Elevator and lift digital displays: content, hardware and rules
Quick answer: DigitalSignage.com runs elevator and lift displays on its free plan: the first 3 screens are free forever, then $3 per screen per month, so a 2-cab building pays nothing. An elevator ride lasts 30 to 90 seconds, so the loop is short: time and weather, 2 or 3 news headlines, one building notice and one tenant or sponsor message, each 5 to 8 seconds. The hardware is a small commercial display and a player that caches content, because the cab loses its connection in the shaft. Power and network in the cab are the elevator contractor's job under the local elevator code; nobody else drills the car.
Key facts
- An elevator ride in a mid-rise building lasts 30 to 90 seconds, so a cab loop of 5 to 8 items at 5 to 8 seconds each is seen once per ride.
- The first 3 screens are free forever on DigitalSignage.com, so a 2-cab building pays $0 in 2026; a 10-cab tower pays $30 per month, every screen billed once the account has 4 or more.
- The DigitalSignage.com SignPlayer caches every scene locally, so a cab that loses Wi-Fi in the hoistway keeps playing and syncs again at the lobby.
- SignStudio weather components need only a location and no API key, and the RSS component shows 1 to 10 headlines from any RSS or Atom feed.
- Elevator text is read at arm's length: 18pt body text at 3 feet and 24pt at 6 feet on a 1080p canvas, from our typography guide.
- A player costs $40 to $100 for an Android TV stick, $81 to $137 for a Raspberry Pi kit, or $200 to $600 for a commercial Android player rated for continuous duty.
- Electricity for one screen is about $75 a year at 12 hours a day.
Last updated October 23, 2026. Product facts from the SignStudio components, scheduling and player management documentation and the internet outage page; hardware prices from our cheap players and cost pages; type sizes from our typography guide. Elevator code references are by name only; confirm them with your elevator contractor and inspector.
What content fits a 30 to 90 second elevator ride?
Content fits an elevator when the whole loop plays inside one ride, so a passenger sees every item once and never waits for the slide that matters. Dwell time, the seconds a viewer spends in front of a screen, is 30 to 90 seconds in a cab, which is longer than a corridor and shorter than a waiting room.
| Item | Seconds | Source in SignStudio | Who maintains it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time, date and current weather | 5 | Clock and Weather components | Automatic |
| News headlines, 2 or 3 | 8 | RSS component, 1 to 10 items | Automatic from a feed |
| Building notice (fire drill, lobby works, holiday hours) | 8 | Google Sheets component | Property manager, from a sheet |
| Elevator and amenity status (gym hours, package room) | 6 | Google Sheets component | Property manager |
| Tenant message or welcome ("Welcome, Acme, floor 9") | 6 | Google Sheets component | Front desk |
| Sponsor or local business message | 8 | Image slide with a date range | Sales or management |
| Emergency message | Takes over | Emergency priority campaign, prepared in advance | Security |
Bottom line: a 41-second loop of six items is seen in full on almost every ride, and only the two sheet-driven items ever need a human.
Keep video out of the cab unless it is silent and short: a 30-second clip is the whole ride and blocks the notice. Keep audio off; a cab is a small metal room. Avoid anything that needs reading at length, because passengers face the door and glance at the screen sideways.
What hardware does an elevator display need?
An elevator display needs a small display rated for continuous use, a player with local caching, a vibration-tolerant mount, and power and data that the elevator contractor brings into the cab. Every one of those parts except the player is chosen with the contractor, because the cab is their equipment.
