Signage / Kiosks - Cable requirements

Question

Are there any specific technical requirements for the room signage or the visitor or floorplan kiosk?

Answer

As the room signage can often be in use for long periods daily, then you'll need to ensure that the devices are able to charge quicker than they consume battery. Therefore, ensure high-quality components are used in the FM set up of the tablets. This is broken into the following areas:

 USB cable requirements
General power supply requirements for all tablets

1. USB Cable requirements
USB cables vary wildly in quality, especially with longer distance cables and right-angled connectors (if needed). The following advice is suitable for all tablet connectivity:

• Use the lowest possible rating of USB cable, especially when using longer lengths of cable. Cable rating should be as close to 20 AWG (for power) as possible. 20, 22 or 24AWG is fine. A higher rating than this will mean that a large proportion of the power will be lost over the cable distance. All USB cables will have a rating expressed in the following format xx/yy AWG where xx is the DATA rating (not important for this) and yy is the power rating.
• Maximum USB cable lengths are generally dictated by the USB standards, absolute max is 5m (https://www.usb.org/developers)
  Note: Where external facilities contractors have not followed these guidelines they've been forced to replace cabling (as the low-quality cables don’t deliver the power that tablets need over distances).
  
  2. Power for Tablets
  Depending on how long you want to keep the tablets running for during the day, and how bright you need the screens to run at, then the power usage can vary dramatically. To ensure that devices always charge faster than they drain we recommend the following:
• Do not take for granted that the charger with a device is the best for it
• Ensure a minimum 2amp power supply is used… (they are all 5V but they vary in the power rating from 400mA to 2.2Amp)
• If fitted to the ceilings etc. they need to be PAT tested based on local Health and Safety at Work Regulations

3. Power over ethernet, switches and cable runs

If you are using PoE to supply power and or data to your tablets or kiosks then this is generally a much more resilient method, however there are still a few things to watch out for in general:

• Ensure that at least Cat6 cables are used
• Check with the installation team that the integrity of the cable is good an reliable as often when installations happen the cables can be 'stretched' to make them long enough which can seriously affect performance and reliability
• Ensure whatever switch you might be using is able to supply enough power for the devices - if many tablets are being connected then you need to ensure the switch can deliver the correct power level (in Watts)
• Ensure that whatever switch you use is not set to a super low power saving or economy mode as this may sometimes dip the power below what is needed causing the devices to shutdown or reboot
• If you are using MAC address security then always ensure the MAC address of the device is listed in your network otherwise the device will power on but will not be allocated an IP address and the orange CONNECTION LOST' message will always be shown

For further information regarding setting up the software and network requirements for signage then see the - Signage Requirements and Configuration FAQ.