DIY Digital Signage: can I have a smart TV display a webpage by default?
June 23, 2023 8:59 AM Subscribe
At my work (let's think of it as a ... dorm), there are lots of TVs around. They're off most of the day, and their primary function is so kids can watch TV and play video games in the evening. I’m looking for how to turn them into digital signs for as little money as possible.
I feel like there should be some HDMI dongle out there that just has a browser on it I can configure so that the homepage is my digital sign. Does this exist?
Background: We have an internal communications problem--we want to move beyond needing to print and post flyers every time we have an announcement.
I can create a webpage that has relevant and engaging announcement information on it. My vision is that this page is on the screen during the day, when the kids aren't using the TV. But saking staff to navigate to the browser and load the page every morning is a losing battle. Hence the thought of the hdmi dongle--that isnt a display delivery system, but just a browser. So as long as the staff just select that HDMI port I'm good to go. Someone suggested setting up a Roku channel, but I don't need to feed videos onto this page, and I would ideally like it to be easy to edit, like a webpage.
Thank you for any advice or just terms I could search for. I'm coming up with a lot of dongles that do screen mirroring, or that connect to a subscription-based content delivery network or whatever, priced by display, which is not exactly the pricing option that we can afford.
Thank you!
Background: We have an internal communications problem--we want to move beyond needing to print and post flyers every time we have an announcement.
I can create a webpage that has relevant and engaging announcement information on it. My vision is that this page is on the screen during the day, when the kids aren't using the TV. But saking staff to navigate to the browser and load the page every morning is a losing battle. Hence the thought of the hdmi dongle--that isnt a display delivery system, but just a browser. So as long as the staff just select that HDMI port I'm good to go. Someone suggested setting up a Roku channel, but I don't need to feed videos onto this page, and I would ideally like it to be easy to edit, like a webpage.
Thank you for any advice or just terms I could search for. I'm coming up with a lot of dongles that do screen mirroring, or that connect to a subscription-based content delivery network or whatever, priced by display, which is not exactly the pricing option that we can afford.
Thank you!
You wouldn't even need a full Pi. The Pi Zero W would work for this.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:21 AM on June 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:21 AM on June 23, 2023 [2 favorites]
Little HDMI dongles that run Windows exist but they're maybe $100/each. You can configure Windows to start up and immediately launch into a web browser with your preferred webpage. Raspberry Pis can do the same for a bit cheaper if you can source them in sufficient quantity, but they're fiddlier and now you're also sysadmining a bunch of little Linux machines which may need to be reimaged and/or their SD cards replaced as they age.
I've used Intel compute sticks as a DIY signage solution for a small number of screens (3-4). They're kind of a pain to manage, even with only a few of them they tend to find ways to break reasonably frequently, and you also have to DIY any remote management, auto-rebooting, detecting failures, etc. Trying to DIY this with a lot of screens might be a challenge.
posted by BungaDunga at 9:24 AM on June 23, 2023
I've used Intel compute sticks as a DIY signage solution for a small number of screens (3-4). They're kind of a pain to manage, even with only a few of them they tend to find ways to break reasonably frequently, and you also have to DIY any remote management, auto-rebooting, detecting failures, etc. Trying to DIY this with a lot of screens might be a challenge.
posted by BungaDunga at 9:24 AM on June 23, 2023
I think the best way to do it would be with USB sticks in each one, and you just pull the memory stick and update each one as needed. This keeps the updates light too. To activate, you just switch to the USB stick option. IMO TVs do a good job of blocking you from generally running your own websites on them - that's why they require 'apps', like ROKU or Visio have.
posted by The_Vegetables at 10:15 AM on June 23, 2023
posted by The_Vegetables at 10:15 AM on June 23, 2023
Alternate idea: can you set the screensaver to, for example, a google photos album and then just make sure the only thing(s) in the album are current announcements?
posted by DebetEsse at 10:33 AM on June 23, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by DebetEsse at 10:33 AM on June 23, 2023 [4 favorites]
So I run an agency that builds Smart TV apps. I don't know your level of expertise here so I'm going to give you the geeked-out version.
If they're actual Smart TVs, in particular by Samsung or LG the "app engine" is just a browser. "Apps" are just Single Page Web Apps.
Both LG and Samsung Have SDKs that allow you to load apps onto a TV that you put into developer mode.
Samung Details Here
LG WebOS details here (And yes, their TVs run an updated version of Palm's WebOS, which LG now owns)
While both of those have ways to bundle apps with all the HTML/JS/CSS files in them, most developers just create a simple app that redirects to a public web page, so they don't have to worry about bundling the app and redeploying it for every change.
posted by bitdamaged at 7:25 PM on June 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
If they're actual Smart TVs, in particular by Samsung or LG the "app engine" is just a browser. "Apps" are just Single Page Web Apps.
Both LG and Samsung Have SDKs that allow you to load apps onto a TV that you put into developer mode.
Samung Details Here
LG WebOS details here (And yes, their TVs run an updated version of Palm's WebOS, which LG now owns)
While both of those have ways to bundle apps with all the HTML/JS/CSS files in them, most developers just create a simple app that redirects to a public web page, so they don't have to worry about bundling the app and redeploying it for every change.
posted by bitdamaged at 7:25 PM on June 23, 2023 [1 favorite]
At my work our digital signs display an unlisted YouTube playlist. So maybe that’s an option? We just convert jpgs into 15 second mp4s.
I have to tell you though, people don’t look at them.
posted by warriorqueen at 3:38 AM on June 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
I have to tell you though, people don’t look at them.
posted by warriorqueen at 3:38 AM on June 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by adamrice at 9:14 AM on June 23, 2023 [1 favorite]