How to Turn Any TV Into a Digital Whiteboard

Brainstorming is better around a whiteboard. One idea here, another there, someone circling the ideas that are most promising, another organizing feedback from around the room on post-it notes. Whiteboards are the original shared workspace, the rare tool that works best when used with others.

Digital whiteboards improve on an already good thing. No more dry markers or accidentally erased ideas. No more printing out designs to tape to the whiteboard when you can just drag in image files.

But how do you get everyone involved? Digital whiteboards are size-constrained. Microsoft’s default Surface Hub is a 50” or 85” screen; Samsung’s digital whiteboards come in similar sizes. Big, but still tough to see for folks in the back of the largest rooms.

What you need, instead, is to link your whiteboard to your digital signage—and broadcast the ideas around your office. Here’s how.

Building a multi-purpose digital whiteboard

Digital whiteboards are oversized tablets, iPads the size of TVs. When sold as a digital whiteboard (rather than just a touchscreen), they typically come with built-in whiteboard software designed for that device.

Microsoft’s Surface Hub, for example, is powered by Windows, and runs the Microsoft Whiteboard app by default. Samsung Interactive displays are powered by Android and include a custom Samsung MagicIWB whiteboard app.

Both of those include built-in sharing options. Anyone on your team can join your Microsoft Whiteboard with a Microsoft account, or see shared Samsung whiteboards from the Samsung Share app.

Your whiteboard is a computer, though, one powered by Windows or Android. That means that you could run any whiteboard app you want—and that you could put your screen to better use during the times it’s not needed as a whiteboard.

For the latter, if you’re already happy with your digital whiteboard’s sketching app, all you need to add to the equation is a digital signage app like ScreenCloud. Then, when you’re finished brainstorming and sketching on the whiteboard app, open the ScreenCloud app to turn your digital whiteboard into a hub for your team’s dashboards, company calendar, announcements, and more. And switch back again to the whiteboard app when it’s time to sketch out ideas.

Add a simple online whiteboard to your digital signage

For better whiteboard software, then, there are dozens to choose from. Everything, seemingly, has a whiteboard app today. Zoom has one, to use in your group calls. ClickUp built one to go alongside your projects. Apple ships its Freeform whiteboard app on every new Mac and iPad. Market leaders Miro and Mural include enough features to mock up anything you want on a virtual whiteboard.

Collaborating on a virtual whiteboard on computers is easy. What’s tricker is if you’d like to broadcast your digital whiteboard and let everyone around your company see it. We tested over 20 different whiteboard apps, and found that a handful of the simplest digital whiteboard apps are the best to get digital whiteboards that work everywhere.

The simplest option, OnlineBoard, is the best way to share a whiteboard with almost any device. It’s also the easiest to set up in ScreenCloud to both share whiteboards and sketch on them in ScreenCloud touchscreen devices.

Go to onlineboard.eu/new for a ready-to-use digital whiteboard—no account or apps required. It’s basic, with merely a handful of digital colored markers, an eraser, and an emoji reaction button. But that’s enough to digitize the traditional whiteboard experience.

Sharing is where OnlineBoard shines. Click Share, copy the link, and send it to your colleagues, and they’ll be able to contribute to the virtual whiteboard from any device.

OnlineBoard can run from almost anything with a browser. If your digital whiteboard has a browser built-in, copy your sharing URL and open it on the whiteboard for a collaborative sketching experience. Or, you could stream OnlineBoard to any TV or other digital signage in your office with ScreenCloud the same way.

First, with your OnlineBoard sharing link in hand, open ScreenCloud’s Link sidebar and add your OnlineBoard’s link. Then, add your OnlineBoard app to the playlist or channel that’s currently playing on your digital whiteboard TV or another touch compatible PC or iPad, and enable ScreenCloud’s touch mode if you haven't already.

Now, try drawing on your signage—and you have a whiteboard running right inside of ScreenCloud. No more switching between apps, one for sketching, another for slides. With OnlineBoard plus ScreenCloud, you’ve got a whiteboard that works seamlessly inside your digital signage—one that can be streamed live to every other digital signage in your office at the same time.

Want more whiteboard app features? Another great option that can livestream your whiteboard inside ScreenCloud is TLDraw. It’s a free, open-source whiteboard app that includes a library of shapes to mockup ideas, with pen smoothing to make your handwriting and sketches look a bit nicer. It, too, makes collaboration as simple as sharing a link, one you can add to ScreenCloud to stream your whiteboard to the whole office.

