The project#
In summer 2013, Vysocina region tasked us with deploying 47 interactive kiosks across museums and galleries to showcase digitized exhibits on https://mgvysociny.cz. Beyond hardware, I designed a monitored network with remote management, self-restarts, content lockdown, and The Dude integration—turning remote sites into reliable digital hubs.
Key Challenges#
Museums often lacked technically skilled personnel. Kiosks needed auto-recovery and VPN-secured access to the central management site. Hurdles included automating RouterOS scripting, building OpenVPN certificate hierarchies, and training non-technical colleagues on static LAN/WiFi setups.
Software & Hardware Stack#
Windows PC with SiteKiosk provided terminal lockdown and central Server console for configs/updates. Each terminal featured MikroTik RouterBOARD as OpenVPN client, plus a device for temp/humidity monitoring and remote power cycling. Kiosks acted as LAN clients.
Results & Lessons#
All 47 kiosks went live that summer and run reliably today. Automation cut deploy time and mitigated configuration errors. Key takeaway: script early for edge infra. This honed my DevOps skills for remote resilience.