How to Set up Digital Signage at Your Dance Studio

How to set up digital signage at your dance studio

Being in the digital age of the 21st Century, why limit your studio to static bulletin boards and posters? Digital signage allows you to have dynamic content playing on a TV or monitor that you can update easily and that’s eye catching for your parents and students. And it’s a whole lot easier to setup than you think!

First thing to think about!

When selecting a TV or monitor to use for digital signage, it doesn’t need to be anything fancy. You can likely use an older TV or monitor you have laying around or if you choose to purchase a new one, you don’t need to select a TV with the same level of care you would for watching the Superbowl. Anything simple will work. Digital signage doesn’t need to have audio capabilities, so a monitor works as well as a TV, however, typically larger TV’s are less expensive than larger monitors.

Solution 1: Computer running PowerPoint (or similar slideshow software) Pros: Easy to setup. Can likely use older equipment you have laying around. Cons: A little cumbersome. Harder to automate and update remotely.

Things you need: • A TV or Monitor with a VGA or HDMI input. • A laptop or computer with a VGA or HDMI output (or a different video output with an adapter to VGA/HDMI – whichever matches your TV or monitor’s input) that can be dedicated to digital signage. • Microsoft PowerPoint.

Directions:

1. Connect computer to TV or monitor. Make sure TV is setup to mirror whatever’s on the computer display. 2. Create a slideshow in PowerPoint. Create a new slide for each announcement you wish to make. 3. When you’re done creating your slides, go to the “Transitions” tab at the top.

4. For each slide, you can select whichever fun transition you prefer to get from one slide to the next. 5. On the right, you’ll find a “Duration” text box. For each slide, enter how long you want that slide to stay on for (typically 15-30 seconds for digital signage).

©DanceStudioOwner.com 6. Next, go to the “Slide Show” tab.

7. Click on the “Set Up Slide Show” button.

8. Check the “Loop continuously until ‘Esc’” checkbox and click OK. 9. Press the “Play from Start” button. The slideshow will begin to play on loop until you press the Esc key.

Solution 2: Using a Google Chromebit & Signage Content Management System Pros: A sleeker solution. Easier to hide a Chromebit being a TV. Easier to update from off-premise. Cons: A bit more complicated to setup. Requires purchasing a Chromebit.

Things you need: • A TV or Monitor with an HDMI input. • A Google Chromebit ($84.99). • USB Keyboard/Mouse – wireless may be easier if mounting TV/monitor out of reach.

Directions:

1. Connect Google Chromebit to HDMI port of TV and plug Chromebit into an outlet. 2. Connect a USB Keyboard and Mouse to the USB port of the Chromebit. A wireless keyboard/mouse that can connect into a singular USB port will be easiest – especially if the TV is already mounted on a wall. Otherwise a USB hub will be required to connect more than one USB device. 3. Go through the on-screen prompts to setup the Chromebit, connect it to a Google (Gmail) account and connect it to your studio’s WiFi network. 4. Go to the Chrome store and download the app Kiosk. Kiosk allows you to set the Chromebit to launch a website full screen everytime the Chromebit turns on. 5. Pause your work on the Chrome bit and head over to your regular computer. Go to www.signsimple.com and sign up for a free account. 6. Once inside, go to the “Signs” tab. “Signs” are similar to “Slides” in PowerPoint.

7. Click “Create new sign”. 8. You can pick from the hundreds of templates and customize your sign. There are also more dynamic signs that can integrate with other software – like a sign that can pull your most recent tweet from your studio’s Twitter account. There are signs that you can type text into – like an important announcement and others that you can upload an image to if you want to create an exciting slide image in Photoshop, Canva, etc. (when creating an image for digital signage, it’s best to use the size 1920x1080 pixels) 9. Create as many signs as you need and when you’re done, go to the “Shows” tab.

10. Each “Show” is a list of what Signs to play in order and how long to play each sign. Create a new show using the blue “Create New Show” button. Add each of your signs to your show and use the blue “Move Up” and “Move Down” buttons next to each sign to edit the order. In the “Sign Duration” text box, edit the number of seconds you’d like that sign to play for (typically 15-30 seconds).

12. In the “Add New Locations” box, enter a location Name for your TV. You could name it “Lobby” or if you’re going to have multiple TV’s maybe name them “North Lobby” and South Lobby”, etc. Then select the show you want to play on that TV (likely the show you just created in step #10) and click “Add location”. 13. Your new location will display below in the “Manage Locations” area with a “Chromebox URL” next to it. Write this URL down carefully making sure you get all of the letters and numbers right. 14. Head back to your Chromebit and on the Kiosk setup, enter the “Chromebox URL” as the URL for Kiosk to launch each time. Be sure to enter the URL carefully to be sure it’s right. 15. Finish the Kiosk setup screen and you’re good to go – your digital signage will be playing on your TV. 16. You can make edits to any of your signs/shows on the Sign Simple website and they will automatically update within a few minutes to your TV(s).