Samsung’s MagicNet Signage Solution
At CES, I was impressed with Samsung’s unique digital signage solution “MagicNet”. Most digital signage systems use some kind of central server and a network of signage player devices - one per digital sign. Then, of course, you need the flat panel displays. Samsung integrated their player device into a few LCD models, greatly simplifying the system. Now all you need for a complete digital signage solution is a bunch of these Samsung monitors all networked together, and one standard PC running their MagicNet software. The capabilities are generous, including playback of most media file types and graphic file formats, and the ability to incorporate live video.
This is a good option for new installations (where you don’t own the displays already) and touring applications that want to simplify setup. You can use it for enterprise communications, event signage - pretty much all the typical digital signage applications.
And here’s where the love-fest ends. Try to find MagicNet on the Samsung website. Here’s a link to a MagicNet LCD screen. In the center of the screen it clearly states, (spelling error and all) “Super high contrast ratio with 178°/178° viewing angle topped of with MagicNet.” but nowhere on the page is a link to learn about MagicNet. Nice.
So - their online marketing may be a mess, but the technology looked pretty spiffy. I’m sure your favorite A/V system integrator, marketing partner, or Samsung dealer can help you get going with MagicNet.
Use caution if you’re considering digital signage, since we see it done poorly more often than not. Make sure you have a clear idea of who the signage will target, what content they will find interesting enough to stop and absorb, and most importantly - who will be producing this content and how often. Often times the content isn’t changed often enough, it’s poorly targeted, or the sign’s layout is too complex and confusing - rendering it highly ignorable.
For example - at one recent trade show I attended, the digital signs in the lobbies were display scheduling information for the three days prior to the day I arrived. Page after page of information was outdated, making the signs dreadfully ineffective. There’s nothing quite as sad as an unwatched digital sign.
(2 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
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June 13th, 2008 at 6:15 am
Well, I thought the MagicNet software will be a good solution, but oh boy, what a frustration. Nowhere can I get support for the software. Even using Google did not result in much - only news about the unveiling of Sumsung’s MagicNet Solution.
First of all, the software is full of bugs. The concept is nice, but the interface sucks (rather the functionality). It is not intuitive enough and does not allow keyboard shortcuts to copy/paste/cut. They really could have designed it better.
Since the LCD screen is booting from a solid state memory, you cannot do much with the operating system. Once booted, it reverts back to the same setup. You have the bare bones Windows XP - without MS Office. You can install it, but once you boot the device - gone is your installation. Such is the case for any other program or video codecs, etc.
It is VERY limited with the content format. Even if you get MS Office installed, it does not allow you to upload and display PowerPoint shows. Yes, you can display PowerPoint presentations, but what’s the use of showing the presentation in “edit mode”. When displaying video, you are stuck with Microsoft’s WMV format.
I end up using a web-based system (since you can schedule a URL) and do the complete content scheduleing and presentation in a web system - only to find out the Internet Explorer cache gets corrupt on the device. You cannot even fix that since you cannot format any of the drives on the device.
I wish Samsung can give better support on this product. I expected much more for the price.
June 13th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Wow - that IS disappointing! Service and support are critical to signage solutions and if this it indicative of the way Samsung is handling it then they have no business playing in the signage space. This may be a good reason to buy signage products through integrators who can stand behind the products in the field. They tend not to sell products that aren’t well-supported because it makes their lives harder.
Thanks for your comment, Bennie.
June 17th, 2008 at 5:36 am
Hi Bennie , your settings keep reverting back to the original setup because you havent turned off EWF.
The EWF (Enhanced Write Filter) option allows the user to control write protection of the MagicNet X displays built in storage. When the EWF is enabled, no changes, files copied, or installed software will be retained when the display is powered off.
If the EWF is disabled, the display will retain settings after being powered off, but the original configuration can be loaded by enabling the EWF again.
If the user wishes to commit changes to permanent storage (Such as installed reader software or codecs) the user should use the Commit button to place these changes into the EWF’s permanent storage.
These setting can be found in ’setup’ under ‘options’
June 17th, 2008 at 6:02 am
also….these screens are not meant to have full installs of Office apps installed on them , your only supposed to use the viewer apps which you can download free from the internet. To play a video I usually keep it seperate from the PPT and scedule it to run as and when i need it. The screen will play any format as long as you have the codec , I usually convert to AVI and play it through PowerDVD for an automatic full screen display.
I do agree with you though that there isnt support for the product , but ive been playing with Magicnet for just over a month now and its doing everything I need it to do , its really not that hard to suss out for yourself ! …maybe thats why they dont offer support ???? and as for bugs!!! I havent had any but maybe im just special!!!
