The display monitor in the lobby is the first point of
contact as you enter the building's main entrance.
It is a 32" LCD TV connected by computer in the
Cantor's office located on the other side the wall.

Creating Slides
The slides that make up the display are standard JPEG images. These can come from many sources, such as digital cameras, various websites, or created by a host of graphic programs such as, MS Publisher, PhotoShop, and many many others. The sequence of the slideshow is alphabetical by filename. The software will expand or shrink your image to best fit the display, however, these parameters will help you produce appropriately scaled images:
  • Screen resolution 1366 x 768 (optimal)
  • Aspect ratio (page size) 16 x 9
  • Density 300 dpi (or better)

Keep in mind that each slide is displayed for only 4 seconds at a time. It is very important to keep it simple. The name and date of the event should stand out but, don't expect visitors to remember phone numbers or other details. Very often, what may look good on your computer screen, can have a very different effect when displayed on the monitor.

Using MS Publisher
MS Publisher was the program of choice by those who produced the initial slides.
The following techniques proved to work best:
  • Start with a 16" by 9" page size.
  • Create the slide with no additional borders.
  • Click "Save as"...
  •     Select Save as type: "JPEG File Interchange Format (*.jpg)"
  •     Resolution: click the "Change" button and select "Commercial printing (300 dpi)"
  • Also save the file as a .pub so it can be easily modified later, if necessary.

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The Hardware
The monitor is a Vizio 32" LCD HD TV connected to a computer in the Cantor's office (on the other side of the wall) using the RGB port. The computer is a 660mhz Pentuim-III with a small 6G C: drive plus a 120G high speed TiVo drive for all the image files. The large drive also serves as a backup repository for the synagogue's various computers. The computer runs unattended (with no keyboard) and is maintained remotely from other computers in the building and over the internet.

The Software
The program that runs the slideshow is the free version of gPhotoShow which operates as a Windows ScreenSaver. A freeware FTP server runs in the background to allow remote uploading and deleting of slides without interrupting the display.

Updates
The slides are run from an "active" directory. Every morning at 3am, a scheduled task deletes everything in the active directory and copies the contents of the "synagogue" directory. This allows our caterer or anyone with access to the active directory, to change the slideshow for a single day. The usual procedure is to upload or delete files from both the active and synagogue directories. An additional directory (Publisher Slides) exists to archive source files for future reference or to use as templates.

In the event our ISP (Optimum Online) would change our ip address, Outlook Express runs minimized in the background. You can send this email which generates an auto-reply containing the current ip address. The mail is monitored only every half hour so, please be patient. The ip address can then be found in the header of the returned email. A user id and password are required to access the server.