Digital Signage w/ Live Video

Kody

Member
Hey All!

Our theatre is currently working on a $2.5M expansion at our Front of House.

We are wanting to implement a system with Digital Signage in the lobby. We would like the ability to switch over to a live feed from a camera in the auditorium as well.

We are looking to be able to mount TVs throughout our lobby area, as well as at our concessions stands. During the beginning of events and at intermission, the concession stand monitors would display a menu board but any other time would either have promotions or live video.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to look at to accomplish this? We are needing to provide a rough plan to the architect so they can coordinate cable runs.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Kody Williams
Technical Director
Egyptian Theatre
135 N. 2nd Street
DeKalb, Illinois 60115
Office: 815-758-1215
www.egyptiantheatre.org
The Egyptian Theatre is owned & operated by:
Preservation of the Egyptian Theatre, Inc. - a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization.
 
Most digital signage systems can accept live video in H.264 format, so you can use a camera with a streaming output or add an encoder. These can switchover with an external trigger or scheduled, and link to your F&B system so that prices change together.
High end versions would be Four Winds, 22 miles, Scala, Brightsign, etc. but just be aware they typically have yearly maintenance fees to keep updating the software like an IT network.
If video latency is a concern then the above may not work, and you may be better off sending a dedicated video feed to a separate input on the TV when that's needed. That could be 3G-SDI (expensive version) or modulate the video signal onto coax as a TV channel (cheaper). Would likely also want an external box to trigger switching inputs on all TVs together if you have more than 1-2.
 

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