Delivering your message

with a slice of Pi

Raspberry Pis and digital signage

Daniel Messer – Cyberpunk Librarian

Web Content Manager

Maricopa County Library District

danielmesser@mcldaz.org

Hello.

You’re supposed to say a little about yourself, so…• 20 years in the library field• 29 years geeking out on computers• A slider with a broad background in tech• Podcaster

• Cyberpunk Librarian• Intragalactic Librarian

• Author• Hyperlinked History• All My Rattling On

• Musician• The View from Amalthea• Sonoran Standard Time

Take it easy…

You can write a bunch of stuff down if you want, or you can just go to:

cyberpunklibrarian.com/digital-signage

Notes, links, slides, walkthroughs, podcasts…

I’m recording this.

Speaking of podcasts…

Welcome to Episode 39 of Cyberpunk Librarian!

Let’s talk digital signage…

Why bother?• Save on paper, ink, printing costs, etc• Easily updated and duplicated• Multimedia• Compelling content

Also, it’s kind of everywhere.

You might even say it’s the future.

Potomac Digital Signage

• $800+ per screen

• $1,000+ central server

Overpowered hardware

• Small PCs running Windows 7

• Tucked behind a big screen TV

• Far too much power to run a simple slideshow

Buggy software

• Java based management app running on a self-signed server

• Worked only in Internet Explorer

• Firefox, Edge, and Chrome quite literally would not open the site

Outdated

• Fedora 14 (Currently on 22)

• Kernel 2.6.35 (Currently on 4.3rc2)

What we had, and why it was horrible.

Raspberry Pi 2 (Electric Boogaloo)

• Inexpensive (~$60 - $80)

• Small (credit card sized)

• Highly hackable (Let’s build robots!)

• Runs on FOSS (Free Open Source

Software)

• Operating system runs on microSD

card (Raspbian = LOVE)

The raspberry what now?

But why Pi?

• Inexpensive, 10% of the cost of a Potomac box

• 18 Potomac boxes: $14,400 + server cost

• 18 Pis: $1,440 + no server cost because we reused an

old server

• Runs on FOSS

• Debian Linux derivative called Raspbian

• Central content server runs Ubuntu Server

• Screenly OSE

• Energy efficient

• Fanless

• Low power

• microUSB

• Small and easy to hide behind a monitor

Gearing up

You could run the content server on an old PC

or a netbook

Raspberry Pi - CanaKit (www.canakit.com)

Dell PowerEdge 1950 (~6 years old)

Setting up

Download & install Screenly OSE

• screenlyapp.com/ose

Once set up, create a master image

• Win32 Disk Imager

• sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/

Building solutions

District wide slide deck

• Use an internal website that flips images

Central control

• Modified Bootstrap template with sidebar

Stand Alone

Why surplus when you can reuse?

• Pairing Pis with older monitors

Single image signs or using a browser.

• Chromium in kiosk mode displaying

local content

• Remember that website that flips

images? It’s portable!

• Update in the background with rsync

Alternatives

It doesn’t have to be a Pi. You can do a lot with a

simple slideshow.

• A PC running LibreOffice Impress, PowerPoint or

Google Slides full screen.

• Use a full screen website and computers calling the

content in a full screen browser. (Chrome/Chromium)

• Hack around with a Chromecast or Roku.

• Heck, a screensaver will do it.

• Commercial options exist and vary wildly in prices

and features. Shop around.

Thank you.

Daniel Messer

Cyberpunk Librarian

Notes available at:

cyberpunklibrarian.com/digital-signage

danielmesser@mcldaz.org

@bibrarian

cyberpunklibrarian.com

Credits

Shinjuku imageBy Ray Tsang from Irvine, USA (Flickr) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Blade Runner imageDirected by Ridley Scott. Performed by Harrison Ford. USA: Warner, 1982. Film.

Pixabay