The Taiwan Digital Signage Special Interest Group (DS SIG) sponsored a plugfest for the Open Pluggable Specification (OPS) in January, with participation from Advantech, Avalue, Axiomtek, eJump, NEC, Nexcom, Philips, QNAP, TPV Technology Group, TVS and Winmate. The event provided an opportunity for these product manufacturers to verify compliance to the OPS specification and interoperability with many other OPS-based products in the marketplace.
The OPS was developed by Intel with key digital signage partners to simplify the device installation, usage, maintenance and upgrade of digital signage infrastructure. This open standard comprises electrical, mechanical and thermal specifications for media player boards and display boards connected together via an 80-pin JAE connector that supports commonly used interfaces such as DisplayPort and USB, among others.
"The Open Pluggable Specification was created to address fragmentation in the digital signage market and simplify device installation, use, maintenance and upgrades," said Nick Jane, convener of DS SIG. "With the specification, digital signage manufacturers will be able to deploy interchangeable systems faster and in higher volumes, while lowering costs for development and implementation."
According to the DS SIG, the recent plugfest represents a milestone for the digital signage industry, paving the way for improved interoperability between OPS modules and OPS displays. Moving forward, OPS will provide users of digital signage many benefits, such as reduced operational expenditures through simplified installation, seamless upgradeability, improved reliability and increased serviceability.