Setup

Getting your wall onto a screen

The live wall is a web page, so anything that can open a web page can show it. That said, the methods are not equally dependable, and the differences only announce themselves on the night. Here they are in order.

What will you use?

Two questions, then we will tell you exactly what to buy — or what to check first.

If you want the short answer

Put a laptop next to the TV and join them with an HDMI cable. Open your live wall link, press full screen, and stop the laptop going to sleep. That is the setup least likely to embarrass you, and it is the one we would use ourselves.

Before you buy a USB-C adapter

A USB-C port that charges and moves files will not necessarily carry video. Sending a picture needs a feature called DisplayPort Alt Mode, and plenty of devices simply do not have it. The port is the same shape either way, the adapter fits perfectly, and nothing happens — which is a miserable thing to discover an hour before guests arrive.

Reliably carries video

  • MacBook Air and Pro, 2016 onward
  • iPad Pro and iPad Air with USB-C
  • iPhone 15 and later
  • Dell XPS, Surface, ThinkPad X1 and similar

Often does not

  • Budget Windows laptops
  • Many Android phones — it varies by model, not by brand
  • iPhone 14 and earlier (Lightning — needs Apple’s AV adapter)
  • Ports marked only with a battery icon

How to check in ten seconds: look for a small D-shaped DisplayPort symbol or a lightning bolt beside the port, or search your model plus “DisplayPort Alt Mode”. If you cannot confirm it, borrow a laptop with a real HDMI socket instead. Do not find out on the day.

Every way to do it, best first

1

HDMI cable from a laptop

Most reliable

Unglamorous and almost impossible to get wrong. No network between the laptop and the screen, so nothing to drop out halfway through the speeches. If you only rehearse one method, rehearse this one.

What you need
One HDMI cable. That is the whole list.
Works with
Any laptop with an HDMI port, any TV or projector made this century.
Sound
Sound travels down the same cable to the TV. Nothing to configure.
2

USB-C to HDMI adapter

Solid

Read the warning below before you buy anything. This is the method that fails on the day, and it fails for a reason nobody expects.

What you need
A USB-C to HDMI adapter, plus an HDMI cable.
Works with
MacBooks (2016 and later), iPad Pro and Air, iPhone 15 and later, some Windows laptops, some Android phones.
Sound
Same as HDMI — audio rides along with the picture.
3

The TV’s own web browser

Solid

Genuinely the tidiest option when it is available: the TV is the whole setup. The catch is typing a URL with a remote control, so use your event’s short link rather than a long one. Not every smart TV ships a browser — Roku, notably, does not.

What you need
Nothing. No cable, no laptop, no second device.
Works with
Most Samsung (Tizen) and LG (webOS) smart TVs.
Sound
Straight out of the TV speakers — the shortest path there is.
4

Fire TV Stick

Solid

A cheap way to give a browser to a TV that has not got one. We test the live wall against Silk specifically, because it renders differently from Chrome and we have had to fix it before.

What you need
A Fire TV Stick, using its built-in Silk browser.
Works with
Any TV with a spare HDMI port.
Sound
Out of the TV, same as the built-in browser.
5

Chromecast (cast a tab)

Works, but

Tab casting re-encodes everything and sends it over your venue’s Wi-Fi. On a quiet network it is fine. On a Saturday night with 120 guests on the same access point, it is the first thing to stutter. Use a cable if there is one within reach.

What you need
A Chromecast or Google TV, and Chrome on a laptop.
Works with
Any TV with HDMI.
Sound
Audio is sent with the tab. It works, but it is compressed and can drift a fraction behind the picture.
6

Apple TV (AirPlay)

Works, but

Reliable when the Wi-Fi is good and both devices are on the same network — which is exactly the assumption that breaks at unfamiliar venues with guest network isolation.

What you need
An Apple TV, and a Mac, iPhone or iPad.
Works with
Any TV with HDMI.
Sound
Follows the mirrored screen to the TV.

Where the music comes out

POVshare plays the music as well as showing the photos, so the sound has to go somewhere sensible. Whichever method you pick, the audio follows the picture — but a television is built to be heard from a sofa, not across a room of a hundred people talking.

If the venue has a PA or a sound desk — run a cable from your laptop’s headphone socket, or a small USB audio interface, into their system. This beats TV speakers in every room bigger than a living room. Ask the venue beforehand which connector they want; a 3.5mm to dual mono jack lead covers most of them.

If it is just the TV — that is fine for a room of twenty or thirty. Turn the TV up before guests arrive rather than during, and check it from the far corner, not from beside the screen.

If you connect Spotify — connect it on the device driving the screen, not on your phone. That device is the one playing to the room, and guest song picks land in its queue. Press play on Spotify before guests start scanning; it refuses to accept queued songs until something is already playing.

Ten minutes before guests arrive

  • Stop the screen sleeping

    A laptop that locks itself at 10pm takes the wall with it. Mac: System Settings → Lock Screen → set everything to Never. Windows: Power & battery → Screen and sleep → Never.

  • Silence notifications

    Turn on Do Not Disturb. A message preview sliding across the wall during the first dance is the one failure nobody forgives.

  • Go full screen

    F11 on Windows, Control-Command-F on a Mac. Hides the address bar and the tabs, so it reads as a display rather than as somebody’s laptop.

  • Plug into power

    The wall runs all evening. Battery does not.

  • Scan your own QR code

    Do it from a phone on mobile data, not on the venue Wi-Fi — that is what your guests will be using, and it is the path most likely to be blocked.

About venue Wi-Fi

Here is the reassuring part: your guests do not need the venue’s Wi-Fi. They scan the code and upload over their own mobile data, so a saturated guest network does not stop photos arriving.

The device driving the screen is the one that matters. Give it the best connection in the building — a network cable if there is a socket, or your own phone as a hotspot if the venue Wi-Fi is shared with a hundred guests. It is one device needing one steady connection, which is a much easier problem than it sounds.

Still not sure what your setup needs?

Create a free event and test it

Free events work on every display method here. Try it on your own TV first.