MeetingPortal
Welcome to the PoE Texas Manual for our MeetingPortal!
The purpose of the manual is to help you quickly and effectively navigate the creation, installation, and functions of your new MeetingPortal.
Our goal is to make our products as intuitive and simple to use as possible, so we value your feedback and questions directly to us at service@poetexas.com. Phone +1-512-479-0317
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Prerequisites
EQUIPMENT REQUIRED:
The exact amount required depends on the project’s size
PoE Switch or Injector and Network Router
Features
The app shall offer three modes with the following features:
Basic (Free):
- Allows for integration Microsoft 365, Google Workspace/Gsuite, and Android calendars
- Schedule Display
Business (Paid Subscription – No COR-TAP onsite)
- Room schedule display
- Room booking
- Extending and ending meetings
- Meeting check-in
- Find free rooms
- Custom Branding
Enterprise (Paid Subscription – COR-TAP onsite)
- All Basic features
- All Business features
- Central management
- MDM Deployment
- Web Dashboard
- Invoice billing
- Custom subscriptions
User Guide
Getting Started with MeetingPortal
Follow these steps to be up and running with MeetingPortal in no time. This guide will help you complete your initial set-up, and walk you through the key features and options you need to get the most out of MeetingPortal.
1. Connect your calendars to MeetingPortal
If you are using Microsoft Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace (GSuite) then you can complete all the necessary steps from within MeetingPortal. Please see our guides on Microsoft 365 Setup and Google Workspace Setup for instructions on how to set up your Microsoft 365/Google Workspace account correctly and connect it to MeetingPortal.
If you are using a different system to manage your meeting room calendars (for example a local Exchange server or CalDav) then you can connect your device to the service and MeetingPortal will read your meeting information from your device’s calendar. Please see the section on Using MeetingPortal with your device’s calendar in our Device Setup guide for information on how to do this.
2. Choose how meetings are displayed
MeetingPortal features a number of ways to customize the way your meeting information is displayed which can all be found in the Calendar and display section of MeetingPortal’s settings.
- Rename calendars – Your meeting rooms might not always be named the way you want in your calendars. If you find this is the case, MeetingPortal allows you to rename them. Select Rename calendars, tap on the calendar you wish to rename, and enter your desired name.
- Customize the meeting schedule display – By default, MeetingPortal displays your meetings in a calendar display of the current day so that you can clearly see when the meeting room is free. MeetingPortal also supports displaying upcoming meetings in a list which can be more efficient if your meeting rooms are often fully booked. Select Display meetings as, and choose a list of either today’s meetings or include up to two days of future meetings.
- Display only meetings accepted by the calendar – If your meeting room calendar automatically declines new meetings that clash with existing ones (which is the case for both Microsoft 365 room mailboxes and Google Workspace resources) then turn on this option to hide declined meetings.
- Time format and Language – These options control whether times are displayed in a 12 or 24 hour format, and which of the 23 supported languages is used in the main sections of the app. MeetingPortal will choose the best defaults based on your Device’s location settings, but you can override this and choose your own time format and language.
3. Security
The Security section of MeetingPortal’s settings gives you a number of controls which allow you to secure MeetingPortal’s settings from unauthorized access and to control what meeting information is displayed on MeetingPortal’s main display.
- Require passcode to access settings – If you wish to protect MeetingPortal’s settings from unauthorized access, you can set a 4 digit passcode which must be entered before MeetingPortal’s settings will open. Turn on the option and enter your desired passcode twice to activate it.
- Meeting Information – If you have sensitive information in the titles of your meetings, you can use the Label meetings with setting to control what is displayed. Choose from displaying the meeting’s title, the meeting’s organizer, or simply show that the room is booked without revealing the title or organizer. When turned off, the Display meeting details setting will prevent the meeting’s description and list of participants from being shown when a meeting is tapped on the main screen.
4. Optional Features
MeetingPortal offers a number of powerful features to help you manage your meeting rooms, available in the Optional features section. The ideal combination of settings will differ from organization to organization so we recommend that you trial different settings before settling on the combination that works best for you.
- Ending and extending meetings – If a meeting is running longer than expected, MeetingPortal can allow users to extend it if the room is available. Conversely, if a meeting ends earlier than expected the booking can be ended early to free the room for other meetings.
