What's new in...

Having one of the most feature rich digital signage software packages available obviously is not enough for the in-house programming team at Acquire Digital Multimedia. The team has a policy of continually responding to feedback from users of their software so that what might seem a minor software update, from 3.3 to 3.4, is actually pretty major in terms of ease of use and added functionality.

So what can we expect to find in Acquire 3.4? Well, as with every new version there are even more ACQs and Helpers. These are the plug-ins that add an extra dimension to Acquire’s functionality. In fact, the sheer number of ACQs available has led to the addition of a categories section on the ACQ chooser page.

See full Features List

New in 3.4
	Compatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7 To bring it up to date, we have developed a new look and feel to Acquire which we hope you will find makes it easier to use. It even looks great in Vista but we recommend you use Windows 7 if possible.
	The RSS functionality in Acquire has been updated This has been completely rewritten so that the plug-in will now ‘pull down’ any RSS or Atom feed, for example MRSS (Media RSS) feeds, usually used for podcasts. This is ideal if you want to make your players collect different feeds for their locations. It saves a user from having to make lots of different deployments throughout the day. And, images can be made to change as different RSS text scrolls along the page. According to Wikipedia, the following sites all make use of MRSS :- Bing, Brightcove, blip.tv, Blinkx, Bebo Open Media Platform, Cooliris, deviantArt, Flickr, FriendFeed, Gmail, Kaltura, PicasaAPI, SmugMug, the Platform, Wikipedia, Yahoo! Search, Crackle, YouTube GData API (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_RSS) So MRSS is a very powerful way of spicing up content by downloading, not only images and graphics but videos too, even vodcasts and podcasts. Another way to spice up RSS feeds is to use the new TextAnimate ACQ plug-in. Instead of just a straight forward scroller, the text is animated into a graphic design but it can also present a seamless tickertape across multiple pages.
	‘Drag-and-drop’ media control has been added It’s not exactly a revolutionary idea for Windows users, but it is now available in Acquire for the first time. Media files can be copied from anywhere in Windows Explorer simply by using a mouse e.g. from the Windows desktop into the ‘media selector’ or directly onto a page. Not only is this a time saver when creating content playlists, but it differentiates Acquire even further from browser-based, digital signage programs.
	A bunch of new system variables are now available The use of variables in Acquire can be a little confusing if you are not an experienced user. Variables are really just ‘place holders’ but they expand the power of Acquire far beyond just a simple playlist based media player. For example, instead of making a page for each player showing a message such as ‘Welcome to this store in LEICESTER’ Your store manager is JULIE SMITH.’, and then keeping track of all the pages for each and every player, simply replace the words in capitals with a variable and use just one page which will show something different on each player.Or it can be used so that each player can collect a different RSS feed based upon its location, or to keep a count of how much money has been inserted, or to change animation settings in a Flash graphic...the possibilities are endless.
	A fully functional support ‘Ticketing’ System has also been added to ‘Site Manager’ Site Manager is the remote monitoring and access tool provided with the Acquire suite of products. Acquire users no longer have to worry about buying a support system or integrating with an existing support system because all subscribers to the PLUS! Network will get free access to a fully featured, ticket-based support system. Much more than a simple change of status, this ticketing system provides a full history of tickets raised, SLA timers, and can even integrate with some existing ticketing systems to allow automated status changes.But that’s not the only new feature in Site Manager. Users now have the ability to use Google Maps to pin-point their sites. Players are simply added to physical locations (sites), and information such as the site owner’s telephone number, details of the installation, and the address are then available to the users’ support teams.
	Another unique feature is ‘reverse access’ This is the one that mobile 3G or Edge connected players have been waiting for. Thanks to this innovative new feature, players can now be remotely accessed even if they don’t have fixed line connectivity. Imagine Acquire being used in a taxi cab, or bus, or any mobile installation – content downloads will work fine using the PLUS! Network, but now remote support can be done too. But that’s not all ‘reverse access’ is capable of. If a player is located on a LAN behind a firewall or a series of routers, and ‘port forwarding’ has proved to be a nightmare to setup ‘reverse access’ can use an outbound port instead (note: needs a signed acceptance form prior to activation)

Already included in 3.3

All new interface - To bring it up to date, we have developed a new look and feel to Acquire which we hope you will find makes it easier - and nicer - to use! It even looks great in Vista!

