Setting up

TV displays

How to put a “Now calling” screen on a TV in your waiting area: pairing it, choosing what it shows, and looking after it. For owners and managers.

What a TV display is for#

A display is a TV in your waiting area that shows who is being called and where to go. When a desk calls the next customer, their token — such as A-014 — appears big on the TV, with the place to go, such as Room 2. People waiting can look up instead of crowding the counter, and the TV can say the call out loud as well.

Two parts of Line Me Up work together:

• The Displays screen in the staff app, where you pair TVs and decide what they show. Open it from the sidebar: Displays is in the Set up group. It has two tabs: Displays (the TVs you have paired) and Pages (what they show).
• The TV itself, which opens a web page and runs on its own. Nobody signs in on the TV, and there is no app to install: any TV, or a TV stick, with a modern web browser will do.

Two words are worth knowing before you start:

• A display is one TV. You give it a name that says where it is, such as “Ground floor TV”.
• A page is what a display shows: its layout, its blocks, its colours and which lines. Several displays can show the same page. Change the page, and every display showing it changes within a few seconds.

Who can look after displays#

Owners and managers can use the Displays screen. Staff cannot: a TV on the wall is not a desk's decision.

• An owner can pair, change and remove any display, and build any page.
• A manager works with the displays and pages that show their own lines. Only an owner can make a page that shows Every line; a manager picks from the lines they look after.

What a TV shows, and what it never shows#

Everything on a display can be read by anyone in the room, so Line Me Up keeps it to the least that helps people move:

• The token that was called, such as A-014.
• Where to go — the sign the customer looks for, such as “Room 2”, “Bay 3” or “Chair 2”. This comes from the Where to go field of each desk on the Desks screen. A desk with nothing in that field shows the token alone.
• The time, and your business's name, if the page includes them.

A TV never shows a person's name. It does not show which service someone came for, and it does not show the desk's own name either (that is the staff's word, and may name a doctor or a stylist). It shows the line's name only if you turn that on for a page — see Choose which lines a page shows.

Pair a TV#

Pairing works like signing in to a TV app: the TV shows a short code, you approve that code on your phone or computer, and the TV joins your business. You need a staff login with the owner or manager role on the phone; the TV needs nothing but its browser and the internet. It takes about a minute.

On the TV:

1. Switch the TV on, connect it to your Wi-Fi, and open its web browser.
2. Go to business.linemeup.in/display.
3. The TV shows Pair this screen, a QR code, and an eight-character code such as KXT4-9MHD. Leave it on that screen.

On your phone (or a computer):

1. Either scan the QR code on the TV with your phone's camera, or open Displays in the staff app, find Add a display, type the code into Code on the TV, and press Check this code. You can type the code in small letters, with or without the dash.
2. If you are not signed in, sign in. The code is kept, and the Pair a display panel opens once you are in.
3. Check that the code at the top of the panel matches the one on the TV.
4. Under Name, say where the TV is — for example “Ground floor TV”. Up to 60 characters.
5. Under Shows, choose the page this TV will show. If you have no pages yet, press Create the standard page instead (see below).
6. Press Authorize.

A message says, for example, “Ground floor TV is paired and shows Now calling.” Within a few seconds the TV leaves the pairing screen and starts showing its page. The new TV appears as a card on the Displays tab.

Start with the standard page#

A display has to show a page. If your business has none yet, the Pair a display panel says so and offers Create the standard page. Press it and Line Me Up makes a page called Now calling: the newest call big on one side, and the recent calls beside it, in your business's language, with the chime and the spoken call switched on. For an owner it shows every line; for a manager, the lines they look after. You can change it on the Pages tab any time.

Turn on the sound#

Web browsers refuse to play sound until somebody presses something on the page. So the first time the TV starts, it shows a Tap to turn on sound button. Press it once — with the TV's remote, a mouse, or a touch — and the TV can chime and speak from then on. A TV set up once on the wall is pressed once.

When a code does not work#

The pairing panel tells you what went wrong, and offers Type another code:

Check your TVs at a glance#

The Displays tab has one card per TV. Each card shows a small live picture of the page the TV is showing, and:

• Online or Offline, in words. A TV is online when Line Me Up has heard from it in the last two minutes; an online TV also says Live.
• Page — which page it shows, and which lines that page covers.
• Last seen — when the TV was last heard from.
• Paired — the day it was paired, and who approved it.

At the top of the screen, a line such as 3 of 4 online sums them up, and names the offline TV that has been quiet longest, for example “Hall TV last heard from 2 hours ago”.

When a TV is offline#

Offline usually means the TV is switched off or has lost its internet connection. The card dims and says: “Check the TV is switched on and on the Wi-Fi. It comes back by itself — nobody needs to pair it again.”

On the TV itself, a short drop is handled for you. The TV says Offline — showing the last calls or that it is reconnecting and checking for calls every few seconds, and carries on showing the calls it already has. When the connection is back it catches up quietly: it puts the latest calls on screen without reading out every token it missed.

Find which TV is which#

With several TVs, it is easy to lose track of which card is which screen. Identify makes a TV show its own name.

1. On the Displays tab, find the card of the TV.
2. Press Identify.
3. Look around: that TV shows This screen and its name, full-screen, for ten seconds. Then it goes back to its page.