- Check-in – One of the largest causes of meeting room inefficiency is abandoned bookings – meetings which are booked in the room but then not attended. MeetingPortal can help to prevent these with the Check-in feature. When turned on, a Check-in button will be displayed on the main screen for each meeting. If this button is not pressed 10 minutes after the meeting was scheduled to start then the meeting will be cancelled and the room will be available for other bookings.
- Room booking – MeetingPortal can also allow users to book the room directly from the screen. When the Allow booking option is turned on, users will be able to book the room if it is available. Bookings will start from the time the Book now button is pressed, and users have a choice of booking the room for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, or 2 hours. If the Users can set a message when booking feature is turned on, then users will be given the option to set a meeting title and message before completing their booking.
- Find free rooms – If the room is currently booked, the Find free rooms feature allows users to find other free rooms in the building. When turned on, the Find free rooms option adds a button to the main screen that lists all rooms currently free. Select the rooms you want to include using the Rooms to check option and they will be displayed in the list. The list is ordered by the amount of free time, so the room with the most free time is displayed first.
5. Customize Branding
MeetingPortal allows you to choose your own background image. MeetingPortal supports any size of background image – the image chosen will be scaled so that it covers your devices display. For best results, you should create an image that exactly matches the size of your device’s display in pixels. To find the ideal background image size for your device, open the Appearance and branding section of MeetingPortal’s settings. The ideal size will be shown just underneath the option for setting the background image.
MeetingPortal also allows you to display a custom logo. The chosen logo will appear at the top of the main screen. The ideal image size for a custom logo is 500 x 100 pixels, however you can use an image with a different size and it will be scaled to fit. If you would like to have your logo appear in a different part of the main display you can add it to your background image instead of loading it separately.
MeetingPortal also allows you to customize the colors of visual elements such as buttons, text, and dialog backgrounds. For a full list of the customization options please see the Appearance and branding section of our full guide.
Using MeetingPortal with Office 365
Before connecting MeetingPortal to your Office 365 account you need to make sure that your meeting rooms are set up and managed in your Office Organization.
Setting up Office 365
The recommended procedure is to set up each of your meeting rooms as a Room and equipment Mailbox. Room and Equipment Mailboxes will appear as a resource when you are creating a meeting, and support advanced features such as automatically declining meeting invitations when there are clashes and double bookings.
If you do not wish to use Room and Equipment Mailboxes, it is also possible to set up each meeting room as a Shared calendar. Shared Calendars do not show up as resources when creating a meeting, and do not automatically decline bookings if there is a conflict, so using Room and Equipment Mailboxes is highly recommended.
By default, Office 365 labels events in resource calendars with the meeting’s organizer rather than its title. If you would like to see your meetings displayed in MeetingPortal with their title, you will need to connect to your Office 365 instance via PowerShell, and then change the default settings for your hosted Exchange server. You can find instructions in our helpful guide.
Choose a connection method
There are two methods that you can use to connect MeetingPortal to Office 365: a Personal or service account and an Enterprise application. Both offer their own advantages and tradeoffs:
Enterprise Application
An Enterprise Application allows MeetingPortal to connect to Office 365 on behalf of your entire organization. This method must be set up by a global administrator in your Office 365 organization, but offers the advantage that new room and equipment mailboxes will be automatically picked up by MeetingPortal without any further action. This method is recommended for most organizations.
- Works with room and equipment mailboxes only
- Does not require any calendar sharing to be set up
- MeetingPortal connects on behalf of your entire organization
- Must be set up by a global administrator
For help setting up MeetingPortal to connect to Office 365 via an enterprise application, see our online guide.
Personal and service accounts
Personal and service accounts are the most flexible way to connect MeetingPortal to Office 365. They are ideal for smaller teams, and are the only way to connect MeetingPortal if you’re using a personal Office 365 subscription. This method is recommended for small businesses and customers using MeetingPortal with a personal Office 365 subscription.
- Works with any type of calendar (both standard calendars, and room/equipment mailboxes)
- Requires calendar sharing to be set up if you want MeetingPortal to be able to see multiple meeting rooms at once
- Supports personal Office 365 subscriptions
- MeetingPortal connects as a user that you specify
For help setting up MeetingPortal to use a personal or service account, see our online guide.
Using MeetingPortal with Google Workspace (GSuite)
Before connecting MeetingPortal to your Google account you need to make sure that your meeting rooms are set up and managed in your Google Workspace Organization, and that you’ve created and set up a Google account for using with MeetingPortal .
