Looking to see if anyone has made an "on air" type display so others know I’m on a call

So obviously WFH and planing to do so for the foreseeable my company has taken to it really well.

I’m on about 6-8 meetings a day, my home office is setup so from my desk I have a view.from my window but this means my camera faces the door so my wife.comes in while I’m on calls and it bothers her as she’s like to know when I’m on a call…

So my idea was old Android tablet linked.to a webpage in kiosk mode, then sonoff button when I’m on a call I hit the button the screen shows on a call,.when I’m done hit the button again shows im free.

So… Anyone got any ideas how to go about this?

Looking for inspiration :slight_smile:

A couple of people have discussed doing this for the same reason over the last year, but I think most have gone with just a light that comes on or a particular color light. Those are pretty easy to do. (Over the years, people have also done something similar to indicate that the security system is armed or not armed.)

Here are some discussions of similar projects:

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Status Indicator Light
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Philips Hue Go with SmartThings as a status indicator light?

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I think I’d just use plug in lights on the door frame and a smart plug. A hardware button seems a little ironic unless your computer is seriously locked down.

Also, I know @jody.albritton did exactly this project, but I don’t think he’s posted a project report with the details yet. :sunglasses:

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I just wanted to post the same @jody.albritton did an “On Air” project.

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When you are yourself connecting to a video call, I agree, turning on the signal light by voice or app first should be easy. But the button is a good option if you are working from home and you get business calls from other people. As the phone is ringing and you see who it is you can just hit the button and answer the call simultaneously. At least most people can. So it has its uses in a work from home situation where you have incoming calls as well as scheduled meetings. Choice is good. :sunglasses:

My next tutorial will be an “on-air” endpoint smart app. The app subscribes to the Zoom user presence webhook and when zoom sends a busy event it turns on a light outside of my office and makes it red. When the available event is sent, the light gets set back to its previous state. The whole thing runs as a very simple express server and can be exposed with ngrok or hosted on a platform like heroku or glitch.

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The “on-air” tutorial is live now

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Just wanted to mention another device which is now my favorite for this particular use case.

It’s a small tower table lamp, intended as a nightlight, with RGBW options. it has a press button on top for manual control. or you can control it with a voice assistant or through a SmartThings integration. No custom code needed. And right now it’s on sale for $31. Put it on a small table outside the meeting room, and you’re all set. :sunglasses:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08CKGXVL3/

Also available in the UK.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08KXYZW8C/

This is from Meross, it’s well engineered with good safety features. And also works with HomeKit.

We have two of these and really like them for notifications. :sunglasses: