doPublicity Digital Signage and Menu BoardsReviews of dopublicity.com

Update 1/3/2020- I really do not like this setup! Experiencing issues that never arose before my subscription expired. I am very reluctant to bother calling, because they going to tell me what they did before- can’t help you without the tech support subscription. Your equipment is guaranteed to start having issues the moment your subscription expires. I promise you that! I am in my store today with a menu board that is non-operational right now. Previously submitted review: Initially I was very disappointed that the moment my subscription expired I started having issue, was told by the Rep that I had to buy back into the tech support for him to assist me. As a business owner, we are overwhelmed by enough day to day operations to be inconvenienced by a menu board. This menu board is very impactful however!! Today I rolled out a new menu, had to do the first couple of hours without boards.😖 I posted a review and a tech support manager reached out and assisted me with the issue. To be honest, I had already done the steps he told me to do, but they previously did not work until he reached out. That’s odd, but whatever. He was a nice and patient guy! #lemonade

I've been using it for 2 years and half. Starting from the beginning my dopublicity media player kept disconnecting from the internet and turned off on its own. So, I called DoPublicity tech support to replace my device since it was under warranty. Tech support said it is not the device issue and I was instructed to go to settings. And next day it disconnected again. Tech support told me that I have a bad wifi. So, I changed the whole new faster internet company and a new router. My device still disconnected everyday. After a few struggle to fix my device it was out of warranty. I thought I was stuck with a faulty device that I have to reset every morning to work properly. After leaving this review on 12-6-2016, DoPublicity tech support reached out to me and gave me a free newer equipment despite the equipment was off warranty. I thought that was awesome. But the new equipment that I received keeps turning off just like the old one. At this point, I'm done calling their tech support as the customer service rep told me I'm no longer under their support or warranty. My final review for this device and service is 3 stars.

Talked with sales rep before I ordered online about needing vertical orientation. Was told that yes the devices could do it. When I received them spent hours trying to figure out how to get it work in vertical orientation. Called support and was told I needed a different model. Apparently I didn't have the right equipment for vertical orientation. They turned around and sent me 2 correct units within 2 days. Support was great and walked me through setting it up. However one of the units was not functioning properly. Was told that they would send out another unit. Waited the weekend and this week but no unit. Emailed and called dopublicity. I asked for overnight shipping as the reason why I got these units was for our building anniversary that was upcoming this Saturday and these displays were going to be a big part of the unveiling. They told me I had to wait until Monday (greatly disappointed). It was Friday when I made contact. Think they would have overnighted it for causing me so much grief 2 times. Templates are pretty much menu based and limited. Would be nice if they had more vertical options and not so menu based so I had to design my own which take tons of time. Would be nice if web app allowed me to place text and pictures wherever I want like designing a webpage.

The doPublicity system is easy to install. The user interface for updating is easy and flexible. We've had ongoing issues with one of the units locking up when updating and generating an error message making the auto-update feature less than useful.

The program is over priced for something that is limited in features. The UI and setup options are a bit tedious and limited in how they work. I've easily seen other sites/software do the same job, look better and feel better. This is our first digital signage experience, but I am sure we will be looking elsewhere.

DoPublicity sells you a small Android based media player that plugs into the HDMI port of your TV, and converts it to a cloud based advertising display. WiFi and set up is pretty easy, although they don't tell you need to upgrade the android device to the latest version of the DoPublicity app *before* registering the license, or things don't work. You then upload content to their web site where it then downloads to the Android device for playback. The internet based GUI allows you to schedule content per day or hour, and is easy to use. The features here are also my biggest complaint. First, there are no transition effects so you are basically flipping frames with no way to grab attention when they change. Next, there's no way to schedule the order of content in a presentation. Next, you can't just update a frame, but need to delete and re-add it to the entire presentation if you have one little change. Last, if you make a change you have to either reboot the unit, or wait up to an hour for the refresh. GUI needs a way to tell the media player to force a refresh. Tech support is otherwise pretty good. Decent product, but in a very competitive space and lacks more desireable display features.

I would have loved to give this a 5 star review. When the system works it is simple to install and worry free. But when there are problems with something, technical support is a nightmare. As business owners, we know when the customer walks out the door, we have lost revenue. We need to solve problems quickly. While the tech support person is mostly personable, being able to reach him is often difficult. There is also things the box touts the hardware and software can do that is just not working yet. Fix the tech support issue and I will change my review to 5 stars.