Using networked display monitors as a messaging tool

[JBKGator]

I am the safety officer for my company, and I would like to be able to broadcast a series of messages (probably Powerpoint slideshows, stuff like that) to a dozen or so TV's that are located in common areas, break rooms, etc. at a plant. Each of these TVs are connected to our company network, and I assume that each has an IP address, etc. These would be certain safety messages, along with other information that the company would like to share with the employees. I'm thinking that a series of messages would be displayed and "looped" so that they play in sequence and then repeat.

I'm guessing that that the slideshows would need to run on a central server or computer and be able to output to each of these networked display monitors. I'm wondering if there is a software product that would enable this - for example, it manages a series of presentations, so it would be relatively easy to update one of the PP slideshows, remove one, add, etc. and also be able to manage the display monitors.

Is anyone aware of such software, and/or, do you have any suggestions to accomplish what I would like to do? Many thanks in advance.

[orangeblueorangeblue]

How are these TVs connected? Via ethernet? I'm not aware of televisions that accept video feeds via ethernet. The odds are pretty slim. The only way I can think of this happening is a media extender that's connected to a receiver that outputs directly to the telvision.

[orangeblueorangeblue]

What do these televisions typically show? Television programming?

The easiest way to handle this would be to control a feed centrally and allow an override if there's a relevant message, but this means yielding local control (ie, people in the break room wouldn't be able to change the channel).

[JBKGator]

The TVs essentially would serve only as display monitors, accepting input from either the ethernet connection they have, or direct VGA from a PC for doing a presentation, etc.

I've done some additional looking, and it appears that most solutions involve having a central content management server which communicates over the network to PCs at each display location. They more or less upload the content to each of the local PCs which then output to the display monitor.

[orangeblueorangeblue]

Right, and in that scenario you would still yield local control over the display.