Docs / Features

Screen sharing

Let anyone cast a laptop to a screen from a web page, with a PIN shown on the TV. Nothing to install.

Presenters share from a web page. There's no app to install, and the video goes directly from the laptop to the display over your network. The server only introduces the two.

#Share a screen

1. On the laptop, open the share address in Chrome or Edge, for example https://vistapane-server:8443/share/. Many screens show this address while they're idle.
2. Pick the screen.
3. Type the 4-digit PIN shown on the TV.
4. Choose Sharp text for slides and spreadsheets, or Smooth video for video, then click Start sharing.
5. The browser asks what to share: a tab, a window or the whole screen. To include sound, turn on the audio option in that window.

To share something else, click Share screen again and pick it. To stop, close the tab or click Stop sharing in the browser's bar.

If someone is already sharing, the page says so, and you can take over.

#The first visit: certificate warning

Browsers only allow screen capture on secure (HTTPS) pages, so sharing uses port 8443 with a certificate the Vistapane server made for itself. Browsers don't know that certificate, so the first visit shows a warning.

• One laptop: click Advanced → Continue to …. The browser remembers it.
• Every laptop, for good: download the certificate from Settings → Connecting devices and install it in Trusted Root Certification Authorities on presenter PCs, or push it with Group Policy or Intune.

#PINs and permissions

• By default, presenters need the PIN on the screen. Change this for the whole server with Require an on-screen PIN before someone can share to a screen in Settings, or per screen under Screens → Edit → Screen sharing: always require a PIN, never require one, or turn sharing off for that screen.
• Signed-in admins never need a PIN.
• PINs change whenever a share ends, so nobody can reuse one later.

#Admin controls

• Stop screen share on a screen's card ends any share.
• Admins can cast to several screens at once, for example to share a town-hall presentation in every room.

#What the network needs

The laptop and the display connect to each other directly. They must be on the same network, or on networks that are routed to each other.

• Guest Wi-Fi usually isolates devices from each other, which blocks sharing. Put presenters on the staff network.
• The share page uses UDP 3478 on the server to help the two find each other.
• If the page says Could not reach the screen over the network, see Screen sharing problems.