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For More Information Contact:
BTX Technologies, Inc.www.btx.com - [email protected]
What’s new in PADS4 release 5
A detailed overview
of new features
For More Information Contact: BTX Technologies, Inc. • www.btx.com • [email protected] 2
Table of Contents
1 PADS Content .......................................................................................... 5 1.1 TV element ...................................................................................... 5 1.2 PowerPoint element ........................................................................... 6
2 Data providers ......................................................................................... 7 2.1 Facebook data provider ....................................................................... 7 2.2 Twitter data provider ......................................................................... 7 2.3 Quividi data provider .......................................................................... 7 2.4 Bluefox data provider ......................................................................... 8 2.5 WSDL data provider ............................................................................ 8 2.6 SOAP data provider ............................................................................ 8 2.7 Genesys data provider ......................................................................... 9 2.8 Microsoft Exchange data provider ........................................................... 9
3 PADS Designer ........................................................................................ 10 3.1 Viewer types ................................................................................... 10 3.2 Flash element .................................................................................. 10 3.3 Shape element ................................................................................. 10
4 PADS Server ........................................................................................... 11 4.1 Automatic recovery ........................................................................... 11 4.2 Graceful degradation period ................................................................ 11
5 PADS Viewer .......................................................................................... 12 5.1 TV-cards ........................................................................................ 12
6 PADS HTML5 Viewer ................................................................................. 13 6.1 HTML5 XPRESS Viewer ........................................................................ 13 6.2 Supported player devices .................................................................... 13 6.3 Uninterrupted playback ...................................................................... 13 6.4 Formatted text ................................................................................ 13
7 PADS Desktop Viewer ................................................................................ 14 7.1 Active Directory integration ................................................................. 14 7.2 Enhanced tracking options................................................................... 14 7.3 Concurrent licenses ........................................................................... 14
8 PADS Messenger ...................................................................................... 15 8.1 Destinations tree view ....................................................................... 15 8.2 Recurring messages ........................................................................... 15 8.3 Read receipts .................................................................................. 15
9 PADS Scheduler ....................................................................................... 15 9.1 Destinations tree view ....................................................................... 15
10 PADS Agent ............................................................................................ 16 10.1 Desktop Viewer connections ................................................................ 16 10.2 TV channel management ..................................................................... 16
11 PADS System Management .......................................................................... 17 11.1 Active Directory settings ..................................................................... 17
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12 Miscellaneous ......................................................................................... 17 12.1 64-bit support .................................................................................. 17 12.2 Bug fixes ........................................................................................ 17 12.3 Documentation updates ...................................................................... 17
For More Information Contact: BTX Technologies, Inc. • www.btx.com • [email protected]
4
Introduction
When looking at PADS4 Release 5 you will see that we succeeded once again to add
very interesting new features to PADS4. In this document you find all details about it.
First of all, we have totally revised everything in PADS4 that has to do with live TV.
This has resulted into a brand new TV element, which is not only extremely powerful
but also simplifies the way of working for including live TV in your presentations.
Another new page element is an often requested PowerPoint element. Including
PowerPoint slides in your PADS presentation has now become a piece of cake. And
more important, you have full control about the playback of your PowerPoint
presentations.
In PADS Designer you can now choose to design your presentation for a specific Viewer
type like XPRESS or BASIC. Page elements that will not be supported are automatically
disabled, helping you to design the right content.
The PADS HTML5 Viewer has been upgraded and is now also available as XPRESS
edition. This makes the HTML5 Viewer a really interesting playback solution for non-
Windows player devices.
Our PADS Desktop Viewer has been enhanced to offer an even more powerful solution
for desktop communication. Organizations can now send messages to users within their
organization instead of computers.
Of course we again extended our collection of data providers. Quividi, Bluefox and
WSDL are just some of the new data providers. Our Facebook data provider is one of
the data providers that has been further improved.
Maybe the least visible but very important new feature is our 64-bit support. This
means that you have more possibilities for playback of large content, like Full HD
videos.
Finally, you will find many small new features in this release, which are described in
this document. This includes all new features and bug fixes that have already become
available in the recent past via new build versions of PADS4 release 4.
