Founded 1978 | Type of business Private | |
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Industry Digital Signage, Web Design & Graphic Design Products Autograph, Global Media Manager Headquarters Ware, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom | ||
Beaver Group is an organization whose focus is the delivery of digital signage, graphic design and web design. Beaver Group is made up of two companies, Beaver Design (founded 1978) and Beaver Solutions (founded 1998), plus a sister company Signature Digital Menus (founded 2008).
Contents
Beaver Group clients are spread between local (Hertfordshire, UK) and international markets, including the BBC, Ericsson, the UK Home Office, IKEA and P&O Cruises.
In 2008 Beaver Group was awarded 'Digital Signage Project of the Year' by the AV Awards for the deployment of digital signage for the Showcase Cinemas de Lux brand in the UK and again in 2010 for a deployment at Burger King in the UK.
Companies
Graphic designer Alan Critchley worked as a freelance graphic designer for Nabisco (now Cereal Partners - Nestlé cereals) and Rank Xerox, at which time he met Dave Suter. In 1978 Alan and Dave partnered together to start Beaver Design, which is now a graphic and web design company.
In 2001 Beaver Design came together with Managed Information Technologies (which trades as Beaver Solutions) to form the 'Beaver Group'. Beaver Solutions is a technology company which specialises in digital signage, primarily with Scala software. Beaver Group has continued to grow, becoming one of Scala’s major UK integrators.
In late 2008, Beaver Solutions partnered together with industry leaders in digital signage to create a specific company for digital menu boards - Signature Digital Menus Ltd. Along with Sanyo, Scala, Vogels and Matrox, Signature is a company whose purpose is to provide all the elements for digital menu boards.
Products
Although they primarily provide design and installation services, Beaver Group has also developed two tools for digital signage:
Autograph
Autograph is a web-based tool for managing the content on a digital signage network. It has a front-end interface and communicates via open-APIs to the digital signage software, allowing users to change content without needing to understand a complete digital signage system. Its principle deployment is in the use of digital menu boards, where restaurant managers want to alter prices and add new items to their menus.
Global Media Manager
Global Media Manager (GMM) is a tool to allow live feeds to go directly into a digital signage network. GMM has been used by companies such as the BBC and NEC, with the digital signage software Scala5 to show automatically updated information on the screens.