How to set up digital signage: from a blank TV to a playing screen

To set up digital signage, you need a display, a small device to run the player (an Android TV box, a TV running Android TV, a Windows PC with the SignageStack app, or a computer with a browser), an internet connection and an account in the signage dashboard. The setup itself runs in eight steps: decide where the screen goes, choose the player device, install the player, pair it with the dashboard using the code it shows, build a playlist, send it to the screen, set the hours it runs, and then test it the way a bad day would.

The software part takes minutes. Most of the time goes on the parts around it: the mount, the power socket, the network cable, and a TV that has to switch itself back on after a power cut. This walkthrough uses SignageStack's flow because we can describe it click by click, but the order holds for any digital signage software.

What you need to set up digital signage

• A display with an HDMI input. The TV you already own is fine for a first screen.
• Something to run the player. An Android TV box or stick, a TV running Android TV or Google TV, a Windows PC running the SignageStack app, or a Mac with a current browser.
• An internet connection. It is needed to pair the screen and to receive changes. Wired ethernet beats Wi-Fi; if it has to be Wi-Fi, use 5 GHz with the access point in sight of the screen.
• An account. SignageStack's trial runs for 21 days with every feature on one screen, and needs no card.

Before you buy anything, decide the one job the screen does. "Menu above the counter, with a QR code for the guest Wi-Fi" decides the size, the orientation and where the player box hides. "Something for reception" decides nothing. If you are short of ideas, digital signage content ideas has a long list.

Step 1: Decide where the screen goes, and how big

Measure from where the furthest reader will actually stand, not from the middle of the room. A rule of thumb that holds up in real rooms: the furthest reader should be no more than six screen heights away for large text, and no more than four for a menu read line by line. A 55" screen in landscape is about 68 cm tall, so it carries a menu up to roughly 2.7 metres away and a large headline up to about 4 metres. Digital signage screen size goes through the whole range.

Three decisions belong to install day, not to later:

• Landscape or portrait. The mount, the cable length and the layout all follow from it. Portrait suits a screen by the door or along a queue; landscape suits the wall above a counter.
• Power and network. Put a socket and, if you can, an ethernet port behind the screen. The player box lives there too, so keep it reachable and leave one HDMI length of slack.
• The display itself. A consumer TV is built for a few hours a day; a commercial display is rated for 12 to 24. For a trial, or a screen that only runs through lunch, a consumer TV is fine; for opening to close, read digital signage display vs TV first. Either way, find the setting that powers the display back on after a power cut.

Step 2: Choose what runs the player

The player is the software that shows your content on the screen. It needs a device to run on.

TVs running Samsung Tizen or LG webOS cannot install the app, so put a small Android box behind them; smart TV digital signage has the details. A TV's built-in browser can open the web player, but it will not restart itself after a power cut or hold itself in kiosk mode, so do not leave one unattended. Fire TV sticks and the Raspberry Pi are not qualified platforms, so we do not promise them. Choosing an Android TV box for digital signage covers what to look for in a box.

Step 3: Install the player

On an Android box, stick or Android TV

1. On the device, open the browser and download the APK from the Android download page, or copy the file across on a USB stick.
2. Android asks before it installs an app from outside the Play Store. Allow it for the browser or file manager you are installing from. On a TV box the setting sits under Security or Apps, depending on the maker.
3. Open the app. It starts full-screen and shows a six-character pairing code. On Android TV it also appears in the TV's own row of apps, so the remote can find it.

After this first install the app updates itself, starts at boot and after a power cut, and repairs itself if the page freezes. For a fleet, one more detail matters: Android only enforces the kiosk lock on a box provisioned as Device Owner, which has to be done on a freshly reset device, and some boxes cannot do it at all. Elsewhere the app falls back to screen pinning, which a determined visitor can exit.

On a Windows PC

1. On the PC, download the installer from the Windows download page and run it. It installs for the signed-in account and needs no administrator rights. If Windows SmartScreen stops it, choose More info and then Run anyway.
2. The player opens full-screen and shows a six-character pairing code.
3. Set the PC to sign in by itself, never sleep, and switch on after a power cut; the download page lists the three settings.

After that the app starts whenever Windows signs in, holds the screen, recovers by itself and installs its own updates.

In a browser, on a computer

1. Open player.signagestack.com in a current Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox. Use a normal window, not a private or guest one, because a private window throws away the offline cache when it closes.
2. The page shows a six-character pairing code.
3. After pairing (step 4), the address bar holds this screen's own link. Bookmark it and treat it like a key: opening it in any browser turns that browser into this screen.
4. Put the browser in full-screen, or start Chrome or Edge in kiosk mode. Set the computer to log in by itself, open the browser at login on that saved address, and never sleep.

Browsers mute video on a page nobody has clicked. If your playlist has sound, allow autoplay for the player; the browser player page lists the exact settings.

