It has been quite the educational experience. I cannot talk about the project or the client in any detail yet, and I would hope that at some point I can reveal that with some pictures! What I can say is that this project employed 20 plasma screens ticker style, 24 mini display systems, and 4 touch screen systems, each with a user controlled video wall (another 16 displays and 4 touch screens).
This, for me, was mammoth! But what a fun ride it was! Having completed my Digital Signage Certified Expert program (Special thanks to Alan and Jonathan of Brawn Consulting, Digital Signage Expo, and the Digital Signage Federation) I learned so much. Although I was well into the project and my designs, of how this would interconnect, the base knowledge I took away from that helped me steer in the right direction.
Although I feel this project was an overwhelming success, there are some things I took away from this. I would like to share these experiences with you. Hopefully if there is someone out there who is heading down this road too for the first time, you can take caution on the things I have learned.
The AV Provider, and your other Supports!
Since I am not an AV reseller, or installer, I made the designs of the systems. I would suggest that you work with an AV integrator. The mounting of the devices is an intricate thing and you want to work with somebody who does this every day. The last thing you will need is to have a display fall down! To be clear, this did not happen. Its just something you should be aware of. The experience I had with my AV provider was a little rocky. Communication with our rep was sporadic. However the technical staff were great and very professional. They were good at answering my "noob" questions and were a great guide. The installer was very professional and did a great job painstakingly mounting the bezeless plasma screens for PERFECT alignment.
They also supplied many of the devices used. At the last minute, I got a call that they were short 3 of 16 devices I needed to complete the project (1.5 weeks before I was to fly out to begin installation). Apparently there were just no more of these specific screens in Canada. This in my opinion was the forst major hiccup.
This is where I reached out to Alan and Jonathan Brawn of Brawn consulting. As part of my certification course I took with Alan, they are there to help me in these sorts of situations. That was a GREAT comfort. Although they immediately sourced places that had the screens I needed, companies in the USA are reluctant to sell across the border. So sadly, that could not happen. Again, relationships with your vendors are VERY important. Insight Canada(my preferred vendor) stepped in and was able to broker the 3 remaining devices from the USA. This however came at a price! I ended up paying about $1000 more per device for the brokerage, shipping and Canadian duties on the devices. However, all the devices were delivered on time. Crisis averted. Plan for contingencies.
The sporadic communication with our AV salesperson caused some issues in that we were not sure where they were in the process at times, and we ended up with devices we did not order on site. If you are in this situation, step up to the plate and call out these issues before they become a problem.
Cables Cables Cables!
Since all the displays were in a retail environment, we had to link everything to computers to drive the displays. The rack that housed the systems was in a back room many meters away. So we had to use cable extender systems. Moreover, there was display mirroring happening in that one of the systems had 5 display outputs, we split each of those and again into an extender. So, although I planned this right, and we had all the needed devices... one thing I did not anticipate was the number of cables and how the heck to manage that. Also, since these were high end pro DVI lines, they were quite thick and thus harder to manage.
So lest see, 5 display outputs, each to a powered splitter, then to a Cat5 extender, break that down...
- 5 adapters - Minidisplay port to DVI
- 5 DVI - initial output
- 10 DVI - From the splitters
- 5 POWER - To power the splitters
- 10 Ethernet - From the splitter
So please remember CABLE MANAGENT!!! This was my biggest lesson.
Construction Zone!
A flag I knew about going into this was the fact that this was still a construction zone. Working around construction crews, dust, and trying to keep track of the 80+ boxes of devices and other things needed got difficult. More of a concern was the dust! Its just something to keep in mind. Its never advisable to install technology in a dusty environment, but sometimes, deadlines overrule!
Final Thoughts... a VIDEO CAMERA?
One final thought I have in regards to this particular project is that of a video camera. Since most of the display devices were running from computers in the back where I could not see the displays, setting up was a little hard. I ordered extended range mice, so I could walk out to the floor and operate, it was still a little hard to manage as I had to go check connections and debug, it was a lot of walking back and forth.
What would have been great was a video camera that could see your devices, and a monitor in the back where the rack of systems was located. This would have aided me in hooking up the extenders and getting all the devices working in perfect synergy.
In the end, all is working well with a few shake down issues and expected bugs. I hope this helps somebody out there prepare for an installation. I would love to hear your feedback and get a discussion going. Please feel free to comment!
Stay Geeky,
//Ian\\
