Sorry for the vague title, but it's a problem I haven't encountered before and I need a logic/sanity check. My client does demonstrations of the equipment they sell for remote customers over Zoom, so we have them set up with a goPro and a PTZ camera feeding into an Inogeni switcher connected to their conferencing PC via USB, as well as wireless mics. They have the Crestron app on an iPad and RMC4 for switching between the two cameras and controlling the PTZ camera.
What they're asking for is a way to present PDFs and images to their customer while in the Zoom call, and they want to control this from the Crestron app on the iPad. They also want to be able to update that content themselves.
I started down the road of adding a Brightsign player as a third source on the Inogeni switcher, loading their content onto the Brightsign and triggering the specific pieces of content to be displayed using a bunch of buttons on the iPad UI sending custom control strings for triggering each piece of content. This works, but it has some drawbacks. First, I don't think it's possible to get the filenames from the Brightsign player so I made it so they/I have to manually edit the button names to match the content each button triggers. Second, because of the way Brightsign requires you to program using custom command strings, there's no way I can trust the client to update their own content since every new piece of content needs to be connected into the web of custom commands that trigger every other piece of content.
I've considered using a PC instead of the Brightsign and having the client put all their content into a Powerpoint deck that I could control by advancing slides using Crestron keyboard emulation, but then they lose having individual buttons for triggering each piece of content and would just have to scroll through until they found the right one.
In an ideal world, I could give them a network directory or shared Dropbox folder to drop their content into, and the PC or signage player or whatever would send those file names to Crestron to populate the button names on the UI, and commands from Crestron button presses would trigger the signage player or software on the PC to display that specific piece of content full screen.
Any suggestions on how to achieve everything the client wants or will they have to compromise on functionality? I've done stuff close to this with a full custom digital signage CMS but that's not on the table for budgetary reasons.
