Paste the dashboard's published web link into Brix's BI Dashboard app, and it plays on any screen. A dashboard that needs a sign-in does not work that way: Brix's render agent opens it inside your own network instead, and sends Brix a picture of it. Your credentials and sign-in session stay on your network; only that picture reaches Brix.
Does Power BI have a "show on TV" mode?
Power BI has a Full screen mode: select View > Full screen, and Microsoft's own documentation says it "removes all UI elements for presentations or kiosk displays." It still needs a signed-in browser open on a computer, so closing that browser, locking the computer, or losing the sign-in stops the screen. The built-in option that keeps working without an open browser is Publish to web: it turns a report into a link anyone can open, with no sign-in, and that link is what a signage player, such as Brix, can show on a screen.
Show a public Power BI dashboard on a screen
Set the report's view mode to Fit to page with a 16:9 page size before you publish, so it scales to fill a TV. Fit to page can still show gray bars down the sides (Microsoft calls this letterboxing) when the report's own shape is not exactly 16:9, so match your page size to your screen where you can. Keep each chart's text large enough to read from across the room: a dashboard built for a laptop screen often shrinks too small on a TV.
Do this once per report:
- Ask your Power BI administrator to turn on the Publish to web tenant setting, if your organization has not already. Without it, Publish to web (public) stays unavailable to you.
- In Power BI, open the report. Select File > Embed report > Publish to web (public). This option needs a Power BI Pro or Premium Per User licence for a report in a shared workspace; a report in your own My Workspace needs a Power BI licence. Confirm the data is safe to make public, then copy the link.
- In Brix, open Apps and add the BI Dashboard app.
- Paste the link into Published dashboard URL.
- Set Reload every to 5, 10 or 30 minutes, to match how often the report's data changes. Set it to Off for a report that never changes.
- Add the app to a playlist, and put that playlist on the screen.
The same app, with the same steps, plays a published Tableau Public view or a Grafana Cloud public dashboard: paste the public link in place of the Power BI one. Looker Studio needs its own /embed/ link instead: in Looker Studio, select File > Embed report, select Enable embedding, then copy the Embed URL.
What if the dashboard needs a sign-in?
Publish to web only works for a report you can edit yourself. Microsoft also excludes a report secured by row-level security, a live connection, or a shared semantic model, so many company dashboards cannot use it at all.
Brix's two self-serve sign-in link kinds do not fit a Power BI dashboard. Recorded login replays a saved sign-in, and Power BI's Microsoft Entra sign-in can ask a new browser for a multi-factor code or push, which a recording cannot answer. Single sign-on passes a token or an SSO connection straight to a page that accepts it; Power BI's sign-in is Microsoft's own interactive Entra flow, not a page built to take a token that way.
For a Power BI dashboard that needs a sign-in, use Brix's render agent: a program that runs on a computer inside your network, opens the dashboard there with your own signed-in session, and sends Brix a picture of it.
A render agent is not a self-serve toggle. Brix's team turns it on for your workspace after a short network and permissions review, and then you run the agent on a computer that stays signed in and powered on. One agent handles about 30 dashboards at once on an ordinary 2 vCPU, 2 GB computer; add a second agent with the same token for more. Talk to us to set one up.
Published link, render agent or a DIY mini PC: what each one needs
| Published link (BI Dashboard app) | Brix render agent | A mini PC in kiosk mode | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup | Paste a URL, once your Power BI admin turns on Publish to web. | Brix's team enables it, then you run the agent on a computer on your network. | Buy a PC, hide the taskbar, set auto-login, disable sleep, add a kiosk shortcut. |
| Works with a signed-in dashboard | No. The link itself must be public. | Yes. Your sign-in stays on your own network. | Only while that PC stays logged in and online. |
| Screen turns off at night by itself | Yes, with Screen hours. | Yes, same screen settings. | No. You disable sleep instead, so the PC and TV stay on. |
| Who notices if the screen goes dark | Brix (offline alerts). | Brix (offline alerts). | Whoever happens to walk past. |
| Ongoing upkeep | None. | The computer stays signed in and powered on; sign in again if the session expires. | Windows updates, a dead HDMI cable, a logged-out account: all on you. |
If the report can go public and your Power BI admin allows Publish to web, the published link is the fastest path. If it must stay signed in, the render agent keeps the sign-in on your own network instead of handing it to a vendor. A mini PC still leaves nothing watching it: a frozen browser tab or an expired Windows session shows a stale screen until someone notices.
FAQ
Does Brix have a Power BI connector?
No. Brix has no OAuth connector into a Power BI account, and no automatic import of your Power BI content. It plays a Power BI report's own published link, or, for a signed-in report, a picture the render agent draws inside your network. A vendor that offers to "connect to your Power BI" directly may need your IT admin to grant OAuth consent to your Microsoft workspace; by that kind of vendor's own description, that access may need re-approval if your permissions change.
Is a Power BI "Publish to web" link safe for sensitive numbers?
No. Microsoft's own documentation warns that anyone with the link can view it, with no sign-in, and that this includes the detail-level data behind the chart, even if the report itself only shows a summary. Use Publish to web only for a report you are fine making public. For anything with real numbers in it, use the render agent instead.
Can I rotate several Power BI reports on one screen?
Yes. Add one BI Dashboard app per report, then add every app to the same playlist. The screen rotates through them in the order you set.
How often does the screen refresh?
Brix reloads the dashboard on the schedule you pick: off, or every 5, 10 or 30 minutes. A Power BI Publish to web link caches its own data for up to an hour; a scheduled Power BI refresh clears that cache, so reloading Brix sooner only shows the same cached numbers until that refresh runs.
Can I show this on a Fire TV Stick or an Android box?
Yes. The BI Dashboard app runs on the same screens as any other Brix app: the Signage Stick, Fire TV, an Android box, a TV with Google TV or Android TV built in, or the Windows player. Opening it in a browser tab works for a quick look, but a wall display should use one of those players instead.
I need numbers that update the moment they change, not on a timer. What then?
Nothing here is instant. The BI Dashboard app shows the live published page in a frame, and the render agent sends a picture of the dashboard; both refresh on the timer you set, not the moment a number changes. A spreadsheet or JSON feed is not instant either: Brix checks the source every 2 hours, or right away when you select Sync on that data source in the CMS. See live data on a screen.