Prayer times on your screens

What you need

Time: 40 minutes for the first screen, 10 for each one after

  • OpenMasjidOS installed, and you are signed in.
  • Your masjid’s latitude and longitude.
  • One TV, and a decoder box for it.
  • No outside account. This app needs nothing from Stripe or anybody else.

Install it from the App Store, then click Open. It signs you in with your OpenMasjidOS login. Everything below happens inside the app.

The five tabs

Tab What it is for
Screens One entry per TV. This is where you get the link for each decoder box.
Timetables The prayer clocks themselves. Make as many as you like.
Sources Cameras and HDMI inputs.
Schedule Rules that change a screen automatically at a set time.
Settings Theme, time zone, and the volunteer page.

Work through them in that order the first time.

Step 1 — Set your location

Open Timetables and start a new one. Fill in the identity and location fields first.

Field What to put in it
Name (for you) A name only you see, such as Main hall.
Masjid name (on screen) What appears on the TV.
Location (under the name) Your town, shown under the name.
Latitude and Longitude Your masjid's coordinates.
Time zone Your own time zone.

Step 2 — Choose how times are worked out

Field What it does
Calculation method The convention your masjid follows.
Fajr angle (°) and Isha angle (°) Set these only if you choose a custom method.
Asr time The Asr opinion your masjid follows.
Calculation-method footnote A line on screen saying which method you use.

Step 3 — Choose what appears on the screen

These are switches. Turn on what your masjid wants.

  • Prayer times, Countdown to next prayer, Hijri & Gregorian dates, Sunrise
  • Seconds on the clock and Clock format
  • Show a countdown to Iqamah and Show an Adhan pop-up
  • Show the prohibited-time notice
  • Announce upcoming Iqamah changes, so the congregation gets warning before a time moves
  • Black out for (minutes after each Iqamah), which blanks the screen during the prayer

Step 4 — Add announcements

  • Scroll messages along the bottom, with Ticker scroll speed
  • Cycle announcement images, with Show timetable for (seconds) and Then show images for (seconds)

Step 5 — Make it match the room

Field What it does
Theme colour, Text colour, Background The colours.
Gold accent The highlight colour.
Pick the most readable colour automatically Let the app choose the text colour.
Orientation Portrait or landscape, for how the TV is hung.
Language (dates & labels) The language of the labels and dates.

Step 6 — Add the screen and point the TV at it

  1. Open the Screens tab.
  2. Add a screen. Fill in Screen name and Room (optional).
  3. Set Normally shows to the timetable you just made.
  4. The screen entry shows a video link. Copy it.
  5. Put that link into the decoder box at the TV.
Result:

The TV shows your prayer timetable. In the Screens tab the entry stops saying Offline.

Cameras and HDMI

Open Sources to add either.

Field What to put in it
Name What the volunteer sees when choosing it.
Type Which kind of source it is.
Camera or stream link The camera's own network link.
Imam camera Mark the camera pointed at the imam.
Picture quality Lower it if the picture stutters.

Once a source exists, a screen can show it instead of the timetable.

Changing screens without a computer

Settings, then Enable the volunteer page. That gives you a Volunteer page address — a simple phone page that lists your screens and lets somebody switch what each one shows.

For a change that happens every week, use Schedule instead. A rule has On these days, From, Until, Show, On which screens and Priority, so Jumu'ah can switch to the imam's camera and back on its own.

Prayer times on your masjid's website

In a timetable, turn on Allow embedding the prayer-times widget, then copy the Embed code and give it to whoever runs your website.

Checkpoint

One TV shows your prayer timetable, the Screens tab does not say Offline, and the times match what your imam expects.

If something goes wrong

What you seeWhyWhat to do
The screen says Offline.The decoder box is not playing the link, or it is not on the network.Check the network cable at the TV. Paste the link again, exactly as shown.
The prayer times are wrong by an hour.The time zone is wrong on the timetable.Set Time zone on the timetable to your own, not the server’s.
The times are a few minutes out from the printed timetable.A different calculation method or Asr opinion.Ask your imam which method the masjid uses, then set Calculation method and Asr time to match.
The picture stutters.Too much video for the network, or a weak decoder box.Lower Picture quality on the source, or the two Bitrate settings on the timetable.
The TV is sideways.Orientation does not match how the TV is hung.Set Orientation on the timetable to portrait or landscape to match.