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TD Staff

How to Purchase A Rack: Best Practices for Buying, Installing and Utilizing a Rack System

April 10, 2014 TD Staff Leave a Comment

When making the right decision while purchasing a rack, or series of racks, it is important to make sure the product you are purchasing is ideal for your installation. Different types of rack formats apply to specific applications and since racks are an essential piece of hardware for almost every AV or IT installation, choosing the most effective rack format is paramount for a successful installation. Below, Tim Troast, Director of Physical Infrastructure Products at Middle Atlantic, discusses best practices when choosing, installing and utilizing rack formats in different types of infrastructures.

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AV Racks 101: The Backbone of AV and IT Infrastructure

April 4, 2014 TD Staff Leave a Comment

Racks, enclosures, housings, whatever you call them they are the essential infrastructure component for any installation. They spend their lives behind doors labeled authorized personnel only and danger high voltage. Or, they remain anonymous behind an unmarked steel door in a dark corner of the basement. They stand side by side, often row after endless row, holding together the electronic components that make our systems function. Without them, there would be no way to organize hardware, coordinate cabling, structure the signal flow of systems or perform a myriad of other often forgotten, but critical tasks. Racks also provide security, cooling, safety and increase serviceability.

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Extron Introduces the MPS 601 Media Presentation Switcher

March 20, 2014 TD Staff Leave a Comment

Extron Electronics is pleased to announce the immediate availability of the MPS 601, a compact six input, one output media presentation switcher for digital and analog sources. It offers four, HDCP-compliant HDMI inputs and two RGB video inputs with analog stereo audio. RGB video and analog audio are digitized and switched through the HDMI output, without the need for additional signal conversion equipment.

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Digital Signage and Mobile Wayfinding — 4 Solutions for Higher Ed Campuses

March 20, 2014 TD Staff Leave a Comment

Digital signage is always evolving and so is wayfinding technology. One of these developments is mobile wayfinding — where mobile integration lets visitors take digital signage with them. Smartphone or tablet, iPhone or Andriod these platforms take digital signage to the next level of communication. We profile four companies that offer mobile wayfinding for digital signage: Four Winds Interactive, 22MILES, Jibestream Interactive Media, and Here2There Software. Check out the videos of how these work.

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TechDecisions Guide to 20 Digital Signage Content Management Systems

March 13, 2014 TD Staff Leave a Comment

There are a whole host of digital signage content management systems. Many are sold along with hardware, so are cloud-based software-only applications, still others are standalone local solutions. There is a DS CMS just write for you. This guide showcases the leading products in the field and explains what you should know before making your choice — and your investment. Companies covers are AMX, BrightSign, Cisco, Dynasign, Fourwinds, LG EZsign, LG Electronics, NEC, NEC Vukunet, Planar, Rise Vision, Scala, Sony, Prodokol, Symon, Tightrope, Visix and X2O Media.

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TechDecisions Guide to 18 Digital Signage Content Management Systems

March 13, 2014 TD Staff Leave a Comment

There are a whole host of digital signage content management systems. Many are sold along with hardware, so are cloud-based software-only applications, still others are standalone local solutions. There is a DS CMS just write for you. This guide showcases the leading products in the field and explains what you should know before making your choice — and your investment. Companies covers are AMX, BrightSign, Cisco, Dynasign, Fourwinds, LG EZsign, LG Electronics, NEC, NEC Vukunet, Planar, Rise Vision, Scala, Sony, Prodokol, Symon, Tightrope, Visix and X2O Media.

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4 Pro Finance Apps to Keep Tabs on Your Business

March 7, 2014 TD Staff Leave a Comment

Intuit’s Quicken 2014 introduces a new tier of mobile functionality that is pushing what a mobile device can do for you. The movement from the mobile device as a utility to an intricate part of our involvement with technology offers up the mobile device as an efficient, single solution for most personal and professional technology that has come before it.
Professional expense tracking and accounting finance apps are great for handling your money. From personal purchases to invoice and contract management, these robust apps are tailored for you to use as your budget or business model sees fit.

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Managing Your OS Ecosystem: 10 Apps to Get the Most Out of Your Mobile Device

February 27, 2014 TD Staff Leave a Comment

Each operating system (OS) in the mobile market relies on a handful of proprietary or mission critical apps that accomplish all of your basic needs. Specifically, based on the common uses of mobile devices, OS’s feature the most comprehensive email, file sharing and contact networking apps in order to give customers the basic tools they need to get the most out of their devices.
Customers transitioning straight from web applications to their smart device will mostly like be entering the market with a bias towards their most trusted products. Google and Microsoft all offer products that can be accessed online as well as on a mobile device. Products like email services with congruent cloud drives and proprietary social networks have grown with mobile technology and are accurately replicated and developed further on mobile devices.

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