Set Up a Station Board Wall Display

Command Established can turn a department dashboard into a full-screen station board for a television, monitor, or watch-desk display. Each screen uses the normal dashboard, so you can choose the widgets that matter at that station while keeping the display connected to live department data.

A Station Board is an authenticated dashboard, not a public share link. Pair each physical display as a paired device with the Station board preset: no email, no password, read-only access, and a screen that comes back on its own after a reboot.

For a product overview, see Fire Station Dashboard & Station Board Display Software.

A station board is one shape of a paired device; the same pairing and access rules apply to a tablet on the rig.

What the Station Board Can Show

Build each board from the same widgets available on the department dashboard. Useful wall-display widgets include:

Weather — current conditions, hourly forecast, active alerts, and optional live precipitation radar.
Announcements — recent department announcements from Log Books.
Expiring certifications — department-wide expirations with overdue and due-soon indicators.
Recent incidents — the latest calls across the department.
Upcoming training — the next department training sessions.
Upcoming events — everything on the department calendar over the next few days, grouped by day. See Showing Upcoming Events.
On-duty personnel — today's active schedule and assignments.
Who's available — how many members can respond right now, and everyone grouped by the status they set, merged with who's on duty. Members can set their own status from the station tablet. See Member Availability.
Apparatus tests — upcoming and overdue pump or aerial tests.
Rig check-offs — the latest apparatus check-off status.
Inventory compliance — department-wide inspection, maintenance, and certification status.

Module-backed widgets appear only when their owning module is enabled. Every widget also requires the display to have read access to its underlying information; the Station board preset covers all of them.

1. Add the Display as a Paired Device

A wall display is hardware, not a person, so it does not get a member account. An owner or administrator adds it under Department Settings → Paired Devices:

Select Add Device and name it for where it lives, such as Station 1 Operations Display or Watch Desk Display.
Choose the Station board preset. It is read-only: the display can show incidents, apparatus, check-offs, events, expiring certifications, and station weather, and can never create or change anything.
Select Add Device.

The preset grants only what the board's widgets read. If a widget needs more, open the device and choose Advanced to choose each permission yourself. A paired device can never be an owner or administrator. If you grant access to fire investigations or applications, the page warns you first: anyone who can see the screen can see them.

One paired device per physical screen. Each keeps its own dashboard layout and Display-mode settings.

2. Pair the Display

On the television's browser, or on the small computer connected to it, open Command Established and select Pair this device on the login screen. Back in Paired Devices, select Pair on the display's row to get a six-character code, and type it on the screen. The code works once and expires shortly, so pair right after generating it.

The display is now signed in as itself, and stays paired as long as it keeps being used. A display left off or unused for a long stretch needs pairing again, and the screen explains how, and an administrator can sign a display out at any time from the same page. Pairing a new screen to the same device signs the old one out.

For a more app-like installation, follow Install as an App. A browser or installed web app both support Display mode.

Keep the device in a staff-only area and use the device's normal screen-lock and operating-system security. The display shows department information according to the device's access.

3. Build the Dashboard Layout

Each paired display saves its own dashboard layout, so two station screens can show completely different boards.

Open the Dashboard.
Select the edit button in the lower-right corner.
Select Add widget.
Add the operational widgets for that screen.
Resize and arrange the widgets.
Select Save.

Example: Operations Board

An operations-focused screen might use:

Weather with live radar
Announcements
Recent incidents
Upcoming events
Apparatus tests

This layout works well with auto-scroll when the widgets extend below the visible screen.

Example: Readiness Board

A readiness-focused screen might use:

Weather without radar
Expiring certifications
On-duty personnel
Who's available
Apparatus tests
Rig check-offs
Inventory compliance
Upcoming training

Use smaller widget sizes and two balanced rows when you want the full board visible without scrolling.

Showing Upcoming Events

The Upcoming events widget reads the same department calendar that members see on the Calendar page, so a display shows the same items members already schedule there. Rows are grouped under Today, Tomorrow, and then the weekday and date (for example, Wed, Aug 26), with the start time or All day on the right. Each row carries the calendar's colored layer letter, so a training session on the board looks like a training session on the calendar.

The widget shows up to eight rows and reports any overflow as +N more coming up. When the window is quiet it reads Nothing scheduled.

While editing the dashboard, select Configure on the widget to change:

Look ahead — Next 7, 14, 30, or 60 days. The default is 14 days, counted from today in the department's time zone. The window rolls forward on its own, so a permanently mounted screen stays current.
Include — which calendar layers appear. The default is Events, Training, and CRR Events. You can also add the due-date layers: Work Orders, SOP Reviews, Pre-Plan Reviews, Inventory Due, Apparatus Due, and Hydrant Due. Select Clear to include every layer the department has.

Layers are gated by module, not by the widget. A layer whose module is disabled (for example, CRR or Pre-Plans) is simply never queried, so the widget stays useful for a department that runs only one or two of the calendar's sources. Unlike most module-backed widgets, Upcoming events always appears in the widget picker.

Selecting a row opens the underlying event, training session, or record. That is only useful outside Display mode, from a signed-in member session rather than the wall display.

4. Turn On Display Mode

While editing the dashboard:

Select Display mode in the edit toolbar.
Turn on Show display mode button.
Optionally turn on Auto-scroll.
Select Save.

A Display mode button now appears beside the dashboard edit button. Select it to enter the wall-display presentation.

A display paired with the Station board preset starts in Display mode on its own and returns to it after a reboot or a power cut, so nobody has to walk over with a keyboard.

