Catalyst Blog

News and information related to Catalyst products and services.

Next Gen Fire TV Sticks Now Available

Amazon has announced a new set of Fire TV devices with upgrades to performance and a redesigned user interface. Fire Sticks are a great option for digital signage as they are cost effective, simple to install, and easy to conceal. This new generation of Fire devices should provide ample performance for most all digital signage applications. Revel Digital has a dedicated Fire TV app available on the Amazon App Store found in the Communications app category.


Next Gen Fire TV Stick

From the Amazon press release -
Best-Selling Fire TV Stick Now 50% More Powerful with HDR and Dolby Atmos Support—Just $39.99

The all-new Fire TV Stick features an enhanced 1.7 GHz quad-core processor that makes it 50% more powerful than the previous generation. The new Fire TV Stick delivers fast streaming in 1080p at 60fps with HDR compatibility. The dual-band, dual-antenna wifi supports 5 GHz networks for more stable streaming and fewer dropped connections. Fire TV Stick also features Dolby Atmos for immersive sound with compatible content and speakers, and an Alexa Voice Remote with dedicated power, volume, and mute buttons for easy control of TVs, soundbars, and A/V receivers. The all-new Fire TV Stick delivers improved performance while consuming 50% less power than the previous generation.

Fire TV Stick Lite—Affordable, Full-HD Streaming on Fire TV—Just $29.99

Fire TV Stick Lite is a new, even more affordable way to begin streaming in full-HD. Fire TV Stick Lite is 50% more powerful than the previous-generation Fire TV Stick and includes the most processing power of any streaming media player under $30. It features HDR support and comes with Alexa Voice Remote Lite, a new remote that allows you to use voice to find, launch, and control content.

Announcing our FrontLine series of temperature taking hardware

FrontLine Kiosk
    As public spaces begin to reopen there are certain health monitoring measures in place to ensure it's done as safely as possible. We recognized that our platform was ideally suited for temperature monitoring since many of our customers could potentially re-purpose or enhance existing digital signage with temperature taking accessories. It was important to us to keep the cost balanced with performance to help businesses meet any newly imposed regulations required for opening. As such, we did the majority of the design, prototyping, and development of both the hardware and software in-house in order to cut costs which we can then pass on to our customers.

    Two hardware options are available with slightly different methods of measurement. The first is a camera based approach which uses face detection to help align the temperature sensor with the desired target area. It's important to note that this is not face identification, but simply face detection which retains no personally identifiable information. The second approach uses the wrist as the temperature target. In this case the person simply holds their wrist above the sensor area. Both methods are very fast, helping to eliminate any waiting time.
FrontLine Sensor Kit

    Revel Digital works with our hardware and kiosk partners to assist in the design and fabrication of custom enclosures if desired. We also have a selection of stock mounts and stands available immediately.
Tabletop Stand

    FrontLine works in conjunction with the Revel Digital platform which means all the features currently available to our digital signage customers is also available to FrontLine enabled displays. This includes device monitoring, reporting, and custom content. See our features page for more on what our CMS has to offer. This has the added advantage of being able to reuse the display for any other digital signage related use cases if temperature monitoring is no longer necessary.


FrontLine specific reports

For more information please contact us at sales@reveldigital.com, or call +1-855-738-3534.

Announcing Gent.MD, a telemedicine option for reducing physician exposure

Diagnosing patients in our current environment can put physicians at risk and requires use of personal protective equipment (PPE). This equipment includes gloves, masks, gowns, etc which is either disposed of, or at the very least, sterilized after each use. The increase in demand for PPE has caused shortages which leaves physicians in a tough place, sometimes requiring risking exposure in order to diagnose patients. Gent.MD is a service designed to reduce this exposure by giving physicians the ability to remotely visit with and assess the patients condition.

Telemedicine can reduce usage of PPE

The concept we are presenting here is not new, but the implementation is. This is a web based service for managing and initiating remote video chat sessions. Exam rooms would require a display with a camera (called a 'remote' in this application), while the physician would simply use their personal PC, also with a webcam. Once logged in, the physician would be able to see all the connected exam rooms with the ability to initiate a video chat at any time.

Gent.MD dashboard

This service is currently in Beta and is freely available for use while we all grapple with the Covid-19 outbreak.

Create an account to get started here: https://app.gent.md

For assistance with getting the app running with your new or existing digital signage, please contact us at support@reveldigital.com. We are happy to help.



More COVID-19 related content options

Staying on top of COVID-19 related information and news is important as this situation changes rapidly. Here are some options for including relevant news within your signage.

Using the RSS Slideshow gadget


Within your template, add a Gadget zone and select RSS Slideshow

Select the RSS Slideshow gadget

Then select a health related news feed, (CNN Health, BBC Health)

Choose a health related news feed

3rd Party Content

Content aggregators like ScreenFeed have put together free feeds for COVID-19 related news:

https://www.screenfeed.com/content/covid-19-news

ScreenFeed supports Media RSS as well as HTML.

  • To use RSS you may add your ScreenFeed RSS link to any media playlist in your Revel Digital account. The content will automatically be in-lined with your other playlist content.
  • To use the HTML content, add a HTML zone to your template and assign the URL generated from ScreenFeed.


Use your ScreenFeed link as the Web Zone URL

Coronavirus (COVID-19) advice for the public

With the outbreak of the Coronavirus we thought it would be beneficial to help source some content regarding public awareness and advice. The World Health Organization has video and images available here: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public. We suggest downloading these and adding to your content playlists where possible.

The following images have been resized to match full screen playlists.

Click on this image, then right click to Save

Click on this image, then right click to Save

Click on this image, then right click to Save


New Traffic Map Gadget


Now available in our Gadget gallery is a Traffic map gadget for displaying current traffic conditions. 

Traffic map along with other zones of informational content
Just add a gadget zone to your template, select the Traffic Map, and either use your current player device location or enter a custom location. Traffic conditions will update automatically.

Traffic Map gadget available in the Gadget gallery
Combine this gadget with weather, news, and events for a complete informational kiosk perfect for hotels, airports, or shopping centers. As with our other gadgets there is no additional charge for this content.

Have an idea for other types of gadgets? Let us know!