Kiosk testing
Posted on October 29, 2005
All 6 of our kiosks are built for F1 and all the PC’s are built. The check-in stations are ready to go. Tomorrow, I’ll be rolling a kiosk around the church to the various locations where we will be checking in and ensuring that the signal is strong, even with people around. It will be a good test and it will give a little exposure to people of what is coming up in the next couple of months. The word has gotten out that there is a new check-in system on the horizon but that’s about all that anyone knows.
There’s a possibility that we might need an external antenna to maintain a solid connection but tomorrow’s test should determine that. There are a couple of locations that may be an issue, due to where they are in relation to everything else.
I’ll report back how it goes.
::UPDATE::
The testing went well this morning. We had decent signal strength in our fellowship hall, which is now known as the Connecting Place and the main foyer. 3 other locations had spotty signals, including the farthest point away from anything which had virtually no signal. No surprise there. More than likely, we will add an extension on the antenna to give consistent results everywhere. But we got a good start, plus we were able to demo the power of F1 to some to some people.
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8 Responses to “Kiosk testing”
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Jim Walton is the leader of the Tech Arts Ministry of Fairview Christian Church. This blog is produced independently by Jim and it is his thoughts, his interests, his observations and his ideas. Anything expressed here is not necessarily representative of Fairview Christian Church, but it's likely pretty close! ;)
What wireless cards and access points did you go with?
Roll On, Brother! Send pics of your Kiosks and their costs. I’m having Kiosk Mania lately.
Stuart
We are using d-link air plus G cards, I don’t recall offhand the exact access points we are using but I’m thinking they are d-link also. We have 2 access points currently.
Pics are coming, Stu! The kiosks are based on Jason’s, we spec’d them out based on Jason’s initial pics, guessing at dimensions and found out later, when Jason sent out the dimensions of theirs, we nearly nailed it exactly. They are nice, though, no moving parts, except for the keyboard drawer. No lid and no drop down screen.
And the price is about the same as what Matt said that Jason said they were? “Heard is from a friend who, heard it from a friend who, heard it from another da-da-da …”
Man, rough crowd tonight! Just stating the facts, as I see ‘em. I have no idea about the cost yet, probably more than we would like to admit.
Jim - Sounds like you had anticipated mixed results with the wireless testing. I love wireless technology for convenience sake. However, for reliablity, I must go with old faithful - wired connections. Are the kiosks in locations where network cabling can be installed?
Since the Check-In stations will be one of the first impressions of the church to the visitor, you want to avoid any negative experiences. You’d hate to have one of your “Check-In Kiosk Volunteers” say, “I’m sorry it’s so slow, it’s because of the wireless Internet.” As I see it, we must do everything we can to get the first time visitor into the sanctuary in a timely manner.
I would try to avoid using wireless solutions for Check-In unless there is no other way to get wiring to the strategic location or it’s for a special one-time event.
My two cents on a Monday morning. By the way, I enjoy reading your blog.
I am getting ready to go down this same road. I am very worried about the wireless. I will try my hardest to get my kiosks wired to the LAN. I have my first kiosk which was only $369 (see my site for a photo). It is a little flimsy but does the job. We plan to move and store the kiosks in a secure place after Sunday and Wednesday services. When we did our budget I didn’t plan on upgrading the wireless network.
Jim,
Though I use and recommend D-Link for home use, I wouldn’t recommend it for “production” use.
Now if you’ve only got say 4 or so units on a single AP then you’re probably OK. Guess I’ve
experienced too many “gotta reboot the AP” with non-business grade AP’s to make me gun shy.
I assume you’re also on top of keeping multiple AP’s more than 3 channels apart…preferred is
channels 1,6,11 for least interference. Also watch for all the wireless signals coming from
outside in as well.
I echo the wire them if you can comments … we started out wireless and went to wired after all
sorts of issues. We are looking back into running our 4 main kiosks wireless again since some new
code is supposed to help the check-in app with the wireless issues we had.