Domeview, ∞ Projection Systems Merging, Now ‘Infinite Display’
Domeview, the digital display advertising system in the Student Center and the Stata Center’s Student Street is merging with the projected advertising displays in the Infinite Corridor to form a new system called “Infinite Display,” http://infinitedisplay.mit.edu/.
Domeview was originally a 2004 iCampus project that was conceived by former UA President Harel M. Williams ’05 and former UA Treasurer John Velasco ’05, and it launched in 2006. In recent years, it has been maintained by Joshua Velasquez ’08, initially while Velasquez worked for the Student Life Programs Office, and continuing now that he is a project manager for the Division of Student Life.
The Infinite Corridor projectors have been managed by MIT Audio Visual, and have primarily catered to Institute departments. Domeview, on the other hand, has primarily catered to student groups, though both systems have broadened their client base.
The new Infinite Display takes features from both existing systems. Infinite Display uses Domeview’s model of 20-second static displays, rather than MIT A/V’s model of two-minute Powerpoint presentations. The 20-second model better fits the attention span of passers-by, the Infinite Display team said at kick-off session yesterday. Infinite Display also adds a flat panel display in Lobby 10.
Like Domeview, Infinite Display continues to offer three days of free advertising per term to recognized student groups, though not in the Infinite Corridor, only in the Student and Stata Center. Infinite Display is a bit less flexible: it requires such free ads to run for three consecutive days on the three displays in W20 and the two displays in Stata. Under Domeview, groups had the discretion to allot their free ads as they saw fit.
Infinite Display charges student groups $20/day for all screens, $10 for just W20/Stata, or $15 for the Infinite and Lobby 10. MIT Departments will have to pay $35 for all screens, $20 for W20/Stata, or $25 for the Infinite and Lobby 10. Non-MIT entities will pay more, though their content must be of benefit to the MIT community, the team said.
Infinite Display, like the former corridor system, is managed using enterprise digital signage software called Visix. Domeview had a custom web-based management interface that allowed advertisers to view, upload, and remove their slides. That interface goes away in Infinite Display; advertisers upload their slides through a web form and then wait to hear back from the Infinite Display team.
The team “tried to wrap the Domeview interface around Visix,” Velasquez said, but they did not succeed.
The Infinite Display system is coordinated by the Office of Enterprise Services within the Division of Student Life, and is operated by MIT Audio/Visual and Copytech.
Yesterday’s presentation was attended by about forty MIT staff and almost no students. It spent a significant portion of time addressing good design tips for slides. The team also stressed that Copytech staff will be available to help with technical questions and problems with slide design and format conversions. The Infinite Display team said they wanted to provide “one stop shopping” for campus advertising.
Infinite Display will accept only PNG and JPEG formats, and will not accept Microsoft Powerpoint files.