Big Oops: Digital Signage System Replacing Iconic Penn Station Board Goes Down
February 17, 2017 by Dave Haynes
So this is not good.
Amtrak cut over its iconic, clicking and clattering old school departure boards at NY Penn Station last fall for a shiny set of new LCD-based information displays, and someone’s content management system.
Gothamist is reporting today that the new video walls and related monitors were down for an hour or so this morning, and tweeted photos confirm the screens were “Waiting for server.”
I’m no developer, but I think most systems out there – at a bare minimum – will show locally stored if the central server goes out, so passengers don’t see a big wall of clue nothing.
Bad. Bad. Bad.
Seriously @Amtrak? We miss the old mechanical track listing at penn station NYC. All screens look like this. ???? pic.twitter.com/QPH5LLr3u5
— Rebecca Klein (@bkleinNYC) February 17, 2017
Call me nostalgic but I miss the big old school Amtrak departure board at Penn Station. It seems empty now.
— Jessica Ottney Mahar (@jessicaottney) February 1, 2017
Plus it worked.
Not good! Not only should stored content show (as you point out) but should also store and then update the information on hand. Obviously they needed a good consultant to advise prior to deciding on the CMS choice. Aside from that there should be some redundancy plan in place for always displaying critical information.
wait…. there are two guys behind working on it!!!
Maybe the issue is not with the solution, but with the maintenance hours contracted…
after all, if you unplug all the cables, the only images you will see are the ones stored on your local memory in the panels… and those sure would not be up to date on a train station…