AscentMedia RFP Sample 2005

Capabilities Proposal

February 20, 2005

Bringing You the Power of Digital Signage

10221 W. Emerald, Suite 140 Boise, Idaho 83704 Tel:(208) 323-6600 Fax: (208) 323-6607

Request For Proposal Response File Name: AscentMedia RFP Response V1-7 Draft Review d 02-21-2005.doc

Due: By, 5:00 PM Pacific Standard Time; February 21, 2005

Company Confidential Page 2 of 47

Section One RFP Overview........................................................................................................................................................................ 3 Section Two Company Overview............................................................................................................................................................... 6 Section Three Product Information........................................................................................................................................................... 13 Section Four PI Amended 02-13-2005 ..................................................................................................................................................... 28 Attachment A Technical Specifications.................................................................................................................................................... 31 Attachment B Price List............................................................................................................................................................................ 46 Attachment C Roadmap:........................................................................................................................................................................... 47 Other Exhibits LCD and Plasma Product Specification Sheets Petters Group Press Releases User Manual Service Catalog





A: RFP Instruction Sheet

Section One RFP Overview

RFP for Content Management System - Captive Audience Networks

Sent to: Broadsign Cord Christensen [email protected] BroadSign USA, LLC 10221 W. Emerald, Suite 140 Boise, Idaho 83704 Tel:(208) 323-6600 Fax: (208) 323-6607

Introduction

Ascent Media Group (AMG) is evaluating a number of opportunities for deploying in-store 'Captive Audience Networks' in the US market. AMG anticipates deploying one or more networks in 2005 with a set of preferred content and technology partners. AMG is seeking suppliers of content management software and/or related hardware as part of an end-to-end technology and services solution for the delivery of content to retail stores.





RFP Process and Criteria

Through this RFP, Ascent seeks to further understand your company's product applications, your company's track record and business history, and ability to support large scale deployments. We are also seeking detailed technical specifications about your product(s), pricing structure and your ability to support third party application integration. There are three worksheets to be completed. Please answer all questions. You are welcome to provide additional materials (ie technical spec sheets, company background etc) as separate attachments if you believe it will help us better evaluate your offering(s). AMG will consider all aspects of your submission. We may schedule a follow-up Q&A session and/or product demonstration subsequent to your submission. Our intent is to develop a shortlist of two potential partners by the end of February.

Legal Disclaimer

This RFP does not give rise to any obligation on the part of Ascent Media Group to initiate or continue any discussions or negotiations with you or to enter into any transaction or relationship of any nature with you. A binding agreement will only exist in the event that duly authorized officers of both Ascent Media Group and your company sign a definitive written agreement.

Detailed Instructions Please inform us by Feb 16th (via email to Laura Clemons) whether or not you intend to submit a response to this RFP Please complete the enclosed excel sheets and return them by email, with 4 hard copies of all materials postmarked as same: Monday February 21st, 5.00pm to Laura Clemons; [email protected] Ascent Media Group





520 Broadway, 5th Floor Santa Monica CA 90401 We will not under any situation accept late submissions.

Questions Questions can be submitted via email to [email protected]

We will endeavor to answer your questions within 24 hours of receipt. Any answers to questions submitted by any company will be provided to all other RFP invitees in a summary email in a timely manner.





B: RFP Company Details Section Two Company Overview RFP for Content Management System - Captive

Audience Networks


Requirements

Area Ascent Question/Issue Area

Vendor RFP Answer Area 1 Company profile and history: Company Name: Date: Lead Contact Name: Email: Title: Address:

Phone/Fax:

BroadSign USA, LLC. February 18, 2005 Brian Dusho [email protected] Vice President of Sales 10221 W. Emerald, Suite 140 Boise, Idaho 83704 +1 404 386 1814 p +1 208 323 6607 f





2 General Product Line/Solutions Offered: Provide products/product line/services offered in this area.

Greater detail on the specific product is on next worksheet.

Our products and services include content management software (DMLS – Digital Media Logistics Suite), flat panel displays, player PC’s, hosting and service. a) DMLS – Digital Media Logistics Suite has three main components: Server, Player

and Administrator. – Please see attached product sheet for additional information. b) Petters Group Worldwide (parent company) is manufacturer of flat panel screens

and technology. We are currently supplying Best Buy and Circuit City private label Plasma and LCD. I have attached a Power Point of the screens we are supplying into Circuit under the Polaroid brand.

c) Player PC’s – We can source player PC’s from IBM, HP, Dell – to name but three. We only source the Player PC’s upon client’s request.

d) Hosting – We provide a hosted solution in our data center that is included in our monthly fees.

e) Service – We provide three levels of service: bronze, gold and silver. Please see attached service catalogue for additional information.

3 Market/Client Installation Base Describe the related vertical markets your product(s) is installed

in, along with units installed on the largest scale under previous or current rollout.

We currently have installations in ATM locations, Malls, Transportation, Restaurant/Bar and Grocery/Drug. Our largest scaled deployment was for Outdoor Digital Signage with 800 channels of video. Currently, we are scheduled to deploy 1,000 locations in a Grocery/Drug application.

