Windows Embedded Compact Digital Signage in the Empire State Building, and in Over 1,000 Other Buildings

One digital signage company opted to use Windows Embedded Compact citing the flexibility of the operating system, as well as its reliability.

Captivate’s embedded solutions are viewed by visitors of in excess of 1,000 buildings in the United States and in Canada, all powered by the successor of Windows CE, the Redmond company revealed.

“When we deliver our product to a customer, they know that they won’t have to keep calling us back in to restart or repair it,” explained Captivate co-founder Todd Newville.

“Windows Embedded Compact provides the flexibility to build the product exactly the way we want, and the reliability to ensure that it will keep running.”

Captivate started operating in 1997, at which time LCD screens were only starting to become affordable, and the digital signage term was yet to be coined.

14 years later, Captivate’s digital signage is used in such buildings as Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center in New York; Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) in Chicago; Gas Company Tower in Los Angeles; the Prudential Center in Boston; and Embarcadero Center in San Francisco.

Visitors to any of the landmarks mentioned above are most likely to see the embedded solutions inside elevators, delivering news and information.

According to the Redmond company, Captivate connects all its HD LCD screens in a network via WIFi, making sure that they run independent of the environment they’re placed into.

“The key to making our product great is providing something interesting for viewers to watch,” Newville added.

“We spend a lot of time understanding what people’s needs are during different times of the day, and delivering programming to match. Our audience has very different informational needs first thing in the morning, at lunchtime and when they’re going home in the evening.”