Firehouse 360

StationView: the CAD board or info board on a smart TV

What StationView is

StationView is Firehouse 360's free app for Android TV and Google TV devices — a Chromecast with Google TV, an Onn 4K box, an Nvidia Shield, or a Google TV set from Sony, TCL or Hisense. It shows your CAD board or your info board (wallboard) full-screen, 24 hours a day, and plays the alert tone on every new call. There is no PC, no browser and no kiosk software to maintain: the TV device is the whole setup.

It is not available for Roku or Amazon Fire TV.

What you need

  • An Android TV / Google TV device on the station Wi-Fi (a Chromecast with Google TV costs well under $50 per TV).
  • Your department slug — the part after /cad/ or /wall/ in your board link. It is shown on CAD Board → Displays and Wallboard → Displays.
  • A display token from the same Displays page, if your department requires tokens (the page tells you). One token per TV, labelled so you know which TV is which.
  • For the one-time auto-start step: a laptop with adb (Android's command-line tool, free) on the same Wi-Fi.

Install and pair (about five minutes)

  1. Install StationView on the TV from Google Play — search StationView (by Firehouse 360).
  2. Open it once. The Setup screen appears. With the remote: choose CAD board or Info board, enter the department slug, paste or type the display token (leave it blank if the board is public), and press Save and show the board. The board appears full-screen.
  3. Prove the sound. Setup's Test TV sound button plays a tone through the TV. Then, for the CAD board, have someone fire CAD Board → Test alert from a computer: the TV must play your department's alert tone. That is the only test that proves the whole chain. The info board has no alert tone.

Make it survive reboots (one-time, per TV)

Google TV devices reboot themselves for updates. Android does not let an app put itself back on screen after a reboot unless it holds one permission that TV settings menus cannot grant, so it is granted once from a computer:

  1. On the TV: Settings → System → About, press OK on Android TV OS build seven times to unlock Developer options. Then Settings → System → Developer options → Wireless debugging (or USB debugging) on. Note the IP address and port it shows, and pair with the code if it offers one.
  2. On the computer: 
    adb pair <tv-ip>:<pairing-port> <code>      (only if the TV showed a pairing code)
adb connect <tv-ip>:<port>
adb shell pm grant com.firehouse360.stationview android.permission.SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW
  3. Back in StationView's Setup (press BACK three times on the board) the line under "Start the board when the TV powers on" now shows a green check.
  4. Turn Wireless debugging back off if you like — the grant stays, through reboots and app updates.

Then stop the TV from sleeping. The app keeps the screen on, but Google TV's energy saver switches the device off after a few hours of no remote activity regardless, so set Settings → System → Power & Energy → Turn off after… to Never, the screen saver to Never, and the TV's time zone to your own. On a TV set, also disable any eco or auto-power-off timer in its picture menu.

Using it day to day

  • The board runs by itself: it reconnects after a network or server outage, restarts after a crash or a reboot, and if someone leaves another app on the screen it returns to the board after five minutes.
  • A single BACK does nothing on purpose (it is a kiosk). Press BACK three times within three seconds to open Setup; Back to the board returns.
  • Volume is the TV's own volume. Alerts play on the media channel, so a TV muted at the set is silent.
  • Updates arrive through Google Play like any other TV app; the board relaunches by itself afterwards.

Un-pairing a TV ("logging out")

There is no login to log out of. A TV is paired to your department by its slug and token, and there are three ways to end that:

  • From the office, for a lost or retired TV: open the Displays page and Revoke that TV's token. Within a few minutes the TV shows "This TV needs a display token" and stays there. If your board is public, turn on Require a display token in the board's settings first.
  • On the TV: BACK three times → Setup → Forget this TV. This clears the department, the token and the pairing, and returns the app to a fresh Setup screen. Changing the slug or token in Setup also clears the old pairing.
  • Wipe: TV Settings → Apps → StationView → Clear data, or uninstall.

Troubleshooting

  • "Waiting for Firehouse 360": the TV cannot reach the server — Wi-Fi, DNS or an outage. It retries by itself; the reason is on screen.
  • "This TV needs a display token": the department requires a token, or the one entered was revoked. Enter a current one in Setup.
  • Text looks too small or the layout is cramped: Setup → Board layout width. 1920 matches a PC; 1600 or 1280 make everything larger.
  • Board did not come back after a reboot: the one-time grant above was skipped, or the app was never opened once after install.
  • TV went dark overnight: the energy-saver timer (see above).
  • No sound on a call: Test TV sound proves the speaker; CAD Board → Test alert proves the page. Check the board's alert-sound settings and that the TV is not muted.