Beacon Screens

A Beacon screen is a web page that a browser opens once and then keeps up to date by itself, checking for new information every minute. Problems with a screen in a room often come from the device rather than from Beacon, as when the device goes to sleep, starts on its home screen after a power cut, or shows the browser's own bars around the page. The sections below address each of these problems in the order a volunteer would follow when setting up a screen.

Choosing the Device

Any device with a current web browser can be a Beacon screen. A small computer or a streaming stick connected to a television is often the most reliable, because it can be set to open the browser when it starts. The browsers built into smart televisions often go to sleep or close pages after some time without use, so they suit a screen that someone switches on and checks at each session. An old Android tablet works well for a small screen near a desk.

• A small computer. A Raspberry Pi, a used mini PC, or an old laptop can run Chromium or Google Chrome in kiosk mode, which fills the screen and hides the browser's controls.
• An Android tablet or stick. Fully Kiosk Browser, an app for Android, can open one address at start-up, keep the screen on, and stop people from leaving the page.
• A smart television's own browser. Open the address and bookmark it, then check at each session that the page is still showing.

Keeping the Screen Awake

Turn off sleep, the screen saver, and any power saving that switches off the display after a time, both on the device and on the television. On Windows, these are under Settings, System, Power. On Raspberry Pi OS, screen blanking is under Preferences, Raspberry Pi Configuration, Display. Many televisions have an "auto power off" or "eco" setting that switches them off after a few hours without a button being pressed, and that setting needs to be off too.

Starting Beacon by Itself

When the power comes back after an outage, the screen should return to Beacon without anyone touching it.

• On a computer with Chromium or Chrome, add the browser to the programs that start when the computer starts, with the screen's address and the --kiosk option, such as chromium-browser --kiosk https://beacon.example.org/community-room.
• In Fully Kiosk Browser, set the start URL to the screen's address and turn on Keep Screen On and Start on Boot.
• On a television, if the television allows it, set it to start on the input that the computer or stick uses.

Opening the Screen's Address

Each screen's address is on the Beacon page in Operations, with a Copy button. When a screen requires a key, the volunteer setting it up chooses Require a Key in the screen's editor and saves the change, and Operations then shows the address with its key only once. Opening that address on the screen, or scanning its QR code with the device's camera, lets the browser keep the key for every later visit. A screen without a key opens at its plain address.

Once the page is open, check it from across the room. If the words are hard to read, the editor's Text Size setting makes them larger, and the Orientation setting turns the page for a screen mounted on its side.

Checking the Screen

The Beacon page shows when each screen was last opened, and System Health warns about a screen that has not been seen for a week, because screens are often switched off between sessions. When a screen loses its internet connection, it continues to show the last information it received, says when it was last updated, and takes alerts, messages from relays, and custom information off at their own end times. After six hours without a connection, it says plainly that it has not been updated since then and gives the address of the Alerts site, where current alerts are always available. Once the connection is back, the screen updates within a minute without anyone touching it.