A single playlist running on a loop only works for a while. Then comes a breakfast menu nobody cares about at three in the afternoon, a weekend discount that has to come down on Monday morning, or a promotion that only applies in the Prague stores. Keeping track of it by hand means someone has to remember every day. And sooner or later, someone forgets.
In Bohemica Signage, three things take care of this: the calendar, priority and screen groups. You set them up once, and the screens switch on their own from then on.
The calendar: when a playlist should run
Every playlist has a Calendar tab. With no conditions, the playlist plays all the time. As soon as you add a condition, it only runs while the condition holds. There are three kinds of conditions:
| Condition | What it sets | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Time | before, after or between two times | between 6:00 and 11:00 |
| Weekday | selected days | Saturday and Sunday |
| Date | on or after a date, on or before a date | from 1 Dec to 24 Dec |
Conditions add up: the playlist only runs when all of them hold at the same time. “Between 6:00 and 11:00” plus “Mon to Fri” therefore means weekday mornings.
All times are local, based on the time zone set in the details of the screen’s location. If you have branches in Prague and in Lisbon, the breakfast menu starts at six in the morning local time in both.
Priority: what wins when several playlists apply at once
Several playlists can target one screen, and their time windows can overlap. Priority decides. You set it in the playlist details under Change priority, where you order playlists from highest to lowest.
The player then works like layers stacked on top of each other:
- The highest-priority playlist that is currently allowed to run always plays.
- When its time window starts, it interrupts whatever was playing and takes over immediately.
- When the window ends, the screen goes back to the lower-priority playlist.
- When no playlist is allowed to run, the screen has nothing to play.
This leads to one rule that’s always worth following: keep a base playlist with no calendar at the lowest priority. It fills every moment when nothing else applies, so the screen is never left empty.
Scenario 1: breakfast and lunch menus in a bistro
A bistro has two screens above the counter. In the morning they show breakfast, at midday lunch, and for the rest of the day coffee and desserts.
| Playlist | Calendar | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Breakfast | time between 6:00 and 11:00 | highest |
| Lunch | time between 11:00 and 15:00 | second |
| Coffee and desserts | no conditions | lowest |
At eleven, lunch replaces breakfast on its own, at three in the afternoon coffee and desserts take over, and the next morning the cycle repeats. If the bistro doesn’t serve breakfast at weekends, just add a Weekday condition with Monday to Friday to the Breakfast playlist.
When the breakfast playlist starts to apply, it plays from the first item. Customers who walk in at six see the menu from the beginning, not from halfway through.
Scenario 2: a weekend sale nobody has to switch off
A store is planning weekend discounts for December. Instead of someone switching the playlist on every Friday evening and taking it down again on Monday morning, you set it up in advance:
- Weekday: Saturday and Sunday
- Date: is on or after 1 December
- Date: is on or before 21 December
Give the playlist a higher priority than your regular content. On December weekends the screens then show the sale, on weekdays the regular content, and after 21 December the sale never appears again, even if you leave it in the dashboard.
You can prepare the playlist a month in advance. Until its calendar starts to apply, nothing changes on the screens.
Scenario 3: a single item only at certain times
You don’t always need a whole new playlist. Sometimes it’s enough for one item in your regular playlist to appear only at certain times, for example a teaser for the lunch menu only on weekdays between ten and two.
That’s what playlist item conditions are for. You set them up the same way as a playlist’s calendar, they just apply to one specific item. Outside its window, the item is skipped and the rest of the playlist keeps playing.
An item condition is checked at the moment the item is due to start. If it starts at 13:59, it plays to the end, even if it lasts ten minutes. A video never gets cut off halfway through.
Scenario 4: a store network and local promotions
With more screens, you don’t assign playlists to each one separately, but to groups. One screen can belong to several groups at once. A store network might have, for example:
- an All stores group with the brand’s base playlist,
- a Prague group with a promotion that only applies in the Prague stores,
- a Checkouts group with content only for the screens at the checkouts.
The checkout screen in a Prague store is in all three groups and gets the playlists from all of them. Which one plays when is again decided by the calendar and priority. A Prague promotion with a higher priority and a November calendar will override the base playlist in November, but only in Prague. The other stores never see it.
You then bring a new store online by adding its screens to the right groups. The content, calendars and priorities are already set.
Common mistakes
- A time window across midnight. A “between 22:00 and 2:00” condition in a single playlist doesn’t work the way you’d expect. Split the window into two playlists with the same content, one with “after 22:00”, the other with “before 2:00”.
- Conditions that rule each other out. All conditions have to hold at once, so “Saturday and Sunday” together with a date that falls on a Wednesday will never apply. If a playlist isn’t playing, check its calendar first.
- A forgotten end date. A promotion without an “on or before” condition will run until someone switches it off. Set the end date right when you create it.
- An empty screen outside scheduled times. You’re missing a base playlist with no calendar at the lowest priority.
- Deleting instead of disabling. A playlist you only want to pause for a while doesn’t need to be deleted. Just turn off the Enabled switch in its details and turn it back on later.
What’s next
The easiest way to start is with one base playlist and one scheduled one, such as a morning offer. Once you see the screen switch on its own, add more.
If you’re still connecting your screen, take a look at the guide How to set up digital signage on a Raspberry Pi 5 in an hour. All features, including the calendar, priorities and groups, are available from the first screen, which is free.
Planning a more complex schedule for several branches? Write to us at [email protected] or use the contact form. We’ll be happy to go through it with you.
