mr. MSG (pronounced: Mister Message) is a Narrow Casting company that makes targeted television and facilitates Narrow Casting networks. Narrow Casting offers companies new commercial capabilities for communicating with their customers via interactive video screens in the shop, on the shelves or in hotels, restaurants and cafes. This is an important moment for communication, considering that more than 70% of the purchasing decisions are made at the 'point of sale'.

In 2005, mr. MSG started a cooperative venture with ON., which was founded by Sony, Heineken and others. ON. is an interactive multimedia network for hotel, restaurant and cafe locations. Flat screens and projectors connected to this at the various locations are linked via an IP connection to a central image database.

Through ON. a unique 'customised' channel is assembled for each location. According to the profile of the location, at any time of the day the right material is shown on the screen that caters to the requirements of the audience targeted at a specific time and location. With a rapidly increasing number of locations in the Netherlands, ON. reaches hundreds of thousands of people in the 18-35 year age category every week.


The situation
The Narrow Casting solution offered by mr. MSG requires one or more players at the location to be connected to an external database. VGA extenders are used to transmit the images from the players to the screens. The screens are connected to the VGA extenders by UTP cables. In this application, VGA cables couldn't be used because this type of cable can only be used over a limited distance.

In addition, it is not easy to install VGA cable in hotel, restaurant and cafe locations because the cable is thicker and less flexible than UTP cable. An additional advantage is that UTP cable is cheaper than VGA cable, so that the VGA extenders pay for themselves.


The products
A Black Box Tech Support engineer visited the location to discuss the possibilities and limitations. Mr. MSG decided to install the recommended products in a test environment to discover how acceptable they would be in reality.

VGA extenders were chosen to bridge the required distances. The VGA extenders (AC555A) passed the test with flying colours and were used for a first project within Heineken Breweries TV.

The same products were then also used for other ON. customers. Four TV outputs are available at each location. Because a maximum of 16 flat screens can be found at several locations, VGA video splitters (AC1056-2/-4) were also used.


Why Black Box
Mr. MSG is very satisfied with Black Box's proactive attitude and their knowledge of narrowcasting.
In addition, they also appreciate the fact that Black Box keeps them informed about new products that are a better solution in the above described application. Consequently, a new model of VGA extender came out this spring that was cheaper than the module used before and offered more functionality. The new model offers extra VGA outputs, so more screens can be connected.

Mr. MSG chose Black Box because of its quality products that fit the requirements of mr. MSG perfectly. They can quickly obtain the articles they need from Black Box. Because mr. MSG supports the ON. applications night and day, it's also reassuring that they can contact Black Box Tech Support 24 hours a day.


Mr D. Bleker, project manager at mr. MSG about Black Box:
"mr. MSG has taken the lead in Narrow Casting and is therefore continuously looking for ways to improve the technology. Black Box actively thinks along with us and is well informed about new products and developments. The technicians in our technical department see Black Box as an interesting sparring partner who always has the right solution."