1. Fractalia Media
“White Paper”
Functional and technical description
V 4.0
13/04/2010
Fractalia Software

2. Document properties
Document name Fractalia Media “White Paper”
Version V 4.0
Date 13/04/2010
Author Product Management Department
Content Functional and technical description of Fractalia Media
Project
Fractalia Media, Manager, Digital Signage, Work Dynamic
Keywords
Marketing
Total number of pages 16
Distribution control
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3. Contents
1 Introduction ............................................................................... 1
1.1 About Fractalia Software ............................................................. 1
1.2 Digital Signage .......................................................................... 1
1.3 Key points ................................................................................ 3
2 Functionalities ........................................................................... 5
2.1 Concepts and definitions ............................................................. 5
2.1.1 Media and content ............................................................. 5
2.1.2 Onscreen organisation of the media ..................................... 5
2.1.3 Scheduling of information ................................................... 6
2.2 Users ....................................................................................... 6
2.3 Media library ............................................................................. 7
2.4 Assignment of content and management of screens ........................ 7
2.5 Player management ................................................................... 7
2.6 Proof of Play .............................................................................. 8
3 Technology................................................................................. 9
3.1 Architecture .............................................................................. 9
3.2 Server .................................................................................... 10
3.3 Agent ..................................................................................... 10
3.3.1 Fractalia Media Player....................................................... 10
3.3.2 Fractalia Manager agent ................................................... 11
4 System requirements ............................................................... 12
4.1 Server side ............................................................................. 12
4.1.1 Hardware requirements .................................................... 12
4.1.2 Software requirements ..................................................... 12
4.2 Client side ............................................................................... 13
4.2.1 Hardware requirements .................................................... 13
4.2.2 Software requirements ..................................................... 13
4.3 Network connectivity ................................................................ 13
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4. 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 About Fractalia Software
Fractalia Software is an IT research and development company, a leader in the
development of robust and effective solutions for managing and controlling large
terminal and information screen networks. Fractalia Media is a Digital Signage or
Dynamic Marketing solution for digital communication and dynamic advertising that
allows managing different multimedia contents, both static and dynamic, on
electronic media in an integral, remote and distributed manner.
1.2 Digital Signage
Digital Signage uses the power of persuasion of graphic power and multimedia
capabilities to have a profound impact on the consumer. According to data from
the POPAI (Point-of-Purchase Advertising Institute) and NIELSEN:
Dynamic displays generate 7 times more attention than static ones.
75% of purchasing decisions take place at the point of sale.
Products advertised via dynamic advertising at the points of sale saw their
sales increase by 19% to 36% (20% on average).
65% of visitors saw the advertisements broadcast on screens. And they
spent 52% more time in the establishment.
One of the obstacles to faster growth of the sector has been a lack of management
platforms that can accommodate all functionalities without incurring in high
operation costs. Fractalia Media makes up for this shortage with a platform that is
powerful and flexible when it comes to scheduling and displaying contents and is
based on complete management of the infrastructure (players or terminals and
screens) thanks to our Fractalia Manager terminal management platform.
Digital Signage projects encompass several areas:
Español Inglés
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5. Adaptar mensajes al nuevo entorno Adapting messages to the new setting
Preparar contenidos específicos Preparing specific contents
Marketing y comunicación Marketing and communication
Tecnología Technology
Ofrecer nuevas capacidades de comunicación Providing new communication capabilities
Despliegue tecnológico con herramientas de Technological deployment with
gestión y nuevas propuestas tecnológicas management tools and new technological
designs
Mantenimiento infraestructura Maintenance of infrastructures
Verificación remota del funcionamiento Remote verification of operation
Procedimientos de uso de las herramientas y Tool usage and content update procedures
actualización de contenidos
Operaciones Operations
Fractalia Media covers the Technology and Operations areas, necessary to reinforce
the communication messages and ensure the control and availability of the
infrastructure installed.
In a setting of high geographical dispersion, exhaustive centralised control of the
infrastructure is essential. Fractalia Media is based on Fractalia Manager -the
centralised workstation management platform- to allow total control of the network
of players and screens. Fractalia Manager allows organising the network of players
into groups, having an up-to-date inventory, massively distributing
patches/drivers/codecs of the operating system itself and the Fractalia Manager
agent, managing the hardware by means of Intel vPro technology, remotely
restoring the system when faced with software problems, etc.
