Digital information boards and notice boards: what to show and how to run them
Quick answer: DigitalSignage.com runs a digital notice board on its free plan: the first 3 screens are free forever, then $3 per screen per month, so an office, school, church, apartment building or factory with one to three boards pays nothing for software. A digital information board replaces the cork board with a screen that shows announcements, a calendar, menus, weather, birthdays and news, updated from a browser or a shared spreadsheet by non-technical staff. Give each contributor their own SignStudio login and role, turn on approval if more than one person posts, and schedule items to expire so the board never shows last month's bake sale.
Last updated October 22, 2026. Product facts from the SignStudio user management, scheduling and components documentation; cost figures from our cost and power pages.
Why the cork board fails and the screen does not
A cork board has three problems: nobody takes old notices down, nobody can read it from across the room, and the person with the pins is the only one who can change it. A digital information board fixes all three. Every item carries a start and end date and disappears on its own; text is sized for the distance people stand at; and anyone you give a login to can post from their desk. The board also runs the same content on a second screen in another building without anyone walking over with a stapler.
What to show, by venue
| Venue | Core content | Also useful |
|---|---|---|
| Office | Announcements, this week's events, meeting room status, new hires, KPIs the whole team can see | Cafeteria menu, weather, commute traffic, guest Wi-Fi with a QR code |
| School | Daily bulletin, bell schedule, lunch menu, sports results, club notices | Countdown to exams or break, student work with consent, emergency message |
| Church | Service times, this week's groups, sermon series, giving campaign progress | Volunteer sign-ups via QR code, prayer list (first names only), weather for outdoor events |
| Apartment building | Maintenance notices, package pickup, amenity hours, elevator outages | Local events, transit times, trash and recycling days, management contact |
| Factory | Shift schedule, days since last incident, production target, safety reminder of the week | Overtime sign-up, canteen menu, union or HR notices, recognition |
The pattern is the same everywhere: a small number of items that change often (announcements, menus, schedules) and a few that change rarely (hours, contacts, rules). Keep the rarely changing items in a fixed zone so people learn where to look, and rotate the frequent ones in the main zone.
The content model: six feeds, not sixty slides
Most notice boards fail by trying to be a slideshow of 60 posters. Build the board from a handful of data feeds instead, each owned by one person:
| Feed | SignStudio source | Updated by | How often |
|---|---|---|---|
| Announcements | Text zone or Google Sheets component | Office manager, school secretary, church admin | Daily to weekly |
| Calendar and events | Calendar component (Google Calendar, Outlook or Office 365, iCal) | Automatic from the shared calendar | Live |
| Menu | Google Sheets component, or an uploaded image | Kitchen or cafeteria | Daily |
| Weather | Weather component | Automatic | Every 15 to 60 minutes |
| News | RSS component from a feed you choose | Automatic | Hourly |
| Birthdays, anniversaries, recognition | Google Sheets component, one row per person | HR or reception | Monthly |
| Emergency message | Emergency priority campaign, prepared in advance | Facilities or security | Only when needed |
The Google Sheets route is the one most non-technical teams settle on. Share a sheet with the SignStudio service account, add the Google Sheets component to a zone, select the range, and from then on the board follows the spreadsheet. The person updating the board never opens the layout editor; they type a row into a sheet they already know how to use.
Who updates it, and how to keep it tidy
A notice board has many contributors and one owner. SignStudio user management gives every person their own login and one of six roles: Owner, Administrator, Content Manager, Editor, Operator and Viewer. A practical split:
- One Administrator (IT or the office manager) who owns the layout, the screens and the user list.
- Two or three Editors (reception, HR, the school office, the church secretary) who add and change items but do not touch the layout.
- An approval workflow, set in SignStudio settings, if more than one person posts. The editor submits, the approver publishes, and a rejected item carries a comment explaining why. For a school, this is also the step that keeps student names and photos off the board without consent.
- Expiry dates on every item. Campaigns and playlist items in SignStudio carry a date range, so a notice about Friday's event removes itself on Saturday. Nothing on a notice board should be undated.
- A monthly five-minute review by the owner: delete expired items, check that the feeds still load, and look at the screen from where people actually stand.
Scopes let a multi-site organisation give each location its own editors over its own screens, with head office able to push a message to all of them.
Layout: three zones is enough
A notice board is read by people walking past or standing briefly, so it should look the same every day and never need instructions. A layout that works on a 1080p landscape screen:
| Zone | Size at 1920 by 1080 | Content |
|---|---|---|
| Main | 1,280 by 900, left | Announcements rotating 10 to 15 seconds each |
| Side column | 640 by 900, right | Today's events from the calendar, weather, menu |
| Ticker | 1,920 by 180, bottom | Short notices and news headlines |
For a portrait screen by a door or in a corridor, stack the same three zones top to bottom at 1,080 by 1,920. SignStudio scenes are built from such divisions in the scene editor, and a template gets you to a working board in minutes. Text sizes follow viewing distance: at 10 feet, body text of 36pt and headlines of 72pt on a 1080p canvas; at 15 feet, 48pt and 96pt. Use the typography guide for other distances, and keep each announcement to the 3 by 5 rule: three lines, five words a line.
