdea Corp. devices) – in fact Scala even showed them off as recently as February 2010 at ‘#ISE2010 – Scala Booth 12D89‘
Anyway, with this announcement we see Scala’s Content Manager 5 and Designer 5 software platforms being able to deliver content to the dedicated SpinetiX HMP100™ hardware device (the press release statement “meaning that dealers and systems integrators responsible for specifying digital signage rollouts are no longer tied to PC-based platforms when deploying a Scala solution with dynamic content” is irrelevant: as mentioned previously this has been available for 12 months or more).
Serge Konter, Marketing Manager, SpinetiX told us “Our Hyper Media Player technology turns any digital display into an autonomous and networked device. The very small footprint and the minimal energy consumption of our HMP100 have very low installation and operational costs … we are delighted that our new integration with Scala technology is now being made available.”
The integration between Scala’s software platforms and SpinetiX hardware will make its public international debut at #InfoComm2010 in Las Vegas next week (having previously been shown to partners at Scala’s EMEA Connected Signage Conference in the Netherlands last week 26-27 May).
SpinetiX spend good money exhibiting at shows (big hats off to them for that) and generally do good press releases but they do however need to do much, much more to justify what one industry commentator told us was a “Tiny box. Big pricetag” – the HMP100 is something like GBP 650 trade and GBP 1055 MSRP!!!
Signagelive for example can offer you an Advantech ARK-DS303 support for a third of that or the XMP-120 from IAdea for a fifth of that.
The HMP100 is a nice little SMIL player, but is still plagued with all the typical problems of an embedded system whilst retaining the cost of a PC-based player and software – that’s where excellent marketing, creating a buzz, a community and above all a BRAND comes in.
Mind you, even with that sort of brand, take a look at what the Android platform can offer (and dare we mention GoogleTV) and you can see what direction SpinetiX probably need to go AND get there incredibly fast or there is a real danger that SpinetiX will be a Betamax in a world of VHS or indeed HD-DVD in a world of Blu-ray.
However, we have got to give real credit to Scala – they have been working very hard on getting their stuff working with SMIL players.
June 2nd, 2010 at 08:05 @378
Thanks for the mention, the Spinetix product is a great high-end integration product and is well received by the ProAV guys looking for a multi-faceted device.
The challenge is that the mass market for 90%+ of digital signage applications can be served by SMIL and low-cost PC platforms that offer tremendous value for money at a fraction of the price.
To see how easy it is to setup and run a SMIL device is, take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcAZEGmoSGA