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Delivering your message
with a slice of Pi
Raspberry Pis and digital signage
Daniel Messer – Cyberpunk Librarian
Web Content Manager
Maricopa County Library District
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Outdated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
@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