Specifications

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19
Case Study
Black Box provided an exemplary service, visiting the school when required and recommending the
appropriate system for the school, not necessarily the most expensive. Their staff were very knowledgeable,
helpful and answered all of my questions thoroughly. Staff and students at the school are very impressed
with the digital signage system and I have already recommended Black Box to colleagues in other schools.
Park High School
Requirement
Black Box Network Services were asked to provide assistance to
Park High School in Greater London who required a digital signage
solution. The school requested a way of broadcasting useful
information to key areas on campus. Black Box attended site and
carried out a full survey to ascertain the requirements, to determine
the physical structure of the building, the provision of power and
CAT5e cable points.
Solution
The building required power and a CAT5e cabling infrastructure
t
o be installed at each desired screen location. This included all
containment, back boxes, patch panels and mains outlets.
T
he Black Box Media Player 2 was chosen for its ability to mix
m
edia types and its ease of use. It allowed internal staff to manage
t
he players from any location around the school and to remotely
u
pdate and change the content each user had individual access
r
ights for. One unit was placed in the comms room to provide
content to all the screens in the main building, and another was
placed in the 6th form area, allowing separate content to be
displayed if required, including terrestrial and satellite TV. Both
players were networked to enable management to take place from
anywhere in the building. This enabled the receptionist to be able
to update welcome messages for visitors, whilst the canteen staff
could update information for the menu. Various other members of
staff could also change individual sections of content.
An eight port Video Distribution System (AC156A-8 Local Unit
with 7 x AC158A-REM Remote units) was chosen for its reliability
and proven track record within the signage market place. This made
f
ull use of the CAT5e cabling installed and required only a single
p
ower socket in the comms room.
E
ach of the remote units placed at the rear of the screens was
powered from the local distribution unit itself. This minimised the
number of mains sockets required at each screen location, and also
helped to minimise installation costs.
The remote units were small enough to be mounted easily onto
the rear panel of each screen and included the ability to adjust the
picture.
The screens chosen were NEC LCD screens for the smaller sizes
and Panasonic Plasma screens for the larger sizes required.
Three 32” NEC LCD panels were mounted in reception and in the
canteen corridor, chosen for their brightly lit displays and their
convenient size for narrow corridors.
Two 40” NEC LCD panels were mounted in the 6th form common
room and also in the foyer area, providing a larger display for the
slightly larger areas.
A 50” and a 58” Panasonic Plasma screen were installed into the
main hall area, and chosen for their ability to reach the wider
audience and also for their cost effective sizes.
The solution was chosen above all other by Park High School for
two reasons:
Ease of use - The staff are able to manage the unit without the
need for external consultancy.
Price - The equipment chosen for this requirement gave a high
quality display, but minimised the costs required for installation and
therefore reduced overall costs for this project.
Nick Simper - Network Manager, Park High School
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