Concentrated Power from Saxony for the eKiosk SHOWTIME Digital Signage Player

The company SZe exists since 7.11.1994 and was founded by my father Herbert Schneider and his partner Helmut Zirr. In 2009, I joined the family business, but already worked during my studies. In 2018, we moved our company headquarters from southern Germany here to Radebeul for private reasons. Originally, our core business was the digitization of magnetic tapes in the broadcasting sector, among others for Südwestrundfunk in Baden-Württemberg. In the early 2000s, we expanded the business to include the video player division, and since then we have been offering professional media players for the exhibition, showman and museum sectors.

What are the challenges in this business?

The business is very fast-moving, new generations of players with higher resolutions are appearing all the time. You have to keep up with that. But you certainly know that. For example, our earlier systems were purely Linux-based, but for about two years now we have also been offering Android-based systems. Again, it is important to us that we can create the complete Android system ourselves and control all aspects of the firmware.
And as a small medium-sized company, the motto “self and constantly” applies in particular *laughs. I am responsible for development as well as sales and support.

Do you work more often with regional partners?

Rather less, our customer base is distributed far beyond the region, but mainly from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the German-speaking northern Italian regions. A number of customers have now become long-term partners. Our players are used, for example, by IKEA, the German, Austrian and Czech railroads and in many museums.

So eKiosk is your first partner from the neighborhood, so to speak. What was the incentive for you to work with eKiosk?

The initiative came from your Head of Sales & Marketing Uwe Schröder, through whom I had my first contact with eKiosk. I liked the idea of developing my own store for apps. We had already developed Android apps for various customers, but programming our own smartphone-like user interface with an associated AppStore like Samsung or Huawei was very appealing.
I see a lot of potential in this media player and I’m convinced that it could very well open up a new business field. eKiosk is a company with a wide reach and has also brought the strengths of its app partners on board.

A look back: How time-consuming was the development of an individual frontend in the end? How did you find the collaboration?

In addition to software development, such a project involves a lot of administration and requires intensive coordination. I’m also a bit of a perfectionist and want everyone to be satisfied in the end. Working with the people involved in the project felt good and was just fun.

And in the end happy with the result?

Yes, I think the player has become a very, very good product. I personally believe very much in the potential, especially if you look at the digital signage market. The player simply has a great chance to be well received.