Back in 2018, a friend called me one night and asked if there was an easy way to get announcements onto the TV at their church. I told her I would look into it and let her know. After looking around for an easy way, I just couldn't find one. Anyone could build a slideshow in PowerPoint and save their slides to a USB stick, but then when it came time to change out the pictures, the user would have to get between the wall and the TV.
I've worked in the internet design space since 1995 and started PageGravy (website design and development) about 15 years ago, so I knew what had to be done. I build a small snippet of code and uploaded it to the server and tied my TV into the server. It really worked out great... it was a big momement for me. I knew we needed to build some type of intterface into a website to make it all for the user. We started building it out right away.
Tech students from a local school visits Recastio HQ in late 2019.
Not just an image slideshow now...
Since that day, sitting on my couch, we've built Recastio into a SaaS product that really works well. In the beginning, I had some of my friends test early versions and we made changes to our product on which we could build on. We added a QR code to the imagae slideshow at the end of 2018. Some people said QR codes were dead... then COVID hit, and more customers are looking for a hands free option to get their information out. Recently we created a Self Guided Tour option which now includes an audio playback button. Not only can end users get the text information on thier phones, but now they can hear the information playing through thier ear buds.
We continued to develop and make changes. We can now send video through. We built a slideshow for video. Now manufacturers can upload multiple videos through our website and play them in rotation at a showroom in another state or part of the world.