4 Financial Stability, Operational Viability: Is you company private or public? Please describe the current

financial situation. If your company is private, who are your principal investors?

BroadSign USA, LLC is a privately held, operating company of Petters Group Worldwide (www.pettersgroup.com). Petters Group is a $2B B2B retail merchandising group with a collection of dynamic companies from technology and preferred brands to superior manufacturing. The company was started in 1987.





5 Revenue History

Please outline the revenue history of your company since its inception.

BroadSign USA, LLC was incorporated in September 2004 and is an operating company of Petter Group Worldwide. Petters Group is a $2B privately held company. Other companies owned by Petters are UBID.com, Fingerhut, Petters Consumer Brands, and recently announced the acquisition of Polaroid for $426M (press release attached).

6 Partnership

Opportunities We are a little unique as a company because we have a very different set of industry

and practical experience. Cord Christensen (President and CEO) spent 10 years working in the grocery/drug industry; most of that time was working for Albertson’s. In 1999, he founded a company by the name of Petters Consumer Brands. Petters Consumer Brands manufacturers and distributes consumer electronic products for various well known brands and retailers. We manufacture and distribute all of Polaroid’s consumer electronics products and actually just announced we will acquire Polaroid for $426M. . We are also producing private label plasma and LCD product for Best Buy and Circuit City (see attached product line for Circuit). Art Powell (CTO) spent 22 years with Albertson’s responsible for all in-store systems, networks, front end, inventory, etc. He understands retail systems. Brian Dusho (Vice President of Sales) spent 10 years in the audiovisual, control center/room and broadcast integration market. In 2003, he founded a company named 1-800-AV-NATION to facilitate national deployment projects in North America. 1-800-AV-NATION has a network of 500 locations and 8,000 technicians providing IT infrastructure, audio and video installation services. Brian still maintains a board position with 1-800-AV-NATION.





How would you describe the ideal strategic relationship or partnership with AMG from your perspective, based on what you know about our company? What scope could it have? What would you bring to the partnership? What would you like Ascent to bring to the partnership and what benefits could it provide to your company (beyond the obvious of purchasing your products/services)?

What BroadSign can bring to the AMG partnership: a) We can provide a software suite (DMLS) that was developed to manage content

for Captive Audience Networks using an advertising/media workflow and scheduling system, platform and hardware agnostic, network micromanagement and a scalable rule based delivery system.

b) We can provide hardware for the networks cheaper than anyone decreasing the capital cost of deployment. We can assist by leveraging our factory relationships and act as an agent to buy direct and save 25% - 30% on all hardware.

c) We know retail, electronic retail and grocery retail. This experience allows us to focus our development team on bringing features to the software that will bring the most value to you the network operator, the retailer, and the advertisers.

d) We have solid relationships with Grocery/ Drug Retailers, Mass Market Retailers, Electronic Retailers and an opportunity funnel that could be brought to the team to evaluate, focus and close. (i.e. Petters is currently doing business with Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Target, Costco, Best Buy, Circuit City, Safeway, Kroger, CVS, Rite Aid, etc., etc.)

e) We have deployment relationships that can ensure that the installation of the systems is at budget and on time.

f) We are a well capitalized partner and have the staying power to grow with you and your needs.

7 Pre-existing

Relationships

Do you have any existing relationship with a company that may either hinder or assist a partnership with AMG? Why/how?

a) We see no current or future relationships that would hinder our relationship with AscentMedia, BroasSign has many relationships with various companies that may provide mutual value to both of our companies and would like to explore all relationship possibilities.

b) We feel by creating cross functional partnerships helps us penetrate deeper market share of the Digital Signage arena

c) We are focused primarily on delivering “Best in Class” Digital Signage software focused on world-class workflow; features and accounting requirements, in conjunction with bring other industry disciplines together through mutually beneficial relationships.





8 Existing Client Accounts

Please list your most important client accounts and briefly describe the scope of services provided.

The following are a list of our existing clients: a) Captive Audience – We are providing software and support services for their CAN

network in the deli department of many grocery stores. b) DVD Play – We are providing software, content scheduling, hardware procurement

and support services for their ATM network in McDonald’s locations and grocery/ drug locations.

c) InterMall Media – We are providing software, player PC’s and a leasing programs for hardware in regional malls.

d) Gillespie Stone – We are providing software, hosting, and scheduling services for a pilot in a major United States retailer, potential roll-out of 1,500 stores.

e) Dynacom LLC – We are providing software and service support for their CAN network in Malls (Dubai).





9 Deployment What larger scale deployments has your company provisioned

and in what sort of installation time? Can you provide specifics and examples?

