The display monitor in the lobby is the first point of
contact as you enter the building's main entrance.

Creating Slides
The slides that make up the display are standard JPEG images. They can come from many sources, such as digital cameras, various websites, or created by a graphic program such as, MS Publisher, PhotoShop, Open Office Draw, and many others. 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. What may look acceptable on your computer screen, is often very different when displayed on the monitor.

Before you submit your file, step back at least 4 feet from your computer screen and glance at it for 4 seconds. If the image looks too complex, it probably is. Simplify it by reducing the number of words and making eveything BIGGER. Do not create a "border", as the monitor itself already has one.

Using MS Publisher
MS Publisher was the program of choice by those who produced most of the 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.

Send slides to: Send e-mail Webmaster  

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 reloads it from the contents of the "synagogue" directory. This allows our caterer, or anyone with access, to change the files in the active directory until the next morning. The usual procedure to upload or delete synagogue files is to update both 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.