Bored Room

Setup › By hand

Set up Bored Room by hand

For one to five rooms, no IT background needed. Get the prerequisites sorted first (once, by whoever administers your Google account), then each iPad takes about two minutes.

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Before you start

Three things have to exist before you touch the app: your rooms in Google, a service account that can see them, and an iPad that's ready. Each is done once. If you're the office admin and someone else holds the Google admin login, sections A and B are the part to hand them.

You'll need a Mac or PC for the Google sections; the iPad can't do them.

A. Your rooms exist in Google

Your meeting rooms should already be "rooms" that people add to meetings in Google Calendar. If they are, skip to B. If they aren't:

  1. admin.google.com › left menu Directory › Buildings and resources › Manage resources.
  2. If there's no building, add one first (Add building; the address can be approximate).
  3. Add new resource. Category: Meeting space. Type: Conference room. Give it the name people use. Save.
  4. Repeat per room. They now show up when anyone creates a meeting.

B. A service account that can see the rooms

Think of a service account as a robot user: it has an email address, no inbox, and it's free. You share each room with it, and the iPads read the rooms as that robot. No person's account is involved, and you don't buy a Workspace license for it.

B1. Create it and download its key

  1. In a browser, go to console.cloud.google.com and sign in with your Google admin account. If it asks you to agree to terms, agree. If it asks about billing, skip it; nothing here costs money.
  2. At the top of the page there's a project picker (it may say "Select a project"). Click it, then New Project. Name it Room displays. Click Create, wait a few seconds, then click the picker again and select it.
  3. In the left menu (☰), choose APIs & Services › Library. Search for Google Calendar API, open it, click Enable.
  4. In the left menu, choose IAM & Admin › Service Accounts. Click Create service account.
  5. Service account name: room-displays. Click Create and continue. On the next two screens (roles, user access) click Continue and Done without filling anything in.
  6. You're back at the list. Click the account you just made (it looks like room-displays@room-displays-123456.iam.gserviceaccount.com). Copy that email address somewhere; you'll need it in B3.
  7. Click the Keys tab › Add key › Create new key › choose JSON › Create. A file downloads, named something like room-displays-123456-abc123.json.

That file is a password. Anyone who has it can read the rooms you share. Keep it with your other IT passwords, not in a shared drive everyone can see. If it ever leaks, come back to the Keys tab, delete it, and create a new one. You'll also use it to reset a forgotten PIN, so don't lose it.

B2. Tell Google it's allowed to see your rooms

To Google, the service account counts as "outside your company," so one setting has to allow sharing with it.

  1. Go to admin.google.com, signed in as the admin.
  2. Left menu: Apps › Google Workspace › Calendar.
  3. Click Sharing settings.
  4. Find External sharing options for secondary calendars. (Room calendars follow this setting.) Choose Share all information, but outsiders cannot change calendars. If you'd like people to be able to book the room from the iPad at the door, choose Share all information, and outsiders can change calendars instead.
  5. Click Save. Give it five minutes before B3.

B3. Share each room with the service account

  1. Go to calendar.google.com, signed in as the admin.
  2. On the left, under Other calendars, find the room. If it isn't there: click the + next to "Other calendars" › Browse resources › tick the room. It appears in the list.
  3. Hover over the room name, click the three dots (⋮) › Settings and sharing.
  4. Scroll to Share with specific people or groups › Add people and groups.
  5. Paste the service account's email (from B1). For Permissions choose See all event details. If you chose the booking option in B2 and want booking from the iPad, choose Make changes to events instead. Click Send.
  6. Do the same for each room. Same email every time.

C. An iPad that's ready

  1. Any iPad on iPadOS 17 or newer. Settings › General › Software Update if it's behind.
  2. Connected to Wi-Fi, and plugged into power where it will hang. The app keeps the screen on, which needs power.
  3. Bored Room installed from the App Store (99¢).
  4. Settings › Accessibility › Display & Text Size › Auto-Brightness off. Otherwise the light sensor undoes the after-hours dimming.
  5. Settings › Display & Brightness › Auto-Lock › Never. Belt and braces; the app keeps the screen awake anyway.
  6. The key file from B1 somewhere the iPad can reach it. Any of these works:
    • AirDrop from a Mac: right-click the file › Share › AirDrop › pick the iPad. On the iPad, accept it; it lands in Files › On My iPad › Downloads.
    • iCloud Drive or Google Drive: put the file in a folder you can open from the iPad's Files app. Note which folder.
    • Email it to yourself, open the mail on the iPad, tap the attachment, tap Share › Save to Files › On My iPad › Save. Note which folder.

Checklist

All ticked? The rest is two minutes per iPad, and you won't need the Google admin again unless you add a room.

Set up each iPad

  1. Open Bored Room on the iPad.
  2. Tap Use a service account.
  3. Tap Choose key file. The Files app opens. Go to wherever you put the key in section C:
    • AirDropped it: Browse › On My iPad › Downloads (or the Downloads shortcut in the sidebar).
    • iCloud Drive or Google Drive: Browse › that drive › the folder you used.
    • Saved from an email: Browse › On My iPad, or whichever folder you picked in "Save to Files".
    It's the file named like room-displays-123456-abc123.json. Tap it once. The app checks the key with Google; this takes a second or two.
  4. The rooms you shared appear. Tap the one this iPad is for, then Continue.
  5. The room name is filled in. Change it if the board should say something different. Continue.
  6. Choose a 4-digit PIN and enter it twice. This protects the settings; anyone can look at the board, but only someone with the PIN can change it. Write it down somewhere safe: a password manager, or wherever you keep the key file and your other IT passwords. Use the same PIN on every iPad so there's one thing to remember, and tell the next person who takes over the iPads. If it's forgotten, you can reset it with the key file, but that's an errand you'd rather skip.
  7. Pick when the board should be on. Tap the days, drag the two handles to set the hours (Monday to Friday, 7 AM to 5 PM to start), or switch on Always on. Tap Finish.

The board appears, showing whether the room is free and what's on today. Outside the hours you chose it goes black; touch it and it shows the board for a minute, and a meeting that runs late keeps it on.

Mount it and lock it

  1. Recommended: lock the iPad to the app so nobody wanders off to Safari. Settings › Accessibility › Guided Access › turn it on and set a passcode. Then open Bored Room, press the top button three times quickly, tap Start. (To end Guided Access later: triple-click again and enter the passcode.)
  2. Any wall mount or stand that holds an iPad works. Landscape or portrait; the board adapts. Route the power cable.

Changing things later

On the board, press and hold the faint rounded tab in the bottom-right corner for one second. Enter the PIN. Settings opens: room name, which room, show or hide meeting titles, font, background (including your own photo), booking on or off, hours, change PIN. Tap Done to go back to the board.

Forgot the PIN? Tap Forgot PIN? on the PIN screen, choose the key file from B1 again, and pick a new PIN. The iPad stays on the wall.

Simpler alternative: sign in with Google

If you only have one room and don't want to touch the Google admin pages at all, the iPad can sign in with an existing person's Google account, the way you'd sign into Gmail. It works, and it's free. The trade-offs: that person's account is now on a wall-mounted iPad, their private meetings show their titles if they organized them, and when they leave the company the iPad stops working until someone else signs in. Prerequisites shrink to section A and section C minus the key file.

  1. Open Bored Room › Sign in with Google instead.
  2. Sign in. If Google says the app isn't verified, tap Continue. Then allow calendar access.
  3. Pick the room, confirm the name, set a PIN, set the hours. Done.

If something's off

Stuck? hello@boredroom.space, or book a free setup session and we'll do it together on a call.