Change it once
Edit the name, the role or the availability in the system. The display picks it up on its next wake-up. Nobody walks around with tape.
Smart hardware by RAPL Group
Door signs that write themselves.
A printed slip of paper stops being true the day somebody swaps offices. An e-ink display pulls the name, the schedule and the availability from your system itself. No cable, no printer, no sticky tape.
800 × 480
e-ink No cable
to a socket We design
and build it
e-ink No cable
to a socket We design
and build it
Display woke up
304 · nothing changed
Back to sleep
awake for 4.1 s
Office 214
Jan Novák
Head of Engineering
In the office
400+
days on a single charge
90 %
of wake-ups download nothing
0 W
draw while the image sits still
QR
setup without a technician
Designed, programmed and built at RAPL Group. Both the display and the system that feeds it.
Why bother
The paper on the door is always a week behind
Somebody moves, somebody leaves, the timetable changes. The sign on the door is the last to find out, because a person has to retype it, print it and swap it.
No cable has to reach it
No socket behind the door, no trunking along the wall. It runs on a battery and talks over WiFi, so it hangs where it belongs.
Lasts longer than a year
Over 400 days on one charge. The battery stops being an operational worry and becomes a maintenance-window job.
Readable from an angle
E-ink reads like paper, from any angle and under harsh corridor lighting. It does not glow and it does not flicker.
It looks like yours
You lay the template out with a mouse, logo and all. Not a choice between three presets somebody else drew.
We build the whole thing
Hardware, firmware and the server side. When you need something done differently, there is nobody to ask, we just do it.
What it shows
One display, five different jobs
What appears on the screen is decided by the template assigned to it. You change that from a browser, not by swapping the device.
Office door sign
A name, a role and an availability state. One sign can carry a whole team, laid out in columns.
Classroom schedule
The display pulls the calendar over iCal itself and shows what is running in the room and what comes next.
Personal calendar
One person's next meetings, on the door of their own office.
Notices and logo
Operational notes, a welcome for a visitor, or simply the company logo on a door that guests see.
A picture for the wall
The display works as artwork too. E-ink looks like print and draws nothing between changes.
Battery
Over 400 days on a charge is not an accident
On a battery-powered display, battery life is the one question that decides everything. We save power in four layers, because no single one of them is enough on its own.
- The display is in deep sleep almost all of the time and wakes for 3 to 8 seconds
- During working hours it checks in every few minutes; outside them it works out when it is next needed
- Over a weekend or a holiday it can sleep straight through for days
- If nothing has changed, no image is downloaded at all. In a normal office that is over 90 % of wake-ups
- It lowers its own transmit power to match the signal, cutting WiFi consumption by 50 to 70 %
- Once drawn, e-ink holds the image on zero power until it changes
87 %
Battery · 412 days left
0,03 %/h
30 days
01
It wakes
out of deep sleep
02
It asks
has anything changed?
03
Usually not
downloads nothing
04
Back to sleep
awake a few seconds
Templates
You lay the design out with a mouse
The template is what the display shows. You build it from elements dragged onto a canvas, so the look is yours and you do not have to write to us about every change.
- A canvas the exact size of the screen, portrait or landscape
- Ten kinds of element: text, variable, people list, name, status, date and time, line, rectangle and image
- Variables like
{{room}}are filled in by the system for each individual device - Layers, rotation in 90 degree steps, copying elements and keyboard shortcuts
- Upload your own logo or background
- Assign one template to as many displays as you like at once
LOGO
{{mistnost}}
Jan Novák
Head of Engineering
In the office
Managing them
Every display on one page
With one display, management does not matter. With thirty, what matters is spotting the one whose battery is going before it goes dark.
Device overview
Battery, signal strength, when each display last checked in and what it is showing. The view refreshes itself and the system spots devices that have gone quiet.
Battery history
A chart from the last 24 hours out to 30 days, a calculated drain rate and an estimate of the days left. Charging is detected and accounted for.
Groups of displays
Split displays by floor or by building and change settings for a whole group at once.
Broadcast a message
Need one notice on every display in the building? Send it to all of them at once and they return to their own templates afterwards.
Setup and security
Anyone can hang one, nobody can get into it
These hang in corridors that outsiders walk through. The system is built on that assumption.
Set up in two minutes
On first boot the display creates its own WiFi network. Scan a QR code, enter your network credentials and you are done. No technician and no laptop.
A new display has to be approved
The device checks in and waits. Until somebody approves and names it in the admin panel, it gets no key and no content.
Its own key per unit
Every display carries its own access key. A suspicious one can be suspended, and a deleted device factory-resets itself on its next wake-up.
The server defends itself
Rate limiting, address blocking and timing-safe key comparison. Connecting other systems uses a separate class of key.
Getting started
From a demo on the table to a door, in three steps
Demo and a rough count
We bring a display, show it working, and work out how many make sense for you and what you want on them.
Templates and data
We prepare templates in your own visual style and connect them to a data source, whether that is a list of people or a calendar.
We hang them and hand over
We register the displays, put them up and walk you through the admin panel. From then on you change the content yourself.
FAQ
What people ask us about the displays
How long does the battery really last?
Over 400 days on a single charge in normal office use. The display is in deep sleep almost all the time, wakes for a few seconds, and in more than nine cases out of ten finds nothing has changed, so it downloads no image at all. Over weekends and holidays it sleeps for days at a stretch. You can also see the level for each unit in the admin panel.
Does a cable have to reach the display?
No. It runs on a battery and talks to the server over WiFi, so all it needs is signal and a nail. It charges over USB, once every year or more.
What happens when a name or a timetable changes?
You change it in the system and the display picks it up on its next wake-up. For door signs that is minutes; for schedules the calendar syncs automatically over iCal.
Can we design the look ourselves?
Yes, that is what the template designer is for. You drag elements onto a canvas the size of the screen, add text, variables, a people list, lines, rectangles and your own logo, then assign the finished template to as many displays as you like. You do not need us for any of it.
How is a display set up?
On first boot it creates its own WiFi network. You scan a QR code, enter your company network credentials, and the display reports in to the server. There it waits until you approve and name it. Only then does it get a key and start pulling content.
Can we manage a lot of them?
Yes, that is what the device overview is for. You see battery, signal strength and last check-in for every unit at once, you can split displays into groups by floor or building, and change settings for a whole group together. The system notices by itself when a display stops reporting in.
Could somebody in the corridor tamper with one?
Every display carries its own access key, and a new unit gets no content until it is approved in the admin panel. A suspicious display can be suspended, and a deleted one factory-resets itself on its next wake-up. The server also rate limits requests and can block addresses.
What can it show besides names?
A room schedule from a calendar, the next meetings of one particular person, operational notices, a company logo, or artwork for a wall. The assigned template decides, so the same piece of hardware covers all of those roles.
Who makes the displays?
RAPL Group. We design the hardware, write the firmware and the server side, and build them ourselves. When you need something done differently, there is nobody to ask, we just do it.
We will bring a display and hang it on your door.
This is best judged in person. Book a demo, we bring a working unit, and you see how it looks in a corridor rather than in a photo.
Or just write to us at [email protected]