Screen Player
Install the PulseMesh Screen Player on a signage media box and pair it to your display.
The Screen Player is in early access. It runs today as an Android app on arm64 media boxes; the APK isn't a public download yet and will appear on the downloads page as the rollout widens. A Linux build is in development; Windows support is planned.
The Screen Player turns an off-the-shelf signage media box into a live, frame-locked show output: the hardware is signage, the job is a show. Playback is local — the media lives on the box — and sync is cloud, so your screens hold the same clock as everything else in the show.
Supported hardware
- Android 9 or newer, arm64 — the class of device sold as a signage media box or media player.
- Hardware video decode for your show's resolution and frame rate.
- A way to install apps from outside the Play Store: either the box allows "install unknown apps", or it is reachable over the network with
adb. - A wired network drop where you can get one — staging show media is the heavy part.
The box we test against is the TB10 Plus. Other boxes that meet the list above are good candidates; if you're unsure about a specific model, ask us at [email protected] before buying a fleet of them.
Setup
Get the APK
The Screen Player is in early access and the APK isn't publicly downloadable yet. Request a slot on the screens & video page to get started — the rest of this guide covers what happens once the app is in your hands.
Install it on the box
The Screen Player is not a Play Store app — it installs directly on the box, one of two ways.
Sideload
Open the APK on the box itself (from a USB stick or the box's file manager). Android will ask you to allow "install unknown apps" for whichever app opened it — a one-time permission per box.
adb
From a computer on the same network, connect to the box and install:
adb connect <box-ip>:5555
adb install <path-to-the-apk>
First boot — the claim code
Launch the Screen Player. It shows a six-character claim code on screen — the code is how PulseMesh tells this box apart from the identical one next to it.
Claim it
Enter the code on your Devices page, from any browser. The lookup shows the box's hardware facts before you bind it to a display, so you can confirm you're claiming the right one.
Configure the row
Once claimed, the player appears as a row under Screens on the Devices page. Configure opens the two things a screen reads from you: its video role and its output latency.
Watch it go ready
The Devices page reports the player's readiness — staged · clock locked · reachable. GO on Devices means GO in Show Control.
Staging and recovery
Show media is downloaded to the box and checksummed before the show — staging starts when a show is loaded or its media changes, and a screen that hasn't finished isn't ready. During the show, playback is local and sync is cloud: the player holds sync through network loss and rejoins on its own. No one climbs a truss to reboot a screen.
Show day
Power your boxes up well before the show — about ten minutes. A freshly booted player needs time to settle its clock before it can hold a frame-accurate picture, and the Devices page won't call it ready until it has.
Troubleshooting
If things aren't working after following the steps above, please review the solutions below. If you continue to run into issues, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].
No claim code on screen
Make sure the Screen Player app is installed and running — the code is shown by the app, not by the box. If the app was installed over adb, launch it once from the box's launcher.
A screen stays unstaged
Staging is the media download, and it starts when a show is loaded or its media changes. If a screen never finishes, check its network connection and give a large show time — then look at the player's row on the Devices page for its status.
A revoked player stopped syncing
Revoking a device cuts its access at its next poll — that's the point of revoke. To bring the box back, use Restore on its row on the Devices page.