Digital Signage/Dashboards/etc.
Posted by kyshwn@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 29 comments
The company I work for is looking to put four TVs/Monitors up around the office that will be displaying the same rotating images/videos/whatever they want. They want to display our latest sales numbers or the current customer service calls on hold or some other piece of data. I've never set this up for an office and while I am sure I could jury-rig something with a splitter or some such, I'm sure there's got to be some kind of system out there that will make this all a lot simpler for me. I'd like to have to deal with it as little as possible.
I've come across things like ScreenCloud, XoGo, OptiSigns, Yodeck...
Has anyone ever set anything like this up? And if so, what has your experience been with the various offerings out there?
AVCurioust9526@reddit
I see AppSpace as probably the industry leader here with employee and office tv solutions. They do a lot of corporate offices I saw including Smurfit Westrock and larger companies. Yodeck was doing Lululemon and also has a lot. Navori has a lot as well and L Squared (they do Intel and Lenovo) round out the list of others I see often.
UsersLieAllTheTime@reddit
We tried Yodeck and based on your requirements it should be perfect as far as I can tell, we didn't end up going with them since we had too much technical debt to make it work in the way we wanted.
EquipmentFun9258@reddit
Look at the Amazon Signage Stick. $99 per device, made for this exact use case. Plug it into the TV, manage everything from a browser, never touch the hardware again (unless it starts smoking).
For software, find something with flat-rate pricing instead of per-screen. The platforms people are mentioning here charge per device per month and it gets expensive once you start adding screens. There are options that do unlimited screens for one price.
The stick also has an API so you can remotely manage devices without walking up to them. Some CMS platforms support MCP too, which lets you control screens through a bot instead of logging into a dashboard.
Skip the splitter route. You'd still need a computer somewhere feeding it and someone to maintain it.
conjoined979@reddit
Late to this conversation, but we use paid Screenly currently with RPis that we built, but they also offer their own hardware. No issues with their support at all. I've also used their free version, Anthias, in the past and it works the same minus the central dashboard and support from them (community support only).
Screenly_@reddit
Thanks for sharing your experience. We really appreciate it.
Good to hear it’s been working well for you!
Screenly_@reddit
Hi, what you’re describing is a standard setup. Most modern signage systems use a small player with a central dashboard, so you can push content once and have it run reliably across all screens, including resuming playback if the network drops.
For your case, you can also check out the Screenly Player Max Mk3. It can drive up to four screens from a single device and mirror the same content across all of them, so one player and one license can cover your whole setup.
Once it’s set up, it’s basically connect screens → assign a playlist → let it run.
If you’re planning to show sales or call data, using live dashboards or integrations instead of static slides will save you a lot of effort over time.
MaliciousMango1@reddit
Been using Xibo self hosted with no issues here.
stiffgerman@reddit
Yeah, I'm playing with Xibo Community (FOSS) right now. The Docker setup is quick to set up and it looks like it's got the features I need for some basic lobby signage.
bazjoe@reddit
Before jumping on any of these products consider what the jerry-rigged would be in cost and flexibility. You probably do want a third party product and it's ongoing cost if the end result is turnkey web based for a non-technical person, and I recommend a third party product if you are doing multiple physical offices. The min to do it yourself is - mini computer with hdmi out, hdmi splitter, wiring to each tv CAT5e/CAT6 carrying hdmi HDoverCat6 signal and no computer at each TV. Then you teach a couple people how to access the computer and full screen web browser with data dashboard or full screen power point, etc. Third party is in the range of $1k per screen startup, 200-300/yr ongoing subscription. I have 2 museum clients with brightsign. the product is ok, too costly though.
19610taw3@reddit
Brightsign is costly? I set a whole brightsign system up years ago and it was incredibly cheap. For the hardware and "licenses". Or are you meaning all the extra work that goes into building and supporting it.
We were given quotes from $60-$100k to upgrade from an old RMG digital signage system that was >10 years old and barely functional.
Brightsign's hardware quote was only $15000 for like 20 or 25 players if I remember right.
We definitely had to put a lot of work into the back end to get it to work. This was for an internal project and we had a lot of internal development resources available so we were able to get it working pretty well.
An extra web server hosting some web pages , XML files for table data and a windows file share for it to pull some company promotions from. Seemed to work pretty well.
Solid state hardware was a plus, too. Everything else seemed to have fans or hard disks and more possibility to wear out.
Reedy_Whisper_45@reddit
I tried out Yodeck and TelemetryTV. There was one thing I wanted to do that Yodeck didn't handle well but TTV did, so we went that way.
At my last place we did a powerpoint on PC's hidden in the ceiling. Had to replace the powerpoint every month, which meant going around with a jump drive and a keyboard to swap things out.
