Home / Case studies / The Urban Juicer
Restaurant network and digital menu boards, without a signage subscription.
We set up, manage and maintain the network at each Urban Juicer location. We also built JuiceCast, a self-hosted system that replaced their subscription digital menu boards.
- Client
- The Urban Juicer, multi-location juice bar and eatery in Nashville
- What we do
- Network setup, management and maintenance at every location
- What we built
- JuiceCast, self-hosted digital menu boards
- Built with
- React, TypeScript, Node.js, PostgreSQL, Docker, Android TV and Raspberry Pi players
Part one
The network at every location.
Each location has its own network to set up, document and keep running. We handle all of them: initial setup, ongoing management and maintenance. The menu boards run on that same network, so it helps to have one person who knows every site.
Part two
JuiceCast: menu boards they own.
How it worked before
The menu boards ran on a subscription digital signage service. A recurring subscription fee, and menu changes lived inside someone else's platform.
What we built
JuiceCast is a signage system The Urban Juicer hosts itself. No subscription, and the menus are managed in an app we built around how their locations work.
- Media library and playlists. Upload images and video once. Build a single-image or slideshow playlist and reuse it on any screen.
- Locations and displays. Assign a playlist to a specific screen, including portrait screens, and each screen gets its own display address.
- Hours-aware. Each location has a schedule, so screens can follow business hours.
- Managed players. Android TV sticks and Raspberry Pi units pair with a short code, start on boot, and report in. We can see which screens are online and send a reload, reboot or screenshot request remotely.
- Roles that match the staffing. Admins run everything, managers update their own locations, and staff have read-only access.
- Runs on their own server. Packaged in Docker with a Postgres database, so there is no third-party platform to pay or depend on.
How we approached it
Start with what you already pay for.
The signage subscription was a recurring cost for something we could build once. We looked at what the service actually did for them, kept the parts they used, and left out the rest.
Because we already manage their networks, we know the screens, the sites and the connections they run on. That is the same approach we bring to bars and restaurants: understand the setup first, then improve it.