The AutoKDJ Front End Kiosk System

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jokerswild

Chief Bottle Washer
Feb 11, 2007
18,776
1,285
Elkhart, IN
www.totalimpactdjs.com
Ok, folks I just got a very generous gift in the mail yesterday... a complete Autokdj FE system including a solid state PC and ELO touchscreen...

This is a very hot system and can be run on a very minimal system... meaning a throw away computer running XP or Linux can be utilized.

Fist thoughts:

1. Very sleek and sexy (the computer and monitor I mean)

2. Easy to set up out of the box...

3. Extremely easy to network with the host PC

4. If you've ever wanted to ditch the songbooks and go PC this is the way to go, man!

Of course you don't have to use a touch screen and any spare computer will work as long as it can run XP or Linux...

The touch screen does eliminate extra hardware to get lost broken or spilt upon.

I will be running the package through it's paces this weekend so more to come and pictures too.....
 
Pics!! Satan Demands Pics!!
 
Ohhhhh yeah it's a sweet deal.... it does come with a few catches... such as I have to beta test any new updates to the AutOKfe...

This can be run on just about any junk pc with or without touch screen... if you're ever wanting to ditch printed books or maybe you want to allow singers to cue their own music this is the system to do it with...

I'll post a step-by-step on how this works both with tickets and without.... probably the majority of folks here wont use the bar code system so the no ticket operation will be more critical.

What you see in the above pic is the main screen here are the steps to use:

1. Press any key on the OSK or use an optional standard keyboard.
2. Enter your name
3. Either enter the CD-ID to directly find the song you want or start by entering a few letters of the Artist or Song title you wish to search for.
4. Once you see your song touch it on the screen.
5. It will then ask you to confirm your selection just touch the Confirm button
6. Done that's it....

You are now in the cue to sing your favorite song... how easy is that!?!
 
I'll post a step-by-step on how this works both with tickets and without.... probably the majority of folks here wont use the bar code system so the no ticket operation will be more critical.

What you see in the above pic is the main screen here are the steps to use:

1. Press any key on the OSK or use an optional standard keyboard.
2. Enter your name
3. Either enter the CD-ID to directly find the song you want or start by entering a few letters of the Artist or Song title you wish to search for.
4. Once you see your song touch it on the screen.
5. It will then ask you to confirm your selection just touch the Confirm button
6. Done that's it....

You are now in the cue to sing your favorite song... how easy is that!?!


Looks & sounds nifty! Please post field test results ( durability, ease of use, and especially customer feedback) as soon as available? Thanks!
 
Looks & sounds nifty! Please post field test results ( durability, ease of use, and especially customer feedback) as soon as available? Thanks!


I certainly will in regards to durability.... and usability.... toqer certainly can chime in on customer feedback as it is part of the system toqer, zugzug and kjfubar and others have been designing and what we have been discussing between this thread and the book thread...

I can tell you right off the bat it is extremely easy to use and not only does it allow the singer to browse and cue their own music but it also shows the order of singers in the current rotation at all times... so no more "when do I get to sing" 'cause it is all on the screen.

Even a luddite can appreciate that....:sqlaugh::sqwink:
 
Looks & sounds nifty! Please post field test results ( durability, ease of use, and especially customer feedback) as soon as available? Thanks!

Really depends on if the customer can get used to it...

For 99% of my regulars, this isn't a problem. They can get thier song entered in about 10 seconds flat. This includes actually scanning the ticket first too.

Noobs that are used to the old school way (books, writing down thier requests) always say "Wow it's so high tech here!" After they get accustomed to it, they love it too.

We got a ton of stuff on our plate, but I want another version of the frontend that resembles a juke, purely for browsing songs. One in each booth, maybe a few on the bar.
jukebox.jpg


I have 1 box exactly like JW's box, and an older machine (pentium 200mhz) Frontend never crashes.
 
.

Even a luddite can appreciate that....:sqlaugh::sqwink:


Of course! I have absolutely no experience with these types of systems. Exweedfarmer has been heavily into their use and design for a few years now and sings their praises though. I would like to get an idea of cost at some point....


Toqer, the juke-style front and letter/number entry would be easy enough for even the most drunken of luddites....:spshocked:
 
Of course! I have absolutely no experience with these types of systems. Exweedfarmer has been heavily into their use and design for a few years now and sings their praises though. I would like to get an idea of cost at some point....


Toqer, the juke-style front and letter/number entry would be easy enough for even the most drunken of luddites....:spshocked:

Cost wise to do a unit like what I'm testing:

Touch Screen ELO: New very expensive, but you can probably find something on eBay for around $100 to $200 maybe less KJFubar would know for sure.

Computer: This one is a custom built solid state computer that is loaded with a compact version of XP on a Compact Flash card. It is very lite weight and can easily be placed on a rack mounted shelf.