All new playback technologies - Latest Video playback CODECS, includes official MPEG2, DivX Codec and h.264, Quicktime, WMV and even FLV. Latest version of Adobe Flash, better transparent support for PNG and GIF images.

Even more optimised
All new Wipes and Fades - include optimised wipes and fades and many new ones
Designed for Windows - works with both Windows XP and Vista.
Enhanced Text Scrolling - looks smoother, includes unicode support
Multithreaded controls for smooth operation of all content.
Optimised player routines can swap pages within 20 milliseconds
Optmisations for new Atom processors and Dual core processors
Acquire Player now only uses as little as 22Mb of RAM!*1

Categories - Our flagship Editor product now includes a new feature called 'Categories'. Useful when you have thousands of pages of content, the Category manager allows you to put similar content together - advert, filler content, or whatever you classify your content as, it's as simple as drag and drop. Any categories can also include their own target settings and can be used with attractors and repulsors with our other solutions.

Targets - Targets were introduced in Acquire 3.0 and allowed you to both get Aquire to automtically create playlists, and also flag content to be sent to specific players. In Acquire 3.3 this feature has been enhanced to include over 2000 seperate targets, and the ability to group targets together to make preset combinations often used in marketing (e.g. Barcardi Breezers or Couch potatoes)

New Admanager - For users who are using Acquire as a Digital Advertising platform, We have introduced our 'MiniAd' Admanager feature as a forerunner to some exciting new developments happening later this year. MiniAd allows you to simply choose pages from your project and it will automatically create playlists for you based upon how much advertising and how much filler content you require.

New Keyboard Designer - Create you own on-screen keyboards, with standard and system keys, and integrated shortcut buttons to make things happen just as you want them.

New Flowchart Designer - One of the key features in our 'back to grass roots' concept for Acquire 3.3. When making a large self-service Kiosk development, or just any interactive system is the ability to see everything at the same time. With the Flowchart Designer, you can see every interactive link on every page in your project, and Acquire will map out all of the links between the pages for you. You can then simply drag and drop the links as you need to make your interactive applications incredibly quick and simle to create.

Lock Page Items - You have always been able to lock changes to pages and scripts by using Acquire's built-in user rights facility, but now this extends to specific items on the pages too.

Copy Pages between projects - Keep your cotent managed by keeping it in different projects, but using this function, simply re-use content as you need to. Acquire automatically copies the content for you too!

Updated thumbnails views - instead of a list, see all of your pages in any dialogue as thumbnail images - and you can even use a simple wildcard search to filter the list and instantly find the pages you were looking for.

All new plugins:

• TV - enhanced version of our Analogue TV plugin, this one automtaically knows the Digital channel names so you just need to select the channel name, and Acquire will automatically tune it in.
• Seamless Slideshow - If you want a mini-playlist as part of your page, use the Slideshow. The Seamless version also lets you stay running, even if the page changes in your playlist.
• Animated Text - Rather than just scroll text on the screen, Animated Text provides you with a variety of different ways of showing text, which can also be made to run across multiple pages in your playlist.  
• Touchflow - A demonstation of some of the upcoming new plugins for Acquire coming soon. Touchflow shows your images off in a touchsceen-friendly control, similar to the Album art feature in iTunes.
• Button - For those who don't just want an interactive hotspot, the Button plugin gives all the button types you may want - push button, up/down states and even radio-buttons.
• Subtitle - When your videos need sound but your players aren't connected to speakers.
• New Dynascript functions - You can now make your own version of playlists and get each Acquire Player to download and show them instead of the ones prebuilt in Acquire. This is used extensively in our web-based SaaS version of Acquire, and we have made it openly available for you to use yourself.
• Flash can now access RSS feeds directly to use them or show them within a Flash animation.
• New Code-it-Yourself (CiY) Scripting Engine. - Use your preferred scripting language (.Net Vb Script, JScript, etc) to give a whole new level of control for Acquire. Similar to the macro programming langauge used in Excel and other programs.

