Zone playlists



How do I add Content to a Zone?

To add start adding content to a zone (known as playlist items), either Double Click the zone or click the 'Edit Zone Playlist' button:

Now you can select from the available content types to begin building your playlist:

Note: If you only have one playlist item in the zone, then this will play on repeat. If you have more than one item, the timings for each item will be used (along with other conditional play rules) to determine how long and when each item will play.

Text

This will insert a text content item to the playlist. You can then customise the text and formatting by clicking the blue 'Edit Text and Formatting' option:

Media

When you click to add media, a new panel will open with the ability Browse your media library, select an item and insert this into the zone.

Once you've found the media you want, you can add it to playlist by either:

Double Clicking

Dragging and dropping from the library

Selecting the item, the clicking 'Insert Media'

Playlist

Browse the already configured Global playlists and insert them into the playlist. 

Widgets

Browse the selection of widgets available. Each widget will have it’s own set of configurable settings that may be required to be set before the widget will display in the zone.

Plugins

If a Plugin has been added to your account, it can be inserted into a zone here. A range of plugins are available offering extended functionality. Each plugin will have its own set of configurable settings.Creating a playlist

Each zone can have an unlimited amount of playlist items, this then creates a playlist. The playlist can be made up of a mixture of the playlist items, which are 'Text', 'Media', 'Playlist', 'Widget' and 'Plugin'.

When you have added a zone, you can double click the zone or click 'Edit Zones Playlist' to enter the zone where you can view and edit the zones playlist.

Adding Playlist Items

To add a playlist item, simply select it from the options bar at the top of the screen. The playlist item will then be added to the zones playlist, where you can edit its settings and customise the item.

Changing Playback Order

When you add multiple playlist items, you will see each item will be giving a number for the order they will be shown, if available. The order can be changed by simply dragging and dropping the playlist items. The playlist will play from top to bottom, once the last playlist item has shown, the order will be played on a continuous loop.

You can then edit each playlist items settings, things such as the timing of the items can be changed to determine how long it shows for before moving onto the next available item. You can select multiple items and change specific settings which will be configured for all the items selected.

Once you are happy with your playlist, click 'Finish Editing Playlist' or the 'X' in the top right corner to save your playlist and go to the layout builder overview.

You can then preview your layout, by clicking 'Save Changes' and selecting 'Save & preview'.Overview of Playlist item settings



If you have added a playlist item into a zone, you would have come across some settings that can be edited. This article is going to go through each setting in more detail and let you know how and why it is helpful to edit these. If and when the settings have been changed, you will see the settings update in the items summary. (not all settings are available on each playlist item - sizing only occurs on media items)

Timings

The time chosen is how long this playlist item will show before moving onto the next available playlist item. If you only have one playlist item in your zone, this will play continuously so this setting is irrelevant.

You can set the time this item shows for by filling out the options available in 'Hours', 'Minutes' & 'Seconds'. The 'Repeat' option, when selected, will show this item on repeat meaning it wont move onto the next available item. The 'Play Item Until Finished' option is only available for videos, and if selected will move onto the item once this video has played through fully once otherwise it will move onto the next item in relation to the time set.

Conditional Play

Conditional play allows you to add and set rules to schedule the playlist item to show. These rules can be dependant on time of day, days of the week, specific date ranges, weather condition, temperature, wind and connectivity of the device. If you set these rules the item will only show when all of the rules set are matched. By default items are always available to show, so conditional play isnt necessary if you want this to be the case.

You can add multiple rules, simply click 'Add rule' and fill out the relevant information. As mentioned before all rules set must be matched for the item to be available to show.

Sizing

The sizing setting is only relevant to media items, and is how the item will be shown inside the zone. The options available are:

Letterbox - Will display your item in the size, in pixels, it was uploaded with. If the item is smaller than the zones dimensions, the item will have margins assigned.

Stretch - Will stretch the media item to the size of the zone. If the item is stretched it may become disorientated/ blurred.

Crop - Will crop the image to be the size of the zone it is in. Used if the image is larger than the zones dimensions, crops from the top left of the item.

Animation

Choose how your playlist item enters the zone every time it shows, by selecting an animation. If you only have one playlist item, this animation will take effect when the page first loads. If you do not want an animation, simply choose 'None'.

Triggers

You can set actions to occur on a target when a specific playlist item starts or ends by adding triggers.

For instance you could set a trigger to show a hidden zone when a specific playlist item starts and then hide it when a playlist item ends.

To add a trigger for when the playlist item starts, simply click the 'Add New' button to the right of the text, 'When playlist item starts', choose your action and associate a target.Follow the procedure to add a trigger for when the playlist item ends, but make sure to click the 'Add New' button to the right of the 'When playlist item ends' text.To remove a trigger, simply click the 'Remove' button to the right of the trigger you wish to remove.

Interactivity

You can add interactions, if your device has interactive functionality, to your playlist items, which can perform actions on chosen targets.

