Date & Time driven playback

Content Scheduler lets you loop videos and images on a set date and time schedule — for example, running duty-free promotions during peak shopping hours, or switching a gate's advertisement box to a "Welcome" message ahead of an arriving flight. You do this by scheduling a playlist, template or media for playback in a scheduler frame.

In this tutorial, we'll use a playlist and schedule it for playback in a scheduler frame; see how to Create a PLAYLIST.

A scheduler frame is a standard element you can add to your template in Designer. It can be any size — filling the whole canvas, or just a small advertisement box. It is meant to be reused across multiple templates so you can set up a schedule once for a whole group of templates or displays. If your schedule fits a single display, you can also assign it directly — see Assign media directly to a display.

Topics covered:

Content scheduler tab
Templates tab - Designer - Frames

TUTORIAL STEPS:

A) Create a new content schedule

Open the Content scheduler tab.
Click the New frame button in the lower right-hand corner. A New frame sub-window opens.

B) New frame window

Enter the Frame name.
Set the frame resolution in pixels. Keep in mind the media size which will be used on the content, it needs to match.
(optional) Select the Fade transition checkbox if you want the scheduled media items to fade out at they transition.
Click the Save button.

Tip: Transition content:

Set transition content by clicking the button and chose a file from opened Media library sub-window, which will be displayed for the frame in cases when:

no other content is assigned to the frame, else the frame is black,
content is displayed instead of cut video which is part of the playlist when a schedule with higher priority overrides this playlist and is about to be displayed.
In the case that there is no scheduled item.

Standard buttons for new file upload and folder creation are available at the window bottom. To select an item, scroll over the item and click on Choose button for the selected item or on the item line. Resolution match validation is applied.

C) Start setting up your new schedule

Click on the New Schedule button in the upper right-hand corner.

Select the type of content you want to schedule, for example, Playlists. A new Playlists sub-window opens.

D) Select your media playlist

Select your Playlist by clicking on the item.

Note: You can only select playlists with the media size that matches the size of the frame.

E) Define the frequency and validity of the display time of your playlist

Choose the frequency from the Period drop-down to display selected content in the frame.
Configure the time interval and schedule validity based on chosen Period.
Click on the Add button to add the configured schedule.

F) See your schedule in the list and the calendar

Add any further schedules according to your needs.

See the new schedule in the overview panel on the right-hand side.
Find the scheduled playlist in the calendar.
Save the schedule to make it active on the displays with the assigned template content.

G) Open the Templates tab and design new content to add your new frame.

When setting the template resolution, keep in mind the media size of the frame: it must match to completely cover the template with the frame, unless of course you want the frame to take up only part of the template. Then in the template designer:

Click on Frames icon and select the option Content scheduler.
Place the frame on the canvas. A new Frames sub-window opens for selection of your frame configuration.
Select the frame.

H) Check the position of the Content Scheduler frame on the template.

Click the Save & Publish button in the lower right-hand corner when your template is finalized and exit the designer.

I) Assign your new content template to one of your displays and open the SimpleVUE media player to check that the scheduled content is correctly rendered.

Note: See the tutorial - Assign Simpleway TEMPLATE to a display to a display - how to do these steps.

Date & Time driven playback - SCHEDULER