Case Studies
Parliament - Portcullis House
MRG were awarded this prestigious contract to supply a digital signage system and embarked on its installation in 2000. The specification was clear, the modern new building required an equally modern new signage system.
No static printed signage was to be used anywhere, it all had to be digital. Additionally it had to handle changing situations in real-time and it needed to serve a multitude of functions.
Our solution
The server accepts data feeds from various sources including the bookings database and the Commons and Lords “Annunciators”. This information is then distributed to the screens.
When bookings end they are automatically removed by the system from the list. The screens have custom controllers in them so that even if the server is shut down they will continue to free-run through their meetings for the rest of the day. This means that a faulty server can be swapped without disruption.
Along the committee corridors and in the lift lobbies are 18” touch screens. The information displayed is a carousel of pages from the two chambers, the Commons and the Lords. This ‘Annunciator’ information either has a carousel of general information or, during debates, contains details of who is on the floor speaking, the subject of the debate, timings and whether members are required to make their way back for a vote. The touchscreen versions also show a room bookings list. This is a drill down menu that allows the viewer to find the meeting they are attending. It shows complete information about the meeting including a map indicating where they are in relation to where the room is.
The main committee rooms have a “door card” screen next to the entrances. These show the booking information for the meeting taking place in that room with a timed countdown in minutes to the start of the next meeting.
MRG designed and built vertical triple screens of which there are five in Portcullis House all sited around the central public areas. As bookings are added their details spread down to fill all three screens. When the volume of information is greater than the space available the triple screens begin an automatic carousel of pages to display all the available information.
Some rooms did not require the sophistication or resolution of the intelligent LCD screens and a much more economical solution was to feed a television signal from the server over standard CAT5 cabling. The television screens range over five floors and the distance from the server can be several hundred metres. To overcome this problem we designed and built the S-Video encoder and decoders ourselves.
To date, the system at Portcullis House runs 55 single screens, 13 door cards, 5 triple screens and 41 Sharp 18” television screens. The latter are currently being replaced with 20” screens in a phased roll-out.
