Display for Staff Room Calendar

[rjf2019]

It is time to update our staff room display, which is on approx 12 hours a day displaying our calendar.

 

The simplest option for me is to grab a TV for Currys etc, and get our Premises Manager to mount it to the wall. However, I'm aware that ordinary TVs aren't designed for this use case: both in terms of being on 60 hours a week and also in terms of it displaying something so static.

 

Would anyone try and persuade me towards a display panel specifically designed for this use case? And if so, towards and particular brands or suppliers that they would recommend. It will be fitted by our Premises Manager. Ideally a site that displays the prices, rather than me having to enquire.

 

It will be attached to a Raspberry Pi running YoDeck, so need for any software etc. It just needs to be able to power on from CEC, and also not power itself off in the middle of the day because it thinks it isn't being used.

 

It will be mounted portrait, and I'll also be looking for a mount that will hopefully allow it to be angled both left/right and up/down. (This really isn't my area of expertise!)

 

​Edit:​

I've had a quick look on AV PartsMaster and JP-UK and am more inclined to a commerical display. Pricing is pretty much in line with a TV, and it makes more sense to me to buy something that has been designed for this purpose.

[Danp]

I had a monitor, Raspberry Pi/Yodeck setup at my last place. I setup a template up so it had twitter feed down one side, weather, bbc news feed along the bottom and the main chunk of the screen with notices, calendar etc changing slides every 10 seconds or so. Every couple of weeks I would switch the layout so the slightly more static info was on the other side of the screen.

 

I'm about to fit a similar setup here shortly, just waiting for the TV to be delivered. I went with a standard consumer TV as it's £400, so quite a bit cheaper than display style screens but well aware it might not last as long. Saying that, my TV at home was meant to be a cheap 'that will do for now' purchase from Ebuyer for about £350 nearly 9 years ago and it's still going.

 

As for a mount, they are all much the same, if you get a TV that has a square mount (VESA - 200 x 200) you can fit the brackets side ways, I'm going to use a mount like this to give me a few degrees down angle.

 

Hope this helps, I don't claim to be an expert but I have organised and or fitted about 45 TVs over the past 18 months.

[rjf2019]

That's really helpful to know - and 44 more TVs that I have organised over the past 18 months. I'm really intersted to know more about the layouts that you are using, as it's something that I could get my head around fully. Am I able to combine a widget such as Google calendar with another such as the Clock or Weather on one page?

 

This is the mount that I am looking at

 

https://www.screwfix.com/p/sanus-full-motion-tv-wall-mount-full-motion-32-47/9461j

 

It's a bit more pricey than the one you link, but I'm only doing one TV, so it's less of an issue.

 

This is the TV. https://www.avpartsmaster.co.uk/samsung-32-dc32e-display-p90829 They had a few cheaper, but weren't expecting stock for a while.

[Danp]

What about this TV? All I have done is checked it's 32", full HD and cheaper than the one you have linked https://www.richersounds.com/tv-projectors/all-tvs/philips-32pfs6805.html (edit, just seen your link was a commercial display).

 

Bracket looks fine, might be able to get one like it cheaper if shopping around, I've not paid that much for one before unless it's for a 75" touch.

 

Rather rushed and crude version of my template below. I've not used Yodeck for about 7 months so things might have changed about the widgets. Also, the boxes are not to scale, I kept the main content in 16:9 format using the grids in Yodeck and made everything else around it fit.

 

Edited May 5, 2021 by Danp

[SamanthaD]

Definitely a commercial grade screen. In built timer to automatically turn it on and off, valid warranty and reduced chance of burn in.

 

https://www.rocheav.co.uk/shop/tv-display-screens/commercial-televisions is a good starting point. We use Samsungs as we like the power management and the fact we can set it to change from BST to GMT automatically, but I guess budgets are always paramount!

[DrBeaker]

My personal preference is LG Commercial TVs. However I use the in-built timer or the HDMI-CEC controls for it.

 

Some of the features of some of the commercial TVs are OTT for our purposes but they're the only ones rated for hours of usage we need.

 

Though we've had some Hannspree TVs going 8-12x hours a day that were still working and I thought they'd long since failed and have surprised me.

[rjf2019]

Thanks everyone. Really helpful.

@Danp That's a great map of how you've laid it out. Previously I had been thinking of splitting the content 50:50, but that makes much more sense. I'm going to have a play around with that today.