More Viewing station stuff

[JeanGuy_Cote]

You may want to look at EVENT from Micro-Art. It's totally secure and has a One Screen Customer Interface. It provides Photo viewing (with Thumbs)Favorite Cart for later ordering and Immediate Ordering.

[Claude_Ferron]

Well cost for viewing station is very subjective. Sure you can buy 3-4 different software that will do the steps to create something fairly quick on your customers monitor. Sure you could buy 6 cheap PC at 100-200$ each. You can get a cheap server that will reduce the size of you image at decent speed. This is fine if you know how to connect every piece of the puzzle together (don't forget the time it will take you). Not to mention the formation you would have to give to a new computer operator.

What I do offer is a working out of the box proofing system. It's simple as: put a chip(memory card) in it and 5 minutes later you have 250 images ready to be viewed on 6 independent screen (out of 1 computer). The system take care of everything (naming, rotating, resizing, final presentation to screen) plus my mother would know how to operate it in 5 minutes.

i added new stuff recently:
- Customer album feature (video 3min 3,3megs)
- Connect more that one system together (Master-Slaves)
- Burn CD from the system

I could use a different approach for example:
Sell 1 server (This machine would scream!!!) with a Gigabyte Hub Switch + software. You could then buy cheap PC that runs IE in kiosk mode and connect those to the hub...

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low cost desktop computers work better than having 4 or more computers looking at the same server at the same time.

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If you are true, then why the Internet exist?[img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
- Were you resizing the images? If not, that must be the reason why you did not go for this approach.
- Are the images of 1 participant available at every monitors?
Norm, you pointed out something, for each type of event sorting will differ. I glad you find something that worked for you.

Claude Ferron

[Robert_Smith]

Is this forum for advertising ???

[Norm_Cabana]

Probably not but this is Claude after all! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] To be honest, his product does address a common problem within the event community so that is why there haven't been any complaints.

[Claude_Ferron]

Thanks Norm... I'm trying also to add more juice to my post, and to participate to it also... I'm talking about my experiences and this is why I talk about my solution at some point. But Norm, you did not answer my question:

1. Are the image of one participant available on other stations on your system?
2. You did not go for a Server solution for what? speed issue?

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but this is Claude after all!

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Should I be worried about this line... o.k. Maybe I talk a little too much about my system [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]... But because of it, I have made new friends accross the globe that have the same passion, what else can I say, I'm happy!

Thanks

Claude Ferron
Viewing System Solution - A proofing system for event photography (6 computers in 1)
Informations about the solution here (VSS)

[Norm_Cabana]

<1. Are the image of one participant available on other stations on your system?>

No. We put the images on the viewing stations as needed. The viewing stations are set to look at a particular directory on their individual hard drive. If we don't put any photos in that location, nothing can be seen. It's a control issue and I am a control freak. The more you let people work with, the more they will mess up.

<2. You did not go for a Server solution for what? speed issue?>

Actually it's a matter of cost, heat, electrical capacity of our generators and overall simplicity. If we use a server then I either use that server as a workstation while it does server duties or I have a computer that does nothing but store images. By putting all the images on a server I run the risk of a single point of failure. Obviously having the images be on a workstation has the same risk but we've equipped our work stations (but not the viewing stations) with removable hard drives. I keep the images on a removable hard drive so if I lose one work station I can simply take the image hard drive out of that machine and put it in the other work station. It's not perfect but it does work. By having one less computer, I have one fewer heat generating devices and in a 8x20 inclosed box, the heat from 6 computers and monitors and 4 printers can get quite high. Right now we are marginal on electrical power if we have to run the AC. We run a one gig wired network to speed of data transfer isn't much of an issue.

[GeneCarl]

Chris,
we just finished our first event (Little League Championships) using 5 minute photo on 3 stations and it worked great. I just added 3 more view stations for our next event (Pop Warner). ultimate goal is to have 12 stations in the next couple of months.
Gene