Order-Status Board (eSignage)
Overview
eSignage — short for Rewardly Esignage — is a customer-facing order-status TV board. It runs fullscreen in a browser on an Android TV (or any large display) and shows waiting customers, by order number alone, what's ready and what's still cooking.
It's the public face of your kitchen. Your staff never touch it — they drive it indirectly from the Kitchen Display (KDS). When a cook presses CALL #, MISSED, or DONE on the KDS, the matching number moves between this board's columns, and a CALL # also triggers a chime and a spoken announcement here.
One web app, two faces
The eSignage board is a separate web application from the KDS tablet app, but it logs in with the same KDS credentials and listens to the same live order events. There's no extra account to manage — you point the TV at the eSignage web address and sign in with a display account whose type is eSignage.
How it works
- The board shows order numbers only — no items, no prices, no customer names, no buttons to press.
- It groups every active order into one of three columns by status: READY TO COLLECT, IN PREPARATION, and MISSED.
- It connects to the same live order feed as the KDS, so the columns update the instant the kitchen bumps or calls an order.
- When an order is called, the board takes over the full screen with the number, plays a chime, and speaks the announcement aloud.
- Completed (collected) orders drop off the board automatically.
What it shows
The board fills the screen in three zones:
| Column | Status it shows | Looks like |
|---|---|---|
| READY TO COLLECT | Orders the kitchen has called | Big red number tiles on a black panel, down the left. Pages of called orders cycle automatically. |
| IN PREPARATION | Orders still processing | Grey number tiles filling the large centre panel. Columns grow as the queue grows. |
| MISSED | Orders marked missed at the KDS | Yellow tiles down the right. Cycles automatically when there are many. |
The READY TO COLLECT and MISSED columns auto-advance through their pages every few seconds so a long queue stays visible. Order numbers scale with the screen size for legibility from across the room.
Bean & Brew example: a customer orders two flat whites and gets ticket
42. While the baristas work,42sits as a grey tile under IN PREPARATION. When a barista taps CALL # on the KDS,42jumps to READY TO COLLECT, the board calls it aloud, and the customer comes to the counter.
Announcing a called order
When the kitchen calls an order, the board does three things in sequence:
- A near-fullscreen dark overlay shows the order number at huge size.
- A fixed chime plays.
- When the chime ends, the board plays a short spoken call-out for the order.
The overlay clears when the call-out finishes, and the called number keeps a brief highlight in the READY TO COLLECT column. A new call cancels any call-out already in progress.
The call-out is pre-recorded audio, not synthesized speech
The board does not read text aloud or use text-to-speech. The chime and the spoken call-out are fixed audio files that ship with the board. The call-out is assembled from three clips played back to back: a prefix clip ("Order…"), a clip for the specific order number, and a suffix clip ("…is ready"). Because the audio is recorded, the Call-speak template and Call-speak rate settings on the account are not applied by the current board — editing them does not change what customers hear.
Only orders 1–500 have a spoken number
A pre-recorded number clip exists for orders 1 through 500. For any order number in that range, the board speaks the full call-out (prefix + number + suffix). For an order number outside 1–500, the board plays only the prefix and suffix clips — the chime and overlay still fire and the tile still shows the number, but the number itself is not spoken.
Leading zeros aren't spoken
The spoken call-out plays the number's clip as a plain integer, so a ticket like 007 uses the "7" clip. The tile on the board still shows the full number — only the spoken call-out drops leading zeros.
Optional online-ordering QR code
If you switch it on, a QR code sits at the bottom of the READY TO COLLECT column under the caption SKIP QUEUE — ORDER ONLINE. Customers in the queue can scan it to order from their phones. The code points to your online-ordering link.
Setup
The eSignage board is one of the display types you create alongside your kitchen displays. The settings below live with that account.
Bean & Brew example: one TV above the pickup counter, calling drinks aloud.
- In the sidebar open KDS, then click Create — see Kitchen Display (KDS) for the full form.
- Set Type to eSignage, give it a Name, Username, Password, and the Outlet it serves.
- Fill in the eSignage-only options below.
- Save.
- On the TV's browser, open the eSignage web address, sign in with the username and password you just set, and the board appears.
