A digital menu board is three purchases, not one: the screen, the player that feeds it, and the software that decides what it shows. Most disappointments come from choosing the screen first and discovering the other two later. This checklist follows the order that avoids that.

1. Start with the menu, not the screen

Write down what the boards have to do before you look at hardware:

  • How many items must be readable at once, and from how far away?
  • Does the menu change during the day (breakfast, lunch, evening)?
  • How often do prices change, and who changes them?
  • Do all branches show the same menu?

The answers decide how many screens you need, how large they are, and how much the software matters. A menu that never changes needs very little. A menu with dayparts, promotions and several branches needs software that handles all three.

2. The screen

  • Built for long hours. A screen in a restaurant runs all day, every day. Ask the supplier whether the model is rated for that use, and read the warranty: consumer television warranties often exclude commercial use or shorten the cover for it.
  • Bright enough for the room. A board facing a window or a street needs more brightness than one on a back wall. Look at the screen in a bright room before you buy, not in a dim showroom.
  • Orientation. Choose between landscape and portrait before you design the menu, and check that the screen is approved for portrait mounting if that is what you want.
  • Size and distance. Test with a real menu. If a customer at the back of the queue cannot read the prices, the board is too small or the menu is too full.
  • Mounting, power and network. Each screen needs a socket and a network connection where it hangs. Adding them after the decoration is finished is expensive.

3. The player

The player is the small computer that puts the content on the screen. Some screens have one built in, others need a separate box.

  • Which system does the signage software need? Check before you buy the screen. FidaScreen, for example, runs on Android-based displays and media players.
  • How is a new screen added? Pairing with a code should take minutes, without a technician.
  • Can you see from your office what a screen is showing? One day somebody will tell you that a screen is black while you are in another city.

4. The software

This is where menu boards succeed or fail in daily use.

  • Central control. One change, made once, reaches every screen you choose. Nobody should walk around with a USB stick.
  • Scheduling. The breakfast menu appears and disappears by itself, in each branch's own time zone.
  • Offline playback. Ask exactly what the screen shows when the internet drops. The right answer is that it keeps playing from its own storage.
  • Screen status. You can see which screens are online, and you are told when one is not.
  • Permissions. Decide who may change content and who may only look, and check that the software can enforce it.

5. Where the prices come from

The most common menu board problem is not technical. It is a price on the board that differs from the price at the till or in the app, because someone updated one and forgot the other.

Ask where the board's menu data comes from. If prices are typed into the signage software by hand, you have two menus to keep in step. If the boards read the menu from your ordering system, you have one. FidaScreen reads menus and prices from FidaFood, our restaurant ordering platform, so a price changed there changes on the boards too.

6. What the boards should show

  • Fewer items, larger. A board is read in seconds.
  • Prices next to names, in a size that can be read from the queue.
  • One promotion at a time.
  • Your own ordering app. If you are moving customers from delivery aggregators to direct orders, the screens in your branches are advertising space you already own.

7. Before you sign

Ask for a trial on one screen in one branch, with your real menu, for at least a week. Then check:

  • Who installs the screens, and who do you call when one fails?
  • What is charged once, and what is charged every month for each screen?
  • Can you leave with your content if you change supplier?
  • Can the software run on your own servers if your company requires it?

FidaScreen is our digital signage platform: a web portal for media, playlists and schedules, and an Android player that keeps playing offline and reports its status. We can host it for you or install it on your own servers.