Declan Sharpe, Systems Administrator for Contessa Furnishings (London) Ltd, recently informed us of the success which they had with Notice Board at an exhibition. They gave us the following write-up about the company and the steps leading up to the exhibition.
Established in 1970, Contessa is a manufacturer/distributor of top quality interior decorative lighting, supplying major department store groups (John Lewis, Allders, Fenwicks, Bentalls, Co-op etc) as well as over 300 independent lighting shops.
To create a completely original and unique stand at the annual trade show, Lightshow 96, at Earls Court (Jan 28-31st 1996). The stand was to incorporate a rolling audio visual presentation of Contessa's products and services. while the stand construction and product display was given ample time/planning, pressure of work permitted a lead time for the AV presentation of just 15 working days!
Contessa use an Elonex Unix 'server' running Multisoft, a fully integrated stock and accounting system. This server initially supported 8 'dumb' terminals. Three of these have subsequently been replaced by Acorn Risc PC600s.
The Risc PCs are connected to the Unix server using the serial port and Hearsay II which gives the user full connectivity to the Multisoft software and data. The Risc PCs are additionally linked to each other via Acorn Access and have all been upgraded to ARM710.
The Risc PCs are used for a huge array of tasks from standard WP, Database, and Spreadsheet functions, to Barcode production for use on product swing tag labels and box labels. Each box label also features a line drawing of the product itself produced on the Acorn platform. All DTP is also carried out in-house, saving on catalogue production costs and advertising layout costs.
Naturally, the choice was to use the Acorn platform to produce the required audio visual presentation.
The basic idea was to scan in our entire product range from transparencies already available, and use off the shelf software to create a rolling presentation. This would then be used in conjuction with an audio CD playing 'background' music (it was not a requirement to link the audio with the visual presentation).
It was decided to upgrade one of the Risc PCs which already had the following:
Risc PC600/710, 8Mb RAM, 2Mb VRAM, SCSI card, 270Mb Syquest Drive, Dual Serial Port, Access
Additional hardware therefore required:
Second 'Slice'
Eesox Quad Speed CD ROM drive
Yellowstone Mozart 16 bit Sound Card & Audio Mixer
80W Active Speakers
Large display screen*
Additional software required:
Presentation software**
Image processing software***
* Having looking at upgrading to 21" screens, we finally decided this still wouldn't be big enough so we convinced the monitor company opposite us, Hantarex, to let us borrow a huge 28" screen!
** I was aware of Noticeboard (RGSC) having seen it advertised regularly, and demonstrated at the Acorn World show, I was impressed with the ease of use.
*** After reading various reviews I decided Spacetech's Photodesk was the most appropriate package.
The main problem was getting all the hardware delivered and working together reliably in such a short timescale. Many thanks are due to PowerTec, Eesox and Yellowstone for their excellent sevice and support.
The existing 2 yr old SCSI card (Morley cached) had been temperamental and when the CD Drive was delivered and refused to work, we decided (given the urgency of the project) to upgrade to a SCSI 2 interface, and chose PowerTec. (The original SCSI card has since found a home in another, less demanding Risc PC!). This solved the problems immediately.
The Samber CT 28" screen, on loan to us from Hantarex, required a screen mode defintion, which was created using !MakeModes, (32k colours, 1024 x 768 resolution being the optimum).
Birdtech was used to scan our product transparencies onto disc. After some experimentation with scans at different dpi and the display software, I decided that although Noticeboard automatically scaled any sprite to fit the screen mode in use, best results were obtained if the sprite was display at 100% size. To enable this, 2 scans were ordered for each transparency at different dpi resolutions (150 and 200 for portrait, and 200 and 300 for landscape). This would allow me to use the most appropriate image at 100% and I could use the bigger image for zooming in for a close up of particular product if required.
So that Noticeboard did not scale the image, and always displayed at 100%, I established the exact pixel size of the image required to ensure this and then created a black template in Photodesk. All scanned images were then cut to size and pasted on to this template to create the final 'screen shot'. Some accompanying text was ususally added to the screens and in many cases some re-touching was also required, and it is a credit to Spacetech that an inexperienced user was able to use the software so effectively so quickly.
The presentation was also required to get some key text based messages across. To maintain a quality feel to the presentation, a method of producing attractive text messages was required. A utility written by Lee Calcraft to product colour graduated text on the Risc PC was modified for this purpose. Using this it was possible to create very attractive TV-style captions using graduated fills. The screen, once created, was then automatically saved by the program as a sprite using *screensave.
This proved extremely easy to use and configure. The images, a mix of transparency scans, and colour graduated text messages, were then grouped together into catergories with different priorities depending on the number of screens in each category. The entire presentation was configured to run indefinitely, with a huge selection of cross fades. Using an 'undocumented feature' of Noticeboard it was also possible to define individual time settings for each screen.
The final application contained around 100 different screens, was over 110Mb and lasted twenty minutes before it started to repeat. The appropriate music licences were obtained for the duration of the exhibition and the Pure Moods CD selection was deemed a most appropriate accompaniment to the visual presentation.
As the Risc PC would be left unattended at the exhibtion over three nights, it was decided to erase all company confidential data from the machine, including the Noticeboard application, and put the Noticeboard application onto a syquest cartridge. The application ran perfectly from the Syquest without any problems.
None of our competitors had used AV presentations at previous shows, and we had hope to be the first. However, two days before the show opened we learned that a major competitor was doing much the same as us. However, once the exhibition opened we discovered that their presentation (running on a PC) was no match for ours at all. Furthermore, on the second day of the show the Lighting Association presented us with a Display Excellence Award for the best stand of the show!
Needless to say the show was an huge success, and generated more business that any previous show in Contessa's history. The question is what do we do next year?
Many of our customers were so impressed with the display that they asked for a copy of the video!
No one had realised the display was being generated 'real-time' (the computer was encased in a mock chimney breast with only the screen showing). However, undeterred, the customers have requested we put a similar presentation onto video anyway for them, so that they can have the presentation running in their own shops! This should be possible using Pineapples PAL Coder AVK/3 - but that's another story!
Declan Sharpe BSc(Hons),
Systems Administrator,
Contessa Furnishings (London) Ltd
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