Hardware
A notice board needs no special hardware. A TV or commercial display you already own plus a $40 to $100 Android TV stick, a complete Raspberry Pi build at $81 to $137, a spare PC, a Chromebox or an old laptop with Chrome OS Flex runs the free DigitalSignage.com SignPlayer. Pairing takes one step: the player shows a registration code, which you type into SignStudio under Register SignPlayer. SignPlayer does not run on Fire OS, Tizen or webOS, so a smart TV's own apps are not the route; put a stick or a Pi behind it. A corridor or office position needs 350 to 500 nits, which an ordinary TV has; a lobby by large windows needs 700 to 1,500 nits and a commercial panel.
If the building's internet drops, the SignPlayer keeps playing the announcements, menu images and schedule from its local cache; only the live feeds (weather, RSS, calendar) pause until the connection returns.
Cost
| Item | One board | Three boards | Ten boards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software, DigitalSignage.com | $0 | $0 | $360 a year |
| Player (Android TV stick) | $40 to $100 | $120 to $300 | $400 to $1,000 |
| Display, if you do not own one (consumer 55 inch) | $300 to $450 | $900 to $1,350 | $3,000 to $4,500 |
| Electricity at 12 hours a day | about $75 a year | about $225 a year | about $746 a year |
Software is free for the first 3 screens forever, with no credit card, no ads and no watermark; from the fourth screen every screen is billed at $3 per screen per month, so ten boards are $360 a year. Scheduling, expiry dates and the emergency override are on the free plan.
20 notice board content ideas
- This week's events, from the shared calendar.
- Welcome to new staff, students or residents.
- Today's menu with prices.
- Birthdays this week, first names only.
- Days since the last incident.
- Meeting room availability.
- Maintenance and outage notices with dates.
- Package pickup hours and location.
- Guest Wi-Fi with a QR code.
- Volunteer or overtime sign-up via QR code.
- Weather and commute conditions.
- Local news headlines from an RSS feed.
- Fundraising or giving progress bar.
- Lost and found.
- Recognition: employee, student or volunteer of the month.
- Policy reminders, one per slide.
- Transit departure times near the door.
- Sports results and upcoming fixtures.
- Emergency contacts and the assembly point.
- A large clock, so nobody asks the time.
Frequently asked questions
Digital information boards and notice boards: what to show and how to run them
Show a few feeds that change often (announcements, calendar, menu, weather, news, birthdays) and a few that rarely change (hours, contacts, rules), each in a fixed zone. Run it by giving each contributor a SignStudio login and role, using a shared Google Sheet so non-technical staff update the board without opening the editor, turning on approval if several people post, and dating every item so it expires on its own. One to three boards cost nothing in software on DigitalSignage.com.
What is the best digital notice board software for a small office or school?
For one to three boards, DigitalSignage.com: the first 3 screens are free forever with no credit card, ads or watermark, scheduling and expiry dates are included, and it runs on a TV you own with a $40 to $100 Android TV stick, a Raspberry Pi or a spare PC. From the fourth screen it is $3 per screen per month for every screen.
How do non-technical staff update a digital notice board?
Through a shared spreadsheet or their own login. The SignStudio Google Sheets component reads a sheet shared with the SignStudio service account and shows the selected range on screen, so reception or the school office types a row and the board follows. For items that need a picture, an Editor login lets them add a slide without access to the layout or the screens.
Can I require approval before something appears on the board?
Yes. SignStudio user management includes an approval workflow: an Editor submits content, a designated approver (Content Manager or Administrator) reviews and publishes, or rejects with a comment. It can apply to all content or specific types, and approvers get an email when something is pending.
What layout works for a digital information board?
Three zones: a main area for announcements rotating 10 to 15 seconds each, a side column for today's events, weather and the menu, and a ticker along the bottom for short notices. Keep rarely changing items in a fixed place so people learn where to look, and size text for the viewing distance, for example 36pt body text at 10 feet on a 1080p screen.
What happens to the notice board when the internet goes down?
The DigitalSignage.com SignPlayer keeps playing the announcements, images and schedule it has cached locally, so the board does not go blank. Live feeds such as weather, RSS and the calendar pause until the connection returns, and the player then syncs anything published meanwhile.
How much does a digital notice board cost?
Software is free for the first 3 screens on DigitalSignage.com, then $3 per screen per month for every screen once the account has 4 or more, so ten boards are $360 a year. Hardware is a TV you own plus a $40 to $100 Android TV stick or an $81 to $137 Raspberry Pi build; a new consumer 55-inch TV is $300 to $450. Electricity is about $75 a year per screen at 12 hours a day.
Related guides
- SignStudio user management
- Screen layouts, zones and templates in SignStudio
- SignStudio scene editor
- Scheduling and playlists
- Workplace safety digital signage
- Lobby digital signage
Try it on your own screens, free
DigitalSignage.com, which publishes this guide, runs a permanent free plan: the first 3 screens are free forever (no credit card, no ads, no time limit), then from $3 per screen per month with volume pricing via a public calculator. The free SignPlayer runs on Windows, Mac, Android and Android TV, Chrome OS, Raspberry Pi, iPad or any modern web browser. Start free · 2026 pricing