This week I stumbled upon a new use case for the Chromecast…digital signage! This was inspired by a couple of apps for Chromecast I found in the Play store; Big Tweets and Countdown.
Both of these apps would have been tremendously useful in my past life. I surely would have used them in staging trade show presentations.
Big Tweets cycles through a tweet stream with a selection of nice graphic themes. It even allows custom themes for the graphically handy. Just plug it into a monitor or HDTV and set it up via an Android device. No keyboard or mouse. Low power. Reliable. Lovely.
Since I don’t get involved in staging trade show presentations anymore I thought that it could still be used to integrate tweets into a VUC call. Just plug the wee Chromecast into my HDMI capture card and use it as a video source for Wirecast.
Here’s an example loop recorded using the #cluecon hash tag as a search parameter.
Big Tweets is the easiest way I have ever found to put a Social media feed into a video production. It’s awesome!
Next up is Chromecast Countdown. As the name suggests, it’s a countdown clock for your HDTV. Perhaps not as exciting as Big Tweets, but it’s genuinely useful nonetheless.
I’ll close by offering a link to a story at The Enquirer that offers the Top 10 Google Chromecast Apps You Should Install.
What novel things do you do with your Chromecast? Leave a comment and let me know.