Anthias turns a Raspberry Pi into an advertising display for any screen, for free. Connect a Pi to a TV or monitor, install Anthias, and loop your promotions, offers, and video ads from a simple web dashboard. It is open source, self-hosted, and has no subscriptions or per-screen fees.
A low-cost way to run in-store ads
Commercial advertising players are expensive and usually lock you into a monthly plan per screen. A Raspberry Pi running Anthias does the same job for the price of the hardware. That makes it a practical choice for small retailers, cafes, gyms, waiting rooms, and events that want eye-catching screens without an ongoing bill.
- No per-screen fees. Run one screen or a hundred at no software cost.
- Full-screen playback. Images and video loop automatically, all day.
- Scheduling built in. Give each ad a start and end date so campaigns rotate on their own.
Choosing the hardware
| Part | What to get |
|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi | Pi 4 or Pi 5 if your ads include video. Pi 2 and Pi 3 are fine for still images and light loops. |
| Storage | A reputable microSD card. On a Pi 5, an SSD is worth it for a screen that will run for years. |
| Screen | Any display with an HDMI input. A commercial panel is built for long hours, but an ordinary TV works. |
| Power | The official supply for your Pi model. |
Resolution is worth a moment’s thought. A Pi 5 drives 4K, and a Pi 4 will happily send 1080p content to a 4K panel, but genuine 4K source video on a Pi 4 will drop frames. For advertising loops, 1080p content is almost always the right call: it looks sharp on the wall and encodes small.
Anthias also runs on x86 mini PCs and ARM single-board computers if a Pi is not your preference, though a Pi 4 or Pi 5 remains the easiest route for video.
Putting your ads on screen
Upload your images and videos, or point the display at a web page, and set how long each one shows. Anthias plays the active playlist on a loop and stores uploaded media locally, so the screen keeps running through a network outage. That matters in a shop, where a blank screen looks worse than a slightly stale one.
Most files just work. Photos from a phone, screenshots, and ordinary video clips are accepted, and anything in an awkward format is converted in the background before it plays. Uploading does not interrupt whatever is currently on screen, and you can preview an item before you publish it.
If your ad already lives on YouTube, paste the link. Anthias downloads the video and plays it locally, so the screen never buffers and never surfaces ads or recommended videos over your own content, which is the usual reason not to point a shop screen at YouTube.
You can drag items to reorder the loop, or shuffle it so a repeat visitor does not see the same sequence in the same order.
You can mix promotions with useful ambient content so the screen stays fresh. Browse the free signage apps that drop straight into Anthias, such as weather , news feeds, and a countdown timer for a sale.
Day-parting: the right ad at the right hour
An advertising screen earns more when the content matches the moment. Breakfast offers before eleven, lunch specials at midday, happy hour from five. Anthias handles this per asset, so you load a campaign once and let it run.
Each ad can be restricted by date range, by day of the week, and by a daily time window:
| Goal | Days | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekday business hours | Mon to Fri | 09:00 | 17:00 |
| Lunchtime menu | every day | 11:30 | 14:00 |
| Weekend evenings | Sat and Sun | 18:00 | 23:00 |
| Friday late-night promo | Fri | 22:00 | 02:00 |
| Single-day sale takeover | date range of one day | anytime | anytime |
Windows that cross midnight work as you would expect: a Friday window running 22:00 to 02:00 keeps playing into Saturday morning. Times use the device’s own timezone, and the screen picks up a window opening or closing within about a minute. Full detail is in the asset scheduling documentation , and the v2 API can set these fields programmatically if you would rather drive campaigns from a script.
Portrait orientation
Retail ad creative is often portrait. Set this under Settings in the dashboard, using the Screen rotation option, and it applies whichever Pi you are on. Many displays also offer a rotation setting in their own on-screen menu as a fallback. The FAQ covers the boot-config route if you need it.
Switching the screen off after hours
A shop window screen does not need to run at 3am. Under Settings there is a Display schedule that turns the screen off outside opening hours and back on in the morning, with per-weekday selection. It is off by default.
On a TV that supports HDMI-CEC the panel genuinely powers down, which saves electricity and adds years to its life. Most desktop monitors do not answer CEC, so on those the screen goes black instead. Either way it is one setting, not a timer plug. See the display schedule documentation .
Making ads that actually read on a wall
The screen is usually seen in passing, from across a room, by someone who did not intend to look at it. A few habits help:
- One idea per slide. A price, an offer, a name. Anything needing a second read is wasted.
- Big type and strong contrast. If it is not legible from across the room, it is not legible.
- Design at the screen’s resolution and in its orientation, so nothing is scaled or letterboxed.
- Keep video short. Ten to fifteen seconds keeps the loop moving and the file small.
- Give stills a few seconds each. Long enough to read, short enough that a passer-by sees more than one.
- Put the offer in the safe area. Some TVs still overscan slightly, so avoid the outer edge.
Running more than one screen
Anthias manages content per device, each with its own dashboard, so several screens means several Pis. That is less work than it sounds:
- Clone a configured device. Download a backup file holding your settings and asset list, then restore it onto a new device instead of setting it up from scratch.
- Deploy and update a fleet over the air through Balena , so you are not carrying cards around to push an update.
- Bring a library in from another platform with the built-in importer , which supports Yodeck, ScreenCloud, piSignage and Xibo.
What you do not get is one dashboard where you change tomorrow’s loop for every screen at once. For a window bank or a handful of sites that is rarely the blocker; for a large estate it will be.
Getting started
Flash a Raspberry Pi with a pre-built Anthias image using Raspberry Pi Imager, run the one-line installer on an existing system, or deploy from balenaHub. See Get Started for the full walkthrough, or the installation options for every route. For the wider picture, see Raspberry Pi digital signage and free digital signage software .
Frequently asked questions
Can a Raspberry Pi really run an advertising screen?
Yes. A Raspberry Pi 4 or Pi 5 comfortably loops full-screen images and video on a single display, which covers the vast majority of in-store advertising needs.
Is there any monthly cost?
No. Anthias is free and open source, so there are no software subscriptions or per-screen fees. You only pay for the Pi and the screen.
Can I schedule ads for specific times of day?
Yes. Each ad takes a date range, a set of weekdays, and a daily time window, so a lunch offer or a Friday-night promo can be loaded ahead and left to run. Windows may cross midnight.
Can the display run in portrait?
Yes. Set Screen rotation in the dashboard’s Settings page. It works across the supported Pi models, and most displays also expose a rotation option in their own menu.
Will the ads keep playing if the internet drops?
Uploaded images and videos play from the Pi’s local storage, so the loop continues. Only content pulled from a live web page needs a working connection.
Can a Raspberry Pi advertising display run 24/7?
Yes, and that is the normal way people use it. Use a good power supply and a reputable card, or an SSD on a Pi 5 for a multi-year install. If the screen does not need to be lit overnight, the display schedule can switch it off and back on.
What resolution should my ads be?
1080p suits nearly every advertising loop and plays smoothly on a Pi 4 or Pi 5. A Pi 5 can drive a 4K panel, but 4K source video is more than a Pi 4 can decode without dropping frames.