Setting up Google Workspace
The recommended way to do this is to set up each of your meeting rooms as a Resource. Resources added this way will appear under a list of “Rooms or resources” when you are creating a meeting, and support advanced features such as automatically declining meeting invitations when there are clashes and double bookings. They are also automatically shared with all user accounts in your Google organization.
If you do not wish to use Resources, it is also possible to set up each meeting room as a Shared calendar. Shared Calendars do not show up as resources when creating a meeting, and do not automatically decline bookings if there is a conflict. They also require you to share each calendar individually with every user who needs to book meetings in the room, so using Resources is highly recommended.
Creating a Google account for MeetingPortal
Once you have set up your meeting rooms, you will need to choose a Google account from your organization to use with MeetingPortal (this can be either a new account or an existing one, for example MeetingPortal@yourcompany.com). Follow the steps below to give this account access to your meeting room calendars.
1. Open the meeting room:
Log into Google Calendar with an admin account for your organization. You should see all your resource calendars listed under My calendars.
Hover over one to see a three-dot menu appear. Click the menu and select Settings and sharing
2. Share the room’s calendar:
Scroll down until you see Share with specific people or groups and then click Add people and groups. Enter the email address of the account that you chose to use with MeetingPortal .
If you plan to book, extend, or end meetings from your MeetingPortal display, select the Make changes to events permission and click Send. If you plan to use MeetingPortal as a read-only display then you can select See all event details instead.
3. Accept the share request:
Log into Gmail with the account you created for MeetingPortal. You should see a share notification email with a subject like XXX has shared a calendar with you.
Open the email and click the Add this calendar link. This will add the meeting room to the account’s list of calendars.
You can also use a free Gmail account instead of a Google account in your organization. By default, Google only lets you share resource calendars with the See all event details permission (which won’t let you book meetings from MeetingPortal) but you can change this in the Google Workspace Admin console.
Just go to Apps > Google Workspace > Calendar > General settings > External sharing options for secondary calendars and select Share all information, and outsiders can change calendars
Connecting MeetingPortal to your Google account
Once you have set up your Google account, you can connect it to MeetingPortal. Open MeetingPortal and go to Settings (the cog icon in the bottom right of the main display). If you haven’t previously connect MeetingPortal to any calendars, you’ll see a Connect button, or if MeetingPortal is already connected to a calendar you’ll see a Change button. Click Connect or Change.
You should see a list of calendar services to choose from (Microsoft 365, Google, and your device calendar). Select Google Workspace/GSuite and you will be asked to sign in. You should then see a screen asking permission to grant MeetingPortal access to your account. MeetingPortal will request the following permissions:
- View a list of your calendars – This is necessary in order to allow you to choose the calendar(s) you want to use with MeetingPortal.
- Read and write access to your calendars – This allows MeetingPortal to read meeting information from your calendars, and also allows you to use MeetingPortal’s advanced features such as booking a room from the display and automatically cancelling abandoned meetings.
MeetingPortal will not be given any further access to your Google account, and will only be able to read the information listed above. Once you have granted MeetingPortal permission to access your account, check out our Quick start guide for more information on how to get started with MeetingPortal.
Locking your device
The following settings can be used to lock your device to stop people from closing MeetingPortal and accessing other apps. When enabled, users will have to enter a pin code before they can close MeetingPortal.
Screen pinning (Android devices)
Screen pinning is an optional feature on android devices running version 5.0 (Lollipop) or later that restricts users to using only a single application. It can be used to prevent users from closing MeetingPortal (for example if your meeting room screen is in a public place).
To learn more about screen pinning and how to enable it for your device, visit the Google support page on the topic. Once you have set up Screen pinning, open MeetingPortal and activate Screen pinning from the Android Overview view (see the above Google documentation for further instructions).
Using MeetingPortal with your device’s calendar
If you are not using Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, then you can connect your device directly to any calendar provider that it supports and MeetingPortal will display the meeting information.
Adding calendars to your Android device
Go to the Settings app on your phone or tablet, and go to Accounts. Click Add account and select the type of account you would like to add. For some services not natively supported by your device (e.g. for CalDav) you will need to install a separate app that functions as a ‘sync adapter’ in order to see your service in this list. Once you have selected your service, follow the instructions on screen to enter your credentials and add your account to your device.
