Founded in 1925, Reitz Memorial High School has provided a well-rounded Catholic education for thousands of students over the years. When Memorial decided to initiate a Hall of Fame for its alumni athletes, they turned to Lieberman Technologies to make the display for the class unique, memorable, and interactive.
The inaugural Hall of Fame class, inducted in the spring of 2012, is showcased in a special exhibit within the gymnasium area of the Memorial High School building. A large touchscreen serves to present the various members of the class, both as a class and in their respective years. Each thumbnail on the touchscreen represents a video of those inducted that year, and the user can scroll back and forth to select and view the videos. An option also exists on the screen to sort by year of recognition, so that all members from a single year can be accessed. Selecting a video will allow it to be viewed in a pop-out box, which the user is able to close via a close button.
For all of the polish presented in this application, there was considerable amount of work done on the back side by Lieberman Technologies. The large, high-definition touchscreen runs a web browser in kiosk mode, so that users cannot leave the website displaying the Hall of Fame application, which was developed by Lieberman. Because the application runs in a web browser, network security was of utmost concern, to safeguard against compromising the information presented on the screen. The videos are hosted on a local machine and each video is installed and managed in the admin database. Video administration is handled by staff at Memorial, using a username and password protected area within the application. Videos can be added, removed, or reordered by the administrator.
To provide the viewer with an optimal experience, Lieberman mounted a 42-inch HP LCD touchscreen monitor to the wall, and a SpeakerCraft dual channel single speaker in the ceiling. The position of the speaker is key in providing the viewer with a clear audio experience. By mounting the speaker in the ceiling, above and slightly in front of the viewer, the audio is presented as a cone of sound from above, eliminating bounceback sound from adjacent walls. To present the touchscreen monitor as a stand-alone entity, the PC running the program is mounted in a closet behind the wall, with HDMI cabling supporting the audio and video and USB cabling supporting the touchscreen control.
Lieberman Technologies was able to apply a custom solution to a unique request by a customer, resulting in a web application that doesn’t appear to be a web application. All in all, the results were pleasing to the staff and alumni at Memorial High School. Says Bruce Dockery, MHS Athletic Director: “The video kiosk developed by Lieberman Technologies makes the Hall of Fame experience come alive. It is a fitting way to highlight the many great athletes we’ve had come through here over the years.”