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Eurofurence Information => Feedback => Topic started by: Wawik on 01.09.2009, 12:57:04

Title: Information screens
Post by: Wawik on 01.09.2009, 12:57:04
While the information screen in the main hall was a very nice idea, I think it could be improved a bit next year - aside from being slightly out of date most of the time (panels that already had passed hours ago were still being shown), the fonts could be made a lot bigger. One literally had to walk up to it and read the stuff that was on the screen.


Also, whoever thought red flashing text was a clever idea needs to be tied to a chair and be shown the archive.org copy of GeoCities, circa 1996 while Beethoven plays in the background.
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: nifela on 01.09.2009, 12:59:11
Especially when some events are delayed it gets somewhat confusing if the big screen tells you otherwise.
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: SouthPaw on 01.09.2009, 14:36:01
In an ideal world, the info screen, EF Prime and monitor outside the main hall would all get updated, along with announcements made over the PA (where avaialble at the venue) when events are delayed...Unfortunately, whilst the con is running there's only so much time to do such things and others (rightly or wrongly) are a higher priority.

Short of having a dedicated Event Information team, responsible for performing such updates, I'm not entirely sure how such things could be improved.

Cheers,

Southie
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: Thygrrr on 01.09.2009, 14:49:16
The info screen was cycling too quickly and the fonts were very small. There were also a lot of typos or orthographic mistakes in the English texts.

Still, just HAVING the screen was better than not having it, so it can only improve further :-)
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: Cheetah on 01.09.2009, 15:58:54
Short of having a dedicated Event Information team, responsible for performing such updates, I'm not entirely sure how such things could be improved.

Actually, we had this dedicated team ... but this task was one little thing in the big convoluted mess of responsibilities that our newly founded conops team had to deal with for the very, very first time in their lives. I'm sure they're already taking notes and trying to improve things for next year :)
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: Aurelia on 01.09.2009, 16:00:57
I thought the info screens were a good idea too and the one in front of the main hall was very funny at times with little messages from the staff!  :D
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: Token on 01.09.2009, 21:57:05
I agree. Having such a screen with sometimes outdated infos is better than not having one! I am sure next time the layout will be improved =)
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: Shay (Wolly) on 01.09.2009, 22:07:27
Hehe, I have to agree, the info screens were both handy and contained some nuggets of nice humor once in a while. I like the idea of the electronic timetable, perhaps next year things will be even better. Just like the EFTv BBF did... took a year but it works like a charm :)
Hope we'll see the info screens return in the Maritim Hotel next year!
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: Riffuchs on 02.09.2009, 02:12:03
Hi everyone

I'll go and take the blame for the screen-thingie. There are several reasons for it was the way it was. We had a complete working system out of three screens. One of them was desiged to be accessable by every staff member to display changes just in time. And two more plasmas just for all-day-updates. Then murphy showed up. One Screen was not available, the second was needed on stage, the host system went FUBAR onsite and so we assembled some html-java based systems together to, at least, have some announcement system... at 04:00 in the morning.

Some critics are completely right and we're going to improve it next year.

doco: the red text worked quite fine just because it got allll your attention  ;D
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: MrWho on 03.09.2009, 21:47:04
I can just say the same as already known here.

- The font was just too small to ready already if more than some meters awaway.

- On the other side the design was VERY clear and simple, something i don't see very often at cons nowadays.

- The screen changes a bit fast indeed, but for real urgent changes in plans a running ticker would perhaps work better, as long not too much info runs at once.


I already wanted to ask what kind of CMS you were using in the background, but if you just put that together in such a short time, then you have my full respect ! O.o
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: Fineas on 27.09.2009, 11:42:36
Hi everyone

I'll go and take the blame for the screen-thingie. There are several reasons for it was the way it was. We had a complete working system out of three screens. One of them was desiged to be accessable by every staff member to display changes just in time. And two more plasmas just for all-day-updates. Then murphy showed up. One Screen was not available, the second was needed on stage, the host system went FUBAR onsite and so we assembled some html-java based systems together to, at least, have some announcement system... at 04:00 in the morning.

Some critics are completely right and we're going to improve it next year.

doco: the red text worked quite fine just because it got allll your attention  ;D

I just keeps amazing me how much dedication goes in to EF. 'It can't be done' doesn't seam to be avaible in our dictionaries.
One way or the other, we all get it done.

We (at least I am) very grateful Riffuchs that you got it to work although you had so much difficulties with the hardware on-site.
I hope next year your carefully planned system will work as expected :-3
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: SibSerag on 07.09.2010, 11:45:23

The info screen was a good start :)

I would love to see ef17 putting the attendee information system to a new quality ;)

Some ideas:

- A live EF information portal website, mobile readable with live timetable, event information, timetable changes, "The Daily EF"-online version, ...

