Expert: Mark C J Posen - 10/31/2009

Question
Hi Mark,

This is a bit of a random question and may not have an answer but worth a shout.  I want to set up a system of screens with inbuilt wifi internet.  Firstly is there any product on the market you could recommend.  
Then this is where my technological ignorance could show.  I want to have these screens set up so if I send an email with for instance information that i want to display on this screen.  Is there any software so it can automatically open and display this information without physically opening the file, so I could be in the next street for instance.  Hope you understand the question  and is this possible.  If so I would really appreciate it if you could guide me in the direction of how this is acheivable.  

Thankyou a lot

Answer
Hi James,

Thanks for the question and sorry to take a while to reply.

It's not really my field, and you don't give precise detail about what you want to do, but it's an interesting problem and I have a few thoughts:

1) You don't say how big the screens need to be, but if they are small (7 or 8 inches) then you can just use WiFi connected digital photo frames, like those from eStarling (http://www.estarling.com/) and others.  I have an eStarling frame at home and it works very well.  You can upload pictures but also you can send text messages (by SMS, by email or via their website) and the messages display on the screen in large bold font.  The frames need access to a private WiFi connection (you couldn't use 3G broadband or public WiFi such as BT Openzone), but it might be a solution for you.

2) You could use WiFi connected PCs with a flat-screen display.   I've not searched for anything but I'm sure that there must be some software available that will do what you want and take a message from an email and display it on the PC screen.

3) If you need something bigger then there are commercial solutions available.  This is a 42-inch WiFi connected advertising screen for example: http://www.tradekey.com/selloffer_view/id/3655072.htm  I just Googled "wifi advertising screen" and quickly found this, so I'm sure that you can look for other solutions too (you could also try posting a "wanted" ad on alibaba.com and I'm sure you'll get plenty of options).

I hope this helps.   Please remember to rate this answer.

Regards,

Mark C J Posen C.Eng. MIET
RPC Telecommunications Ltd.
http://www.rpctelecom.com