This complementary quality is essential in all projects where a centralised service is
required over different content broadcasting locations.
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6. 1.3 Key points
Español Inglés
Creación, edición y programación Creation, edition and programming
Distribución remota Remote distribution
Emisión en el punto de venta Point-of-sale broadcasting
 Presentation and updating of contents in real time. Customisation and
segmentation of the contents to be broadcast.
 It allows creating layers, areas, etc. on every screen with different lists of
contents in each one.
 It supports all types of multimedia content (photos, videos, flash animations,
local web pages or web pages from Internet servers, streaming, etc.), and it is
compatible with the most common standards in the market: WMF, MP3, WPF,
JPG, AVI, HTML, SWF, etc.
 It allows broadcasting interactive contents on touch screens and interactively
managing user desktops (screen saver mode) to reinforce corporate messages.
 A presentation broadcasting system that allows assigning contents, scheduling
broadcasts, turning terminals and screens on and off, etc.
 It manages multi-screen players independently, accepting contents and
individual programmes on each screen.
 A centralised management platform.
 Based on Fractalia Manager, a powerful infrastructure management solution
that guarantees the availability of equipment and reduces operation costs.
Fractalia Manager allows the full management of players in a remote and
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7. centralised manner, not only for system updates but also for updating the
audio/video codecs or drivers required for any new media.
 It supports any network connectivity (Internet, intranet, VPN, ADSL, 3G…).
Changes are not needed in the client’s network/security, since it works through
firewalls and HTTP proxies. Connectivity is always outbound (HTTP protocol)
from the player to the server.
 It is ideal for settings with wide geographic dispersion. It allows segmenting the
network for distribution based on groups or individual screens.
 Integration with complementary solutions aimed at actively or passively
interacting with clients: people-counting cameras, biometric recognition devices,
modules for data exchange via SMS, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, touch-screen kiosks,
shift management systems, in-house music systems (integration into
programming schedules), etc.
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8. 2 FUNCTIONALITIES
2.1 Concepts and definitions
Fractalia Media organises content, information and programming schedules
according the following definitions, following the natural process for creating a
presentation:
2.1.1 Media and content
Medium
The medium is any multimedia content existing in the library either as a physical
file (photo, video, etc.) or as a reference to an external element (e.g. URL link to a
web page).
The media is organised in the library so that it can be used in all presentations to
be made, and you can use folders, tags, etc. for better searching in the future.
Every medium has intrinsic properties (owner, size, resolution, video length, etc.)
and extrinsic properties (tags, appraisal, etc.).
Spot
Once the medium is added to a list of contents for display on a screen, you must
add specific parameters for it to be properly displayed:
Sound volume to be used (%)
Automatic fit to screen or not (compresses/expands the medium or keeps it
at its original size)
Time displayed on the screen
2.1.2 Onscreen organisation of the media
Template
A Template defines the format or layout that an information screen will have. The
templates are then used to create the presentations or playlists required by the
users.
The users responsible for creating the templates are in charge of generating the
models to be used in the screen network, allowing defining the information blocks
or areas on each screen, the types of content accepted, etc., generating screens in
keeping with the corporate style to be implemented.
The following can be specified in the template:
Screen dimensions (horizontal, vertical)
Division of the screen into areas
It is possible to use multiple independent areas on each screen with different layers
and properties. Each area has the following properties:
Dimensions (height x width)
Depth level of each layer (allows superimposing areas on top of one other)
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9. Optional: Type of content accepted (allows restricting the content that can
be included in each area to video, photo, etc.).
Optional: Content included in each area (spots that appear in the area if
they are not subsequently edited)
Locked or free area (prevents users from modifying the content included in
the areas. Suitable, for example, for wallpapers, video frames, etc.)
Channel
A channel is based on an existing template and adds all the spots in each of the
required areas. The sequence of spots in each area is called a “playlist”, which
allows modifying the properties of each spot (presentation length, adjustment to
the size of each area, etc.) as well as the transition effects between spots.
Within each channel there is also an audio area containing a soundtrack that can be
managed independently from the visual contents.
2.1.3 Scheduling of information
Planning
Once the channels have been generated, Fractalia Media allows generating a
complete schedule thereof. The full program to be assigned to a screen or group of
screens is called a “Planning” and it is made up of “Schedule blocks”.
