Digital Signage for Live Events

Your schedule changes.
Your signs don't.

Until now. Breakout Connect turns every screen in the venue into a live, branded extension of your event. Drag-and-drop design. Real-time sync. Emergency override. No USB drives, no manual updates, no walking the floor.

Three event displays showing live room card, lobby schedule, and wayfinding grid — all synced from one dashboard
Real-time propagation · See it in motion

All screens, one update away.

Swap a room's NOW card, fix a typo in the lobby directory, or trigger a venue-wide alert — the same pipeline pushes any signage change to every Pi in seconds. We're using a venue alert below since it's the most dramatic example.

apex.breakoutconnect.live / signage
Emergency Broadcast
Fire alarm — evacuate via East doors
● ROOM 09:42
Grand Ballroom
● NOW
Climate & Capital Keynote
09:08 — 09:36
Dr. Sarah Park
NEXT
Climate Tech Panel
09:45 — 10:03
3 speakers
EVACUATE
VIA EAST DOORS
Breakout Connect
Today — Apex Summit
Grand Ballroom
Live now
Room B
Next at 10:15
Room C
Live now
Room D
Closed
EVACUATE
VIA EAST DOORS
Breakout Connect
Today's Schedule
Climate & Capital
Grand Ballroom
09:08
Tech Investing
Room B
10:15
Panel Q&A
Grand Ballroom
10:30
Networking Lunch
Foyer
12:00
EVACUATE
VIA EAST DOORS
Breakout Connect
Room display
NOW + NEXT cards for one room
Wayfinding
2–4 rooms tiled with live status
Lobby directory
Today's full schedule, sorted
The Problem

Sound familiar?

A sign goes offline at 3 AM.
Nobody notices until the client does.
A breakout moves rooms.
12 signs still show the old one.
Updating 24 screens
one laptop at a time.
No way to push an emergency
message to every screen instantly.
How it's different

Not a signage CMS
bolted onto your event.

Traditional digital signage was built for retail and corporate offices — long content schedules, static playlists, no awareness of what's happening in the room. Event signage needs to know the show is running. Ours does.

Feature
Breakout Connect Signage
Traditional signage CMS
Schedule source
Live from your event run-of-show — auto-updates the moment the schedule changes
Manual content scheduling, separate from your event management system
Emergency override
One click, every screen, <1 second propagation. 12 preset icons. Auto-clears or expires.
Push a new playlist to every device individually, or pre-build emergency campaigns and switch playlists
Hardware cost per screen
Under $100 per display — Raspberry Pi based, bring your own or ask us to preflash
$200–$500 per dedicated player or smart-display license
First-boot setup
Captive portal — Pi creates a WiFi network, scan the QR on the TV, configure from your phone
Keyboard + mouse + monitor, or pre-provisioned by IT before delivery
Mode switching
Pick from 6 content types in the dashboard — live update in seconds
Design content in their builder, schedule the playlist, wait for sync
Audit log
Same activity log as the rest of your show — mic changes, file pushes, emergencies, all in one timeline
Signage CMS has its own log — manually correlate against your event log for post-incident review
Subscription
Optional add-on to your Breakout Connect plan — one bill for everything signage-related
Separate per-screen monthly fee on top of your event-management software
Same data, no double-entry
Rename a room in Breakout Connect, the signage updates. Reschedule a session, the NEXT card moves. Never sync a spreadsheet to a signage CMS again.
Built by AV people
We've been the crew sweating about whether the lobby TV updated. The whole product is shaped by that pain — setup, refresh, override, fallback, all of it.
Liability covered
Every emergency trigger and clear is timestamped, attributed, and IP-logged. Pull a defensible record any time something happens in your venue.
Visual Design Studio

Drag. Drop. Done.
No templates. No limits.

Every display gets its own canvas. Drag widgets onto it — session schedules, presenter photos, countdown timers, sponsor loops, QR codes, wayfinding arrows, video clips. Layer them, resize them, set your own canvas resolution. Save as a reusable design profile and apply it across displays in one click.

  • 15 widget types across Event, Media, and Info categories
  • Custom canvas resolution — any aspect ratio, any screen size
  • Portrait, landscape, and flipped orientations
  • Snap grid, keyboard shortcuts, z-ordering, opacity control
  • Upload custom backgrounds and loop video content
  • Save and reuse design profiles across your entire fleet
Signage Designer 1920 × 1080
Event
📋 Now / Next
📅 Day Schedule
⏱ Countdown
🟢 Room Status
👤 Presenter
Media
Aa Text
➡️ Arrow
🎬 Video
🏢 Sponsors
📱 QR Code
🖼 Image
◼ Shape
NOW Grand Ballroom A
AI Panel Discussion
Dr. Sarah Chen · TechCorp
NEXT
Cloud Security Workshop
1:00 PM — Jane Smith
STARTS IN
14:32
Cloud Security · 1:00 PM
Sponsors · 6s
Properties
Now / Up Next
Position
X: 20
Y: 20
Size
W: 760
H: 520
Options
Show photo
Show progress bar
Show organization
Show presenter bio
Show "Up Next"
Layer
z: 1
Opacity
100%
What Attendees See

This is what's on the screens.

Not a template. Not a placeholder. Live data from your event, updating in real time. Every widget pulls directly from your schedule — when something changes, the screens already know.

