PB Permanent Installations - tips and tricks

[dantronic]

Hi coolux family! Happy new year.

I need a conversation about best practices for permanent installations of PB. I need to hear from folks who have built successful installations that have run for years and years.
I have done a few permanent installations and had some success and a lot of "learning experiences."

The challenge is that we have software that depends on user training, then we deploy it where users will not be trained.
Widget Designer can bridge the "knowledge gap" in most cases, but I have faced instances where it is not enough.

- Content management, how can a customer add and remove content without using Media Manager. Remember people expect things to be like iTunes or easier.
- Remote access, both for the customer on a company network, and for coolux troubleshooting over the internet. Hint: Windows Remote Desktop conflicts with HASP!
- Reboot every night? week? month? year? With a WD Event? With Windows Scheduler?

I have many more questions about best practices but I will leave it at that to see who pipes up. I should have posted this years ago!

[Dennis Kuypers]

Hello Dan,

happy new year!

We have customers that successfully use Widget Designer to do content management. It requires a bit of work, but it is doable for novice users. We have this in mind for future versions of Pandoras Box. Content management is on the list of improvements.

Most customers I talk to use Teamviewer, but some use VNC as well. Keep in mind that the network has to be set up properly with a VPN when using VNC. PB servers should not be connected to the internet directly. Remote desktop is not a good idea, because you can have only one session and that will lock down the local screen.

Reboots are not required per se, but if the venue is not operated 24/7 you can do that. Usually a WD is used to operate with events. You can shutdown via PB Menu remotely and WOL to start all machines.

Regards
Dennis