Licensing Digital Signage

[megelk]

For digital signage within an organization how would a company license the account that is logging in to display the static reports that are scrolling through on the display? Can a restricted service account be used with a Pro license to cover the digital signage display? We know this would work technically, but is it compliant from a licensing perspective?

[DMiradakis]

Chiming in to this ticket even though it's quite a while after the fact:

There is nothing wrong with using Power BI embedded and provisioning a service account. If Microsoft did not want you to do this, then they would not offer "Embed for your organization" in the Power BI Javascript SDK. This is actually how my digital signage app, Displagent, does this for my users. People provision a service account with a Power BI license, along with an Azure App Registration, and save the credentials into the app (which are then encrypted). Then, people use my app to display custom "slideshows" on TVs. It works very well, and that's what the Power BI Javascript SDK is there for.

[GilbertQ · Accepted solution]

Hi there

If you have the reports embedded and you are using a Power BI EM, A or P SKU you are then paying for dedicated capacity and the viewer would then be a free power bi user, and there would be no licensing impact.

From my understanding a single user viewing reports would need a Pro license. I do think that having a single user on multiple screens is a bit of a gray area for licensing.