ScreenlyOS is a complete operating system, built on Ubuntu Core in partnership with Canonical, and hardened down to a single job. The whole system is ours, and the device exists to run it.
The practical consequence: the device does nothing else. Nothing to log into, nothing else installing updates, nothing else competing for memory, and nothing else putting a window in front of your content.
Why it exists
Digital signage is three layers, and most vendors own only one.
| Layer | What it covers | Who usually owns it |
|---|---|---|
| Content | Authoring, scheduling, publishing | The signage software vendor |
| Device management | Monitoring, control, provisioning, diagnostics | A separate vendor, or nobody |
| Operating system and device | Boot, drivers, patching, hardening, lifecycle | The OS vendor or display manufacturer |
Each party does its part competently. The gap is in the space between them, and the operating system is where that space sits. The hardware maker did not write it, and the signage vendor cannot patch it. The OS vendor has no idea the machine is showing a lobby display.
That gap becomes somebody’s job anyway: patching, testing the patches, imaging and reimaging, drivers, and a site visit every time one of them stops behaving. None of it appears in a signage budget.
We build all three layers and release them as one product, which is what lets one vendor be answerable for the whole device.
What we optimize for
Owning the whole device means we get to decide what the device is good at. Two things come before everything else, and every other decision follows from them.
Security, because a screen is a computer on your network, usually in a public space, often in a building nobody from your team visits.
Reliability, because the value of a screen is that it is playing. A screen that needs attention costs more than it earns, and the attention it needs is almost always a person driving to it.
Security
Closed by default
No remote login and no open ports. Encrypted storage where the hardware supports it. There is no way to get a shell on the device.
The attack surface is small because the device does one job. Nothing else is installed, so nothing else can be exploited.
Built for real networks
802.1X on wired and wireless, including static IP configuration from the on-screen setup wizard, and mutual TLS client certificates so a screen can authenticate to internal services.
A screen that cannot meet your network’s requirements ends up on a guest VLAN or an exception, which is its own kind of risk.
Credentials sealed to the hardware
On devices with a TPM, such as the Screenly Player Max, the credentials a screen uses to reach protected content are stored in that chip rather than in ordinary storage. A screen showing a dashboard behind a login, or reaching an internal service over mutual TLS, keeps those secrets tied to the device itself.
Reliability
Updates that undo themselves
The operating system and the playback software update together, over the air, cryptographically signed and transactional. A failed update rolls back on its own, so a bad update does not leave a screen stranded.
Because the two update together, there is no version of the operating system that the playback software was never tested against.
Nothing else competing for the machine
No background updater, no antivirus scan, and no other application deciding it needs the foreground. When a general-purpose system fails as a screen, it is usually because something else put a window in front of the content.
Managed without site visits
Remote reboot, remote diagnostic screenshots, and CPU, memory, and network health, all from the dashboard.
Some things people expect to find on that list are missing from it, because they are not exclusive to ScreenlyOS. Offline playback and playback reporting work on a ScreenlyOS device, but they work on every other Screenly screen too, including Screenly Anywhere, because they come from the platform rather than the operating system.
What it adds up to
Peace of mind, mostly.
You deploy the device and stop thinking about it. There is no patching schedule, no imaging process to keep current, no antivirus, no logins to rotate, and no general-purpose system quietly doing its own thing behind your content. Updates apply themselves and undo themselves if they fail.
A screen on a factory floor, in a branch office, or in a building nobody from your team visits is meant to be something you set up once and leave running. That is what owning the whole device buys.
What it costs
Nothing on its own. ScreenlyOS is included with your Screenly subscription, and so are its updates, for as long as the screen is subscribed.
There is no license for the operating system, no separate line item, and no upgrade fee when a new version ships. You pay per screen for Screenly, and the software that runs on the device comes with it.
Buying our hardware is not a condition either. An organization that runs ScreenlyOS entirely on hardware it already owns, and never buys a single Screenly Player, is a perfectly normal outcome.
What it runs on
Our own Screenly Player, in both the standard and Max models, and Sharp large-format displays that ship with it preloaded.
It also runs on hardware you supply: a Raspberry Pi, which you flash yourself, and Scala players, where support depends on the model and the image comes from our support team.
Hardware has a page for each device, covering what it can do and how to install ScreenlyOS on it.
Other hardware you already own
ScreenlyOS can also run on other amd64 hardware, the standard 64-bit PC architecture. That includes signage players from other vendors, whether or not the vendor still supports them.
This is not a self-serve route. Each model has to be booted and confirmed before we list it as supported, and we will not tell you a model works until someone has actually tested one. Get in touch with what you have and we will tell you where it stands.
It is worth asking about either way. If you are moving to Screenly, converting the players you already have avoids buying hardware to replace hardware that works. And where the hardware is fine but the software on it is not, replacing the operating system is the change that keeps the fleet in service.
Next
How to get it covers the routes to a device running ScreenlyOS.