IMS Software

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IMS

The main function of the Telefax Information Management System (IMS) is as a ‘real-time’ information display control system for the presentation of content to the range of electronic LED wallboards available from Trans-Lux Corporation. It enables users to independently or collectively address each display device connected to it to show the information required, when and where they want it.

The Telefax Information Management System (IMS) software suite is formed of several discrete modules, each of which is a 32 bit Microsoft Windows application. These modules are integrated into the system so that they appear to the user to be a coherent part of the family of applications.

The system consists of modules developed to enable the Reception and Storage of information from varied sources and the Administration and Display of that information on electronic wallboards.

The most common form of input used to date is the Dynamic Data Exchange
(DDE) system which enables IMS applications to easily extract information from DDE enabled applications such as Microsoft’s Excel spreadsheet software. Most clients have a means of getting the information they require onto an Excel spreadsheet and DDE provides a simple means to extract that information and display it on an LED display. Many data vendors supply ‘plug-in’ modules allowing their data to be imported directly into an Excel spreadsheet, from where it can be extracted via DDE and passed to an IMS.

Once information has been made available to the system, the appropriate ‘Administration’ module allows it to be selected and formatted for display on the physical display devices attached to the system. For example, composite ‘pages’ of information can be created for transmission to DataWall style displays, or lists of stocks or indices created for cyclic transmission to ‘ticker’ style displays.

All communication between IMS modules is accomplished through TCP/IP streams. This enables modules to be geographically distributed across a LAN.

The administration modules (the DataWall Administration tool and OmniTicker) incorporate a built in scheduler enabling the creation of playlists that can encompass all the displays connected to the IMS presentation layer modules. Alternatively, it is possible to react to spontaneous demands for information by changing individual displays only.

Pre-prepared schedules can be created and left to run throughout the day. Each schedule can comprise several displays or playlists, each of which may be set to run from a specific time, either on a specific date or every day.