It gives you one place to manage playlists, slides, templates, screen assignments, announcements, data-driven content, and live player control without handing that workflow to a third-party service.

Why It Stands Out

Keep signage under your own control.
Build polished screen experiences with reusable templates and playlists.
Push announcements, schedules, RSS feeds, API content, and other dynamic content to screens.
See what is live, what is queued, and what needs attention from a single admin dashboard.
Use the same system for everyday signage, timed messages, and more structured information displays.

What It Handles

Screens and playlist assignments.
Slides, templates, and canvas sizes.
Announcements and screen-specific targeting.
RSS feeds, API sources, and schedule-based content.
Roles and permissions for admin access.
Background tasks and scheduled refresh jobs.
Player onboarding and live playback control.

Simple Deployment

Pulse Signage ships with a Docker Compose stack for the published image:

Published-image stack: docker compose -f docker-compose.yml up -d

Use this stack when you want to run the tagged image instead of building from source.

Environment File

The compose files read from a root .env file. Start by copying .env.example to .env, then adjust the values for your setup.

The variables are split by who uses them:

Shared across the stack:

PULSE_SIGNAGE_IMAGE
PULSE_SIGNAGE_SHARED_SECRET

Web container:

SESSION_MAX_AGE_DAYS
DEFAULT_ADMIN_USERNAME
DEFAULT_ADMIN_NAME
DEFAULT_ADMIN_PASSWORD
PASSWORD_HASH_ITERATIONS

Player container:

PLAYER_PUBLIC_BASE_URL
PLAYER_INTERNAL_BASE_URL

MySQL container:

DB_HOST
DB_PORT
DB_NAME
DB_USER
DB_PASSWORD
MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD

DB_HOST, DB_PORT, DB_NAME, DB_USER, and DB_PASSWORD are shared in practice because both app containers talk to the same database service.

PLAYER_INTERNAL_BASE_URL is used by the web side for server-to-player calls, while PLAYER_PUBLIC_BASE_URL is used for browser-facing player links.

First-Time Use

The first startup seeds a default admin account if the database is empty.

Username: admin
Password: admin

In Practice

Pulse Signage is designed to feel focused and reliable rather than heavy or noisy. It works well when you want a clean internal signage system for offices, venues, dashboards, or any environment where screens need to stay up to date without a lot of manual effort.

The player and admin pieces stay linked, so changes made in the dashboard can flow out to screens quickly and consistently.