Start with the shape of your network, not the feature list
One screen in one room is a different problem from 60 screens across 20 addresses. The first needs a way to show a picture. The second needs groups, permissions, evidence and alerts, because the limiting factor stops being content and becomes coordination.
Write down three numbers before you look at any product: how many screens, how many addresses, and how many people will publish. Those three numbers eliminate most of the market in an afternoon.
Question one: can it run on hardware you already own
A product that requires its own player locks your network to one vendor's supply chain and to its replacement prices. A product that runs in a browser lets you use the TV that is already mounted, a stick from any shop, or the mini PC your IT team standardised on years ago.
The cost difference is real, but the flexibility matters more. A screen fails on a Saturday, and the question is whether somebody can replace the device from a local shop or has to wait for a shipment.
Question two: what does it tell you actually played
This is the question missing from most comparison tables, and it is the one that costs money when it is answered badly.
Almost every product shows a status dot for a device. Almost none shows what was drawn on the glass. A screen can be online and still be showing a black rectangle, a frozen frame, a system dialog or the campaign from three months ago. If the only evidence is a green dot, your report on a campaign is a hope.
Ask for the play record: the item, the time, the duration, and ideally a periodic screenshot. Ask whether it exports. Evidence that cannot leave the panel cannot be used in a report.
Question three: what happens when the connection drops
A shop with a weak line is normal, not exceptional. Ask what the screen shows during an outage and what the record shows afterwards.
The right answer is that the player holds the schedule and the media locally, keeps playing including daypart changes, then uploads the play records it collected when the line comes back. A weaker answer is that the screen goes to a holding image. The worst answer is that the screen goes black and the outage leaves no trace in the report.
Question four: who is allowed to publish, and where
The moment there is more than one site, this becomes the question that saves you. You want roles, you want them scoped by location or group, and you want the option to require approval before content reaches a group.
The failure this prevents is specific: a store manager with good intentions publishes a local offer to every screen in the chain, and the wrong price is on 40 walls before anyone notices.
Question five: can you schedule against a tag
Scheduling to a screen is fine for four screens. Scheduling to a tag is what makes 400 possible. Tag by region, brand, venue, format or language, then schedule to the tag. Adding a location becomes tagging one new screen rather than editing every playlist.
Question six: how are you billed, and what is counted
Per screen is the honest unit for signage, because it matches the thing that creates value. Watch for per user pricing, which punishes you for inviting the venue manager who should be involved. Watch for one-off purchases and credit packs, which turn ordinary work into a purchasing decision every time.
Read the definition of an active screen. Ask what happens to billing when a screen is deactivated for repairs.
Question seven: what does the content model look like
A menu stored as items and prices can be edited from a phone in a minute. A menu stored as a flat picture needs a designer every time an item changes. The same applies to timetables, price lists and anything else that changes often.
Look for templates with layout zones, and for a web page item that can show a live page from a system you already run. Both remove the designer from the weekly loop.
Question eight: how does it handle the boring operational parts
- Does a screen recover on its own after a power cut
- Do alerts go to the people who can fix the screen, or to a central inbox
- Can content expire on its own, or does somebody have to remember
- Can you export your media and your records if you leave
- Is there an audit log of who changed what
Question nine: what does the second year look like
Most evaluations compare month one. Compare month fourteen instead. By then you have more screens, more people publishing, a campaign that has to be reported on, and a security review that has to be answered. Ask about single sign-on, an audit log, an SLA and data residency now, even if you do not need them yet, because migrating a live network is much harder than choosing well once.
A short way to run the evaluation
- Pick two products and pair one real screen on each, in a real location
- Schedule the same content on both for a week, including a daypart change
- Unplug the network at that location for an hour on purpose
- On Monday, ask each product what the screen played, and try to export it
- Give one colleague an editor role and see whether they can break something they should not reach
That week tells you more than a month of demos, because it tests the two things that actually go wrong: the connection and the people.
Where Displayer sits in this
Displayer is built around question two. The player is a browser page, so any device you own works. Every screen reports what it rendered and returns periodic screenshots, groups and roles come with the Professional plan, and the record exports to CSV. Pricing is per active screen, monthly or yearly, and team members are never counted.
If your network is one screen in one room, a cheaper tool will do. If it is more than one address and somebody has to answer for what those screens showed, the evidence is the reason to pick differently.