Store Window Advertising 2.0

April 18, 2009 1:27 PM

Which hardware and software to use to display ads on screens in store windows?

My boss wants to put tv/computer screens in the - two large - windows of the store that I work at to show ads on them.

This isn't my area of expertise but I reckon you need two huge screens that are connected and controlled via a PC. The ads could be anything from PowerPoint presentations to rich Flash ads to xhtml on web browser.

Have you any experience of a similar solution? Any ideas and suggestions are welcomed!

posted by Foci for Analysis to computers & internet (7 comments total)

Usually it's just a Windows machine running a kiosk-style thing. Macromedia Director used to be used quite a bit for this. PowerPoint would work. I'd probably do it in .NET now.

It really doesn't matter, though. You could get away with a tiny little machine running linux and a 5 minute Qt or GTK app and the result would be the same. I think Windows is just used because people tend to have spare Windows machines floating around.
posted by devilsbrigade at 1:50 PM on April 18

Maybe I should clarify 'kiosk-style thing' - the only difference is that it makes the display full-screen. Really, that's it. If you have a keyboard & mouse attached for visitors, then you have to do some additional stuff to lock them into the kiosk, but if it's just display, really it's pretty trivial. An immediate solution, for example, would be to hook up a laptop to an external monitor & run a PowerPoint pres. on it. If you want the two monitors synced, you'd either need 2 laptops talking to eachother (not impossible, but annoying) or a desktop with a dual-head video card.
posted by devilsbrigade at 1:53 PM on April 18

On Windows Internet Explorer has a kiosk mode for exactly this sort of thing. Kiosk mode is triggered by adding "-k" in the command line. Then you just need a web page or web application that's set up to do a slide show, which you would find by Googling.

So for example, if you go to Start -> Run and paste this in:

"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" -k "http://www.tinou.com/flickrslideshow.jsp?nsid=&tag=save10&delay=4&size=screen&page=&sort=interestingness-desc"

you'll see that guy's Flickr slideshow full screen.

I think FireFox has a kiosk mode too but I don't recall how to trigger it off the top of my head.
posted by XMLicious at 2:27 PM on April 18

I should have added that the solution will probably mean having two 40-50 inch screens in each of the store's windows and that the screens obviously should show the same stuff.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 2:58 PM on April 18

Use PowerPoint (or whatever the cheapskate free version of PowerPoint is called - OpenOffice?) in loop mode. VGA Splitter. Set your resolution to 1280x768 or 1280x720 (depending on your screens' aspect ratio). Turn off Windows Update and other background processes that have occasional popup windows.
posted by ostranenie at 5:45 PM on April 18

I've used the Slideshow screensaver on a Linux box for exactly this job. Using a complete general purpose OS to implement a digital picture frame is complete overkill, but it's easy to set up. I pointed the screensaver to a folder full of pictures I wanted to show, set it up with the minimum 1 minute delay to kick in, set the Ubuntu login screen to auto-login the only user after 10 seconds, and disconnected the keyboard and the mouse. All you have to do to start the thing up is switch the box on. Hitting the power button initiates a clean shutdown. You can even suppress the Gnome panels and set the desktop wallpaper to the first picture you want to display to get your ads running a bit quicker.
posted by flabdablet at 7:55 PM on April 18

Dual head card, cloned display. I would recommend getting a TV/Monitor with DVI input, that will save hassle trying to mess with resolutions.

Also for the display I'd recommend the Panasonic Professional plasma displays, they are designed for commercial settings. I use them at my workplace in our auditorium with this wireless presentation board. I believe there is also a computer in a board which will provide an all inclusive unit. They also came with 7 year on site warranties when we purchased them.
posted by wongcorgi at 12:41 AM on April 19