Setup › Mounting and power

Mounting and powering the iPad

The app takes five minutes. The wall is where room displays succeed, or quietly die with a dead battery. This page covers how to hang the iPad and, more importantly, how to keep it powered without anyone thinking about it again.

Print this page with ⌘P (Mac) or Ctrl+P (Windows). Links print with their addresses.

The checklist

Do it in this order: pick the spot, measure it, test one mount there, and only then pay anyone to run wires. The checklist comes in two parts:

• Pages 1–2, the room sheet. Print a copy for every room: the spot, the measurements, the power path, the test fit, and install day.
• Pages 3 onward, the office sheet. Print once: the test mount, the room tally, what to tell the installer, the Ethernet vs. outlet cost worksheet, the quote and approval, the gear, and the PoE sizing chart.

The short version

• Pick a path. Easy: plug into a nearby outlet. Advanced: one Ethernet cable powers the iPad around the clock with no visible cord.
• Either way, no charging rituals. A room display someone has to charge every day, or take down every night, is dead by week two.
• Several rooms, or renovating anyway? Go advanced. It looks built in and usually costs less than adding outlets.

Easy path: an outlet and a long cable

1. Find an outlet near the door and mount the iPad within cable reach. Make sure the outlet isn't on a light switch, or the board goes dark when the last person leaves.
2. Use a decent charger. Apple's 20W USB-C adapter or a reputable equivalent. Skip the gas-station specials.
3. Get a 10 ft (3 m) braided USB-C cable. Long enough to reach, sturdy enough to survive a vacuum cleaner.
4. Hide the cable. Run it straight down to the outlet in a paintable cord cover and paint it to match the wall. A straight vertical line looks intentional; a dangling cord looks temporary.
5. Plug it in and leave it. The iPad is fine with that (see the battery question at the bottom).

Avoid: cables crossing a doorway, extension cords, power strips stuck to the wall, and anyone's plan to "just charge it at night."

Advanced path: power over Ethernet

One Ethernet cable in the wall carries power to the iPad. No outlet, no visible cord, no charging. Ever.

How it connects: PoE switch in the network closet › Ethernet cable in the wall › PoE-to-USB-C adapter behind the mount › iPad.

What you need

1. A PoE+ switch in your network closet. A plain unmanaged ("dumb") switch is all it takes: plug it in, connect it to your network, done. We like PoE Texas; PoE is all they make. Size it with the PoE sizing chart below so it can power every iPad, not just the first four.
2. One Ethernet run per room. Cat6 is the standard today; existing Cat5e works fine.
3. One PoE+ to USB-C adapter per iPad. Look for 802.3at (PoE+) and USB-C Power Delivery, about 25W.
4. A mount with room behind it for the adapter. Some mounts include one (see below).

PoE sizing chart

Count every iPad that will run off one switch, then find your row. The switch needs at least that many PoE+ ports and that much total PoE power. An 8-port switch with a 120W budget powers only 4 iPads; the other ports work for data but stay unpowered.

30W per iPad: PoE+ (802.3at) reserves up to 30W per port. Every port powering an iPad must be PoE+ or PoE++ (802.3bt); plain PoE (802.3af) is too slow. The switch also needs one regular port to connect to your network. The same chart is on the last page of the checklist.

What to tell your installer

Call a low-voltage cabling installer or an electrician. Ethernet is low-voltage cabling, so in most places it doesn't need a licensed electrician, but plenty of electricians do it. Say this:

• Ask for a spare run per room if it's cheap. Pulling two cables costs far less than coming back for one.
• Ask for a low-voltage bracket (a "mud ring") instead of a full electrical box. Cheaper, and it sits flat behind the mount.
• Ask them to label both ends so "Room 3" in the closet is actually Room 3.

Why it's usually cheaper than adding outlets

A new outlet means new high-voltage wiring through a finished wall, often with a permit. An Ethernet run is low-voltage cable through the ceiling. In practice, running real power to each room often costs two to three times what Ethernet does, and one PoE switch powers every room from a single closet.

Rough numbers from published pricing as of October 2026. Your installer, your building, and your city will have opinions.

Mounts

Mounts are made for specific iPad models. Match your exact iPad model and generation before you order.

Skip: suction-cup holders, consumer tablet stands, and anything without a lock. A mount people can lift the iPad out of will eventually be missing an iPad.

Want a red/green light? Light-up cases

A light-up case puts a strip of LEDs around the iPad: green when the room is free, red when it's busy, off after hours. You can read it from down the hallway, which is the whole point of a door sign.

Bored Room drives the light with sound. When the room changes state, the app plays a short tone through the case's connection to the iPad. The case listens, and each tone is a color. No Bluetooth, no pairing, no extra app, nothing on your network. The tone only plays when the case is connected, never out of the speaker, so a bare iPad never beeps.

• Power over Ethernet comes standard. Every VisualTarget ships with a PoE to USB-C supply, so it pairs with the advanced path above. Pick the "Wired" data option if you want the iPad on Ethernet too.
• USB-C iPads have one port. Every iPad Apple sells today is USB-C only, with no headphone jack, so the case's power, network and light signal all share that one port. MagTarget's USB-C enclosures are built for this: the case shows up on the iPad as a USB audio accessory. Older iPads with a headphone jack (like the 9th-gen 10.2") use the jack for the light.
• Check stock before you plan around it. Some models and mount combinations are made to order; MagTarget's sales team will tell you lead times.
• When iPadOS asks "Are you connecting a pair of headphones?", tap Headphones. It asks the first time the case is connected (that's MagTarget's own instruction). Tapped Other Device by mistake? Settings › Sounds › Headphone Safety › USB Audio Accessories, and turn on Connected To Headphones. Do this before you lock the iPad to the app with Guided Access or Single App Mode.
• Setup takes a minute: connect the case to the iPad, turn the volume all the way up, then Settings › Status light › Light-up case, and tap Test light. The case should go green, then red.
• Have a different tone-driven case? It may work if you know its color frequencies; IT can set them through MDM. Email us the model and we'll check.

Skip: all-in-one room panels with built-in lights, like Logitech Tap Scheduler and Neat Pad. They're good hardware, but they're not iPads, so Bored Room can't run on them.

Prices from magtarget.com as of October 2026.

Where to put it

• Outside the room, on the handle side of the door. That's where people look first.
• About 48 inches (122 cm) to the center of the screen. Readable standing up, reachable for booking from the door, and within ADA reach guidelines.
• Landscape is the usual for a door sign; the board handles portrait too.
• Check Wi-Fi at the exact spot. Hallways near elevators and stairwells can be dead zones.
• Keep it out of direct sun and heat. Glare kills readability and heat is hard on batteries. Leave airflow behind the iPad; don't box it in.
• Lock it down twice: a locking mount for the hardware, Guided Access or Single App Mode for the software.

Is charging around the clock bad for the battery?

No. iPads that stay plugged in for long stretches, like kiosks and point-of-sale iPads, manage their own charging and hold below full most of the time to slow battery wear. Heat is the real enemy, which is why placement matters more than the cable.

Stuck on mounts, power, or which cable goes where? Email boredroom@bacstech.io with a photo of the wall and we'll talk it through, by email or on a quick remote call.