Quiet, Please!

Gail Chiasson, North American Editor

Latest digital out-of-home installation by TouchPoll KC, Kansas City, is a project for the North Independence, Missouri, branch of the Mid-Continent Public Library that uses a 32′ Elo touch screen, an AOpen media player and a Brown Innovations speaker dome hung from the ceiling that directs the audio down to the listener from the touch activated Flash animation program displayed on the screen.

This is part of a ‘Working History’ experiential presentation that is a major renovation of this library branch that cost over $1 million. Working History is an interactive Digital Signage presentation that includes interviews with real working people, directly describing their past work lives in Independence as well as a narrative by David Jackson, a local historian, talking about the early settler days and industrial development in the area.

When we asked about sound in a usually almost-silent library, Neil Steiner, systems integrator, told us, “The speaker dome, from Brown Innovations, is designed to direct the audio portion of the animated, interactive video presentation straight down on the floor, directly focused to the listener below. It also does a very good job of minimizing sound contamination to other areas of the library so as not to disturb patrons who want relative quiet while they are there.”

Touchpoll KC used its own proprietary integrated design for the library solution. The system was custom developed by Mike Binder of Olathe, Kansas.

“We have had many great comments on the display, and we couldn’t be happier with it,” says Jim Staley, marketing manager, Mid-Continent Public Library.

Steiner is an entrepreneur whose company TouchPoll KC has been doing market research and surveys for the past 10 years. He added digital signage to his business four years ago.


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