Simple Simple Digital Signage Please!

[rocknrollstar]

Hi, we have an LCD TV in the reception, connected to a networked XP machine. I would like to have a shared folder on the network, where staff can dump images and videos, and for this to be shown on display on the machine.

 

I would rather I didn't have to stop the looping of content to change the file, just repeat over and over again, taking into account if new files are there (and adding them).

 

Any ideas of a solution for this? I.e. play media files in a directory full screen, on loop, and include new files when available.

 

Thanks!

[pritchardavid]

Look at show point, best thing I can thunk of, all you is update the powerpoint file that is in the shared folder and it will update whats on the screen

[p858snake]

It's a bit more complicated than what your looking for (and i haven't tried it before) but Xibo gives a web based interface to manage the screens it runs. Edited June 1, 2010 by p858snake
slight grammar fix

[OllieC]

I'd give Xibo a shot, it's incredibly quick to set up and easy to use once you've got the hang of it. Very flexible as well with the scheduling and multiple display support.

 

In our reception there's a projector pointing at a large white wall that is plugged into a laptop running the Xibo client. That is scheduled to display a looping slideshow of the various school logos/achievements that usually go at the bottom of letters.

[jmcdermott]

We have the same setup in reception here, but after having the machine turned off at the socket a few times, and never being given any different files to display, we ended up putting a cheap dvd player behind the screen and just stuck a dvd on loop.

[duncane]

I've been looking at Concerto - it doesn't do video yet, although according to the blog it should be coming soon.

 

It's open source, and multiuser - you can set up feeds that users can submit text and graphics to, and moderate them before they're displayed. It's geared up towards a central server with multiple client machines connected to displays - but I'm looking at putting both on the same machine because we've only got a single display. (I'm not sure whether this is possible, but if you could display a web page as a screen saver, you could co-opt all the school's PCs into being digital signage! )

[markberry]

I can second OllieC's recommendation of Xibo. We've used a few of the paid for signage programs and none really did exactly what we wanted. Xibo does exactly what we need including being able to drop a powerpoint on to part of the screen with video and ticker in other parts of the screen. Best of all it's free!

[OllieC]

I'll just mention something else we do with Xibo. Whenever we have an event on in the evening we usually create a new layout containing any required information to greet visitors and then schedule it to automatically change in time in the evening.... 'tis so useful.

[mjs_mjs]

if it was just images i would have said winsows pic preview thingy (with XP). set it to slide show and walk off - i think it does update as you add also.

[rocknrollstar]

Thanks everyone for your repsonses. I guess I have 3 replies!:

 

a) Attached is a simple script I wrote to do what I wanted, cobbled together from various sources. Basically it allows you to have a media folder, which can contain various videos, photos, mp3s etc (anything the media player can play). There is also a batch file script called showit.bat, which when run, creates an m3u playlist file automatically, containing any of the media files in the current directory. It will then tell Windows Media Player to play that playlist fullscreen. Note that the playlist must already have been added to WMP. Works well, does the job. Tried PortableVLC, had issues with quality.

 

b) I've installed Xibo, very simple for me, although I'm trying to make it easy enough for our admin team to do it! If I have a powerpoint that it is displaying, then if I update the PPT, will the Xibo system show the updated file? Otherwise it requires reuploading again...

 

c) Can Xibo display media in a folder, as opposed to having to upload the media into Xibo? That would be ideal

 

Thanks everyone for your help

media.zip

[glennda]

c) Can Xibo display media in a folder, as opposed to having to upload the media into Xibo? That would be ideal

 

Thanks everyone for your help

 

I would create a webpage that is a slideshow of anything inside a folder, then install xibo ( i use it on 5 screens around school) then just create a layout that shows the webpage. you then have the easyness for admin staff and also the flexibilty if you would like to expand in the future (or do more advanced staff for productions in the evening etc).

[rocknrollstar]

I would create a webpage that is a slideshow of anything inside a folder

Brilliant idea! How do I go about that?!

Thanks Toby.

[glennda]

Brilliant idea! How do I go about that?!

Thanks Toby.

 

not sure never tried it! its possible i think as i have seen it before, let me have a play and get back to you

[rocknrollstar]

Thanks Toby. An interesting challenge I think!