Once your account has been added to your device, go to Account sync. You will have a choice of what information to sync between your account and your device (for example Mail, Contacts, and Calendars). It is recommended to turn off everything except Calendar to speed up syncing.
You can now select your calendar from MeetingPortal. Open MeetingPortal, go to Settings, choose the ‘Calendar’ option and select the calendar for your meeting room from the list.
MeetingPortal Best Practices
These tips will help you get the most out of MeetingPortal by making sure that you’re using your meeting rooms as efficiently as possible.
Always respect bookings
Systems work the best when everyone understands them, and everyone follows them equally. To this end, we recommend the following rules for meeting room bookings:
- Always make a booking when using a room even for a 15 minute impromptu meeting. This ensures that everyone in your organization knows the room is taken, and don’t come half way across the building only to find a meeting already in progress. You can reserve a room directly from the display using MeetingPortal’s Book now feature.
- Clear your booking if your meeting finishes early to allow everyone else to know that the room is free. You can end a meeting directly from the display using MeetingPortal’s End now feature.
- If you do not have a booking and someone else does, give the room up to them. This works best when followed by everyone in the company, from the C.E.O. to an intern. It encourages everyone to use the booking system (see above), and that they’ve allocated the appropriate amount of time to their meeting. For meetings that run over, you can always use MeetingPortal to extend them. If you need a meeting space that is booked, you can negotiate in advance with the booking owner to change the time or location of their booking.
- Use the Check-in feature to ensure that meeting bookings are adhered to. Since a meeting will be cleared if not checked-in within 10 minutes of its start time, attendees are encouraged to start the meeting on time – eliminating wasted space.
Different rooms for different purposes
Different rooms can be suitable for different purposes. For example, a large meeting will not fit in a two person room, and a two person meeting can be a waste of resources if booked in a large room. Facilities such as teleconferencing can also make a room more suitable for particular meetings.
It can be useful to publish information on the size and facilities offered in each meeting room in your organization, and to include a guide on the types of meetings appropriate for each one.
Meeting efficiency
Inefficient meetings can be one of the biggest productivity costs in any business. MeetingPortal can help you by making sure the space is available for you, but we also recommend considering the following tips to maximize the value you get from your meetings:
- Keep meetings short – A poorly structured meeting can easily run over time. While it is easy to extend a meeting with MeetingPortal it is important to think about whether it’s a good idea to.
- Have a clear purpose – Everyone should know why they are at a meeting, and what you hope to achieve.
- Prepare in advance – Meetings are best used for collaboration, so it can be helpful to send out information beforehand, and then reserve meeting time for discussion.
- End a meeting by listing next steps – To ensure progress from each meeting, it can be helpful to list next steps. These tasks and goals can be assigned to individuals or the team as a whole.
- Review who needs to attend – Meetings form a large percentage of employee’s time, which can then not be spent on their regular tasks. Consider whether each invitee needs to be present at the meeting, or whether a meeting summary or minutes might be sufficient.
How to Use MeetingPortal
The main screen
This is the main meeting display. From here you can see details of the current meeting, look at the day’s schedule, or make a new booking. MeetingPortals’s main screen can be shown as either a room or dashboard display.
See below the illustration for detailed information about each part of the display, and see the configuration section for how to select the room or dashboard display.
Current time – MeetingPortal takes the time of day from your device’s clock, which can be changed in your device’s settings. MeetingPortal can also display the date on the main screen.
Meeting room name – The name of the calendar you have selected.
Current/upcoming meetings – The current meeting name, duration, and number of participants is displayed. If there is another meeting starting in the next ten minutes, it is displayed below.
Meeting tools (optional) – These tools allow you to check-in, extend, or end a meeting early. See optional features for more information.
Schedule display – The schedule display shows the meeting plan for the day (or days depending on your settings). It can be configured to show a list of upcoming meetings, or a calendar view of the day. Tap on a meeting to view detailed information about the meeting. The display is colored by the meeting status (one of Free, Occupied, or Soon to be occupied).
Book/Book now (optional) – Allows you to make impromptu room bookings for up to two hours, or optionally also book meetings in the future. See optional features for more information.
Find a room (optional) – Allows you to find a free meeting room in the building. See optional features for more information.
Settings – Access the app settings to select a meeting room calendar, configure optional features, or customize branding.
