Black Box iCOMPEL Receives TMC Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Black Box Corporation (NASDAQ:BBOX), an industry-leading provider of voice communications, data infrastructure, and product solutions, announced today that Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) has named the Black Box^® iCOMPEL™ digital signage appliance as a recipient of a 2008 Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award.

“Black Box has been recognized with a 2008 Product of the Year Award for their excellence in the advancement of voice, data, and video communications”

The Norwalk, Conn.-based TMC presents the award to businesses that demonstrate vision, leadership, and attention to detail, according to its recognition of Black Box’s digital signage solution. TMC said it picks award recipients that have brought “the most innovative products and services to market,” and cited iCOMPEL as an “outstanding” contribution to the communications industry.

“Black Box has been recognized with a 2008 Product of the Year Award for their excellence in the advancement of voice, data, and video communications,” said Rich Tehrani, TMC President and Group Editor-in-Chief. “Black Box has proven they are committed to quality and excellence in solutions that benefit the customer experience as well as providing an attractive ROI for the companies that use them. I am pleased to honor their hard work and accomplishments and look forward to more innovative solutions from them in the future.”

The iCOMPEL family of browser-based, networked media players/appliances provides businesses and organizations of any size with an affordable, out-of-the-box solution for improving internal and external communications through relevant, dynamic digital signage. Black Box’s iCOMPEL can stream live TV, video, Flash animation, and RSS news and stock ticker feeds, and other Web media, as well as play audio. It enables either a local user or a remote administrator to change information ad-hoc to generate real-time messaging via local access or through a Web browser.

Black Box customers include businesses who utilize digital signage to advertise, boost sales, and increase brand visibility, as well as large corporations and government agencies who depend on digital signs to disseminate up-to-date information to employees and the public.

“iCOMPEL is also great for providing directions to visitors in hospitals and other large institutions, and for setting up emergency notification in schools and on college campuses,” said Brian Kutchma, Director of Marketing for Black Box. “It’s also a cost-effective digital signage solution for houses of worship, libraries, museums, and any other organization that wants to communicate real-time information to its audience.”

As an integrated hardware/software solution, iCOMPEL comes preloaded with software for assembling and distributing HD-quality multimedia content to digital signs. It includes drag-and-drop tools for playing of stored and live media in multiple screen zones, and menus for scheduling content distribution by time and location. There are no software as a service (SaaS) fees, and updates are free.

“Digital signage can potentially be a very expensive initial and ongoing investment and, because of its complexity, it can be difficult to integrate into an existing office or campus network,” Kutchma said. “But our strategy with iCOMPEL was to make it an affordable, easy-to-integrate solution that’s also scalable, so a business can start with one screen in one location and expand to 1000 screens in 100 locations.”

In addition to iCOMPEL, Black Box offers an extensive line of digital signage solutions that includes media players, extenders, splitters, converters, and switches. All products are backed by free, live, 24/7 Tech Support, which customers can reach at 724-746-5500 or at blackbox.com.

For more information on the iCOMPEL product line, visit http://www.blackbox.com/go/iCOMPEL.

About TMC

Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) is a global integrated media company helping our clients build communities in print, in person, and online. TMC publishes Customer Interaction Solutions, INTERNET TELEPHONY, Unified Communications, and NGN Magazine. TMCnet, TMC's Web site, is the leading source of news and articles for the communications and technology industries. TMCnet is read by two to three million unique visitors each month worldwide, according to Webtrends. TMCnet is ranked as 2,921 in Quantcast's Top U.S. Sites placing TMCnet in the top .03% most visited Web sites in the US. In addition, TMC produces ITEXPO, 4GWE Conference, Digium|Asterisk World, and Communications Developer Conference.

TMC’s Green Blog has been ranked on the “100 Best Blogs for Those Who Want to Change the World.”

TMC also recently launched new industry-specific Web sites: IT.TMCnet.com, Cable.TMCnet.com, Robotics.TMCnet.com, Satellite.TMCnet.com, Green.TMCnet.com.

New services offered by TMCnet include the Tech Jobs site, TMCnet iPhone News, and Facebook connections.

For more information about TMC, visit www.tmcnet.com.

About Black Box

Black Box is the world’s largest technical services company dedicated to designing, building, and maintaining today’s complicated data and voice infrastructure systems. Black Box services 175,000 clients in 141 countries with 192 offices throughout the world. To learn more, visit the Black Box Web site at http://www.blackbox.com.

Black Box® and the Double Diamond logo are registered trademarks and iCOMPEL is a trademark of BB Technologies, Inc. Any third-party trademarks appearing in this press release are acknowledged to be the property of their respective owners.

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