Digital signage is everywhere — from the menu boards at your favorite coffee shop to the welcome screens in hotel lobbies. Yet for many businesses considering their first display, the technology can feel overwhelming. What hardware do you need? How does the content get to the screen? Do you need a dedicated IT team?
The short answer: it’s far simpler than you think. This guide breaks down the essentials so you can go from zero to a working digital display with confidence.
Digital signage is the use of electronic displays to show content — images, videos, text, or a mix — in a public or semi-public setting. Unlike a standard TV playing a cable channel, digital signage is managed remotely through software, letting you control what appears on screen from anywhere with an internet connection.
Common use cases include retail promotions, restaurant menus, corporate communications, wayfinding in hospitals, and event schedules in schools. The content is dynamic, meaning you can update it instantly without printing a single poster.
Every digital signage setup has three parts:
1. The Screen. Any commercial-grade display or consumer TV works. Most businesses start with a standard smart TV or an Android TV device. The screen size depends on your environment — a 43-inch display suits a small café counter, while a 55- or 65-inch panel works well in a lobby or retail floor.
2. The Media Player. This is the device that actually renders your content on screen. It can be a small Android TV box, a tablet mounted behind the display, or a smart TV with a built-in player app. With IntelDisplay, you simply install the player app on any Android TV or Android tablet and you’re ready to go.
3. The Software Platform. This is where you upload content, arrange it into playlists, set schedules, and monitor your screens. A cloud-based platform like IntelDisplay lets you do all of this from a web browser — no software to install on your computer, no servers to maintain.
Getting your first screen running takes just a few steps:
There’s no complex network configuration or on-site server involved. The player downloads content over a standard internet connection and caches it locally, so playback continues smoothly even if connectivity drops temporarily.
One of the most common questions beginners ask is: “What formats can I use?” With IntelDisplay, the answer is broad — the platform supports over 200 image formats and all major video codecs through FFmpeg. Whether you’re uploading a JPEG photo, a PNG graphic, an MP4 video, or even a HEIF image from your phone, it just works.
Files can be up to 3 GB in size, and uploads are chunked and resumable, so a large video won’t fail if your connection briefly hiccups. The system also handles automatic transcoding for different screen orientations — upload once, and your content adapts to both landscape and portrait displays.
Digital signage used to require expensive proprietary hardware and hefty license fees. Cloud platforms have changed that entirely. IntelDisplay charges $5 per display per month on annual billing, with every display getting access to all features — no tiered plans, no feature gating. Each display also includes 5 GB of cloud storage for your media files.
That flat pricing means a single-location café with one screen and a retail chain with fifty screens both get the same capabilities: unlimited playlists, unlimited media uploads, full scheduling, and remote monitoring.
If you’ve been thinking about adding a digital display to your business, the barrier to entry is lower than ever. Pick up an affordable Android TV device, sign up for an IntelDisplay account, and follow the setup steps above. You can have your first content playing on screen the same day.
In upcoming posts, we’ll cover content design tips, scheduling strategies, and how to manage displays across multiple locations. Stay tuned — and if you have questions, reach out to our team.