From a blank TV to a live screen, in about five minutes.
There is no server to run and nothing to install on your network. If the display can open a web page, it can be a SignageStack screen.
Pair the screen
Install the Android player on a TV box or stick, or load the player URL in a browser on any computer. The screen shows a six-character code.
In the dashboard, choose Add screen, type the code, and give the screen a name you will recognise in a list — “Entrance — left” beats “Screen 4”. The pairing code is single-use and expires, so a photo of a screen in a shop window is not an account.
Build a playlist
Upload images and video, or add an app and fill in its form. Set how long each item holds the screen and drag the items into the order you want.
Every app previews live in the dashboard using the same code the player runs, so you are approving the finished screen rather than a mock-up. A playlist can mix uploaded media and apps freely.
Publish and set the hours
Add the playlist to one screen or several at once and publish. Players pick the change up in seconds and confirm it back to the dashboard.
Each screen loops what it has been given until you change it, and its working hours decide when it plays: always, set times on each weekday, or a date range. Outside them it goes dark and comes back at the next start time, on the device's own clock, so even with the network down.
What you need
A display
Any TV or commercial display with an HDMI input. Size, resolution and orientation are yours to choose.
Something to run the player
An Android TV box, stick or tablet, or a computer running Windows or macOS.
An internet connection
Needed to pair and to receive changes. Playback continues without it.
A SignageStack account
Free for 21 days with every feature. No card to start.
What actually happens to the screen
Publishing is not a file upload with a progress bar and a prayer. The dashboard writes one version of the truth, every screen it applies to is told at once, and each one answers.
The change is pushed, not polled
Players hold an open connection to the service. A published change is sent down it immediately, so a corrected price is on the wall in seconds rather than at the top of the next hour.
Media is fetched before it is needed
A screen downloads the images and video in its new playlist and only then switches to it. A big video does not play half-loaded, and it does not download again on the next loop.
Every screen checks in
Each player reports a heartbeat every thirty seconds and sends what it is playing right now. That is where “last seen” in the dashboard comes from — and how you know the change landed.
Playback is logged all the while
What played and for how long is collected on the device and sent up every few minutes, which is what the coverage matrix and the PDF report are built from later.
A screen on a router behind a coffee machine
That is the real deployment, and it decides the product. The player keeps its playlist, its working hours and its media on the device, so losing the network changes nothing on the wall.
Only apps that fetch live data — weather, exchange rates, news — hold their last value until the connection returns.
- The current playlist keeps playing from the local cache
- Working hours still switch on time — the clock is on the device
- Clocks, menus, text, QR codes, countdowns and video need no network at all
- What played offline is kept and uploaded when the line comes back
What you can put on a screen
A playlist item is one of these four, and they mix freely in the same list.
Images and video
Upload from the dashboard. Files are served to the player from object storage and cached on the device, so a large video is downloaded once and played all week.
Apps
Thirty-two of them, rendered live on the screen from a form: clocks, weather, menu boards, tickers, QR codes, countdowns, exchange rates, news, YouTube and live streams.
Documents and decks
PDF files play page by page. Google Slides and Canva designs stay connected to the original, so a corrected slide reaches the screen without a re-upload.
Split screens
The Zones app divides a display into two, three or four panels — a menu beside the weather — each running its own app on its own timing, with a Ticker band able to run over the top.
When it stops being three screens
Everything above works the same at fifty. These are the parts that start to matter once a person cannot walk past every display.
One playlist, every screen
Add a playlist to many screens at once, and an edit to it reaches all of them. Adding a location means pairing a screen and giving it the playlists it should play.
Nothing goes dark by accident
A screen loops what it has been given until someone changes it, and goes dark only outside its working hours. An item that is done for now is switched off, not deleted.
People with their own logins
Invite colleagues as Admin, Member or Viewer. The person who changes the menu does it with their own login, not the account password.
Reports that arrive by themselves
A PDF of playback coverage for one screen or the whole fleet, exported when you want it or emailed to a list on a schedule.
The questions that come up at this point
Any display with an HDMI input plus an Android TV box or stick, an Android display or tablet on its own, or any computer that can open a browser full-screen. The player is a web application, so a five-year-old mini PC is enough. We do not sell hardware — the hardware page says what to look for.
The screen keeps playing. The player caches its playlist, its media and its working hours on the device, so it carries on with what it already has and still goes dark and comes back on time. Clocks, menus, text, video and countdowns need no network at all. When the line comes back the player syncs and uploads the playback log it kept while it was alone.
Yes. Google Calendar, Sheets, Slides and Canva connect once with your account and then stay in sync. A PDF uploads straight into the PDF app and pages through on its own. Connected accounts are linked per app instance and the tokens are encrypted at rest — they never reach the player.
English, Serbian, German, Spanish and Italian. The interface language is per user, so a manager can work in one language while a colleague works in another on the same organisation.
The trial runs for 21 days with every feature and every app, and needs no card. To keep going, send an upgrade request from the dashboard before it ends — everything you built stays exactly as you left it. If the trial ends without one, the account and everything in it are deleted, and we email you the day before.
From the blog
- How to set up digital signage: from a blank TV to a playing screenEight steps from a blank TV to a screen that runs itself: pick the display and player, install, pair with a code, build a playlist, set hours, test.
- What is digital signage? A plain-English guideDigital signage in plain English: the five parts behind every screen, what people use it for, what it roughly costs and how to start with one screen.
- Vertical digital signage: when to turn the screen on its sideWhen a portrait screen beats landscape, which displays may hang on their side, how to mount and rotate one, and what content works in a tall frame.
Thirty minutes, no slides.
We pair a screen live, build a playlist with your content, and show you the report at the end. If it is not a fit you will know inside ten minutes and we will say so.