Remotely updated digital noticeboard

Freefaller

Freefaller

Freefaller

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For context this is in engineering/construction environment, so the solution needs to be relatively robust/water proof.

What I am after is to trial some digital signage (be it LED ticker tape type, or LED screen type) so they can be updated remotely and for the information to be dynamic in key areas of various sites where certain activities are occurring.

The trial will initially be in only a couple of areas to check that they work and to see how the site team behaviours responds to it. We want to make more personal but also relevant.

The issue being that currently noticeboards are dull, they don't offer up to date information (or it goes out of date very quickly) and noticeboards are just not engaging or innovative! Activities can change over night in certain areas, and often a lot of current signage is not relevant to the area where the information is displayed so people can become complacent to it. By adding content remotely, or easily the information can be kept up to date and relevant to the operations going on on site. Bearing in mind some of the sites are massive, or contain deep excavations where it takes considerable amount of time to get to certain areas.

We could just have LED screens up with a USB - but then the USB has to be kept up to date and someone has to go around ensuring the correct USB is in the correct screen, and if things change the time it takes to go to the screen negates the point of having it in the first place.

So I guess what I'm after is some sort of screen that can be updated remotely/over a network, and is easy to identify (i.e. so that the operators know which screen is being update), and the content can be dynamic/scrolling, perhaps even split screen, so various things can be displayed.

Can anybody else think of any other idea / tech that would work for this?

Another thought of using something like an LED screen is that you could potentially use it to do ad-hoc briefings on it by either connecting an ipad or in this case a USB into it with the relevant data, rather than bringing all the staff back to a meeting room, or pulling them out of the environment which takes time.

All thoughts welcome :)
 
Look into xibo, which is some free digital signage software.

Or, a slightly less elegant, but successful solution I've used successfully for adverts/notices on a screen in a reception area is tobuse a raspberry pi.

Set the pi up to boot into lobre office's PowerPoint equivalent, and load up a ppt file and display it on constant loop.

On a computer somewhere else on the network, use winscp and create a batch file to send any updated ppt file to the pi, then send a reboot command.

Updated notices etc will then be displayed about a minute later when the pi has rebooted.
 
Never used it but if you fancy DIY'ing something then http://xibo.org.uk/ looks to be pretty good. You'd just need to supply some waterproof kit. It looks like you can get it to run on raspberry PI too :).

edit: beat :p.
 
Plug a small PC into the TV and do it that way. We have two Raspberry Pi's connected to our TVs which then run our Remote Monitoring dashboard so we can see what's going on at any given time. All you need to do is point the computer to a website that refreshes every 30s or so and update the content yourselves. Job jobbed.
 
I like the application idea, but yeh, hardware as above posters.
You might need a bit more specialised wifi kit if the areas are too remote.

You could always push SMS to people's phones if you had something vital to say
 
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Thanks for the suggestions and thoughts. Interesting idea about using a raspberry Pi too - that can keep the costs down and make a trial more interesting. :)
 
If you have any kind of network access you can VNC into a box connected to a tv. Then you can remotely do whatever you want such as load up a full-screen app like powerpoint, and edit it in real-time with whatever info you want.
 
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asim18 said:
If you have any kind of network access you can VNC into a box connected to a tv. Then you can remotely do whatever you want such as load up a full-screen app like powerpoint, and edit it in real-time with whatever info you want.
Click to expand...

This is what we do with about 10 televisions dotted around our office. Each one has a NUC connected to it and we display whatever the relevant department wants us to. We are not responsibly for content though, we have an arts and crafts (Marketing) department for that.
 
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Using the pi does kerp it cheap. The reason we went that route is because the person who updates the notices couldn't understand vnc etc. Now all she does is save the PowerPoint fe in a particular folder on her computer and then runs a batch file which does everything else for her.

I've got it all documented, so drop me an email (in trust) if you want the specifics.
 
We used Xibo at work, it's very clunky and I wasn't all that impressed with it.

We now use Rise Vision, which is web based and free, this works very well. Have it setup and running on a Pi.
 
So you connect to the web service (rise vision) presumably it is just a website? Via the pi?

What if you had a smart tv with web browser? I guess that negates the ability to update it remotely?
 
Freefaller said:
What if you had a smart tv with web browser? I guess that negates the ability to update it remotely?
Click to expand...

Same thing but backwards, you host a web site somewhere and update it, the smart TV is then displaying the updated website.

Wasn't environmental conditions a pre-requirement here? TVs are different from LEDs



this might be useful, similar application
hospital digital signage

https://onelan.com/case-studies/HealthMaster_v08.pdf
 
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Freefaller said:
So you connect to the web service (rise vision) presumably it is just a website? Via the pi?

What if you had a smart tv with web browser? I guess that negates the ability to update it remotely?
Click to expand...

The PI has the rise vision player installed on it, that's essentially a flash player which is set to run on boot up.

You then update Rise Vision through the website, it can see any players you have connected to your account, you can restart them from within the website.

You can then update the display from anywhere you can get onto the Risevision website, an push that update to your actual player.

Not sure it works with Smart TV's, it has the potential to though.
 
Try https://signage.screen.cloud/

I've using this system since initial beta versions and now it is a very robust and easy digital signage system.

It is an app which runs on Android (iOS version in the works I believe) and can run off ChromeCast/Amazon or any Android Phone/Tablet/TV.

Edit: Each screen can be updated remotely.
 
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