Are you in search of the best Digital Signage player? I remember how difficult it was to find a free digital signage solution back in the olden days. Sometimes, we had to script one ourselves and run it inside desktop computers. Today, there are many paid and free solutions for digital signage. Here, I will introduce you to a few digital signage methods used commonly today. These are cost effective methods that you can implement in your business or school environments.
Digital Signage Using Laptops
If you have spare laptops laying around with High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) outputs, you can quickly turn these into one of the best digital signage players. Laptops make awesome digital signage devices because they often come with (HDMI) ports that can pass audio/video as well as an internal battery. The internal battery will allow your digital signage to function even during short power outages. This would be a cost effective solution for a school, business or non-profit on the verge of recycling older laptops anyway.
Here is a script I made which you can use to carry out a digital signage in full-screen mode using a laptop. Simply replace the link to the Google Presentation with your own. Voila, you can now update your Google presentations remotely from anywhere in the world.
Digital Signage (HTML) Script (download link coming soon)
How to increase the update interval within the script?
I have set the script to update the presentation every 5-8 minutes after a change is made, you can however reduce this time and set your own.
I would not however, buy a new laptop just to serve this function. There are way cheaper hardware alternatives in the market. Let’s take a look at one of them below.
Digital Signage Using Thin Clients
Thin Clients are the best digital signage solution that I can recommend if you have Televisions with (HDMI) ports. Thin Clients will plug into a Television (HDMI) ports directly and gives you an instant Digital Signage solution. One of the most popular devices used today for automating digital presentations is a Chromebit. These are plug and play devices that are easy to operate and they come with the Google Chrome Operating System. The built-in Chrome OS, allow you to run Google Presentations & Slideshows of these devices directly. They are plugged into the (HDMI) port of the television and receive power through an external AC adapter. It has a single USB port in the rear which can be used to plug-in external keyboards and mice.
You may also want to pick up a wireless keyboard and mouse as well. The wireless keyboard and mouse will come with a dongle that you can plug into the USB port of your ChromeBit device. Try to avoid Bluetooth capable keyboard and mice. Even though the Chromebit has built-in Bluetooth capabilities, I found that to be quite unreliable. Your mileage may vary depending on brands used. If you were completely successful with a Bluetooth device paired with a Chromebit, please comment below with the make and model of that device.
Chromebit Specs
Here are the specs for the Chromebit (CS10) made by Asus.
Chromebits are quite powerful devices that you can carry in your pocket. They are very handy for travelers because you can literally turn any television into a computer for the time being.
There is no one best digital signage solution for everyone and it is great to know that we can turn any computer device into a digital signage player. Thank you for checking out this article, I’ve been meaning to write this up for a while now but haven’t got the chance. If you would like to receive more useful posts please be sure to subscribe.
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