# Waiting room and reception

A display in the waiting room makes the time feel shorter and answers questions before anyone has to ask: your services, opening hours, a health tip, the weather, and the news. At the reception, it welcomes visitors and shows the way.

> **Type:** guide
> **For:** practices, law firms, offices, salons, and anyone whose customers wait
> **Prerequisite:** an account in the portal. The news apps and the Notice board need the Pro package.

## What you need

| What | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| TV | A TV in landscape that everyone in the room can see. For a narrow wall next to the reception, portrait works well too. |
| Device | A web display in the TV's browser today. A player once it can be ordered. |
| Package | Starter is enough for your own scenes and playlists. For news apps and the Notice board, choose Pro. |
| Apps | Weather and Clock in every package, a news app such as Tagesschau, and the Notice board for short notices |

## How to set it up

1. **Design a few scenes, one message each:** a welcome, your services, the opening hours, a seasonal tip. With the Pro package, templates help you start, see [Create a scene: blank or from a template](/content/create-scene).
2. **Add one scene with live content,** such as the news in large type, with the weather and the time in a side column.
3. **Put the scenes in a playlist,** see [Create a playlist](/programs/create-playlist).
4. **Create a program** with the playlist as its base program, and plan an off-air time for the night, see [Create a program](/programs/create-program).
5. **Assign the program** to the display, see [Assign a program to a display](/displays/assign-program).

## Tips from practice

- **Keep the loop short.** Five or six items are enough. People in a waiting room see the loop several times and stop looking if it repeats too often with the same order. Change one scene each week.
- **No sound needed.** Videos from your library play without sound anyway, which suits a waiting room.
- **Filter the news.** Under **Exclude keywords**, leave out topics you don't want next to your own content, see [How the news apps work](/apps/about-news-apps).
- **No personal data.** Never show names, appointments, or anything that identifies a patient or client.
- **Use the Notice board for changes.** A closed day or a new phone number is typed in a minute and looks like a poster, see [Notice board](/apps/notice-board).

## Related

- [How do you design content that people can read?](/content/design-content)
- [How the news apps work](/apps/about-news-apps)
- [Schedule off-air time](/programs/schedule-off-air)