X20 Media announced the launch of version 5.5 of its popular X20 platform for digital signage and employee communications. As a visual communications solution, the platform is intended to streamline and enhance the day-to-day activities of an enterprise visual communications network.

The X20 Portal is used to access the platform and is now clothed in a modern graphical-user interface. The new streamlined appearance incorporates solid color, flat-design elements, grid-style layouts and reduced overall clutter. It’s now much simpler for users to create and manage media-rich channels for play out on all types of screens including digital displays, video walls, tablets and smartphones.

“We've redesigned our award-winning X2O platform to create an extremely intuitive user experience,” said David Wilkinsm, X2O Media President. “Our goal has been to enable anyone to create TV-like channels featuring 3D animations and links to various data sources including databases, SharePoint content and content on social media sites, without needing the skillset of a graphic designer or software developer. Accessible from anywhere and able to publish channels to any screen, version 5.5 has significantly simplified the end-to-end workflow.”

The upgrade touched on all aspects of the solution with an extensive workflow redesign process. This covers many tasks including those related to managing assets, designing channels of content, scheduling content on players and creating campaigns.

The Asset Manager now includes improved review and approval tools, enabling content managers to control the quality of assets and review content in a more structured and process-driven manner. A redesigned Schedule Manager makes it much easier to schedule events to occur at the player level, review the players assigned to a selected schedule or assign additional players using a simple drag-and-drop interface. The new Campaign Manager allows users to create better advertising and promotional campaigns with a color-coded grid system. It also gives network operators and advertisers a quick overview of their campaigns and allows them to target ads to appear on specific players and identify which slots are available to sell more ads.

The last major improvement to the platform is a new Channel Designer that now includes an enhanced object browser with a search box and a new Animation Timeline (News – Alert), which lets users animate elements of a channel over time with a drag-and-drop keyframe editor. This allows users to create communications that have a more dramatic impact and feature ultra-smooth broadcast-quality playback.

All current customers of the X20 cloud-based service will receive a free upgrade to version 5.5 of the X20 platform, although the company warns there may be fees generated by any necessary additional training or system customization. The upgraded version will be displayed Nov. 5-6 at Customer Engagement World 2014 in New York City.