What is a Headless Content Management Solution?
To go any further, we first have to explain what the headless means. In simplest terms, it means that the content is pulled via APIs into any digital endpoint. That means deeply integrated with the data sources and without the need for third-party intervention on daily day-to-day operations.
What is AmpronLED NextGen software?
It is designed to control, manage and monitor Ampron LED and LCDs. Our LED and LCD hardware and AmpronLED NextGen software together combine the solution that we define as Smart Display System.
Our API defines the ways of configuring and communicating with the software.
The communication protocol is defined to a level of technical detail that should assure a clear understanding of how to control, monitor and manage the software and displays.
In the following paragraphs, we will explain what is new compared to the previous generation and what new features are possible with NextGen.
Standalone mode, no server is needed
In our previous generation of the AmpronLED software, there was a need for a separate server component. Now the HTTP GET requests are done directly toward the LED or LCD displays.
Polling and Push API mode for dynamic IP and remote applications
AmpronLED now has two additional modes: Polling and Push. It means you can set your application constantly poll the information or push when your solution architecture deems it necessary.
Both of these have their good and bad, so it is up to you to decide what suits you the best. Things to consider is, that polling is good in mobile applications where it is financially more viable to use 4G with dynamic IP. Pushing could be done only towards the display that has a fixed IP address.
Live screenshots
A lot of our customers have asked for some kind of possibility to see what is displayed or sent to the display. We developed a feature to request screenshots from the display. That way you will get a screenshot of the visual that was last received by the AmpronLED.
As with all of our features, this is also done in the form of an HTTP GET request. That means you can integrate it into your solution or user interface.
Independent content visualisation in different areas
With the previous generation of AmpronLED, the whole display had to be refreshed upon changes in one certain area. Now, this is history. You can refresh any area without the impact on other areas. Changes will be implemented instantly and without the visual clues of the changes.
FOTA (firmware and configurations over the air)
We now support firmware and configuration updates over the air. It means, you can update the configurations remotely or we can support you by updating the firmware remotely.
New Features
And to finish things off, here are just a few of the new features that we have with our NExtGen AmpronLED. This list is not finite by any means as we constantly are updating our software and adding new features as our customers request them. So, if you don’t find the feature you would need, then please contact us and let’s discuss this.
List of features:
- Clock – Built-in date and time to visualise. You can find configurable parameters on our API page.
- Video – You can display the video in one area or multiple areas
- URL – Visualise the webpage in an area.
- RSS/XML – Set RSS or XML as a source of data
- TTL – Time To Leave. It means you can set items in your layout to stay for x amount of time
- Wallpaper – Set wallpaper to an area.
- Fonts – Various custom fonts
- Boot image features – You may set a custom boot image
- Audio – We have audio readiness and you can trigger audio sources with requests.
Developer-first approach
Our focus has been the “developer-first” approach. It means that we build an interface that is easy to use for the system integrators.
Headless design lets us develop a highly configurable back-end and set focus on building that. If you need the front-end user interface then it is simple to build on top of our back-end.
Please check out our API page for more technical and configuration details.