As a new company we do not have any large scale deployments to list. However Arthur Powell has 23 years of project management and large scale deployments as Director of Retail Services with Albertsons Corporation. Art was in charge of Information Systems Accounting, IS budgets, Instillation Services, Electronic Payments & Loyalty, POS and Host Support. His teams planned and deployed >$100,000,000.00 annual equipment budgets along with all installation planning, staging, delivery and setup. 1) One project that was developed managed and deployed by Art and his teams was

a complete retail stored infrastructure cleanup and upgrade of 1100 stores Data File Rooms this included

a. New room construction in some cases b. New clean power with generator backup in some cases c. New PC based hardware for -

i. Wireless backbone ii. Pharmacy iii. Receiving iv. Managers Office v. Electronic Payments

d. New Application Deployment & Training for – i. Wireless ii. Pharmacy iii. Receiving iv. Managers Office v. Electronic Payments

Over 4500 PC’s were deployed along with 2200 access points, 8800 payment terminals, 3300 Laser Printers, 1100 WAN Switches with upgraded telephony circuits and >2000 Local Area Network Switches.





10 Product Roadmap

10.1 What is your future product roadmap? 10.2 How do your customers participate in the roadmap? 10.3 What are your release cycle times?

1) Our future roadmap is almost entirely made up of customer enhancement requests see Attachment C. We are customer focused with our product roadmap thus making our application extremely fluid, we have developed a highly customizable code base using object “Plug-in” architecture that allowed us to meet customer requests expediently. Over the past 10 years of product development this has allow us to build a very customer centric, user friendly and business focused suite of applications “DMA, DMS & DMP” that install and function on a multitude of Hardware, OS and communication platforms while delivering an easy to use intuitive human interface.

2) During the years of developing the code base that makes up Version 4.0 of the Digital Media Logistics Suite BroadSign’s development team has included industry knowledge with over 15 years of functional analysis and practical experience in workflow and functional business design with the product suite. This includes input from customer’s world wide, from Canada, USA, UK to the Arab Emirates. Our application value proposition dictates the entire BroadSign organization remains focused on encouraging our customers to participate in our roadmap by soliciting “Real World” product requests thus keeping the Digital Media Logistics Suite 5 steps ahead of our competitor’s products.

3) Because our development organization took the time to Architect the product suite in a object “Plug-in” design we now strive to turn product enhancement point releases every 30 to 60 days with major version releases on an annual and sometimes semi annual basis





C: RFP Product Requirements/Information Section Three Product

Information Reference Number RFP for Content Management System - Captive Audience Networks


Requirements Section Ascent Question/Issue Area Vendor RFP Answer Area





1 Product Name: Specify the name of the Content Management or

Playback Application Product(s). BroadSign’s Product name is called “Digital Logistics Media Suite” It comprises of 3 components. 1) Digital Media Administrator “DMA” This component runs on a desktop PC Windows

machine and is the human interface into all administrative/management functions a. Network operations and device monitoring b. Content ingesting and management c. Loop availability management d. Media campaign planning and/or selling e. Media campaign trafficking and monitoring

2) Digital Media Server “DMS” This component runs on a single server or server cluster depending on the size of the network, data / content to be delivered and topology requirements. You can install light versions of DMS, called edge servers, throughout the network as well to streamline ISP bandwidth usage. This is done by caching content from the Internet for distribution over LAN.

3) Digital Media Player “DMP” This component runs on the Media Playback PC and can be deployed physically in a remote location within the site or co-located with the Digital Signage Display(s).





2 Technical Specifications / Hardware Platform: Provide your product technical specifications here or in

an attached PDF or other file format. 1) Product technical specifications: See Attachment A. 2) Hardware Platform: BroadSign strives to be hardware agnostic however there are

Minimum Hardware Requirements in order to facilitate the three Digital Media Logistics Suite applications.

a. Digital Media Administrator i. Recommend

1. Celeron 2.0 GHz or higher 2. 256 MB Memory or higher 3. 20 GB Disk or higher 4. Windows XP

b. Digital Media Server i. Recommend

1. Pentium 3.0 or higher 2. 1GB Memory 3. 80 GB Disk 4. Linux, Microsoft, Sun, NetBSD, FreeBSD

c. Digital Media Player i. Recommend

1. Pentium 2.4 or higher 2. 512 MB Memory 3. 80 GB Disk 4. XP Embedded or Linux

The stated hardware requirements are minimum requirements and do not reflect what the requirements that would be deployed base on AscentMedia’s network design and Content to be played. In a separate Hardware Specification Request dated 02-09-05, BroadSign worked with AscentMedia on specific hardware requirements to assist AscentMedia in building a Lab system. BroadSign is committed to helping AscentMedia in developing the optimum hardware requirements based on AscentMedia’s Network topology and player content. As noted in attachment A the Digital Media Logistics Suite Product Technical Specifications; BroadSign’s ability to coexist with many existing network topologies is one of BroadSign’s strengths.





3 Network Configuration Describe network configuration requirements, given

potential units in the thousands, and how this might be configured and monitored. (Question on Remote Monitoring further down list.)

As described in 2 above BroadSign is committed to work with AscentMedia in developing the most cost effective network to minimize capital investment and reoccurring costs. As AscentMedia may be required by the end point site owner to utilize the existing network in order to leverage communication bandwidth cost BroadSign describes in Attachment A the many different network configurations supported by the Digital Media Logistics Suite. Because our Architecture is a “Pull” methodology the micro management of players and play lists is optimized thus allowing minimum resources both hardware and human while allowing you to manage and monitor thousands of displays. From Attachment A Drawing 1 to Drawing 12 show you the network topology configurations that would all you to accomplish supporting large amounts of displays. NOTE: Drawing 12 and 13 both being dial would be the most difficult to construct from a cost perspective, however it could theoretically could be built.

