Hardware options

As mentioned before, in essence anything that runs a web browser can play your SmartSign2Go channel. Unfortunately, there is a lot of difference in how well each device can play different types of content. In this section we'll list a number of popular hardware options and describe what you can expect of them.

We have also listed a few "non-options" of which we often get asked if SmartSign2Go runs on them.

An brief overview of players that can play your SmartSign2Go channels with their individual pros and cons:

Player Best for Cost Pros Cons Remote player management1
Chromebox running ChromeOS all types of content $$$ easy install, very capable player a separate Google Device Management license is needed, that adds annual costs via Google Device Management
Intel NUC running ChromeOS Flex all types of content $$$ easy install, very capable player a separate Google Device Management license is needed, that adds annual costs via Google Device Management
Intel NUC running Porteus all types of content $$ easy install, very capable player, no additional costs installing updates is up to you2 via Porteus Server3
Intel NUC running Windows all types of content $$ configure to your specific needs, very capable player takes more work to install, costs of Windows license possible using Windows Remote Desktop or an additional AnyDesk license5
Intel NUC running Linux all types of content $$ configure to your specific needs, very capable player takes more work to install possible using additional AnyDesk license5
Android settop box all types of content $ easy install there is much variety in price and performance of different devices, a good device is usually not that much cheaper than an Intel NUC possible using additional AnyDesk license5
Raspberry Pi static content4 $ easy install, great value for money, very small device performance is a little low possible using additional AnyDesk license5
SmartTV6 static content4 $ easy install, single device manual action required to select the browser when the TV is turned on, in most cases lacks some power not possible

Footnotes:

  1. It is possible to perform limited player management from the SmartSign2Go dashboard such as restarting a player without any additional tools, the remote management referred to here is the option to take a screenshot or to control the player remotely (via a remote desktop)
  2. You can either install a new version of Porteus (available every 6 months) or buy a separate license from Porteus which allows Porteus to auto-update. Many of our customers do not install any updates.
  3. You can run Porteus server yourself or use a shared solution, please contact us if you consider this option
  4. The content does not need to be completely static, depending on the device it is possible to include some animations and video, but you need to take care that the type of content matches the performance of the device
  5. AnyDesk is a remote desktop tool with a commercial license. There are many other remote desktop tools available such as TeamViewer (commercial), VNC or RustDesk (both open source)
  6. A consumer SmartTV, professional SmartTVs that run Android and have a more advanced SOC (have more performance) are more capable but cost a lot more