The Power BI App

The Power BI app puts a live report on your screens: sales dashboards in the office, production KPIs on the shop floor, live metrics in a meeting area. Each time the report comes on screen it's loaded fresh, so people see current data — no exports, no screenshots to maintain.

This page covers the Power BI specifics. For what all apps share — connecting accounts, playlists, reconnecting — see Apps & Integrations.

Before you start

  • The report must live in a shared workspace. Reports in your personal My workspace can't be shown — move the report into a shared workspace first.
  • The Microsoft account you connect must be able to view the report. Whatever that account can open in Power BI, it can put on screen — so many teams connect a dedicated viewer account rather than a personal one.
  • Microsoft's own licensing applies: viewing shared report content generally requires a Power BI Pro or Premium Per User license on the connected account, or the report hosted in Premium capacity. What licenses your organization and viewers need is defined by Microsoft's terms, not by Bohemica Signage — when in doubt, check with whoever manages your Microsoft licensing.
  • In some organizations, the Power BI administrator must first allow report content to be embedded in apps — the Embed content in apps setting in the developer settings of the Power BI admin portal.

Connect your Microsoft account

Connect the account on the Integrations page (Settings → Integrations) using Connect Microsoft — see Connecting an account for the full flow, department scoping, who can connect, and what to do if your organization requires an IT administrator's approval.

The connection asks for permission to read the Power BI reports the account can view, your basic profile, and permission to stay signed in. Bohemica Signage only opens the reports you add as playables, and it can't change anything in your Power BI environment.

Add a Power BI playable

  1. In the Playables section, click Add new playable, choose the App type, and pick Power BI.
  2. Copy a link to the report and paste it in. Any of these works:
    • the link from the browser's address bar while the report is open in the Power BI service — the easiest option;
    • the link from Power BI's Embed report → Website or portal option — paste the link itself, not the HTML code for embedding;
    • a Publish to web link (see Public links below).
  3. For a private report, pick the connected account below the link. The dashboard shows the name of the report it found.
  4. Check the pre-filled Name — a Publish to web link doesn't carry the report's name, so type one yourself — and click Create app playable.

There's nothing else to configure — the report is shown the way Power BI renders it.

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A link from a connected account remembers which report page you were on when you copied it. To show a specific page, open that page first and then copy the link. Publish to web links always open the report's default page. To rotate through several pages, create one playable per page and line them up in a playlist.

Once the playable is created, it gets a thumbnail for the library: Bohemica Signage opens the report, waits until it has finished rendering, and captures it. The thumbnail is refreshed daily. Playables made from Publish to web links don't get a thumbnail — the library shows a generic icon, and the playable's page shows a live preview.

On screen

  • The report is loaded fresh each time it comes on screen and shows the data current at that moment. It isn't re-queried while the slot is playing, so a long slot keeps showing the data from when it started.
  • A report from a connected account is displayed clean: the filter pane and the page navigation are hidden, so the screen shows the report itself. A Publish to web report appears in Power BI's own public viewer, the way Power BI presents it.
  • The report isn't interactive on a signage screen — design the page to read well without clicking or hovering (slicers and hover tooltips won't help viewers there).
  • Give it room: an app item plays for at least 60 seconds, and complex reports take a few seconds to render before they're readable.
  • The device needs internet access to Microsoft's Power BI service (at least app.powerbi.com) and to cdn.jsdelivr.net, in addition to your Bohemica Signage server. On restrictive networks, see Corporate firewall.

A report published with Power BI's Publish to web can be pasted without connecting any account. The playable's page then shows the Public link status. Such a playable always opens on the report's default page, and you name it yourself. Keep in mind that a published report is readable by anyone with the link — see the note on public links.

Limitations

  • Personal My workspace reports aren't supported — the dashboard tells you so when you paste such a link. Move the report to a shared workspace.
  • National and government cloud deployments of Power BI (for example Power BI for US Government) aren't supported.
  • A Publish to web link that was later disabled in Power BI can still look valid when pasted and only turn out broken on screen, where Power BI's own error message appears instead of the report. If a public report stops showing, first check that its publish link is still active in Power BI.

FAQ

The link is rejected with a permissions problem.

A: The connected account can't open that report. Sign in to Power BI as the connected account and confirm the report opens there — if it doesn't, have the report (or its workspace) shared with that account.

How fresh is the data?

A: The report is loaded anew every time it comes on screen, so it shows what Power BI has at the moment the slot starts; it isn't refreshed during the slot. The underlying dataset still refreshes on the schedule you've configured in Power BI — the screen can't be fresher than the dataset.

Do I need a special license?

A: Bohemica Signage doesn't charge extra for apps — billing is unchanged. On the Microsoft side, the usual Power BI rules for viewing shared reports apply (typically Pro or Premium Per User on the connected account, or Premium capacity), per Microsoft's terms.

Can I show more than one report page?

A: One playable shows one page — the one your link points at, or the report's default page for a Publish to web link. Create a playable per page and put them in the same playlist to rotate through them.

The screen says the content is temporarily unavailable.

A: The player couldn't load the report — most often the report was moved or deleted, Power BI is having trouble, or the device's internet connection dropped. The screen keeps retrying and picks the report up again on its own. If the notice says instead that the content needs to be reconnected by an administrator, the connected account needs a Reconnect — see When a connection needs attention.

Need help?

Stuck getting your report on screen? Contact our support team and we'll be glad to help.