Tech help with a Christmas window display

AHarvey

AHarvey

AHarvey

Soldato
Joined
6 Mar 2008
Posts
10,085
Location
Stoke area
Hi,

Not sure the best place for this so GD it is.

Every Christmas for the last 3 or 4 years now our town has had a Christmas window competition and my wife's work win's every year.

People are stopping outside just to look, kids are coming past with their parents.

They've had Frozen, minions etc as themes, and this year they are going to go with beauty and the beast. With B & B + all the characters on the left side window, and on the right side, a gathering of bears and wildlife in a winter setting listening to a giant bear reading the story.

Now, they want to have thought/speech bubbles above the head of the bear to make it obvious he is reading but I've thought about taking it one step further, having a spare monitor + a raspi showing the words of the story on the screen. I can do that, but I thought it would be nice for families to be able to sit in the car and listen to the old bear tell the story. Yes I could put up a speaker but that would really annoy the residents.

How easy would it be to transmit this to a car radio for instance? so they can tune in and listen. and what happens if it's a new DAB radio as opposed to the older AM/FM radios?

Maybe a QR code/url that leads to a web address so they can listen over a mobile? i'm worried about data usage though.

Any ideas?
 
Sitting in a car? LOL

You don't go seeing Xmas windows and sit in the car. You wrap up warm and get out there and enjoy it.

Ever seen Fenwick Newcastle Christmas Window?
 
LeeUK said:
Sitting in a car? LOL

You don't go seeing Xmas windows and sit in the car. You wrap up warm and get out there and enjoy it.

Ever seen Fenwick Newcastle Christmas Window?
Click to expand...

Have to agree with this. It wont have nearly the same impact as listening to it while viewing a nice christmassy scene.

I know we're all techheads on here, but lets not let technology get in the way of tradition too much.
 
robfosters said:
Have to agree with this. It wont have nearly the same impact as listening to it while viewing a nice christmassy scene.

I know we're all techheads on here, but lets not let technology get in the way of tradition too much.
Click to expand...

I understand what you're saying, but we get a lot of parents saying kids want to come back and see it time and time again, great for the kids but the parents get a little bored of it after a while, this was along the lines of just something else to offer and standing still outside with young kids in the cold for 15 minutes over and over isn't ideal for some.

Mynight said:
Iirc you need a licence to broadcast over the radio waves :(.
Click to expand...

That's poop, didn't think of that. Although I wonder if I could speak to our local town radio, they broadcast online, see if they could offer some advice to do it that way.
 
Maybe just burn it to CDs leave a stack of them. Cheap enough to not worry about. Maybe even create a donation box with the Pi user puts a pound in and it spits out a CD :).

Only other issue I can think of is do you have the rights to the audio? Be a shame to get fined.
 
The CD's are a great idea. The kids won't only be able to listen in the car, but they can take it home and listen to it in their bedrooms etc.

I wouldn't worry too much about being fined for the audio.
 
Mynight said:
Maybe just burn it to CDs leave a stack of them. Cheap enough to not worry about. Maybe even create a donation box with the Pi user puts a pound in and it spits out a CD :).

Only other issue I can think of is do you have the rights to the audio? Be a shame to get fined.
Click to expand...

not a bad idea, maybe company branded cd's or even USB's...

Audio i'd look at recording ourselves, I know a couple of voice actors, any money raised would be for charity, I'd have to look whether we could record the story and use it as the story itself may be copyrighted.
 
Apparantly the original story is public domain now so you should be good to go. Just some things Disney added won't be.

USBs might be a bit pricey (branded ones anyway) and wouldn't be as compatible. I imagine most kids would have a CD player and even brand new cars still seem to have them.

I would be intrigued to see the result :).
 
Mynight said:
I imagine most kids would have a CD player and even brand new cars still seem to have them.
Click to expand...

You say that but I don't have a CD player and haven't for a few years now other than my PC. Amazing to think they're almost antiquated already.

However, if you're talking about in car, then that's different. CD's are still pretty mainstream in car audio.
 
robfosters said:
You say that but I don't have a CD player and haven't for a few years now other than my PC. Amazing to think they're almost antiquated already.

However, if you're talking about in car, then that's different. CD's are still pretty mainstream in car audio.
Click to expand...

Damnit :D.

I've still got a couple antique CD players around the house :(. Ergh I'm old I remember when they came out.
 
Could you not get one of those things for connecting your phone etc to your car that work by tuning i your radio and then just connect something to it o repeat. Put a sign outside saying to tune in to xxFM
 
Mynight said:
Damnit :D.

I've still got a couple antique CD players around the house :(. Ergh I'm old I remember when they came out.
Click to expand...

Me too, but you show me someone under 30, apart from audiophiles, who own a dedicated CD player? It's all itunes, spotify or god forbid, torrents.
 
:D I'm good thanks.

I'm not sure I'd describe myself as such but my hifi is a damn lot nicer than my PC headphones.

Even playing Spotify through the hifi sounds worse :confused:.
 
People still have CD/DVD drives on their computers? :confused:

I think you're being too complicated with the CDs etc, and it could get reasonably expensive/time consuming depending on how popular. The TV with the story on would be a better bet, especially if you could have say 4-5 lines on the screen, appearing at a slow pace.
 
Providing the content doesn't have reproduction legalities then get someone decent to read it and packaging it into a podcast or better a branded app for the store and publish it on iphone and android app stores. There's various free online services that you can make a simple mobile app with. Put a QR code on the window so it's obvious and easy for someone to find the published app. You can add other things to the app too like xmas opening times, details of santa grotto if you have one etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom