The hardware
Which tablets to buy, from people who do not sell tablets.
This is the question that stops most spas, and the honest answer is that it barely matters. AltoSignal is software. Any screen that can load a web page can run it, and you buy the screens yourself, from anywhere, and own them.
A shopping list, not a specification. The parts worth reading are the three mistakes at the bottom.
A six-room spa
Nine screens, and where they go.
Nine screens, about 18 to 27 dollars a month all in. Staff seats are unlimited, so every therapist and host is free.
A small Fire tablet
Treatment rooms, the dispensary, back of house
- The cheapest screen that does the job, and they go on sale constantly.
- Mount it landscape — see mistake 01.
- Install AltoSignal from the Amazon Appstore.
- Buy one spare. They are cheap, and a spare beats a gap.
A larger tablet or an iPad
The front desk, the manager's office
- More room for the board, where somebody composes signals all day.
- An iPad out of a drawer is a perfectly good front desk.
- This is the screen that wants Spa Daylight.
A wall mount and a charger
Every screen that lives in one place
- Eye height beside the door, not behind it.
- Run power to it, and set it never to sleep — see mistake 02.
- Angle it away from the table, so a lit screen is never in a guest's eyeline.
Nothing else
No, really
- No wiring, no call buttons, no base station, no server, no on-site box.
- If a screen can load a web page, it can run AltoSignal.
The three that actually matter
Mistakes that make a good screen look broken.
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01
Mounting a small tablet in portrait
A small Fire tablet in portrait is 600 points wide, and at that width longer spa words wrap in the middle: Treatmen t 1, Housekee ping. It is real and it looks like a bug on day one. Mount it landscape, which is what a wall screen wants anyway, and it does not happen.
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02
Letting a wall screen sleep
AltoSignal alerts while the app is open and awake. That is a real limit and not a setting: a screen that has gone to sleep, or that has been left on another app, is not listening. Power every screen that lives in one place, set it never to sleep, and leave AltoSignal open on it. Phones that move around with staff are different — those are for people who will be looking at them.
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03
Putting a bright screen in a dim room
A white rectangle in candlelight undoes the room. Set treatment-room screens to Spa Dim and the front desk to Spa Daylight — each screen chooses for itself, before you even sign in. And if a room should hear nothing at all, that screen can switch its alert sound off entirely, which is per screen. The emergency alarm still sounds on it.
Roughly what it costs
The screens cost more than the software, once.
Tablets and mounts are a one-off spend, made at whatever pace suits you, and AltoSignal is 2 to 3 dollars per screen per month on top. You do not have to buy them all at once: the trial starts from two screens, so the front desk and one treatment room is enough to see whether the room turn works the way this site says. The pricing page has a calculator.
Questions
About the hardware
Do you sell the tablets?
No, and we do not take a cut of them either. AltoSignal is software; you buy screens wherever you buy anything else, and you own them. That is the whole reason a spa can start this week instead of waiting on an installer.
What is the cheapest screen that actually works?
A basic Fire tablet on a wall mount. Mount it in landscape rather than portrait: the small Fire is 600 points wide in portrait, which is narrow enough that longer button labels wrap in the middle of a word. Landscape is unaffected, and it is the orientation a wall screen wants anyway.
Does a wall tablet need to stay plugged in?
Yes, and this is the one thing worth getting right. AltoSignal alerts while the app is open and awake. A wall screen should be powered, set never to sleep, and left on AltoSignal. A phone in a pocket with the app closed is not a pager, and we would rather say so than let you find out during a busy Saturday.
Can we use the screens we already have?
Usually all of them. The front desk computer can run the browser version with nothing installed. Old iPads and old Android tablets are ideal for treatment rooms. A member of staff who moves around can use their own phone, and that screen costs the same as any other.
How many screens does a spa actually need?
Fewer than people expect, because you pay per screen and not per person. One at the front desk, one per treatment room you want to signal into, and one wherever housekeeping or the dispensary can see it. Six treatment rooms usually lands somewhere around eight or nine screens.
Two screens is enough to start.
Thirty days free, no credit card. Put one at the desk and one in a treatment room.