Digital Signage suggestions

[YeOldeStonecat]

Usually this is done by someone working at our clients....but a client just asked for a product to get their lobby TV going again. Their prior in-house marketing/design guy ran the prior one. He had it on his iPad and connected to it via Apple TV...to a large TV in the lobby. Not a smart TV. He designed the weekly website himself.
It has been down since he left about 2 months ago.

They want to get it going again..but this time, have a simple setup that anyone with very basic MS Office knowledge can update on a weekly basis. Like..do some powerpoint thing. Or anything easy like that.

For those with experience doing this...input requested.....Go:

 

[omnichad]

I've always wanted to be asked to do something like this, because I want to play with one of these:
https://www.brightsign.biz/digital-signage-products/hd-product-line/hd222

Does it take powerpoint files? No. But it takes images. You can export slides from a powerpoint into JPEG and feed into this thing's playlist. It has a web-based UI where you can log in and add images/video to the playlist.
http://docs.brightsign.biz/display/DOC/BSN+WebUI

 

[freedomit]

What about an Intel compute stick running Windows 10?

 

[PBComputer]

Would a raspberry pi managed it?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

The software package is what I'm looking for...not so much a mini PC or anything like that..I can provide that with a little Intel NUC if we can have software that runs on a Windows PC.

 

[AndyM]

Intel NUC / Zotac M series etc. The NUC has VESA mounts, so can happily sit behind the monitor. Not only that, but you get to monitor it through N-Able....

Andy

 

[Titan-vds]

If your going to run a mini pc, take a look at digitalsignage.com.

 

[AndyM]

The software package is what I'm looking for...not so much a mini PC or anything like that..I can provide that with a little Intel NUC if we can have software that runs on a Windows PC.

Obviously PowerPoint, but what about one of those "Website in a box" options? Serif WebPlus? Something like that?

Andy

 

[Markverhyden]

The airplay and Apple TV thing is pretty simple. But the catch is you can't play a PPT directly last time I worked with it, have to convert it each time to an mp4. And you would still need to have an iPad or Apple computer, which I know you have less than no interest in getting. LOL!!!

I talked to someone I work with who does these things. If your customer wants a professional setup let me know. Otherwise his suggestion was just to micro pc running windoze and make a PPT. There are also linux options to play a PPT. You could put it locally on someones computer for them to edit and share that out to the micro pc.

 

[omnichad]

If your going to run a mini pc, take a look at digitalsignage.com.

I am not the original poster, but I gave this a try. If they were barely comfortable using PPT, this is definitely not for them. And if you don't design the graphics at exactly the right resolution, it appears the scaling doesn't anti-alias (just nearest-neighbor).

Knowing a little graphic design, I could add this service to my repertoire, but it seems like their Android player is a better choice than a NUC. Then the VESA mounts would be free to actually mount the TV and it would still fit behind the TV.

 

[allstarit]

Ive does this with intel comu stick or NUC that sticks into the HDMI slot and then install VNC or Team Viewer on it so who ever wants to update the info can do it.

Seems to work well

 

[kwisher]

If you are comfortable with Linux I would suggest a Raspberry Pi-3.
http://www.sixteen-nine.net/2013/12/13/10-slices-raspberry-pi-digital-signage/

 

[Tom_Sand]

At my FTJ we run atom PC's with PowerPoint viewer. We have a shared drive on a server that has a "current.ppt" the PC's auto logon and as their logon script call the ppt. These run 24/7 and anyone that can make a PowerPoint can update it

 

[Diggs]

We've moved from thin clients to Intel NUCs for this kind of thing. Having a full OS and all the toys and tools and no learning curve is a big plus.

 

[Markverhyden]

Was wandering around at Worst Choice after making a return and saw on of these. Plugs directly into a HDMI port.

 

[PremierTech]

We use rise vision in our store and at a few clients.

Free as well for basic setup

https://www.risevision.com/

 

[4ycr]

I have used Xibo once installed and setup it is easy for a small amount of slides but can get complicated. My client went from 4 regions per page and about 20 slides to around 90 and takes nearly 50 minutes to cycle. they have sync problems now so I have moved them to http://www.digitalsignage.com/ as it has a nice timeline but a bit harder to use.

 

[TazUk]

What about a Google Chromecast? Open up the Powerpoint presentation in Google Slides using Chrome and tell it to cast