Custom IO Bridge

BrightSign makes the media players behind digital signage around the world. Its team had an idea for a device that would make those players far easier to test and develop for, and nothing like it existed.

The challenge

Every BrightSign player has inputs and outputs: the connections that let a sign react to a button, a sensor, or another device. Testing them meant someone at the bench, triggering each one by hand. Across a large test and development lab full of players, that doesn't scale.

BrightSign wanted a way to control every input and output on a player remotely, on dozens of players at once. And once the device was handed over, their own team had to be able to update it, maintain it, and build on it.

What we built

We worked directly with BrightSign's Vice President of Software and one of their lead developers to turn that idea into a real device. A few quick meetings were enough to settle on a direction, and in places to improve on the original request. Prototypes followed fast.

The result is the IO bridge, a custom device that connects to a BrightSign player and puts all of its inputs and outputs under remote control. We designed all of it:

• The electronics
• The enclosure
• The firmware
• An over-the-air update process, so new firmware reaches every deployed device

Everything was delivered in a GitHub repository, so BrightSign's team could pick it up and run with it.

The result

BrightSign has deployed more than 70 IO bridges, and its team has built several of its own applications on top of them. A device that started as an idea is now a cornerstone of the lab.

BrightSign reached out to Rinth Labs to help develop a hardware solution for a large test lab being deployed in our headquarters. Ben was able to quickly ideate and even improve on our request in just a few quick meetings, and prototypes came fast and furious. The result is far beyond our expectations. He created a custom “IO bridge device” that serves as a cornerstone of our testing and development lab. Not only did he design the hardware and the enclosure, but also the firmware and an OTA update process that makes it a breeze to deploy at scale. Everything was delivered in a Github repo that made it easy for us to pick up and run with. To date we have deployed over 70 of these devices and have developed several applications that leverage its capabilities. Ben was a pleasure to work with throughout the process. 10/10 would recommend.