August 2008 - MRG offers LBOs signs of the times
With the old fashioned paper poster on the way out, MRG Systems believes it has just the solution for bookmakers needing dynamic in-shop promotional abilities.
MRG Systems has announced it is bringing its highly successful digital signage system ‘iMERGE’ to the betting industry. The new system already has pedigree as MRG has an 80 screen installation at the Houses of Parliament and similar installations at the GLA and Corporation of London, as well as installations in some high profile colleges and museums.
Technical director Bryan Corbin said: “Digital signage is a very competitive market and we are aware that others are attempting to produce similar products, but what we have here has been designed with a deep understanding of the betting industry. This isn’t a generic solution for any high street retailer.”
Staple ‘assets’ like logos, static images, flash and video are easily incorporated using the iMERGE system to provide a complete and highly polished service for the betting industry. The ability to take feeds from other systems, so avoiding the need to re-key data, places iMERGE in an enviable position and offers a major advantage over other signage solution providers. With LBOs moving to higher resolution screens in increasing numbers, iMERGE offers high resolution and can generate full HD images for promotions and offers.
Corbin explained that simplicity is the key to the system: “We set out to create a product that required low maintenance, has high reliability, had to support HD and was based entirely on Open Source software. For the user interface the design had to reflect closely the people tasked to generate the displays, they could be anyone in an organisation so we needed to make the process as simple and obvious as possible.”
MRG has developed iMERGE with data feed capabilities and the same technology used by Google, ensuring the need for minimal training to get started and significantly less intervention required than for other systems.
The Page Editor is a true WYSIWYG editor that enables users to place text and assets on the page exactly where they are needed. There are clear advantages to this method and it ensures the operator can see all the information, its placement and any potential spelling errors prior to going live. Resizing assets is achieved by simply grabbing and dragging them to the required size. Unlike any other system the iMERGE user interface displays actual screen-shots from the real displays, enabling operators to see exactly what the audience can see. The system also handles RSS feeds from preferred website sources and is remotely accessible over the internet using standard web technologies.
In some systems the data for each display needs to be downloaded separately which can take some time and may need user intervention. With iMERGE, each display downloads its own data as and when required from the iMERGE web-server and caches it for future use. The result is a faster response with less intervention required and none of the compromises that some systems suffer.
Financial director Adrian Potter said the systems had attracted a large number of high quality enquiries and resultant sales since its launch. He added: “If offers and promotions have a short life expectancy then why not consider replacing printed materials with the digital equivalent? It occupies the same space, is infinitely re-useable and will carousel multiple offers in interesting and eye-catching ways.
“Economic conditions are forcing many to squeeze as much as they can out of their marketing budgets and signage costs are now low enough for them to consider it seriously. But you need to consider the resources you have to run a system; how much time it will really take someone to operate it, whether it has high bandwidth requirements that might conflict with your routine business and if the workload can be reduced through automation?”
Betting Business Magazine Sept 2008