JostleTV setup.

Purpose

JostleTV is an optional feature that allows you to stream your platform live on any number of connected display devices. Use this to provide an extra level of connectivity in an open office space or to communicate right onto your production floor. Ideal locations for TV's include break rooms, lunch rooms, and meeting rooms.

How JostleTV works

JostleTV is intelligent. It knows who its audience is, it knows what was just published on the platform, and it knows what content has been particularly popular. Our algorithms take all that into account to create an optimized steaming program in real time. JostleTV is not programmed like old-school digital signage, so less work for you and more current and engaging content for the viewers.

When you setup a specific JostleTV instance:

• You get to set its attributes like Location. This allows content to be targeted to a TV, just like you can target content to an employee.
• You get to set the viewing time. Short if people are walking by in a lobby; long if they are watching while they eat their lunch. JostleTV intelligently arranges a program based on this viewing time. Fewer items quicker for short, and more items longer for long.
• You can target content just at the TV by publishing it specifically to the corresponding JostleTV User.

Enabling JostleTV

System Administrators set up JostleTV. If its part of your purchased package, System Administrators can enable/disable JostleTV at Administration Settings > Views and Functions > Manage Views and Options. After this, they set up each TV instance, as described below.

If you're interested in adding JostleTV to your platform's subscription package, please contact Support or your Customer Success Manager.

Table of contents

1. JostleTV hardware
2. JostleTV programs
3. Configuring JostleTV
4. Setting up a TV to display JostleTV
5. Linking devices to JostleTV Programs
6. Fire TV troubleshooting

JostleTV hardware

The ideal viewing device is a widescreen TV with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

This TV needs to be connected to the internet via:

• A laptop (PC or Mac, running Chrome, Firefox, or Safari)
• An Amazon Fire TV stick (latest generation)
• A smart TV with a built in browser. If your Smart TV supports the installation of other browsers, JostleTV runs best on Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

Note that smart TV browsers do not behave consistently and Jostle does not test on them. Connecting via a laptop or a Fire TV stick assures compatibility.

Visit Amazon Help for Fire stick setup and troubleshooting.

JostleTV Programs

System Admins can set up one or more JostleTV Program, each of which can be linked to one or more devices (large screen TV's).

Targeted users

Each JostleTV Program has a Jostle user associated with it. Whatever content is visible to this user will be considered when the Program generates the content to stream next. This allows System Administrators to create a Program that shows content appropriate for the location of the TV(s) linked to it.

TIP: Use a dedicated Shared User account as the targeted user rather than assign the role to an existing user’s account. Shared Users do not have Profiles and cannot be found by Search.

Program content

The items that are shown in your Program will always be the highest-ranked items in the content target you selected for your Program. Ranking is based on a combination of three factors:

• Time since last shown (the longer the time, the higher the ranking)
• Time since posted (the longer the time, the lower the ranking)
• Social metrics/Likes, comments, views (relative to the content average)

Once an item gets published, its cycle for appearing in JostleTV should generally last for about a week. However, if an item has received a high number of likes or comments, it might be features as a "blast from the past:.

NOTE—if you don’t have enough current content, the system may pull some popular older items into the Program to avoid repeating the same current pieces too often.

Program length

The program length options are generally used to set how much time elapses before an item is shown on your JostleTV again. They’re not used to create a set cycle of items for your program, but rather to ensure that your items don’t get shown repeatedly within a set time frame.

Longer programs also spend more time per item, showing more of its content, where applicable. For example, say a News Article and an Album are currently in your JostleTV program:

• A Short program may show 2 Article comments and 2 photos from the Album.
• A Long program may show 5 Article comments and 5 photos from the Album.

With that knowledge, you can determine which program length would be suitable for the area(s) where you have a display running JostleTV. For example,

• Short programs would work well in high traffic areas, like hallways.
• Medium programs would be appropriate for front desk/lobby areas.
• Long programs would work best in lunch or break rooms.

Configuring JostleTV

If JostleTV is enabled, System Administrators will see "TV settings" on the Admin Settings Action Menu in the Main Navigation. This is where System Administrators set up and manage JostleTV.

Setting up a JostleTV Program

1. At the bottom of the Main Navigation, click the Action Menu icon (three dots) next to Admin Settings.
   
2. From the popover menu, select "TV settings".
3. Go to Programs and click "Add a Program...".
   
   
4. On the Add Program page enter a Name for the Program.
   
5. Then select your Program length (viewing time).
6. Choose a User with the view permissions you want to associate with the Program (see more below).
7. When you’ve completed the rest of the form, click Save at the top of the screen.
8. Your Program will now appear on the TV settings screen.