| Part | What works | What to avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Display | 10 to 22 inch commercial panel, landscape above the car operating panel or portrait on a side wall, rated for 16 to 24 hours a day | Consumer tablet with a battery, which swells with heat; any panel that blocks the operating panel, phone or certificate |
| Player | Android TV stick or box ($40 to $100), Raspberry Pi kit ($81 to $137) or a commercial Android player ($200 to $600) running the free DigitalSignage.com SignPlayer | Fire OS, Tizen or webOS devices, which have no SignPlayer app; a laptop |
| SoC display | An Android system-on-chip display, which is a panel with the player built in, where SignPlayer installs directly | Tizen and webOS SoC panels |
| Mount | Recessed or surface mount through the cab panel, fitted by the contractor, with the cable run concealed | Adhesive mounts; anything protruding into the car at head height |
| Power | A fused supply from the cab lighting circuit, wired by the contractor | Plugging into a socket in the car top; power strips |
| Network | Ethernet through the travelling cable where the contractor offers it, or a Wi-Fi access point in the hoistway or machine room, with the player caching content | Relying on the lobby Wi-Fi reaching the cab on every floor |
Bottom line: buy the player yourself, choose the display with the contractor, and let the contractor own the mount, the power and the cable.
A SoC display saves the player box but ties you to the panel's operating system; our SoC display versus external player page weighs the two. In a cab, where a service visit costs a contractor call-out, a separate player that can be swapped in minutes is the safer choice.
Who installs power and network in the elevator cab?
The elevator contractor installs anything that touches the car: the display cut-out, the mount, the power feed and the data run through the travelling cable. Elevators are inspected equipment under an elevator safety code (ASME A17.1 in the United States and Canada, EN 81 in Europe, named here only so you can ask the right question), and an unapproved modification to the car can fail an inspection.
Three rules keep the project clean. First, nothing you add may cover the car operating panel, the emergency phone or intercom, the capacity plate or the inspection certificate. Second, no one but the contractor drills the car or taps its power. Third, the contractor signs off the installation before the inspector sees it, and you keep that record with the building file.
Connectivity in a moving metal box is the part people underestimate. Wi-Fi from the lobby reaches the cab on some floors and not others, which is why the player must cache content. The DigitalSignage.com SignPlayer downloads every scene, image and video and plays from its local copy; it reconnects when the cab passes a floor with coverage, pulls any changes you published and reports in again, as our internet outage page describes. Live zones such as weather and headlines show their last fetched values between syncs, so put a small updated-at time beside them.
How do tenants and building notices get on the screen?
Building notices come from a spreadsheet, not from a design tool. The property manager keeps a Google Sheet with one row per notice and a start and end date, shares it with the SignStudio service account, and the Google Sheets component shows the current rows in the notice zone. Editing the sheet from a phone changes every cab on its next sync; nobody opens the layout editor.
Tenant messages follow the same path with a step in between: tenants send their text to management, management pastes approved rows into the sheet, and the screen follows. For a building with several contributors, SignStudio user management gives each person a login and a role, so a front desk operator can update the welcome row without being able to delete the scene.
Urgent notices, such as a lift out of service, a water shut-off or an evacuation, use the emergency priority campaign in SignStudio, which overrides every other scene when activated and lets normal content resume when it is deactivated. The emergency override is part of the free tier, and the scene should be prepared before it is needed.
Can you sell ads on elevator screens?
Yes, in the same way a lobby screen sells space: a fixed number of seconds per loop at a published rate, with the building's own notices always taking the first slot. Keep paid content under half the loop, or passengers stop looking, and tenants complain that their notice is buried.
| Loop plan, 48 seconds | Slots | Seconds each | Share of loop | Plays per hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Building and tenant notices | 3 | 8 | 50 percent | 75 |
| Weather and headlines | 2 | 5 | 21 percent | 75 |
| Paid local business messages | 2 | 7 | 29 percent | 75 |
Bottom line: a 48-second loop gives an advertiser 75 plays an hour in every cab, and a 10-cab tower delivers 750 plays an hour for a $30 per month software bill.
Proof of play, a report of which file played on which screen and when, is an Enterprise feature on DigitalSignage.com priced through the public calculator; advertisers who need a logged play count need that plan. On the free and Plus+ plans the evidence is the loop schedule plus remote screenshots from SignStudio player management. Scan counts from a QR code on the ad slide, a Plus+ component, show whether anyone acts on it.