“Schedule blocks” contain the channel(s) to be shown in a certain slot and the
details of dates and times, defining:
The slot for the block (start time, end time, or all day long)
Date for broadcast
Rerun (every Monday, every x days, always…)
Channels to be shown in said schedule block
Optionally, you can also indicate in a Planning the default content that must be
shown on the screens in case there is no schedule block assigned by the user.
Once published, Plannings are assigned to the desired screens or groups of screens.
2.2 Users
Fractalia Media allows managing users for each company, defining the permissions
and roles that each can perform.
There are the following permissions:
Access to the media library: permissions to add media to the central library
Creation and edition of Templates
Creation and edition of Channels
Creation, edition and publication of Plannings
Assignment of Plannings to screens or groups of screens
Management of the network of screens
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10. Management of the network of players
Depending on the size of the organisation, one person can play one or several
roles.
2.3 Media library
The media library holds all the media uploaded by the different users. The library
allows storing, classifying and locating the media required for subsequent
presentations in a centralised manner.
The following media can be added to the library:
Local web pages: MHT files
Web pages (URL “http://…)
Photos (JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP…)
Video (AVI, WMP…)
Audio (MP3…)
Streaming (audio and video)
Flash (SWF…)
Every user has his/her area inside the library to prevent modifying or access to
other users' media without the appropriate permissions. There are also common
folders to share the necessary information.
2.4 Assignment of content and management of
screens
Once created, plannings are assigned to each screen or to groups of screens. Each
player can manage from 1 to 4 screens, each with different content assigned to it.
Screens are classified into groups and subgroups to facilitate assigning contents
according to the chosen segments (by language, geographical classification, etc.).
Fractalia Media allows to physically manage the screens connected to the players
depending on the devices themselves (usually by means of a RS232 serial
connection between the player and the screen). The functionalities will depend on
each screen, but the parameters you can manage are the following:
Turning screens on and off
Controlling brightness, contrast, etc.
Displaying the number of hours a projector’s bulb has been on for (for
proactive maintenance planning).
2.5 Player management
Fractalia Media has a Fractalia Manager-based infrastructure management layer
that ensures the elimination of 100% of operational incidents caused by failures in
the configuration of player software.
The system is designed to recover, on-demand or unattended, a stable and known
configuration in just a few seconds. Infrastructure management , the differential
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11. value of Fractalia Media, allows ensuring 24/7 availability of the network of devices
and dramatically reduce operation and support costs.
The management of players independently from the management of contents
allows guaranteeing the IT administrator-defined updates needed in each case:
changes the Operating System (patches, updates…), new versions of the player
itself, new codecs for displaying videos, driver updates for screen management
(turn on, turn off…), etc.
2.6 Proof of Play
Fractalia Media provides the ability to obtain truthful content broadcast reports, also
known as “Proof of Play”. By means of a simple web interface, clients can consult
the effective broadcasting of the media on each screen or group of screens.
This control allows providing final clients with an exhaustive tracking of the number
of broadcasts of a certain medium by slot, group of screens, etc.
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12. 3 TECHNOLOGY
3.1 Architecture
Fractalia Media runs on any network architecture (including private networks,
Internet, fixed IPs, dynamic IPs, etc.) with any type of connection (ADSL, RDSI,
3G, VPN, etc.). Whenever the player has HTTP access to the management server, it
will have all of Fractalia Manager’s functionalities at its disposal, even through
intermediate elements (firewalls, proxies).
Español Inglés
Análisis estratégico Strategic analysis
Producción del contenido Content production
Media Server Media Server
Análisis de datos Data analysis
Administración de contenidos Content administration
Broadcast Broadcast
Infraestructura en PdV POS infrastructure
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13. The Fractalia Media console uses smart-client technology, so it makes use of client-
server development advantages but avoids associated problems regarding usability
and quality of use, like a console that is run locally.
The server side of Fractalia Media consists of the following logical machines: a
database server and a web server. Said machines can be assembled over Windows
SQL and IIS architectures respectively. The open architecture allows easy
integration with other systems.
3.2 Server
The Fractalia Media Server controls and manages players and screens over the
Internet or the network defined. Access to the platform is over the Internet,
whereupon the administrator can gain access by using a web browser and an
Internet connection and, if necessary, security credentials.
The server is a multicompany server, and can provide services independently to
multiple instances or companies.
The different functions of the servers (which can be located in independent physical
machines or in a single machine depending on the desired capacity) are:
- Fractalia Media server:
o For managing multimedia content, designing screen formats,
scheduling contents, etc. as well as for display statistics, etc.