[glennda]

think this will do what you want Cut & Paste Full Screen Image Slideshow (w/ auto read images from directory)

 

just testing it now

[glennda]

Or you should try editing these two together to make it better.

 

Cut & Paste Random Transitions Slideshow

 

toby

[rocknrollstar]

Cool, but I really need something that will play videos too

[glennda]

for thats its starting to get complicated. The easiest way of doing it would be training the staff to use the xibo software. it is really easy and quite intuitive. ours are all run by the students apart from one screen which is our Nagios box

[rocknrollstar]

Hi Toby, thanks for your help on this. It hit me this morning as I woke up- I could just wrap the playlist.m3u that I made (see attachment on previous post), and then embed that playlist in a webpage. HTML code is:

 

 

 

 

Obviously some values need to be chaned etc, but seems to work, wven with UNC path.

 

Will stick it into Xibo now and have a play

 

Thanks again.

[rocknrollstar]

Ok, I have now worked it all out. I am using Xibo, which is great. I'm able to dump any type of media in a folder, then run a batch file, which updates the playlist and restarts Xibo auotmatically. I also put a powerpoint on Xibo to show a welcome screen and notices, and put the file on a shared folder, so the admin team don't need to use Xibo at all, they simply can edit the powerpoint, then restart Xibo with the click of a button. Like it!

 

If you want to know how the above was acchieved, let me know, and I'll post instructions.

 

Thanks again for everyone's help

[chazzy2501]

Digital Signage Software Over The Internet - Cignage Company

 

These guys offer free cross platform software albeit limited in it's free form, but you can admin from their website multiple devices. They even have an iphone app now. I don't know if thats included with the free subscription though.

[gumbygaz]

Sounds a perfect solution! Been thinking of ways for Xibo to be an easier process for Admin staff to quickly update etc, this seems it! Will have a bash at it, if struggle may come back for those instructions!!

Cheers already for the point in the right direction!

[paulhowes]

Just found this thread and sounds like exactly the sort of thing that i am after!! Have got Xibo up and running on an XP PC using XAMPP and running everything locally for now.

What i also wanted to do was to have a folder somewhere that the Head can just dump pics into which will then update on the display using Xibo. The idea of a webpage linked to this directory sounded perfect but just a little unsure on how to go about it???

If anybody could help that would be great?!?...or better ideas perhaps as this was 4 months ago so maybe it has been fine tuned?

Cheers

[gerardsweeney]

Ok, I have now worked it all out. I am using Xibo, which is great. I'm able to dump any type of media in a folder, then run a batch file, which updates the playlist and restarts Xibo auotmatically.

 

At the risk of sounding like a lazy leech, is there any chance you could make this batch file available to download?

 

I could probably knock one together myself, but it seems daft to reinvent the wheel

 

Kind regards,

Gerard

[rocknrollstar]

Hi Gerard,

I've attached the bits and pieces I've used for this, and will try and write something that it understandable to get this done:

 

1) Create a shared directory to dump media files into. call \\server\media

 

2) Copy the 'showit.bat' file into this directory

 

3) Running it produces playlist.m3u which can be played in windows media player or otherwise.

 

4) Create a webpage with the code shown in a previous post (a reply to Toby). Can store it in the same directory still, call it display.html

 

5) In Xibo, create a layout page that is a full screen webpage, and the points to \\server\media\display.html

 

6) Attached in the zip file are batch files to stop and start xibo client. Needs adapting to call the 'showit.bat' file remotely.

 

7) I also worked on using a powerpoint in Xibo, which could be updated on a shared location, and then use a batch file to start and stop the xibo client remotely. Meant that staff didn't have to bother with xibo. Trick was to call the powerpoint the same name as xibo gave it (e.g. 26.ppt), and then copy over the powerpoint to the xibo client 'cache' on the display machine, then restart the xibo player.

 

Again, two different options. You could even combine both by including a powerpoint and a webpage in the the layout template with Xibo server.

 

Hope this helps. Been a while since I've done it. The attached zip file will help, although it's not an out of the box solution.

 

xibo_stuff.zip