MeetingPortalConfiguration
The following settings allow you to customize your MeetingPortal experience. Use them to choose the room calendar to display, activate and configure optional features, or control the branding and appearance of the room display. The settings screen can be accessed from the Configuration screen by tapping the cog icon on the main screen.
Calendar and display
Display mode – Choose between two display modes for MeetingPortal: A room display which shows the status of a single meeting room calendar, along with a schedule view, or a dashboard display which shows the status of multiple meeting rooms at once.
See the main screen overview above for an illustration of both the room and dashboard displays
Calendar/Calendars – Select the calendar for the meeting room you would like to display (one calendar if Display mode is set to room display, or one or more calendars if it is set to dashboard display). If you do not see your calendar in the list, make sure that it has been added to your device by following the instructions in Microsoft 365 Setup or Google Workspace Setup. *Some optional features (such as ending and extending meetings, and requiring user check-in) require write access to the calendar. These features will not be available if a read-only calendar is selected.
Display as – Controls how your meetings are displayed on the main screen. You have a choice of four options. A calendar view of today’s meetings shows you the entire day’s meetings, while also showing gaps between meetings. The other three options show a list of all current and future meetings, providing a more compact view.
Status display – Controls how the meeting room and time are shown on the main display. Choose Large room name to emphasize the room name, or choose Large clock to emphasize the current time.
Show date on main screen – Shows the current date on MeetingPortal’s main screen. The date format will be taken from your device’s locale settings.
Date format – The format of the date when shown on the main screen. “Auto” chooses an appropriate format based on your device’s locale, and the other options display the date as indicated. *Note that the exact format of the date is influenced by your selected language, so we recommend choosing your language before selecting a date format.
Show all-day meetings – If this option is turned on then all-day meetings will be shown on the display, and will be included when deciding if the room is free or busy.
Display only meetings accepted by the calendar – If this option is selected then only meetings that have been accepted by the meeting room’s calendar will be shown. This is particularly useful in eliminating double bookings, as a second booking made in an occupied timeslot will not be shown. This feature requires your calendar to automatically reject double bookings.
Show room occupancy by color – MeetingPortal can display different colors depending on the room’s current availability. Different colors are shown if the room is currently free, booked, or almost booked (currently free but will be booked within the next 10 minutes).
This option allows you to choose to have the colors displayed behind the schedule view, or in a border around the whole display. The colors for each state can be set in Appearance and branding.
Dim screen after hours – If this option is selected then MeetingPortal will dim the meeting room display after hours and display a screensaver showing the meeting room name and the current time. MeetingPortal will resume when the screen is tapped. The start and end time of your working hours will be visible when editing this setting. Tap on them to change them.
Font size – Choose the size that visual elements such as buttons and text are displayed in MeetingPortal. This setting has a larger effect on small text such as buttons and labels, and a smaller effect on larger text such as room names and headings.
MeetingPortal also respects your system font scaling, so if you would like to change the size of all text elements equally, you can change the text size in your device’s system settings. You can use the system font settings and MeetingPortal’s font settings at the same time for full control over the size of text in MeetingPortal.
Time format – Choose whether to display times in a 12-hour or 24-hour format. The default time format will be chosen based on your tablet’s locale settings.
Language – Choose the language used in MeetingPortal. The following languages are available in both the main display and settings areas of MeetingPortal:
- English
- Danish
- German
- Portugese (Brazil)
If you have any questions about the languages supported, or would like to request a translation of MeetingPortal into your language, please contact us.
Subscription
The subscription section is where you can manage your subscription to MeetingPortal Business. If you are currently subscribed, tap Manage subscription to go to the Apple App Store or Google Play Store to manage your MeetingPortal subscription. You can also upgrade or downgrade the number of devices in your subscription at any time by using the devices slider. MeetingPortal currently supports up to 10 devices for its in-app subscriptions. If you would like to use MeetingPortal on more than 10 devices, please Contact us
On Apple devices, if you are currently subscribed to our monthly MeetingPortal Business plan and do not see your subscription in MeetingPortal, tap Restore Purchases to make sure that MeetingPortal is showing your latest subscription information.
The subscription section also allows you to register your copy of MeetingPortal if you are subscribed to our MeetingPortal Enterprise plan. To do this, tap the Enterprise license button, and then enter your license key, or a pairing code obtained from our web management dashboard.
Security
Require a pass-code to access settings – If selected, you will be asked to enter a 4-digit security code. This code will be required in order to access settings from the main screen.
