Senior Design III – Spring 2011 Levi Lynch Digital Billboard Senior Design III – Spring 2011 Levi Lynch There are an estimated 400,000 billboards in the United States, 2,000 of those are digital and 1 of those 2,000 are located on fountain square. Hello my name is Levi Lynch and today I will be proposing to you my project which is a digital billboard web application that will make clients 50% more productive. I am a good candidate to talk about this subject because I have been in contact with the Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation who controls the Digital Billboard on Fountain Square, and have been working with Chad Shackleford who is the LED board manager.

Overview Introduction Problem Design Protocols User Profiles Testing Plan Deliverables Demo Conclusion

Introduction 3CDC Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation 3CDC shows billboards but doesn’t create them Billboards rotate on a schedule Chad Shackelford LED Board Manager Areas of Emphasis Web Development Database Design The 3cdc has the technology to show billboard websites on their led board but do not control the creation of the billboards themselves. This is left up to the individual clients. The billboard runs at all times of the day and runs on a schedule. When it is time to show a particular clients billboard, the 3cdc servers will point to the client’s web server and pull the billboard from a special page on their website. This leads me to the first problem.

Problem Clients are losing revenue money by submitting billboards that aren’t within specifications for LED board, and don’t display properly No uniform way of creating billboards and no way to give technical support on problems. New clients want to advertise on the LED board but often do not know HTML or Java. The problem is that some of the billboards are not formatted properly and either look poor on the big screen or don’t show up at all. This reflects poorly on the 3cdc and is hindering the full potential of advertising to the public. Not only has the client lost the $100 for up to 5 minutes of board time. They have also lost the customer revenue that could have resulted if the billboard was working properly. Another problem is that there is no uniform way of creating a billboard. Some clients are using animated GIF picture files to create their slide shows. Other clients have employees that have left the company and now they are stuck with a legacy billboard that no one knows how to update. The final problem is that there are new clients that want to start advertising on the billboard but don’t know HTML or Java. How can we reach the 10,000 people that pass the billboard everyday if we don’t have a billboard?

Problem Need Web Application that creates a properly formatted billboard dynamically No programming skills needed by clients to use Provide a means of creating billboard slides and deleting old content To summarize the need, there needs to be a web application of some sort that creates a properly formatted dynamic billboard. It should allow clients to focus on what they do best which is running a business, and leave the IT work to the web application.

Design Protocols - Usage I will be using Java to create the web application as it is multiplatform and can be coded once and ran everywhere. I will be using a MySQL database that will be storing all of the information from the web application. The database will need to be able to do CRUD (Create, Read, Update, and Delete). Apache Tomcat will be used as a web server because it is open source. I will be using the eclipse IDE environment to develop in.

Design Protocols – Classes I will be using Java to create the web application as it is multiplatform and can be coded once and ran everywhere. I will be using a MySQL database that will be storing all of the information from the web application. The database will need to be able to do CRUD (Create, Read, Update, and Delete). Apache Tomcat will be used as a web server because it is open source. I will be using the eclipse IDE environment to develop in.

Design Protocols – Database I will be using Java to create the web application as it is multiplatform and can be coded once and ran everywhere. I will be using a MySQL database that will be storing all of the information from the web application. The database will need to be able to do CRUD (Create, Read, Update, and Delete). Apache Tomcat will be used as a web server because it is open source. I will be using the eclipse IDE environment to develop in.

User Profiles Administrator Creates the user accounts Sets user access and controls database Can see everything about the application Basic User – Secretary/Administrative Assistant Creates the content of each billboard slide. Cannot see everything the Administrator account can see. There are two main users for my application. There will be the administrator, who will be able to see everything and create additional users. Then there will be a basic user which will be a secretary administrative assistant on the client and they are my intended audience and will be the ones in charge of creating a billboard. They are expected to have minimal computer knowledge but be able to access the internet.

Testing Plan Use test cases in MS Excel spreadsheet Make use of Google code to track project defects and also upload project to code repository (CVS) There are two main users for my application. There will be the administrator, who will be able to see everything and create additional users. Then there will be a basic user which will be a secretary administrative assistant on the client and they are my intended audience and will be the ones in charge of creating a billboard. They are expected to have minimal computer knowledge but be able to access the internet.

Deliverables Connect and retrieve data from the database. Create a Billboard Delete a Billboard Update a Billboard Upload a picture to go with a Billboard Allow the user to login to the system with a username/password Generate ticker text that will scroll along the bottom of the billboards Output billboard page meets the required 288x512 pixel constraint There are two main users for my application. There will be the administrator, who will be able to see everything and create additional users. Then there will be a basic user which will be a secretary administrative assistant on the client and they are my intended audience and will be the ones in charge of creating a billboard. They are expected to have minimal computer knowledge but be able to access the internet.

Action Shots

Demo

From here? Release as an open source project. (Others can modify my output window to fit other LED screens.) Send it to outdoor adverting who controls the billboards on 75 north/south near Norwood lateral. Possibly have a life long career in Las Vegas. Today I have shared with you my proposed senior design project. I have shown how a community problem can be answered with an Information Technology solution through the use of web development. Please consider my project.

Questions?