The Swiss company SpinetiX came on the market several years ago with a nice, teeny solid state media player and software platform, and pretty quietly built up its business in Europe and globally since then.

It’s been a while since the firm has released a new hardware product, and that changes next week at InfoComm. The company will be showing and demo’ing a new product and platform called DiVA that is squarely aimed at the integrators and installers who roam the aisles of the annual pro-AV trade show.

The idea behind DiVA, I’m told, is that a typical integrator tech can get a professional looking digital sign together in 10 minutes or less, using a new box you just plug in for power and network, and a browser-based configuration wizard.

The software/firmware ships with the box and there is no application to install. The target price is less than $1K US, which is substantially lower than the other SpinetiX products (though the feature set and capabilities of this new unit are not as broad). Units will start shipping this fall.

Like the other SpinetiX players, the price includes a perpetual license on the software. I’m among the legions who have had sticker shock when they first heard what the Swiss boxes cost, until it was explained the price included software and the things tend to last well beyond five years. Get 60 months out of a $1,000 unit and that’s like $17/month in software and hardware cost, which is not bad at all …. if it does what the job demands.

SpinetiX is at booth 4946, and I’m told they have a new look and a 24-screen video wall. The company is also debuting a couple of new high-end HMP players at the show.

Dave Haynes is the founder and editor of Sixteen:Nine, an online publication that has followed the digital signage industry for some 14 years. Dave does strategic advisory consulting work for many end-users and vendors, and also writes for many of them. He’s based near Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Canada’s east coast.