4 OS 4.1 AMG is seeking to work with an application that is

software based and can be installed on third party HW/servers. Operating systems preferred would be Linux and secondly, Microsoft. Please describe how your application does or does meet these preferences. 4.2 Are there any other clients? What OS are they supported on? What are they built on?

1) The playback component (DMP) was specifically architected for that exact purpose. Currently, we have been supporting Windows 2000 and Windows XP Pro for over 2 years. Recently after over a year of quality assurance, we have officially added support our software on the Fedora Core and SuSe Linux distributions as well. In terms of the front-end application (DMA), we currently support only Microsoft. That being said, there is no technical hurdle stopping us from supporting it on those same Linux distributions as the playback component. The standalone server, clustered server and edge server components are supported on Windows Server 2003 as well as Fedora Core and SuSe Linux distributions.

2) Below are the operating system requirements for the playback codecs. a. Macromedia Flash playback is only supported on Windows XP at the moment. b. Web properties are only supported on Windows XP at the moment. c. Windows Media is not supported on any platform due to subsystem instability.

It does function however on Windows XP only d. MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 are supported on both Microsoft and Linux

platforms e. JPEG, PNG and GIF still image formats are supported on both Microsoft and

Linux platforms f. X-Ticker, our hardware accelerated RSS ticker is supported on both Microsoft

and Linux platforms





5 SW API/Integration Support: 5.1 AMG is seeking software development tools to

customize and integrate playlist functionality, workflow, tracking, and management. SW APIs should be cross-platform, extensible. Please describe your products ability to meet these preferences. 5.2 Would your product support AMG's requirement to develop our own GUI's or extend out of the box GUI's to meet AMG customer needs?

1) DML is developed in platform agnostic C++ for maximum portability and performance. Vertical functionality (Operating system and hardware configuration specific) is separate architecturally from horizontal functionality (workflow, representation, storage and networking). The software follows an aggressive plugin design with clearly delineated dependencies between components for the exact purpose of quickly and cleanly responding to customer feedback. At this point, we would prefer integration via “bridge” solutions like a web service API or other APIs that do not require application binary interface (ABI) compatibility. Our application-level protocol is XML based and tunneled through standard SSL.

2) Yes. There are many ways to perform this however, so a definitive solution and strategy would have to be co-developed by our respective software development teams.

6 Integration with 3rd party tools 6.1 What third party applications or products has your

product been integrated with? What benefit might it provide for large in-store opportunity? How and when was the integration completed? 6.2 For content management applications, does the product offer templated authoring of media/content for local (in-store) playback? Or is your product integrated with a similar third party authoring product?

1) From the playback perspective, we have integrated with a. Microsoft’s Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer platform b. Macromedia’s Flash playback platform c. Display devices for monitoring from the playback PC d. In-store inventory and POS are possible, but are not offered in the product at

this time 2) We integrate with Microsoft Internet Explorer and Macromedia Flash. Both web

properties and flash applications allow you to build templates with dynamic content. As an example you could link news and weather in a ticker and keep updated throughout the day as well a store manager would have the ability to schedule content locally.





7 Scalability & Volumes: The product platform must be scalable to accommodate

large volumes of data and transactions, automated monitoring, maintenance, security, reporting, administration and users. What is the basic architecture of your solution and how does it support this requirement?

1) The basic architecture has a cluster of DMS instances sitting between a limited amount of DMA instances and a potentially massive amount of DMP instances. The primary architectural decision that makes the network scalable is the distribution of computational load throughout the network. Instead of the DMS cluster acting as a network master, its role is limited to being definitive authority on the network’s state. The DMA instances modify that definitive state based on input from the user. The DMP instances synchronize their state intermittently with the DMS cluster and derive their behavior from that state by applying business rules to the raw scheduling, content lists and network policies.

2) Below are examples of activities where exact behavior is derived by applying business rules to raw scheduling, content lists and network policies

a. Playlist order (business rule: category separation) b. Content downloading (business rule: algorithm to avoid thundering herd) c. Bundle selection (business rule: download and play perfect fit content based

on the audience’s language and the display’s dimensions) d. Content playback control (business rules: codec selection, positioning on

display, duration of playback)





8 Security: 8.1 Does your product contain an inherent security

solution? If so, please describe the technical specifications. 8.2 The application should allow centralized network monitoring, intrusion detection, and remote access to address issues, etc. Please describe how your product supports these requirements.

1) In an effort to avoid reinventing the wheel, we focused on security directly related to content and scheduling distribution and content playback. Below are the major security considerations in our architecture

a. Control information (scheduling, network policies, etc.) is transmit between applications in an SSL tunnel. SSL provides certificate based authentication, communications privacy through encryption, data injection and tampering prevention, man-in-the-middle prevention,

b. Content is transmit in plaintext, but integrity is verified by comparing a message digest received through the SSL tunnel from the server to one derived right before playback by DMP

c. DMP runs as a Windows service with limited privileges on Windows and through the display manager on Linux. This means that if an attacker had direct access to the computer, he would still have to break the platform’s authentication system to get access

2) DML provides network monitoring in 2 fashions a. Network monitoring (system up, system down, system MIA) for playback

devices. This catches a wide range of issues like hardware failure, software failure, network failure and playback failure.

b. Device monitoring (display has a problem) to enforce display settings and to report display tampering. This catches important issues like display failure, turning off the display, changing the video input setting, etc. This functionality can only work if it is a feature of the display hardware.

