Advice on using a MacMini for a continuously-running Keynote presention

[Argelius]

I have volunteered (!) to create a continuously-playing Keynote presentation t in the doctor's lounge of the hospital where I work. The purpose of the show will be to present in a graphical (and hopefully attention-grabbing) manner tidbits (bullet-points) of useful information. This will have to be fairly regularly (probably weekly) updated.

My plan is to use a Mac Mini to run the presentation, attached to an LCD television (probably a 37 or 42" LCD), via DVI output.

I am hoping this hardware set-up will work. Our hospital is, obviously, a Windows workplace, so I will be largely supporting this endeavor on my own, since our IT folks are Mac-ignorant.

In addition to my proposed hardware configuration, I would welcome any comments on my options for the easiest way for me to periodically update the Keynote presentation.

Obviously, I can update the show, load the file on a flash drive, and plug it into the MacMini and install it that way.

I'm curious if there would be any way to update the show wirelessly from my MacBook or via an Ethernet connection to the hospital's Novell Network.

Damnit, Jim, I'm a doctor not an IT guy, so I'm fairly clueless about cross-platform networking.

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[micsaund]

I guess it depends on your network setup as to how you could update it. You could make a daily Automator task which would check your website and grab the latest presentation, or you could update the file directly on the Mini via the network, or <many more depending on the setup>. Obviously, you want the appropriate security precautions (esp if you download from your website) to ensure that some malcontent doesn't upload a nasty pr0n-filled presentation which would then appear at the hospital

It sounds like a really fun project that's not too complicated but will give you the chance to do something that's highly visible and will actually be enjoyed (hopefully ) by the patients and others. Wish I was working on something like that!

Mike

 

[redeye be]

Export your presentations to a movie (or even DVD) and let your tech support worry about the rest .

 

[balamw]

Export your presentations to a movie (or even DVD) and let your tech support worry about the rest .

If you do that, why not skip the mini and use a DVD player?

Or, if you want a bit higher resolution wait for TV and export to a 720p MPEG-4 file....

B

 

[redeye be]

If you do that, why not skip the mini and use a DVD player?

exactly

 

[Argelius]

I guess it depends on your network setup as to how you could update it. You could make a daily Automator task which would check your website and grab the latest presentation, or you could update the file directly on the Mini via the network, or <many more depending on the setup>. Obviously, you want the appropriate security precautions (esp if you download from your website) to ensure that some malcontent doesn't upload a nasty pr0n-filled presentation which would then appear at the hospital

It sounds like a really fun project that's not too complicated but will give you the chance to do something that's highly visible and will actually be enjoyed (hopefully ) by the patients and others. Wish I was working on something like that!

Mike

Thank you very much for your thoughts. I suspect as I get closer to actually making this a reality I'll be back with more questions... I hoipe I wont end up regretting coming up with this project. But I am a bit of a closet graphic designer, so hope this will give me a productive outlet...