My recommendation it to try out two or three commercial options that allow you to work from your desk.
We're currently up to 7 screens now. I don't go to the machines except to watch them once in a while to check out the nature cam slides.
SmartDrv@reddit
Optisigns works well…even good enough for me to display a gps tracking website with one. I just used the hdmi dongles you can get from them and plugged them into a usb power block instead of to the tv so they don’t lose power with the tv. Dongles can even spit hdmi commands to turn the tv on and off on a schedule.
Elensea@reddit
Didn’t UniFi have something?
MonitorZero@reddit
We had luck with PiSignage. Relatively inexpensive to set up and easy to manage from one dashboard.
extremeskillz84@reddit
I use Screenly/Anthias digital signage on a rpi.
EquipmentFun9258@reddit
Digital signage is probably the best solution, but most of them will charge per screen monthly fee that can add up fast. So a flat rate solution or using Pi with open source solution.
ddacal@reddit
Raspberry pi's with Fullpageos is what has worked for me in this kind of scenario
NetAdminGuy@reddit
IF you go with a roll your own type solution, this is the way. Rock solid.
brothertax@reddit
113 ScreenCloud player PCs managed in Intune as a kiosk. I'm the Intune guy but the team that maintains ScreenCloud likes it.
hughgwayne@reddit
I've used OptiSigns and Yodeck - both get it done. If I had to choose one, I'd go Yodeck - I love goofing around with the Pi hardware.
SlightAnnoyance@reddit
Same, I did a similar project a couple of years ago and for a basic slide deck or displaying some dynamic info from a website and these two are the easy answers we landed on. Op can use old hardware or spend a small amount of money on their android players, then it's a low-cost subscription per display. Reasonably cost-effective for a simple solution.
Own_Addition_7619@reddit
Honestly, don't stress about it, you're already using the right tools like ScreenCloud or Yodeck. They're exactly what you need. Avoid DIY solutions like splitters they work but they're fragile. If something crashes everything goes down and you have zero remote control. Basically, these days the way forward is digital signage software. You upload your content once, and it automatically pushes it to all the screens. You can manage playlists, images, videos, dashboards, etc., from a web dashboard. For a quick choice, Yodeck is simple, inexpensive, and gets the job done. ScreenCloud is cleaner, more professional, but more expensive. Setup-wise, you just need a small device behind each TV, like a Raspberry Pi, Fire Stick, or Android TV, and you're good to go. Just make sure it supports dashboards like PowerBi/Grafana with auto-refresh, but they all usually do. Honestly you just get one of them, plug it in, and it'll be set up in an hour
tk42967@reddit
This.
We have 4 screens in our communal space. One displays a rotating PowerPoint with the month's project plan. One displays our operations calendar with Change Control & PTO. One is displaying a monitoring dashboard. The last one has a random dashboard from our ticketing system.
All 4 screens have a mini PC and at least once a week somebody is grabbing a wireless keyboard and mouse to tinker with one of them.
DIY is cheap, but you get what you pay for. We have other screens that are in public areas of the building that are managed by a company. We call them when a screen isn't functioning and they fix it.
CeC-P@reddit
Someone rolled out a non-working solution that was a glitchy mess and ran on Windows at the last place I worked. They were replacing it with an Android solution that was far easier to manage. The place I worked before that had an e-board solution that broke constantly and it was A PRODUCT THAT WE SOLD TO CUSTOMERS and we couldn't even get it working. I'd go with a low hassle, low powered, boxed solution from any company that's been around for more than a year and avoid homemade, group policy, kiosk nightmare that shows up on security audits and breaks as soon as you patch it.
ingenra@reddit
Used ScreenCloud for 5 years. Only support issues were onboarding users and a howto.
Was easy for my users to work with and easy to support. I used the FireTV stick and the ScreenCloud app then reception, HR, whoever was able to manage via portal.
Only thing to think about is screen time outs in consumer TVs.
WraithYourFace@reddit
Yodeck. I've been running it for a few years and it's been flawless for us.
sithanas@reddit
Yodeck has been pretty good so far for us. Their "hardware" is a RPI they ship configured with an image but honestly it's nice to farm the hardware off on them.
MidgardDragon@reddit
You can always do a mini-pc or Raspberry Pi with some software and a looping video/powerpoint, but I'd highly recommend getting something paid that will handle the hardware and software for you. OptiSigns has been good for us, I've also used PosterBooking which I believe is firestick based out of the UK and it works as well.
LRS_David@reddit
Commercial systems tend to put a full computer behind each monitor. So that if the feed goes down, they can display something rational. For simple cases a Raspberry Pi might be great.