- Make use of the EF Twitter account live at the con. Twitter Event starts, special information, delays, lost'n'found, warnings,...

- Allow user interaction: post Roomparty announcements, meetup information, con feedback, reviews, picture of the hour, twitter replies... (maybe after reviewed by Con Ops)

- Show these infos on EFprime too


OK, I see, this is going to be a lot of serious work. But maybe some of these points could be realized.
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: Wawik on 07.09.2010, 11:55:37

- Make use of the EF Twitter account live at the con. Twitter Event starts, special information, delays, lost'n'found, warnings,...

Esp. with most people's Twitter accounts only updating like, every three hours or so because the phones kept bouncing back and forth between the convention WLAN that didn't have enough leases and the mobile network that went like "yeah right, 900 phones in a single cell, heck NO". :D
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: CJ on 07.09.2010, 12:04:19
What about some kind of online calender (ical, xml) that you can synchronize your phone with so you get constantly updated information about your events?
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: SibSerag on 07.09.2010, 12:20:57
Esp. with most people's Twitter accounts only updating like, every three hours or so because the phones kept bouncing back and forth between the convention WLAN that didn't have enough leases and the mobile network that went like "yeah right, 900 phones in a single cell, heck NO". :D

Most people I met had constant inet connection via their gsm provider. And they were quite all running a twitter client.

I had quite anywhere in the hotel about 7.2 M/Bits HSDPA via T-mobile D1. Except the piano bar, the wireless black hole.
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: o'wolf on 07.09.2010, 12:26:08
What about some kind of online calender (ical, xml) that you can synchronize your phone with so you get constantly updated information about your events?

I experimented a bit with Google Calendar this year, but did not announce it widely because I wasn't able to maintain it during the convention and did not want to push it onto Riffuchs on such short notice. But it worked quite well for me on my Android phone. We'll definitely need to talk about having one actively maintained database with automated exports to the various displays, probably EF Prime editors, iPhone apps and Google Calendar.
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: SouthPaw on 07.09.2010, 18:47:25
As was mentioned during the official Feedback Session, if you want to code an iPhone/Android/J2ME/Symbian/Google Calendar/other app, support it, and keep it updated at con, I'm sure ConOps would be only too happy for your assistance. ;-)
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: BigBlueFox on 08.09.2010, 01:30:55

- Show these infos on EFprime too

Unfortunately, this means an investment in the 5-digit range. However, I'm thinking of ways of doing this, and I guess it can be done somehow. I'll start working out a few things soon and see how far I can go from there. :)
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: Wawik on 08.09.2010, 03:39:19

- Show these infos on EFprime too

Unfortunately, this means an investment in the 5-digit range. However, I'm thinking of ways of doing this, and I guess it can be done somehow. I'll start working out a few things soon and see how far I can go from there. :)

BBFtext page 150?  ;D
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: Riffuchs on 08.09.2010, 03:55:15
Information systems at EF is a tricky topic since EF 15. You need screens (whatever technology), space for them (in a place where it makes sense),  a way to connect it to the host and at least someone who maintains it.

The last point is another full time job. The programming information is huge bunch of text and files. And don't even dare to think "I tried the system at home, it will work on EF without the need to pamper it all the time".

Even if we had only this small 4 lines moving text sign up ontop of the hotels reception desk important updates were feed to it within five minutes. But sometimes we forgot to remove it (especially during the nights :) ).

Anyway, we'll think and work on it. Anyone who is willed to actually help and work on it can drop me a PM.
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: Cheetah on 11.09.2010, 04:14:08
Maybe we SHOULD start managing the timetable in a database instead of 50% openoffice draw and 50% wiki. That way we could make real-time changes even on site, and all other information systems could be fed from ONE place ... BBF's planned info-crawl, info-terminals, even the EF website could have up-to-date event listings from the very first submission.
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: achtnull on 11.09.2010, 09:23:07
Maybe we SHOULD start managing the timetable in a database instead of 50% openoffice draw and 50% wiki. That way we could make real-time changes even on site, and all other information systems could be fed from ONE place ... BBF's planned info-crawl, info-terminals, even the EF website could have up-to-date event listings from the very first submission.

I have a piece of software you might be interested in, which is designed for just that.  If you want to see it, ask me in...  Oh, 10 hours when I get to Kettwig.  Alas, will only be there a day.
Title: Re: Information screens
Post by: Fairlight on 11.09.2010, 09:45:31
Whichtakes us back to pentabarf ^.^