Devices
Menu boards and display screens
Show your menu or a promotional loop on any screen in your venue, and change what each one shows from your dashboard.
A display is any screen in your venue showing a menu board or a promotional loop — over the counter, in a window, above a drive-thru. You build the content once as a Menu app or an Attract app, then point as many screens at it as you like.
Displays are managed per location under Settings → Displays.
What a display can show
- A Menu app — your prices and items, laid out for a screen. It updates itself when you change a price or mark something sold out.
- An Attract app — a looping slideshow of images, video and product highlights. It can switch itself between different loops at set times of day, so a breakfast board becomes a lunch board on its own.
Both are built under Apps, and both must be published before a display will show them.
Connecting a screen
Go to Settings → Displays → Connect a display. Choose what kind of screen you are connecting and follow the steps it shows you. Then:
- A large code appears on the screen itself.
- Type that code into the dashboard, give the display a name like "Counter left", and choose what it should show.
- The screen changes over within a second or two.
You only ever do this once per screen. After a power cut it comes back to the same board on its own and never asks for a code again.
Choosing hardware
Any screen with a web browser can work, but they differ enormously in one respect: whether they come back on their own after the power goes out. That is the thing to test before you buy several.
| What you connect | Comes back after a power cut? |
|---|---|
| A Windows PC or mini-PC, using Mavos Screen Helper | Yes — this is the most reliable option today |
| A commercial display with a built-in "start on this web address" setting | Yes, and it needs no extra box at all |
| An Android TV box or stick, with Mavos Display set as its Home app | Usually — test it before you buy several |
| Anything else, with a browser opened by hand | No |
The one test that matters: set the screen up, then pull the power out and plug it back in. If it returns to your menu without anyone touching it, that hardware works. If it does not, no amount of configuration will fix it later.
Android TV boxes
If you are using an Android TV box or stick:
- On the box, open mavos.com.au/tv and install Mavos Display. If the box has no web browser, install the free "Downloader" app first, then allow it under Settings → Device Preferences → Security & restrictions → Unknown sources.
- Go to Settings → Apps → Home app and choose Mavos Display.
- Restart the box and check it comes back to the display on its own.
Step 3 is not optional. The problem it catches only shows up on the second restart.
Where to put the box
The tidiest setup is a small stick plugged into the back of the TV, powered from the TV's own USB port — one power cable in total, with nothing visible behind the screen.
Two things to know before you commit to that:
- Some TV USB ports do not supply enough power for a stick under load. Test it before buying several; the fallback is a small mains adapter, which is still only one extra object.
- A stick powered from the TV switches off with the TV, so it does a full start-up every morning. That is tidy, but it does mean the start-up step above has to work perfectly, every day. Powering the stick from the wall instead is more forgiving.
Changing what a screen shows
On Settings → Displays, pick a different app from the dropdown beside any screen. The change applies when the screen next reloads.
Portrait screens
If a screen is mounted on its side, set its orientation to Portrait. The change takes effect the next time that screen reloads.
Knowing when a screen goes dark
Each display shows Online or Offline on the Displays page, with how long it has been since it last checked in. That updates live — unplug a screen and the dot goes grey within a second or two.
If a screen stays offline for more than about fifteen minutes, Mavos emails the account owners and admins once. You get one email per outage, not one every hour, and nothing at all when it comes back — a "your screen is back" message for every brief Wi-Fi wobble is how these end up in a filter.
Two buttons help when you are standing in the venue:
- Identify puts a display's name up on its own screen for fifteen seconds. This is how you work out which box behind which TV is "Counter left".
- Reload all restarts every screen at the location, for the rare case where one is stuck.
If a screen looks wrong
- It shows your venue name on a plain background. No app is assigned, or the assigned app has been unpublished or deleted. Pick a published app for it under Settings → Displays.
- It shows a connection code again. The display was removed, or its connection was signed out. Connect it again with the new code on screen.
- It shows an older version of your menu. The screen has lost its internet connection and is showing the last menu it successfully loaded, rather than going blank. It will catch up on its own once the connection returns. This is deliberate: a slightly stale board is far better for your customers than an empty one.
A display never shows an error message to your customers. If something is wrong, it falls back to your branding and keeps the screen looking deliberate.