To add an interaction, simply select a touch event, choose an action and associate a target. With these options you can do things such as 'When a playlist item is tapped, activate a specific playlist item in a different zone'.You can add multiple interactions, by clicking the 'Add New' button. If you have multiple interactions with the same touch event, each interaction will be called in the order they have been set. Remove an interaction by clicking the 'Remove' button to the right of the interaction you wish to remove.

Tags

Tags can be used for: Filtering, Dynamic Media Items, Device Conditional Play and User Groups..

You can add these tags to playlist items, by entering the name of the tag you wish to add. To remove a tag, simply press the 'x' icon to the right of the tag you wish to remove.

Playlist Item - Text

You can add and format custom text to your content by using the text playlist item, this article will take you through how to add it to a layout and customise the formatting.

Add to your layout

To add a piece of text to your layout, you have to add the text playlist item into a zone. Select your designated zone and enter the zones playlist by either double clicking on the zone, or click 'Edit Zone Playlist'.Next, select text from the playlist item options at the top of the screen to insert a text item into your zone.

Configure Settings

You will see the text item has been added to the zones playlist. You can then configure its settings, by either selecting them from the items overview or from the options displayed on the right hand side when the pencil icon has been clicked.

These settings include the items timings, conditional play, animation, triggers, interactions and tags.

(To find out more about these settings, click here)

Edit text & formatting

You can view the current text that this text item is showing, in the text settings, by clicking the pencil icon. You can apply a scrolling text feature, where you decide when the feature occurs and the speed. To edit the text, click the blue bar that states 'Edit Text & Formatting'.

You will then see your text item, showing the current text, in your zone on your layout.

To edit the text, highlight the text and begin to type. The formatting settings are displayed on the right hand side, just simply highlight the text and edit the formatting settings. Once you are done, click 'Save Changes' to be taken back to the zones playlist.

The formatting settings that can be changed are:

Font type

Font colour

Font size

Line height

Letter spacing

Ident

Alignment

Whether to insert word breaks

Bold/ Italic

Underline/ Overline/ Strikethrough

Uppercase/ Capitalize/ Lowercase

Margins (left, right, top, bottom)

Shadow (x, y, blur, colour)

Once you are happy with your playlist, click 'Finish Editing Playlist' or the 'X' in the top right hand corner to be taken back to the layout builder overview.Playlist Item - Media

Upload media to account

Firstly, you need to upload the media to your account. Do this by going to the 'Media' section of your account and then following these steps.

Add to Layout

To add a media item to your layout, you have to add the media playlist item into a zone. When in the layout builder, select your designated zone, either double click or click 'Edit Zone Playlist' to enter the zones playlist.

Select media from the playlist item options at the top of the screen.

OPTIONAL - Search for media item

When the media playlist item has been selected you will see a search area and a list of all the media items previously uploaded through the media section of your account.

You can search your media library to find you media item easier, by using the left hand side options.

Order - This is the order in which your media library is shown in the right hand area. (if you wanted to insert the last media item you uploaded, could use the 'Uploaded Date - Newest first' option)

Search - Type in the file name you want to search for (embed.mp4)

Show Folders - Will show the media items in their folders, if they are inside folders. If unselected all media items will be displayed in a list.

File Types - Can search for specific file types (if you want to insert a video, can just select 'Video' to search your library for all the videos previously uploaded)

Tags - If your item has a tag, can type this tag to search for all items with this tag

Insert Media Item

Once you have found your media item in the right hand area, you can select it and insert it into the playlist. in a few ways:

Select one or multiple items and click 'Insert selected'

Double click the media item in the right hand area

Drag and drop the media item from the right hand area

You can also upload new media here, rather than going back to the media section of your account, by clicking the 'Upload new' button underneath the library on the right hand side.

To close the search/ library options, click 'Close'.

Configure Settings

Once you have inserted your media item(s) into the playlist you will see them on the left hand side, in the order they will play from top down. You can then configure their settings, by selecting them from the items summary or from the options displayed on the right hand side once the pencil icon has been clicked.

Once you are happy with your playlist, click 'Finish Editing Playlist' or the 'X' in the top right hand corner to be taken back to the layout builder overview.Overview of Dynamic Media Item

The Dynamic Media Item (DMI) feature allows users to build a playlist of media using tags. Users can then specify a playback order (A-Z, newest to oldest etc) as well as adding custom playback sequence rules.

How to set up a DMI

Step 1:

Upload your media and then tag the items (i.e. Slot 1, Slot 2 etc):

Step 2:

Create your layout and in a zone add a Dynamic Media Item (DMI).

Using the Dynamic Media Item option you can determine what items and how they will playback by configuring:

Order - Choose to play items randomly, A-Z, Z-A, newest first or oldest first

Tags - Type the tag(s) that you want to be pulled into the DMI

Create Playback Sequence - The first box is where you specify the total number of items to play per sequence for a specific tag.

The next box is to specify which tag or file type you want to play.

Playback Sequence Example:

The below set up would give the playback sequence of: 1a, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6a, 1b, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6b, 1a, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6c, 1b, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6d and so on...