July 30th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
I’m just a few days into trying to set up two Samsung 460DXNs using MagicNet, and I’m having quite a bit of trouble getting the monitors to connect with/be seen by the server. Both monitors and the server are on the same subnet, I’ve checked all firewall settings for any blocked ports and so so, but when I launch MagicNetPro, I see neither of the monitors. I discovered the thing about disabling EWF, and I’m using the direct IP connection between monitors and server, but still no luck. AnDyHumphrey…I’d love to talk offline about this if you’re willing. You can reach me at edmunds at unc dot edu. Cheers!
August 5th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
We are about to pull the trigger on 9 panels and magic net pro, anyone have anything better for a multipanel software setup ?
August 8th, 2008 at 7:55 am
Hello together,
In our Company we use the Magic Net Pro Software, after three days concentrating on this software it runs. The best trick is it to put the support cd-rom completely on an usb-stick and install the server software on the win xp embedded lcd display. (First you have to disable the “enhanced write filter(EWF)” in the Options menue on the display software Setup(Password is 000000)!) I know its very unlogic, but if you want to connect to the server its a must.
Damn, it works
August 21st, 2008 at 10:45 am
I have just taken over the responsibility of working on our LCD panels with MagicNetPro…I really need a 1, 2, 3 guide as there is so much duplication and switching back and forth…If anyone can assist, it would be greatly appreciated!
September 5th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
We have 400pn displays from a while back. each one of the displays have Win CE as OS and MagicNet2 software. My concern is that I am unable to detect any displays at all. I have all configured properly with the same server name, each one of them have their own IPs. I am able to ping them on the network and browse online from the displays. I tried to look for the EWF but to no avail as I do not have any OPTIONS under SETUP.
any suggestions?
September 12th, 2008 at 11:27 am
We are running 10 Samsung 400pxn’s with MagicNet and, with a few gliches, it has been running pretty good. There are 2 main concerns though:
1. It only comes preloaded with 7 fonts (and 2 of them are wingdings). If you try to show powerpoint slides with other fonts, the font substitutions will often distort the image on the display.
2. They can only read PowerPoint 2003 (and other Office 2003) documents. I can’t find an upgrade to allow it to read PowerPoint 2007 slides. Everytime we create a slide show for the panels, we have to back-save it to PowerPoint 2003.
September 15th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Ted: I’m not sure about PXN, but on a DXN you can install the PowerPoint 2007 viewer and use a USB drive to upload the PP 2007 file. (At least, it works in practice.) MagicNet will only look for .ppt files in the Library.
Tim: It sounds like you have the screens set to Player rather than Scheduler. Player requires the MagicNet server to constantly run; Scheduler will load the screens and schedule to the display without needing the MagicNet server operational. It took me a while to figure that out. I don’t have MagicNet in front of me, but I believe the setting is under Remote Management –> MagicNet.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:15 am
Hi there Magic Net gurus.
Am interested in buying a couple of 400dxns with Magic Net ostensibly to display real-time production schedules.
These schedules could be presented in a variety of formats, but at the moment I’m favouring using html, so the first question is do these screens support this, and is it possible to automatically publish the URL to the monitor using Magic Net? Does anyone have any comments about the rendering of web pages? Essentially, the page will be simple HTML with some basic CSS for presentation so pretty much any browser should be able to handle it.
Also, those of you looking for help, I found the following info on the Hoffman Video website:
Basic explanation (PDF): http://www.hoffmanvideo.com/Website_Management/fileuploader/fileDrop/MagicNet%20Presentation%20S.pdf
More detailed guide (PDF): http://www.hoffmanvideo.com/Website_Management/fileuploader/fileDrop/magicnet_intro.pdf
Cheers,
Mark
September 22nd, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Mark,
Short answer is yes. MagicNet will allow an HTML area if you have a URL. You also can pick just part of an HTML page to display if you know the coorindates.
September 29th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
Can anyone tell me why I can see my MagicNet Booting up on the screen and then it asks for a Boot agent?
September 29th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
I’m using a 460PXN.
October 2nd, 2008 at 11:37 am
Thanks Larry
November 25th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Has anyone figured out how to schedule a screen containing a powerpoint and then a screen containing a video and then have the ability to loop the two together all day long one after the other without having to make a lot of scheduling entries?
December 4th, 2008 at 3:38 am
I’m using a Samsung 460PN and I would like to upgrade the embedded operating system. Does anyone know how???