Plan Your Kiosk Setup

A family walks in with a toddler on one hip and a diaper bag on the other. Within a minute the kids are checked in, labels print right where they're standing and a friendly volunteer is already welcoming the new family behind them. That moment starts with how you lay out your kiosks.

A thoughtful kiosk plan keeps lines moving and gives your team time back every weekend. It also puts trained volunteers where first-time guests need them most. It protects your data too: when new families are added at one well-staffed spot, you avoid the duplicate records someone has to merge later.

No single layout is right for everyone. The configurations that follow are ones churches on Rock rely on every week, each with its own strengths. Mix and match the pieces that fit your building, your volunteers and your hardware. For the bigger picture of self-service, attended and decentralized check-in, see Intro to Check-in.

Match Kiosk Devices to Your Stations

In Rock, a kiosk device is a record under Admin Tools > Check-in > ti ti-device-imac Devices that holds a kiosk's settings, such as its locations and printing. One device record can serve many physical machines at once, so you decide how records map to the stations in your building. See Configure Kiosks for every setting.

One record shared by many stations - Keep setup light. Every station in an area uses the same settings, so any iPad or PC can take over for another and there are fewer records to maintain.

One record per station - Give each station its own identity. Each one can have its own printer and settings. When you enter the station's IP address on its record, the station is recognized automatically and opens straight to the Welcome screen, skipping the setup screen.

Mixing platforms - Share a record across iPads, PCs and browsers by leaving Kiosk Type blank, so Rock detects the platform on its own. If you use camera scanning on Windows or in a browser, Kiosk Type has to be set, which is why some churches on Rock keep one record per platform.

Consider a Volunteer Registration Kiosk

Adding a new family is where data quality is won or lost. When a guest types their own information at a busy kiosk, a quick search can miss an existing record and create a duplicate. To guard against that, some churches on Rock keep family registration at a kiosk staffed by a trained volunteer, while their other kiosks stay focused on quick check-in. Others allow adding and editing at every kiosk, so parents can add a visiting friend or update their household without waiting at the welcome desk. Choose the balance that fits your team.

Check-in-only kiosks - Let regular attendees check themselves in fast. With Allow Adding Families and Allow Editing Families turned off, families check in without changing records.

Volunteer registration kiosk - Turn on Allow Adding Families and Allow Editing Families for one kiosk staffed by a volunteer trained in quick, accurate data entry. That volunteer searches carefully before adding anyone, which keeps duplicates down. Use Allow Adding Individuals To Existing Families for finer control over who can be linked to an existing household.

Example - At Rock Solid Church, Alisha Marble sets up two self-service iPads in the children's wing and one volunteer kiosk at the guest desk. Regular families check in on their own, and first-time guests get a warm welcome from someone who gets their information right the first time.

Some churches on Rock split these records by platform too, with a self-service and an attended record for both iPads and PCs. To set up registration, see Intro to Registration and Configure Check-in Registration.

Choose a Platform

Check-in runs on the iPad app, the Windows app or a web browser. Each one prints and scans a little differently, as the following table shows.

You can mix platforms at the same campus. For setup details, see Use the iPad Application and Use the Windows Client.

Decide Where Labels Print

Where labels come out affects how smoothly families move through your building. Each of these layouts works well in the right space.

Shared printer - Point several stations at one printer. You'll buy and maintain fewer printers, which works well when stations sit close together.

Printer per station - Pair every station with its own printer. Labels print where the family is standing, so nobody walks to a printer across the lobby.

Printer per room - Send labels to a printer in the room each child is checked into, so name tags are waiting when families arrive. Set Print Using to Location Printer on the kiosk device, or to Group Type so each area decides with its own Print To setting. Then give each room its printer under Admin Tools > Check-in > Named Locations. Every label follows the room, including family labels like a parent's pickup tag, which prints in a child's room. If the kiosk prints from the device, it must be able to reach each room's printer on the network and the app's Printer Override must be empty, since an override sends every label to one printer.

Printer on the device - Plug the printer straight into the station: USB on a Windows PC or Bluetooth on an iPad. The printer needs no network connection, which helps when your printers aren't on the network or your Wi-Fi keeps devices from reaching each other.

To point a station at a specific printer from the device itself, use the Printer Override setting in the iPad or Windows app. For the kiosk settings that pair with it, see Intro to Printing. To manage printers in Rock instead, define them as devices and assign them to kiosks or locations. For how Rock decides which printer to use, see How to Print Labels and Define Printers in Rock. If your Rock server is hosted outside your building, see Set up Cloud Printing.