Flypaper for Digital Signage Review

I have been spending a lot of time recently with Flypaper's Digital Signage content creation software and thought I would share my experience.

First off, I have to say this product is really great for rapid Flash content development.  Anyone can create compelling, high-quality content regardless of their technical skill level or creative expertise.

Beginners can rely on an extensive template library that ships with the product and I am told Flypaper will soon be providing access to an online content store where users can share and even sell their custom designed templates.  This can prove to be extremely useful to novice users or small screen network operators who lack access to in-house talent.

There is a built-in weather module for example which lets you add a live weather feed to any template.  And this is only one of the modules the product ships with.  You can integrate RSS feeds, YouTube videos and more and it's as simple as dragging and dropping a Flypaper component from the "Flybrary" to the working area.

Experienced Flash developers can also leverage Flypaper's capabilities by integrating their own SWF modules into the application.  These modules can be re-used in future projects saving a lot of development time.  There are plenty of features that will appeal to technical users like access to dynamic data, integration with Intel's AIM suite,  video support and also import external data from web services.

Content can be exported out as Flash SWF, multiple video formats and even a full screen executable file.

Flypaper will let you even import and convert PowerPoint material to Flash.

A well rounded multi-purpose tool

I must say I didn't quite know what to make of Flypaper when I first encountered it because it's not just for digital signage.  For example, Flypaper can help you create sophisticated e-learning applications and you can also create multi-touch kiosk content using the built-in components included with the product.

The Flypaper Pro version goes even further.  It adds features that let entire teams collaborate on their Flypaper projects.  There is a dashboard to track your progress, a file sharing tool and a built-in feedback app.  Someone has spent a lot of time developing the collaboration side of the Pro version and I can see this being a huge productivity enhancer.

Pros and cons...

• Flypaper is a great tool for anyone who needs to develop content for any digital signage application.
• It creates content that can be imported and managed by most digital signage software platforms.
• It offers a bundle re-usable templates and components that novices and experts can use.
• It offers a live preview of your content.  This is huge for anyone using a digital signage platform that doesn't offer full preview capabilities.
• Support, training and webinars are available.  There is a growing community of Flypaper users eager to share their experience. 
• Some may find the price a bit high, specially when compared to basic PowerPoint to Flash converters.  However this product does much more.  You can create digital signage content, touch-enabled applications, interactive kiosks and e-learning applications.  Try doing this in PowerPoint!

There are currently no other product on the market quite like Flypaper.  It a bit like Adobe Flash but far more accessible to non-technical users.  There is no scripting involved.  Just drag, drop, double-click to edit the module's options, then preview and publish.

Anyone who is looking to feed their digital signage screens with high quality content should take a long hard look at Flypaper.  There is a 30 day trial version available online so it's worth downloading if only to see what you can achieve.