TLDraw is just as easy to stream to all of your office TVs as OnlineBoard—though it doesn’t support drawing through ScreenCloud. Instead, open TLDraw on a touchscreen—either a dedicated digital whiteboard screen, a touchscreen-enabled laptop, or an iPad or other tablet—and sketch your ideas there. Then add TLDraw to ScreenCloud and stream the sketches to your office signage so everyone can see what’s being sketched, in lieu of buying a full digital whiteboard or to increase your digital whiteboard’s visibility throughout the office.

One thing to note with both OnlineBoard and TLDraw: If you add their sharing links to ScreenCloud, your team will be reusing the same virtual board every time it needs to sketch ideas. You’ll want to screenshot your whiteboard sessions and erase the board before switching away—or, will want to change out the whiteboard link in ScreenCloud before each meeting for a fresh, clean board.

Add Miro, Mural, and other whiteboard apps to digital signage

The most advanced whiteboard apps, including Miro and Mural, go far beyond just markers and pens. They’re built for brainstorming and roadmapping, post-mortems and planning. They’re built for collaboration, and work just as well with a mouse and keyboard as with a pen—but can’t be shared to ScreenCloud digital signage with a link.

On a purpose-built digital whiteboard, you could run either app on its own, switching back to ScreenCloud for regular programming. Or, if you’d like to sketch and mindmap on a computer or tablet and stream your whiteboard app to an office TV as an ad hoc digital whiteboard, you can do that as well with ScreenCloud Dashboards.

In Dashboards, you’ll open your whiteboard, teach ScreenCloud which part of it is important, then ScreenCloud will follow those steps and run it in a virtual browser whenever you need a whiteboard on the big screen.

First, in your whiteboard app, copy a sharing URL that lets visitors view your whiteboard (we tested Mural and Miro, and both worked perfectly). Open ScreenCloud dashboards, start a new instance, paste the whiteboard URL, and click go.

Now, click through anything you need to get to your whiteboard. Mural asked for a username and how to view the whiteboard; Mira had a small popover inviting you to sign up for an account. Dismiss those as normal, and ScreenCloud will learn what to do next time. Once you’ve got just the whiteboard, click Finish Journey and Take Screenshot, then click Select Entire Screen.

Save your dashboard and add your new whiteboard to your ScreenCloud playlist or channel. Then, the next time you’re brainstorming ideas on a laptop or tablet in your conference room, the whole team can see what you’re describing on the conference TV, without gathering around your laptop or without needing to purchase a new digital whiteboard device.

If you've set up smart TVs like Samsung Tizen with digital signage, you can easily use your screens for other aspects of brainstorming as well.

Stream Apple Freeform, Zoom Whiteboard, and more to digital whiteboards

A final way to get any digital whiteboard app showing across all of your screens is to jump on a call. There's no way to directly integrate Zoom Whiteboard, Apple Freeform, or many other popular whiteboard apps that run natively on your Mac or PC with a standalone digital whiteboard or digital signage. You can, instead, stream them on a video call to add them to your signage.

Start a Zoom call, turn on Zoom's whiteboard feature, or share your screen to broadcast Apple Freeform or other whiteboard app, and sketch away.

Anyone who joins your group call can see the whiteboard and, in Zoom at least, jump right in and contribute. You can also add digital signage to the call. With ScreenCloud Broadcast, you can stream your Zoom, Teams, or any other live OBS video stream to digital signage. That’s great for all-hands calls, but equally great to get your digital whiteboard visible throughout the whole office.

And if you still want to use the built-in whiteboard app that came on your device, this is likely the only way you can share that whiteboard more broadly.

Tip: Check ScreenCloud Broadcast docs to get Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or other video calls streaming on your signage.

Building a connected team with digital signage

Want to do more with your new whiteboard signage? ScreenCloud is packed with features that can make your meeting room signage just as valuable outside of meeting hours as it is during them. Your signage can be a smart wall calendar that shows when the next upcoming meetings will start. It could be a heads-up display, showing any data and charts that are important to your company. It can even put your PowerPoint slides to work, keeping your team reminded of this month’s agenda.

Next time it’s time to start a meeting, all you have to do is switch ScreenCloud over to your whiteboard app—or build a GraphQL and Zapier automation to switch your signage automatically to the whiteboard app when it’s time for a meeting—and you’ll be ready to brainstorm as a team.

Better yet, when inspiration strikes and you want to put a quick announcement on your digital signage, your quickest way to do so might be to sketch something in your whiteboard app, and share it around the office with ScreenCloud. If you don’t have ScreenCloud-powered signage yet, sign up for a free 14-day ScreenCloud trial and get your first digital signage added to your office for better collaboration and idea sharing.

Image Credit: Header image by Kaleidico via Unsplash. Digital Whiteboard photo via Samsung.