Vestaboard+

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I’ve always been fascinated with smart displays and unique visualization methods; so when in October 2018 I saw an opportunity to reserve one of the first Vestaboard smart displays very early in their conception (pre-hardware prototype), I jumped at the chance. The timing of getting a note from Dorrian Porter and his team that my board was in production in February 2021 was perfect timing: I had just left my full-time role at the Canadian Football League and was looking for interesting new projects to take on.

With Vestaboard having documented an API to create software around, I got to work on what I thought would be the most obvious and useful integration: Real-time updates from the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League of Baseball (MLB) and National Hockey League (NFL). With those first four sports “installables” completed, I took on a contractor role with Vestaboard and completed a Stock Market (NYSE/NASDAQ), Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar and Spotify integration shortly before my own physical Vestaboard arrived in Toronto, Canada in April, 2021.

Starting in January 2022, the work I began with those first Installables now powers Vestaboard+, a subscription service for Vestaboard customers that’s expanded to 54 unique integrations that includes Sonos, Apple Music, weather reports, Cryptocurrencies, custom time clocks and even a build-it-yourself message set scheduler. Vestaboard+ runs on a Laravel 8.x platform utilizing Laravel Horizon, with each Installable scheduled to scan for time matches and fire a message to a Vestaboard when a match occurs.