Midwich, Europe’s largest, award-winning, specialist AV distributor, has added software as a service (SaaS) to its digital signage portfolio by striking a distribution deal with industry pioneer signagelive.

Unlike other digital signage software solutions, signagelive is a SaaS (software as a service) solution and, as a result, requires no software installation or commissioning. Using the signagelive SaaS platform, administrators can simply login from a standard web browser and manage their digital signage network at the ‘click of a mouse’ from anywhere in the world.

Commenting on the deal, Jason Cremins, CEO of Remote Media Limited, the company behind signagelive, said:

“We are delighted to secure the distribution services of Midwich. Our signagelive software is compatible with Samsung and NEC displays and Midwich is the leading distributor for both brands. By simply inserting the signagelive USBCard into a Samsung DXN display or any NEC 1.66Mhz Dual Core built-in PC, the software is automatically upgraded to signagelive and immediately connected to the signagelive web-based server using a standard Internet connection.”

Lee Baker, business manager for large format displays at Midwich, enthused:

“The opportunity for virtualisation in the digital signage space is enormous. Software as a service can be a real money-spinner for resellers because it gives them the opportunity to transition into a lucrative long-term support contract. The signagelive platform is IP-based, so there is no need for any on-site configuration or training, and this makes it easier for the reseller to complete projects and get paid.”

Under the terms of the deal, signagelive will be distributed by Midwich and its sister companies, True Colours Distribution and Owl Visual Systems. In related news, Remote Media will unveil a new desktop edition of signagelive at ISE 2009 (3rd-5th February, Amsterdam RAI, stand 12B84). The signagelive desktop edition extends the power of the award-winning software as a service digital signage platform to the desktop and laptop, enabling companies of any size and market sector to communicate with their employees and customers through a single web-based application.