New Project need creative solutions

[Gracetech]

So i'm in a new project for a new building and among other things Digtial Signage implementation has fallen into my lap. It wouldn't be so bad but the problem is there is really is no money for it at this time.

My problems are TV control?
Are there any TV's with control through network that you know of? Almost everything is RS232 control(what century are we living in?). I'm looking for panels in varing sizes and may end up going with whatever panel has network control.

Content delivery?
Yeah this has been hashed out before but you never know what may pop up. I've looked at using PS3's for Digital signage but i'm having no luck with software and central control. I have seen some good network devices that do digital signage but don't have blu-ray players. I have seen blu-ray players that have network connections but not a way to do digital signage(locked down features). I've looked at using Just Add Powers IP delivery system, which looks like the best system so far.

What do i want to do?
I want to be able to control TVs from network/scheduler interface. Be able to control the content going to each area, not necessarily each TV. I want to be able to deliver Digital signage and Live Feed to all TV's and Blu-Ray, and Gaming Stations to some locally.

crt

[[Admin] osborn4]

Some have suggested Apple TVs as a simple way of distributing and automatically playing content.

[tpichler]

Interesting new project. Researching PS3's as Digital signage? Now that is thinking outside the box

I feel your pain on the lack of network control on modern devices. I will even add an additional note of caution. Be sure to read the manual for the network control features. I'm finding that devices that claim to have network management interfaces do not necessarily expose all the features via the network. VERY FRUSTRATING to be working on a network solution and find out that one critical step can only be done with the IR remote control!

I think the Just Add Power solution is the cleanest one I have seen that addresses all the major issues.

[Gracetech]

Yeah the Apple TV's are only SD and i'm really trying to reach into the future with this project.

I would much prefer going with a Window Media Center machine, which i already explored. My issue with Windows Media Center is that you still can't centrally manage the content.

They actually have a digital signage system with modified PS3's. The system is Zirius Canvas, it's pretty awesome. The problem with it though is it can only be used as digital signage and it's more tailored to work as a multi-screen wall.

I wish the Just Add Power boxes either had bidirectional IR or an RS232 control out.

Panasonic actually makes a couple of HDTV's that have network control but the panels are dated in features and twice the price of a comparable set without the network feature. I could pay someone to turn the TV's off and on for a year with the price difference.

I guess i'll just keep digging and dreaming. Let me know if you have even the craziest idea of accomplishing this feat.

crt

[[Admin] osborn4]

the new iTVs with have HDMI out.

sadlerjon has a unique solution with netbooks running linux.

[sadlerjon]

@osborn4 - Thanks for the plug I was planning to respond but have been quite busy recently with my day job.

This post actually contains more detail on the digital signage setup:
Lobby Announcement Computer

The system continues to function well today - I've done some work with CSS to dress up the content, but otherwise it still uses the same basic structure as my other post describes. The one other change is on our overflow monitors - we have SDI feeds from our sanctuary AV system feeding a separate input these. We use RS232 control from the linux laptops to switch the input on demand from our AV booth. Its done via perl cgi accessible from a central web page.

In addition to the announcement loops, we have a number of other IPTV multicast groups carrying 20 OTA HD channels. We added an PVR recording solution (based on MythTV) and these channels basically came along at no extra charge.

More recently I've been working on boxes that live on our rolling AV carts (what? Yup - we still have those). These are actually AppleTVs with a Broadcom MPEG-2 decoder miniPCI card added into them and running XBMC. These boxes provide access to the IPTV streams as well as on-demand streamed access to assets in our media library. And XBMC is easily controlled using the AppleTV remote.

That's a synopsis of what we've got going. It doesn't match all of what crt was asking for, but may be a good starting point The big things would be adding a method to change the IPTV stream being viewed by the webplayer. That should be straight forward given the telnet interface to VLC, but I haven't played with it...

I was thinking about talking about our setup at the "unofficial CMN reunion" - but was uncertain the level of interest. What do people think?

[BrentR.]

I haven't taken the time to research it in depth but I believe blondertongue makes an interface that would get it done for you. It's blondertongue.com

[Gracetech]

Good stuff sadlerjon. Unfortunately i'm trying to make the system as simplistic as possible. I like to "me" proof projects as much as possible. I find i can come up to a solution for anything, but how many people can come in behind me and work the system let alone work on the system?

I looked hard at setting up mitx computers at each display and using VLC. It was forefront untill i looked at it from the "me" proof perspective.

The project might just have to be complicated a bit and simplified in the future. I've still got a few months to go.

BlonderTounge as inexpensive as it is, is still almost $20k to get distributed HD to the sets. I would prefer to stay with network distribution anyway since that is where i feel we are headed anyway for the next 20 years.

Keep the suggestions coming.

crt

[frank]

Take a look at the Roku http://www.brightsign.biz media servers, a number of models w/differing features that should meet your needs.

[sempei13]

232 is still widely used

AppleTV's are all HD (480p-1080p).

You can use an ir distribution system to control the tv's. I've just added this ability in our Frankfort campus (main screen and lobby tv) and will be doing it for the 12 in our main campus soon. You could send component and ir over a single cat5 from a single AppleTV, through a component DA for not a lot of $$.

Paul