Foyer Display Screen

[Alex0x7F]

Hi all,

 

I have recently installed a 27" Monitor in our Foyer, linked up to a Stone Mini PC hidden away in the reception office. Nothing fancy but should get the job done as a display screen.

 

I've been asked to add some more information to our screen such as Safeguarding, contact details, twitter posts etc.

 

What ways are you guys running display screens?

 

So far I have just been using a PowerPoint exported as .mp4 and set it to fullscreen and loop on VLC player, worked well for a while but I'm running in to crashes and subsequent pop ups overlaying.

 

I vaguely remember trying to setup Xibo on a VM, but with little success. Any super simple programs running off w10 would be fantastic, any suggestions welcome! Or shall I sink my teeth in to Xibo?

[IT_Man_Dan]

We used to use xibo but have since gone to powerpoint as it's easier for the office staff to update.

The powerpoint show is just setup on a loop which works well.

[robyholmes]

Xibo is very flexible but does need a bit of Linux work to get up and running.

 

If the content you want to display could be public, then you could look at some free cloud services such as Screenly or Risevision. You can of course protect them but they tend to be US based so makes data protection an issue. However if it's all information on your public website then you should be fine (Don't quote me on that)

[localzuk]

As someone who has set Xibo up twice, and thoroughly broke it twice. I would recommend paying for their subscription service instead.

[thebatman]

We just use PowerPoint and an app called ShowPoint. ShowPoint looks in a set folder in a shared directory that the office staff have access to. When they edit the file and save it, ShowPoint detects the edit and updates the PowerPoint on the screen.

[bald_pig]

I'd use powerpoint and showpoint, create a share/folder for whoever to add and update the powerpoints, point showpoint at the folder and it will load and rotate the presentations.

 

https://www.presentationpoint.com/software/showpoint/

 

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We just use PowerPoint and an app called ShowPoint. ShowPoint looks in a set folder in a shared directory that the office staff have access to. When they edit the file and save it, ShowPoint detects the edit and updates the PowerPoint on the screen.

 

Drat, pipped me to it!

[Oaktech]

If it's just the one screen, YoDeck is worth a look. We've had it in for a year now and I've just not touched it, SLT update it and the HDMI standby control turns it all on and off.

[LeMarchand]

Another PowerPoint + ShowPoint here. Far from the greatest, but it does mean that it's easy for someone non-technical to manage so that you don't find yourself either having to chase content or being nagged for not being clairvoyant and automatically knowing about content that should have been up days/weeks ago.

[rush_tech]

Screenly OSE on a Pi

[paulkerton]

I've used Powerpoint and ShowPoint before, and now I use Chrome OS and Chrome Sign Builder.

https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/6180506?hl=en

[slugshead]

Xibo here

 

Setup was ridiculously easy. Three part docker setup.

 

Docker has a 1 click installed on Synology NAS boxes too.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Xibo here

 

Setup was ridiculously easy. Three part docker setup.

 

Docker has a 1 click installer on Synology NAS boxes too.

[Chris_Cook]

We also use Chrome OS, Google slides and Chrome Sign Builder.

 

Sign Builder is a bit of work to get your head round, but you should only have to do it once.

 

Once the slides are setup, you can just share it with the staff responsible and they crack on with it. Pretty all the updates are done through slides.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

We also use Chrome OS, Google slides and Chrome Sign Builder.

 

Sign Builder is a bit of work to get your head round, but you should only have to do it once.

 

Once the slides are setup, you can just share it with the staff responsible and they crack on with it. Pretty all the updates are done through slides.

[DrBeaker]

Getting the signage running from an IT point is relatively easy.

 

The HARD part is actually getting the staff who should be updating the content to update it. It always falls down to IT to do it which isn't right. It should be marketing or admin.

 

So Google slides, PowerPoint etc are the easiest ways from my experience to get them to do that

[mdrabble]

Also Xibo here.

 

Have a mixture of PowerPoint and webpages being displayed.

 

Installation straight forward as there are plenty of guides out there.

 

I get staff to email me their slides from a template we provide and we add them in and update the Xibo content.

 

Should really be down to someone else but it only takes use a couple of mins to sort okie then we know it has been done right.

[Aprice]

I've been through Xibo and Screenly, both were easy enough to get going but then ended up not getting used, because the admin teams found it too complicated. A few years down the line they decide to start using it again and then the same thing happens!

 

I colleague has been using Chromecasts or Chromeboxes I gather with some success, I believe just casting the Slides to it.