- Fractalia Manager server:
o Infrastructure management, integrated with Fractalia Media, sharing
the same database. It includes the following roles:
 Infrastructure management
 Presence server (for instantaneous commands)
 Remote control server (for remote individual management)
- Database server:
o An SQL server with the data required for platform operation.
3.3 Agent
The agent-server connection is carried out by means of “polling”, with a frequency
that can be configured at the individual or group level from the platform (from
minutes to several hours).
The agent contains different functional modules to cover the necessary recovery
services, instantaneous operations, software updates, etc.
3.3.1 Fractalia Media Player
Fractalia Media’s player agent is in charge of correctly displaying the programs on
the different screens and carrying out actions ordered from the server.
Its main functions include the following:
- Verifying the schedule assigned and performing changes
- Displaying the media assigned
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14. - Managing media errors, preventing any improper display
3.3.2 Fractalia Manager agent
Fractalia Manager is responsible for the main communication with the server,
downloading the necessary content (both for multimedia playback and system
updates), verifying the integrity of the system, etc.
Its main modules are:
3.3.2.1 Instant Recovery System
A capability for protecting and recovering the information and system, which is a
key tactical point in every organisation. Instant Recovery System completely
recovers the entire partition of a hard drive and discards all types of changes made
by the user (software installation, configuration changes, virus-caused damage,
deleted files or directories, changes in the Windows registry, etc.).
3.3.2.2 P2P software and content distribution
The software distribution module will allow remotely updating and installing the
software of a player or a certain group without the need to use additional resources
of a piece of equipment of the network and is based on the Peer-to-Peer protocol
within the local network, no security configuration in WAN networks being required.
Each player can share all downloads performed inside the security of the LAN,
either while downloading a portion of the package or after a full download. This
allows saving bandwidth at the remote sites when distributed over several
terminals.
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15. 4 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Each instance of the Fractalia Manager software installed is capable of working with
small networks of less than 100 PCs to large networks of tens of thousands of PCs.
The hardware and software requirements needed to implement the solution are
shown in the following sections.
4.1 Server side
4.1.1 Hardware requirements
Minimum < 100 players* From 100 to More than
5,000 players 5,000 players
Web application (x1) (x1) (x2)
server
Processor Pentium Pentium Xeon Pentium Xeon
Core2Duo
RAM 1 GB 2-4 GB RAM 4 GB RAM
Hard drive 80 GB 40 GB 40 GB
Database servers (locate in the (x1) (x1)
same server)
Processor Pentium Xeon Pentium Xeon
RAM 4 GB RAM 4 GB RAM
Hard drive 40 GB 40 GB
SAN storage No 120 GB 250 GB
(recommended)
* This setup is the machine that makes the system run with a reduced number of
PCs. Here, the web application server and the database server can be the same
physical machine.
** Web servers are array assembled, whereas database servers are cluster
assembled in order to balance requests.
If you require “Presence” (remoting), it is advisable to set up independent servers
(same characteristics as web servers) if the number of players is above 5,000;
otherwise, it can be located in the same web server.
All servers can be virtualised.
4.1.2 Software requirements
Web server(s) will need the following basic software:
Windows 2003 Server Standard Edition or above.
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 installed.
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16. Internet Information Server 6.0 installed.
Database server(s) will need the following basic software:
Windows 2003 Server Standard Edition or above.
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 installed.
Microsoft SQL Server 2005.
The use of SAN-shared storage is recommended for multiserver installations.
4.2 Client side
4.2.1 Hardware requirements
The minimum hardware settings for a piece of equipment to be capable of running
Fractalia Manager are the following:
Processor: Intel Atom or the like for simple media; Intel Core2Duo for high
resolution videos.
RAM: 512MB; recommended: 1 GB
Graphics card.
Hard drive: 2GB of free space; greater capacity is recommended for storing
the media to be broadcast.
Network card (Ethernet or WI-FI)
RS232 serial port for screen management
4.2.2 Software requirements
Operating system: Windows XP (SP2, SP3), Vista.
Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 installed in XP operating systems
NTFS partition for the use of IRS
4.3 Network connectivity
The network connection between the server side and the clients is supported on
any type of network that supports the HTTP (or HTTPS) protocol over TCP/IP.
Generally, the connectivity between server and clients can be established over:
Internet, extranet, LAN, Virtual Private Networks, and any type of access (ADSL,
3G, etc.).
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