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With the introduction of Fugo's support for on-premise app casting & TV dashboards, organizations who self-host their own data can now take advantage of Fugo's easy-to-use management system to get their local reports, dashboards, or desktop apps up on TV screens without any data leaving a local network.

In this guide, we'll show you how to cast local desktop apps to your digital signage screen/s with our Local App Casting feature.

Let's dive in!

The Local App casting features works by connecting to your local IP address to access your desktop app, then taking & streaming screenshots of your app every second for an as-close-to-live as possible preview of your app.

In order to cast your app, you'll need to install Fugo's TV Dashboards Control Center app onto your desktop and follow a few instructions to share your dashboard.

1.1 Install Node.JS onto your desktop from https://nodejs.org/en/download.

1.2 Download the app installation file from fugo.ai/fop.exe onto your desktop.

1.3 Launch the file. You can usually do this by double-clicking on it.

1.4 The file will install itself without prompting you for any extra configuration.

The app will automatically do two things:

Once installed, the app can be closed & opened like any regular desktop app.

Fugo is a web based player application that will run on any consumer or professional display or media player device.

You'll need to install Fugo player application onto your device & pair it to Fugo CMS. You can follow the set up & pairing instructions for your particular device platform in our hardware help center or get there quickly with these links 👇

If you don't have a TV screen or media player device for testing, you can use our Chrome extension player as a stand in.

You will pair your device to Fugo from inside our CMS. You can log in or sign up for a 14-day free trial here.

3.1 Sign into your Fugo account (or set up a free trial here.)

From here, you are going to configure the Local App Screenshots app in Fugo CMS. There are two ways to configure the app: directly from the playlist builder or from the Design Studio. We'll demonstrate both.

What's the difference?

3.2 Go to Apps in the top navigation bar and select the Local Apps Screenshots app from the store.

Click Try App.

3.3 Choose which screen you want to publish the app to and hit Publish.

You can use the screen you paired in section 2 or choose Create Screen and install our Chrome extension player to stand in for a screen if you don't have one yet.

3.4 The app window will launch; the preview and settings will be blank. We're going to configure it with the help of the Fugo Control Center app that you installed in section 1.

3.5 Open the Fugo TV Dashboards Control Center app on your desktop. In the Local dashboard recorder tab, copy the Fugo Server Local IP Address and Port number and paste it into the corresponding Local IP field in Fugo CMS.

3.6 Switch the the Apps to cast tab. This will show you a preview of all your open desktop apps.

Copy the name of the app you want to cast into the corresponding App Name field in Fugo CMS.

In my example, I've used my browser which is running a Hubspot dashboard.

3.7 Your selected desktop app will now load in the preview port so you can check that your cast has worked.

3.8 Set the Duration for this app. That is, how long you want this app to be displayed inside a playlist. You can change this any time from the playlist builder.

3.9 Click Save Changes when you're done.

3.10 Back in the playlist builder, you can either hit Publish to push it to your screen right away, or use the Scheduler to get more specific about which days and times this content plays on screen.

Check out this guide to learn about publishing playlists in more detail.

3.1 Go to Studio in the top navigation bar and click Create in Studio to open a new design canvas which you can start adding content to.

3.2 To add the Local App Screenshots app, choose it from the Apps menu in the left-hand panel. Search for it to find it faster.

3.3 Drag and drop the app onto your canvas from the menu. Or simply click on it and it will be added to your current slide.

3.4 Customizing the app settings works the same way in the Design Studio as it does in the Playlist Builder. All settings will be found in the panel to the left. To bring up the panel, click on the app from the canvas.

3.5 Open the Fugo TV Dashboards Control Center app on your desktop. In the Local dashboard recorder tab, copy the Fugo Server Local IP Address and Port number and paste it into the corresponding Local IP field in Fugo CMS.

3.6 Switch the the Apps to cast tab. This will show you a preview of all your open desktop apps.

Copy the name of the app you want to cast into the corresponding App Name field in Fugo CMS.

In my example, I've used my browser which is running a Hubspot dashboard.

3.7 Your local desktop app will now load in the preview port on your canvas so you can check that your cast has worked.

The studio has plenty of tools to help you customize your content even more! Do things like:

In my example below, I've cropped the local casting app that's showing my Hubspot dashboard and fit it into my layout along with the weather, clock, and CNN apps - all customized in my brand colors.

3.8 When you’re satisfied with how your content looks, click Save and Close. This will close out the design studio and save your content in your Studio content library.

To publish this content, you’ll need to add it to a playlist. Select Publish from the 3-dot menu.

3.9 Choose which screen you want to publish the app to and hit Publish.

You can use the screen you paired in section 2 or choose Create Screen and install our Chrome extension player to stand in for a screen if you don't have one yet.

3.10 You can either hit Publish to push it to your screen right away, or use the Scheduler to get more specific about which days and times this content plays on screen.

Check out this guide to learn about publishing playlists in more detail.

If you need help cast, you can reach out to our support team at support@fugo.ai or book a call with our team to walk through your set up over a call.

Want to learn more about how Fugo can help you with displays in your organization? Book in a free demo to see the platform in action & chat with us about your project!