Your content always ends up in the same place: on a screen. But a screen on its own is only a display.
Something has to run on it to bring your content down and show it, and that something is the Screenly software.
The screen
A screen is the display: the panel your audience looks at.
In your dashboard, a screen is also how you keep track of that display and what it is showing.
The Screenly software
The Screenly software runs on a device and shows your content, following what the cloud tells it. It stays in constant contact with the cloud, so a change you make there reaches the right screens on its own.
It reaches a device in one of two ways: built into ScreenlyOS, or installed as Screenly Anywhere on hardware you already own.
The device it runs on is usually a separate box connected to the display over HDMI, such as a Screenly Player (our own hardware), your own Raspberry Pi, an Android box or stick, or a mini-PC.
Many professional displays and smart TVs have a computer built in, so the display runs the Screenly software itself with no separate box to connect.
Two ways to run it
You manage both from the same cloud, and working with your content is identical either way. What differs is the hardware it runs on and how far Screenly’s control reaches into the device.
ScreenlyOS
ScreenlyOS is Screenly’s own operating system, built entirely for signage. It runs on Screenly hardware, on a Raspberry Pi, and on certain professional displays with a computer built in.
Because Screenly owns the whole stack, device management and monitoring reach all the way down to the system itself. It is the most capable way to run Screenly, and the recommended path when the hardware supports it.
Screenly Anywhere
Screenly Anywhere is for hardware that cannot run ScreenlyOS: Android devices, smart TVs, mini-PCs running their own operating system. It runs as an app on whatever the device already has.
Content management works the same way. The trade is depth: because Screenly does not own the operating system, device management and monitoring are limited to what the host system allows.