Elly Yates-Roberts |
Scanning and display device manufacturer Opticon launched the new Smart Base Station EBS-50 at NRF 2022. The solution enables retailers to update electronic shelf labels (ESLs) with new product information in real time.
The EBS-50 device connects with wireless ESLs, hosts the ESL Web Server software and can support databases that are fully externally hosted, fully internally hosted or a hybrid of the two, which allows retailers to maintain control of all product information, logs and data.
Opticon has developed EBS-50 with an updated ESL Web Server, which features a web interface to enable retailers to use any smart device with a browser to connect to the software and manage their ESLs. The ESL Web Server also provides users with an overview of their ESLs and product database, and connects ESLs to specific products to show pricing information, product barcodes, descriptions, unit sizes and stock amounts.
“ESL Web Server does this by using templates that translate the text-based information from the database into a fully customisable image,” said Vidya Gangaram Panday, marketing manager at Opticon. “You can leverage conditions like product groups, price cuts and allergy information that you have in the database. Whenever the product data changes, the ESL Web Server will automatically update any and all ESLs that are affected by the change, allowing for up-to-date information.”
The ESL Web Server also uses Microsoft’s .NET, which allows it to be run on various operating systems such as Windows, Linux, Mac, as well as different processors.
As a custom-built device, the hardware contains both a dedicated Linux micro-computer with custom Linux OS and Opticon’s own Base Station, the wireless access point for its ESLs. Panday says: “This provides customers with an all-in-one solution. This single device can communicate with and give orders to all ESLs in a store, while a fully customisable database connection maintains the latest information available for the labels.”