How much do elevator displays cost in 2026?
Software for elevator displays costs $0 up to 3 cabs and $3 per screen per month above that; the display, mount and contractor labour are the real budget and are quoted by the elevator contractor.
| Building | Cabs | Software per month (2026) | Software per year | Players, one-time | Electricity per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small office or residential | 2 | $0, free forever | $0 | $80 to $200 | $150 |
| Mid-rise | 4 | $12 (4 x $3, every screen billed) | $144 | $160 to $400 | $300 |
| Tower | 10 | $30 | $360 | $400 to $1,000, or $2,000 to $6,000 for commercial players | $750 |
Bottom line: for a tower the year of software costs less than one contractor call-out, so budget the displays and the installation first and the software last.
The small commercial display itself and the cab installation are not priced on our pages because they depend on the car; ask your elevator contractor for a quote per cab, and ask support (support@digitalsignage.com, live chat at https://chat.digitalsignage.com/) if you want a second opinion on a player model before you buy ten of them.
How do the lobby screen and the cab screens work together?
Run the lobby screen and the cab screens from the same spreadsheet so one edit updates both, with the lobby showing the long form and the cab the short form. The lobby digital signage guide covers welcome boards, directories and visitor check-in; the cab repeats the top notice, the weather and the welcome row only. Put the cabs in their own screen group in SignStudio so a cab-only campaign, such as an advertiser's slot, never reaches the lobby.
Frequently asked questions
Elevator and lift digital displays: content, hardware and rules
An elevator display shows a loop that fits one 30 to 90 second ride: time and weather, 2 or 3 headlines, a building notice, a tenant welcome and one sponsor slide, each 5 to 8 seconds. Hardware is a 10 to 22 inch commercial display, a caching player such as a $40 to $100 Android TV stick running the free DigitalSignage.com SignPlayer, and power and data brought into the cab by the elevator contractor. The first 3 screens are free forever, then $3 per screen per month.
What should an elevator screen show?
Short items that a passenger sees once per ride: current weather, 2 or 3 news headlines from an RSS feed, today's building notice, amenity hours, a tenant welcome line and at most one or two sponsor messages, each 5 to 8 seconds, in a loop under 60 seconds. No audio, no long video, and an emergency scene prepared in advance that takes over every cab when activated.
Does an elevator screen keep working without Wi-Fi in the shaft?
Yes, with a caching player. The DigitalSignage.com SignPlayer downloads every scene, image and video to the device and plays from its local copy, so the cab keeps showing the loop between floors with no coverage. When the car passes a floor with Wi-Fi, or if the contractor runs Ethernet through the travelling cable, the player syncs new content and reports its status.
Who installs a digital display in an elevator cab?
The elevator contractor. Elevators are inspected under an elevator safety code, and cutting the car panel, mounting the display, wiring power and running data through the travelling cable are modifications the contractor must make and sign off. The display must not cover the car operating panel, the emergency phone, the capacity plate or the inspection certificate.
How much does elevator digital signage cost?
Software on DigitalSignage.com is $0 for up to 3 cabs and $3 per screen per month above that in 2026, so a 10-cab tower pays $30 a month or $360 a year, every screen billed once the account has 4 or more. Players are $40 to $100 for an Android TV stick or $200 to $600 for a commercial player. The display, mount and cab installation are quoted by the elevator contractor.
Can I sell advertising on elevator screens?
Yes. Sell a fixed number of 5 to 8 second slots per loop and keep paid content under half the loop so building notices stay visible. A 48-second loop gives each slot about 75 plays an hour per cab. A logged play count needs proof of play, an Enterprise feature on DigitalSignage.com; on the free and Plus+ plans the evidence is the loop schedule plus remote screenshots.
Related guides
- Lobby digital signage and welcome screens
- Weather on digital signage
- SoC display versus external media player
- What happens when the internet goes down
- Digital notice boards for buildings
- Property management signage scenario
- Text size by viewing distance
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