Karaoke Forums

Apologies to any who feel I have asked this in the wrong section but the people who are most likely to know or be able to point me in the right direction hang here....
I want a prog that will enable me to input welcome information onto the flat panel screens in the lobbys of the hotel I work for.
In a way I guess I need something like a compuhost prog but one that can be tweaked to look corporate and not include song info.
Even if I knew what to call the kind of prog I was looking for I could do a google search but I dunno what I would call it.
There are 2 flat screens attached to individual harddrives...I would like to network them to a puter in the office and update info in real time instead of updating and saving to a usb key and having to rely upon the night porter update at midnight (if they remember)
Thanks in advance to any who can assist

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

Could always create a Power Point presentation that shows the welcome, then maybe some of the hotel features, pool, restaurants, bar/club, etc...These are pretty professional looking.

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Some are using irfanview for slide presentations or even avi for adds or promos. It makes for a very pro presentation. As one in the eng dept in tv broadcast I did get involved in production from time to time and can give you some ideas.

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that is precisely what we do do Lonnie...I want to be able to update it from one host computer
I just need to know where to look and what to look for as far as resources that would allow me to do so

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

great Ollie any help would be much appreciated. I am not a tech there is probably a simple explaination for what I am wanting but I dont know how to put it in words

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

see I would start in cnet if I only knew what category I should be looking in...I know I sound hopeless but this isnt the first time I have tried to search  :shock:

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

I had a look at irfanview Ollie...its not really what I want...we are happy enough with the power point thing but just want to be able to update and set it running from the one host computer talking to the 2 lobby computers. Surely there must be a way to go into power point (or similar) in the office computer....do a weeks worth of functions (eg Hotel Ashburton welcomes Pfizer Laboratories to the Valletta Lounge)...press save and that info is transfered to the other two screens in the lobbys and will auto update at midnight

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

So, what your're looking for is a digital reader board with graphics that will update the display at assigned times through networked computers?  Do you want to use PowerPoint (ugh) and just need it to auto-update?

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Okay, who took my pants?

(((((((((Perry)))))))) yesss you describe it so well...it doesnt have to be PP if there is an alternative, but the rest of your explaination sums up exactly what is required

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

I don't know of anything that does that right off hand but it wouldn't be hard to make at all.  Do you already have the graphics to display???

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Okay, who took my pants?

just the basic power point that is being used at present Perry

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

karaoke builder makes a program where you make the splash screens. I use them for the intro screens to the homemade karaoke songs I make.

BUT, it can also be used for making screens on the fly, such as "Tip Your Bartender", "Happy Birthday Scott", etc. etc....

When I use winamp to play them, it's after converting the initial .cdg screen to a .bin, and then converting the .bin to a .mp3G. The reason I do this is winamp plays the mp3gs... now there's NO mp3! I realize this sounds weird... but you need the mp3to play on winamp... so I go the long way to make the file... I suppose I could marry the cdg with another (0) mp3, but it only takes a moment to make the sucker, I just don't wanna go through the trouble.

Anyway, I have a folder on my computer called "screens", where I have loaded up singer screens, but also had a seperate folder called "ads"... this is where I would load up all sorts of the karaoke intro screens such as rules for the show, announcements, etc...

You only have to have winamp set up to do a loop and can load in and remove whatever you want... have the program run all day and all night if you want to.

Heya Matt, the problem with introducing this prog into the office is that the people using it (well person really) are older and not computer savvy. Plus it doesnt go as far as I need...I need to be able to create that screen (at present using power point)
then from one central computer (in office) send it to two other networked computers in the two lobbys...and be able to load the whole weeks worth and have them change on the stroke of midnight. So I guess it has less to do with presentation and a lot more to do with automating a process that untill now has relied heavily upon the human factor...I am sure you have the same prob over there...its freakin hard to get good reliable staff that dont break stuff (including sending the harddrive crashing to the floor)

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"Be who you are and say what you feel... Because those that matter... Don't mind...And those that mind... Don't matter."

I think what you are looking for is a scrolling marquee type program. Powerpoint will work for you but if you just want something simple to display on the LCD's go to download.com or one of the other many sites and type in scrolling banner, scrolling marquee, or news scroller. There will be a ton of programs to choose from.

If these monitors are hooked to a computer system with internet I would suggest just tying them to a webpage and then using a JAVA based scroller such as the one found here http://www.news-scroller.com/

This would be easy enough to edit as you just change the text.

Good luck.

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"Baby, Just Because I Rock, Doesn't Mean I'm Made Of Stone."

You can do this by writing a script to launch your power point presentations based on the computers clock. If you have multiple screens tied to the system it shouldn't be hard. If you send me some details, I might be able to have one of my programmers whip a script up for your system to run that would allow things to autorun at a certain time. Let me know.

~Lazer

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"Baby, Just Because I Rock, Doesn't Mean I'm Made Of Stone."