VIA Technologies shows the latest in commercial-grade Android digital signage players at DSE 2015, including demos of the new VIA ALTA DS 2, which runs dual displays in extended mode and 4K playback on a single display.
“The flood of cheap Android signage devices onto the market has caused an untold number of headaches for many players in the industry because of their poor quality, software incompatibility, and non-existent vendor support,” comments Richard Brown, VP of Global Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. “With our VIA ALTA DS Series systems, we provide solutions with commercial-grade quality and performance that customers require for large-scale 24/7 deployment combined with a full range of software development and technical support services from our US headquarters in Fremont, California.”
“I’ve been following the rise of Android pretty closely for the last three years, and know in speaking with software companies that it was a huge challenge sorting through all the consumer junk to find a device that would work, and keep working,” said industry consultant and blogger Dave Haynes, of The Preset Group. “When I first saw VIA’s devices, I immediately thought, ‘Oh, that’s going to make some CTOs feel a lot better about going Android.’”
The VIA ALTA DS Series features a choice of single and dual display Android solutions for managing dynamic displays for cost-sensitive, high-volume segments. Applications range from digital sign and menu boards to DOOH across a broad spectrum of retail, hospitality, entertainment, transportation, corporate and entertainment environments.
The VIA ALTA DS 2 is compact fanless Android media player which offers dual independent Full HD screen support. Key features include:
- 1.0GHz dual core VIA Elite E1000 Cortex-A9 SoC with a high-performance 2D/3D graphics and video engine that supports Open GL ES 3.0 hardware acceleration and simultaneous multiple Full HD video playback
- Dual-screen support with optional second HDMI port
- Extended & independent screen content support
- 2GB DDR3 SDRAM and up to 16GB eMMC Flash memory onboard
- Two HDMI-out ports; two USB 2.0 ports; two mini-USB 2.0 ports, one Gigabit Ethernet port; Audio-out/Mic-in; one SD card slot
- Optional USB Wi-Fi dongle
The VIA ALTA DS is a sleek, fanless system with a single output. Key features include:
- VIA Cortex-A9 SoC with advanced 2D/3D graphics and HD video playback capabilities
- 1GB DDR3 SDRAM and up to 16GB eMMC Flash memory onboard
- HDMI and VGA (optional) ports; four USB 2.0 ports; one 10/100 Ethernet port; Audio-out/Mic-in,
- Auto power on when plugged
- Optional Wi-Fi card
The VIA ALTA DS has been fully certified for use on Scala’s software platform, and is the key Android hardware for Capital Networks.
Both VIA ALTA DS Series systems are available to any software firm already developing or planning to develop on Android though the VIA Digital Signage ISV program.
Both VIA ALTA DS systems are available with a signage software solution pack featuring Android 4.3 as well as the VIA Smart ETK comprising a number of APIs, including Watchdog Timer (WDT) for safeguarding against system crashes, WOL, RTC wake-up, and a sample app. A full set of software customization services that speed up time to market and minimize development costs is also available. For customers looking for large-scale network signage and kiosk deployments, VIA offers cloud-based device management support for remote monitoring, control, and silent OTA software updates for both OS and apps.