Cisco Extends Business-Class Video with New Digital Signage Solution

Comprehensive offering showcases flexibility and simplicity beyond the desktop to networked digital signage displays

SAN JOSE, Calif. - January 16, 2007 - Cisco® today announced Cisco Digital Signage, a solution for management, publishing and playback of digital media on networked digital signage displays that has the potential to redefine how organizations connect with their employees and customers. Cisco’s entry into the quickly-growing digital signage market shows that digital signage is a dynamic and easy-to-use communication tool that can enable businesses to optimize their marketing, advertising and training and drive a compelling and high-quality customer experience. Using the power of the internet protocol (IP) network, businesses can easily manage and communicate through a scalable digital signage network from a simple Web interface.

“Cisco’s entry into the high growth digital signage market reflects growing business demand for rich media signage to optimize their marketing, advertising and training and drive a compelling, high-quality customer experience,” said Marthin De Beer, senior vice president of Cisco’s Emerging Markets Technology Group. “Enterprises are beginning to realize the potential of video for many new functions. Cisco Digital Signage together with the power of the IP network as the platform will help businesses to reach customers and employees with powerful content.”

The digital signage market represents another new emerging technology opportunity for Cisco. Cisco Digital Signage builds on the power of the Cisco Digital Media System, ( www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns620/networking_solutions_package.html and access of digital media, with easy and flexible functionality for live video broadcasting and video-on-demand (VOD) for users at the desktop.

Cisco Digital Signage is comprised of two products:

* Cisco Digital Media Manager: a Web-based software application that controls the creation, management and publishing of digital media to digital signage displays. The Cisco Digital Media Manager remotely discovers and manages individual and groups of digital signs connected to Cisco Digital Media Players. The software also handles play lists, content schedules, customizable templates with on-screen zones, role-based access control as well as monitoring and reporting.
* Cisco Digital Media Player: a small form-factor device that controls playback of the video, graphics and text on digital signage displays. With industry-leading reliability, the Cisco Media Player supports full-screen video or graphical zoning and provides local storage for high availability and automatic failover. The Cisco Media Player offers support for MPEG 1, 2 and 4 in both standard- and high-definition.

“We are using Cisco Digital Signage because it’s innovative,” said Michael Chang, president of Fantasia Coffee and Tea, a high-end retail beverage chain. “We chose the Cisco solution because it is very easy to use to change content on the fly or to customize content by location or time of day. Digital signage will allow us to easily promote new products and entertain and educate customers in line. Digital signage has great potential for our business.”

With Cisco Digital Signage, organizations can maximize their interactions with targeted customer audiences for marketing, advertising and communication. For example, a retailer might use digital signage to increase revenue by promoting new products, or a bank might use digital signage to inform customers waiting in line about new services. Other vertical applications include communications or training information in government offices, informational content in hotels, airports or other public places, or even news and information in hospital waiting rooms.

“Cisco Digital Signage will transform the way we advertise within our Mediaworld and Saturn Audio, Video & Electronics stores by targeting shoppers with real-time and compelling content about in-store promotions and products,” said Mr. Maurizio Besurga, CIO, MediaMarket Italy. “The key plus points for MediaMarket is that Cisco Digital Signage is simple to integrate into our existing IP network, it gives individual stores or cluster of stores the autonomy to target their shoppers with relevant content in an exciting way through video and flash animation, and also gives us a business platform for the future to create digital information points, rich media kiosks and even resell advertising space to our vendors.”

Cisco Digital Signage is available now. The list price for the Cisco Digital Media Player is $1,490 USD, and Cisco Digital Media Manager pricing is based on customer configuration. For more information about this solution, visit http://www.cisco.com/go/dms.
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