Grass Valley MediaEdge ready for next-gen digital signage applications

By Ken Kerschbaumer

Digital signage has climbed up the ladder of hot industry jargon and now Grass Valley, with the help of its MediaEdge enterprise-class digital signage systems, is looking to make the most of the sizzling market by giving sports teams, leagues, stadiums, arenas and even K-12 athletic programs a new approach to digital signage applications.

“Right now the phrase digital signage is overused, applying to everything from very advanced video management systems to something as simple as an LCD display in a dental office displaying a power point,” says Richard Threadgill, Grass Valley Pro AV account manager, Eastern Region.

Grass Valley believes the new MediaEdge enterprise-class system will play an important role in transforming the marketplace by creating wide or local area networks that can connect servers and HD and SD encoders to multiple SD and HD displays outfitted with decoder set-top boxes.

“Until recently displays and storage were too expensive and network bandwidths couldn’t support high-quality streaming,” says Threadgill. “But right now we have a perfect storm of technology to drive MediaEdge and digital signage into 2007 and well beyond.”

One of the earliest uses of MediaEdge was the National Sports Festival in Hyogo, Japan. The system was used to connect four venues in four different cities to NHK Broadcasting to transmit HD coverage of Judo, soccer, weightlifting and sumo wrestling over ADSL at low cost.

“We give our customers a blank canvas for them to build their artwork,” he says of content creation and distribution that could range from simply swapping out digital ads to tying the MediaEdge SQL database into an RFID or barcode system to change messaging to reflect the products or services in front of the sign at a given moment.

For K-12 and other schools a MediaEdge server could replace RF-based distribution systems, allowing for a press box in a stadium to broadcast games via an MVRD-4000 encoder card or to capture games for coaches to later review. Live streaming can be done at DVD quality using MPEG4 at 3 Mbps (decode data rates max out at 30 Mbps).

“This really breaks down the equity gap, giving poorer schools the same access to content that wealthier schools have,” he says. An SD system starts at roughly $5,000 and an HD version at $10,000. A system with 10 encoding cards distributing 10 streams of MPEG4 video is approximately $20,000. New options include the ADVC-HDMI HD-SDI to HDV MPEG-2 converter/encoder and the ADVC-HDSC1 HD-SDI to HD component converter

“High-quality HD streaming is going to redefine IP-based media distribution and management for all types of deployments,” he adds.