Beaver Group is an organization whose focus is the delivery of digital signage

Digital signage

Digital signage is a form of electronic display that shows television programming, menus, information, advertising and other messages. Digital signs can be found in public and private environments, such as retail stores, hotels, restaurants and corporate buildings.Digital signage Displays are most...

, graphic design

Graphic design

Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...

 and web design

Web design

Web design is the process of planning and creating a website. Text, images, digital media and interactive elements are used by web designers to produce the page seen on the web browser...

. 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).

Beaver Group clients are spread between local (Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

, UK) and international markets, including the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

, Ericsson

Ericsson

Ericsson , one of Sweden's largest companies, is a provider of telecommunication and data communication systems, and related services, covering a range of technologies, including especially mobile networks...

, the UK Home Office

Home Office

The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...

, IKEA

IKEA

IKEA is a privately held, international home products company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture such as beds and desks, appliances and home accessories. The company is the world's largest furniture retailer...

 and P&O Cruises

P&O Cruises

P&O Cruises is a British-American owned cruise line based at Carnival House in Southampton, England, and operated by Carnival UK. Originally a constituent of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company, P&O Cruises is the oldest cruise line in the world, having operated the world's first...

.

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

Showcase Cinemas

Showcase Cinemas is a movie theater chain owned and operated by National Amusements. Operating more than 1,354 indoor screens in the United States, United Kingdom and Latin America.-USA:* Connecticut* Massachusetts* Ohio* New Jersey* Rhode Island...

 de Lux brand in the UK and again in 2010 for a deployment at Burger King

Burger King

Burger King, often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain...

 in the UK.

Companies

Graphic designer Alan Critchley worked as a freelance graphic designer for Nabisco

Nabisco

Nabisco is an American brand of cookies and snacks. Headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey, the company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Kraft Foods. Nabisco's plant in Chicago, a production facility at 7300 S...

 (now Cereal Partners - Nestlé

Nestlé

Nestlé S.A. is the world's largest food and nutrition company. Founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestlé originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, established in 1867 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé, founded in 1866 by Henri...

 cereals) and Rank Xerox

Rank Xerox

Rank Xerox was formed in 1956 as a joint venture between the Xerox Corporation of U.S. and the Rank Organisation of UK, to manufacture and market Xerox equipment initially in Europe and later in Africa and Asia...

, 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

Sanyo

is a major electronics company and member of the Fortune 500 whose headquarters is located in Moriguchi, Osaka prefecture, Japan. Sanyo targets the middle of the market and has over 230 Subsidiaries and Affiliates....

, Scala, Vogels and Matrox

Matrox

Matrox is a producer of video card components and equipment for personal computers. Based in Dorval, Quebec, Canada it was founded by Lorne Trottier and Branko Matić....

, 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. It's 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.