Or a computer+display up front with a VNC client/Tony's Empegface (see the Programming forum) connecting to the empeg over ethernet...

I think the only reaason no one has ever done a setup like that is... If you don't have room to mount an empeg up front, how you gonna get a computer up there? And anyway, if you can put a computer display up front, then at that point you might as well have a full-blown computer running an MP3 player.