Earlier this week, someone asked me to recommend a large screen monitor that could display realtime status information for packaging lines. It suddenly struck me, "what if the new Google TV could do it?" (40" Sony for $1000)
Over the Holidays I bought the 46" version ($1400) for my personal use. All I had to do was plug it into power and connect to my wifi which which took me all of five minutes (or you can use CAT 6 Ethernet). This amazing, totally integrated TV can browse the web, watch NetFlix, YouTube, and a lot more. But as I pondered the question of a good line status monitor I blurted out "maybe Google TV could do it!"
So I gave it a try when I got home last night. First, I launched our Internet hosted demo project but that didn't fly because Google TV doesn't have the JRE installed. But because it's based on Android OS, I decided to launch via our Mobile Module demo site and viola! What a beautiful display! Plug and play line status display in minutes!
There are a few things to know though: 1. You should turn off the screen saver. 2. turn off inactivity auto-power off. 3. configure your Ignition application for auto-login. 4. enter your Mobile Module's URL with a direct address to your application bypassing the project page. 5. bookmark the URL and create a shortcut key to it.
I got so excited at the prospect of a cheap & easy line status monitor that this morning I bought a 40" Google TV (at Best Buy) on my way into the office. We decided to mount a few of them around the office using Ignition and Mobile Module to show realtime departmental stats - things like support calls handled, successful sales call made, web demos delivered, and new counties sold to (by the way, that's over 50 now), etc.
It's amazing what a line status marquee can do for production and efficiency. When used to display realtime efficiency, I've heard numerous managers comment that efficiency goes up every time without even prompting. There's something about closing the loop with operators in realtime. And for years, people have been asking me for recommendations about the best way to create such marquees. I've had a variety of answers over the years, but none have even come close to the low cost and simplicity of this solution.
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