KANSAS CITY, MO (May 6, 2009) —  Popstar Networks, Inc., a leader in the digital media industry, and Digital Evolution Group, a full-service e-consultancy firm, recently partnered to develop and install interactive event and wayfinding kiosks at Crown Center.   Crown Center, located in the heart of downtown Kansas City and owned by Hallmark Cards, Inc., is a multi-use 40-acre complex including a retail shopping mall, two luxury hotels, an exhibit hall and other office and residential buildings.  The kiosk project was commissioned to enhance the visitor experience in navigating and obtaining detailed information on retailers, dining establishments, and entertainment venues located within the complex.  The state-of-the-art kiosks allow visitors to locate stores based upon the category or name of the store and provide a description of the retailer, store hours and any current sales or promotions.  Additionally, they offer guided direction to the store through Digital Evolution Group’s interactive property map solution.  These advanced interactive kiosks also provide information on the Crown Center campus and surrounding attractions, display restaurant menus, play video clips of currently running theater productions and promote other upcoming events at the Center. 

 Digital Evolution Group who designed and developed Crown Center’s website, partnered with Popstar to provide Popstar’s Frontstage™ interactive digital signage solution because of its ability to integrate directly with their powerful Site Management System.  The integration with Digital Evolution Group’s Site Management System provides Crown Center the ability to centrally control the updating of content, event listings, store and digital map information, and video and graphic files on both the website and the four installed kiosks via the Frontstage™ Server. As part of Popstar’s BackStage℠ strategic consulting process, the parties collaborated to identify all project goals and content requirements before developing wireframes and prototypes for Crown Center to review.  A field and user interaction study conducted early in the process resulted in the solution being clearly defined to meet Crown Center’s unique requirements and allowed for efficient interactive development within Popstar’s FrontStage™ Digital Signage Network software.  The project was completed in 90 days, just prior to the holiday season – one of Crown Center’s most highly trafficked periods.

 ”The field and user studies were a very important part to the success of the project, allowing us to confirm assumptions and verify requirements before the application development began. Utilizing the Popstar BackStage℠ process and clearly defining goals and further refining them gave us a clear roadmap for development and final deployment”, said Maria Scarpello, Sales Solutions Manager at Popstar, “this resulted in a solution that ideally suited the needs of Crown Center” she added.

 “Empowering our client partners to command and control digital content from a centralized web-based interface and push it to any platform, screen or device has been the cornerstone of our success for past nine years” says Jeff Eden, Principal at Digital Evolution Group.“ Popstar’s FrontStage™ software now allows us to efficiently deploy cost effective and centrally managed digital signage solutions for our national and global client base.”

 Chris Ronan, Communications Manager for Crown Center adds: “The kiosks have been a big hit. They help our customers get where they want to go, but they also showcase our events, sales and specials and other important information”, he further states. “Crown Center has a lot to offer and the kiosks are great vehicles for getting the word out.“

 About Popstar Networks

Popstar Networks, Inc., headquartered in Olathe, Kansas, is a leader in designing and implementing customized digital media solutions – enabling clients to communicate their unique messages and incorporate digital signage into overall marketing and communications strategies.  Since its founding in 2003, Popstar has revolutionized the digital media industry with its customer-first process for developing dynamic and interactive digital signage networks.  Popstar has also set a new standard for engaging audiences with exciting interactive media applications. Its flexible technology, software development, and creative visual designs have set the trend for the industry, led by the FrontStage™ Player, FrontStage™ Server, and SmartContent™ products and complemented by BackStage℠ – their comprehensive strategic consulting process. For more information, please visit us at http://www.popstarnetworks.com.

 About Digital Evolution Group

Digital Evolution Group is a full-service e-consultancy dedicated to helping its clients achieve success with creative, integrated and intelligent Internet-centric solutions.  Digital Evolution Group fuses design talent and engineering skill and with the rare ability to translate business objectives into ingenious online strategies. Strategies that deliver break-through value, empower clients and partners to advance strategic initiatives and put new opportunities within their reach.

 Since its inception in 1999, Digital Evolution Group has been leading the strategic initiatives and development of superbly designed, highly dynamic, tightly integrated, easily administered and highly scalable Internet toolsets and platforms currently being leveraged by organizations such as Hallmark Cards Inc, Cerner Corporation, MGM Grand, Pizza Hut Franchisees, Developers Diversified Realty, RED Development, Inland Group, New Balance Shoe Company, The Timberland Company, Kansas City Steak Company, Orscheln Farm and Home, Seaboard Foods, University of Kansas, Country Club Plaza, Challenger Sports, FerrellGas and the State of Missouri to name a few. For more information, visit http://www.digitalev.com or call 1-913-498-9988.

 About Crown Center

Located on the southern edge of downtown Kansas City, Crown Center offers fine hotels, entertainment, dining, shopping, offices and residential living.  Home to the international headquarters of Hallmark Cards, Inc., the complex attracts more than five million annual visitors. For more information, visit http://www.crowncenter.com or call 816-274-8444.

Media contact:
Stacey Morse
Popstar Networks, Inc.
Phone: 913-747-6300  
Email: staceym@popstarnetworks.com
http://www.popstarnetworks.com

3D – It’s the quintessential root of all that is exciting and good, at least in my world. Few things can command attention better than an object flying straight at you from behind an LCD screen. That’s exactly what Popstar’s 3D display technology is all about.

