Interactive big screen games for bars: what actually gets played

Most bar TVs show a match nobody asked for. Here is what to put on the screen instead, why the phone has to be the controller, and how to run it on hardware you already own.

The screen you already own is doing nothing

Nearly every bar has a TV, and nearly every bar TV is showing a fixture nobody in the room chose, on mute, under subtitles nobody reads. It is the largest, brightest object in the venue and it is contributing nothing. Meanwhile every person underneath it is looking at a five-inch screen instead.

Interactive big screen games invert that. The TV becomes the thing people look up at, and the phones in their pockets become the controllers. No new furniture, no equipment to hand out, no member of staff running an event.

What actually gets played

The bar is a hostile environment for games. People are standing, holding a drink, half in a conversation, and they will give a new thing about fifteen seconds before they go back to scrolling. That rules out anything with a rulebook, anything needing a spare hand, and anything that has to be explained twice. What survives is short, obvious and social.

Head-to-head games

Two people, one screen, a minute or two. In Billbo that is Texas Hold'em played with virtual chips, a trivia duel in English or Hebrew, a quick-draw duel where you aim by tilting your phone at tin cans on the screen, and air hockey. The whole room watches; the two players do not need to know each other beforehand, which is usually the point.

Open-table party games

Last Call seats two to four people at once. Someone opens the table from chat, other people take a seat, and the host starts when the table is full enough. This is the one that pulls a group in rather than a pair.

Things that are not games but do the same job

A live poll on the screen gets more of the room involved than any game, because answering takes one tap and there are no losers. Photos posted from phones land in a gallery on the screen. The chat itself, rolling on a TV, is a surprisingly effective conversation starter - people write things they would not say out loud to a stranger, and then say them out loud anyway.

Why the phone has to be the controller

Any big-screen setup that needs its own hardware dies quietly. Controllers get lost, stolen, sticky and flat. Tablets bolted to tables get ignored. Anything you hand a stranger, you have to get back.

Phones solve all of that at once: everyone already has one, it is already charged, it is already in their hand, and it is private - your poker cards are yours, on your screen, while the shared board is public on the TV. That split is only possible because the phone and the screen are two different displays.

What it takes to run

Two apps. Billbo goes on phones, BillboTV goes on the screen, and they are paired once with a QR code.

For the screen you have two options and neither is expensive:

• A TV box or stick. An Android TV, Google TV or Fire TV Stick installs BillboTV from its own store. Dedicated, always on, survives you going home.
• A spare phone or tablet. Install BillboTV on it, pair it, then mirror it to the TV. No purchase at all if there is an old handset in a drawer.

Both apps are free to install, and a new saloon comes with a monthly allowance of messages, photos, games and polls at no cost. Busy venues can lift the limits with a premium subscription, priced by Google Play in your own currency.

Keeping the screen yours

The obvious worry with putting a room's chat on a six-foot screen is what someone will eventually post. The answer is an approval queue, which you switch on: with it enabled, newcomers wait before anything of theirs appears, and that rule is enforced on the server rather than only inside the app, so it cannot be worked around by a modified client. Regulars you trust keep posting instantly, and you can promote or revoke anyone at any moment. Screenshots of the room can be blocked too.

These are owner settings rather than defaults, so they are worth deciding on the day you set the screen up rather than the first evening something lands on it.

Where to start

Do not open with a game. Open with a poll - one question, four options, on the screen while people are ordering. It costs the room a single tap, it tells them the TV is listening, and the games get accepted far more readily an hour later. Here is how to run one.