Set up a screen

Every stage can play on a real screen in two ways: open its player link in the screen’s browser, or install a Wunderframe app on the device and pair it with a short code. All of them play the same program, so a screen shows exactly what the stage’s preview shows.

• A browser — any PC, Mac, Chromebox or smart TV with a modern browser. Nothing to install: open the link. The quickest way to try a stage, and fine for a single screen with steady network.
• The Android TV app — TVs and boxes with Android TV or Google TV. The best choice for a venue: it plays video natively, plays multicast TV channels and Dolby sound, keeps a wall together without internet, and can be looked after entirely from Devices. Install it from Google Play or see The Android TV app for setup and pairing.
• The desktop app — a Windows PC, a Mac mini or a Linux box on a screen or a projector. See The desktop app.
• Raspberry Pi — a Pi 4 or Pi 5 behind each screen or wall panel. See Raspberry Pi.

The apps can do more than a browser tab: they take screenshots of what is really on screen, accept settings and restarts from the office, send their picture to Watch live, and test a TV channel at the venue. A browser plays the same content, but only HLS TV channels, and it needs a click before it may play sound.

• The stage exists on Venue → Stages with the right venue — its time zone decides every booking — and the right size. A wall also has its panels.
• Something is booked on it, or you are happy to see the idle card for the test. In a workspace that publishes manually, it is published: screens only play what has been published.
• The screen’s network reaches Wunderframe (see What IT needs to allow). On hotel Wi-Fi with a login page, sign the device in once in a normal browser window.
• On the TV itself, turn off energy saving, “no signal” standby and automatic input switching.

Every stage has one player link. Opened in a browser it plays that stage full screen, with the cursor hidden — the call sheet, shows and live takes as they happen. Nobody signs in: the link is the login.

A single screen’s link plays on one device; a wall’s link on one device per panel. One more device is refused with Already in use on N devices. A device that has been silent for a day frees its place by itself, and Forget device on Devices frees it at once. Open on the stage card, to test, counts as one of the devices — close the tab when you are done.

A new Wunderframe app shows one thing: Ready to pair, with a six-character code in large letters. It never asks which server to use. Pairing works the same for Android TV, the desktop app and Raspberry Pi.

If another screen already holds the stage (or that panel), the dialog says so before anything changes — TV lounge is held by “Old box” — offline for 3 h — and offers Replace “Old box”. Replacing frees the old screen’s place at once; if it comes back, it has to be paired again.

No time to pair? Every app also takes the stage’s player link instead of a code: Use a player link on the pairing screen.

Any modern browser can play a stage. For a screen that should run unattended, the device matters more than the browser:

• PC or Mac with Chrome or Edge — start the browser in kiosk mode with its own profile, so the offline cache has a home and no sign-in prompts appear. Start it when the computer starts, sign the kiosk account in automatically, and switch off sleep and screen saver. The desktop app does all of this for you.
• Chromebox — in a managed fleet, add the player link as a kiosk app by URL and turn on auto-launch. The box boots straight into the player.
• Windows kiosk (assigned access) — works, but Edge browses privately there: its storage is wiped at every restart, so the screen cannot play offline straight after a reboot. Use the command line kiosk, or the desktop app, where the network is unreliable.
• A laptop on a projector — open the link, drag the window to the projector, click once. Set the laptop never to sleep on power.
• Apple TV has no browser, and Fire TV’s browser has no kiosk mode. Put an Android TV box or a small computer on the HDMI input instead.

--kiosk hides the browser around the player, --user-data-dir gives it its own profile, the next three stop “Restore pages?” bars after a power cut, and --autoplay-policy lets video and sound start without a click. On a Mac the same flags follow /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome.

Send this list to whoever runs the venue’s network:

• HTTPS (TCP 443) to www.wunderframe.com — everything a screen plays, its settings and its reports. Screens only ever connect out; nothing connects in to them.
• Real-time video — live presenters, cast zones, Watch live and channel tests use WebRTC. Allow outgoing UDP to the internet; a firewall that allows only web traffic may block them while everything else keeps working.
• Video walls — panels that keep in step over the local network need multicast and one TCP port between them. See Network needs for the local network.
• TV channels — multicast channels only play on the network that carries them, so the screens must sit on the provider’s TV network or VLAN. See TV channels.
• Time — screens correct their own clock against the server, but network time (NTP) keeps them right when the internet is down.