LG Business Solutions USA is making it easier than ever for businesses with public area digital displays to control their entire portfolio of screens through its new system called Pro:Centric Catena®. Operating on LG’s Pro:Centric smart televisions, Catena provides a browser-based user interface to enable simple and convenient control of multiple commercial displays by staff using smartphones or tablets.
Available now, the new IP-based solution is an ideal way for sports bars, fitness centers, hospitals, and retail establishments to remotely tune content and manage their digital displays without having to use multiple remote controls or tune individual set-top boxes to TV channels.
Pro:Centric Catena also offers a new, unique benefit for customers: a simple web app that allows patrons to select from the available live TV broadcasting and listen to the audio through their own smartphones and earbuds. LG Catena uses a unique way to manage lip synch by separating the audio from the video stream on the premises and delivering it to the smartphone independently synchronized with the TV broadcast.
Bars and restaurants can play background music while each table or customer chooses which game or show they want to listen to via their smartphone. LG Catena also is an ideal solution for gyms, hospitals and transit centers where multiple TVs display various channels, but their sound is muted.
According to Richard Lewis, vice president, technology for LG Business Solutions USA, more and more integrators and end users are considering remote management solutions as a means to increase productivity and simplify content management across any size display network, all while providing new benefits for customers and guests.
“Public facing displays are effective tools for messaging and ambiance, and Pro:Centric Catena helps make it easier for business owners to ensure their customers have great experiences without requiring constant staff supervision or assistance,” said Lewis. “Customers gain a personalized experience, business owners and staff get peace of mind that TVs will always be easy to control, and maintenance is simplified by installers’ ability to login remotely and diagnose minor issues. All of this further enhances the value of connected displays.”
The solution comprises a server and a TV application that is accessed through an intuitive web-based user interface, providing control of every display, either individually or in pre-arranged groups of displays. TVs can be remotely tuned, powered on and off, rebooted and display custom messaging created by the owners. Catena is designed to work exclusively with LG Pro:Centric Smart IP televisions and set-top boxes and supports both High Definition and 4K UHD resolutions. For new installations, using an IP-based design reduces equipment costs by replacing long HDMI cable runs and video matrices with simple Cat6 cabling, while also eliminating the need for each display to have its own set-top box or media player for live TV content delivery.
To provide these new functions to the widest market of business owners, including those using other displays, LG’s Pro:Centric Smart set-top-boxes (STB) support Pro:Centric Catena. This provides a cost-effective path for integrators and end-users to upgrade to the Pro:Centric Catena experience.
“In addition to the simplicity of a drag-and-drop interface to direct content to displays, business operators also have the ability to brand their user interface with their logo or color scheme for a more personalized user experiences,” Lewis added. “For on-site staff, responding to customer requests has never been easier, as any changes to channel or volume can be made instantly through staff’s mobile devices.”
Pro:Centric Catena supports cable and satellite box sources as well as commercial video-on-demand services using the Pro:Idiom® digital rights management system that provides owners access to premium content and protecting content with a leading end-to-end digital rights management system. “All of these attributes combine to make controlling a digital display network simple, fast, reliable, affordable and directly beneficial to end customers,” said Lewis.
About LG Business Solutions USA
The LG Electronics USA Business Solutions division serves commercial display customers in the U.S. lodging and hospitality, digital signage, systems integration, healthcare, education, government and industrial markets. Based in Lincolnshire, Ill., with its dedicated engineering and customer support team, LG Business Solutions USA delivers business-to-business technology solutions tailored to the particular needs of business environments. Seven-time ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year LG Electronics USA Inc., based in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., is the North American subsidiary of LG Electronics Inc., a $56 billion global force in consumer electronics, mobile communications, home appliances and air solutions.
