1000 display network in retail stores, your point is required.
PopCorn media is going to close very soon a deal for the installation of a 1000 displays network in 1000 stores. This is an important project for us and we ask you to share your experience and tell us how you face everyday problems like reliability, installation, dsl routers availability at store facility, DSL or UMTS GPRS, software crashes and rebootable systems, linux or windows based, set top boxes or something else?
Posted Answers
My company is working on a potential 500 store project. We tested the equipment with their IT folks first and then a 5 store pilot. We are using a media player system linked with Sprint Data air cards. They loved it because we were not bringing in network or touching their network. Sprint is very agressive in this market and we got a great deal. The media players are great because in large deployments I hate the thought of having to manage a thousand PC's. The media players are like lamps you turn them on and off. They are also a lot easier to replace. The limitation is the types of content they play. However there are companies working on media players that will handle flash content. Best of luck.
Answer by jonmeck
There is no easy answer for this.
My advice:
Whatever rollout plan you have, cut it in half. You are at the mercy of trades people who will show up when they show up. People get sick. They get diverted. And so on. Doing 1000 sites in a year (not saying that's your timing, but if it was ...) means roughly 20 a week, or 4 a day. It will take a team probably half a day to install a site, so you will need two teams full-time.
Get a project manager to plan this all out.
Do site surveys on a variety of stores, in advance, so you understand the physical challenges.
Assume the telecoms will screw up your connectivity at perhaps 1/3 of your sites, and then ad 1-2 weeks to get those corrected.
Understand the physical limitations as to where you can locate equipment and the screens. Do you need to use a small form factor player, for example.
Get agreement, in writing, about where you can put the screens. If they are too high, or forced into a less than optimal location, don't even start.
Use a software platform that allows you to manage 1,000 locations without also having to manage 1,000 playlists. If the best you can do is organize your players into playlist groups, keep looking.
Dave H
Answer by dhaynes