Xibo and display screen questions

[JordanT91]

I've been tasked with purchasing and installing digital signage in the reception area of my school. I looked into the fully integrated Samsung digital signage displays and MagicInfo but I decided to go for Xibo. I've persuaded my bosses to pay a little more for a professional-grade screen rather than a TV but they want to be able to watch Freeview through an antenna. I'm really struggling to find any professional-grade displays with a built-in tuner. It MUST be between 37" and 40". Does anyone have any suggestions for one? I did like the look of the Samsung RM40D purely as a screen (I rejected it as an all-in-one solution because MagicInfo isn't very good). I'd rather not have to use a set top box as that would mean having to hide it somewhere. Alternatively, would using a USB tuner with the NUC be a good solution? I'd rather it be a simple case of the office staff pressing the source button on the display remote to switch between HDMI and Freeview because they might struggle with RDPing to the NUC and switching to the tuner player/changing channel etc.

 

I chose an Intel NUC with an i3, 8GB RAM and a 60GB SSD to install Xibo on but I now realise Xibo uses a client and a server, though there is a bit on the Xibo website that says "This Windows install guide is focused mainly on someone who wants to use a Windows PC to be the server as well as the client". I assume the NUC is more than adequate for this task (it will probably run Windows 7)?

 

I should also mention that streaming TV is out of the question, our internet connection is only 3 meg and struggles with all the kids and teachers on youtube etc. at the best of times.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[mdench]

Are there any particular reason you ruled out a TV? We have several 70" LCD tvs dotted around the school that have been moved several times and have never had a problem with and we have two hooked to ariels if they wish to use them as TVs at any point.

 

The tvs are a minimum of 4 years old and still going strong

[caffrey]

Normal TV's are fine, had a few here that have been running almost 24x7 for ages (LG) Tried looking at the android version of xibo ? The xibo clients really don't need to be very powerful (Unless you are planning on using the NUC for anything else) although I use a celeron NUC that powers 2 displays the rest are old acer revo's. The server just runs on a linux VM

[JordanT91]

Thanks for the suggestions, I may just go for a decent TV then. I just always assumed you shouldn't use normal TVs for signage because of the long operating hours and the fact they aren't as sturdy as some professional displays. From what I can gather they aren't as bright either. A TV should be fine though, I'm just being picky.

 

Does anyone have any experience of having the Xibo server and client on one NUC like mentioned in the documentation?

 

Thanks.

[pcstru]

We use TV's. As I understand it the use may void the warranty but it's not something that we have ever had to test in anger. We also use Android dongles. The app costs, but overall the cost is much less than a PC.

[benjaminstevens93]

Xibo server is web based so you could literally run it off a cheap web hosting package.

[mrdolan]

If you do go for a cheap Web hosting package (which is what we're doing as it allows easy editing etc remotely) make sure that they support the php file info plugin, which xibo server 1.6 needs to run. We had a problem with a web host who refused to install it and suggested that we switch to a vps (at some much larger cost ), which would be overkill for xibo.