One of the great benefits that RealDropzone provides is a very flexible, well organized, and easy to read “Manifest Monitor” component. This component is hosted as a local website. Because it is a website, it means that in addition to using it to share information on a public monitor, it can be viewed by anyone with a wireless laptop, or even on a broadband capable mobile device such as an iPhone or PocketPC.
There are a variety of ways that you may choose to display information publically at your dropzone. At the very minimum you will want a monitor by your tandem gear-up area so that you can communicate flight and student-instructor pairing information to instructors and students without any extra time required by manifest employees.
You may additionally choose to display student (AFF / AFP / Static Line, IAD, etc.) instructor pairing information, and experienced jumper manifests. You can communicate this information on the same monitor, or on separate monitors. Each monitor can be configured to display different data.
You will need a computer for each manifest monitor you want to have. This computer connects to the monitor and displays information by running a web browser in full-screen mode. It should be mounted in such a way that a keyboard and mouse are accessible for configuration, but hidden from jumpers tampering with it. The great part about this computer is that it does not have to have very much in the way of processor speed and ram. Any computer fast enough to visit a web page is fast enough, so many of you will have computers that have been sitting in the closet for years that can be used for this purpose. Otherwise, you can pick low performance computers (even laptops) for less than $400 these days.
The size and resolution of the monitor that you purchase will depend on where you plan to mount the display. If you happen to have a low def monitor system in place already that uses standard TVs, we can feed all of those lines with the same PC, but I don’t recommend purchasing this old equipment or technology – you would only use it if it was already in place from a previous solution.
Most of the time, the lower HDTV standard (720p) will work fine, this will allow one column of data and about 23 manifest lines per page. Because student-instructor-videographer pairing is done on one line of the display, this means you’ll usually be able to have multiple flights of data on the same page without rotation.
If your HDTV will be at your tandem gear-up or waiting areas only, and will be mounted at eye level, a monitor between 26-28 inches should be plenty. If you’re going to mount this above eye level for a larger viewing area, you’ll want to go to a size of around 32-52 inches.
If you get into the larger range, you may also choose to display two columns of data at the same time, side by side. You will want to use the higher HDTV resolution of 1080i in order to accomplish this. A resolution of 1080i will allow you to display 2 columns of 32 rows each. Because student-instructor-videographer information is grouped on a single row, this would allow you to display 3-6 loads of super otter flights without paging!
Keep in mind that in addition to the TV’s you’re likely going to want some kind of mounting device, which can be a home built shelf, or there are wall mounts available between $50-$200 in price, depending on the size and features of the mount.
Additionally, if your monitor will be in an area that sees a lot of sunlight, you’ll want some form of light shielding, generally a home built solution is best for this, however there are commercial solutions available at a price.
Below is a list of HDTV’s sold by www.TigerDirect.com on 02/13/2009, which should give you a ball-park idea of what price ranges you would be looking at.
- Westinghouse 26” LCD HDTV : $299.00
- Toshiba 32” 720p LCD HDTV : $499.99
- Toshiba 37” 720p LCD HDTV : $599.99
- Vizio 47” 1080p LCD HDTV (refurbished) : $899.99
- Sharp 52” 1080p LCD HDTV : $1,299.99
- Mitsubishi 73” 1080p DLP HDTV (this one isn’t flat) : $1,999.99