Rename a TV or give it another page#

1. On the Displays tab, press Change on the TV's card.
2. Edit the Name, or choose another page under Shows.
3. Press Save.

The TV changes within a few seconds. Nobody needs to touch it, so you can move the hall TV to a different page from your desk.

Remove a TV#

Remove a TV when you take it down, replace it, or no longer want it to show your calls.

1. On the Displays tab, press Remove on the TV's card.
2. The card disappears and a message says, for example, “Hall TV removed. The TV goes back to pairing.” It has an Undo button.
3. If you pressed the wrong one, press Undo before the message goes. Nothing has changed on the TV yet.

Once the message has gone, the TV stops showing your calls and returns to its pairing screen, showing a new code. To use it again, pair it again.

How long a TV stays paired#

A paired TV stays paired until you remove it — you do not need to sign anything in again. Its connection renews itself while it is in use. A TV that has been unplugged for about three months will need pairing again when it comes back.

Build a page#

The Pages tab lists your pages. Each row shows its layout, whether it is light or dark, which lines it shows, and how many displays show it. From here you make a new page or change one. The editor opens on the screen itself, with a live Preview beside it.

To make a page:

1. Open Displays, then the Pages tab.
2. Press New page.
3. Give it a Name — this is for you, not the TV; for example “Waiting room”.
4. Choose a Layout, then the blocks, colours, lines and sound (each below).
5. Watch the Preview as you go.
6. Press Save page.

To change an existing page, press Edit on its row, make your changes, and press Save page. Every TV showing that page updates within seconds. To leave without saving, press All pages.

Choose a layout#

A layout decides where the blocks go. There are four:

The page builder — any layout other than Split — is part of Basic and up. When your plan's limits apply and your plan does not include it, the other layouts are greyed with a note saying which plan includes them.

Choose the blocks#

A page is made of blocks, listed under Blocks, in order. Each block appears once. To add one, pick it in Add a block and press Add.

Each block in the list has its own buttons:

• Up moves it one place earlier on the page.
• Remove takes it off the page. A page needs at least one block.
• Where — on the Split and Sidebar layouts — puts it in the Main area or the Side.

There is no dragging or resizing: the layout decides the sizes, and you decide the order and the side.

Choose colours: light, dark and your brand colour#

Under Colours:

• Light or Dark. Light is the default. Dark suits a dim waiting hall.
• Accent colour — Line Me Up's own, or one of Blue, Green, Gold, Red, Sky blue, Violet or Magenta, or Your own colour.
• For Your own colour, type it under Your colour as a # and six digits or letters A to F, from your logo, exactly as the editor asks.

You do not need to worry about the text on top of your colour: the TV picks light or dark lettering on its own so the token stays readable.

Dark pages and brand colours are part of Pro and Premium. When your plan's limits apply and your plan does not include them, those choices are greyed with a note saying which plan includes them. A page made earlier keeps its colours and can still be saved.

Choose which lines a page shows#

Under Which lines it shows, an owner can choose Every line or pick some. A manager picks from the lines they look after. The TV shows only calls from the lines you chose — useful when, say, the ground floor TV should show the ground floor's lines only.

Under What a call shows you will see the rule: its token and where to go, never a person's name. You can add Show the line's name too. It is off at first.

Choose the sound and the language#

Under Sound:

• A chime for each call — a two-note “ding-dong”.
• Say the token and where to go out loud — after the chime, the TV reads the call aloud.
• Language — what the TV says and shows, the same for everyone watching it. Any of Line Me Up's eight languages; it starts as your business's language.

Both sounds are on for a new page.

If the page will not save#

The editor says what to fix, in one sentence. The usual ones:

• “Give the page a name.”
• “A page needs at least one block, and each block once.”
• “Choose every line, or at least one line.”
• “Write your colour as # and six digits or letters A to F.”
• “Keep the newest call big for 3 to 60 seconds.” / “Show between 1 and 12 recent calls.”

Remove a page#

A page that a TV is showing cannot be removed — its row says, for example, “One display shows it — give that display another page before removing this one.” Move those TVs to another page first (Change on the Displays tab), then:

1. On the Pages tab, press Remove on the page's row.
2. You are asked “Remove Waiting room?” Press Remove to confirm, or Keep it.

A message says Page removed.

How many TVs your plan includes#

Every plan includes TV displays. The number of TVs and pages differs by plan, and so do the page builder and the colours:

When your plan's limits apply, the screen shows a count beside the Add a display button, such as 1 of 1 TVs on Free, and on the Pages tab a count of TV pages. See Pricing for what each plan costs, and Plans, visits and billing for how plans work.

Good places and good habits#

• Put the TV where people sit, not behind the desk. Text on the TV is sized to read across a hall, on any size of screen.
• Add a Join QR block on the waiting-room TV, so someone who walked in can join from their seat instead of waiting at the counter. It opens the same page as your poster — see Posters, links and QR codes.
• Use the ticker for short, standing messages: your hours, “Please keep your phone on silent”, or a welcome.
• One page per area. If two floors serve different lines, make a page for each and pick its lines, so each TV only calls people who should go somewhere nearby.

Something is not right#