Automation

Automated digital signage: screens that change on their own

Automated digital signage changes what your screens show without anyone touching them: by the time of day in each screen's own timezone, by the weather at the screen, by live data and by events from other systems. You describe the rule to your agent once, screenRIG runs it on its servers, and you get told when a screen needs a person.

Updated

  1. You

    Breakfast menu on every downtown store until 11, lunch until 3, and the rainy-day promo whenever it rains at that store. Tell me if a screen goes dark.

  2. Agent

    Done. Each downtown store switches at its own local 11:00 and 15:00, and the rain promo plays only while it rains where that screen is. You get an email when a screen goes offline or shows a blank picture. I checked a screenshot from two stores: breakfast is playing.

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01 Live preview

Drawn in your browser, with sample data

02 What can change a screen by itself?

What can change a screen by itself?

What changes itExampleHow it runs
Time of dayBreakfast, lunch and dinner menusWeekly windows in each screen's timezone, so one rule covers stores in different zones
The calendarA holiday hours page, the last Friday of each month, a launch dateDates, monthly rules such as the last Friday, start and end dates, and dates to skip
Weather at the screenA rainy-day promo, a heat-safety noticeA page that plays only while the weather where that screen is matches
Live dataShow the outage page only while the status feed says downA page or campaign that plays while a data value exists or equals what you set
Someone at the screenA touch menu above an attract loopThe interactive page plays while someone uses it and drops back after a set idle time
An emergencyA lockdown or severe-weather alertYour emergency notification system's CAP alerts take the screens over, then give them back
Any other systemA door sensor, a smart-home hub, an alerting toolIt posts a few words to a trigger address, and the screens show them as a bar or a takeover
The screen's powerDisplays off overnightA display schedule turns supported displays off and on

Every rule runs on screenRIG's servers and on the Players, so nothing stops when your agent, laptop or dashboard is closed. A screen that loses its connection keeps following the schedule it already has.

03 Fleets switch together, each on its own clock

Fleets switch together, each on its own clock

A campaign is one rule for every screen with a tag or in a folder. "Lunch on every north store, Monday to Friday, 11 to 2" switches each store at its own local 11:00 and back at 14:00, and a screen added to the folder later picks it up. Your agent can tell you why a screen plays what it plays, and what it will play at any time you ask about, before anything goes live.

  1. You

    What will the airport store show at 6pm Friday?

  2. Agent

    The dinner menu, from the Dinner campaign, until 22:00 local time. After that it goes back to its default playlist.

Have a long schedule in a spreadsheet? On Enterprise, your agent imports it: each row names the screens, the content and the times. You see the whole calendar and any row errors first, and it applies all of it or none.

04 Content that keeps itself current

Content that keeps itself current

Data sources read your calendars, sheets, feeds and dashboards on a schedule, from every minute to once a day, and update the apps on your screens only when something changed. Webhooks from other systems change a screen within seconds. If a source stops answering, the screen keeps its last good data for the time you choose, then clears, so old numbers never stay up.

05 Alerts that take over on their own

Alerts that take over on their own

Connect your emergency notification system to a trigger and every screen in its group shows the alert full-screen in the colour of its severity, with the instructions, until the alert expires or is cleared. Then each screen goes back to what it was playing. The emergency alerts page covers drills and all-clears.

Smaller events work the same way. A smart-home hub, a sensor or an alerting tool posts a short message to an overlay trigger, and the screens show it as a bar along the top or bottom edge while the content keeps playing, or as a takeover.

06 You hear about problems before anyone walks past

You hear about problems before anyone walks past

screenRIG checks what each screen actually shows, from the screenshots and playback reports it receives, not from what the Player claims. It tells you when a screen goes offline, its display disconnects, its picture goes blank or freezes, playback stalls, storage fills or a data source fails. Notices go by email or a signed webhook on every plan, and to Slack, Teams, PagerDuty or Telegram from Plus. You can mute screens for maintenance.

07 How do I set it up?

How do I set it up?

Ask your agent in plain words, as in the examples above. It builds the playlists, sets each screen's timezone, writes the rules, previews the calendar and checks a screenshot when the change goes live. Developers can write the same rules through the API or from a pipeline, as headless digital signage shows.

08 Automated digital signage questions

Automated digital signage questions

Does anything need to stay running?

No. Schedules, campaigns, data sources, triggers and notices run on screenRIG's servers, and each Player carries its own schedule. Your agent only sets things up and changes them.

What happens to a schedule when a screen goes offline?

The screen keeps switching on time from the schedule it already has. When it reconnects, it picks up any changes made while it was away.

Can one rule cover screens in different time zones?

Yes. Every rule is read in each screen's own timezone, so "lunch at 11" means 11:00 at each store.

Can I check a change before it goes live?

Yes. Your agent can show you what any screen will play at a time you name and which screens a campaign reaches. With schedule change control on Enterprise, a campaign is tested on a few screens and then promoted to the rest, and earlier versions can be restored from its history.

Can an AI agent run the automation for me?

Yes. That is how screenRIG is meant to be used: your own agent sets up the rules and checks the screens. AI digital signage shows what to ask it.

What does it cost?

screenRIG is free. Schedules, campaigns, weather and data rules, triggers and email and webhook notices come with every plan. See pricing.

09 Automate your first screen

Automate your first screen

Start free, pair a screen, and tell your agent when it should change.

10 Related

11 More topics

screenRIG is free.

Install the official plugin, pair a screen and your agent publishes to it.

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