Signage player OS
The player side of a digital signage platform. We build their Raspberry Pi images with pi-gen, in stages that let a reseller drop their own packages onto a common base, and we work on the Android player that has to keep a screen running on networks that come and go.
The challenge
A signage CMS is only as good as the thing playing it. The client had years of players spread across Webconverger, Porteus and Raspberry Pi OS, and every time one of those projects moved somewhere that didn't suit them they had to go find another. They wanted a player they controlled, running on screens where neither the network nor the power can be relied on.
Bizplay
2023 to 2024
Bob + Erwin
Player OS, image pipeline, Android app
How we built it
Images built in stages
Player images built with pi-gen, the same tool the Raspberry Pi foundation uses for Raspberry Pi OS. Stages layer up from a minimal system to the player, with an optional stage per reseller, so every build is the latest patched base with the player baked in.
Picking the next player OS
Weighed Ubuntu Core and snaps against WebOS, NixOS and the commercial kiosk products, and wrote up why Core fits. Open, self-updating, and not a vendor they can end up locked into.
Android player that stays up
Start on boot, hold the foreground, watchdog and restart, keep the screen awake, and cache the WebView so a screen keeps playing through a network drop instead of going black.