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Sideload deployment

Sideload deployment

Section titled “Sideload deployment”

The BrandCast display app can run on an ordinary Android tablet you already own, installed by hand, instead of on Sentinel hardware that arrives pre-configured. The screen shows exactly the same content either way. What changes is how much of the tablet BrandCast is allowed to manage for you.

This page covers life after the install. Getting the app onto your own tablet — where to download it and what it asks for the first time it opens — is arranged with the BrandCast team. Once it’s installed and paired, this page describes what’s different.

When this mode makes sense

Section titled “When this mode makes sense”
  • Demos and trade shows, where hardware travels with you and the setup is temporary.
  • Pop-ups and seasonal spaces that won’t outlive the tablet already on hand.
  • A single venue installing itself, without waiting on a hardware shipment.
  • Regions where Sentinel hardware isn’t available yet.

For a permanent screen in a staffed location, Sentinel hardware is still the better answer — everything below is the reason why.

Why anything is different at all

Section titled “Why anything is different at all”

When BrandCast ships you a Sentinel tablet, the app is registered with Android as that tablet’s device owner. Android grants a device owner rights over the whole device: it can lock the screen to one app, restart the hardware, and hold onto settings the user can’t undo.

A tablet you set up yourself runs the very same app as an ordinary installed app. Nothing about the app is cut down — Android simply doesn’t hand it those management rights. Every difference on this page traces back to that one fact.

What changes

Section titled “What changes”
Sentinel hardware Your own tablet
Shows scheduled content Yes Yes
Pairs from the admin dashboard Yes Yes
Reconnects and reloads itself after a dropped connection Yes Yes
Locked to BrandCast so staff and customers can’t leave the app Yes No
Reboot from the admin dashboard Yes No — the button is greyed out
Label on the display card STANDARD SENTINEL / PRO SENTINEL ANDROID

The recovery behaviour on the third row is worth stating plainly, because it’s the part people assume they lose: if the network drops or the page stalls, the display notices and reloads itself. That watchdog is part of the display app, not the device management, so it works the same on your own tablet.

Reboot is the only control in the dashboard that turns itself off. Open the display’s detail panel and expand Danger Zone: the Reboot button is disabled, and hovering it explains why — “Managed mode required for hardware reboot.”

Two buttons that don’t turn themselves off

Section titled “Two buttons that don’t turn themselves off”

Shut Down and Factory Reset stay active in Danger Zone on a self-installed tablet, and both are harder to undo here than on Sentinel hardware. Treat them as unavailable:

Shut Down powers the tablet off, and you cannot turn it back on from BrandCast. On Sentinel hardware a mistaken shutdown is recoverable remotely. Here, with Reboot disabled, the only way back is someone standing at the screen pressing the power button — as the button’s own tooltip warns, “Recovery requires a physical power cycle.”

Factory Reset wipes the tablet — “all settings including WiFi and Admin PIN,” per the button. A Sentinel tablet comes back from that on its own. A tablet you installed by hand does not: you would repeat the original installation and pair the display again from scratch.

Ongoing responsibilities

Section titled “Ongoing responsibilities”

Nobody at BrandCast can reach into this tablet, so a few things become the venue’s job:

  • Physically secure the tablet. Without the kiosk lock, anyone can press Home or Back and leave BrandCast. A wall mount or an enclosure that covers the buttons does the work the software would otherwise do.
  • Keep someone able to reach the screen. A wedged or powered-off tablet is fixed on site, by hand.
  • Set the tablet’s own display timeout to never, and keep it on mains power, so the screen doesn’t sleep mid-shift.
  • Check the venue’s timezone matches the tablet’s. Schedules follow the display’s timezone — see Display Settings.

Troubleshooting

Section titled “Troubleshooting”

The Reboot button is greyed out

Section titled “The Reboot button is greyed out”

Expected on a self-installed tablet: restarting the hardware needs the management rights only a provisioned Sentinel device has. Power-cycle the tablet by hand at the screen. If you need remote reboot at this location, it’s a reason to move the site onto Sentinel hardware.

This display is labelled ANDROID, not Sentinel

Section titled “This display is labelled ANDROID, not Sentinel”

Also expected. The display card labels a device by what it’s allowed to do, not by which app it runs — a self-installed tablet is an ordinary Android device to BrandCast, so it shows as ANDROID. Content, scheduling, and zones are unaffected.

The label is still wrong after the tablet was properly provisioned

Section titled “The label is still wrong after the tablet was properly provisioned”

BrandCast records what the device could do at the moment it paired, and doesn’t revisit it afterwards. If a tablet’s management rights changed after pairing, the dashboard keeps showing the old ones. Unpair and pair the device again to refresh it — open the display’s detail panel and use Unpair · Change device on this display, described in Pairing Devices.

What’s Next?

Section titled “What’s Next?”