# Automated digital signage: screens that change on their own

> Canonical HTML: https://screenrig.ai/digital-signage/automation

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 November 7, 2026.

## Live card previews

- [Public alerts](https://screenrig.ai/docs/cards/alerts.md): Active alerts for a place from official feeds, most severe first, in the theme's safety colours.
- [Weather](https://screenrig.ai/docs/cards/weather.md): Current conditions, the hours ahead and a multi-day forecast, led by the sentence that matters, like Rain from 3 PM.
- [Number tiles](https://screenrig.ai/docs/cards/kpi.md): Big, distance-legible numbers: value, change against last period with a good or bad tone, a sparkline and progress toward a goal.

> **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.
>
> **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.

## What can change a screen by itself?

| What changes it | Example | How it runs |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Time of day | Breakfast, lunch and dinner menus | Weekly windows in each screen's timezone, so one rule covers stores in different zones |
| The calendar | A holiday hours page, the last Friday of each month, a launch date | Dates, monthly rules such as the last Friday, start and end dates, and dates to skip |
| Weather at the screen | A rainy-day promo, a heat-safety notice | A page that plays only while the weather where that screen is matches |
| Live data | Show the outage page only while the status feed says down | A page or campaign that plays while a data value exists or equals what you set |
| Someone at the screen | A touch menu above an attract loop | The interactive page plays while someone uses it and drops back after a set idle time |
| An emergency | A lockdown or severe-weather alert | Your emergency notification system's CAP alerts take the screens over, then give them back |
| Any other system | A door sensor, a smart-home hub, an alerting tool | It posts a few words to a trigger address, and the screens show them as a bar or a takeover |
| The screen's power | Displays off overnight | A 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.

## 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.

> **You:** What will the airport store show at 6pm Friday?
>
> **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](https://screenrig.ai/docs/schedule-import.md): 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.

## Content that keeps itself current

[Data sources](https://screenrig.ai/digital-signage/data-sources.md) 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.

## 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](https://screenrig.ai/use-cases/emergency-alerts.md) 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.

## 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.

## 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](https://screenrig.ai/developers.md) or from a pipeline, as [headless digital signage](https://screenrig.ai/headless-digital-signage.md) shows.

## 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](https://screenrig.ai/digital-signage/ai.md) 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](https://screenrig.ai/pricing.md).

## Automate your first screen

[Start free](https://screenrig.ai/docs/start.md), pair a screen, and tell your agent when it should change.

## Related

- [Digital Signage Data Sources and Live Data](https://screenrig.ai/digital-signage/data-sources.md): Calendars, sheets, Slack, reviews, scores, transit and dashboards stay live on your screens by themselves.
- [AI Digital Signage Software Run by Your Agent](https://screenrig.ai/digital-signage/ai.md): AI digital signage where your own AI agent makes the content, puts it on real TVs and checks the screen. Ten example requests and recorded timings.
- [Emergency Alert System Screens and Safety Boards](https://screenrig.ai/use-cases/emergency-alerts.md): Emergency alerts that take over every tagged screen: CAP alerts from your notification system, drill notices you start, then an all-clear.
- [Headless Digital Signage (API-First Screens)](https://screenrig.ai/headless-digital-signage.md): Headless digital signage: a CI pipeline updates a TV through the API with curl, with no dashboard open and no one watching.
- [Schedule Screens from a Spreadsheet](https://screenrig.ai/docs/schedule-import.md): Import a spreadsheet of screen codes, file names and start and end times: screenRIG checks every row, previews the calendar and applies all of it or none.

## More topics

- [Digital Signage API for Developers](https://screenrig.ai/developers.md)
- [Food Truck Menu Board for Any TV or Tablet](https://screenrig.ai/digital-signage/food-truck-menu-board.md): A food truck menu board your AI agent runs on any TV or tablet: today's menu, specials and sold-out items, with prices changed in a sentence.
- [iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch App for Screens](https://screenrig.ai/iphone-app.md): The screenRIG app for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch shows every screen live and lets you edit playlists, approve changes and answer alerts.
- [Digital Kiosk Software and Interactive Signage](https://screenrig.ai/digital-signage/kiosk-software.md): Your AI agent builds a touch or QR kiosk, puts it on an Android, BrightSign, Windows or Chromebook screen and tells you what visitors tap or scan.
- [All digital signage](https://screenrig.ai/digital-signage.md): Digital signage software your AI agent runs: pair a TV, stick, Raspberry Pi or PC, say what to show and the agent builds and checks it.

[Start free](https://screenrig.ai/docs/start.md). screenRIG is free.