As always, we encourage you to keep sending us your feedback so we can continue to
improve our products! Please send your suggestions to:
Arthur Damen,
Net Display Systems
For More Information Contact: BTX Technologies, Inc. • www.btx.com • [email protected]
5
1 PADS Content
1.1 TV element
The TV features of PADS4 have been completely redesigned and redeveloped. This has
resulted into a simple yet powerful new TV element.
When you are designing a PADS presentation in PADS Designer and want to include live
TV you no longer need a TV-card in your Designer PC. Only when you want to see a
preview in PADS Designer it requires the presence of a TV-card.
Adding live TV to your
presentation has become as
simple as selecting the
channel you want to see.
This is all based on logical
channel names (e.g.
BBCNEWS), so you don’t
have to know anything about
the technology behind it.
The logical channel list that
is used by the TV element is
shared among all users of
your entire PADS installation
and can be managed
centrally via PADS Agent. The mapping of the logical channel names to the right
frequency, polarization etcetera is done locally at each PADS Viewer.
Our new TV element fully supports MPEG-4 which means you can also include High
Definition TV channels.
The TV element supports all important type of both digital and analog TV. This
includes ATSC, DVB-T, DVB-C and DVB-S. (NOTE: Support for DVB-C, DVB-S and analog
TV may not be included in the initial release)
Since the new TV element is a native page element in PADS it also offers interesting
features that are available to all standard page elements. This includes semi-
transparency, rotation, shadowing, reflection, skewing and many more.
TV elements can now also be placed behind other page elements, making it possible to
show a logo or text in front of your TV element.
You can have multiple TV elements on one page of your PADS presentation. If your
PADS Viewer PC has multiple TV tuners you can use this for showing multiple TV
channels at the same time during playback of your presentation. (If it only has one
tuner, then both TV elements will be forced to show the same TV channel.)
For More Information Contact: BTX Technologies, Inc. • www.btx.com • [email protected]
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1.2 PowerPoint element
With our new dedicated PowerPoint element including PowerPoint slides into your
PADS presentation becomes a piece of cake.
Simply refer to the
PowerPoint presentation
files that you want to be
played. If the PowerPoint
presentations are placed in
the content library of PADS
they will automatically be
distributed to the PADS
Viewer PCs where they will
be played.
Optionally, create a playlist
of PowerPoint presentations
you want to be played or
make a selection of the
slides you want to be played. All this is possible with the new PowerPoint element.
A PowerPoint presentation can be played full screen or in a ‘zone’ of your screen,
combined with other PADS content. Choose to enable interactivity or to hide the
mouse cursor and play the presentation exactly the way you want.
When you include a PowerPoint presentation, then PADS will automatically calculate
the total duration of included PowerPoint slides. This makes that you can use options
like ‘Play once and show next page’ to automatically continue with your PADS
presentation when the PowerPoint slides have played.
The PADS PowerPoint element is compatible with Microsoft Office 2007 and higher.
Please note that a full installation of PowerPoint is required on your PADS Designer PC
and each PADS Viewer PC to take benefits of the PowerPoint element. The PowerPoint
element doesn’t work in combination with the PowerPoint Viewer application.
For More Information Contact: BTX Technologies, Inc. • www.btx.com • [email protected]
7
2 Data providers
2.1 Facebook data provider
The improved Facebook data provider makes using Facebook information in your PADS
presentations really simple.
Just connect to a Facebook page of a company or person by entering its name. You can
find this name in the URL of the Facebook page. A typical Facebook page url looks like:
http://www.facebook.com/<name>/<ref>.
Next you can retrieve nearly anything from this Facebook page. From photos in albums
to details about events or news. This makes Facebook ideal as CMS for your PADS
signage network to show interesting posts of your organization.
By using PADS4 and its Facebook data provider to collect statistics of a Facebook page,
including likes, followers, shares, etcetera you can compose and display your own
dashboard with social media KPIs.
2.2 Twitter data provider
PADS digital signage software has acquired the status of an official Twitter application.
This means that connecting with Twitter has become much easier. All you have to do is
entering the credentials of your Twitter account and authorize the PADS software to
use it.
Enter the name of the Twitter page you want to follow or use the new search function
to collect your information. Use @ or # characters to get all results for a specific
Twitter account or hashtag.
