Manage every screen from one place, wherever it hangs

Groups that pass content down

Put screens into groups, and groups inside groups: Europe, then London office, then London reception. Give a group default content and every screen in it plays that content unless it has its own. Add a new screen to London office and it picks up the right playlist the moment it's paired.

Groups are also targets for scheduling, broadcasts and display hours, so one change covers a whole site.

Remote actions when something looks wrong

Most screen problems can be fixed from the screen page. Use Show name on screen to confirm which TV is which during an install. Take a screenshot to see exactly what viewers see. Reload the player to pick up a change straight away.

The More actions menu covers the heavier fixes: restart the app, reboot the box, turn the display off or on, and clear the cache.

• Show name on screen
• Screenshot and reload
• Restart app or reboot device
• Display off, display on, clear cache

Display hours that save power

Set display hours per screen or per group, for example 07:00 to 19:00 on weekdays. Outside those hours the screen turns its display off and wakes itself again in the morning, in its own time zone. A screen that is off by schedule isn't counted as offline, so it won't trigger alerts overnight.

On boxes where the app has display power control, the box sleeps and HDMI-CEC can switch the TV off too, if CEC is turned on in the TV. Without that permission the screen goes black while the box stays on.

Android app updates with a pilot ring

The player is a web app inside a small native Android shell, so most improvements arrive from the server with nothing to install. When the Android app itself changes, upload the new APK in the admin. Screens download it, check its SHA-256 fingerprint and install it.

Mark a few screens as the pilot ring and release to them first. When they look good, choose Release to all. An install window, such as 02:00 to 05:00 local time, keeps updates away from opening hours. The App updates page shows each screen's update status.

Kiosk mode with device owner

On a box with no accounts, you can set the app as device owner. It then becomes the permanent home screen and pins itself, so viewers and passers-by can't exit to the launcher. Updates install silently, reboots work from the admin, and the app sets the box's clock to the screen's time zone.

Without device owner, the app still starts on boot where Android allows it, restarts itself after a crash, and reloads when the network returns.