Hi, Bruce ...thanks for the quick and imformative response:
What we're doing:
2 main jobs right now.
1) Distribution of Hubble ViewSpace service
We have the STSI's excellent ViewSpace application running on a PC in
one our public spaces and feeding a VGA data projector at 800x600 (the
service is also available at WXGA 1280x768).
We want to distribute that signal to three ouput devices separated by
considerable distance. Two exceed 90m from the "server" PC location.
We could just get 3 entire PCs, but then we'd need three licences
(x ~USD$900 each) and we'd have to pay three annual useage fees
(~USD$160).
I'm looking for a better way, that doesn't waste PCs and money.
Other obvious solution is to get a 3 (or more) way VGA distribution
amplifier and/or VGA over Cat5 extenders. This would undoubtedly work,
although you can get colour separation issues.
I don't like this as it ties our display devices to the fixed locations
where the dedicated cat5 drops are run. The investment in the cabling
also provides no other benefit.
The possibility I'm interested in is capturing the VGA output of the
ViewSpace PC and streaming it in real time to display devices.
Not sure if this can be done with software or hardware. I'd prefer if
the capture and streaming components could live in the ViewSpace PC
itself.
2) digital signage
We're looking for an "airport information" and digital signage solution
to a handful of screens.
We've seen expensive solutions using software like Omnivex, but we feel
we can achieve what we need with a much smaller investment (...we have
too!).
DISPLAY DEVICES:
I like the idea of each display device (LCD display or projector) having
a small-format computer (iTX PC or Mac Mini) directly attached via VGA
so that the combination becomes an independent, fully mobile display
output device that can be plugged in and centrally managed wherever
network connectivity is available (including wireless). Each standard
setup will be able to run full motion HDTV video or signage displays or
anything else we may need and can get a computer to output.
Standard network tools and utilities (RDP/VNC, SMB filesharing) should
allow for centralized management, including automatic content
distribution, without too much effort. I really like the flexibility.
Right now, MAC minis seem are the favourite for the display device.
I look forward to your comments,
Thanks,
David M
===========================================
David Marsh
System Administrator
H.R. MacMillan Space Centre
Vancouver Museum
1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver, BC V6J 3J9
E sysadmin at hrmacmillanspacecentre.com
sysadmin at vanmuseum.bc.ca
T (604) 736 4431 ext. 5507
C (604) 813 9667
F (604) 736 5665
===========================================
-----Original Message-----
From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu [mailto:mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu] On Behalf Of
Bruce Wyman
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2007 11:20 AM
To: Museum Computer Network Listserv
Subject: Re: [MCN-L] MAC mini's for digital signage:
>A couple of questions:
>1) Is there a good, free or low cost Powerpoint Viewer for MAC OSX?
>MS don't offer one and TonicPoint Viewer seems very minimal and
unsuited
>to being set up to automatically play a signage-type presentation.
Well, if you're willing to save out the ppt files as either pdf or
jpg then you could use Preview which comes with OS X.
Another option that comes to mind (assuming that you're using ppt on
os x) is that you can save the presentation as a quicktime movie and
then any number of things can view that on OS X.
Pretty much as long as you're willing to do a little conversion, then
you're in good shape on OS X.
However, that being said, PPT as your graphics engine is always going
to be fairly annoying and limiting, especially if you're going to go
cross platform. That's a longer rant and I'll spare that conversation
at the moment unless you're interested. I'll assume you have a good
idea of what you're up against there and even though I'm a fan of
hacking anything under the sun, that's a path of pain.
>2) does anyone have experience streaming high definition VGA video from
>PC to MAC? ...I'm interested in the hardware and software required.
Do you need to stream in real-time or are you just doing playback of
pre-recordered / pre-rendered video? The former is hard and I'd have
some questions about what you're trying to do before figuring out a
solution.
If you're doing playback, why do you need a second computer? Don't
you just need a single computer to do playback and either send video
a great distance to a remote screen OR have the computer at the
display for playback and suck the video content over the network from
a file server (is that what you're imagining in your scenario above?)
In any case, if you're wondering about lower cost solutions, take a
look at the new Apple TV appliance - <http://www.apple.com/appletv/>.
While it doesn't do full VGA, it is only $300 and will do up to 1280
x 720 at 24fps (other resolutions at up to 30 fps) which may get in
the ballpark of what you need.
Are the remote displays just doing dumb playback?
Actually, let's make this a better discussion - would you be willing
to step back and give the big picture view of what you're trying to
do? It's easier to suggest general approaches to the whole problem
rather than evaluating individual bits in isolation.
-bw.
--
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
-=-=-=-=
Bruce Wyman, Director of New Technologies
Denver Art Museum / 100 W 14th Ave. Pkwy, Denver, CO 80204
office: 720.913.0159 / fax: 720.913.0002
<bwyman at denverartmuseum.org>
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