I have a client that has office buildings. In every offie building there is Wifi in the Lobby.
Every building has a directory of tenants in the lobby.
We wish to replace the sigs with TVs and a XOJO web applications.
Im looking for ideas on how to connect from the Web app to the TV. On is to use a Rasberry Pi. Another is to use a browser (Ideally chrome As I can can use Ignore X-frame headers to display 3rd party content in a frame).
Does anyone have any ideas here? Does anyone know how I might easily get Chome on a TV?
if the TV is just “the display” then its really nothing more than a monitor
then you will need a computer like a Pi/Arduino or something that can use that TV as the display (monitor)
If its a smart TV it may have a web browser built in
If the office building tenants directory fits in a single display, then another option if you want to be cheap - and the tenants list does not change real often – would be to create the directory using whatever you want and convert it to a picture you place on a thumb drive or something. Most TVs these days let you insert a thumb drive and it just displays media content. Or multiple images in a slide show. No web application or server required, but does mean visiting the lobby to update a thumb drive.
Trade off is no additional hardware like a Pi or server app required vs sneaker net updates.
Finding a TV that actually has a browser is far more complex than I originally thought. The only one I seem to find is a few Sony TVs with Opera as the browser. I was hoping someone might know of other --possibly cheaper options.
edit : here a 43" 4K tv (not smart) is < $600 so there it should be quite a bit cheaper and you could just use a Xojo pi desktop app
whole setup < $600 and off you go
I would look at a mini pc. Maybe run Linux and set up an SSH tunnel for remote management/updates. Just run a Xojo desktop app in fullscreen. Could add a html viewer for live content.
But even so called smart TVs are cheap these days. I just picked up a 40" 4K smart TV on the weekend for $220 and am driving it as a monitor from my MacBook Pro. You can get a ton of information in 2160x3840 (4K turned to portrait mode), then size the TV based on viewing distance by the users.
If you drive from a Pi or mini PC, then smart TV is overkill but the price difference anymore seems pretty small too.
have you used one of these with a Xojo app Jim ?
Just wondering since there are versions ot the Atom that will NOT run Xojo apps as they dont support the required SSE instructions
@jim mckay This is the answer I have been looking for. All I need to do is auto start Chrome on boot and set the homepage it to https://my_xojo_webapp.com. I can remote control the content via the web app…