2.3 Quividi data provider
Quividi is a leading provider of audience
measurement solutions. Using a simple video
sensor, Quividi collects all kinds of information
about the audience in front of your screens.
This includes number of viewers, attention
times, dwell times, gender and age estimations.
With the Quividi data provider you are able to
connect with the Quividi Audience
Measurement platform, providing accurate
audience metrics. It leverages the whole range
of real-time data generated by Quividi.
This gives a PADS presentation the possibility to trigger tailor-made content for a
specific audience in front of your displays, in real-time. For instance, you could get
PADS to react to an adult women approaching the screen and being around for more
than 5 seconds.
For More Information Contact: BTX Technologies, Inc. • www.btx.com • [email protected]
8
2.4 Bluefox data provider
Bluefox is a provider of high-quality content feeds for digital signage networks.
The Bluefox data provider enables you to directly retrieve (paid) content from the
Bluefox web portal and have it displayed on the screens of your PADS4 signage
network.
2.5 WSDL data provider
The WSDL data provider can be used to retrieve data from web services that can be
accessed via WSDL. WSDL stands for Web Service Description Language and is an XML
based interface for web service communication.
The WSDL data provider supports SOAP, Http Get and Http Post messages.
Various weather services share their weather information via WSDL.
2.6 SOAP data provider
SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol and is
another (advanced) way to communicate with web
services. The SOAP data provider can be used to retrieve
data from web services that require communication via
this protocol.
For More Information Contact: BTX Technologies, Inc. • www.btx.com • [email protected]
9
2.7 Genesys data provider
The Genesys data provider enables you to interface with the Genesys Integration
Server service (GIS) produced by Alcatel-Lucent. This database is typically used by call-
centres to store a wide variety of information.
This data provider makes PADS4 the perfect solution for displaying a digital dashboard
with KPI information of call-centres running GIS.
2.8 Microsoft Exchange data provider
The period selection has been extended with additional options for selection of a
period, based on the current date/time.
This enables you to limit the amount of data that has to be retrieved from Microsoft
Exchange which leads to significant performance improvements.
The Microsoft Exchange data provider also works with Microsoft Office 365. However,
this requires an Internet connection and the right permissions within Office 365.
For More Information Contact: BTX Technologies, Inc. • www.btx.com • [email protected]
10
3 PADS Designer
3.1 Viewer types
In PADS Designer you can now choose to design your presentation for a specific Viewer
type like XPERT, XPRESS or BASIC.
When you choose for instance to design for the PADS
Viewer XPRESS edition, then all page elements that
will not be supported by the XPRESS edition are
automatically disabled in your design environment.
This helps you to design the right content.
The Viewer type can also be selected in the
presentation preview window. This way you can
check how your presentation will behave for a
specific Viewer type.
3.2 Flash element
It’s now possible to include separators
with specific durations in playlists. This
means that you can create a pause
between two Flash items in your
playlist.
3.3 Shape element
The property binding collection of the
shape element has been extended with
the Angle property. With this, the
rotation angle of a shape can be
dynamically changed based on a real-
time value from an external data
source.
For More Information Contact: BTX Technologies, Inc. • www.btx.com • [email protected]
11
4 PADS Server
4.1 Automatic recovery
At startup PADS Server checks its system database. If the database got corrupted it will
automatically be repaired.
4.2 Graceful degradation period
There may be situations where the activation of your PADS software license no longer
works. For instance when the hardware of your PADS Server has changed.
If PADS Server detects such a problem with your PADS software license, the software
will no longer stops working with immediate effect, but instead we give you one week
time for correcting the problem.
In the meantime you will be informed about the problem by warnings during logon and
via warning messages in the PADS and Windows logs.
For More Information Contact: BTX Technologies, Inc. • www.btx.com • [email protected]
12
5 PADS Viewer
5.1 TV-cards
PADS Viewer supports plug & play when it comes to TV cards. On each PADS Viewer PC,
the PADS software will automatically detect the presence of a TV-card. When
detected, the system will try to automatically configure it so it can be instantly used
by PADS. The TV options can also be adjusted manually via the PADS Controller context
menu of your PADS Viewer or via PADS Agent.