Enhanced Site Manager

• More user friendly look and feel, including the ability to configure your connection experience to show just the information you need.
• View Screenshots of all players instantly to ensure what you expect to be playing, really is playing!
• See many new fields to instantly get an overview of all of your players at the same time.
• Fast filter search - simply type part of a player name, location or desription and all of the matching players are shown.
• New Site View - Stores information about the physical locations of the units - even assign units to Sites and then view them on Google Maps.
• Live and historical Statistics - see what your players have been doing even when you werenb't watching them. Details of connectivity, player uptime and wireless signal strength.
• Optimised - super fast access to all of your players and their information - imagine being able to see detailled information about 8000 players within just 5 seconds.
• All changes happen Live (no need to press update).
• New Online Knowledge base with help, training, user forum, free content, sample projects, all documentation and help files  and even video walkthoughs to get you started using Acquire, as well as provide tips and tricks for experienced users.
• New remote support features - as well as the remote control, screen view and file tranfer, we have also added a remote command prompt feature. More excitingly, these can all be accessed through protected connections (such as when using a 3G/Edge connection).

New connection technologies - Uses Proxy servers for both Players and Editor software, Enhanced download speeds and encryption, Easy control of bandwidth caps and limits, Enhanced transfer recovery with file resume and intelligent retry to ensure your content arrives.

Enhanced Synchronised playback between players - Players at a site can be set to play back the same content at the same time, now including the new playback Codecs and high definition content. We have also included a new 'local sync' feature to allow players running on the same PC to synchronise at key moments in the playlists.

All new Scheduler system - Rebuilt from the ground up, this new scheduler is much faster, and provides an instant view of each unique playlist for every player on your network, including drag and drop functionality, more grouping options, and a playlength summary. It has so many features, you don't actually need to use any other part of the Acquire Editor, it is all here!

New Personal RSS feeds (MyMessage) - Our new MyMessage service lets you create your own live notice board, news, or information feeds for display in Acquire. A simple customisable web interface is provided so that customers who want a level of local control of the players, but without having to learn how to use Acquire can simply change text and graphics (or even choose from your pre-uploaded content) on their players.

Now available as a SaaS model - our licensing agreements with our suppliers have been revised and our security technologies have been modified to allow us to optionally provide Acquire as a service instead of a purchase for those clients who want to use the features and benefits of Acquire but with a SaaS model. (Don't worry those of you who want to still have a one-off purchase, we still do this too!).

Enhanced post-playout reporting functions - Including massive speed increases, many new reports, and a new 'Acquire' branding. You can now also get an RSS feed of the state of your network of players directly from the report servers with graphs and charts to show on your computer or cell phone!

As well as:

• Media Servers now update their clocks with the PLUS! network.
• Media Servers now handle multiple projects at the same site
  
• Editor reminds you if you have forgotten to choose something to play when you press 'preview'
• Support for MHT (complete/Single file websites)
  
• Automatic conversion of incompatible graphics files (e.g. CMYK format, excess size, etc)
  
• Better .WMA support
  
• Automatic check for new version upon startup
  
• Players automatically tidy their logs if not connected to the PLUS! network
  
• New startup sound and intro (although it looks and sounds better, it also provides useful information too!).
  
• Ability to 'resurrect' units you accidentally decommission.
  
• Change Media servers directly from the Site Manager (without having to visit site).
  
• See page durations, and get a summary of each playlist's viewing time in
• Script editor and Scheduler.
  
• Easier to use Drag and Drop functionality in all parts of the editor.
  
• Enhanced error recovery - Now tracks for memory and resource leaks in ACQs and Helpers and automatically recovers.
  
• Remote control of player volume.
  
• Additional system variables now available to use and view.
  
• New password protection and disabled options for engineer's screen.
  
• Remotely change Watchdog settings.
  
• Extra protection for your PLUS! network user accounts by locking to IP addresses.

*1 We recommend a minimum of 512Mb (XP) or 1Gb (Vista) of installed RAM for other programs and computer functions to run optimally.