Raspberry Pi Setup Guide

Turn any Raspberry Pi into a dedicated digital signage player

What You Need

Raspberry Pi 3, 4, or 5

2GB RAM minimum, 4GB recommended

MicroSD Card

8GB or larger

HDMI Cable + Display

Any TV or monitor with HDMI

Internet Connection

WiFi or Ethernet

Setup Steps

1

Flash Raspberry Pi OS

Download Raspberry Pi Imager and flash Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit) to your SD card.

Tip: In the Imager settings (gear icon), enable SSH and configure your WiFi credentials before flashing. This lets you set up headless (without keyboard/mouse).
2

Boot and Connect

Insert the SD card, connect HDMI and power. Wait for it to boot, then SSH in:

ssh pi@raspberrypi.local

Default password: raspberry (change it after setup)

3

Run the Installer

One command installs everything:

curl -sSL https://ads.anettv.org/downloads/pi-install.sh | sudo bash

The installer will:

  • ✓ Install Chromium browser
  • ✓ Set up auto-login and kiosk mode
  • ✓ Configure heartbeat monitoring
  • ✓ Generate a unique device UUID
  • ✓ Create a systemd service for auto-start
4

Pair Your Device

After reboot, the Pi will show a 6-digit pairing code on screen. Go to your AdCast panel:

  1. Navigate to Devices → Pair Device
  2. Enter the 6-digit code shown on the Pi screen
  3. Name your device (e.g., "Lobby TV")
5

Assign Content and Play!

Create a playlist, assign it to your Pi device via a schedule, and content starts playing immediately. The Pi supports:

✓ Images (JPG, PNG, WebP)
✓ Videos (MP4, WebM)
✓ YouTube & YouTube Live
✓ Web pages & dashboards
✓ Widgets (clock, weather, RSS)
✓ Social live streams
✓ Google Slides / Power BI
✓ Canva designs

Configuration Reference

Edit /opt/adcast/config.json to customize:

{
  "server_url": "https://ads.anettv.org",
  "device_uuid": "ADCAST-PI-XXXXXXXX",
  "heartbeat_interval": 60,
  "screen_rotation": 0
}

screen_rotation: 0 (landscape), left (portrait 90°), right (portrait 270°), inverted (180°)

heartbeat_interval: How often (seconds) the device reports status to the server

Useful Commands

# Check player status
sudo systemctl status adcast-player
# View live logs
tail -f /opt/adcast/logs/player.log
# Restart player
sudo systemctl restart adcast-player
# Change screen rotation to portrait
sudo jq '.screen_rotation = "left"' /opt/adcast/config.json > /tmp/c.json && sudo mv /tmp/c.json /opt/adcast/config.json && sudo systemctl restart adcast-player

Troubleshooting

Screen shows black after boot

SSH in and check: sudo systemctl status adcast-player. If it says "inactive", run sudo systemctl start adcast-player.

Device shows offline in panel

Check internet: ping -c 3 google.com. Check logs: tail -20 /opt/adcast/logs/player.log.

Content not updating

The player re-fetches playlist every 5 minutes. To force refresh: sudo systemctl restart adcast-player.

Uninstall

sudo systemctl stop adcast-player && sudo systemctl disable adcast-player && sudo rm -rf /opt/adcast /etc/systemd/system/adcast-player.service && sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Get Started Free