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Configuring Carousel for Digital Signage And TV
Presently, my Carousel system drives the community bulletin board on our campus. I have only ever used the composite output on the system. Typically when I need toaccess the computer I VNC in to get decent readability.
There is talk now of installing hallway monitors on campus that would be driven by our Carousel system. They would likely be 16:9 monitors.
If I adapt my Carousel system for a 16:9 output for monitors (and reconfigure my zones for 16:9), how will that affect the composite output?
There is talk now of installing hallway monitors on campus that would be driven by our Carousel system. They would likely be 16:9 monitors.
If I adapt my Carousel system for a 16:9 output for monitors (and reconfigure my zones for 16:9), how will that affect the composite output?
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Inappropriate?I'm just bumping this topic back up to the top. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to implement a single Carousel system for both 16x9 digital signage, as well as converting to 4x3 for analog cable?
I'd be fine with using a scan converter to downconvert to analog, but I only want to do that if I can get letterboxes on the 4x3 signal. I don;t want the 4x3 to be vertically stretched.
Any thoughts? -
Inappropriate?Zach, I think that our CBL-CGSDI box will do the down-conversion to NTSC 4x3 and letterbox, but it costs in the neighborhood of $1600. Not sure if it's worth it for ya... Since you are close, you could probably borrow it from us to test it out. Let us know if you are interested.
I’m intrigued
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Inappropriate?Let me throw a hat in here too... maybe it would be best to just add new carousel players/channel? That way you could configure the aspect to your needs.
We've been tossing around an idea of adding a channel of Carousel to our system, to drive a digital sign in our facility. This would be a 'welcome' sign, and feature our studio schedule for the day, as well as some pictures of members doing productions, etc.
What is the best practice to add onto an existing installation of Cablecast / Carousel? For example, would you suggest ordering a new Player 220 for this install? And would we require a new channel license, or is that included in the player hardware? Finally, what are people using for VGA baluns, and should we also specify the monitor control utility to turn the sign on/off? Welcome your opinions.
--Shawn
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Inappropriate?Shawn, what's cool about having a Cablecast Pro, is that you can add a 220 Player, just like you suggest. The Player comes with the extra Carousel channel license, so you would be all set. If you want to rack mount the player you would get a 300R Player.
I know that most of our customers use either Magenta Research or Hall Research VGA to CAT5 converters. Otherwise put a network drop near the panel and stash the 220 behind/on top/near it.
We have a simple monitor control app that can be installed onto the players.
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Inappropriate?JJ,
Thanks for the info and offer to try out the converter. I may take you up on it.
Let me ask this follow up question. I have a Carousel server now. As I understand it, the server package would allow me to add two other players to it. To add more, I would have to get a Pro system.
So if my goal is to have identical information on both the cable channel and the hallway displays, either way I would need the converter to scale down and letterbox for TV.
However, if I wanted the 4:3 info for the cable channel, but wanter a seprate zone for the hallway displays (ie. a zone that just adds to the 4:3 to get me to 16:9), all I would need is a new player and tap into the main channel zones. Does that make sense? -
Inappropriate?Hey Zach, we actually tested the scan converter here and it does not letterbox. It just compresses the video.
Carousel server can only have 2 players with it (3 channels total), so more than that and you would need to switch to a Carousel Pro server.
On the last item I think you are correct, since Carousel channels can share zones, you can have a zone on your TV's and share that on you hallway monitors.
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Inappropriate?JJ,
Yes, the diagram you provided is exactly what I was trying to describe. I was on the phone yesterday with Andy asking some questions about all of your products as I am researching costs for a large-scale upgrade. If we went with a Cablecast Pro VOD we would also have the "unlimited expansion" for Carousel players across campus, correct?
Back to the converter, so, when you say the converter didn't letterbox, but only "compressed" the video, what exactly do you mean? In the context of this discussion, compress could mean reduce quality (hi res to low res), or it could mean vertical compression (opposite or stretching it out more), in which case it might do what I wanted.
Another thought... is it possible to take a 16:9 Carousel channel, "zone it" to a second channel, but scale down the zone sizes and add a black zone at the top and bottom... basically doing the same thing as the diagram, but backwards?
As always, thanks for your help and insight! -
Inappropriate?To do a big digital signage expansion with your Cablecast system you woud get a Cablecast Pro/VOD.
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The Carousel units when set to show composite video out forces the graphics card to run at a 4:3 aspect ratio. This is what will happen:
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You can letterbox the content if you have 2 players, just like this:
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Inappropriate?A-ha! I have at last found a scan converter that would do this. According to the technical support crew from TVOne.com, all of their scan converters support aspect ratio conversion for letterboxing and pillarboxing, and I believe their scalers do too!
I’m happy at the end of my long, arduous journey.
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CHAMP
