Ours started out small with two monitors that would flank our admissions desks displaying fixed content about programs and maybe having some flash like animation. We were going to use technology like you described to do this. Content from an internal web server accessing either the in-house ticketing/scheduling program or content entered by admissions staff. We assumed that this would grow into a more robust museum wide information system and we could work out the infrastructure and software issues as we went along while gaining some experience in what information people wanted to see and how effective it was in helping them.
While planning, the location of the sign changed. To accommodate the new much larger space we will have to use two monitors in sync. With the larger display surface we have the opportunity to develop along the lines of the Met's goals and since we are moving in that direction we should build this in a way that can scale to other entrances and buildings in our campus. So our small pilot project is over before it started. I agree that the web interface is not robust enough to deal with controlling separate monitors, dividing content, or sequencing monitors to display the same content. There seem to be many off the shelf switches that let you pick and chose various inputs and put them to various displays. Many work over twisted pair and some are IP based. So the multiple monitors displaying either the same or different content can be handled by these. Rather that buy ala carte and try to figure this out on our own we are hoping to work with an integrator that will help us identify what would work best. SCALA (the one the Met mentioned) looks interesting and is relatively local for us. Of course that alone will blow the minimal budget we have for this project. Bill -----Original Message----- From: Matt Morgan [mailto:matt.mor...@brooklynmuseum.org] Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2005 2:08 PM To: mcn_mc...@listserver.americaneagle.com Subject: Re: Electronic signs On 06/08/2005 10:47 AM, Weinstein, William wrote: >We are looking into renovations of our information desk and want to explore >the possibility of using electronic signs for visitor information, tours, >lectures, etc. We have grand plans that include creating a sign that will >require multiple monitors and we would eventually like this information to >be available in multiple locations. > >At this stage I would be interested in anyone's experience in developing >this type of system. What hardware and software was used. What >infrastructure issues needed to be addressed. What existing content >resources were used or developed to provide the information sources for the >signs. You all get the idea. > > For our new lobby, we installed LED signs (a la Jenny Holzer, but with the newer blue LEDs) around our circular admissions desk, over the coat check, and between brick piers by the front entrance. The standard interface to these was a super-old-fashioned, desktop app connecting over RS-232 to the signs. It looked like HyperTerminal and it require that the operator memorize a series of arcane command strings. Unrealistic. We bought serial to Ethernet adapters, used firewalling and IP restrictions for security (passwords are clear-text), and set up a web-based app on our intranet to replace the subset of the control interface that we needed. It's just a series of web forms, providing an interface to server-side scripts that send command strings according to the format the signs expect. It can happen on schedule (the texts are mostly pre-defined), or the Visitor Services and Security departments can set up special messages, as needed. Apart from the fun of using a modern, purely web-based interface to control ancient technology, this was all sort of strange. It was a design decision to go with the LED signs, not a technical decision. Second, in much smaller and more temporary installations that what you may be talking about, we've used our Open Kiosk software (http://www.mozdevgroup.com/clients/bm/) to display banners/flash movies/etc. delivered from a web server. In this way you could use standard, off-the-shelf parts, and pretty basic web programming, but you'd be limited by the number of monitors you can plug into one computer or by the number of computers you want to deal with. The web display might also be limiting, depending on what you were trying to do (e.g., Douglas Hegley's requirement that they be able to play "same or unique information on every screen"; and coordinating the displays--sequencing them, for example--might be very hard). I have no experience with any standard way to do this, and I'd be curious to know how it's done on a larger scale. So Douglas Hegley's response was very interesting. How do the buildings in Times Square do it? Good luck, Matt --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: wweinst...@philamuseum.org To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: rlancefi...@mail.wesleyan.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-mcn_mcn-l-12800...@listserver.americaneagle.com
