Digital Signage

[Avantls]

Hi All,

 

First of all yes I`m a newbie to the forum, please be nice....

 

I have recently looked into digital signage for my sons school, I have done lots of investigating over the net and spoke to a few companies. Samsung and Magicinfo seems to be the one that comes up a lot.

 

I`m trying to get an honest gauge of which system is the most user friendly. Bearing in mind we`re talking about a preschool with no IT department, they bearly manage to work the security lock on the door bless them....

 

From anyones experience is there a system, that is better or is magicinfo about the best user wise. It will only be for one single unit, so not worried about splitting zones etc.

 

Thanks all,

[Russ83]

This has been discussed very recently so have a search of the forum.

 

After trying a few different bits of software we decided to go with Sedao as it is very easy to use and the most reliable.

[brianstorm]

Check out Onelan. They are fairly bullet proof and can be configured to be very easy easy to use for the end user.

[Avantls]

Cheers folks, I`ll have a look at both. Really appreciate it.

 

Without going and trying all these things its hard to get a good judge on whats available.

[rossmck]

There's also Xibo (http://xibo.org.uk/) which is an open-source solution quite commonly used within universities I believe.

[imageman]

Have a look at the stuff from dZine they do basic packages for schools if I remember correctly and can be set up to allow for what ever amount of control you want the users to have.

 

It wont give you the blue screen of death either as it is not a windows platform

[Shez]

Having been through the whole selection process in the last couple of years, the first thing I would ask is: "What do you want it to be able to do?" Each system has its good and less good points but there's no point in choosing one that's dead easy to use if it doesn't do the job you need it to be able to do. (As it happens, whenever I asked that question of management, there was a pause, followed by "We want some digital signage." Not helpful.)

I quickly discounted magicinfo as its text handling abilities were pitiful - I thought at the time that being able to put textual info on the signage would be a key point. We ended up going with Sedao - once set up it can be very easy to use but there's still quite a lot of power under the bonnet.

[steve h]

If its a one off screen in a reception is there anything wrong with connecting a laptop to a tv screen and showing a powerpoint? (If its more than one screen then you can still split the signal and send it over ethernet if need be!)

 

If they really are having trouble with tech then this is a nice simple solution that even the students can update, isnt going to cost the earth and if they do want to upgrade in the future the TV(s) is already in place and something fancier can be connected to it!

 

Most of the items im given to put up on our screens in a secondary school are powerpoints as everyone knows how to make them!

 

 

Steve