Sedao make a range of players called SWEP players. Whilst fundamentally they are all Windows PC’s there are many very significant advantages to using them rather than simply installing Sedao’s ImageFlyer software on your own PC. If you have a limited budget or don’t need any of these features then yes you can use your own small PC for your digital signage system.
The single biggest advantage of choosing a SWEP player is that it comes pre-installed with a unique Digital Signage CMS system which is called SWEP. Hence a PC installed with SWEP is referred to as a SWEP player.
- Update screen content via the browser of your choice. No software installation on typical users PC and not dependant on OS
- Train staff to update screens in under 2 minutes
- Individual user password protected areas of screens
- 60 second signage to commission your system
- Preloaded with over 35 getting started layouts featuring the most used elements
- Single-click play to switch on-screen presentations
- Group screens together and single-click to switch presentations on multiple screens
- Thumbnail at a glance view of what’s on screen
- Easy remote live-view of what’s on screen with no software installation required, through Java based remote desktop
- Easily turn the player off or reboot it over your network
- Schedule the player to turn off on different days at different times
- Advanced scheduling of presentations into ‘loops’ of presentations
- Create groups of players to respond to ‘triggers’
- Trigger groups of players to play emergency layouts
- Create simple virtual buttons to trigger presentation on groups of screens for events such as fire drill, threat level or patient call
- Set up ‘tweets’ to trigger groups of screens, for easy ‘trigger from anywhere’ functionality
- Control the playing presentation, or presentation of groups of players using serial RS232 commands for easy integration with control systems
- Remotely configure ‘windows system commands’ and schedule them to run at different times of day
SWEP players are fully tested for hardware reliability. Running digital signage applications 24/7 requires robust hardware and the hardware platforms we select have to perform at least 50,000 running hours without ANY issues before we approve a platform.
The player BIOS is configured to support remote network power-up, scheduled RTC power-up and power back on automatically after cuts.
Sedao only supply SWEP players with Windows professional operating systems, not embedded versions or home editions. This ensures that whatever security policies, network configuration or external devices customers want to implement they should work perfectly.
Additionally every SWEP player is especially configured for 24/7 reliable operation including setting Windows error notifications, boot data, power savings, screen savers, auto-login, optimised desktop theme, taskbar, action centre, firewalls and more using over a decade of windows signage experience.
Even something as simple as a badly written video codec can make any signage system unreliable. Only software approved and tested by Sedao is installed on SWEP players. These include TightVNC server (for remote access and viewing) Apache, PHP and SQL (for the SWEP CMS system) as well as various Microsoft supplied system tools
SWEP players are chosen to make the physical set up of a signage system as simple and reliable as possible. Whilst wireless connectivity is supplied for those that need it, hardwired Ethernet is always provided for robust operation. Industry standard HDMI and where possible VGA are chosen to allow use of standard AV wiring technology such as VGA or Cat5 extenders. Mounting brackets are supplied as standard for players that are designed to mount behind a screen, and screen mounting SWEP players are chosen to be small enough to be hidden un-obtrusively behind the screen.
SWEP players are chosen (and tested) to include graphics chipsets which support all standard screen resolution up to full HD 1920 by 1080. SWEP players which have multiple outputs can be configured to drive multiple screens each of which can run up to full HD resolution. Hence with a dual output SWEP you can easily run presentation on two screens. SWEP players are chosen and tested for reliable and high performance even when the screens are rotated and run in portrait mode. The SWEP system is fully resolution independent, and a presentation created at a lower resolution will automatically scale up when the player is connected to a monitor that can support a higher resolution (and vice versa).
Customers considering their own hardware, inevitably, massively over specify the hardware. Digital signage is a unique application that requires multiple programs (zones) to run on screen at the same time. It’s ‘all about’ the ability of a system to effectively draw 2D surfaces. If you buy the ultimate Intel I7 super processor, add 32Gbyte of Ram and a 2 Terabyte hard drive you will NOT get a better signage system. You will get one that costs more, uses more power, generates more heat and when confined to the space behind a large screen, or placed in an unventilated roof void, will overheat or have a short life span.
SWEP players are designed to be a trade-off between processing power, actual power consumption and reliability. When coupled with our ImageFlyer software a SWEP player will almost certainly play more zones than you will ever need, whilst taking little CPU power, running cool and give many years of trouble free use.
Sedao are a UK company. All our software is designed and tested in Britain. Every SWEP player is fully tested here in the UK before it is shipped to you.
Every player is installed with our software packages power cycled, reliability tested and manually inspected before it is packaged and shipped to you. We take great pride in having our systems arrive with a customer just as they should. On request we will even configure your player with your branding and network settings before sending it to you. “Hand finished with pride” may seem a little old fashioned from a technology company, but we believe that quality really counts.