Each PADS Viewer will scan for available TV channels and map these channels to the
logical channel names that you have centrally defined for your PADS installation. This
creates a provider independent solution in which live TV will always work, even if the
Viewers of your PADS signage network are located across different regions, countries or
time zones.
You can use TV-cards of different brands/models within the same PADS installation.
So, if a customer wants to extend its signage network and the TV-card you have used
before is no longer available, simply choose another TV-card.
You can even put multiple TV-cards in your Viewer PC and use it to have your PADS
presentation show multiple TV channels at the same time.
When you choose a TV-card, please make sure it is BDA compatible (Broadcast Driver
Architecture) for digital TV or WDM compatible (Windows Driver Model) for analog TV.
For smooth playback of live TV the PADS system uses standard LAV filters (=codecs for
video playback). This also offers de-interlacing and the possibility of hardware
acceleration for decoding the video signal. Of course only when support by the
available hardware.
Transitions from one PADS presentation showing live TV to another PADS presentation
also including live TV works much better now than with previous releases.
Handling extended desktop situations, where live TV is displayed across multiple
displays, has been improved.
For More Information Contact: BTX Technologies, Inc. • www.btx.com • [email protected]
13
6 PADS HTML5 Viewer
6.1 HTML5 XPRESS Viewer
The PADS HTML5 Viewer has been upgraded and is now also available as XPRESS
edition.
The PADS HTML5 XPRESS Viewer supports the same page elements as the Microsoft
Windows based PADS XPRESS Viewer:
- Text
- Video/Sound
- Scrolling text
- Shapes
- Flash
- Interactive button
- Picture
- Web
- Formatted text
- Line
For the Flash element it’s required that the Flash plug-in has been installed.
6.2 Supported player devices
PADS HTML5 Viewer is a browser-based application, especially designed for (non-
Microsoft Windows) devices capable of running HTML5.
The recommended browser to use for the PADS HTML5 Viewer is Google Chrome. Other
browsers may work as well, but since each browser uses its own implementation of the
HTML5 standards, the results may be different per browser.
We have now tested and – with some limitations – found the PADS HTML5 Viewer
suitable for:
Samsung Smart Signage platform (based on SoC processor)
LG WebOS enabled displays
IADEA Signboard and Mediaplayers (IADEA XDS-10xx and XMP-2xxx series)
Linux based devices running Chrome
Please contact Net Display Systems to know all about the exact limitations per device.
6.3 Uninterrupted playback
Our PADS HTML5 Viewer is a real application and NO streaming solution like many
other products. This means that in most situations it will generate far less network
traffic than most other HTML5 based signage solutions. It also means that in case of
network failures the screen of a Viewer will not switch to a black screen, but will just
continue to play normally. A requirement for this is, that the platform on which the
PADS HTML5 Viewer runs must support local storage and the content indeed has been
locally stored.
6.4 Formatted text
We have added the possibility to automatically show the current date/time in a
selected culture language.
For More Information Contact: BTX Technologies, Inc. • www.btx.com • [email protected]
14
7 PADS Desktop Viewer
7.1 Active Directory integration
With the new Active Directory integration capabilities of PADS messages and screen
saver presentations can now be sent to users instead of Desktop Viewer PCs. This
enables you to reach the users in your organization even better, no matter where they
are and what PC or laptop they use. It also gives them the flexibility to use any of their
PCs to access and confirm the messages that have been sent to them.
User authentication can
take place in PADS, but you
can also use Single Sign-on
through Windows
authentication. This means
that the credentials of your
Windows Logon will be used
and you don’t have to logon
again for the PADS Desktop
Viewer application.
With Active Directory you
no longer have to maintain
your Desktop Viewers in
PADS. Instead simply reuse the user information you already have stored in Active
Directory and use Active Directory as the central place to manage your users.
7.2 Enhanced tracking options
We have enhanced the tracking options for messages that you send to your Desktop
Viewers, so you always know exactly what happens with your messages.
You will be informed about your message being received, read and the read receipt
being sent. In addition the PADS Desktop Viewer will let you know if your messages is
actually playing, stopped or paused.
7.3 Concurrent licenses
PADS Desktop Viewer licenses are now treated as concurrent licenses. This means that
you no longer need a separate license for each individual Desktop Viewer in your
organization. Instead it’s enough to have a number of licenses that meets the
maximum amount of users you expect to be logged on simultaneously.
