Lobby/Foyer Display Solutions

[talksr]

Hi, not too sure where else to list this post.

 

I am a part time network manager for a few schools. Have just taken on a new one. They have a Samsung widescreen LCD mounted on the wall after a recent new build to their foyer and admin offices.

 

Does anyone have any good suggestions for software or systems I can connect to the screen to display info about the school etc. I can't remember for the life of me the names of some companies providing solutions. Even tried looking on the bett site. Think there is one called LiveChannel.

 

I would prefer free solutions, was thinking about maybe going down the lines of powerpoint!

 

Thanks in advance.

[glennda]

Xibo - you can run it on an apache web server on either the machine with the client installed or a remote machine - works with powerpoints and all sorts of other things - requires a windows machine for a client (might even be a linux client now). Its free and the support is great i currently use on four 42" screens around my school.

 

Toby

[mstarkie]

That looks really good Toby at present i use a windows pc running a powerpoint show on continous loop that is embedded with wmv's from photostory with a border around for notices.

 

But i think ill have a look into Xibo.

 

MS

[penfold]

Another vote for Xibo, does eveything thing we need.

[glennda]

Yeah we where using the Navaho software which I hated as all the teachers where sending me powerpoints to put up and i was having to take a screenshot of each picture then upload it. I have to say for free it is really good and even better then fact they are continually improving it. The school aparently spent alot of money purchasing the navaho stuff which i scrapped about a month after i arrived!

 

Toby

[soapyfish]

I have some large Samsung displays and I use the "magic net/magic info pro" software provided for free with the screen, I find that works well

[RobFuller]

Anoter vote for Xibo, brillant free bit of kit. Have streaming TV and Webcams running very good.

[special_k]

+1 for magicinfo we have 13 samsungs mounted within the school.

[Crowmanuk]

+1 for Xibo, very very easy to use and if you search about there are quite a few bits of code you can use, streaming bbc/sky news, automatic date, java clocks, etc etc....

[jsnetman]

I tried xibo and it looks good but it does not upload videos, it tries and looks as if it is but when going to the repository it is not there, anyone here having the same issue (there again it could be anti virus or something) have not went into it in any detail.

[alan-d]

Yeah we where using the Navaho software which I hated as all the teachers where sending me powerpoints to put up and i was having to take a screenshot of each picture then upload it. I have to say for free it is really good and even better then fact they are continually improving it. The school aparently spent alot of money purchasing the navaho stuff which i scrapped about a month after i arrived!

 

Toby

 

Sorry, slightly off track here but why did you take screen shots? Powerpoint has the facility to convert all slides to .jpg files!

 

Anyway - we use OneLan here but upgrading the software usually means having to spend more on upgrading the hardware too, so now we have about 3 different versions. We may look into alternatives that we can use on the current hardware we have such as Xibo.

[penfold]

I tried xibo and it looks good but it does not upload videos, it tries and looks as if it is but when going to the repository it is not there, anyone here having the same issue (there again it could be anti virus or something) have not went into it in any detail.

 

I've uploaded wmv video files no problem. There is a file size issue of about 128m on the version I'm using, but I think it depends on the version of PHP rather than xibo.(I'm using XAMP but I'm sure someone can confirm)

 

But if it was a filesize or type error it should tell you rather than look like it's uploaded. If it uploads, is it a case that it just doesn't play? You may need to run some updates on your web browser before it will run.

[glennda]

I've uploaded wmv video files no problem. There is a file size issue of about 128m on the version I'm using, but I think it depends on the version of PHP rather than xibo.(I'm using XAMP but I'm sure someone can confirm)

 

But if it was a filesize or type error it should tell you rather than look like it's uploaded. If it uploads, is it a case that it just doesn't play? You may need to run some updates on your web browser before it will run.

 

If you find your PHP.conf and change the upload max size limit to whatever you like. 2mb is the default upload limit for PHP. if you ever get stuck the WIKI on the xibo site is excellent