There are many existing methods for remote access including RDP and VNC for Windows and SSH for Linux. DML does not provide intrusion detection, but does not interfere with popular tools like Snort for Linux.

9 Digital Rights Management: DRM: Has your product been integrated with any DRM

solution? If so, please describe? We do not integrate with Digital Rights Management at this stage, but our plugin-based architecture combined with our upgrade distribution system means that we have removed the barriers to support DRM in the future.





10 Encryption: Does the application support encryption in any context?

If so, please describe and provide technical details. 1) There are 2 important areas where one would want encryption:

a. Communication between applications on the network b. Local files

For network encryption, that is described in section 8.1. Adding encryption for the content distribution is trivial. For local file encryption, we have the ability to make an add-on that can perform file-based encryption, but this will not add an additional layer of security unless there is human interaction to enter a passphrase.

11 User Profiles and Control: The product should have the ability to limit access to

functionality and data, on or within the application, via a per user-assigned basis. Does your product meet this requirement, and if so, describe?

a) Yes. Access control is accomplished via access control lists (ACL). Each capability in DMA has an associated permission. To simplify access management, we can create an open-ended list of user roles each with a different configuration of permissions. Finally, each user can have a role and additional permissions if required.

b) Permissions are verified in DMA to limit GUI access, but more importantly permissions are verified in DMS to limit read-write access to the information.

12 OEM Technology: Does the product leverage a third party application

server? If so, what databases are supported? Our architecture does not require an application server, however if this is a requirement we will work with you to leverage the architecture. We support a number of databases from SQL, Informix to Oracle just to name a few.





13 Usability: AMG requires that the CMS application provide an easy-

to-use GUI for asset creation, management, workflow, distribution and tracking/project management, as the product will be used by retail industry professionals who may not be technically proficient. Please provide screenshots of your Content Management UI (from content upload to content scheduling) to support this request.

Each of the Content Management functions has lead through setup wizards as illustrated. BroadSign understands the need for ease to use Human Interface and the power a Graphical User Interface brings to assisting end users. Keeping them focused on the job to get accomplished rather than trying to figure out the application. BroadSign will supply a user manual for AscentMedias Lab system when install. This will be a separate file in PDF format. Additional screen shots found on the user manual included in e-mail and CD.

14 Reporting: 14.1 Does the product support data reporting

functionality? AMG will require data reporting on content traffic, scheduling, playlists, down-equipment (servers and players particularly), etc. 14.2 Will your product support API functions, allowing AMG to develop their own reports? 14.3 Please describe integration with third party reporting applications such as Chrystal or Accentuate.

1) Yes. There are exception reports for monitoring (device and network), daily proof of play reports (sorted by date, content, device, and location), reports for viewing loop availability; per-display scheduling, per-play downloads.

2) Yes, as described in question 5. 3) Currently our raw data in stored in a SQL database which can be interfaced with those

products. We suggest interfacing with a clone or backup of the main data server to reduce the possibility of corrupting the database. We will work with AMG to define exactly what information needs to be exported for this integration to be to AMG’s satisfaction.





15 Functionality -Content Authoring & Ingest: 15.1 Do you have a GUI and solution for content

creation and authoring? Please describe. 15.2 For asset upload and packaging? Please describe this process. 15.3 Specify if multiple users can access the system remotely and/or simultaneously.

1) This is not part of our product. We support industry leading products from Microsoft, Adobe and Macromedia for example.

2) Assets are uploaded for distribution on the network through the DMA application. Content can be ingested through simple drag-and-drop or through wizard based entry. Assets are associated to what we call a customer (represents a content provider e.g. an advertiser) and are distributed through the network once they are scheduled under the scope of a media campaign. If many assets are required for a particular message for a multi-lingual campaign or a campaign that targets displays or various aspect ratios, then they are packaged together in a bundle which is also associated to a customer. The playback software selects the best fit asset based on its profile.

3) Yes. DMA is specifically designed for usage by multiple users simultaneously. All users see the results of other users’ changes. The last change to a shared resource is the one that is kept.

16 Functionality -Browse/Search: How are assets in the system accessed? Are proxies

automatically generated? What type of search functionality is supported?

1) Asset access and proxies a. Once ingested into DMA, proxies named ad copies are automatically

generated for new assets. Ad copies are organized in DMA under content provider’s accounts (called customers in DML). Ad copies can be also be grouped in folders.

b. Ad copies are where one can change the meta data on an asset or download it directly for playback using DMA’s preview functionality. DMA’s preview functionality is implemented using an embedded DMP instance. Therefore preview’s behavior is almost identical to the DMP proper.

c. If an asset is not available for playback when it is needed, DMP connects to the DMS cluster and downloads the asset. Once it is local, it can be played back. All download assets are stored in /C:\Documents and Settings\/YourUserName/\Application Data\DMLAdministrator\content/ where YourUserName is the name of your logged in Windows user.

