Simple Cloud Signage Solution

[NB9457]

So, for digital signage at the school I currently work at, my predecessor put Apple TVs on various communal displays around the school, as you can imagine, this was becoming increasing difficult to maintain and a nightmare to manage, so we needed something simple but effective.

 

We looked into Xibo, but it was a little too complex for our needs.

 

Our solution was Risevision, completely free cloud based solution, whilst others on here have used it, after browsing through, I couldn't see it being used the way we are currently using it.

 

As some of you may know, Risevision charge for hosting content on their servers, now here is where G Suite comes in. Within G Suite, you can create a Google Slides presentation, so you create a shared Google Slides document within your school, give edit access to the staff who would like to add/update relevant info to it and then when it's complete, choose File > Publish To The Web > Embed. In here, set the resolution of the display you will be showing it on, set the transition time and click the two check boxes to auto run and restart the slide show, then click publish. You will now be given you embed code, copy this code and go to the risevision web app, then select the presentations tab, click add new presentation and select blank. Click the settings cog, set the resolution and name your display. Now click add place holder, and from the four boxes in the left pane, select more, this will open the widget store, in the search bar, search for 'html widget', clear the existing code and paste the embed code from your earlier Google Slides doc and scale it to fit the box on the screen, click save, then publish. Now all that is left to do, is set up a display and assign a schedule to it using the presentation made with the Google Docs. Congrats, you now have a signage system that is cloud based and in effect just runs off Google Slides!

 

We have set our media players to restart in the evenings to make sure they pull in any changes made to the Google Slides Doc during the day. (They are set to restart by default anyway whenever you create a new display)

 

So, apologies for my poor guide, but to the school it has been very beneficial, zero cost and pretty much fit and forget for us IT folk. If anyone needs any help or if I've missed something, please let me know. Hope it helps some one