Any old computer should be able to run the AutOKfe as long as it can run XP or Linux. So if you have a junk pc sitting around just use that.

As for the software..... FREE..... yes you heard me it's FREE!!!!!

You can really put this together for under $200 if you're not concerned with using a touch screen monitor.

I have a 12U rack and have plenty of space in it for everything I use and considering I'm completely computerized I don't have all the outboard equipment such as vocalizers and mixers and the such since it's all contained within the computer software/hardware.

Once I get a shelf to place the unit on I'll post some pics....

O, and it doesn't take a computer science degree to set this up... anyone who has rudimentary computer skills and basic network knowledge can set this up and be running in minutes.
 
Joker:you forgot to comment on how to set up the scanners and print tickets if you're doing it that way.. ;)


-James

Good point.... yeah I did mention it but, I figure most on this board wont be using the ticketed system so I will go into the no-ticket methods first. I do have a bar code scanner and will go into that later...
 
Setting this up to use a bar code scanner is super easy....

Depending on the scanner you get most are just plug and play... like plugging in a new mouse or other input device that's how the computer sees it.

In the AutOKfe you just change the startup command line and exclude the NOTICKET command.

The bar codes are made up of 18 numbers always starting with 00 then 16 numbers that follow.... the dbl 00's is a code for the AutOKfe then the other 16 are used by AutOKdj to determine if this code has been used or not and depending on how you've configured AutOKdj it will either accept the code and allow the singer to continue or it will reject it.... this is especially useful if you are charging singers to sing and prevents them from using tickets more than once...

Once you do that the steps to get a song cued are as follows:

1. Singer gets or buys a bar coded ticket. (these are basically the same thing as the singer slips most of us use now except for the bar code on them)

2. Singer then goes to the AutOKfe and scans the bar code to get past the first screen.

3. Then they enter their name

4. Search for a song either by the CD-ID, Artist or Title

5. Once they find it they can just touch it (if you have a touch screen) or click on it if you're using the old fashioned mouse and keyboard.

6. Click the button that says "Click Here to Continue"

7. Confirm that the selection is correct.

8. Done

Now this might sound like a lot of steps to go through to get your song into the rotation, but really for even the un-initiated it should only take about 20 seconds to figure out. Even less time if you're not using bar codes.
 
Video of AutOKfe in Action

Well, I took a halfarsed screen shot of how the AutOKfe works without using tickets but since uploading it to youtube or google video makes it hard to view... I've saved it in an AVI file format... to view it:

1. Goto www.totalimpactdjs.com/autok.html
2. Download the AVI video (fair warning the file is 106mb)
3. Open it in either winamp (preferable for best quality view) or Window's Media player.

You might have to turn the audio up as I wasn't sure it would record me talking so I wasn't talking very loud since the wife was sleeping....

If you guys like this let me know and I'll do a more professional version of this...

Enjoy!
 
Been there, done that, nobody cared and that was back in '03. How did the whole downloading for profit thing ever work out Toqer?

Hats off to autoK.... and all its versions.
 
Been there, done that, nobody cared and that was back in '03. How did the whole downloading for profit thing ever work out Toqer?

Hats off to autoK.... and all its versions.


This isn't about downloading for profit... this is about using a kiosk for singer entry.... altho it is in the works for folks to be able to puchase songs directly from the terminal....

Nay saiers aside this is the future of karaoke...

While I know you tried to develop a kiosk and weren't sucessful at marketing it... this has real potential not just for the kj's at perminant gigs but for mobile kj's as well....

More and more venues have or are adding internet access... and with the Aircards getting more popular... this is a trend that is here to stay.
 
He's talkin about song purchases via (DBV)Dollar Bill Validator and kiosk.

Not yet exweed. Almost there though. Main problem has been finding a content provider that has a credit card processor with C++ API. Cavs looks ready, called them today, just gonna bug them everyday till I get ahold of someone.

Filling everyone else in on what the hell i'm talking about...

Since it's inception, one of the major features we've wanted to do with autokdj was DBV support for online song purchases. Basically it will work like this.

A customer does a search for a song you don't own. Kiosk pops up a window, "we don't own this song, but we can get it right now if you insert $5"

Customer puts $5 in the kiosk. Kiosk validates the cash, then tells the server "I validated this bill, now go download this song and cue it up for the singer" Server purchases and downloads the song using the KJ's credit card info.

If you look at the sites that offer downloadable songs, prices range from $0.99 to $2.49. So if the KJ just charges a flat $5 for new songs, they're going to make $2.51 to $4.01 profit for every new song a customer gets them for the collection.

This is our answer to squelching piracy. When every song you don't legitimately own is a potential few bucks in your pocket, why would you want to steal?

Oh, and we get like $0.10 for every song purchased through our system. That's been our plan on how to make money from this. Sure, the plugin is free, but we do make a little money on it.