2) Search functionality a. Search by ID b. Search by descriptive name





17 Functionality -Metadata Management 17.1 Describe the metadata attributes to audio, video

and/or graphics or animation files. 17.2 How is metadata managed in the solution? How is metadata extended or customized?

1) Currently, the metadata is: a. User defined name b. MIME type (JPEG, MPEG, etc.) c. Language d. Dimensions e. Unique numeric ID

2) Metadata is entered, read and modified through DMA. Metadata can be extended and customized in 2 ways:

a. Development by BroadSign to extend its software based on your requirements b. Through networked distribution of the assets. Each asset is named using its

unique ID and MIME type when distributed throughout the network. By using a hot folder monitor on the content repository, one can keep track of the same assets through a different application in a different database using those unique IDs as identifiers.

18 Functionality -Workflow Management Does your product support any means of

workflow/process management? If not, are you open to integration of workflow management applications? Which third party workflow tools have you considered or reviewed?

a) Our software is designed to be extremely flexible and efficient at stages of the broadcasting workflow. Some of the flow is customizable through options (some steps are automated for simpler networks). Presentation of the application is also customizable to remove unused functionality from DMA. This means we can build different packages of DMA for different roles.

b) Yes. See integration options in question 5. c) Ad Sales.

19 Functionality -Playlists and Scheduling AMG requires the CMS application support scheduling

and playlist prioritization, as well as ability to make revisions to playlists currently in playback. Please describe how your product supports this requirement.

This feature is fully supported; play lists are set at the start of loop iterations. Schedule prioritization is set through the schedule weight property in the Schedule properties dialog.





20 Distribution How does your application integrate or support file

distribution over Terrestrial IP, and Satellite IP? How is the distribution managed? Does it integrate with applications such as KenCast Fazzt?

a) Content and control information can be distributed over terrestrial IP and satellite IP with no problems. Files are ingested through the DMS cluster and dropped to a central content repository. On demand, each file is unicast by the DMS cluster or an edge server down to either a playback PC or another edge server. The way we currently integrate with satellite IP is through a 3^rd party satellite multicast distribution framework like KenCast Fazzt. We are also working on native multicast support (expected release date: Q3 2005).

b) Currently, downloads are on demand. The playback PC prioritizes its downloads based on the urgency of the content (so content that is needed sooner is downloaded before content that is needed later). Throttling and scheduling of bandwidth can currently be achieved through network routers like Cisco or in the operating system like with Linux.

c) Yes, using the hot folder functionality and broadcasting to the content folders on the edge server





21 Operational Upgrades, Support & Remote Access 21.1 AMG requires long term Customer SLA and

Maintenance Support Agreements. What versions of your support agreements would apply to this business opportunity given a large scale opportunity? 21.2 AMG requires streamlined system and software upgrades in order to reliably maintain operating units, numbered in the thousands. How frequent would you estimate system and software upgrades? How would you propose servicing/delivering those upgrades considering the security requirements? 21.3 Does your product offer remote admin system access to allow troubleshooting and/or escalation capabilities? Can tasks such as log retrieval, content management/expiration, security maintenance, monitoring, troubleshooting, etc. be remotely performed in your current product? 21.4 How is system backed up? Can this be automated?

1) See attached Service Catalogue for the standard level of services offered. A customized service proposal would be developed to facilitate the specific needs and requirements for large scale projects.

2) Digital Media Logistics Suite has automatic upgrade capabilities and the file

distributions is built into the secure transfer facilities utilized by the content delivery mechanism

a. Software version point releases occur on a 30 to 60 day cycle and full releases are annual to semi annual. Because BroadSign offers the Digital Media Logistics Suite in an ASP model all application enhancements are kept up-dated as they are released.

b. As stated all software delivered by way of the same file distribution as the content / administration functions.

3) Yes: As stated in question 8 above Digital Media Logistics Suite utilizes standard tools

from Windows and Linux related to delivering requirements stated in 21.3. 4) On the Central Server you can configure Raid on each node of the cluster, as well as

on the data server. Due to the criticality of the content server we suggest using a hot spare or clone.

22 Functionality -Digital Asset Management: Has this product been integrated with DAM archive

solutions, to the extent that it becomes part of a customer's workflow, which may provide additional business in preparing content and other services?

Not at this time. Integration is possible through the options outlined in the answer to question 17.





23 Functionality -Other: 23.1 Localization & Versioning: Can multiple versions of

a given asset be saved and tracked? How is this accomplished? Can assets be localized (i.e. metadata) for specific screens? 23.2 Languages: What languages are supported? 23.3 Video Assemblage: Can user specific reels be created out of various video clips?

1) Yes, each piece of the content is versioned and tracked through the Digital Media Logistics Suite.