Here is a preview of what this DMI set up will show based on the Playback Sequence Rules set:

Overview of Global Playlists

A global playlist allows you to create and manage a single playlist, which can be used in multiple layouts, from a single place.

Create Global Playlist

To create a global playlist, navigate to the 'Global Playlists' section of your account and click 'Add New'. You will see an area, similar to the layout builder. The bar at the top shows the resolution (resolutions from devices registered), orientation, zoom and show/ hide sidebars. An area that states the number of playlist items and the total running time of the playlist, depending on the timings set on the playlist items. You can change the playlists name and then edit the playlist by clicking the 'Edit Playlist Items' button.

Edit Playlist

You can add a mixture of an unlimited amount of playlist items, the same way you do when adding a playlist item into a zone. The only option you can not add to a global playlist is another global playlist

Once you are happy with your playlist, click 'Finish Editing Playlist' or the 'X' in the top right hand corner. To save you a playlist, click 'Save Changes' and select what you want to do after the save.

Save & Exit - Save playlist and exit to the global playlist section of your account

Save & Continue editing - Save playlist but stay on this page to continue editing

Save & Publish - Save playlist and choose the channel(s), that this playlist is associated to, to publish (will only show previously published channels with this playlist)

Add to a Layout(s)

To add a global playlist to a layout(s), you have to add the global playlist playlist item into a zone. Select the designated zone and either double click or click 'Edit Zones Playlist' to enter the zones playlist. Select playlist from the playlist item options at the top of the screen to insert a global playlist.

You will see the search options similar to those found when adding a media item and a list of your previously created global playlists. The insert procedure, is also the same as the way you insert a media playlist item, allows you to click and insert, double click or drag and drop.

Manage Playlist

You can change the global playlists playlist at any time, and it will be updated in every layout that it is being used. Go to the global playlists section of your account, click the pencil icon to the right of the global playlists name. Make your changes, including changing the playlist items. Once you are happy save the playlist and publish the channel(s) you want updated.How to use Content Triggers

Triggering content is useful when you want certain content to display when another item is showing, for instance, if you wanted a certain image to display when a specific piece of text is displaying. We are going to use this scenario as an example to demonstrate how to use content triggers.

Example Content Trigger Setup:

Firstly, we need to create two zones.

One zone for the images (Zone A)

Another zone for the text (Zone B)

In our example, we are going to add content triggers to the text items to trigger the relevant image.

Zone A:

We need to make sure our images don't move onto the next image in the playlist without being triggered. We do this by setting their 'Timings' to 'Repeat'. This can be done individually or in this case, by selecting all and then applying 'Repeat' to all.

Zone B:

In Zone B, we insert the relevant text items and set specific timings to determine how long each one will show for. In this example we have set all our text items to play for 10 seconds then fade onto the next one.

Adding the Triggers:

We want to add the content trigger(s) to the text items, so in Zone B we need to select the 'Triggers' option. This can be located on the playlist item itself in two places:

In the playlist view

On the item options, when the item selected

We now have two options of when we want our trigger to happen 'when the playlist item starts' or 'when the playlist item ends'.

As you might expect, if you choose to add the trigger when the playlist item startsthen it will trigger the action when the specific playlist item starts. When the playlist item ends it will activate when the playlist item has finished (determined by its timing setting of that item).

Setting a content trigger - 'When Playlist Item Starts':

We are not going to add a content trigger using the 'when the playlist item starts' option. We want to add a content trigger on the 'Show the Frog' text to trigger the frog image to display in our images zone.To add this content trigger, we need to first click 'Add New'

Now we select an 'Action' from the drop down panel. In our case, we'll choose 'Activate Specific Playlist Item'

Finally, we choose the 'Target' which in this case is 'Images - (1) Frog.jpg'. Note: the naming convention of playlist items when listed as targets is 'ZONE NAME - (POSITION IN PLAYLIST) NAME OF ITEM'

What we now have set up is: When the Frog text Item starts playing, it will activate the Frog.jpg in the other zone.

Setting a content trigger - 'When Playlist Item Ends':

Another way to trigger the frog image to display when the 'Show the Frog' text is showing is to add the content trigger to the end of the previous item. We need to locate the previous item in the playlist, which in our zone is the last item, number 5, called 'Show the Wolf'. Now we click onto the Triggers section for this item and add a content trigger 'When playlist item ends'.

We configure the Action to 'activate a specific playlist item', then choose the Targetas 'Images - (1) Frog.jpg'.

Once the 'Show the Wolf' text plays through, it will move onto the next playlist item in the playlist (our frog text item) and will activate the content trigger.

Doing more with Content Triggers:

There is no limit to the number of content triggers you can add to an item, either at the start, at the end or both. This means you can use content triggers to activate multiple actions such as showing items in several zones, hiding some zones, showing others that are hidden etc.

We hope you enjoy this feature and can start experimenting with some cool and clever content using content triggers