Customers // Case Studies - Inova Solutions
Inova Solutions is a global provider of real-time visual communication solutions. Founded in 1984, Inova pioneered real-time performance monitoring in contact centers. Since then, Inova has expanded its solutions to serve applications including mass notification and public messaging. From call centers to public transit systems and crisis communication on university campuses, Inova provides the fastest and most effective way to communicate to a wide, dispersed audience. Inova’s electronic LED signage and powerful software are important parts of a multi-layered approach to real-time visual communications.
The Challenge:
Inova Solutions needed to upgrade its well-established line of large-format, high-brightness LED wallboard displays with 802.3af Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) technology and the latest generation Intel embedded processors. Inova required that the entire LED wallboard - including the large-scale, high-brightness LED matrix - receive its data and power from a single external Ethernet cable using PoE technology. But meeting the 13-watt power budget of 802.3af required a low power single board computer (SBC) with on-board PoE support, and a new low-power LED graphics controller.
By eliminating the need to run AC power to each wallboard, PoE technology promised to drastically reduce installation and operation costs, while enabling other major benefits such as centralized power backup and power management and diagnostics. But the technical and cost challenges presented significant hurdles during the product development phase.
Adding to the challenge, Inova required that they manufacture the SBC themselves, instead of relying on a third party for a sole-sourced, critical component of its LED wallboard product line. While the direct production requirement could have been met with a fully custom in-house design, Inova’s development budget constraints and quick time to market requirements precluded the custom approach. Inova required the IP ownership of a fully custom design at the low development cost and quick time to market of an off-the-shelf product.
“ADI’s unique combination of their Open IP business model and latest-generation Intel-based off-the-shelf SBCs was the perfect fit for our demanding technical and business requirements,” said Larry Moulis, Chief Technology Officer at Inova. “ADI’s SBC met our requirements exactly, at far lower cost and risk than a traditional fully-custom product could have provided, and the Open IP model allowed Inova to meet its critical objective of direct manufacturing that other COTS vendors did not support.”
The Solution:
ADI’s COTS embedded SBCs provided an excellent fit for Inova’s needs, including the latest embedded Intel CPUs, on-board PoE support, low cost and easy expandability. Since ADI’s standard SBC already provided the required microprocessor, communications, and PoE functions, Inova’s limited development budget could be focused on features that truly added value to their application, and Inova engaged ADI to implement their proprietary LED graphics control technology on a plug-in module for the standard SBC. And ADI’s Open IP business model enabled a seamless transition to Inova’s factory, openly providing the direct manufacturing of ADI’s COTS SBC required by Inova, under license from ADI. The end products - the Inova OnTrack™ and Inova OnAlert™ series LED wallboards - are seeing widespread usage in call centers, transit applications, and university campus-wide crisis communication systems.