2) Of the content, or the application? a. Content is anything language you want at any player or playlist. b. Application features English visible text. French localization has been

discussed off and on again. 3) We do not fully understand the question, because you use the work assemble we

assume you are asking for the ability to take two or more Video files and put them together into one file. We do not support functions that are preformed in a video studio we could be off in understanding your question and apologize for not being able to fully answer it.

24 Pricing Model: 24.1 Describe pricing options/structure given projected

install base of 1000 - 2000 player devices. Is this a license fee structure? Does this pricing include all components (i.e. database, application server...)? Please provide detail. 24.2 As we increase the number of clients deployed, how would prices scale? Please provide price breaks for 3000 and 5000 player devices deployed 24.3 If outsource service is available, what is the service model pricing? If professional services are available, what is their pricing? Please be clear and concise on pricing model. Provide separate attachment if needed.

1) Our pricing model for the software is a monthly charge per player/channel that includes the DMLS (Digital Media Logistics Suite). The DMLS consists of the administrator, player and server software. Also included in this pricing is the hosting and bronze level service. Please see attached price list.

2) Please see Attachment B “Advertising Sales Model Price List

3) We provide three levels of service: bronze, gold and silver. Bronze level service is included in our monthly fees. Gold and Silver can be provided for additional fees outlined in the attached price list. Any additional services can be provided but would need to be defined to provide pricing. Please see attached service catalogue.





25 Billing/ E-commerce 25.1 Does your product support any billing, tracking

abilities?

25.2 Does your product support transactional e-commerce? If not, has it been integrated with any e-commerce product?

1) Yes. Successful playback of any piece of content is recorded and stored in our proof of play database. Digital Media Logistics Suite records the asset ID, metadata and other contextual information for mining and reporting purposes later on. Repetition counts per file, per player, per location from all playback devices on the network are sent daily via email to an open ended list of contacts. This raw information can plug into a 3^rd party database.

2) Digital Media Logistics Suite runs through the transaction reservation system which is designed for the buying & selling time on the network. It has not been integrated with e-commerce products at this time. BroadSign has done some initial research and feels that this is not that hard of an issue if required.

26 Proprietary IP, Patents & Co-Ownership of IP 26.1 Please describe any proprietary IP/Patents owned

by your company 26.2 Describe AMG's ability to establish ownership over functionality designed by AMG -as an option.

1) There are currently a number of intellectual property designs and methods being reviewed for patents and copyrights.

2) BroadSign will grant exclusivity of a feature/function however ownership of a feature/function implies sharing company revenue from a feature/function that works with our base Digital Media Logistics Suites intellectual property and methods.

a. BroadSign is flexible in our approach to custom developed applications; so if the customer wants to build an entirely separate application that interacts with the Digital Media Logistics Suite and hire BroadSign to develop the application then terms of ownership marketing and sales would be discussed and agreed to prior.

b. If the customer wants exclusivity of a module that is specific to there business process and would not be used by other existing or potential BroadSign customers and that customer pays for development, then we have no problem with allowing the customer to retain exclusivity of that module.

c. If the customer has a feature/function that BroadSign feels should be included in the base product BroadSign will develop it at no cost to the customer.

27 NAS / SAN support: What external storage applications are supported? Are

there any upper limits? All files are stored in regular folders whose destination is configurable. As long as your NAS/SAN solution integrates transparently into the operating system’s file system structure, there are no upper limits.





D: RFP Product Requirements/Information - 2

Section Four PI Amended 02-13-2005 Amendment to RFP

Please provide with previously submitted RFP RFP for Content Management System - Captive

Audience Networks Sent to: Requirements Area Ascent

Question/Issue Area Vendor RFP Answer Area Amended Items Added 2/15:

28 Support for Portrait Screen Orientation 28.1 Explain if your products, in both software (via content

authoring and management), and playback (via hardware output configuration), support portrait/vertical screen displays. 28.2 Provide details on how metadata entry and/or technical configurations around content identification and playback supports vertically displayed content and various aspect ratios.

1) Yes, this is supported with proper hardware; assuming a DU uses a Display Type with a vertical resolution matching the portrait screen’s resolution, than we do not see any obstacles.

2) Display unit/display unit types and frames are used to manage this. Information is

stored in the DU’s Display Type, where the resolution is set. Identification is made in two places: Portrait Display Types can be targeted during the Reservation creation process, and ad copies with the best match in terms of dimensions are chosen from a bundle by the DML Player





29 Business Rules Associated with Content Playlist Configuration:

A key requirement from AMG is the ability to support pre-identified business rules when creating content playlists. Business rules would define where (by channel, store or region, etc) and when (times of day or days of the month, etc.) specifically identified content (including targeted advertising) should play. To what extent does your SW/workflow support the automated generation of playlists based on business rules?

a) DML Player supports automatic loop transformation through plugins. Plugins can be created to implement different playlist transformation strategies, such as the Category Separation strategy available on the current version. All mentioned are currently available.

a. If this is inventory triggers.

i. We can apply transformation strategies to get the desired effects. ii. If not, all of this is supported out of the box.





