Information for Customers Upgrading from GDS-4W Version 1.x

GDS-4W 2.0 is a new product developed over the past three years.

This new version adds a significant number of features over the previous version.  This page provides useful information for GDS-4W 1.x users.

NEW CONTENT MANAGER FEATURES

• Native HTML5 user interface. Requires no plugin for any browser and can be used on any OS.
• Video preview available in Content Manager.
• Completely revamped WYSIWYG template and ticker designers. Users can see actual content and data feeds in template and ticker zones while they work. No more guessing.
• Facebook, Google Calendar, and Twitter social media feed support. This feature has been completely rebuilt and supports current social media APIs.
• Enhanced meta tag support. Users can include or exclude tags to determine playback. Match between player and media can be partial or exact. New window allows assignment in batch mode. Playback reporting can be selected by tag.
• Template and ticker text and data fields let users select the vertical alignment. All 3 alignment types are now supported (top, middle, bottom).
• Mobile and tablet friendly simplified UI lets users edit data and images while on the go.
• Users can swap media content in the library. All previously entered media properties are retained.
• Users can search for media within playlist window and edit media or template from the playlist.
• A total of 10 overlapping playlists can be merged in the planning grid. Previous versions only supported five overlapped playlists.
• New advertising campaign management feature lets users program content based on future ad impressions. Campaigns include a mix of user selectable filler content. Advertising features can be controlled by any third-party system using the GDS-4W Server SDK.
• New programming preview feature shows a list of all content to be played within a future period with precise time allocations and number of impressions for each item.
• Single Sign-On – ADFS authentication: GDS-4W accepts corporate domain authentication from the internet.
• Enhanced multi-tenancy features: Specific player technical profile and meta-tags are now domain user editable.
• Remote player reboot and reset from within GDS-4W Content Manager. No additional software required.
• New interface languages added: Bulgarian, Croatian, Estonian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Persian, Russian, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Tai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.

NEW GDS-4W SERVER (BACK-END) FEATURES

• Download queue management prevents server from overloading. Instead of bulk data transfers on each update, content publishing is optimized to match available resources.  GDS-4W 2.0’s smart content transfer considers the server PC load and available bandwidth.  Data is queued for transfer accordingly.
• Enhanced load balancing / fail over add-on module. New server back-end architecture supports load balancing and fail-over to deliver 99.999% reliability.
• New support for Microsoft^&Reg; Azure SQL databases with fail-over and geo-localization support.
• New content delivery network (CDN) add-on module. Player media downloads are performed using Microsoft^® Azure BLOB, extending server scalability to twelve thousand players or more.
• GDS-4W 2.0 is security and stress-test certified through a third-party certification agency.
• New software installer and upgrader compliant with GDS-4W 1.x versions.
• Enhanced GDS-4W Server SDK now supports the development of native mobile and HTML5 user interface apps.

NEW GDS-4W PLAYER FEATURES (ALL OS)

• Support for image and data feed preloading.
• Facebook and Google calendar data feed support without the need for third party or custom software.
• Reboot and purge Player content from GDS-4W Content Manager. No external third-party software required.
• Improved GDS-4W display control software provides enhanced interactivity with third party software application and interactive content.
• Support for BLOB/CDN content downloads with file splitting when required.

GDS-4W PLAYER – WINDOWS^®

• New multi-threaded rendering engine supports smoother playback and enhanced frame accuracy. Players can now run four, 4k videos fully synchronized (represents 12k total resolution on a single PC).
• New graph and filter set for MP4 rendering. H265 is now supported.
• GDS-4W Player is now Windows^® 10 certified.
• Enhanced support for HTML5 content.