How do I connect several TV screens around the country!

Dusky Maiden

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Hi there. My work have just purchased several TV screens which we want to use in different buildings around the country (New Zealand). How do we connect them all to play the same thing. At the moment we are using USB sticks. Our IT guys are just fobbing me off. Please help! Thanks, Cilla
 
yip as little_pob says shoutcast would be the way i would go but if its just the tv screens and no pc connected to then then ye might find that hard
 
You could run a VPN to each location then point towards a media server on the network...

Would use a ton of bandwidth for one router that is on the media servers network.

But would be secure, if it needs to be???

How much is in your budget?

One central server in the cloud that runs the service would be the best solution.

I tend to agree with your IT pro's to be fair, without knowing why they would need to be identically synced, it would be much easier to have them running a local USB and just on continuous?

Mick
 
Not much I can add TBF. If they're Smart TVs you could install local media servers, visible over the WAN (if there is one) or VPN for content updates. Or, as @Mick suggests, Cloud delivery. Either way you'd almost cerainly have to implement QoS to avoid bandwidth issues and that would need IT cooperation.

If the content doesn't change very frequently then you probably already have the simplest solution.
 
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The TVs are not smart TVs and there is no HDMI inputs. Does this make it impossible? Thank you so much for your replies, its much appreciated!
 
doesnt make it impossible but means you need more hardware .
 
well you could go down the pc route but this would be costly and may not be practical for your needs then there is media server devices but most use hdmi out
so you would need hdmi to scart converter or some other way to get video to the sets
 
Raspberry Pi 2 jumps to mind.

However, we need to know a bit more about the hardware you already have. Assuming they're all the same, what's the model name of the TVs?

Also is it that the IT guys want you to do all the leg work, or do they just not think it's feasible? If the later, it may well be due to the concerns over bandwidth.
 
proper shoutcast server should handle whats needed but if the it guys can't suss that out then maybe new it guys needed
 
also how many screens are we talking about and i am guessing this is to run ad's or something on
 
A basic brief on what you're trying to achieve and the objective would help. Otherwise my 'gut' is telling me "I'm out"?
 
Im sorry I don't know too much, I've requested the specs. I think they are Samsung 40 inch LED TVS (no HDMI). There are 13. We want a bunch in Wellington on different floors in our building, and one in Christchurch and two in Auckland in two different places (these cites stretch the country) in our offices. Connecting them all to computers might be difficult as some are for staff in their breakout areas (rest areas). We want to play videos, or slideshow pics of staff, corporate messaging - that kind of thing. Not advertising. Its staff content. But we want to be able to control it from Wellington. Thanks for your help!
 
For what its worth I think your best bet is to stick to content on USB as your not doing live broadcasting, really don't see the point in what you are trying to do. The bandwidth alone is a huge issue. You could run a plex server as a simple solution but it will still have to be started in each set.
 
For a company Plex sure sucks. You can't email or call them, you have to go to a forum, where, despite me registering. I cannot post a comment. Grrrrr

So let me get this straight. We can use a Plex server from somewhere central and buy a Raspberry device for each TV which will then run the content over all of them?

Cheers

Priscilla
 
Simplest option is something that could just regularly update (at boot) and play a corporate screensaver or flash animation. This would allow the use of "slideshow pics of staff, corporate messaging", but would preclude the use of video - at least as far as I'm aware.
... and buy a Raspberry device for each TV...
In theory, but with the absence of HDMI, we need the TV model (or at least the video inputs available) to confirm.
 
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