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Displex

HORECA digital signage, plug & play.

Live

Displex is the studio's flagship product. A SaaS digital signage solution for bars, cafés and restaurants — software + hardware. Born in 2020 from a real-world need, not from a pitch deck. Iterated for 4 years in production before being brought to market.

Status
Live in production
Sector
HORECA · digital signage
Since
Field 2020 · Market 2024
Model
SaaS · software + hardware

The origin — 2020, a bar

No pitch deck. No PowerPoint roadmap. A bar, a real-world need: being able to control in-room screens without calling a technician. First version shipped in a few weeks — a Python script + the Dropbox API, wired to a display.

For 4 years, we iterated in real conditions: heat, flaky WiFi, power cuts, screens running 24/7. What survived is what's in Displex today. No hypotheses; just the field.

The software side

A multi-tenant SaaS dashboard that makes digital signage accessible — no technical skill required, no integrator, no install appointment.

Visual playlist creation and management, media library with S3 storage.

Calendar-based scheduling: one piece of content per time slot, per day, per location.

Multi-site and multi-screen control from a single interface — one login, the whole network.

Real-time remote monitoring via AWS IoT Core: state, version, crash detection.

7-day no-CC trial onboarding, Stripe-automated conversion — from signup to first screen live in 5 min.

50+ page multilingual FR/EN landing, SEO strategy built in, deployed on Vercel.

The hardware side

A physical player designed to disappear. You plug it in, it runs. No manual, no config, no prayer.

Plug & Play

Physical player on Raspberry Pi 3B+. Power + HDMI + WiFi = it's broadcasting. That's it.

Built-in watchdog

Auto-restart on crash, automatic recovery after a power outage. Zero human intervention required.

Designed for 24/7

Heat, flaky WiFi, power cuts: 4 years of testing in real restaurant environments before going to market.

Virtual player

Any screen with a browser can become a broadcast point. No dedicated hardware needed to get started.

displex.player · status

systemonline
uptime37d 14h
versionv2.4.1
networkWiFi · stable
playlisthappy hour

Raspberry Pi 3B+ · arm64

The stack

Multi-tenant architecture. Split dashboard: client interface + admin cockpit with accounting integration (Qonto, Stripe).

  • React · Tailwind CSS (dashboard)
  • Next.js (multilingual landing, SSR, SEO)
  • Clerk (authentication, sessions)
  • Stripe (subscription, trial, conversion)
  • AWS IoT Core (real-time hardware monitoring)
  • AWS S3 (media storage)
  • MongoDB (multi-tenant)
  • Vercel (frontend + landing)
  • Raspberry Pi 3B+ (arm64, Linux)

Why HORECA, why now

Digital signage has historically been dominated by complex, expensive pro solutions — designed for big-box retail, not for the corner bar. Displex flips that: simplicity, accessible pricing, plug & play.

The European HORECA market is ~500,000 establishments. Digital signage penetration there is still low. A wide segment, under-equipped, and one that doesn't need enterprise features — it needs the thing to just work.

  • 01Target: bars, cafés, restaurants, franchise networks, multi-site retail
  • 02Edge: simplicity + accessible pricing + plug & play vs. legacy pro solutions
  • 03Lean SaaS infra model · ~95% gross margin
  • 04EU potential: ~500K under-equipped HORECA venues

The timeline

  1. 2020

    First deployment

    First field version. Python script + Dropbox API, wired to a bar's display.

  2. 2021 — 2022

    Field iteration

    Need validated in real conditions, not in interviews. The product was written in the room, not in meetings.

  3. 2023

    SaaS structuring

    Stripe, Clerk auth, multi-tenant dashboard, AWS IoT Core monitoring. Becomes a SaaS that can be operated by others.

  4. 2024

    Go to market

    Company incorporated. First paying customers.

  5. 2025 — 2026

    Distribution

    Stabilization, landing redesign, HORECA repositioning. Active distribution across the European market.

Displex — HORECA digital signage | AubryMedia Studio | AubryMedia