Media Director is a new launch from Antex Electronics which, since 1983, has been in the business of digital audio sound cards and satellite receivers. This year, they formed a digital media division and launched Media Director, targeting commercial business applications.

"Retailers and advertisers can use Media Director to sequence audio/video programming to promote products at the point of sale from kiosks and electronic billboards; broadcasters can use the Media Director to incorporate local content with network feeds; and corporations can use a network of Media Directors to run synchronized multimedia presentations worldwide," says Dave Foley, president of Antex.

One market focus is living posters -- replacements for the one-sheet posters found outside movie theaters. These plasma-based displays offer moving images from the film in question and sponsored ads promoting everything from the theatre's own popcorn to the clothing store at the other end of the mall to a national brand-name product.

Knews and www.PresentationMaster.com wanted to know more, so we recently posed a few questions to Foley.

Knews: What are all the markets you envision this technology?

Foley:
1. Outdoor advertising, billboards, vehicular and building signage with either motion video or changing static messages.

2. Interactive retail or informational kiosks, wall displays and in-store retail video or audio advertising. Museum, airport/bus/railway informational displays and interactive kiosks. Educational institution VOD.

3. VOD commercial and governmental applications - video training, corporate updates, security systems, personnel or product location tag logging.

Knews: How are you addressing the AV installer community?

Foley: System and individual Media Director units are designed for easy install, remote updating and system monitoring, and minimal field servicing. The installers of the Media Director do not have to be computer install experts by any stretch. Our units are designed to dial-in to the primary server automatically once power and a phone/LAN/WAN line have been established. We've designed the Media Director to be simple for both the installer and the end-user.

Knews: Are you partnering with screen manufacturers?

Foley: We have had preliminary discussions with select medium to large screen
manufacturers (Flat screen, Plasma, and LED) and see our Media Director
as an excellent media asset management/playback device for these display
units. Our output is display device agnostic, meaning we can partner with just about anyone in order to service an array of display scenarios.

Knews: Or are you going directly to the end users?

Foley: Our primary focus is on OEMs and System Integrators. The Media Director system is best realized in a multi-point distribution model. The end-user should receive all the media content in a seamless, almost transparent manner.

Knews: What sort of investment can an end user expect? (You might just use some examples here, large theater chain, small retail video store, etc)

Foley: A theatre chain outlet could expect lobby display costs of about $15,000 to $20,000 featuring 4 larger Plasma display screens at today's prices; A retail video store should run about $10,000 for 8 displays featuring standard composite video tube monitors.

The video enabled Media Director runs just under $2000.00 per unit. Hardware customizations and high-volume projects can affect the cost moderately.

Knews: What does this technology mean to the Pro AV community?

Foley:
1. The Media Director offers a new tool for delivering rich commercial A/V content to both traditional and emerging retail, corporate, institutional, and public venues. Tape or disc duplication and distribution are replaced by LAN or Internet file transfers enabling a new level of control and customization.

2. The Media Director system offers guaranteed playback, remote access and custom tailoring of all media assets, with minimal field upkeep.

3. It brings a flexible and lucrative source of new ad revenue opportunity to various new and existing venues - with confirmation reports generated to support that base.

4. Asset managers can now provide new content at a moment's notice or days/weeks/months in advance with little to no interaction by the end-user if desired. The ability to schedule seasonal broadcasts, advertisements, and training videos far in advance will free up much of the IT group's time.

5. Kiosk and VOD users can have access to their own library of desired assets and update anything in that database at their discretion.