Use of Compact Flash as A1200's HD substitute.

[Floid]

Sounds like a great application for one of those.  Don't forget to make at least one backup card, but it should just keep going.

Personally, I'd try to rig something up with ethernet to the 'programming terminal,' but if they (or you) want to do it all from the closet, or with long video cabling, more power to it.

[Floid]

awe4k wrote:
Thanks for the replies.

The hotel has its own amplifying system, obviously, since it feeds about 70 TV's. The Amiga's RF output will be connected there, and then amplified and sent to all the rooms. Since the Amiga will be far away from the amplifier, the Amiga's own RF output will certainly need to be amplified in order to get a proper signal after some 30 meters of wire.

Again, thanks for the replies.

Unless the wiring is in place for this (to the desk you really, really seem to need it to sit on) -- and perhaps it is, if they have extra coax in place for security or such -- I'd really look into the networked solution.  Then you can site the thing in or next to the distribution panel, see them string some CAT5 instead of coax (which, as it stands, is the current decade's standard for useful wiring), not deal with the vagaries of using the 'RF' out if it's going into a video modulator that probably takes the cleaner composite signal, etc.  Run a ftpd and telnetd on the Amiga side, plonk any machine you like at the other end, they'll be happy because they've done something moderately future-proof, you'll be happy because this'll make life easier if you ever must replace it with a commodity box or AmigaOne...

If you'll be doing all the design work for their pages, this would also let you work remotely at some point, if you bothered to do some sort of VPN business with it all.

I might be misreading, though, and if the idea is to give them a Hollywood interface to enter their own information, you need interactivity.  In that case, VNC would probably suit the bill (and nicely future-proof them when, 30 years down the line, the 1200 kicks the bucket), but that's more setup work, and the server I've just heard good things about requires a little more than a stock 1200.  AmiVNC, on the other hand, might do something for you, but people were saying it could impact system performance in a negative way.  Could be worth pitching both proposals, letting them figure out the costs of running cable if you'll not be doing that, and finding out how much money they really want to give you and how much they care. :-)

(Obviously the networked option is only 'easy' if you're familiar with networking, but that's what the x86 sorts would be pitching these days... and having the silly wire in place will be quite handy for them if/when they end up with anything else computery in the video closet; you can only run the one signal over coax, but you can mux all sorts of stuff over one network cable with appropriate computers and hubs... and they'll only have to rip it all out if they need to do something at the desk that actually requires more bandwidth, which I'll optimistically say is 'unlikely,' since there's a limit to what a hotel office will ever need to care about.)

[Floid]

awe4k wrote:
Hello Floid,

Thanks for your advice. Actually, I don't expect the hotel employees to actually use and change the information that Holliwood will display. Rather, I'll do some pages that just will keep passing (like a slide-show). It will all be very static, and it might need a change about twice a year, if prices or schedules change as seasons go by. So, it all comes down to a pretty basic thing.

The reason why I wanted to take the Amiga so far away from the amplifier is because I want to work in comfort. The hotel's TV amplifier is in such a place that you would not want to stay there very long (I would need a ladder, and I should hang the Amiga on the wall, you see). There is no other appropriate space any closer to the amplifier than the front desk, that is, about 30 meters far away.

Ah, hmm, doesn't exactly sound temperature-controlled or Amiga-friendly, then, unless you mean it's in the elevator shaft or something.

Well, of course, another solution would be to leave the Amiga near the amplifier, and then bring the keyboard and the mouse far away but... isn't that going to be even more complicated?

That's what VNC would do, in theory, but the practice of it is just a little hairy on this platform...

The networking solution is ok, but I've never worked with it on the Amiga (besides having setup the internet over FastEthernet & Mediator on my 4000D). I would need a TCP/IP stack, maybe some file sharing system or telnet to transfer files...

Well, you probably wouldn't want the load of a SSH server, but for what it's worth, that pretty much unifies this basic functionality (between offering the shell and scp, in line with the ancient rsh and rcp tools) for us dorks using *NIX.  

I assume AmiTCP is probably good enough -- this would the simplest IP network you can have, two machines on a crossover cable, no need for DNS or any of that just yet -- but you'd need the PCMCIA card, minor working knowledge of IP, and a collection of the daemons you want to run from Aminet (ftp and telnet are generally fairly dead-simple to set up, so don't fear them, especially on a secure and isolated segment where you're allowed to not worry).

when exactly I can get a TV amplifier at a local hardware store and get done with it.

I'm not even sure what country you're in, but how are you planning to mix the signal in at the block, or is that not your problem?  I've used cheap passive "Ch3 combiners," and they inevitably interfere with adjacent channels; most places wanting this type of setup (in the US, at least) would have or buy a professional modulator like this, but those generally expect composite, not Ch3 (though you miiight squeak away with using a broadband TV amp to boost the composite signal, I'm really not sure; if you're lucky, you might not need to).

If you already know you have a RF input waiting for you there, or you've just been using RF to mean composite, then ignore me. ;-)

Even if I know how to transfer files, I don't fully understand how I will program Holliwood scripts remotely and then get them working once they're on the Amiga whose viedo goes to the hotel rooms. Wouldn't that take stopping Holliwood and re-starting it so that it will load the new script into RAM? How can I do that remotely?

I'm rusty with the Amiga shell, but as long as you were able to transfer files and telnet in, I'd assume one utility to reboot (if that's not a builtin) would be all you'd need.  Rig user-startup, is it(?), to load the Hollywood file or script(s) contained in, say, dh0:Presentations/NowPlaying/, and make dh0:Presentations (or equivalent) the FTP root so you can drop things in and out.  

Hint: I suggest this because if you could rig it to point to the directory and execute all within, then you wouldn't have to rename the scripts, just move them back and forth... which would be easier on your brain if you wanted to archive some recurring themes on the card.  Dunno how painful this is, I think it's fairly doable, probably without needing to dip into REXX.

I am still inclined for the traditional coax+amplification solution.

Well, I've made my case, let us know how it goes, either way.  :-)