Custom portrait digital signage system with live events integration
For this install, the goal was to create a clean, client-friendly digital signage system for a portrait display inside Chicken + Whiskey that could handle both designed promotional content and live event information without turning the venue staff into part-time AV operators.
The original workflow was clunky. If the team wanted to promote an event on that screen, they had to do two separate things: first add the event to the website/CMS, then separately design a custom graphic just for that one display. That works, but it creates extra back-and-forth and duplicates effort.
I built a more flexible system that kept their existing promo workflow intact while adding a second, smarter layer on top.
What I built
The final system used a compact ASUS NUC hidden behind the display as a dedicated signage player, with Yodeck as the content management platform. That gave the client a simple remote publishing workflow: upload media, place it in a playlist, hit publish.
On top of that, I developed a custom scripted webpage integration that pulls from the venue’s live events page and reformats it for the portrait display. Instead of forcing staff to manually rebuild event content for signage, the screen can now also display event information directly from the live site in a polished way.
The events section was tuned specifically for the actual screen resolution and orientation, so it moves smoothly through listings over a calibrated 60-second cycle and still looks good whether the page has only a few events or a much longer list.
Why this mattered
This wasn’t just about getting content onto a screen. It was about improving the workflow behind it.
The client still has full design control whenever they want to create custom branded promo graphics or videos. Nothing about that process was removed. What I added was an additional display mode that makes a lot of sense for a restaurant or venue with a regularly updated events page.
That means:
-fewer duplicate content tasks
-less coordination between web updates and screen updates
-easier handoff to non-technical staff
-cleaner remote management
- no need to physically touch the player for routine changes
Technical approach
This project also involved recovering and repurposing hardware that had previously failed at another install. I rebuilt and stabilized the NUC, cleaned up the operating system so it would behave more like a dedicated appliance, and then configured the software stack around that.
The webpage integration relied on custom scripting inside Yodeck’s browser environment to:
-remove unnecessary site elements like navigation, footer, and other page clutter
-isolate the useful event content
-optimize the layout for a 4K portrait display
-control how the content advances over time so it reads cleanly on screen
The result was a system that feels simple from the client side, but has a fair amount of custom logic under the hood.
Result
The finished setup gave the venue two strong content options on one display:
-fully custom uploaded promo media
-live events content pulled from the website and presented automatically
It also replaced a more limited signage path with something much easier to manage and much more adaptable for future needs.
Tools / stack
-ASUS NUC micro-PC
-Windows, stripped down for dedicated playback use
-Yodeck CMS
-Custom JavaScript/CSS webpage adaptation
-4K portrait display workflow
-Remote publishing / playlist management