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Posted
Mark

 

It would be interesting to know how you compare to another company I have had a demonstration today from a company called tripleplay TV. Triple Play Website

 

It's healthy to rope in some competition I think.

 

Chris

 

Yes, certainly. Our solution can use a diskless set top box (£169) like triple play, but you can use any PC to play the content - any, be it windows, linux, whatever, as long as it has a browser. This means that for all the companies and colleges that use plasmanet, they don't have to install software on their player or administrator pcs. They don't have to configure their network - it just works. You can buy the software, lease or hire the service and run it as a player connected via the web to our servers. Also plasmanet is the only signage solution with EasyEdit templates where you can change content on the fly, again without needing to install software on your PC. We concentrate on corporate communications, so our strength from the content side is that we're not about traditional signage where advertising videos and revenue generation are key. Also we have a niche in the real time data side of things where we can connect into websites, databases, call switches etc. We have a lot of kudos in that some large companies use our solution and we support our customers operation if they want, so we don't just sell the software we help install and get the most out of it.

regards

mark

  • 1 month later...
Guest richard
Posted

Sorry to raise this old chestnut again but I'm trying to find the simplest solution for my junior school.

 

All they require is a single monitor in the main entrance and a system that is quiet as its going to be located in the office.

 

I'm toying with may be using an old laptop that has a busted screen and using remote desktop to control that and up load the Powerpoint slides show that they want to use. For the monitor I'm thinking about using a 20" or bigger tft screen. Any thoughts?

Posted

Think you have answered your own question Richard.

 

Could always opt for a cheap 42" Plasma + laptop / pc

Posted

Problem with using remote desktop is that after you close your connection,

the remote machine is now locked at the login page. This is not compatible with digital signage, so you'd have to log in at the machine.

 

I've got 2 solutions to this, depending on your needs.

 

q1. Are you able to install new software on your controller PCs?

q2. have you got java enabled on the controller machine?

 

Also, a problem with most laptops is that the motherboard doesn't allow the machine to auto start on power loss. This may be a problem as you might need to access to the laptop to reboot. An auto startup motherboard would allow you to just off and on at the mains to restart.

 

let me know

 

regards

mark hopgood

director

plasmanet uk ltd

08700 747 757

Posted
That'll work. We're considering something similar. The only difference is we'll probably buy a 30+ inch TFT Widescreen TV.
Posted

We are still looking at this and have almost decided upon a supplier - I will post the final decision soon. However one thing we have been advised by the suppliers we have been speaking to is to avoid plasma screens as these easily suffer burn-in from the usual template style of display used for Digital Signage.

 

We have also been told to be careful of LCD TVs being used as PC monitors. Apparently some cannot really display the resolutions they quote. You really need to test the kit first if possible or ensure that the TV will display a much higher res than you need.

Guest richard
Posted
Mark, its great to see things like your product but we only have a very limited budget and solutions like yours tend to be beyond our reach
Posted

@secman: With plasmas you should be OK as long as you get 'industry-grade' and not 'consumer-grade' screens. The (more expensive) industry monitors are designed to run for longer and can display REAL black as opposed to the washed out grey of the consumer ones.

 

Whatever type of screen you get, it is advisable to put plain black 'pages' between slides to completely clear the screen (these need only be on for a fraction of a second) so that you avoid burn in. It's also advisable to change the layout regularly - this not only helps to avoid burn in but it also means that people will continually look at the signage.

 

My Navaho MediaCat system from Oliis will be going in at the start of the summer hols... I'll let you know how it comes along and maybe post some pics if you are lucky :p

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

We have finally taken the plunge and gone with Matrix Display (OneLan solution). We actually got a good deal as we are the first in Bolton to use Matrix and we agreed to have their logo at the bottom of the screen.

 

Installation will begin late August (eeek), but already the design gurus are in contact in regards to layout etc.

 

Ill keep you all posted on development.

 

Cheers

  • 4 months later...
Posted

Bringing up an old topic here but...

 

...wondered if anyone has experience with VGA over cat5 and how good the quality of it is, and are thieir any sellers of them that are reliable or well priced ?

 

Thanks.

Posted
Not with any great distance but we use it our hall with the projector. Works perfectly well, with very little lag or quality loss. I guess we are doing it over about 100 metres when you take into account the patch panel and back.
Posted

Chaps,

 

We now have a fully operational Digital signage system. We use 6 Dell Optiplex 740 PCs driving 7 LG 37" LCD TVs directly (1 PC drives two screens via a VGA splitter). We use the Procyon d|sign software which allows us to have different information displayed on each screen. The admin is done from any PC with an admin program installed.

 

We will soon have the ability to display live TV on the digital signage system in a window.

 

... and so far we are within budget as well!!

 

Alan

 

P.S. If anyone wants any more info or wants to visit us to see the system, just ask.

Posted

Secman, are you using vga over cat5 to do this along with the software you mentioned and nothing else, as that is pritty much the system we are looking at implementing here.

 

You dont happen to have a link of the converter your using do you phil, would be nice :).

 

Thanks.

Posted

Silverman,

 

I am not using VGA over CAT 5 - I have just had long (up to 40m) VGA Cables and stereo audio cables run by our site staff. They work fine.

 

We are fortunate to have locations to site the PCs reasonably near the screens so didn't have to resort to using the cabling system.

 

Cheers,

 

Alan

  • 2 months later...
Posted (edited)

Hi,

 

I have been looking at a system for Digital Signage at our school. Currently we have two screens, one in reception at both campuses. My manager dropped this in my lap a few weeks ago after visiting a school and looking at their reception Screen. He gave me no help as to how the school managed to get the information on to their screens. So I was left to make this work and here is how I did it.

 

I bought two DLINK DSM-510 and connected to the each TV via HDMI ports. The two DSM-510 are connected via LAN to a PC (no server required). The PC has DLINK Media server software installed on it. This in turn is pointed to a shared folder on our Intranet, where only key people have permission to access. The information is currently a PowerPoint presentation created in Office 2007 but saved as JPG pictures. The cleaver part I think is the DLINK Media Server Software which refreshes the shared directory every 30 mins and the content displayed on the TV is also refreshed. We have two different Powerpoints that reflect the two campuses. Now it needs very little intervention on my part as the user know how to use PowerPoint.

 

This I think is the easiest and cheapest solution for our small collection of screens. I think we might expand this at some point now I have found this solution.

Edited by MalcS
extra information
  • 1 year later...
Posted

Sorry to bring this old topic up again.

 

The school I work for likes to show info (text, .ppt, .jpeg, ...) on several monitors in different locations.

So I searched some more info about digital signage.

 

It has to be a open source Php intranet website (front-end for the client and back-end for the server).

 

Anyone who has an idea if this already excists? (I have searched lots of websites but haven't found anything yet :( )

 

Thanks in advice. :)

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted
libbrechtemmanuel: Have a search for Xibo.

 

Ben

 

hmmm thanks for your reply :)

 

some time ago I already looked for Xibo

 

The problem is that the viewer (client) is made in .Net

 

While I would like a viewer that is web-based

 

Anyone who knows a solution to this?

Posted

Xibo are working on a new cross platform client allthough I think it may be in java.

 

You may have to relax your requirements slightly.

 

Ben

Posted
Xibo are working on a new cross platform client allthough I think it may be in java.

 

You may have to relax your requirements slightly.

 

Ben

 

do you have some more information about the cross platform client?

 

is it 100% web based?

 

will it be open source?

  • 4 weeks later...

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