In hospitality, a lot of selling happens in the moment: the guest stands at the bar, looks around and decides. A screen in the right place shows, at that moment, what you want to sell more of today: the craft beer of the month, the chef's special or the sharing platter for four. With Narrow.TV you manage those screens from your browser, so even from your phone when you are at the cash and carry in the morning.
Where a screen makes the difference in hospitality
A printed menu or a chalkboard does the job fine as long as nothing changes. It gets tricky as soon as your offer changes:
- Changing beer list. A keg runs out, a new seasonal beer arrives. On a screen you edit the line and the list is up to date again.
- Daily specials and seasonal dishes. A special that is only mentioned verbally hardly gets ordered. A photo of the dish with the price does more.
- Events. Pub quiz on Thursday, live music on Saturday, a tasting next month: guests who are in right now are your best audience for the next evening.
- Beer garden weather. A sunny forecast for the weekend is a reason to book a table now.
The advantage lies mainly in speed. You change something in the dashboard and the screen picks up the change within about a minute. No new print proof, no chalk, no ladder.
Content ideas for your pub, restaurant or bar
You build everything below in the Narrow.TV slide editor with text, photos, video, a clock, a ticker or a price table. There are also ready-made templates in the Hospitality category to get you started.
For a pub or bar
- A beer list as a price table: headings per type (on draught, bottled, alcohol-free) and each beer with its price on its own line.
- A slide per event with the date, time and an atmospheric photo from the last one.
- A ticker at the bottom with short notices, such as "Kitchen open until 10pm" or "Closed Sunday for a private party".
- A short video from a brewery or winery you serve, for example a YouTube video from the producer.
For a restaurant
- A slide with the dish of the week: large photo, name, two lines of description and the price.
- A short kitchen video, for example a dessert being finished. It plays without sound by default, which is usually just right in a restaurant.
- Your wine pairing for the menu, or the house wine by the glass and by the bottle.
- Information about gift vouchers, group menus or private room hire for guests who are already inside.
For the whole venue
- The ready-made weather template with the temperature and the six-day forecast. You only set your town.
- A clock with the date, handy by the bar on a busy evening.
- Your job vacancies: front-of-house and kitchen staff are often found among your own regulars.
Example: a pub-restaurant with three screens
Say you run a pub-restaurant with a bar at the front and a dining area at the back. A set-up that works well in practice:
- 1 digital menu board behind the bar, mounted in portrait, with the beer list and bar snacks as a price table.
- 1 digital signage screen by the entrance, landscape, with a playlist of four or five slides: daily special, events, weather and the ticker with opening hours.
- 1 digital signage screen in the dining area, with calm content: dish of the week, wine pairing, gift vouchers.
In subscriptions, that is 1 digital menu board plus 2 digital signage screens. You buy the screens and Android players yourself. What the subscriptions cost is shown in the current prices, and what else goes into the total cost is explained in how much a digital menu board costs.
Menu board or digital signage screen: which goes where?
Narrow.TV has two types of screen. The difference is mainly what you use them for:
| Digital menu board | Digital signage screen | |
|---|---|---|
| Content | One menu design per screen | A playlist of rotating slides |
| Typical in hospitality | Beer list, bar snacks, lunch menu at the bar | Specials, events, atmosphere, weather |
| Building blocks | Price table, text, images, video | Text, photo, video, YouTube, clock, ticker, weather, price table |
If you mainly want to show your menu and change it often, the menu board is the logical choice. More about that on the page about digital menu boards. If you want to show guests a variety of different things, choose a digital signage screen.
One thing to know in advance: slides do not switch automatically by time of day. If you have separate lunch and dinner menus, you change the menu yourself in the dashboard, or you put both menus side by side on one board.
Practical tips for screens in your venue
- Think like a guest. Hang the menu board where people stand waiting or choosing, not where they sit with their backs to it.
- Keep it short. A slide that is on screen for ten seconds can carry one message. A daily special with a photo and price works better than a wall of text. Read more about slide duration and the amount of text in our content tips.
- Mind the light. A screen by a window or in a sunny beer garden needs plenty of brightness. An ordinary TV is often enough indoors; for a bright spot, a professional display is worth considering.
- Use your own photos. A photo of your own dish, taken in daylight, sells better than stock photos. The media library accepts JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF and video in MP4, WebM and MOV.
- Create your own template. If you have a standard layout for the daily special, save it as a template. A colleague then only needs to replace the photo and text.
How to get started
You need a screen with Android TV or Google TV, or an ordinary TV with an Android TV box or stick via HDMI. On it, you install the Narrow.TV Player from Google Play. In the dashboard you create a screen and get a pairing code, which you enter on the screen, and it starts playing. The step-by-step guide is in pairing your screen.
Try it in one spot in your venue first: with the free 30-day trial you test one screen, as a menu board or as a digital signage screen. If you run a takeaway or fast food outlet rather than a restaurant, also take a look at digital menu boards for takeaways.
Frequently asked questions
What does digital signage cost for a restaurant or pub?
With Narrow.TV you pay a subscription per screen. A digital menu board and a digital signage screen each have their own subscription. The current prices are in the pricing section on narrow.tv. You buy the screen and the Android TV player yourself.
Can I use an ordinary smart TV as a screen in my venue?
You can if the TV runs Android TV or Google TV, because the Narrow.TV Player is an Android app. If your TV has a different system, connect an Android TV box or stick via HDMI.
How quickly does a new daily special appear on screen?
You edit the slide or menu in the dashboard and the player picks up the change within about a minute. You do not need to go to the screen.
Can I play video with sound in my venue?
Yes. Video plays without sound by default, but you can turn the sound on per video. In a venue with background music you will usually leave it off.