Run the player as an app or in the browser on an IAdea panel
An IAdea panel can show the player two ways, and they are not equivalent. What the installed Offision app adds over the panel's own browser — the built-in reader and its HID facility codes, uploaded video, the label printer — and how to tell which one a panel is running.
An IAdea panel runs Android, so it can show the Offision player either as an installed app or in its own browser, pointed at the player address. Both pair with the same six-character code, both show the same screen, and a panel set up either way looks finished.
That is the problem. The two are not equivalent, and the differences are silent: nothing on the panel says which one it is running, and the features it is missing do not report an error. They simply never happen — an uploaded video shows its poster image and never starts, a tapped card does nothing.
Install the app unless something stops you. The browser is the fallback, not the default.
What changes
| In the app | In the browser | |
|---|---|---|
| Uploaded video — a screen saver clip or a Video widget | Downloaded once, then plays from the panel’s own storage | Never plays. The poster image stays up |
| YouTube | Plays, needs internet | Plays, needs internet |
| The built-in card reader | Reads a card tapped on the panel’s face, HID facility code included | Not reachable. A USB reader is the only way to tap |
| Label printer | Prints visitor badges | No printing |
| Switching to the user app | Available | Not available |
| Status lights | Seven colours | Seven colours |
| Occupancy sensor | Reported | Reported |
| Remote reboot | From the console | From the console |
The bottom half of that table is why the browser is a reasonable fallback rather than a broken one. IAdea builds a local interface into the panel, and Offision uses it either way — so the side lights, the sensor and the remote reboot all work in the browser. What the browser cannot do is anything needing a place to put a file or a connection to hardware Android owns.
The card reader loses more here than elsewhere
On most panels, dropping to a USB reader costs convenience: the tap moves from the panel’s face to a box beside it, and the number Offision receives is the same either way.
On an IAdea panel it also changes what the number is. The facility code and card number an HID Global card carries are decoded by the panel’s own reader — which is the thing that makes these panels worth buying — and a USB reader returns the card’s serial number instead. So a panel in browser mode does not merely read cards less conveniently; it reads a different number, and cards enrolled from one will not match the other.
If you enrolled your cards from taps on a panel running the app, keep every panel running the app.
Why video is the one that surprises people
Video on a screen is never streamed. The player downloads the file to the screen’s own storage first and then plays the local copy, which is what lets a lobby video keep running through a network outage. A panel in browser mode has nowhere to put that file, so it shows the poster image and never starts — whatever the format is.
Nothing about this depends on the file. Re-exporting the video will not fix it, and neither will a smaller one. It is the container the player is running in.
A YouTube item is different, because it is a live stream rather than a download, and it plays either way. On a panel that has to stay in browser mode, that is the workaround: put the clip on YouTube.
The playlist itself is in Play your company video on idle room panels.
Which one is this panel running
Open the panel’s row in Devices › Booking panel › Devices. The status page reports a Container, and that value is the answer — a panel running the app and a panel running the browser report different ones.
Open Booking panelThere is a second, quicker test with no console involved: tap a staff card on the panel’s face. If nothing happens, it is in browser mode.
Installing the app
The app is an ordinary Android package, and the panel installs it the way it installs anything else. The installation guideline the connect wizard shows beside the pairing-code field is IAdea’s own, for the panel you picked, and it carries the download and the steps for that model.
For more than a handful of panels, install it through IAdea’s own device management rather than by hand — the same tool that handles firmware. Offision does not push apps to panels.
What this does not change
- It does not change what the panel can do. The status lights, the sensor and the card reader are the hardware’s, and a panel that is not an H model does not start reading HID cards because the app is installed.
- It does not change the licence. A panel needs Hardware either way.
- It does not change the room. The room is chosen when the panel is paired, not by how the player is running.
- It is not how a panel is updated. The player updates itself; the app around it is updated like any other Android app on the panel.