Understanding the RIDGID Suite of Software
Over the past few years, RIDGID and its partners have worked to bring you the latest, most technologically advanced inspection cameras and accompanying software packages to help you bridge the gap that exists between the videos and files you capture on the job site to presenting these to your customer - wherever in the world they may be. As a service professional, I'm sure you're aware that often times there are multiple tools that will accomplish the job. In the software world, that philosophy holds true. This blog post is dedicated to helping you understand the solutions that RIDGID offers and ensuring you know which one to utilize for a given situation.
Here are the items that we're going to cover:
- RIDGIDConnect
- The RIDGIDConnect Client
- RIDGIDConnect Mobile Apps for BlackBerry and Android
- m.ridgidconnect.com
- SeeSnake HQ
RIDGIDConnect
This is the website that serves as the core to what we'll discuss today. It allows you to store your digital files, keep an address book of your customers, backup your digital media, and share all of this media with your customer as well as communicate back and forth with them. It is accessible via www.ridgidconnect.com from any computer with access to the internet. This means your job files are available at your office, your home, on your laptop in the field, your smart phone...basically anywhere you can get an internet connection.
The site is required in order to take advantage of m.ridgidconnect.com, the RIDGIDConnect Client, and the RIDGIDConnect Mobile Apps for BlackBerry and Android. It is available via a 30-day free trial and monthly or yearly subscriptions that start at $49.99.
The RIDGIDConnect Client
The RIDGIDConnect Client is a piece of software that you can download once you're logged into RIDGIDConnect and installs locally on your computer. The main benefit of the software is that it is better suited to handle uploading very large video files. For instance, if you're uploading a large file through the website and you unexpectedly lose your internet connection, you'd have to start the entire upload over. The Client can handle this interrupted connection gracefully and resume your upload where you left off.
Second, as you've probably experienced in previous encounters with video on the internet, there are many different formats and it's hard to predict if the video you have is going to work on someone else's computer. As a result, all videos played on RIDGIDConnect are converted to a standard format so we can almost guarantee your customer will be able to access and view the video. This conversion process happens in one of two spots. On a file that is uploaded via the website, it is converted after it is uploaded. With the RIDGIDConnect Client, that software converts it locally on your machine. The reason for that is as a part of the conversion process, we can use a video compression algorithm prior to upload so that a majority of the time, you will have a smaller file to upload.
The RIDGIDConnect client uses files that are local on your hard drive as well as it has the capability to import videos and images from a DVD created by your inspection camera.
RIDGIDConnect Mobile Apps for BlackBerry and Android
If you have a BlackBerry or Android smart phone, you will want to pay close attention. Our development team has created applications for these two phone operating systems that install directly onto your phone. They will tie directly into the cameras on your device and allow you to easily take pictures (such as before & after photos to document your work 
) and then upload them directly to a report on your RIDGIDConnect account.
The mobile application space is one that we have a great deal of valuable experience in. As a previous winner of Research In Motion's (BlackBerry) Wireless Leadership Award for a CRM product we developed, you can expect that we will bring this experience to the RIDGIDConnect environment and make sure you have an industry leading mobile experience. Stay tuned for exciting announcements here!
This refers to a website that is specially formatted to be accessed from your mobile phone. At the time of this blog it allows you to do everything you can on the full RIDGIDConnect website with the exception being the interaction with videos. As a convenience, we redirect most devices to this version of the website if you type in www.ridgidconnect.com. You use the same user name and password here that you do on the regular site.
SeeSnake HQ
HQ is a software product that runs on your laptop and allows you to interact with the files captured by the RIDGID SeeSnake product line (such as the LT1000). It allows you to create reports in a format similar to a word document that can be emailed or presented to your customer on a thumb drive. The reports can contain text, images, or videos (not over email).
This product integrates very well with the RIDGIDConnect website in that it will allow you to send reports that you created in HQ to RIDGIDConnect as well as synchronize your address book between the two so you don't have to worry about duplicate contacts. HQ also serves as the controller for your camera if you're connected to a LT1000 and will allow you to burn a DVD from the digital media you captured.
So, which one should you choose? Well, all of them...it depends on what you're trying to accomplish. Each is an excellent tool but knowing when to utilize them is the key. Hopefully you've gained a better understanding of your options. If not, the RIDGIDConnect team is more than happy to discuss this in greater detail with you! Just use the Feedback or Contact Us feature on RIDGIDConnect!