What is a 3D display? I’ll spare you the nitty gritty details and get right to the gravy – It’s an LCD screen that gives you the illusion of 3D as if you were wearing 3D glasses … except you don’t need the glasses! The screen sports a special multi-view lenticular lens, which is a fancy way of saying that it shows each eye different things. By doing this, a pretty grass valley becomes a deep, breath-taking moment as each viewer experiences the depth that only a beautiful 3D scene could provide.

This exciting technology is perfect for industries who want multiple viewers to see every aspect of their product at the same time, on every side that can’t be viewed in a picture, magazine or even a traditional 2D animation. Take an engine apart and spin it around in 3D, zoom in and out on parts from a complicated surgical procedure, visualize the next openGL-capable 3D shoot-em-up game at a conference, these are all possible scenarios with Popstar’s 3D display technology.

I read things like the above in all sorts of marketing campaigns on the Internet and they all sound great. But being the senior technologist with my company, I don’t have the luxury of engaging in fantasy. What does it actually take to put one of these presentations together – what are the steps I need to do to make this sort of thing happen?

Screen rental and content creation.

Screen Rental
Like all transactions, you have the option of buying or leasing. If you’re like me you’ll know immediately what your budget allows. The advantage to buying vs. renting is cost, if you have a lot of uses for the screen that is. If you host lots of events (or handle the hosting for others) each year, then purchasing a screen like this may be in the cards. On the other hand, if you have two tradeshows a year, renting is probably a better option.

Sometimes I’m asked for my opinion on purchasing decisions, my response is usually to rent, at least at first. For any technology whether it’s 3D, grass seed or bubble wrap, I don’t buy a lot of anything until I’ve had a chance to test it – if it’s a good match then I’ll make some decisions as to buy or rent again. That’s one of the reasons we partner with rental companies who offer, among other things, 3D screens. This eases the hassle of scheduling delivery and setting up the screen at your event. But getting the screen to you is only half of the puzzle, what about the content?

Content Creation
By nature of my career I’ve learned a lot about many different technologies, and I can say with few exceptions that content creation can be one of the most rewarding and beneficial sides to building a business. It can also require some experience to make even the simplest jobs beautiful. From resolutions to color palettes to page layout to software applications, multiple facets of weirdness gel to make a presentation that is either unforgettable or annoying, effectively communicated or intentionally ignored. Creative types are experimental, curious and most of all masochistic, so this type of work appeals to us. If you decide you’d like help creating content, 3D or other, you know which weirdos to call. Whatever you do keep this in mind - Content Is King. Choose your creative team wisely.

As far as the content files themselves, they use familiar formats like mpg and wmv (windows media files). These file formats are very established and common in the video and graphics industry. If you have a video or piece of content anywhere on DVDs or the web, it’s likely your content has seen one of these formats. That’s the beauty of this 3D technology, you can re-use familiar material and with a little more work, display it in unfamiliar  and completely unique ways.

Once your creative is approved and your screen is rented or purchased, getting it set up is a simple phone call and you’re off and running. With a 3D screen complementing your presentation, be prepared to receive a lot of attention. The 3D screen will draw them in, then it’s up to you to wow them with your product or service.

Visit this page for a complete interactive on how 3D can help bring your product or presentation to life!

http://www.popstarnetworks.com/digital-signage-products/3D.php

Dave Hutton
Senior Technician & 3D Artist

Dave Hutton is the Senior Technician & 3D Artist for Popstar Networks. In this position he is responsible for training and documentation as well as 3D & general technical work. Dave enjoys working with people and has a technical background building systems, programming scripts and automation tools, video editing & motion graphics as well as 3D modeling and animation. Dave spent over ten years in the advertising and computer industries and loves all things graphics & technical. A Missouri native, Dave is a self-professed computer junkie and loves gadgets, new technology, biking and frisbee.

Popstar Networks, Inc., working together with Philips 3D Solutions, has introduced an update of their feature-rich digital media software, FrontStage™, to support Philips 3D technology and network needs of the companies’ client, Cinema Scene Marketing. Cinema Scene recently selected Philips 3D displays to be part of their nationwide digital signage network placed in movie theaters to provide a unique and exciting visual experience to moviegoers. Cinema Scene also chose Popstar’s FrontStage™ digital signage software for 2D and 3D content playback and network control. In addition to software, Popstar is providing technical consultation and creative services, including the production of 3D content for Philips 3D displays. Read the rest of this entry »

Popstar Networks and digital broadcast services provider Campus Connections Media today announced that Campus Connections will begin deploying Popstar’s digital signage software solutions within their current and future network of digital screens on college campuses across the U.S. Read the rest of this entry »

Popstar Networks and brand strategy and content services provider Studio Aspect today announced a strategic partnership to provide a complete digital signage solutions package to clients planning large single or multi-site digital signage projects. Read the rest of this entry »

Popstar Networks and e-consultancy services provider Digital Evolution Group today announced a strategic partnership to provide web-based digital signage solutions packages to clients. Read the rest of this entry »

Popstar Networks and facility services provider C&C Group today announced a strategic partnership to provide a complete digital signage solutions package to clients planning large single or multi-site digital signage projects. Read the rest of this entry »