Display mode:

Uses the full screen and hides normal application navigation.
Switches to a dark, high-contrast presentation.
Enlarges dashboard text and controls for across-the-room readability.
Keeps the dashboard's saved widget layout.
Requests browser fullscreen when the device supports it.

Press Escape or use the exit button in the lower-right corner to leave Display mode.

Using Auto-Scroll

Auto-scroll slowly moves through dashboards that are taller than the screen. At the bottom, it pauses briefly and returns to the top.

Mouse movement, scrolling, touch, or keyboard interaction temporarily pauses the motion. It resumes after the display is idle. If all widgets already fit on the screen, there is nothing to scroll and the board remains stationary.

A paired display has no mouse of its own, so an administrator can pause and resume its scrolling from Department Settings → Paired Devices with Pause display. The board also honours the operating system's reduced-motion setting and stays still when that is on.

Active-Incident Alerts

When the department has an active response, an incident alert appears above the dashboard widgets. It can show:

Incident type and address
Current response stage
Turnout timer
Assigned units
Responding personnel
Driving route map

Station Board dashboard showing a working fire, response stage, units, responders, and live turnout timer

With one active response, the dashboard shows a detailed incident card and counts turnout time from dispatch.

In Display mode, a compact status strip remains pinned at the top while the widgets scroll underneath it. It reports the number of active incidents and responses in progress without presenting navigation controls on the unattended screen.

Leave Display mode when you need to open responding details or use the alert's expanded incident view. When several incidents are active, the expanded view uses a multi-incident grid.

The Station Board does not automatically open or edit an incident. It presents the authenticated incident information that the display is allowed to read.

Modules and Permissions

If a widget is missing or shows an access error, confirm both the required data or module and the display's access:

Widget	Data or module needed	Recommended permission
Weather	Station coordinates	Read — Stations
Announcements	Log Books module	Read — Log Entries
Expiring certifications	Training module	Read — Training
Recent and active incidents	Incidents module	Read — Incidents
Upcoming training	Training module	Read — Training
Upcoming events	Department calendar; each layer's module (Events, Training, CRR, SOPs, Pre-Plans, Inventory, Hydrants)	Membership only — no extra read permission
On-duty personnel	Scheduling module	Read — Personnel
Who's available	Member availability turned on in Department Settings	Read — Personnel and Read — Availability
Apparatus tests	Apparatus records	Read — Apparatus
Rig check-offs	Check-Offs module	Read — Apparatus
Inventory compliance	Inventory module	Read — Inventory

Owners and administrators can enable department modules from Department Settings and adjust a display's access from the Paired Devices page.

Troubleshooting

The Display mode button is missing

Edit the dashboard, open Display mode in the edit toolbar, turn on Show display mode button, and save. The setting is stored separately for each paired display.

Auto-scroll is enabled but the board does not move

Auto-scroll only moves when the dashboard is taller than the available screen. Add more widgets, use taller widget sizes, or reduce the browser's display scaling. Recent mouse, touch, wheel, or keyboard activity also pauses scrolling temporarily.

A widget is not available in the widget picker

Check that the widget's module is enabled for the department. Some widgets, including certifications, scheduling, inventory, and announcements, are hidden when their owning module is disabled. Upcoming events is the exception: it always appears, and disabled modules simply contribute no rows.

A widget shows unavailable or access denied

Open the display under Department Settings → Paired Devices and check its access; the Station board preset covers every widget in the table above. Weather also needs usable coordinates on the station record so it can find the local forecast.

The board left fullscreen

Browsers and television operating systems can leave fullscreen after Escape, a remote-control gesture, an application switch, or a browser restart. Select Display mode again. For a permanently mounted screen, configure the device to reopen Command Established at startup.

Can I open the Station Board without signing in?

No. A station board is a paired device with its own authenticated session and read-only access. There is no public board URL or secret share token, and an administrator can sign the display out at any time from Paired Devices.

Frequently Asked Questions

I'm a station captain — how do I show the next two weeks of trainings and events on the day-room TV?

On the TV, open the Dashboard, select the edit button, then Add widget and add Upcoming events. Its defaults already do what you want: a 14-day look-ahead with the Events, Training, and CRR Events layers. Give it a large tile so most rows fit; the widget scrolls inside its tile when eight rows plus day headings run past the edge, so the last entries may need a scroll on a small tile. Select Save, then turn on Display mode as described above. Any event, training, or CRR event a member adds to the department calendar shows up on the board without touching the TV. Items added from the Calendar page's add button are work orders, which only appear if you add the Work Orders layer under Include (see the next question).

How do I include work-order due dates or SOP review deadlines?

While editing the dashboard, select Configure on the Upcoming events widget and, under Include, add Work Orders, SOP Reviews, or any of the other due-date layers (Pre-Plan Reviews, Inventory Due, Apparatus Due, Hydrant Due). Select Clear to show every layer the department has. These layers are off by default so the board reads as a schedule of things the crew shows up for, not a to-do list.

Which read permissions does the display need?

The Station board preset already includes everything in the table above. Unlike a member, a paired device is never given any access implicitly, so a widget outside the preset needs its read added under Advanced on the device. Opening a calendar row to its underlying record is something you would do from a normal signed-in session rather than the wall display.

Recommended Rollout

Start with one paired display and a short list of high-signal widgets. Let the board run for a few shifts, then adjust the layout based on viewing distance and what members actually check.

For departments with multiple houses, add one paired device per screen. Each keeps its own layout and Display-mode settings, so an operations board at headquarters can coexist with a readiness board at another station.

Need Help?

If you need help choosing widgets or scoping a display, contact support.