NEW YORK, N.Y. - Digital View announced in a news release a series of technology advances that expand viewing options, improve content quality and upgrade system capabilities for users of its digital media network platform.

Digital View's latest innovations include split-screen capability, RSS-type newsfeeds, multi-user support, and improved playlist scheduling capabilities.

"These advances underscore the continued evolution in the digital media sector from content distribution to content creation and management, in response to the increasingly diverse and sophisticated needs of digital media network users," said Stu Armstrong, chief operating officer for Digital View's U.S. operations. "Network users gain improved command, control and targeting from their systems, while consumers benefit from a more informative and engaging viewing experience."

The new split-screen feature gives retailers and other digital media network users the ability to reach consumers through a multi-interface screen comprised of a background image, a video window and an RSS-type newsfeed area.

The system, which works off of Digital View's RemoteTransfer Internet-based digital media network management environment, enables users to create and schedule live, dynamic and updateable content, simply by using a Web-based interface.

Network users run separate playlists for the image, video and text windows, allowing a wide range of flexible programming to be displayed. A sample split-screen format might include a TV ad campaign running side-by-side with a product image in the background, along with streaming news or weather reports via RSS.

As a sub-set of the split-screen feature, the RSS-type newsfeed capability gives users of Digital View's digital media network the ability to incorporate up-to-date information to capture in-store attention.

For example, a retailer catering to the healthcare or pharmacy segment could use the RSS feed to automatically gather and display the latest OTC and health-related news, inform about relevant industry business developments, educate about safe dosage or communicate product recall news, all drawn from various health-related news sources and Web content that feed the RSS pipeline.

Recent enhancements to Digital View's RemoteTransfer software enable access rights to content management to be assigned to any number of individuals. This capability empowers a local store manager, for instance, with the ability to tailor his or her own in-store messaging. Local users are granted some predetermined level of access rights to the network, to tailor communications and messaging to meet their local requirements and market needs.

Approved users of the network can choose playlists, upload files, control the volume of the digital unit, change other settings and view programming logs. The access rights for these users can be determined on an individual basis and can be changed, deactivated or reactivated at any given time.

The RemoteTransfer software also provides users with the flexibility to schedule playlists during various dayparts using a simple graphical user interface, rather than manually having to change programming to meet their needs during different parts of the day.

A retailer who wishes to deliver different messages to different kinds of shoppers who come in during store hours can use this scheduling feature to re-purpose their network. This repurposing could even include the ability to program special training sessions on the digital screens for a store's employees, to prepare for a targeted sales push, product offerings or a retailer's specific training needs.