Chrome OS signage on Chromebox and Chromebit in kiosk mode
Chrome devices are the most predictable players in this category. They update themselves, they recover from a power cut without help, and they are managed from a console your IT team may already use.
How Displayer runs on Chrome OS
The player is a web page, so a Chrome device in kiosk mode pointed at the pairing URL is a complete screen. Set the kiosk app in the admin console, push it to the device group, and the screen comes up on its own after every restart.
Nothing is installed, nothing is imaged, and a replacement device is provisioned by enrolling it and letting the policy apply.
Build the screen your Chrome device will show, right here
The screen builder below renders what a Chrome device plays once it opens the Displayer URL. Pick a venue, a layout and an orientation, type three lines, and watch the loop run with its live clock and ticker.
Venue
Orientation
Layout
- Venue: restaurant, retail store, clinic, gym, office or school
- Orientation: landscape 16:9 or portrait 9:16
- Layout: full bleed, main plus sidebar, or a menu board in three columns
- Content: your business name and three short lines, prefilled for the venue you picked
The schedule strip underneath shows the same playlist placed on a weekly grid, which is exactly what the schedule view does inside the product.
Why sites choose Chrome devices
- Automatic updates, with no dialog that can appear over your content
- Kiosk mode that reopens itself after a crash or a power cut
- Central management: one policy for a whole group of screens
- Low power, small enough to hide behind a panel
- Cheap to replace, and the replacement inherits the policy
- Predictable rendering, because the browser is the same on every device
Settings worth getting right
- Enrol the device in your domain before it is mounted behind the panel
- Set the kiosk app to auto launch, so the screen never shows a sign-in page
- Disable power saving and screen blanking in the device policy
- Fix the resolution and orientation, so a panel change does not rotate the wall
- Allow the player storage, so media is downloaded and playback survives an outage
What it costs
The software is billed per active screen: 19 USD on Essential, 29 USD on Professional with groups, dayparts and proof of play, 49 USD on Network with single sign-on and the audit log. The Chrome device is yours, bought once from whoever you like. See the pricing page.
Do we need the Chrome device management licence
Only if you want central policy management, which most sites with more than a handful of screens do want. A single device can run kiosk mode without it.
Does a Chromebit handle video
A Chromebit is fine for images, web content and light 1080p video. For 4K or heavy video, use a Chromebox or a mini PC.
What happens after a power cut
The device boots, launches the kiosk app, reopens the player and resumes the schedule with no one on site. The play record shows the gap.
Enrol one Chrome device and see
One device, one kiosk policy, one pairing code, and the screen runs itself from then on.