My experience is in computer science, arhictecture, and electronics, so I have been talking to a professional fountain designer, Jenna Beaufils (www.emanate.org) for technical guidance. She indicates that what I am proposing poses no insurmountable technical hurdles.

The system consists of two kiosks, each of which contains

Computer and Monitor
Totally standard. Cheap.

Custom electronics to communicate with fountain
Cheap and easily engineered. I have experience with this.

Water tank
Optimally this is buried, but if that is not possible, a larger kiosk form could contain its own water tank.

Pump
The strength of pump I require will depend on how far I want the jets to shoot. This will depend on what kind and quality of nozzle I can afford/build.

Nozzle
Interestingly enough, this is the really critical part of the technical design. To keep the pulses coherent and clean I will need laminar flow nozzles, which are fairly new and fairly expensive. It is apparently possible, although extremely challenging to build one's own.

Intake
The information is read off the incoming stream of water pulses by a simple plunger system attached to a switch. When a jet lands, it depresses the switch, making an electrical pulse. A good deal of electronic filtering will be necessary on the receiving end, but I have experience engineering that.