Remote touchscreen for audio delivery at dance studio?

We are working with a dance studio to make it a bit easier on the instructors.

Currently they have their various music burned onto cd's and loaded into a Sony 5 disk changer.

As you can imagine, while the class is there an instructor has to walk over to the audio setup, cue up the song after locating it on the desired cd and the desired track, and walk back and work with the students. If necessary to pause or stop the music, it's another trip over to the audio gear, pause it, shout over to the students (or walk back) then start the music again.

My desire is to convert their music over to mp3 and have a reasonably sized touch panel at the edge of the dance floor.

They have computers in the office with the music on them which I can wire to any point (the audio stack or the touch panel, or both).

So my question is a call for suggestions for the remote panel, and what would deliver to it. Is it necessary to have Media Center on a computer to deliver?

In a nut shell, here is what we have around the rectangular dance floor. Audio gear in one corner, office with computers with music on hard drive in diagonal corner, desired control point for instructor half way between.

Thanks in advance

Reply to
D.R.
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I did a situation similar to yours and simply used an Ipod with a FM Griffin transmitter plugged into it and used a FM receiver with speakers to play the music. Select, play, pause and control the volume at your fingertips right off the Ipod without any goofing around with a computer or CD changer. Of course you have to load up the Ipod but a couple of hours of work and your set plus the music is portable. We did use two Ipods to insure always having one ready to go.

Reply to
Gene

How did you control the volume of the FM receiver from the iPod?

Reply to
Tom Stiller

I like the Ipod with FM transceiver solution, simple to set up and low cost. You might have problems with range and signal quality, though. Usually you can control the volume using the ipod volume control.

One other good solution is the squeezebox from slimdevices.com. It is a small box with audio output and Ethernet/Wifi input and a remote control. You connect it to the stereo (RCA outputs) and the PC (Wifi or Ethernet) and play the music directly from the PC.

Markus

Reply to
Markus Baertschi

We used an old Griffin transmitter that allowed volume control from the Ipod but I'm not sure if the newer ones will do that.

Two more idea's are:

  1. Investigate an Ipod dock that you could jack into the back of the receiver. The dock could be extended from the receiver via cables to the desired control point and most docks come with remotes to control the Ipod.
  2. A stand alone unit with it's own speakers that the Ipod could be slipped into and located where needed and also controlled with a remote. Something like:
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    Reasons I'm suggesting an Ipod solution is that they are simple to operate, have their own built in viewing screen, relatively inexpensive, portable and not dedicated to this particular application hence more bang for your buck.

Gene

Reply to
Gene

While the Ipod solution is good, I see it as being too small for these people to manage.

We are looking at the Squeezbox, but again, a bit small.

I was thinking along the lines of a media extender with a 6 plus inch touch screen mounted remotely.

But please keep the suggestions comming.

Dirk

Reply to
D.R.

Greetings Dirk,

I don't know that kind of money your going to spend but..................

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I would not use the wireless version of this product even though I have now experience with it as X-10 is not famous for it's wireless capabilities. You could use a nice TV for the display so you could go pretty big and still use a small hand held remote.
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Good luck.. G.

Reply to
Gene

One more thing about the Squeezebox: You can remote.control it with a web-browser. Using a small portable (EE-PC) as remote control could be a solution. The problem will be to find a touchscreen.

I often use my living-room PC connected to the Wii with the Opera browser to control the Squeezebox. The big advantage is that you get a big display to see upcoming songs, browse albums, etc. Works perfect !

Markus

Reply to
Markus Baertschi

Have you considered the Sonos gear?

Reply to
Bill Kearney

Wow. That sucker does the same thing as the Squeezbox for twice the price ;-)

I found this, but no price yet.

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Dirk

Reply to
D.R.

Thanks, I didn't know you could do that with the S.B.

Dirk

Reply to
D.R.

We've looked at it, and think it's a bit pricey for a wireless dumb terminal server (basicly).

While the Squeezbox is half the price, the screen is a bit small.

See my other post for a link to something we're looking at.

Dirk

Reply to
D.R.

I looked into that K4 in-wall unit at one time [maybe 6 mo. ago] and it retailed for $2499. I never asked about software or what else I might need to use that system once the fellow quoted me for just the touch screen.

Reply to
Gene

That's just nuts.

Reply to
D.R.

Comfile makes a couple of monochrome touchscreens with integrated controllers that can be programmed in either ladder logic or Basic. They might be a way to do what you want at a reasonable cost.

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Reply to
dlh

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