Want to start your own lighthouse digital signage? It’s easy, and not too expensive.
All you need is a cheap new or used television and a Raspberry Pi.
The simplest software to setup and use is VideoLooper.de. The site gives a tutorial to get you started, so you can load videos manually on a USB drive. For more advanced users, you can mount network shares and manage the signage remotely via SSH.
For more advanced users, Anthias gives you a user-friendly web interface with more options for customization. Along with videos, Anthias can display images and webpages, meaning if you have coding experience, you can make a webpage with interactive information, including news and weather. The possibilities are endless. For those who don’t want to self-host, or who lack coding experience, Anthias has a subscription based paid version called Screenly, which has plugins for things like news and weather.
The Shelby Lighthouse hasn’t been paid to endorse these. We’ve just found VideoLooper and Anthias to be useful, and want to give a shout out.