# Put a dashboard on a TV screen Displaying a live web dashboard or metrics page on a screen as an embedded layer inside a scheduled board, played from the screen's own browser alongside other content. Source: https://channelos.tv/use-cases/dashboards-on-screens ## What runs it ChannelOS plays as a web page in the browser the screen already has: Android TV, Google TV, webOS, Fire TV, a Chromebox, or a laptop in kiosk mode on the HDMI port. There is also a native Android TV app, downloaded as an APK from channelos.tv rather than from Google Play. There is no media player box to buy and no per-device licence. ## What goes on the screen - **The dashboard as a layer.** A web page is placed on a slide as an element, so it sits beside the heading and the notices rather than taking the whole screen. The board is still a board. - **In a rotation with everything else.** The dashboard holds for as long as you set, then the board moves on to the notices and comes back. A screen does not have to be one thing for ever. - **On a schedule that matches the week.** The dashboard on the working day, something else in the evening, because the board is placed on a channel timeline rather than left running. - **No laptop taped to the back.** The screen's own browser plays the board, so there is no second machine to log back in, update or find a power socket for. ## When ChannelOS is the wrong answer ChannelOS does not connect to data sources and builds nothing. There is no connector for Google Sheets, BigQuery, Snowflake, Salesforce, HubSpot or a database, no chart builder, no metric definitions and no alerting. The dashboard has to already exist as a web page at a URL that your tool publishes, and anything behind a login that needs an interactive sign-in will show that login on the screen. Many dashboards also refuse to be embedded at all, because their own servers send a header that forbids it, and nothing on our side can overrule that. If you want signage that queries your data and draws the chart, buy a dashboard product with a TV mode. ## Questions ### Can ChannelOS show a live dashboard on a TV? Yes, by embedding a web page as a layer on a slide. The dashboard has to already be published as a URL by whatever tool makes it, and ChannelOS places it on the board as an element beside your own headings and notices, played by the browser already in the screen. It is a window onto your dashboard rather than a dashboard of its own. ### Does it connect to Google Sheets, a database or a BI tool? No. There are no data connectors, no chart builder and no query layer of any kind, so ChannelOS cannot read a spreadsheet or a warehouse and draw a chart from it. The dashboard is made in your own tool, which publishes a URL, and ChannelOS shows that URL. ### Why does my embedded dashboard show a refused-to-connect message? Because the site you pasted sends a header telling browsers not to allow it in a frame, which is a setting on their server and not something ChannelOS can overrule. When that happens the board says which site refused rather than showing the browser's grey error page, and the property panel links out to help with changing it. Many internal dashboards can be configured to allow it; some SaaS products never will. ### What about a dashboard that needs a login? If it needs an interactive sign-in, the screen will show the sign-in page, which is exactly the failure mode the taped-on laptop has. The ones that work are dashboards published with a shareable or tokenised URL that renders without a session. Be careful with those links: they often carry a secret in the query string, so treat a publish-to-web URL as a credential. ### Can the dashboard share the screen with other content? Yes, and that is the better arrangement. Because the page is a layer on a slide, the board can carry a heading, the dashboard and a line of notices together, and because slides hold for a set duration the board can rotate between the dashboard and everything else rather than committing the whole screen to one page for ever. ### Do I need a media player or a PC for a dashboard screen? No. The browser inside the screen plays the board, including Android TV, Google TV, webOS and Fire TV, and there is a native Android TV app, downloaded as an APK from our own site rather than from Google Play. That is the point of doing it this way: there is no second machine behind the screen to be logged out, updated or unplugged by a cleaner. ## Related - [Manufacturing signage](https://channelos.tv/industries/manufacturing): Line boards with a dashboard layer beside the shift and safety notices. - [Digital signage for offices](https://channelos.tv/blog/digital-signage-for-office): Lobby, meeting room and internal comms screens. - [Internal communications](https://channelos.tv/use-cases/internal-communications): Reaching the staff without a desk, and what screens cannot prove. - [Answers](https://channelos.tv/answers): What it costs, what runs it, what happens when the wifi drops, in plain words.