Christoph Bloos, system administrator at Norgren:

„Due to the professional support, unclear matters can be dealt with quickly and uncomplicatedly online. This means an enormous time savings. Macnetix is exactly the right partner for Norgren.“

Initial situation

Norgren is one of the world’s leading providers of pneumatic solutions; and is top of the league by far in Europe. Norgren boasts a sales and service network in more than 70 countries and £1.6bn in annual turnover. In the year 2008, the company constructed an approx. 400 square metre congress centre for its German facility in Fellbach near Stuttgart. The brief was to equip this new building with a modern, digital signage system.

Requirements

Upon completion of the congress centre, the aim was to replace the unsightly cardboard signs with state-of-the-art, digital ones. The goal was to achieve a more attractive overall appearance. To facilitate the switch to a digital signage system, it was imperative to implement software that guaranteed easy and cost-effective operation. It was also important to establish an interface to the internal Outlook Calendar. Dates entered in Outlook were supposed to appear automatically on the monitors. Integration in the existing building architecture and adaptation to the company’s CI were crucial factors when it came to choosing the correct partner. Finally, numerous demands were made on the monitors: In addi t ion to welcoming guests in the foyer, the monitors were expected to function as door signs and presentation media.

Result

The digital signage system editIT/playIT from Macnetix was chosen as the innovative signage system for the congress centre at the Norgren facility in Fellbach. The easy-to-use software played an important role in the decision making process. After brief instructions, it can be easily operated by members of staff. Another highlight is the central input of data which then appears on the monitors. This ensures that updates can be executed quickly and conveniently.

Two 40” monitors welcome visitors to the Fellbach plant. The first digital monitor greets guests and employees at the facility’s main entrance. It also provides the latest weather news. The second one is located in the Norgren congress centre and is used to present information and show occupancy of the seminar rooms. Another four 10” monitors function as digital door signage systems and display which events are taking place in the respective seminar rooms.

The information can be combined on-screen with almost all multimedia contents. A further advantage of the Macnetix software: Data is continuously transferred via an Outlook interface, guaranteeing that dates are automatically accepted by the system.