Digital signage: how it works, what you need, and what it costs

Printed posters are out of date the day after they go up, and someone has to walk the building to replace them. Digital signage puts that information on screens you update from one place. This guide covers how it works, what you need, what it costs, and where Castit fits.

You decide what plays on each screen, where, and when, and you change it from a browser without walking up to the screen. It is closer to running your own small TV channel than to hanging a poster, except that the audience is the people already in your building: staff in a canteen, patients in a waiting room, shoppers at a shelf, guests in a lobby.

In the Netherlands and Belgium the same thing is usually called narrowcasting: broadcasting to a narrow, chosen audience instead of to everyone. Same screens, same software, different word.

What makes it worth doing is not the screen. It is that the information stays current without anyone reprinting it, carrying it around the site, or remembering to take the old version down.

New to the subject? What is digital signage? explains the terms you will run into, from players to proof of play.

The software

The content management system is where everything comes together. You upload images and videos, design slides, add live apps, put it all in playlists, and decide which screens play what and when. With cloud-based software like the Castit platform, that happens in a browser tab, with no server to install or maintain.

The player

The player is the piece of software, or the small box running it, that connects a screen to the system. It downloads the content, plays it on schedule, and reports back that it is running. It can run on a media player behind the screen, on a computer, or on a smart display itself.

The screen

Any screen with a player becomes a digital sign, whether it is a TV you already own or a professional display built to run all day. For the places a screen can't go, such as meeting-room doors and shelf edges, wireless e-paper displays show managed content without cables or a constant power supply.

It runs behind screens at international airports, global manufacturers, and holiday resorts, and behind the two screens in your office lobby. Signage software since 2002. Castit since 2010. GuideLites, founded 2023, now builds and sells it, and certified partners install and support it.

Castit is part of GuideLites. The same platform that runs your screens can also welcome your visitors with Digital Reception and handle your meeting-room bookings, with one partner for all of it.

Castit runs on:

• Windows and Linux media players and mini PCs
• Android boxes, Android-based displays, and Google TV and Android TV devices, installed from Google Play
• Samsung (Tizen) and LG (webOS) smart displays, through the built-in player, with no external box needed
• Raspberry Pi 5 and almost any other device with a modern browser, through the Castit web player
• Wireless e-paper displays, for the spots where a screen can't go

You can mix all of them in one network and manage it as one fleet. If you would rather start clean, certified partners supply pre-configured players, install them, and support them. For critical deployments certified hardware is the recommended path, because your partner can then cover the whole setup. The hardware page lists the devices we know run well.

With Castit there are two plans:

• Essential, €0. 21 days of the complete product on up to ten players, with no credit card. After that, one player licence stays free for as long as you use it, with five items per screen and the Clock, Weather and PDF Viewer apps. Help comes from the knowledge base and in-app videos.
• Professional, price on request. The whole playlist, every video in full, every app, as many players as you need, and support.

Or let a certified partner deliver it: they scope, install, and support the whole setup, with certified hardware and on-site support, and can deliver Digital Reception and meeting-room booking from GuideLites alongside it.

Then there is the hardware. Reusing screens you already own keeps that part low. A certified player bundle costs more up front and buys you a setup that is supported end to end. The pricing page has the details, and a 30-minute demo is where we scope the right plan for your screens.

No credit card, and it doesn't expire. It is a good way to see how digital signage works on your own screen, or to run a single screen that doesn't need more.

Your first 21 days give you the complete product on up to ten players, so you can see it on a whole network. After that, help on the free plan comes from the knowledge base and in-app videos; for a business that depends on its screens, Professional, with every app and support, is the better choice. You start on the free digital signage software page.

Castit apps pull information onto the screen and refresh it on their own, so nobody has to redesign a slide every time a number changes. Every app is built in: no software on your machines, and no developer required.

• Power BI dashboards, live, with no exported slides
• Facebook and LinkedIn posts
• Any web page, as a stable snapshot or live, an intranet page included
• Google, Outlook, and iCalendar calendars, and meeting-room bookings
• Weather, news, train times, and traffic information
• Canva designs, YouTube videos, and PDF and PowerPoint files

Setting up an app takes three steps: install it and create an instance, add it to a playlist or a screen, and publish. From then on it refreshes on its own. The full library is on the apps page.

A screen doesn't have to be touched to be interactive, either:

• A QR code on screen sends viewers to a form, a menu, or a sign-up on their own phone, for when a screen can't hold everything there is to say.
• With the PDF Interactive Viewer, visitors tap through a menu, a brochure, or a report on a touchscreen.
• A Nexmosphere sensor can trigger a playlist when someone comes close or lifts a product off the shelf, so the screen shows what belongs to that product.
• In the lobby, the same GuideLites platform handles visitor registration with Digital Reception.

Reliability is the whole point of a digital signage platform, because a dark screen in your lobby is worse than no screen at all. On top of that, you monitor every player's status and network health remotely, and updates roll out silently across the network without a single site visit.

For screens that really can't fail, certified hardware through a partner gives you a setup that is supported end to end.

• Internal communication — news, KPIs, and safety messages in canteens and coffee corners, for staff who don't sit at a desk
• Manufacturing and logistics — live output, downtime, and safety metrics on the floor
• Hospitality and leisure — wayfinding, activities, menus, and opening hours that change by the hour
• Retail — campaigns live in every store at the same moment, and e-paper shelf labels that match the till
• Education — announcements, schedules, and wayfinding across a campus, with safety alerts in one action
• Healthcare — wayfinding, waiting-room information, and messages for staff
• Automotive — e-paper price labels on vehicles, bins, and bays, plus showroom and service screens

You set your own pricing, keep the customer, and keep the recurring margin. There are two ways to earn on every license: pay a fixed price per screen and keep everything you charge above it, or share 50/50 with no fixed cost. The margin on certified hardware and on the services you deliver is yours too. A deal you register stays yours. Sell it as Castit, or fully white-label under your own name.

Behind you, Castit handles the platform, the monitoring, second-line support, training, and documentation. More on the partner page.