Playback comes first
Each Pi reads a local playlist and cached media, launches fullscreen, and recovers without waiting for the dashboard or network.
Local-first signage Raspberry Pi appliances
Digital signage that keeps playing.
Beam combines a real operations dashboard with reusable media, playlists, screen health, manual publishing, and resilient fullscreen playback on Raspberry Pi.
- Next.js
- TypeScript
- Raspberry Pi
- VLC playback
Operations before ornament
The screen is the contract.
Beam is built around one practical promise: local playback survives ordinary failures, while the operator can see exactly what is playing, what changed, and what needs attention.
Publishing stays intentional
Uploads and playlist edits save first. A deliberate publish action sends the approved state to the selected screen.
Status stays honest
Heartbeat, current-video, playlist sync, temperature, throttle, uptime, and service evidence distinguish healthy, stale, and unavailable states.
Operations console
Five views for the work that matters
What’s Playing, Library, Playlists, Screens, and Scheduling keep routine operations visible without turning the pilot into an enterprise control plane.
One source of operational truthMedia · Playlists · Screens · Schedules · Evidence
- Reusable media and explicit playlist assignment
- Screen inventory, diagnostics, and recovery controls
- Current-video evidence and live screen view
- Per-screen landscape or left/right portrait playback
- Simple business-hours scheduling
The controlled publish path
Save locally. Publish deliberately.
- 01Add media
Upload and prepare a playback-safe asset.
- 02Choose a playlist
Assignment is always explicit.
- 03Arrange playback
Save order and settings locally.
- 04Select a screen
Confirm the intended destination.
- 05Publish
Send playlist and required media.
- 06Verify
Read playback and sync evidence back.
Built to recover boringly well
A missing network should not make a blank TV.
Beam keeps cached media and playlist state on every appliance, standardizes every device in the fleet against a Golden Master, and treats service restart, reboot, power loss, and network loss as normal recovery cases. Separate AWS Pre-production and Production environments support controlled promotion, but neither can replace the local playback contract.