You may have noticed new flat panel screens of all sizes popping up around Thayer School. Computing Services is currently working on three separate, but related, projects.
We plan doing a test trial by adding screens containing room schedules to M001, M101, and M201. We’ve already installed an early prototype screen on M101. The concept is to show exactly when a conference room is in use so that it can also be used for quick ad-hoc meetings and studying without scheduling conflicts.
We spent a lot of time researching options. The Steelcase RoomWizard is the most popular commercial product. However, the product is fairly closed, so if we wanted to add any additional content, such as announcements, photos, or weather, we’d be out of luck. The real show stopper was the price. Each room wizard would cost over $2000 not including installation. This price just doesn’t scale if the trial were to prove successful and we chose to outfit more rooms.
We’ve decided to try building our own. We investigated low power technologies like e-ink, but at this time, these also seem to be too expensive. We are now working on an embedded Linux touchscreen. We’ll cover additional details once we make some more progress.
Prototype display shows scheduled events for M101
We’ve added two displays at reception. One display is designed to provide feedback about Thayer School’s energy use. Currently it displays our instantaneous electricity usage in Cummings and MacLean, and also displays how much electricity our solar panels are producing. The plan is to make this data easier to understand, and add a couple other bits of data, such as weather from our weather station and printer usage.
The second reception displays contains upcoming events from the Thayer Events Calendar. It also loops through a slideshow of Thayer photos.
If these displays prove successful we’d like to permanently install larger flat panels on the wall.
Two displays at reception show energy consumption, upcoming events, and photos
And finally, in the Great Hall we are finishing up the installation of two large flat panel screens. These will be used during events which are held in the Great Hall. In the past we’ve used a digital projector in this space. However, due to all the natural light in the room, the projection screen is extremely washed out. These screens will be much easier to see in bright daylight.
When they aren’t being used for presentations or other events, we plan on using them for informational displays. Like the displays at reception, they’ll contain events, announcements, photos, weather, and more.
two new flat panel displays to be used for events
If you have ideas or feedback about any of these new displays, please let us know.
