Skip to main content
Version: 11.x

Power BI

The Power BI integration allows you to display dashboards and reports from a Microsoft Power BI workspace directly on your screens. This makes it easy to share business insights, KPIs, and real-time data across departments, locations, or teams.

This feature is especially useful for:

  • Visualizing key performance indicators (KPIs)
  • Sharing department or company-wide metrics
  • Displaying dashboards in office environments
  • Presenting real-time data without requiring user interaction

How it works​

When connected, Smartsign authenticates and embeds visual content from a selected Power BI workspace and dataset. The selected report or dashboard is then rendered on screen directly from Power BI.

Smartsign can retrieve and display:

  • Dashboards
  • Reports
  • Pages within a report
  • Live data depending on your Power BI workspace configuration

Requirements​

To connect to Power BI, you must authenticate using a Microsoft 365 work account with access to the appropriate workspace.

You will need:

  • Adequate licensing (Power BI Pro or Premium Per User)
  • Access permissions to the specific Power BI workspace
  • Screens must be able to reach https://powerbi.smartsigncloud.net

Some permissions may require administrative approval. If you do not have sufficient rights, you can request approval during the connection process and continue once approval is granted.

Known limitations
  • For security reasons this data source will not work on legacy hardware due to insufficient support for modern encryption standards.
  • Requires a modern browser, see Player/screen limitations below

Please see Legacy Hardware Support for affected devices.

Video guide​

Setting up the datasource​

To show Power BI in a template you need to set up and authenticate the datasource to access the data.

  • Go to Templates and Datasources.
  • Select Add template datasource and Create new alt text
  • Browse available datasources and choose Power BI. alt text
  • Configure the datasource by entering name and description.
  • Authenticate datasource and select your workspace. alt text

Setting

Description

Example
Connect a Microsoft365 account

Click to connect with a Microsoft365 account and authorize access to your data.

A consent dialog will appear. Some permission may require an administrator of your company to consent to before you are able to use this data source.

A service account with access to Power BI report/dashboard you want to display content from.
Workspace Select the workspace containing your dashboards/reports My workspace
  • Click Create to finish.
  • Once created, you can confirm that data has been fetched and Datasource is now ready to be used. alt text

Power BI template​

When the datasource is configured, you can use a Power BI template to display the feed on your screens.

Smartsign offers a few default Power BI templates available in the Marketplace and you can also design your own using the Template Creator.

In this example, we will create a template from scratch.

Create Power BI template​

  • Go to Templates
  • Select Add template and Create new. alt text
  • Add name & description for the template and click create to start editing. alt text
  • Configure the template to match your screen. In this case we will use a fullscreen template. alt text
  • In the Datasource tab, select connect new datasource and select the Power BI datasource. alt text alt text
  • Draw a square to match the width and height of the template. alt text alt text
  • When square is selected, select the data binding tab and connect to the Power BI datasource and select a report or dashboard to use. alt text
  • Preview the template to verify data connection is working. alt text alt text
  • Save the template an it can now be used to publish dashboards and reports from the datasource.

Using the template​

Since the original template is now available in the Templates menu, the recommended best practice is to create a dedicated folder in the Media Library where you store copies of this template. Configure each copy to display the specific dashboard or report you want to show. This ensures that the original template remains unchanged and allows you to manage all configured versions neatly within one folder.

Create media in media library​

  • Go to Media
  • Create or select a suitable folder. alt text
  • Open the folder and click Add Media alt text
  • Select Use Template alt text
  • Choose the Power BI template. A copy will now be created in the folder. alt text
  • Use Advanced Editing to change the dasboard or report you want to show. alt text alt text
  • Save when done and the Power BI is now ready to be published. alt text

Technical information​

Player/screen limitations​

New browser requirements 2024-08-31

Microsoft has decided to impose new browser requirements for Power BI. After 2024-08-31 the minimum browser version will be Chrome 94. On Android, Windows and ChromeOS devices the browser may be possible to upgrade, but for other embedded devices it's not possible in general. If your displays are affected by this, we suggest changing the template display mode to Snapshot. This will show a periodically updated snapshot of the template which is not limited by the device's built-in browser.

Power BI renders dashboards and reports as webpages. The browser requirements for those webpages is outside of our control and may change at any time.

Depending on the complexity of the dashboard/report, the processor/memory of the device may be a limiting factor. As a general rule we recommend that you only show a single report or dashboard at a time and use a minimum duration of 1 minute.

Below list of known working players/screens (assuming latest firmware) at the time of writing (2024-08-09). If your screen is older it will not work.

  • Qbic BXP-100 (Android 10 and higher)
  • Smartsign Windows Player 10.20 and higher
  • Smartsign ChromeOS Player
  • Samsung SSSP 11 (Tizen 2023-) and newer
  • Philips 3550Q/4550D/3650Q/4650D (Android 8-11)
  • Sony Bravia PRO (Android 10)
  • Iiyama LHxx54UHS/LHxx75UHS

Permissions required​

Smartsign Power BI integration, Application (client) ID : 5aa3206d-0c55-49e4-ac40-2acd3fe45ac6

API Permission Microsoft description Used for
Microsoft Graph User.Read Sign in and read user profile Allows users to sign-in to the app, and allows the app to read the profile of signed-in users. It also allows the app to read basic company information of signed-in users
Power BI REST API Workspace.Read.All Read all workspaces Allows the application to read all workspaces on behalf of the signed-in user
Power BI REST API Dashboard.Read.All Read all dashboards Allows the application to read all dashboards in a workspace on behalf of the signed-in user
Power BI REST API Report.Read.All Read all reports Allows the application to read all reports in a workspace on behalf of the signed-in user