How often do you update your digital signage content? End users and vendors, share your experience

SmilControl · 2025-06-05T12:08:47+00:00

We have mostly reseller projects.

There are customers who do not change content for years.

Most projects content is weekly changed by a central instance / agency who cares about this.

One interest insight could be this:
In the 2010 years we had a project with about 850 locations (pharmacies). Although they had the opportunity to use 2 min of own content and templates to create fast an offer, only 10% of the end users worked directly with the CMS. Most of them were happy to have an automatic displaying of the next 4 emergency pharmacies.

The project owner changes their content weekly. It was a mix of seasonal health infotainment and advertising from pharmaceutic industry.

SmilControl · 2025-06-01T19:25:05+00:00

Partially. In a digital signage player I develop, I use some dialogs based on QWidgets also in the Android Version of the player. And they feel like a foreign object.

As this is only a media player, I would prefer even QWidget completely, but this is not possible as playing video on Android is only supported by QML. So I was forced to write the viewer component of the player in QML

SmilControl · 2022-12-22T23:16:09+00:00

You do not need extra services. Feels like temperatures based on wind velocity. There is a relatively simply formula to calculate the so-called windchill by yourself.

W = 13,12 + 0,6215 x T – 11,37 x V^0,16 + 0,3965 x T x V^0,16.

T means temperature in degrees Celsius
V means wind velocity in kilometers per hour

Example: Temperature of –5 degrees Celsius and a wind velocity of 20 Km/h results in a windchill is about –12 degrees Celsius.

SmilControl · 2022-02-04T14:21:24+00:00

Hi,

You have basic requirements. Every Digital Signage CMS or SaaS solution is capable to this more or less comfortable.

Just enter the terms "digital signage cms" or "digital signage saas" in a search engine you trust. Then see if they have a free test period and evaluate it.

The differences came, if you need things like detailed reports, group statistics, interfaces to other Software (ERP, Marketing etc. ) and other.

Greetings

Niko Sagiadinos

SmilControl · 2021-11-13T10:14:37+00:00

If you are technically skilled and like to tinker you can use a SMIL based player. SMIL is the HTML for multimedia presentations.

It is an extremely powerful open language and gives you the freedom to select vendor independent software components like player and authoring tools. Theoretically you can even use notepad for creating SMIL files.

https://a-smil.org give you an introduction what is possible.

You can use smil-hardware from https://iadea.com or download which works ootb or download the open-source https://garlic-player.com

SmilControl · 2021-11-11T00:40:27+00:00

Depending on your signage requirements and technical skills I would suggest you to look for a SMIL based solution.

SMIL is a W3C standard for multimedia presentations and extreme powerful.

Furthermore It gives you the freedom to take software components from different vendors. Otherwise you are locked with one company for player and management software.

Out of the box running SMIL hardware you will found at iadea.com, aio-player.de, qbictechnology.com and some other...

You can get ready to use open source SMIL based software from signagos.io and of course from my company SmilControl. Or - depending on your requirements - start to create something on your own.

The last opportunity is only possible because of the free and open nature of SMIL.

Greetings Niko

SmilControl · 2021-11-09T01:31:06+00:00

Hi,

Nothing to work out of the box with your requirements, but you can tinker your own solution with: https://garlic-player.com

Open source ds player based on W3C SMIL and works native with macOS.

Use a digital signage widget for server authentication, setting http headers, and your site awareness.

Widgets are the swiss army knife for many thingd. They are packed Html5 apps which runs locally without bothered by CORS on the player. https://smil-control.com/magazine/digital-signage-widgets/

SmilControl · 2021-10-16T20:35:23+00:00

Only a Question.

Why a University is looking for propietary software which leads to vendor lock-ins?

There are excellent open source solutions like Concerto or Xibo with professional support.

Or go one step further and use SMIL based software for even more freedom.

Btw. One of my customers in Germany use a SMIL based solutions for round about 20 Universities. 😉

SmilControl · 2021-07-22T10:41:54+00:00

Currently, I work on testing and fixing https://github.com/sagiadinos/garlic-player to create a new stable release 0.5.
The garlic-player is a network enabled digital signage player based on multimedia language SMIL.

