Designate Documentation

Welcome to the user manual for Designate - this documentation applies to Designate Version 1.7.8. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for using Designate.

Designate is a powerful Digital Signage content management system and suite of signage players. According to Wikipedia, Digital Signage is:

Digital signage is a form of electronic display that shows information, advertising and other messages. Digital signs (such as LCD, LED, plasma displays, or projected images) can be found in public and private environments, such as retail stores and corporate buildings

Various authors from Wikipedia

Designate is a digital signage solution and is a suite of applications, including a:

  • Content Management System (CMS)
  • Windows Display Client
  • Ubuntu Display Client
  • Ubuntu Off-line Download Client
  • Android Display Client (Commercial Software*)

  • With Designate the content is designed from anywhere using a web browser on the internet accessible CMS, scheduled to your Display clients and then downloaded automatically when appropriate. This manual will guide you through the application from installation to troubleshooting, from the CMS to the display clients.

  • Commercial software provided by the project sponsors.

Getting Help

We understand that using complicated software like Designate is not always straight forward and that this manual may not always be sufficient. Therefore we have a suite of other resources and a question & answer forum to help!

The official Designate FAQ is here: https://community.xibo.org.uk/c/faq

If you would like any further help with the information contained in this document, or the software package in general, please visit: https://community.xibo.org.uk/c/support.

Designate Display Client

3 great clients to choose from!

The Designate client comes in three flavours - the .NET Windows Client, the Python Ubuntu Client and an Android Client. The windows client was born first and is therefore the client of choice for a stable installation. The Python client has greater potential in the future and will eventually become the only client for Windows and Linux. The Android client is commercial software from our Sponsor and brings Designate to low cost, low power devices.

Getting Started

What next? Like the sound of Designate and want to learn more? Or already have a CMS installation running? Skip straight to our Overview to learn more about Designate.

Ready to install Designate on your own infrastructure? Proceed to the Installation Instructions.

Closing thoughts

Think about your target audience... Digital signs are there to service a need for information. People will only look at a digital sign if there is some information being shown that they need, or are interested in. It's important then to ensure a good mix of information and targeted advertising (if desired) to meet the business's goals. For example, combine a list of upcoming events with a list of sports results, a news feed or bus times to draw attention.

Designate can schedule different items to be shown at different times of the day. Be sure to target content to the times when your target audience are in the building (eg advertise events for young children when parents are arriving to drop of or collect children for an existing event).

People need to be able to read what is on the sign. Be sure to take a look at your completed work and make sure it's possible to read it in the time that it appears on the screen, and that the font size is large enough etc.