HelpLobby TV & screensBoard sections
Board sections
A board is built from sections. Add the ones your lobby needs, drop the ones it doesn't — each section is a self-contained block you can size, colour and point at a specific line.
The kinds of section
- Numbers being called — Serving points, Called number.
- Lists of numbers — Next up, Waiting list, Just called, Missed.
- How busy it is — Wait time, How many waiting, Order status, Journey board.
- Extras — Ticker, Logo band, Clock, Message, QR code (to join), Video or picture.
Three sections worth a closer look
Most sections are a straightforward number or list. These three are shaped differently, so here is exactly what each one puts on the wall — when the lobby is busy, and when it's empty.
Serving points
| What it is | A table with one row per counter, and the number being served there right now — “Counter 1 → A-42”, “Chair 2 → A-45”. |
|---|---|
| What you choose | The word for the left column (Counter, Room, Chair, Bay, or your own word) and how many rows to show. Turn on “Split into two columns” and a busy board with, say, eight counters fits them all on one screen instead of running off the bottom. |
| Busy | Every row fills with a station and a number. |
| Empty | A counter nobody's serving at shows a blank number — never yesterday's or an old one repeated to fill the row. |
| Who it suits | The ordinary choice for almost any shop with more than one counter or chair — a clinic, a salon, a government office — not just food and drink. |
Order status
| What it is | Two columns, Preparing and Ready. It is your normal queue, shown as a pickup board, not a separate kitchen system. |
|---|---|
| How it moves | “Preparing” lists everyone still waiting their turn, and “Ready” lists whoever has just been called up — as a person moves through the line, their ticket moves from one column to the other by itself. |
| Who it suits | A counter where people collect something rather than take a seat — a café, a bakery, a pharmacy counter — because “ready” means “come and get it”. Nothing in the product labels it “food & drink”, so pick it if the words fit your counter. |
| Busy | Both columns fill with ticket numbers. |
| Empty | Both columns stay blank rather than inventing an order. |
Journey board
| What it is | One card that follows an entire journeyA visit that passes through several stops in order (e.g. reception → consult → pharmacy). Each stop is its own line. (the multi-stop path some guests follow — “Reception → Doctor → Pharmacy” is the standing example) and shows the number currently at every real stage, in order, joined by arrows. |
|---|---|
| What you choose | Bind it to a journey in the section's “Which journey” picker. Journeys themselves are set up on the Journeys page, not here. |
| Busy | Each stage shows its own current number, how many people are waiting at that stage, and — space allowing — the next couple of names coming up there. A stage with nobody up yet says “Waiting” instead of a blank or a fake number. |
| Empty | No journey chosen, or a chosen journey with no stages — the card says so: “No journey selected — set one up”, rather than drawing invented stages that were never really there. |
All three are ordinary sections. Add one from "Add a section" in the editor and set "What this section shows" to the one you want.
Already in the gallery Start a new board from a ready-made layout that already has one — "Serving points", "Ready for collection" (Order status) or "Journey board".
Shaping a section
Pick a section and the inspector fills with just that section's controls. A board holds up to 12 pages, each with up to 12 sections.
| You press | What happens |
|---|---|
| What this section shows | Swaps a section to a different kind without deleting and re-adding it. |
| Which queue | A named line, or “this screen's queue” — whatever line this TV is paired to. Use that one and the same board design works on every screen in the shop. |
| How many rows to show | For the list sections. Fewer rows means bigger numbers — the control the readability warning is really about. |
| What to call the left column | Your own word for a serving point: Counter, Room, Chair, Bay. Type anything; a few common words are offered as one-tap chips. |
| Split into two columns | “Fits twice as many on a wide screen.” Worth it on a long list on a wide TV, not on a tall one. |
| Title for this section | Leave it empty and the screen uses the default wording in the board's language. Not required. |
| How much of the screen | Small, Medium or Large — the normal way to size a section. “Set the size and position by hand” opens exact width, height and position controls for the one board in ten that needs it. Once you use those, the S/M/L buttons stop applying — the panel says “Set by hand below.” |
| Title size | Smaller, Normal, Bigger or Biggest, if the automatic sizing isn't to your taste. |
| Column heading | Smaller, Normal, Bigger or Biggest, if the automatic sizing isn't to your taste. |
| Number size | Smaller, Normal, Bigger or Biggest, if the automatic sizing isn't to your taste. |
| Colours for this section | A title bar and background colour, and "Shade every other row". Leave them and the section follows the board's theme. Text colour is worked out from whatever sits behind it, so it always reads. |
| Show customer names | “Turn off if your waiting area is public.” With it on, “How to show names” appears — Full names, Initials only, or However the queue is set up. On a numbers-only line it says “This line shows numbers only, so names won't appear here even with this on. Change it in Line settings.” See Names & privacy, below. |
| Missed numbers along the bottom | “A strip for people who didn't come forward.” Adds a small row of no-show numbers under the section so the desk can call them back. |
| Remove this section | At the bottom. Greyed out on the last one — "A page needs at least one section." Remove the page instead if you want it gone. |
Four sections have controls of their own.
| Section | What its own control does |
|---|---|
| Message | A box headed “Your message” for a standing notice (“Free tea while you wait — just ask at the desk”). Keep it short — a long, unbroken run of characters, most often a web address, can be cut off at the edge of the panel. |
| Ticker | “Messages that scroll along” is a list, not one line. Add several, move them up and down, remove one; they take turns crawling along the screen. Your live running-late announcement is merged into the same crawl automatically. |
| Video or picture | “Picture or video” takes a link or an upload from this device. “How it fills the space” chooses between “Fill the space (edges may crop)” and “Show the whole thing.” If a link is wrong or the file won't load, the panel simply shows nothing — check the link rather than the board. |
| Logo band | The words it prints come from “Shop name in the logo band” on the Whole board tab. Leave that empty and it uses the queue's name. |
Three board settings that live with the line, not the board
Most of what a board shows is the board's own design. Three things are not — they belong to the line, so two lines on one screen can differ. You set them in Locations → Line settings → Lobby TV.
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Names shown as “up next” | 10 (1–20) | “Shapes the default board. A board you designed keeps its own rows, and the Big-number layout has no up-next panel.” It's aimed at the built-in Standard board. On a board you designed, the count comes from the “How many rows to show” you gave the Next up section instead. |
| Show missed numbers on the TV | On | Lists no-show numbers so the desk can call them back. |
| Chime on call | Off | A short sound when someone is called — leave it off in a quiet room. See Board look & sound. |
For example Set “Names shown as up next” to 3, then walk out to a wall running your own design — nothing moves. That is not a fault: change the rows on the section instead.
Looking for a “columns” setting? There isn't one. How the waiting numbers fill the screen comes from the layout you pick and the size you give the section — change those, rather than hunting for a number to type.
Names & privacy
A section can show names, but the bound line's privacy always has the final say — enforced on the server, not just hidden in the layout.
| Full name | The whole name. |
|---|---|
| Initials | “J. S.” |
| Numbers only | No name at all — the safest public default. |
Which one shows depends on the line — see The public board and the line's privacy setting.
A section looks empty? Check which queue it's bound to — a "Next up" pointed at a quiet line is simply empty. Bind it to the busy line, or use "this screen's queue" so it follows wherever the screen is paired.