What is a playlist in digital signage?
A screen that needs to rotate through more than one piece of content needs a playlist, not just a bigger layout. Here’s what a playlist actually is, how it differs from a layout, and how CloudyFy TV handles edits to one that’s already live.
- Playlist
- A playlist is an ordered sequence of layouts that play one after another on a screen, each with its own display time (dwell) and transition. Playlists can run full-screen on their own schedule, or sit inside a single block of another layout, rotating content without redesigning the surrounding screen.
Playlist vs layout
PlaylistvsLayout
It’s easy to conflate the two because both end up on the same screen. A layout is one designed composition, an arrangement of blocks on a canvas. A playlist is a sequence of multiple layouts (or a rotating block’s content) playing in order. A screen typically shows one active layout at a time; that layout can itself contain a playlist block for one region, or the playlist can be the entire screen. If you’re only ever showing one thing, you need a layout. The moment a screen has to rotate through several pieces of content on a timer, you need a playlist wrapped around them.
What Layout means
How do playlists work in CloudyFy TV?
CloudyFy TV playlists hold up to 60 items, each with its own dwell time and transition, independent of the items around it. Editing a live playlist, reordering items, changing a dwell time, adding or removing a layout, automatically re-stages every screen currently playing it, so there’s no manual republish step to remember. Playlists slot into any layout’s playlist block for one region of a screen, or run as the entire screen on their own schedule.