Label meetings with – This setting controls the title displayed against each meeting on the schedule display, and in the detailed information about each meeting. The following options are available:
- Meeting title – This is the title of the meeting, as displayed in the meeting room’s calendar.
- Meeting organizer – If the meeting has an organizer, then their name will be displayed (or their email address if their name is not available). Meetings with no organizer will have the title “Room booked”.
- No title or organizer – All meetings will have the title “Room booked”
Display meeting details – By default, MeetingPortal will display detailed information about a meeting when it is clicked in the schedule display. This detailed information includes:
- The meeting title
- The meeting description (including information about any video calls associated with the meeting). Displaying the meeting description is optional (see below).
- A list of attendees which may include email addresses
Disabling the meeting details option will prevent this information being displayed to users of the display.
Include meeting description – By default, MeetingPortal will display the meeting description when the meeting details are displayed. Disable this to show only the meeting title and attendee information.
Optional features
Require check-in – When selected, users will be required to check-in to meetings when they enter the room. This can be done by tapping a check-in button on the main screen, and must be done within ten minutes of the meeting starting. Meetings not checked-in after this time will be automatically ended.
The check-in feature writes a small amount of text to the calendar event’s description when the meeting is checked-in.
Allow booking – Allows users to book the meeting room (if its schedule allows). Choose between:
- Booking not allowed – When selected, users are able to book the room (if its schedule allows).
- Instant bookings only – The room may be booked immediately for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, one hour, or two hours.
- Instant and later bookings – The room may be booked immediately, and also in advance.
When booking is enabled, then the following options can be configured:
These settings apply to all bookings:
Suggested booking lengths – this setting affects the length of time suggested when the user is booking the room:
- Friendly booking end times – Booking lengths will be chosen so that your booking finishes at a round time (such as on the hour).
- Friendly booking lengths – Round booking lengths will be suggested (for example 30 minutes or 1 hour)
Include video conferencing – this setting allows you to control whether a video conference link is added to bookings made from the MeetingPortal display:
- Always – A video conference link is included with all bookings.
- Never – No video conference links are included with any bookings
- Per booking – MeetingPortal will ask the user at the time a booking is being made
Users can add attendees when booking – (only available for Microsoft 365 Enterprise Application connections). Users can add attendees (both inside and outside your organization) when booking from the MeetingPortal display. The attendees will receive a calendar invite with a videoconferencing link.
These settings appear twice, and can be set separately for instant and later bookings:
Users can set a message when booking – When selected, users are able to set their own meeting title and description when making impromptu bookings. When set to Optional, a default meeting title is pre-entered. When set to Required there is no default title, and the user must enter a title.
Users can set the organizer when booking – (only available for Microsoft 365 Enterprise Application connections). Users can choose a member of your organization to be the meeting’s organizer. The meeting will be created in the member’s calendar and the meeting room will be set as the meeting’s location. When set to Optional the user can book a meeting without selecting an organizer (in which case the booking will be created in the meeting room’s calendar only). If set to Required then the user must choose an organizer.
Allow ending meetings – When selected, users are able to end the current meeting directly from the main screen. It is also possible to end upcoming meetings that are starting in the next ten minutes.
When ending meetings – There are two options for ending meetings:
- Delete the meeting – this will completely remove the meeting from the meeting room’s calendar
- Change the meeting finish time – This will bring forward the meeting end time. Note that if this would cause the meeting duration to be less than one minute, it will be deleted instead.
Note that this setting does not affect the way that meetings are ended by the check-in feature (see below). Meetings ended due to not being checked in are always deleted.
Allow extending meetings – When selected, users are able to extend the current meeting (if the room schedule allows). The meeting may be extended by 15 minutes, 30 minutes, one hour, or two hours.
When allowing ending or extending meetings, choosing to allow “only for meetings booked from a MeetingPortal display” restricts ending or extending meetings to only meetings with no organizer, or where the organizer is the conference room.
This is usually the case for meetings booked from the MeetingPortal display but can also apply to meetings booked directly in the conference room’s calendar by an admin.
Find free rooms – When selected, users are able to search for other free rooms in the building, and also book them (if the Allow Booking setting is enabled).
Rooms that are either free now, or will be free in the next ten minutes are included in the list, and the rooms are ordered by the length of time available (with the longest time listed first).
Rooms to check – The list of calendars to search when checking for free rooms. You may select as many calendars as you would like.