Setting up a TV to display JostleTV

To setting up a widescreen TV as a PC or Mac monitor, follow these steps:

1. Check that you have an available HDMI port on your PC/Mac and one on your TV (they look similar to USB ports, but wider and with notched ends).
2. Get an HDMI cable and use it to connect the ports on your PC/Mac and TV.
3. Using your TV’s remote control, set the TV to the input you’ve connected (usually it will say something like “HDMI 1”).
4. Mac: Your Mac screen should appear on your TV after a few moments.
   PC: Press the Windows button + P to open the Projector menu and select your display option (“Duplicate” will show the PC display on your PC and your TV, “Show only on 2” will only show the PC display on your TV).
5. If you wish, adjust the Display and Sound settings in your Windows Settings/Apple System Preferences.
6. Next, follow the "Linking a Monitor" steps below to run a Program on your PC/Mac.

Linking devices to JostleTV Programs

To view a JostleTV Program a System Administrator needs to link the viewing device to the Program. Exactly how to do this, depends on how your TV is connected to the intranet.

Multiple devices (TV's) can be connected to the same JostleTV Program. Such devices will display the same content in the same order, but not exactly in sync.

Linking a Monitor or Smart TV

(To link a Fire TV stick, skip ahead to here.)

System Administrators can link devices to a JostleTV Program, as follows:

• If using a widescreen TV as a laptop monitor,
  • • Open your browser
    • Log in to Jostle as the user the JostleTV Program is targeting
• If using a Smart TV, or similar display device:
  • • Connect the device to the internet and open its built-in browser
    • Using your laptop or phone, log in to Jostle as the user the JostleTV Program is targeting

Next, System Administrators have two alternatives for taking the next step:

1. Best option: On your monitor or SmartTV:
   • • Go to the Google Play store. Make sure you're on the TV Play store—some Smart TVs direct users to the mobile Play store.
     • Download the JostleTV app.
     • Open the JostleTV app.
2. Alternative approach: On your monitor or SmartTV:
   • • Open a browser tab
     • Type in this URL: https://tv.jostle.us.

Either way, a screen with a numeric code should appear. Copy down the numeric code.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Finally, follow the instructions below to apply this TV Code to the JostleTV Program.

Linking an Amazon Fire TV stick

NOTE—please refer to Amazon Help for any Fire stick specific setup and troubleshooting issues.

After setting up the Fire stick on the TV, System Administrators:

1. Go to the Fire TV home page.
2. Use Search (the magnifying glass in the top left corner) to locate the JostleTV app.
3. Download and install the app.
4. After it's installed, open the app. You should see the "Link this device to display a Program" screen. Copy the numeric code from this screen.
   
5. Finally, follow the in the next section to apply this TV Code to the JostleTV Program.

Applying the TV code

To apply this TV code, System Administrators:

• On any device, go to Jostle's Main Navigation, click the Action Menu (three dots) to right of Admin Settings.
• From the popover menu select "TV settings".
• Then go to Program and click on the name of the Program you want to run.
• Scroll down and click on "Link a device..."                                                                                         
• On the popup screen enter the TV code in the field provided.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
• Click "Link" and the selected JostleTV Program will now run on the linked device.
  If the linked device is a PC or Mac, the Program will automatically start running in a new browser tab, so you can switch to it right away.
  If your linked device is your connected Smart TV, there may be up to a 15-second delay before the Program begins.

Fire TV Troubleshooting

Program stops running on my Fire TV stick

Under some conditions, JostleTV sessions on Fire TV sticks stop running after a few weeks. When this occurs you will need to obtain and enter a new numeric TV code to relink the device with the Program.

System admins should be able to proactively prevent such timeouts, by doing this once every two weeks:

1. Click the Home button on your Fire remote to exit the JostleTV program.
2. Once returned to the Fire TV home page, wait for a few seconds.
3. Then select the JostleTV app from Recently Watched and relaunch the program.

Things are not working as expected on my Fire TV stick

If your JostleTV app isn't working on Fire TV as expected (for example, you see the Jostle sign-in screen instead of the "Link this device" screen), here are some options you can try to correct this:

• Force-stopping the app
• Clearing your app's cache
• Clearing your app's data*

and/or

• Uninstalling/reinstalling the app*, after which you will need to re-link the Program

*These options can all be found on the Manage menu on your Fire TV, located as follows:

1. From the Fire TV homepage, go to the far right of the menu bar and select Settings
2. Then open Applications and select Manage Installed Applications
3. Scroll down the menu and select Jostle
4. Select your desired action and when it completes, select Launch the JostleTV app (or, if applicable, reinstall the app and then launch)

I switched Jostle to a custom sub-domain and JostleTV stopped working

When you update your Jostle to a custom sub-domain, a System Administrator will need clear the data and cache (as described in the previous section) in order to get JostleTV app to correctly run on your Fire TV stick.