System for displaying personal messages at a public facility and method of doing business

A method of doing business comprising:

• soliciting customers to display private messages to members of the audience at public facilities by providing access points for connection to customer communication devices within the facility;
• receiving personal messages data which customers enter via customer communication devices connected to access points;
• displaying the message specified by the received messages data to the audience on one or more selected displays;
• and charging a fee to the customers for displaying the messages.

A messaging system for displaying personal messages from customers to members of the audience at a public facility, comprising:

• one or more access points which are connectable to communicate with a plurality of customer communication devices operated by customers of the public facility;
• a personal message controller coupled to the access points for reception of personal messages from the customer communications devices;
• one or more message display devices positioned at locations in the facility where they are viewable by members of the audience;
• and
• a message display controller which receives message signals from the personal message controller transmits messages to selected at least one or the display devices for display thereon.

A messaging system for displaying personal messages on displays of a public facility, said messaging system comprising:

• a plurality of access points capable of communicating with a plurality of customer communication devices operated by customers of said public facility;
• a personal message controller coupled to said plurality of access points and capable of receiving a first personal message from a first one of said customer communication devices;
• and
• a display control system coupled to said personal message controller and capable of receiving from said personal message controller a first display control message associated with said first personal message, wherein said first control message is operable to cause said display control system to display said first personal message on at least one of said displays of said public facility.

A method of operating a messaging system for displaying personal messages on displays of a public facility, the method comprising the steps of:

• establishing a plurality of communication links with a plurality of customer communication devices operated by customers of the public facility;
• receiving a first personal message from a first one of the customer communication devices;
• and
• displaying at the first personal message on at least one of the displays of the public facility.

A method of operating a communication device capable of displaying personal messages on selected displays of a public facility, the method comprising the steps of:

• establishing a communication link with a messaging system of the public facility via an access point;
• receiving text data comprising the first personal message entered by a user of the communication device;
• receiving display selection data entered by the user of the communication device selecting at least one display for displaying the first personal message;
• and
• transmitting the text data and the display selection data to the messaging system.