30 Functionality: Metadata & Schedulng of Content, Advertising and Live Broadcasts

30.1 Describe how your application supports the scheduling of content types and explain the metadata in your content management application that can be associated to any content type. 30.2 Describe the functionality of how content types (such as advertising vs. store related promotions vs. other) are scheduled in a multichannel environments? 30.3 Describe how live broadcasts can be scheduled. 30.4 Describe how a playlist under current playback can be interrupted remotely for updates/revisions to the playlist and rescheduled. If this sort of scheduling interruption were to occur, how does it happen seamlessly without interruption to the displayed media under current playback?

1) Content is represented within the DML network as Ad Copy resources, which themselves are scheduled in the same fashion irrespective of the type of media. Different versions of one ad copy are grouped together in a Bundle resource, which is inserted in a schedule. DML Player chooses the best matched Ad Copy to display from the bundle according to the dimension and language properties, and displays it according to its MIME type and the bundle's maximum duration. Ad copy properties include its MIME type which describes the file format of the content, its original filename at the time that it was ingested to the content repository, its dimensions, its language and its checksum for verification upon being downloaded by the player. Furthermore, through the bundle it has been assigned to, it will have maximum playtime duration and a category that can be taken into consideration when creating the playlist. In the upcoming 4.1 release, ad copies will also have an approval status which describes whether it has been approved by a user with the sufficiently high status, and bundles will possess the property of being specified as allowed to veto the maximum slot duration.

2) Channels are scheduled to via Campaigns. Channel's have loops which are divided into slots. A reservation can be made to lock down a slot in multiple loops. These slots are all thus reserved by this campaign. The user can then create campaign schedules which are assigned to all the reserved channel slots at once. Channels can be classified by their Display Type and by their location in the network hierarchy, which are both criteria that can be specified in the reservation process. In version 4.1, custom criteria can also be created and assigned to the channels.

3) Live broadcast scheduling is not easily achievable and more info would be required on the format of the live broadcasts.

4) New schedule information is received at the player's next polling instance and applied immediately. If new content is involved in the new scheduling information, the player will begin downloading the content. If the content has not been downloaded yet when its turn in the loop comes, the player skips ahead to the next ad.





Attachment A Technical Specifications

Attachment A Technical Specifications The intent of Attachment A is to explain the different communication topologies that the BroadSign Digital Logistics Suite can accommodate.

Satellite With High BandwidthPrivate Network Terrestrial Back Channel &

Content Server Outside Firewall,Media Player Collocated With Display

TerrestrialPrivate Network

LAN

High Level Attachment A Drawing 1

BroadSign

Private SatelliteNetwork

Firewall

`

“DMA”Digital Media Logistics Administrator “DMA”runs on Windows XP and can reside in any

physical location as long as it has communication connectivity to the Content

Server. This can be on the same LAN, Internet or Private Network.

This diagram depicts it running through the Internet

FirewallInternet LAN

Display with Digital Media Player “DMP”

Display with Digital Media Player “DMP”

Configuration 1

Firewall

Content Server(s)“DMS”





Attachment B Price List Advertising Sales Model Price List Primary Display Price List-Software______________________________________________________________________________ Feb-05 Currency: $USD

SOFTWARE SUBSCRIPTION Regular DMLS Player Software subscription fees per primary display Number of Primary

Displays No term 24 months 36 months 48 months 60 months 1-250

251-750

751-2,000

2,001-5,000

5,000+

$100.00

$95.00

$90.00

$85.00

$85.00

$80.00

$75.00

$70.00

$75.00

$70.00

$65.00

$60.00

$65.00

$60.00

$55.00

$50.00

$55.00

$50.00

$45.00

$40.00

$35.00

One time activation fee $20.00 Optional Managed Services Price per primary display

Silver Managed Services

Gold Managed Services

$8.00

$16.00





Attachment C Roadmap: 1 Video Capture Allow for the scheduling of content coming from a live feed. (i.e. cable TV, satellite TV, DVD / tape player) 2 Schedulable Poll,

and download Minimize bandwidth impact on network. Have control of time frames from administrator.

3 Schedulable Frames

Separating frame layouts from display units and adding a loop of frame layouts to the display unit which must respect a loop policy. This will be for operators that needs to display different add layouts in one loop policy.

4 Volume Control Have the ability to set the volume on of a player based on the hardware configuration by content. 5 Web Property

templates, and content catalog

Provide basic templates for dynamic content and basic content for use in start-up and filler content situations.

6 Improved/Added reports:

Edge server / Player content download report, Third part proof of play PDF.

7 Default Content Play list

Allow for the use of generic content in the situation that a loop is not filled to a certain point. This will help to limit the possibility of a short high repetitive loop. Also this could be used to guarantee loop length and ad copy play frequency.

8 Number of Screens, and Planned Repetitions

Reservation wizard would return the number of screens, and the planned repetitions so that end customer would be aware of exactly what they are buying.

9 Triggered loop transformation

Allow network operators to have the ability to switch between loop policies at a location(s). Also allow for external plugs to control this on a store level such as a fire alarm or public warning service.

10 Specialized Network Grouping

Make special grouping inside the organizational tree structure. (example: in an organizational structure laid out by DMA and location, you could create a special group of the top 10% stores or special groups for the different store sizes / products offered / demographics)