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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: Ads server
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Nils Hoover
Film Handler
Posts: 17
From: Ithaca, NY, USA
Registered: Nov 2011
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posted 11-25-2011 01:01 PM
I work for a small arts/independent movie theater. We show ads and shorts as part of a preshow, so having both video and audio is important (as opposed to just slides)
As always, cost is an issue, but so is quality and useability, trying to find a balance between all of those.
I am trying to create a computer to play ads off of, we have 5 screens, and right now we play shorts/ads off of 5 seprate WD TV media players. They are cheap and unreliable, on top of the fact that is is really annoying to have to render out files and transfer it to each one individually.
My plan is to use proshow producer or some such program, output it to a 5 way hdmi splitter to each separate projector, and possibly use a HDMI over cat-6 converter (have to run the cable a long distance, cat-6 is way cheaper than HDMI or dvi cables).
-what type of video card should I consider to output the HDMI? Other hardware on the computer I am not thinking about?
-is this a silly way of doing this?
Is there a reason I need to buy something like this from Hail research technologies @$120 each
vs some of these @$10 each from Monoprice ?
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Nils Hoover
Film Handler
Posts: 17
From: Ithaca, NY, USA
Registered: Nov 2011
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posted 11-30-2011 04:06 PM
quote: Dave Macaulay
I may be missing something, but why use HDMI? There are lots of VGA distribution systems. You don't need sound as well on the video cable - the main advantage of HDMI.
I do need Audio, we play shorts as well as ads, the shorts have sound, and the ads have music, however I have seen VGA distribution systems with audio as well (seprately through 1/8th jack or something), so I should look into this more.
quote: Mark Hajducki
How would your scheduling work?
I would assume that you currently start the preshow a set time before the 35mm content starts so you get a smooth transition.
With the centralised system would you have many outputs, or just one signal sent to all theatres?
Each segment is only about a minute long, the ad segments are alternating between short films, so its easy to just turn off the projector between segments and then start the 35mm print.
quote: Steven J Hart
We use video servers from Brightsign for our pre-show content...
Thanks, I am going to look into this, looks like close to the ideal solution, although it may be out of my price range.
quote: Chris Slycord
Also, with a central ad-box that gets image distributed to all the houses at the same time... you'll likely be playing a good number of the ads either when the houses are all running shows themselves or each of the ads only gets seen by one house.
Vaguely similar to the DVD-player option...
If you don't want to author DVD's every week/month, it's still likely cheaper to buy a bunch of low-power computers and stick them next to your pre-show projector (
The ads will be on a loop playing while the power is on, between shows the projectors wold be turned back on (either manually or automated further down the line). Having individual computers may be a good cheap option, although it starts to get more complicated to update it (with the right setup it wouldn't need to be very complicated though).
Thanks every one for all of you suggestions and warnings, I would still appreciate continued suggestions, I will continue my research from here.
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Carsten Kurz
Film God
Posts: 4340
From: Cologne, NRW, Germany
Registered: Aug 2009
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posted 12-02-2011 03:14 AM
What format are your ads in? I see that a central server with a single playout schedule loop makes things a lot easier, I just can't imagine that having the same schedule for all screens is such a good idea... although, with a very short loop, it may be okay.
HDMI for multipoint distribution can be a pain in the ass... because all display devices need to negotiate on a common format and every change on one device may cause the whole HDMI system to reinititialize - that is, you switch off one of the beamers and then all of them blank for a short time. For this application, HDMI or DVI suck. Use VGA or component + audio for distribution.
We are using a basic media player software on a windows PC. They can play all formats directly. Sometimes they crash, but it's a rare occasion if you keep a discipline on the ad server software.
In how far do you consider the WDs unreliable? Yes, they do not play every format, and sometimes they crash, but that is the same for all computer based players.
- Carsten
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Nils Hoover
Film Handler
Posts: 17
From: Ithaca, NY, USA
Registered: Nov 2011
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posted 12-02-2011 02:07 PM
Our loop is pretty short. The whole loop is around 30minutes, but the ads themselves repeat every 3-5 minutes. this keeps the shorts fresh, while still keeping the advertisers happy (the sequence is Short1 - Ads1 - Short2 - Ads2 - short3 - Ads1 - etc.).
I think now I am looking into VGA w/ Stereo audio as a solution, either that or a Digital Signage setup.
The WD players crash, and don't load and just give a lot of problems, having to restart them several times until they start working properly. Most recently we have been having distortion on some of the shorts w/pixelated artifacts and skipping. Any way, I am just getting fed up with them.
The main thing about having it centralized is right now I have to render out multiple files if I change an ad, make 30 copies of each file (naming them 01_filename.avi, 02_filename.avi, etc.) and then copy all 30 files onto 5 different flash drives. If I made one huge file, I would have to re-render all of the shorts every time I change a slide, which would take forever, certainly longer than what I have to do now any way.
So even if a computer would still crash occasionally and have problems, having it centralized would save me lots of time.
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Nils Hoover
Film Handler
Posts: 17
From: Ithaca, NY, USA
Registered: Nov 2011
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posted 06-13-2012 12:00 PM
Just an update... Sorry if this is boosting a dead topic, I tried to just edit the original topic with an update for any one searching the forum, but I guess it is too old to do that.
I ended up going with a VGA +audio(1/8th inch) Distributed Amplifier. Have a computer using a VLC playlist, starts on boot. Bought VGA cables with built in 1/8inch audio. Have a screen that is on a 100' vga cable, no quality loss on video, on the audio there is an undesired buzz, going to buy some separate audio cable for that run.
This not only works great for the ads/short films, but we have run some multi-screen events, and it worked very nicely (used a component cable to VGA adapter).
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