Roku's BrightSign digital signage now includes free networking

LAS VEGAS — At the In-Store Marketing Expo, Roku announced that it is bundling network solutions as a standard feature of its BrightSign HD2000 digital sign controller hardware.

According to Roku, a BrightSign HD2000 is all that is needed for networking and there is no subscription charge for customers hosting their own applications. BrightSign non-PC hardware includes all the software a customer needs to perform not only remote content delivery with networking, but also looping video playback, multimedia playlists, time-scheduled playlists, multiple zones, interactive demos with buttons or touchscreens and more.

Roku now offers two options for customers wishing to network their BrightSign plug-and-play digital sign and kiosk solutions. The recently announced BrightSign Network Manager is a secure Web-based application available free of charge to customers installing it on their own servers, with an all-in-one hosted service also available as an option through a low-cost subscription. A second networking option is BrightSign Simple Networking, which offers customers a less feature-rich but simpler solution.

“We’ve dramatically lowered the cost of running networked remote digital signage applications,” said Roku chief executive Anthony Wood. “Our sophisticated network options are included in our hardware price, and don’t require an extra software purchase. These network management solutions show no compromise in capabilities, performance or ease-of-use.”