How to Set Up Your First Screen

Setting up your first digital signage screen with Hangar.Media takes less than ten minutes. This guide walks you through the entire process, from choosing your hardware to publishing your first piece of content.

Step 1: Choose Your Hardware

Hangar.Media runs on affordable, widely available hardware. You do not need a specialist signage player to get started. The most common options are:

• Raspberry Pi 4 or 5: The most popular choice for dedicated signage. Affordable, silent, low power consumption, and purpose-built for always-on operation. Pair it with any HDMI display
• Amazon Fire TV Stick: The quickest way to turn any television into a signage display. Plug it in, install the Hangar.Media app, and you are running within minutes
• Samsung Tizen / LG webOS commercial displays: Commercial-grade screens with built-in signage capabilities. No external player needed — the Hangar.Media app runs directly on the display's operating system
• Any device with a modern web browser: Chrome, Edge, or Firefox on a mini PC, laptop, or all-in-one computer. Open the player URL in kiosk mode and the screen is live

Start with whatever hardware you already have. You can always upgrade later without losing your content, playlists, or schedules. The platform is hardware-agnostic by design.

Step 2: Create Your Account

Visit hangar.media and create your account. You will be asked for a business name and email address. Once verified, you land in your dashboard — the central control panel for all your screens and content.

Your account includes one screen by default. Additional screens are billed monthly per screen, with no feature gating — every screen gets access to every feature.

Step 3: Register Your Screen

Adding a screen to your account uses a simple pairing process:

1. In your dashboard, click Add Screen and give it a name (e.g., "Reception Lobby" or "Menu Board 1")
2. The system generates a six-digit pairing code
3. On your player device, open the Hangar.Media player app or navigate to the player URL in a browser
4. Enter the six-digit code on the player screen
5. The screen pairs instantly and appears as "Online" in your dashboard

That is it. No network configuration, no port forwarding, no static IP addresses. The player connects outbound to our servers over standard HTTPS, which means it works behind virtually any firewall or corporate network.

Step 4: Upload Your First Content

With your screen connected, it is time to add content. Navigate to the Media Library in your dashboard and upload an image or video. We support all common formats:

• Images: JPEG, PNG, WebP, SVG, BMP, GIF
• Videos: MP4, WebM, MOV (H.264 and H.265 codecs)
• Documents: PDF (rendered as slides)
• Web content: Any URL — dashboards, web pages, live data feeds

Files are automatically optimised for playback on your specific hardware. Large videos are transcoded to the appropriate resolution and codec, and images are compressed without visible quality loss.

Step 5: Publish to Your Screen

Once your content is uploaded, assign it to your screen. You can publish a single item or create a playlist of multiple items with configurable durations and transitions. Select the screen, choose the content or playlist, and click Publish.

The content appears on your screen within seconds. There is no manual sync, no USB stick, and no waiting for a download cycle. Changes are pushed in real time over the network.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Most first-time setup issues fall into a few categories:

• Screen shows "Offline" in dashboard: Check the player device's internet connection. The player needs a stable connection to receive content updates. Wi-Fi or Ethernet both work
• Pairing code not accepted: Codes expire after 15 minutes. Generate a new one from the dashboard if needed
• Video playback stuttering: This usually indicates the hardware cannot decode the video format natively. Let the platform transcode the file — re-upload and it will be optimised automatically
• Content not updating: The player caches content locally for offline resilience. Force a refresh from the dashboard by clicking the sync button on the screen's detail page
• Display orientation wrong: Set portrait or landscape mode in the screen settings within the dashboard. The player will rotate content to match

If you run into anything not covered here, our support team responds within the hour during business hours. We have set up thousands of screens and there is very little we have not seen.

What Next?

Once your first screen is live, explore playlists, scheduling, and multi-zone layouts. Most users have their second and third screens running within a day of setting up their first. The learning curve is intentionally gentle — if you can attach a photo to an email, you can run a digital signage network.