Step 4: Pair the screen with the dashboard

1. In the dashboard, open Screens and choose Add screen.
2. Give it a name that will still mean something in a list of twenty: "Counter, left" beats "Screen 4".
3. Open the screen, go to the Device tab, type the six-character code the display is showing, and choose Pair device.

The code works once and then expires, so a photo of a screen in a shop window is not a way into your account. If the display shows no code, the player is not open yet.

Once the screen is paired, the Device tab shows whether it is online, when it last reported in, and a live preview of what it is playing. The player reports in every 30 seconds, which is where "last seen" comes from. If the screen hangs in portrait, set Orientation here as well. The upside-down options are for a TV mounted with its cable side on top.

Step 5: Build the first playlist

A playlist is an ordered list of items, each held on screen for its own number of seconds. Start small: three to five items you would be happy to look at all week. For a café that might be the menu, a short text announcement, a QR code for the guest Wi-Fi and the weather.

1. Open Playlists and choose Create playlist.
2. Choose Add content. Upload images and video from your computer, pick files already in your library, or add an app and fill in its form: the city for the weather, the items for the menu, the words of the announcement. The preview beside an app's form runs the same code the screen will.
3. Set the Display duration (seconds) for each item. Videos play for their full length. For a slide with text, read it aloud slowly, twice; that is roughly how long it needs.
4. Drag the items into order. To skip one for a while without deleting it, disable it.
5. Choose Save changes.

Make images at the screen's resolution: 1920 × 1080 pixels for a Full HD screen in landscape, 1080 × 1920 in portrait. Digital signage design has the rules for type size and contrast.

Before you choose content, know what survives a network cut. Clocks, menus, text, QR codes, countdowns, PDFs, split screens made with the Zones app, and uploaded images and video need no network at all. Apps that fetch live data, such as the weather or exchange rates, keep showing their last update. Apps that need the network at the moment they play, such as a web page, YouTube, a live stream or a Canva design, are skipped until the connection is back.

Step 6: Send the playlist to the screen

From the playlist, choose Add to screen and tick the screen. You can also work from the screen's Content tab, which can hold a playlist, single files and apps side by side. A playlist placed there plays for its own total length.

The change reaches the player within seconds, over the connection it keeps open. The player downloads new images and video before it switches, so a large video never plays half-loaded, and caches everything on the device, which is what lets the screen keep playing offline.

One playlist can go to as many screens as you like. Change it once and every screen showing it follows.

Step 7: Set the working hours

A screen that plays to an empty room all night wastes power and wears the panel. Open the screen's Working hours tab and choose one of three modes:

• Always on: plays around the clock.
• Weekly working hours: a start and an end time for each day of the week. Days you switch off stay in standby all day.
• Special working hours: plays only between two dates, during set hours each day. Useful for a trade fair or a seasonal pop-up, where the whole screen should go dark when it ends.

Set the time zone to the one where the screen hangs. Outside its hours the screen goes dark: the player shows black, stays paired, and starts playing again at the next start time. The hours are evaluated on the device, so the screen switches on time even when the internet is down.

Standby means a black picture, not a switched-off TV. If you want the panel itself off overnight, use the display's own timer, and check that it comes back on in the morning.

Step 8: Test it like a bad day

A screen that works on the day it goes up proves little. Before you walk away, put it through the week ahead:

• Pull the network. Unplug the cable or switch off the Wi-Fi. The screen should keep playing what it has stored, and apps that need the network should step aside until it is back. Plug it in again and check that it catches up.
• Pull the power at the wall, then plug it back in. The display should come back on by itself, and the player should start without anyone touching the box. If the TV waits for its remote, find its auto power-on setting now, not on a Saturday morning.
• Publish a small change and watch it arrive on the screen.
• Read it from the back of the room, or from the end of the queue.
• Turn on the offline report in Settings. Choose who gets it and how often, from every 30 minutes to once a day, and they get an email listing the screens that stopped reporting and whether they are back.

After the first screen

The second screen is steps 3 and 4 again: the same APK on every device, each one paired with its own code.

When someone else will change the content, invite them from the dashboard rather than sharing your password. There are three roles. Admin manages users and settings, Member can work on screens, playlists and media, and Viewer can look but not change anything. Whoever updates the menu on a Tuesday morning needs Member, not the whole account.

Every player also logs what it showed, including while it was offline. The reports turn that into coverage by hour and day, a PDF export and a report emailed on a schedule, for the day an advertiser or a landlord asks what actually ran.

Where to start

Connect a laptop to the TV with an HDMI cable, open the web player and pair it. Build a three-item playlist from content you already have, and leave it running for a day. A day of watching it teaches you more than a week of planning, and tells you what hardware to buy. The how it works page has the whole flow on one page, and the SignageStack trial gives you 21 days with every feature, no card needed.