In the process of looking for digital signage software this afternoon, I ran across this great hack using a keynote developed by Kendrick Erickson and Eric Perrino at the University of Minnesota. Essentially, they pulled info from the school’s database and used XSL to translate it and insert it into Keynote’s XML-based file format. They also used a mac mini to do the displaying, since, of course, Keynote runs only on the mac. Even geekier, Kendrick and Eric managed to turn the display on and off from the mini via serial and (presumably) a cron job.
I have often wondered why I haven’t seen more signage developed using OS X, since it’s superior display capabilities make it extremely well suited for this type of application. As Kendrick and Eric note:
Other benefits such as OS X’s BSD foundation made it easier to update slide content from Crimson and develop supporting software. We’ll also be able to expand the capabilities of the display framework later on by developing custom software using the Quartz 2D engine or OpenGL directly.
It is something we’re looking into.
I can’t believe there isn’t anything right out of the box that would work on a mac platform for digital signage. Sounds like nitch market. I know of a lot of k-12 school that would love to have some similar to what the Minions have created. I know my school district is one and plan on seeing if I can recreate something similar in Keynote for our schools. Would love ANY advice anyone has!!!
Comment by Jim — 1/12/2007 @ 10:44 pm
It is indeed a niche market. We develop digital signage software for Macintosh exclusively. We have simple solutions designed for one location, and we can accomodate larger retail, grocery, and restaurant digital signage needs. Macs will become more prevalent in this market as customers become more educated in both what can be done, and what it is they want to accomplish with digital signage solutions.
Cheers,
Michael Neely
President, BSBtv, Inc
Comment by Michael Neely — 6/27/2007 @ 4:40 am
You should try s3mer. A solution built on Adobe AIR technology that works on Mac OS X and Windows.
Comment by gio — 6/10/2008 @ 10:56 am
Sorry the link is: http://www.s3mer.com
Comment by gio — 6/10/2008 @ 10:57 am