Building Beamo - fully managed digital signage for local businesses
Designed and built a fully managed digital signage service for small businesses in Western Sydney. The core design decision was removing the client from every technical interaction - they never log in to anything. They text what they want changed, and the screen updates within the hour.
About this project
Beamo is a fully managed digital signage service for local businesses in Western Sydney. The premise is straightforward: we install a Raspberry Pi 5 behind the client's existing TV, design custom screen content matched to their brand, and handle all ongoing updates. Clients never log in to anything. They text or WhatsApp with what they want changed, and it's done within the hour.
The target customers are cafes, gyms, salons, and medical practices - businesses with foot traffic and a TV they're not fully using.
The full stack is operational: Pi devices running Anthias display software, a FastAPI backend on Hetzner VPS with PostgreSQL, Tailscale for encrypted remote device management, and a content generation workflow that turns client input into branded HTML templates. Infrastructure costs around $20/month regardless of screen count up to approximately 100 screens.
What we were up against
Most digital signage products are built for enterprise. They assume an IT team, a marketing budget, and users who are comfortable managing software. The "simplified" alternatives still require a dashboard login, a content editor, and someone to manage their own schedules.
For the owners Beamo targets - a café owner updating their specials, a gym manager publishing a new class timetable - even a simple CMS is too much. They're running a business, not a content operation.
The design question wasn't how to build a better dashboard. It was whether clients needed to interact with a dashboard at all.
How I worked
The design started with the service model, not the interface. I mapped the end-to-end customer journey from first contact through to the first content update, identifying every step where a client might need to do something technical. The goal was to eliminate all of them.
I spoke with local business owners informally - across cafes and gyms - to understand their actual pain points. The consistent finding wasn't that existing tools were hard to use. It was that owners didn't want to use any tool at all. They wanted someone else to handle it entirely.
The biggest design decision was not building a client portal. A portal was specced and partially built, but after mapping how these owners actually communicate - with suppliers, with staff, day to day - it was clear that even a clean form creates friction: it requires intent, a device, and a login. A WhatsApp message doesn't. The interaction model became text-first by design, not constraint.
The pricing model went through several iterations. An earlier version included a hardware and installation fee. This was cut. An upfront fee creates a commitment barrier that works against the value proposition - if the service exists to remove effort, the first interaction shouldn't be an invoice. The 3-month minimum trial achieves the same commitment signal without money being the first hurdle. After the trial, it's month-to-month with 30 days notice to cancel.
The lead CTA on the marketing site follows the same logic. Instead of a quote request or a sales call, the primary CTA is a free screen mockup. The client sends a photo of their space and their current menu or schedule. We design a real layout and send it back at no obligation. This moves the first meaningful interaction from a sales conversation to a demonstration of value.
The technical architecture is what makes the interaction model operationally deliverable. The Pi polls the content server and auto-refreshes when new HTML is deployed - content updates require no interaction with the device, just a file push to the server. Tailscale provides encrypted remote access to every Pi from anywhere, enabling diagnostics and fixes without a site visit. These weren't incidental technical choices. They're what makes "just text us" a promise the infrastructure can keep.
The marketing site was designed to convert a skeptical local business owner who has never considered digital signage. That meant transparent pricing upfront ($89/month, no setup fee), a comparison table that honestly acknowledges DIY options exist, and a three-step process that makes the whole service feel predictable.
Results & impact
The full stack is live. Hardware assembled, tested, and deployable. VPS running FastAPI and PostgreSQL on Hetzner. Content generation workflow operational. Marketing site with lead capture live at beamo.au.
Pricing landed at $89/month for the first screen, with volume discounts for additional screens. No setup fee. The unit economics are straightforward: infrastructure costs approximately $20/month regardless of client count, hardware per install costs around $175 and is recouped in approximately two months of subscription.
The deeper outcome is a validated service model. Every point of friction in the original "digital signage for local businesses" journey has been designed out: no hardware to source, no software to learn, no designer to brief, no dashboard to manage. The ongoing client relationship is a text thread. The onboarding is a 30-minute installation appointment.