Ideas
Digital Menu Board Ideas and Examples
A menu is one use. The same screen runs your concert calendar, bingo night, drink specials, a fundraiser, sponsor spots, a hiring notice and a snow closure — scheduled a month ahead, changed from a phone in the middle of service.
A week on a bar screen
This is the part that sells the screen, not the prices. One panel, all of it scheduled before the week starts:
Monday
Trivia at 7. Sign-up QR. Happy hour window with a countdown that ends itself.
Wednesday
Bingo night, card prices, jackpot amount, next week’s date already queued.
Friday
Live music — band name, doors, cover. Saturday’s game on the big screen, kickoff time, food special.
All week
Tap list, tonight’s specials, a fundraiser for a regular’s family, and two sponsor spots between everything else.
What a Pittsburgh week actually looks like
Most of what a screen carries here is seasonal and local, and that is the part a national installer cannot write for you. Friday fish fries in Lent — parish halls, volunteer fire companies, the Knights of Columbus — all run the same six weeks and all need the same announcement on a screen instead of a photocopied flyer on the door.
Steelers, Penguins and Pirates game days are their own schedule: doors, specials, watch-party times, and a countdown that changes when the game goes to overtime. Then there is everything the weather decides — two-hour delays, early dismissals, snow closures, a burst pipe and a 4pm closing — which is exactly the content you cannot reprint in time.
Add the fundraisers that hold a neighbourhood together: spaghetti dinners, basket raffles, the volunteer fire company’s gun bash, a church festival, a school booster club. Those are the posts that make a screen worth having, and they are all scheduled weeks ahead, on the same board that carries your regular menu.
If you would rather see a layout before committing to anything, the free menu board builder lets you try one in your browser, and the free consultation is where we look at your room and your menu and tell you what we would do.
By business type
Bars & breweries
- Live music, DJ nights, trivia, bingo, karaoke
- Drink specials and happy hour with a countdown
- Game day schedules and watch parties
- Tap list with kicked kegs removed live
- Fundraisers, raffles, charity nights
- Sponsor and distributor spots
Restaurants & cafés
- Menu by daypart, breakfast through close
- Specials, combos, sold-out items
- Allergen and dietary notes
- Wait times and online ordering
- Seasonal and holiday hours
- Staff hiring notices
Retail & showrooms
- New arrivals and promotions
- Financing and loyalty sign-up
- Product demos on loop
- Store hours and holiday closures
- Community event promotion
Offices & lobbies
- Visitor welcome and directory
- Meeting room and floor signage
- Company news and milestones
- Safety and compliance reminders
- Employee recognition
Schools & gyms
- Calendars, bell schedules, closures
- Lunch menus and activity sign-ups
- Game scores and team schedules
- Fundraisers and booster club news
- Sponsor recognition in gyms and stadiums
Clinics & healthcare
- Department and suite directories
- Never patient names, room numbers or anything identifying
- Patient education and preparation
- Hours, after-hours numbers, pharmacies
- Insurance and billing basics
- Wellness and seasonal reminders
Things most people forget they can show
- Hiring — the sign on the door nobody reads
- A weather closure, changed at 6am from a phone
- Sponsor thank-yous, which can pay for the screen
- Fundraisers and raffles for customers and staff
- Safety reminders and incident-free day counts
- Community events you are hosting or supporting
- Staff recognition — birthdays, anniversaries, certifications
- Anything you currently print, tape up, or post on Facebook where nobody sees it
Scheduled, not babysat
The difference between a screen people notice and a screen showing last month’s special is scheduling. Most of what goes on a board is known in advance — the band is booked, bingo is Wednesday, the game kicks off at one.
So it gets queued: a week, a month, a season at a time. It appears at the right hour without anyone remembering, and disappears when it is over. The things that change live — a keg kicking, a special running out, tonight’s band cancelling — take about two minutes from a phone.
Questions about what to show
What does it cost?
The screen, the mount and the player decide most of it, and the range is wide enough that a number without seeing the space would be invented. We give you a range first, then a firm number after the consultation. We supply and install the panels — commercial displays rated 16 hours a day, seven days a week, with a three-year warranty. If you already have screens, we will work with them as they are, and we are not responsible for that equipment.
Every screen also carries a monthly platform subscription, per screen, quoted with the install. Content updates on top of that are a monthly service if you want us handling them, and it is honest to say there is always one if you want someone else keeping the board current — we do not sell a screen and disappear.
What happens if the internet goes down?
The screen keeps playing. Commercial players cache the playlist on the device, so a dropped connection means new content does not arrive until it is back — it does not mean a blank wall. Power is the bigger risk, and that is what a small UPS behind the screen is for.
Can we run video and sound?
Video, yes. Sound is usually off — in a bar or a lobby it competes with the room and nobody can hear it anyway. Captions work better than audio in almost every setting.
Can different screens show different things?
Yes. The tap list behind the bar, events by the door, and something else in the back room — each with its own schedule, all managed from one login.
How far ahead can we schedule?
A season. Recurring items — trivia every Tuesday, happy hour every weekday — are set once and then just run.
Do we have to design every screen ourselves?
No. You get templates built for your business; you fill in the band name and the date. The design stays consistent because you are not redesigning it each time.
Tell us what your week looks like
Give us your events, specials and regulars’ nights, and we will show you how it would rotate on one screen.