For More Information Contact: BTX Technologies, Inc. • www.btx.com • [email protected]
15
8 PADS Messenger
8.1 Destinations tree view
If you have configured your PADS system
to use Active Directory, then an additional
tab will appear in the destinations tree
view of the PADS Messenger application.
On this tab you will find your Active
Directory users, enabling you to simply
schedule a message for such a user or view
the scheduled messages for this user. It’s
also possible to send you messages to an Active Directory group.
The same tab with Active Directory users is also found at every other place in the PADS
Messenger application, where you need to select a destination for your message.
8.2 Recurring messages
The schedule options for messages have been extended with recurrence. So, you can
now have your scheduled messages automatically reoccur whenever you want.
All features for adding, changing and removing recurrence have been fully integrated
in the calendar view and the menus in exactly the same way as you are used to in PADS
Scheduler.
8.3 Read receipts
The read receipt features have been adjusted to support
the enhanced tracking options.
In the read receipts pane your can now also see the
actual playing status of the message you have sent.
9 PADS Scheduler
9.1 Destinations tree view
Same as with the PADS Messenger application, an additional tab will appear in the
destinations tree view of the PADS Scheduler application if you have configured your
PADS system to use Active Directory.
On this tab you will find your Active Directory users that represent your Desktop
Viewers. It can be used to simply schedule a PADS presentation for the screensaver of
a user or to view what has been scheduled for the screensaver of this user.
The same tab with Active Directory users appears everywhere in the PADS Scheduler
application, where you need to select a destination for your PADS presentation.
For More Information Contact: BTX Technologies, Inc. • www.btx.com • [email protected]
16
10 PADS Agent
10.1 Desktop Viewer connections
In the Viewer connections window of PADS Agent the Desktop Viewer connections have
been separated from the ‘regular’ Viewer connections.
If you switch to the view
with your Desktop Viewer
connections you will find
all details of the PADS
Desktop Viewers currently
that are currently active.
Beside the user name
details like computer
name and number of
sessions can be found
here.
The restart Viewer,
reboot, shutdown and
wake-up on LAN functions
have been disabled for
Desktop Viewer connections.
10.2 TV channel management
With PADS Agent you can
centrally manage your TV
channel list that will be
shared across all users of
the PADS signage
network. Beside a logical
channel name (like RTL+),
you can define various
aliases (like RTLPLUS).
These aliases will be used
locally by each PADS
Viewer to automatically
map the logical channels
to the right scanned
channels.
In addition you can remotely scan for TV channels on a specific PADS Viewer PC, view
the mappings of the logical channels to the scanned channels or remotely adjust the TV
settings of a PADS Viewer.
For More Information Contact: BTX Technologies, Inc. • www.btx.com • [email protected]
17
11 PADS System Management
11.1 Active Directory settings
The Active Directory settings have been
moved from the Server settings window to
the Servers window, where they can be
found among the other server properties.
The Active Directory settings have been
extended with a filter option. This option
can be used to force that a user must be a
member of a certain Active Directory group.
12 Miscellaneous
12.1 64-bit support
PADS now offers 64-bit support for all of its PADS applications.
For PADS Designer and PADS Viewer it means that you no longer have to deal with a
maximum amount of memory (around 1.2 GB) that can be allocated.
Especially for PADS Viewers running on 64-bit systems, this means that you get more
possibilities for playback of large content (e.g. Full HD videos) and supporting Ultra HD
displays.
The setup of PADS4 will automatically detect if you have a 64-bit operating system. If
this is that case the system will automatically install the 64-bit version of PADS4.
NOTE: Please note that your Microsoft Office drivers may have to be updated to 64-bit
after updating to PADS4 Release 5 on 64-bit systems.
12.2 Bug fixes
This release includes all bug fixes that have become available via new build versions
since the initial release of PADS4 release 4.
12.3 Documentation updates
The SDK documentation has been extended with a sample demonstrating how proof-of-
play information can be retrieved and written to an XML file.
Where necessary the PADS4 documentation has been adjusted to be up-to-date with
the latest adjustments and new features.
For More Information Contact: BTX Technologies, Inc. • www.btx.com • [email protected]