The display PC is the stick the room already runs.

What the room looks like

Each stick sends one HDMI signal, with sound, into the distribution box the room already owns. That box feeds the TVs.

• One output each. The room's box copies each picture to as many TVs as it needs, so the number of TVs does not change the stick.
• Sound rides the HDMI cable. The display can chime at each blind-level change, through the same cable as the picture.
• Wired when possible. The stick has both Ethernet and Wi-Fi. The room's sticks use Ethernet cables today.

Why the room's own stick is the pick

The search did not start from the room's choice. It started from what the display needs, then compared more than 30 devices: new business PCs, refurbished office PCs, thin clients and consumer mini PCs.

• The display needs little. It is one web page in the TableMaster TV app. A small modern chip, 8 GB of memory, HDMI with sound, Ethernet and Wi-Fi, and a setting to turn on again after a power cut are enough.
• The best value for that is a fanless Intel N100 mini PC at $300 to $360. Bigger boxes cost $450 to $900 for power a display page never uses. Cheaper ones use older chips at roughly half the speed.
• The room's stick sits in that range, and it is proven there. It already works with the room's HDMI gear, network and AV closet, and it shows a display page all day.
• It is the current model, not an old one. The label on the room's sticks reads "Input: 12V 2A". The earlier PCG02 models used a 5V 3A supply; only the Intel N100 version uses 12V 2A. The sticks also have the flip-out Wi-Fi antenna that MeLE lists for the N100 version.

What a display PC must have

This is the spec any room's PC is checked against, whether TableMaster buys it or the room does.

Not needed: 16 GB of memory, 256 GB or more of storage, 2.5 Gb Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6 or 7, Thunderbolt, a graphics card, a 4K signal or a fast chip.

What else was compared

Prices seen 24 September 2026 on Amazon unless a date says otherwise. Memory prices rose sharply in 2026: a 16 GB laptop memory module that sold for about $37 in May 2025 costs about $240 today, so a box sold without memory is now poor value.

The PCG02 and the PCG02 Pro

In MeLE's naming, Pro is a case design, not a faster computer. Inside, the two are the same: the Intel N100, 8 GB, 128 GB of business-grade storage, Windows 11 Pro, Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 5, two USB-A ports and no fan.

The Pro's lower Amazon price is a deeper discount, not a weaker machine. A display stream uses one HDMI port, so the Pro's second port adds nothing here.

One stick per stream

• The TV app shows one stream per PC. It opens one full-screen window and holds one screen key. The stick's chip could drive two screens, but two streams on one stick would need new work in the app.
• One stick for two streams is one point of failure. A dead stick, a Windows update restart or a loose power cord would take both streams dark at once.
• At $360 a stick, one per stream is the better trade.

The buy list

Prices seen 24 September 2026 on Amazon.

Before it goes on the shelf

1. A1Buy one stick first and run the real-TV test with the TV app on it (TM-454): a stream assigned, the clock running, a network drop and a power cut. If it passes, buy one per stream.
2. A2Set it up with the room PC install guide (TM-340): install the TV app, pair it, set the exit PIN, sign in without a password, turn on after a power cut in the BIOS, never sleep, and set update active hours.
3. A3Check that Windows 11 Pro is activated and that its key is stored in the stick's firmware, so a reset keeps it.
4. A4On site, check that the distribution box passes the picture and the sound, and that Windows keeps its HDMI sound after the box switches inputs. If it does not, add the EDID emulator.
5. A5Turn on the Windows 11 Pro update rule that stops the stick restarting on its own while it is signed in, and add a restart each morning outside room hours, for example at 5 AM. Updates then finish at that time and never during play. The install guide gains this step in TM-870.

Decisions for later

1. D1Decide whether later rooms use the PCG02 Pro, which saves about $40 a stream while its Amazon price holds.
2. D2Decide whether to build two-stream support into the TV app for rooms with many screens.
3. D3Decide whether to move to Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC at scale: ten years of support with no feature updates, at about $140 to $300 per device through distributors.