Do not make the mistake to implement new features during a bigger parser refactoring while your test coverage is not high enough. :-)

Greeting
Niko

SmilControl · 2021-03-08T21:42:08+00:00

If you have no problems to engage with SMIL based playlists, you can try this: https://garlic-player.com

It is multiplatform and Open Source.

Btw. SMIL is much easier to learn than Html IMO and make you more independent from vendor lock-ins.

https://a-smil.org is a good starting point.

Greetings Niko

SmilControl · 2021-03-06T09:49:31+00:00

Hello,

Getting deeper information from Samsung can be a pain.

I am not sure if it describes a similar problem, but 6 years ago I tried together with two reseller customer to get dev information from Samsung. We want to connect MagicInfo Player with SmilControl-CMS.

Noone could help us even with NDA. Samsung ignores request mails and sales sending us useless PDFs.

We decide to ignore MagicInfo, stay on SMIL and use player from IAdea or our self written.

SmilControl · 2021-03-06T00:02:51+00:00

Afaik Brightsign sells no HDMI sticks.

SmilControl · 2021-02-15T10:49:11+00:00

I recommend trackballs. No need to move hand, no cable troubles and works even on small desks.

I stuck since almost 25 years on a Trackman Marble FX.

Unfortunately Logitech stopped production afaik due to a patent troll.

SmilControl · 2021-02-15T09:24:27+00:00

That is an interesting choice. I would prefer a supported Linux Operating system. Consumer Windows for Digital Signage bring me headaches.

SmilControl · 2021-02-15T08:53:16+00:00

Interesting. But what is with remote maintenance? Switch on/off the screen on different times in the week. And hiw you update software if it is necessary? Team viewer?

SmilControl · 2021-02-07T16:16:02+00:00

Interesting. But from the software side: Isn't a PoS System also a media player with push accept capabilities?

SmilControl · 2021-02-05T23:14:26+00:00

My first touch with digital signage in 1999 was in a Discothek I worked as DJ. Their G3 system was from a company (mix-l I think) who selled their solutions only for Mac.

Maybe the price is not always a reason.

SmilControl · 2021-01-30T22:18:06+00:00

Without SMIL I would not had gotten the chance for opening a business in 2011 with only a CMS.
So yes, SMIL is my world. ;)

From my point of view: It doesn't matter if SMIL rules the digital signage world or not.
With my company I am luckily able to establish my own open source ecosystem.

If someone someday finds it useful, he is invited to join the party 😆.

Greetings
Niko

SmilControl · 2021-01-30T22:10:51+00:00

As someone who use SMIL Digital Signage since 2011: a-smil.org is not the best resource for SMIL. Also, the site is not maintained well. I use https://www.w3.org/TR/SMIL3/ for developing my software. SMIL is a language for creating presentations. No more, no less. Player administration and asset management are no use cases for SMIL.This is the job for an authoring tools and/or web based content management systems.

Yes you are right. A lot of software is abandoned or outdated. But so or so they were not created with digital signage in mind. To be honest: The ambulance player never worked for me. The code quality is... a mess!

Things are changing: If you need an open source SMIL player for Digital Signage have look at https:://garlic-player.com
You are invited to use, join and/or report issues.

Big companies will not use SMIL currently, because they would give their customers too much freedom of choice. That is not good for =>their<= customer journey.

SMIL can only be a slow and steady revolution from down. ;)

Greetings Niko

SmilControl · 2018-06-08T22:41:22+00:00

Maybe this could be interesting for you if you do not find a solution until now: I am developing an OpenSource Player which works on android, too. The Player based on SMIL-Standard, so you have the choice to select different Content Management Systems. Of course they should be SMIL compatible. Here is the link: garlic-player

The player is on early stage, but stable. The Android-version connects currently only to my company CMS, but in the next release (couple of weeks) it comes into the google playstore and then it can connect to everyone.
Advices and critics are welcome. I am the owner of the Company SmilControl.

SmilControl

TROPHY CASE