Command Center Relay Appliance Overview ~ Digital Signage Software, Design, Schedule and Deploy Digital Signage, CommandCenterHD

Command Center Relay Appliance Overview

What is a CCRS?

CCRS-RA, pronounced "Chris", stands for Command Center Relay Appliance and is a purpose-built relay appliance developed specifically for Industry Weapon's CommandCenterHD (CCHD) Platform. CCRS-RA is the bridge between CCHD and the Cisco Digital Media Players (DMP's) that are attached to your displays.

Why Do I Need It?

The benefits of CCRS are several - the two most important being reduced network intrusion and improved asset management.

Network Friendly
Rather than having to "poke" a multitude of holes in your firewall (think one hole per DMP), CCRS-RA allows for one outbound connection for your entire network of DMP's to the CommandCenterHD server in the sky. This results in less overall bandwidth usage, less IT involvement and less network maintenance for your digital signage initiative.

In deployments covering multiple locations, a "Master" CCRS-RA can be installed within a centralized data center with "Edge" CCRS-RA's installed within each location requiring digital signage. In this scenario, the Master CCRS-RA acts as the main caching and distribution server for commands and media assets coming from your CommandCenterHD account, while an Edge CCRS-RA resides on the DMP's local network where it intelligently distributes content for the DMP's based on your campaign, media and deployment schedules. This greatly reduces the number of open ports and bandwidth required to run your digital signage network.

Intelligent Media Distribution
CCRS-RA incorporates an asset management feature called Intelligent Media Distribution (IMD) that synchronizes each DMP on your network with the local CCRS-RA. IMD gives each DMP the assets it needs based on your digital signage requirements. CCRS-RA also handles capacity overflow for the DMP in the event it reaches storage capacity. If capacity is reached, CCRS-RA acts as a local streaming server and distributes content for the campaigns scheduled to appear on your displays. Additionally, as files age and lose relevance, CCRS-RA's IMD removes those assets from the DMP and stores them on its hard drive for future use.

Click here to download the relay appliance cutsheet.

FAQs

How many DMP's can one CCRS-RA support?
Each CCRS-RA is capable of supporting up to 100 DMP's.

Is the connection to CommandCenterHD secure?
Yes. Connections to CCHD from CCRS-RA run over HTTPS (port 443) and port 26.

Is CCRS-RA a commercial-grade unit?
Yes. Both versions of the CCRS-RA are commercial-grade products and are perfectly suitable for enterprise and small business applications. Network diagrams can be made available upon request.