Tick "Use fullscreen after login" on the TV
The sign-in page has a Use fullscreen after login checkbox below the username and password fields. Tick it before you press Submit and the board goes fullscreen as part of that same tap — no need to find the browser's fullscreen control. The choice is remembered on that device for future sign-ins, so the board comes up fullscreen after a reload or power cut. Pressing Submit also unlocks sound for the session, so the first call after login can chime and speak.
eSignage options
Set these on the eSignage account in admin (KDS → Edit):
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Call-speak template | Stored on the account but not used by the current board — the call-out is pre-recorded audio, so this wording is not spoken. | Order N is ready |
| Show online-ordering QR code | Adds the SKIP QUEUE — ORDER ONLINE QR to the Ready column. | Off |
| QR code value | The link the QR encodes — your online-ordering URL. Falls back to https://rewardly.sg if left empty. | — |
| Max column count | How densely the READY TO COLLECT column packs its number tiles. | 3 |
| Arrow direction | Optional arrow graphics on the call overlay pointing customers to the pickup counter — left, right, or both. | — |
Call-speak template and rate aren't applied
The account stores a Call-speak template and a call-speak rate, but the current board ignores both — the spoken call-out is fixed recorded audio (see Announcing a called order above). Editing the template wording or the rate has no effect on what customers hear.
Display tips for a TV
This board is built to run unattended for a full day, but a TV needs a little setup:
- Keep it always-on. Disable the TV's sleep/screensaver and any browser power-saving so the board stays live through quiet periods. The app cleans up after itself to keep a 24/7 Android TV browser stable, but the screen must stay awake.
- Use landscape orientation. The three-column layout is designed for a wide screen.
- Go fullscreen from the sign-in page. Tick Use fullscreen after login before you press Submit and the board fills the screen automatically — the device remembers the choice for next time. You can still trigger fullscreen manually from the browser, but the checkbox is the simplest way on a TV.
- Unlock sound at sign-in. Browsers block audio until someone interacts with the page. Pressing the login Submit button counts as that interaction and unlocks the chime and call-out for the session. If the board is already loaded and the first call is silent, a single tap on the screen (or any remote button) unlocks sound — do this after each fresh load that didn't go through the login button.
- Position it for the queue. Point the screen at the waiting area, and set the arrow direction to guide customers toward the collection counter.
Signing out
There's no logout button on the board — to sign out, tap the READY TO COLLECT heading. You'll return to the sign-in page. You rarely need this; the board restores its own session after a reload or power cut.
Connectivity indicator
The board carries its own health light: a small dot above the READY TO COLLECT title. It tracks the live order feed and is the one thing to glance at if the numbers look stale.
| Dot colour | Means | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Green | Connected to the live order feed | The board is current — numbers move the instant the kitchen calls or bumps an order. |
| Red | Not connected | The board has lost the feed and numbers will not update until the link is restored. |
The board recovers on its own — there's nothing for staff to tap. When it loses the feed it:
- Auto-reconnects — up to 10 attempts, with a 2–10 second wait that backs off between tries.
- Re-tries after a server drop — if the server itself ends the connection, the board reconnects roughly 5 seconds later.
- Self-heals — a health check runs every 30 seconds and re-creates a connection that has gone stale without the board noticing.
On every reconnect — and whenever the kitchen system pushes a refresh — the board re-fetches the full order list, so the columns catch up to whatever changed while it was offline. You won't see partial or missed numbers after a brief blip.
Different from the KDS tablet's banner
This is not the KDS tablet's offline banner. The operator Kitchen Display (KDS) shows a tap-to-reconnect status strip when its socket drops; the eSignage TV board has no banner and no tap target — only this dot. If the board looks frozen, check the dot's colour rather than looking for a button.
A red dot means check the network
If the dot stays red, the board can't reach the live feed — check the TV's network or Wi-Fi connection. Numbers will not update until the link is back, even though the last known board stays on screen.
Related
- Kitchen Display (KDS) — the operator screen that drives this board.
- Kitchen Display setup — where you create and configure the eSignage account.
- Online Ordering — the link behind the SKIP QUEUE QR code.
- Customer Display — the at-till screen for the paying customer.
- Order Management — the admin view of every order.