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How to set up your in-office monitor with AskNicelyTV

Jomar
  • Updated

Looking to configure your AskNicelyTV settings? Click Here

 

At AskNicely, we love our account's TV dashboard - it's up and running on our wall all day, every day. Following this guide is the easiest way to get your physical TV dashboard up and running - read on to learn how you can also bring in other dashboards from Slack and other web applications with very little effort using a dashboard looper. 

 

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Required Hardware

Unboxing & Setting Up Your Chromebit

TV Setup

Chrome OS Setup

Configuring Chrome OS

Running the AskNicely Dashboard

 

GETTING STARTED

Required Hardware

  • A TV with an HDMI port 
  • An ASUS Chromebit which plugs into the HDMI Port)
  • Logitech K400 wireless keyboard with trackpad

OR

  • A password-protected laptop with an HDMI port and cable
  • A TV with an HDMI port

OR

  • A TV with the ability to cast or screen mirror

You can purchase the Chromebit and Logitech keyboard from our Amazon shopping list here. 

 

Note: We do not recommend using a Smart TV, there are far too many limitations with how the browser displays content, embedding external websites in an iFrame so the content can be looped. We also encountered lots of issues when smart TVs went to sleep and would not load the dashboard when they woke. 

 

Unboxing & Setting Up Your Chromebit

Unpack your Chromebit - this is a microcomputer that will be plugged into the HDMI port of your TV. It runs Google's Chrome OS which makes running TV dashboards a breeze.

  1. The Chromebit comes with a flexible rubber HDMI extender - connect it per the gif below, then connect the power cable.
  2. Take the small USB dongle that came with your wireless keyboard and plug that into the end of your Chromebit

Turn your keyboard on (power switch is around the back). 


 

TV Setup

  1. Plugin your Chromebit to HDMI 1 on your TV.
  2. Grab the TV remote and select HDMI 1. (This is usually done via the "Source" button.)

Chrome OS Setup

  1. You should see the Chromebit booting now - the first screen searches for a keyboard and mouse.
  2. If you haven't got two green ticks on this screen, simply hit a key on your keyboard and hopefully it should connect. (see image below). 


During your setup the system may do several things. 

  • It will want to connect to your Wi-Fi so it can access the internet
  • It most likely will want to update its firmware - click "yes." 
  • You will also need to sign into your Google account or create a new one to use for ChromeOS

Configuring Chrome OS

 

ChromeOS should now be up and running - you should see the a few icons in the task bar in the bottom left.

From here, we will need to add a special Chrome extension to your browser, this will allow us to embed both the AskNicely TV dashboard and dashboards from other websites. If you don't install this extension you will simply see a blank white page.

  1. On the TV, open up the Chrome browser and head over to the Google WebStore
  2. Install the AskNicely Dashboard Assistant


 

Running the AskNicely Dashboard

We are nearly there! The last trick will be getting the AskNicely dashboard up and running. 

  1. On your TV, in Chrome, login to your AskNicely account.
  2. On the dashboard page, hit the TV button top right to launch the TV version:

    3. Full Screen - Hit the 3 dots (top right) > then the square shaped icon


If all went according to plan.... you should see something like this!


Congratulations!  Pull out that smartphone, take a snap, then send it to us at support@asknice.ly

We love seeing how you're incorporating feedback into your office. It's basically modern art!

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