Managing digital signage remotely has always come with one nagging question: is the screen actually showing what I think it is showing? Scheduled content might have failed to load. A playlist might have stalled on a single item. The screen might have lost its network connection and be displaying cached content from last week. Until now, the only way to know for certain was to physically walk up to the screen and look at it.
That changes today. Remote screenshots are now available on all Hangar.Media plans, giving you a visual snapshot of exactly what each screen is displaying at any given moment.
How It Works
The feature operates through the existing communication channel between your dashboard and each player device. When you request a screenshot, the following happens:
- The dashboard sends a capture request to the player device
- The player renders a screenshot of its current display output
- The image is compressed, encrypted, and transmitted back to the dashboard
- The screenshot appears in the screen's detail view, alongside the timestamp of capture
The entire process typically completes in under five seconds on a stable connection. Screenshots are captured at the screen's native resolution, then scaled for the dashboard preview. You can click to view the full-resolution image or download it.
Screenshots are captured from the player's actual video output — you see exactly what the physical screen is showing, including any rendering issues, layout problems, or error states that might not be visible in the content preview.
Use Cases
Remote screenshots serve several practical purposes beyond simple curiosity:
Troubleshooting: When a client or colleague reports that a screen "looks wrong," a remote screenshot gives you immediate visual context without requiring someone to take a photo on their phone and send it over. This is especially valuable for managing screens in multiple locations, different cities, or different countries.
Content auditing: Verify that scheduled content changes have taken effect. After publishing a new playlist or updating a promotion, take a screenshot to confirm the change is live on the screen. This is particularly important for time-sensitive promotions or regulatory content where compliance matters.
Proof of play: For businesses that sell advertising space on their screens, remote screenshots provide timestamped evidence that specific content was displayed. Screenshots can be exported as proof-of-play reports for advertisers and clients.
Quality assurance: Before a new layout or design goes live across an entire network, deploy it to a single test screen and use remote screenshots to verify the rendering. Check text readability, image scaling, zone alignment, and colour accuracy without being in the same room as the screen.
Supported Hardware
Remote screenshots are supported on all player types that run the Hangar.Media player application:
- Raspberry Pi: Full support. Screenshots are captured from the GPU framebuffer
- Amazon Fire TV: Full support via the Android media projection API
- Samsung Tizen: Full support on 2020 and newer commercial displays
- LG webOS: Full support on webOS 4.0 and newer commercial displays
- Web browser players: Full support via the HTML5 Canvas API
Screenshot quality matches the player's rendering resolution. A Raspberry Pi connected to a 1080p display will produce a 1920x1080 screenshot. A 4K commercial display will produce a 3840x2160 screenshot.
How to Use It
Taking a remote screenshot requires just two clicks:
- Navigate to the screen's detail page in your dashboard
- Click the Capture Screenshot button
The screenshot will appear in the screen's activity timeline alongside status changes, content updates, and connectivity events. Previous screenshots are retained for 30 days, giving you a visual history of what the screen has displayed over time.
You can also set up automatic screenshots on a schedule — for example, capturing a screenshot every hour — to build a continuous visual log without manual intervention.
Remote screenshots are available now on all plans. There is no additional cost, no setup required, and no software update needed on existing players — the capability was deployed as a server-side update. Log in and try it on any connected screen.
Privacy and Security
Screenshots are encrypted in transit and at rest. They are only accessible to users with the appropriate permissions on your account. Screenshots are not processed, analysed, or stored on any third-party infrastructure. The image data travels directly between your player device and your dashboard via our encrypted API, and is stored in your account's private media storage.