Hardware
What to put behind a screen
Almost certainly less than you think. This page exists because it is the second question everybody asks, and the honest answer is usually “nothing, you already have it”.
A television that is already Android
Nothing
Most sets sold in the last five years run Android TV or Google TV. Install the APK and it is done — this is the best outcome and it is also the most common one.
Watch out for
Check it is Android TV and not the manufacturer’s own system. Samsung runs Tizen and LG runs webOS; both work, but through the browser rather than the app.
An Android TV box
Roughly £30–£60 per screen
For any television with an HDMI port, smart or not. The box becomes the screen as far as the system is concerned, and gives you the full experience on a set that has none of its own.
Watch out for
Get one with 2 GB of RAM and Ethernet if the wall has a socket. Avoid the cheapest no-name sticks — they are slow and their firmware is abandoned within a year.
A mini PC or Raspberry Pi
Roughly £70–£150 per screen
Runs the web player in kiosk mode. Worth it where you already standardise on one, or where a screen also has to do something else.
Watch out for
A Pi 4 or newer handles 1080p video comfortably. A Pi Zero does not.
Specifications
What a screen actually needs
- Android 8 or newer for the native player
- 2 GB of RAM — 1 GB works but stutters on video
- 8 GB of storage, of which the player uses a fraction
- Wi-Fi or Ethernet. Ethernet where the wall allows it
- Any resolution — the layouts are drawn, not scaled
The player itself is a 2.6 MB download. The storage is for your own media, and a screen only ever holds what its own playlists reference.
Avoid
Things that will cost you a site visit
- Sticks with 1 GB of RAM — they survive the pilot and fail the rollout
- Anything whose manufacturer has already stopped shipping firmware
- Screens on a guest Wi-Fi network with a captive portal
- Power that is switched off at the wall each night by a cleaner
- Sets mounted where nobody can reach the HDMI port again
On mounting
The unglamorous half of a rollout
Every estate we have seen has at least one screen that works perfectly and cannot be reached. Before the brackets go up, decide how somebody gets a cable to each set a year from now — because at some point somebody will need to.
Put the network socket behind the screen rather than relying on Wi-Fi at the far end of a warehouse. Put the power on a circuit that is not switched off at night. And label the back of each set with the name it has in the panel, so “Cafeteria South is offline” is a location and not a puzzle.
Send us your list
Tell us what screens you already have — model numbers if you have them — and we will tell you which need a box and which do not.
No open demo, no sign-up wall — a person reads every request.