NOW Grand Ballroom A
AI Panel Discussion
Dr. Sarah Chen · TechCorp
NEXT
Cloud Security Workshop
1:00 PM — Jane Smith · CyberSafe
Room Card Outside each breakout room
TODAY'S SCHEDULE
10:30
AI Panel Discussion
● LIVE
Ballrm A
1:00 Cloud Security Workshop Brkout B
2:30 Product Demo Showcase Brkout C
4:00 Closing Keynote Ballrm A
Lobby Directory Registration desk & lobby
ROOM STATUS
Ballroom A
● IN SESSION
Breakout B
Next: 1:00 PM
Breakout C
Next: 2:30 PM
Breakout D
● IN SESSION
Wayfinding Grid Near elevators & hallways
STARTS IN
14:32
Cloud Security Workshop
1:00 PM · Breakout B · Jane Smith
Countdown Timer Outside session rooms between talks
Setup

Plug it in. Scan the QR code. Pick what it shows.

Most digital signage takes an IT ticket, a keyboard and mouse per screen, and someone walking between rooms with a USB drive. Ours takes an HDMI cable and your phone.

The display unit creates its own WiFi network on first boot. Scan the QR code on the TV with your phone, connect it to the venue WiFi, and assign it to a room from the dashboard. That's it. Content starts flowing. No laptop, no keyboard, no IT department.

Need 24 screens across the venue? That's 24 HDMI cables and about an hour. Not 24 IT tickets and a day of configuration.

1
Plug HDMI into any screen
TV, monitor, projector — any screen with an HDMI input. 10-inch tablet to 85-inch display. Portrait, landscape, or flipped.
10 seconds
2
Scan the QR code on screen
The unit creates its own WiFi hotspot on first boot and shows a QR code on the display. Scan it with your phone. No keyboard, no mouse, no laptop needed.
15 seconds
3
Connect to venue WiFi
Pick the venue network from your phone. The unit handles captive portals automatically — no special network configuration required.
20 seconds
4
Assign content from the dashboard
The unit registers itself automatically. Open the dashboard, find the new device, assign it to a room and pick a design profile. Content starts displaying immediately.
30 seconds
It's live
The screen is now showing live event content. Session changes, room moves, emergency broadcasts — everything flows automatically. Walk to the next screen.
Total: under 2 minutes

You don't need an IT department. You don't need a laptop at every screen. You need an HDMI cable and your phone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about event signage.

How does it know what to show?

It reads directly from your event schedule. When you create sessions, assign rooms, and add presenters, that's what appears on the screens. Move a session to a different room and every affected display updates within a second — the room card, the lobby directory, the wayfinding grid. There's no separate system to keep in sync. The schedule is the signage.

How is this different from a regular signage CMS?

Traditional digital signage was built for retail — static playlists on a timer with no awareness of what's happening in the room. Event signage needs to know the show is running. This reads from the same schedule you're already managing. Rename a room, the sign updates. Reschedule a session, the NEXT card moves. You never enter the same information twice.

How hard is it to set up?

Plug the unit into a TV via HDMI. It shows a QR code on screen. Scan it with your phone, connect it to the venue WiFi, and assign content from the dashboard. Under two minutes per screen. No keyboard, no mouse, no laptop at the display, no IT ticket.

Can I push an emergency message to every screen?

One click, every screen, under one second. Twelve preset emergency types — fire, weather, medical, evacuation, shelter in place, security — each with an icon and customizable text. It stays on all screens until you clear it. Every trigger is timestamped and logged for liability.

What if a screen goes offline?

The fleet dashboard tracks every display with heartbeat monitoring. If one drops offline, it's flagged before anyone in the venue notices. It also catches frozen displays — screens that look fine but stopped updating. That's the one that usually gets you: a sign showing yesterday's schedule at 9 AM and nobody catches it until the client walks by.

What kinds of content can the screens show?

Fifteen widget types in the drag-and-drop designer. Event widgets pull live data: now/next room cards, day schedules, wayfinding grids, countdown timers, presenter info with photos. Media widgets add directional arrows, sponsor logo loops, video, QR codes, text, images, and shapes. Layer them on a canvas, set your resolution, save it as a reusable profile.

How much does it cost per screen?

Display units are around $300 each to purchase. They plug into any TV via HDMI. For events that don't want to own hardware, there's a rental program — pre-configured units shipped to the venue, ready to plug in. Return them after the event.

What happens if the venue WiFi drops?

Displays keep showing the last-synced content. What was on screen stays on screen. When the connection comes back, they re-sync automatically. For venues where that's not enough, the on-site Venue Node caches signage content locally so displays pull from the LAN instead of the cloud. The internet can go down and the signs don't change.

Can I use it for wayfinding?

Yes. The room status grid shows every room color-coded — green for in session, gray for idle. Directional arrows point attendees to specific rooms with session names and times. Both update automatically as the day progresses. Put them near elevators, hallway intersections, and the lobby entrance.

Does it work in portrait and landscape?

Landscape, portrait, and portrait-flipped — configurable per display from the dashboard. The designer lets you set custom canvas resolutions for any screen size. Change orientation remotely without touching the display.

See why AV teams are switching to Breakout Connect

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