If you do not see all your rooms in the list, make sure that they have been added to your device by following the instructions in Microsoft 365 Setup, Google Workspace Setup, or Android/iOS Setup (depending on which method you are using to connect MeetingPortal to your calendars).
Appearance and branding
Appearance and branding allows you to customize the appearance of MeetingPortal to match your company branding. You can customize the colors of most elements of the user interface, as well as choose a custom background image and logo for the app.
You are able to choose custom colors for the following components:
- Background color – The background color of the main display. If you also choose a background image this color will appear behind it.
- Text color – The color of text in the main display, and also in dialogs used for booking or finding rooms.
- Button color – The color of buttons.
- Button border color – The color of the border around buttons. Set this to transparent for no border.
- Button text color – The color of the text inside buttons.
- Dialog background color – The background color of dialogs used for room booking, meeting details, and room finding.
- Room free color – The color used to indicate that the room is currently free.
- Room almost booked color – The color used to indicate that the room is currently free, but will be occupied in the next ten minutes.
- Room booked color – The color used to indicate that the room is currently occupied.
Each of these colors can be tested in the live preview. The booking status of the preview can be changed using the toggle buttons above the main display.
MeetingPortal allows you to set a custom background image for the display. This can contain your logo, or other company colors and imagery, and can be used to further personalize the display with your branding.
It is recommended that you use an image with the same aspect ratio as your device, but if a different aspect ratio is used then MeetingPortal will scale the image so that the view is always entirely filled.
For best results, you should create an image that exactly matches the size of your device’s display in pixels. This ideal size for your device is shown underneath the Background image option.
MeetingPortal also allows you to display a custom logo. The chosen logo will appear at the top of the main screen. The ideal image size for a custom logo is 500 x 100 pixels, however you can use an image with a different size and it will be scaled to fit. If you would like to have your logo appear in a different part of the main display you can add it to your background image.
Booking and check-in
Book your room from the screen, find free rooms close by, and clear unused bookings automatically. Learn how to use MeetingPortal’s advanced features to manage your meeting spaces. All advanced features are optional, so make sure that you have activated and configured them by following the configuration instructions above.
Booking
The booking controls can be found at the bottom right corner of the main display (for horizontal devices), or at the bottom of the display (for vertical devices). To book the room, tap the button labelled Book now.
You will be presented with a booking screen showing four approximate duration: 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, and 2 hours. Tap the length of time you would like to book, and a booking will be made with the title “Manually booked”.
If you have chosen to allow booking the room in advance, there will also be a button Book a later time. Tapping this button will bring up a calendar display (showing a week on larger devices, or a day on smaller devices).
Move the calendar view backwards and forwards in time by pressing the arrow buttons on either side of the dates, or choose a date from the picker by tapping on the month displayed in the center of the screen. To make a booking, tap on an empty space in the schedule, and drag the booking to refine. When you’re done, press the Book button at the bottom of the screen. Note that users are always able to set the title and description of advance bookings, regardless of the value set for Users can set a message when booking in Settings.
If the room is currently booked, impromptu booking will be disabled. If future booking is enabled, MeetingPortal will launch the calendar view without showing the impromptu booking screen.
Check-in
The check-in feature requires all meetings to be manually checked-in when they start. To check-in a meeting, click the Check in button in the current/upcoming meetings section of the main screen.
If a meeting is not checked-in within 10 minutes of it starting, it will be automatically ended to free the room for other uses.
Extending and ending meetings
The current meeting can be extended if there is space in the room’s schedule. To extend a meeting, tap the Extend button in the current/upcoming meetings section of the main screen.
You will be presented with a screen similar to the booking screen, showing four durations: 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, and 2 hours. Tap the length of time you would like to extend, and the booking will be adjusted.
The current meeting can also be ended by tapping the End now button. The meeting will either be removed from your calendar, or edited to end at the current time, depending on the setting you chose for When ending meetings in the settings screen.
Find a room
Before using this feature, you need to select the calendars you would like to check (see the Rooms to check option in the Configuration settings described above).
The free rooms controls can be found at the bottom right corner of the main display (for horizontal devices), or at the bottom of the display (for vertical devices). To find a free room, tap the button labelled Find a room.
You will be presented with a booking screen showing all free rooms found. The list is ordered with the rooms having the most free time appearing first. You are able to book your desired room by tapping the corresponding Book now button. To complete your booking, follow the booking instructions above to select your desired amount of time.
