MediaCAT 4 saw the introduction of our new 'Scenes' content layout tool. This easy to use, drag and drop system can be used with conventional content such as images, video, web pages and RSS feeds to quickly build eye catching digital signage screens with rich mixed information. Scene layouts can be enhanced by using special 'widgets' which can provide simple things like an analogue clock, or much more complex displays such as diary events, canteen menus, dynamic wayfinding, property listings or even customer updates for customers having their car serviced!

During the development of the Scenes content layout tool, we quickly realised that the system was so powerful and had so many uses, that we'd never be able to think of them all in one go. We also thought that there would be a lot of useful tools which only some users would want, so including them all in the standard MediaCAT build would only clutter up the Scene menus.

To combat this we decided to use widgets - little applications which can add extra features to the Scene display. The MediaCAT as standard is supplied with a number of basic, but very useful widgets. These range from display only widgets such as analogue and digital clocks, to widgets with admin and user configuration such as the events diary, which allows users to log into the MediaCAT via a dedicated web interface to add events to the diary, which are then shown on the digital signage screen when the event is due.

Over the last year or so, we have also written a number of specialist widgets for particular users - ranging from dynamic wayfinding for hotels to car servicing updates for garages. These specialist widgets can be uploaded to the MediaCAT and the new widgets appears in the Scene area menu for selection - some widgets also provide extra admin configuration pages or dedicated user interfaces. Some of the specialist widgets are available free of charge from Navaho - others have a cost associated with them. If you are interested in any of the widgets you read about on this blog, please contact us.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be looking at all of the built-in and all of the specialist widgets available for the MediaCAT and seeing how people have used them in the real world!