# Grafana Dashboards on Digital Signage and TV

> Put Grafana dashboards on NOC and office screens. The server renders an image, so screens never talk to Grafana and keep the last picture if it goes down.

Source: https://screentinker.com/integrations/grafana-digital-signage

## Grafana dashboards on digital signage, NOC walls and office TVs

Show the dashboards your engineers already built on any screen, without putting a Grafana login on a TV. The ScreenTinker server renders the dashboard to an image, and every screen of the same size shares that one picture.

### How it works

- **The server renders, the screen displays.** ScreenTinker asks Grafana for a PNG of the dashboard, or one panel, and sends the image to screens. The screen never talks to Grafana and never holds a Grafana token.

- **One render per screen size.** Screens of the same size share a render, so ten lobby screens don’t mean ten renders.

- **It stays up when Grafana doesn’t.** If Grafana stops answering, screens keep the last image with a small “Showing the last image” note.

- **Refresh on your schedule.** Every 5 minutes by default, and as often as every 30 seconds.

- **Works on every player.** It’s an image, so even an old TV browser shows it.

You can show a single panel instead of the whole dashboard, set a time range such as `now-6h`, pass template variables (`var-host=web1`) and pick a light or dark theme. A Grafana public dashboard also works as a public link, with no token.

### Set it up

- **Install the Grafana Image Renderer**, as the plugin or as the remote rendering service. Without it nothing renders.

- **Create a service account** in Grafana with the **Viewer** role, and add a token.

- **In ScreenTinker**, an organization owner or admin opens Settings → BI dashboards → Add a connection → Grafana, and enters the Grafana address and the token. **Test** also checks that the renderer is there.

- **Add a BI Dashboard widget**, choose the connection and **Browse** for a dashboard, or enter its UID (the part after `/d/`).

- Put the widget in a playlist and assign it to your screens.

Full options are in [docs/bi-dashboards.md](https://github.com/screentinker/screentinker/blob/main/docs/bi-dashboards.md).

### Grafana on your own network

The ScreenTinker server connects to Grafana, not the screen. On hosted ScreenTinker, private addresses (10.x, 192.168.x, `localhost` and so on) are refused, so a hosted server can’t reach into your LAN. If your Grafana is internal only, [self-host ScreenTinker](https://screentinker.com/guides/self-hosted-digital-signage.html) on that network and switch on **Allow a private network address** for the connection. Cloud metadata and link-local addresses stay refused either way.

### Limits

- The Grafana Image Renderer is required.

- It’s a picture, not an interactive dashboard: nobody can click into a panel on the screen.

- A hosted instance can only reach a Grafana that is on the public internet.

### FAQ

#### How do I put a Grafana dashboard on a TV?

Install the Grafana Image Renderer, create a Viewer service-account token, add a Grafana connection in ScreenTinker’s Settings, then add a BI Dashboard widget and pick the dashboard. Put the widget in a playlist for the TV.

#### Does the TV need to log in to Grafana?

No. The ScreenTinker server renders the dashboard to an image and sends that. The token stays on the server, encrypted.

#### What happens if Grafana goes down?

Screens keep showing the last image, with a small note saying so, until Grafana answers again.

#### Can I show a Grafana instance that is only on our LAN?

Yes, with a self-hosted ScreenTinker on that network: turn on Allow a private network address for the connection. Hosted ScreenTinker refuses private addresses.

### Related

- [Power BI dashboards on digital signage](https://screentinker.com/integrations/power-bi-digital-signage.html)

- [Tableau dashboards on digital signage](https://screentinker.com/integrations/tableau-digital-signage.html)

- [Screen offline alerts in Slack, Teams and PagerDuty](https://screentinker.com/integrations/slack-teams-offline-alerts.html)

- [Enterprise digital signage: SSO, roles, audit](https://screentinker.com/solutions/enterprise-digital-signage.html)

- [All digital signage integrations](https://screentinker.com/integrations/)

### Put your Grafana dashboards on a screen

Add one connection and every screen can show your dashboards. Start a 14-day Pro trial on hosted ScreenTinker: up to 15 screens, every feature, no credit card.

[Start your free trial](https://screentinker.com/app#/login)

Or host it yourself, free and open source: [self-hosting guide](https://screentinker.com/guides/self-hosted-digital-signage.html) · [GitHub](https://github.com/screentinker/screentinker)