MeetingPortal Setup Instructions (Android, No MDM)
Downloading the APK
- First download the up-to-date version of the MeetingPortal app here: https://poetexas.com/wallstation-resources/MeetingPortal.apk
Adding app to the device
- Upload it to your device and install in a way that works the best for your case (via a USB cable, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, from the link from chapter 1, etc.)
Activating the License
- If you don’t have your license key already you should receive it from our customer success team.
- Please send an email with the “MeetingPortal License Key Request” subject to success@poetexas.comIn the interface of the MeetingPortal app press the gear icon to enter the settings.
- Scroll down to the “Subscription” section of the screen, and enter your license key.
Uploading the new MeetingPortal app
MDM Provisioning
(NOT REQUIRED for non-kiosk devices)
Before you start:
Android, iOS, and other devices require an MDM system operate in true kiosk mode. We also recommend an MDM because you can control the devices’ profiles, distribute applications, configure system settings, remotely connect for assistance (on-premise permission required), track their status (battery, geolocation, etc.), and prevent any sort of tampering including in an event of physical theft.
If you need an MDM account set up and don’t already have an MDM, you can refer to our MDM Initialization Instructions to learn about a system we recommend. If you require assistance or have any other questions about an MDM please contact our customer success team.
Device Provisioning
To provision an MDM Device please accurately follow the steps described in Chapter 4 of the MDM Initialization Instructions or speak to your MDM service provider.
MeetingPortal Setup Instructions (Android, ManageEngine, Kiosk)
1. Downloading the APK
- First download the up-to-date version of the MeetingPortal app here: https://poetexas.com/wallstation-resources/MeetingPortal.apk
2. Adding the App to the repository
- Log into your ManageEngine account you created in the MDM+ABM Initialization Instructions (ManageEngine, Kiosk) – rev.4 document.
- Go to the App Repository page and click Add App->Android Enterprise App->Self Hosted Apps. For more information on enterprise apps please refer to ManageEngine’s documentation.
- Proceed to the license activation step (chapter 3). In the APK upload dialogue provide the MeetingPortal APK file you downloaded in chapter 1.
- Proceed to the license activation step (chapter 3).
3. Activating the License
- If you don’t have your license key already you should receive it from our customer success team.
Please send an email with the “MeetingPortal License Key Request” subject to success@poetexas.com - Navigate to the “Configurations” tab of the MeetingPortal app in your App Repository
- Locate the “License Key” input field and enter your license key.
- Press the “Save” button at the bottom of the page.
4. Modifying the Kiosk Profile
- Navigate to the “Kiosk (Wallstation Android)” profile in Profiles page and click “Modify Profile” as shown below.
- In the next screen click “Continue” and then navigate to the “Kiosk” tab.
- In the “Hidden Apps” field add the MeetingPortal app added in chapter 2.
- Save the profile. You should now have the MeetingPortal app operational alongside the ControlPortal app.
5. Uploading new MeetingPortal app versions
- Download the new APK from chapter 1.
- Navigate to the App Repository page and click the “Upload New Version” button as shown to the left.
- In the APK upload dialogue provide the MeetingPortal APK file you downloaded in chapter 1.
- The apps should be updated automatically by the MDM system at the soonest possible opportunity.
Accessing ControlPortal
- If you are using an MDM pre-configured Kiosk ControlPortal device it should connect to the Primary ControlPortal Gateway automatically as long as it is on the same LAN and the valid MDM kiosk policy is present (please refer to MDM Initialization Instructions or contact our customer support if you need to get an MDM system set up).
- If you are using an Android Device that is not Kiosk you can access ControlPortal by installing our ControlPortal Android App
- If you are using a device that supports mDNS/Bonjour name resolution (e.g. all Apple products, Windows 10 Build 1511+, some Linux distributions, etc.) you can use http://wallstation.local/ in Chrome or Safari browser to access ControlPortal on the same LAN.
- If you are connected to the COR-TAP’s Wi-Fi hotspot use http://wallstationwifi.local/ instead
- If you have a device that doesn’t support mDNS/Bonjour, use http://<primary-gateway-name> (where <primary-gateway-name> is the hostname of your Primary ControlPortal Gateway which you can find in your gateway settings, make sure to replace underscores (_) with dashes (-) if there are any underscores present)