[networkmangler]

I was asked to do something similar but used a raspberry pi

 

I installed wordpress and a plugin called foyer Foyer – Digital Signage for WordPress – WordPress plugin | WordPress.org

 

I followed this this guide: Build a LAMP Web Server with WordPress - Introduction | Raspberry Pi Projects

and then this guide: Autostart Browser in Kiosk Mode – Raspberry Pi 4 Terminal Command – Codehaven

 

So far it's working well

[jthompson]

Using Google Slides for our content here, since there's not much of it and nobody really ever asks to update anything (i.e. nobody has any appetite for a dedicated signange management system). There are some URL parameters that you can use with Google Slides that will run the presentation fullscreen and hide the presentation controls widget, which makes automation nicer. Can't remember what they are, though, but they'll be online somewhere.

 

Our displays are run by Rasperry Pis that launch Chromium on startup, with the relevant Slides URL.

 

We've used Screenly in the past, which is nice, but it wasn't compatible with the Pi 4 when we put these in.

[Rob_D]

We've got Xibo running off a windows server here. So far it works fine (apart from RSS feeds).

While I can't see us going back to something simpler like ShowPoint now, it does look like a very neat solution.

[DrBeaker]

It seems everyone else gets the same problem then, staff not willing to update the content so it falls down to IT to do it. e.g. if the office admin person does the school newsletter, would it not be logical they do the content for the school screens as well?

 

We found being given duff information then bad IT look bad which wasn't exactly fair.

[jthompson]

It seems everyone else gets the same problem then, staff not willing to update the content so it falls down to IT to do it. e.g. if the office admin person does the school newsletter, would it not be logical they do the content for the school screens as well?

 

We found being given duff information then bad IT look bad which wasn't exactly fair.

 

IME any push to increase the range or extent of information presented on digital signage has invariably lead to said content going up, going out of date, and then staying there for months. YMMV, but I suppose of your school already has some established, active sources of information (e.g. social media feeds, term dates in online calendars, etc.) then integrating those into digital signage may go some way to automating your way out of that hole.

[msi_school]

We use Xibo but we have a lot of screens with different info in different areas I have used other solutions in the past for simpler settings. The best answer I have found to getting content off staff is to ask for the content on a powerpoint slide even if this is not the format used for the display.

 

The staff can not reasonably say that they can't do a powerpoint slide and no one can then argue about the format as it is already in a display layout, I find exporting the PowerPoint as a video or image is a lot less painful than trying to make someone's notes and random files into a usable display.

 

Crediting people for the slide also makes them more aware of the aesthetics.

[LukeBarry]

Hello Alex, Glad to hear you're happy with the Stone Mini PC if you make contact with your account manager we offer a number of signage options to assist with your requirement above.

[slugshead]

Seen a lot in this thread about keeping content up to date but I thought I would say what i've done to almost automate the entire content side of things using Xibo.

 

Multiple areas on the screen with the following

 

College logo

nice background of the college grounds washed out a bit so text is readable over the top.

 

Clock Widget with date

5 day weather forecast

Social media icons with the online handle

 

Our admin team build a calendar at the beginning of the year with all of the events/deadlines in it, so that was easy enough to export as an ical file and add into xibo showing "Todays events"

 

I used rss.app to convert our twitter feed into an RSS feed. Xibo then pulls the picture and the text from each tweet, formats it nicely and puts it in it's own bounding box. It then rotates the 5 latest tweets.

 

It's been rock solid for months now, if anyone if interested i can share what my layout looks like in PMs

[DrBeaker]

Seen a lot in this thread about keeping content up to date but I thought I would say what i've done to almost automate the entire content side of things using Xibo.

 

Multiple areas on the screen with the following

 

College logo

nice background of the college grounds washed out a bit so text is readable over the top.

 

Clock Widget with date

5 day weather forecast

Social media icons with the online handle

 

Our admin team build a calendar at the beginning of the year with all of the events/deadlines in it, so that was easy enough to export as an ical file and add into xibo showing "Todays events"

 

I used rss.app to convert our twitter feed into an RSS feed. Xibo then pulls the picture and the text from each tweet, formats it nicely and puts it in it's own bounding box. It then rotates the 5 latest tweets.

 

It's been rock solid for months now, if anyone if interested i can share what my layout looks like in PMs

 

Yes please I'd be interested.

 

My mantra is the content creation shouldn't lie with IT.

[robk]

Seen a lot in this thread about keeping content up to date but I thought I would say what i've done to almost automate the entire content side of things using Xibo.

 

Multiple areas on the screen with the following

 

College logo

nice background of the college grounds washed out a bit so text is readable over the top.

 

Clock Widget with date

5 day weather forecast

Social media icons with the online handle

 

Our admin team build a calendar at the beginning of the year with all of the events/deadlines in it, so that was easy enough to export as an ical file and add into xibo showing "Todays events"

 

I used rss.app to convert our twitter feed into an RSS feed. Xibo then pulls the picture and the text from each tweet, formats it nicely and puts it in it's own bounding box. It then rotates the 5 latest tweets.

 

It's been rock solid for months now, if anyone if interested i can share what my layout looks like in PMs

That sounds really good. Would be very interested in how that's been built...