Lobby Screens: Announcements, Packages and Building Status on Any TV

Turn any TV with a web browser into a lobby screen that shows your announcements, package alerts, the weather and whether the elevator is working — connected with a six-character code, run from the website, the iPhone or Android.

A lobby screen is any TV, monitor or tablet with a web browser, showing your building's board: announcements you choose, package alerts, today's weather, the amenities open today and the status of the building's systems — "Elevator out of service", "Hot water restored". Landlords and management companies run them from Lobby screens on the website, the iPhone and Android. Nothing is installed on the TV and there is no extra hardware.

Connect a TV

  • On the TV, open a browser and go to seayora.com/lobby. It shows a six-character code and a QR code.
  • In Seayora, open Lobby screens, add a screen for the building, and choose Connect a TV. Type the code — or scan the QR code with your phone, which opens the same page with the code filled in.
  • The TV switches to the board within a few seconds and remembers it. If the TV restarts, it comes back on its own.
  • A code lasts fifteen minutes and works once. If it expires, the TV shows a new one.
  • One screen is one TV. Connecting a new TV to a screen disconnects the TV it had — add a second screen for a second TV.

Prefer a link? Choose Get a link instead, and open it on the TV. The link carries the screen's key, so treat it like a key: anyone with it can show your board. Making a new link stops the old one working.

What the screen shows

  • Building status — every system you track, with its state. Anything not working normally is shown first and larger.
  • Messages you write for the lobby, for one building or every building.
  • Community announcements you choose to put on the lobby screen. An announcement only appears there if you tick "Show on lobby screens" — residents' notices stay in the app otherwise.
  • Packages waiting at the front desk, from the packages you log in Community.
  • Amenities open today, with their hours.
  • The weather for the building's address, from the US National Weather Service.
  • A clock, the building's name, and an optional QR code linking wherever you like — the resident app, a survey, a sign-up.

Building status

Track any of these, per building. Changing a state updates every screen in the building within a minute, and every change is kept in a history you can open:

  • Elevator
  • Laundry room
  • Heat
  • Hot water
  • Water
  • Power
  • Gas
  • Gym
  • Intercom
  • Building Wi-Fi
  • Mailroom
  • Parking garage
  • Roof deck
  • Trash and recycling
  • Other

Each one is in one of these states:

  • Working normally
  • Limited service
  • Out of service
  • Maintenance scheduled

You can add an expected return time and a short note ("Technician on site, back by 4pm"). If you choose to notify residents, everyone with an active lease in the building gets the change in the app as well as on the screen.

Messages

  • Message
  • Event
  • Welcome
  • Emergency — takes over the whole screen

A message can start later and end on its own. An emergency message replaces the whole board on every screen in the building until you end it — use it for a gas leak or an evacuation, not for a fire drill reminder.

Packages and residents' privacy

A lobby is seen by visitors and delivery drivers, not just residents. So the screen never shows a name or an email address — at most an apartment number — and you choose how much to show:

  • By apartment — "Apt 4B, you have a package"
  • A count only — "12 packages at the front desk"
  • Do not show packages

Any resident can switch off their own apartment's package alert in the app (Community → Lobby screen). It then counts toward the total but is never named. Only packages logged in the last 30 days and not yet picked up are shown.

Settings for each screen

  • Which sections appear, and how long each slide stays up.
  • Dark, light, or dark at night and light by day.
  • Languages: English, Español, Français, 中文. Choose up to three; with more than one, the screen's own headings rotate between them; your messages are shown as you wrote them.
  • Night mode, which dims the screen between the hours you set.
  • A welcome line and an optional QR code with its own label.

Preview shows exactly what the TV will show, before you change anything on it.

If a screen stops reporting

Each screen checks in about every 30 seconds. If one has not checked in for fifteen minutes, Seayora tells you once, and the screen shows as offline in Lobby screens. The commonest causes are a TV that went to sleep, a browser that was closed, or Wi-Fi that dropped. Turn off the TV's sleep timer and, if it has one, its "energy saving" mode.

If the internet drops, the screen keeps showing the last board it received, with a note saying when it was last updated, rather than going blank.

From an assistant

A connected assistant can read your lobby screens and building status, and can set a building system's status ("mark the elevator at 120 Main out of service"). On most workspaces that change waits in Approvals for you to confirm, like every other change an assistant proposes.

Who can use it

Landlords and management companies. A team member needs the permission to post building-wide messages. Residents can only choose whether their own apartment appears in package alerts.

Related features and guides

  • Using Seayora in Spanish, French or Chinese — Documentation. Switch Seayora’s screens to Spanish, French or Chinese on the website, the iPhone and Android — what is translated, what stays in English, and how to read a message, a building notice or a repair request written in another language.
  • Sales reps — your accounts, your pipeline and what you are paid — Documentation. How a Seayora sales rep is paid: the commission plan, what counts as profit, how an account is attributed to you, what a statement is, and every screen in the rep portal on the web, iPhone and Android.
  • Voice Notes — Documentation. Recording and playing voice messages on the web, iPhone and Android — including what a transcript is for.
  • Voice Notes in Messaging — Feature. Record and send voice notes in any Seayora conversation. Transcoded server-side so they play on iPhone, Android, and desktop alike, stored with the thread, and searchable as part of the property record.
  • Vendor & Subcontractor Management — Feature. Manage subcontractors and vendors, track their compliance, and keep customer and vendor portals connected to the jobs they are working on.
  • In-App Voice Calling — Feature. Browser-based voice calling between landlords, tenants, staff, and contractors, with call logs kept alongside the conversation and personal numbers never exposed.

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