The NoodleGate display controller

The NoodleGate display controller is a solution that abstracts away all the complexities that come with implementing support for various digital signage hardware.

It takes away the need to use proprietary SDK’s and implement proprietary communication protocols and provides an open communications protocol and framework which makes it very easy for you to integrate digital signage hardware into your solutions.

It’s packed with tons of features to meet all your digital signage requirements.
Here are some, but far from all, the features of the NoodleGate display controller:

• Support for multiple transports (Ethernet, Wifi, 2G/4G, RS232, etc…)
• An easy to use, yet highly efficient communication protocol
• GPS support to enable location aware behaviors
• Sensor support (Humidity, Temperature, Brightness, etc…)
• Led Error Detection
• Asynchronous and autonomous operation and behaviors (events, triggers, …)
• Instant error detection and feedback
• Support for TrueType fonts (WYSIWYG)
• A hardware accelerated rendering engine with support for layering and transparancy
• Hardware/Vendor independent (ColorLight, NovaStar, XiXun, etc…)
• Clients are not required to use an SDK or other closed source binaries

Vendor Compatibility

We work together with display controller vendors such as NovaStar, ColorLight and XiXun in order to replace their firmware with the NoodleGate display controller firmware. We handle all the nitty gritty details of the various hardware implementations and provide you with a single, hardware independent, open and easy-to-use, solution.

Open Communication Protocol

The NoodleGate display controller uses a fully documented, open communication protocol which enables you to control, configure and debug the controller remotely via any of the supported transport methods.

When you use the NoodleGate display controller:

• You don’t need to rely on a binary SDK in order to communicate with the controller
• You are not limited to a specific operating system
• You are not limited to a specific hardware architecture (x86-64, ARM, etc…)

Source Code Generation

The source code to implement the NoodleGate display controller protocol can be generated automatically for a large number of programming languages. This eliminates potential implementation issues and can reduce your time-to-market significantly.

Supported languages include C, C++, C#, F#, Java, Python, Haskell, Perl, Ruby, Clojure, Lisp, Dart, Objective-C, Delphi, Erlang, Go, Kotlin, Lua, Scala, TypeScript, Visual Basic and many more.

The source code generators and the generated code are completely open source which means you are free to review, edit and audit the generated code without restrictions.

Reference Client

We provide a reference client that allows to design layouts, configure the controllers, debug the controllers and manage files on the controllers. It runs on Windows, Linux and MacOS. It uses the same open communications protocol as we provide to you which means your software can do anything this reference software can do and more.

This reference client is useful for:

• Customers who manage a small number of screens
• Operators who install and repair displays
• Developers who want to learn about our system
• Designers who want to design layouts

You can use the NoodleGate display controller with just this software, you can combine this software with your own applications or you can choose not to use this software at all. It’s completely up to you.

For example, imagine you’re building a score board for a sports event which you want to be able to update using a mobile phone. You could develop a full blown client that handles everything or you could use the reference software to design a good looking layout, save it on the controller and use the mobile app to simply update the data in that layout.

Since you can automatically generate the code for the communication protocol and because you don’t have implement layout design in the mobile app, you’d have a fully working prototype in no time.

Other benefits

Hardware independance and openness brings along many benefits

Reducing complexity and cost

The NoodleGate display controller allows you to simplify solutions and reduce cost

A common solution today may look like this:

Here we have an LED panel housing with an LED controller, industrial PC and a 3G modem connected to a backend service on a private mobile network. The industrial PC is responsible for rendering the content (HDMI output) and controls the LED controller using a propriatery, closed source, binary SDK. The entire solution is then controlled remotely via terminal services, vnc or in the best case another communication protocol.

Including the industrial PC increases the cost, add weight to the total solution and adds another potential point of failure (especially if the PC is running a full blown OS).

This kind of solution requires you to deal with the display controller hardware vendors directly, which is often complicated by cultural and language differences. (Poorly translated SDK/API documentation, slow communication, etc…)

It also prevents you from switching/mixing hardware from different vendors or even different hardware from the same vendor.

With the NoodleGate display controller the solution could be simplified to look like this:

There is no longer any need to put an industrial PC inside the LED panel housing. Everything can be controlled remotely and the controller can continue to operate and handle certain tasks autonomously, even when there is no connection.

Note that the use of a backend is NOT required, it is simply included here as an example.

Mixing hardware and supporting other types of screens

Because the NoodleGate display controller abstracts away the vendor/hardware implementation details you could build the following network:

A single backend/client can control LED, TFT and e-ink panels at the same time using the same open protocol for all of them.

Mixing client and controller protocol versions

You can mix clients and controllers with different versions of the protocol:

In other words: there is full backward and forward compatibility.

This means:

• You can upgrade display controllers one by one without breaking the solution
• You can upgrade clients one by one without breaking the solution
• Clients of any version can connect to display controllers of any version

Imagine you have a large network of controllers and want to try a new version. Instead of upgrading all the controllers at once you could upgrade a small percentage of the controllers as a trail. Existing clients can still communicate with those controllers while clients using the updated protocol can be used to test new features.

In a different scenario some or all clients could be upgraded to the latest version of the protocol even before newer versions of the controller firmware are deployed. Everything just keeps working.

Integration

We can help you integrate the NoodleGate display controller solution into your existing solutions or help you implement completely new solutions. We offer anything from technical support to full fledged implementations. Desktop clients, mobile clients, backend services, etc…

We can also add protocol adapters in order to let the NoodleGate display controller use your existing communication protocols.

This allows you to continue using your existing backend and client software and gradually migrating to the full NoodleGate display controller solution.