Digital signage out-of-a-box for small & medium size airports

Eindhoven, The Netherlands - Net Display Systems, leading developer  of digital signage software with airport solutions as a speciality, launches  an out-of-a-box display solution for small & medium size airports to the market. With the PADS Airport suite airports get a bundle of applications that cover all needs for digital signage, including but not limited to FIDS, advertising and way finding.

Net Display Systems has been active in the aviation sector with FIDS (Flight Information Display System) software since 1994. Today more than 60 airports worldwide daily rely on the software of this Dutch company for informing their passengers with up-to-date flight information. This includes airports of any size, from regional airports across Europe to the airports of Munich, Toronto and Newark.

“We see a growing demand by airports for a standard display solution that will give them full flexibility” says Arthur Damen, Head of product management at Net Display Systems. “Especially small and medium size airports are looking for a simple, affordable solution for FIDS. Ideally the personnel of the airport should be able to install, maintain and work with the system themselves without any training or specific knowledge is being required. Moreover flight information is no longer seen as something separate, but more and more becomes part of the big picture of digital signage at an airport. Airports want to be able to display any kind of information on the LCD displays across their entire terminal building. With this in mind Net Display Systems have  developed the PADS Airport suite.”

FIDS

The PADS Airport suite is a bundle of software applications that give airports everything they need for a total digital signage solution.

In this bundle FIDS still plays a central role. As part of the suite airports get a FIDS database plus a multi-user FIDS Manager application to store and maintain their flight related information. The system includes timetable flights, operational flights, allocation of common as well as flight related check-ins, gates and baggage belts and more. Of course it supports IATA and ICAO standards and can deal with code sharing and gate changes.

What’s really unique is the built-in reminder functionality, which automatically reminds operators about flight-, check-in or gate statuses having to be changed. This saves airport operators an enormous amount of time.

For the displaying part the award-winning PADS Professional software of Net Display Systems is used. Airports have complete freedom to design their own screen layout or can use one of the many predesigned templates.

The PADS Cluster Viewer for handling banks of clustered displays and PADS Staff Viewer application for browsing through flight information make the package complete.

Advertising and way finding

Besides flight information the same PADS Professional software can do much more for airports. With the greatest of ease displays can be used for other purposes like advertising, way finding, paging or anything else you can imagine.

Arthur Damen again: “As one of the very few manufacturers of FIDS software Net Display Systems also plays a leading role in other areas of digital signage. The airlines Lufthansa and KLM for instance use our software for corporate communication, while Bombardier, Boeing and Eurocopter use it at their manufacturing facilities. One in four of the 100 worlds most recognised brands have already chosen our platform as their choice for digital signage. This includes companies like Coca Cola, IBM, Disney, SAP and IKEA.

With the flexibility of the PADS Professional software people can really make a combination of any content imaginable. The content can be displayed on the screens wherever and whenever desired. This gives airports the possibility to make flexible use of their displays. If there is no flight information, a screen can automatically switch over to advertising or live news from the Internet. Important paging messages can be displayed on the displays in the restaurants showing menu information. Also all screens in a certain area can automatically switch over to display emergency evacuation messages when needed. The possibilities are endless.”

About Net Display Systems

Since its establishment in 1994 Net Display Systems has evolved into a recognised worldwide player for digital signage software. With its worldwide network of specialised partners the company is active in more than 60 countries and has thousands of installations in multiple market sectors from transportation, corporate and government to hospitality and retail.

The award winning PADS software of Net Display Systems is considered by many as the easiest-to-use, most flexible and powerful solutions available for digital signage. What makes the PADS software really unique are the unequalled database connectivity features for displaying real-time information.

One in three of the 100 worlds most recognised brands have already chosen PADS as their digital signage platform.