Scheduling Your First Content | easyCMS Digital Signage

A published layout does not walk onto a screen by itself, something has to tell the display to show it. Two things can. The floor is a Default Layout set on the display, which plays whenever nothing else is scheduled. The ceiling is the schedule, which puts chosen content on chosen screens at chosen times. Set the floor today, reach for the ceiling when you need it.

The fastest route: a default layout

Sign in at app.myeasycms.com and go to Displays. Open the row menu for your screen, choose Edit, scroll down the form, select a layout to use as the Default Layout and save.

That layout plays whenever no event is scheduled, and it is the fallback when something stops the scheduled content showing. A single-screen shop, café or reception often needs nothing more, one good layout as the default and the screen is never empty again. With no default layout and nothing scheduled, the player shows its splash screen instead, which is where most “my screen is stuck on the logo” tickets come from.

Adding a scheduled event

When content needs a timetable, use the schedule.

Click Schedule in the main CMS menu.
Click Add Event.
Use the Event Type drop down to choose the type of event, for ordinary content that is Layout.
Use the drop down to select the Layout to show, then click Next.
Select which Displays the layout should play on.
To play it from now on with no end date, choose Always and click Finish. For a Daypart or Custom dates instead, click Next.

The Add Event wizard on the step where the layout and displays are chosen The wizard walks you through event type, then what to play, then where.

The Schedule page with the Add Event button The Schedule, with Add Event top right.

With Custom selected, the relative time option starts the layout straight away and you give it a duration in hours and minutes. Clicking Next again exposes Priority, Display Order and Repeats, none of which a first test needs.

For a first test use Always. It takes every timing question off the table, so if nothing appears the fault lies elsewhere.

Schedule to a group, not to individual screens

The moment you have more than one screen, schedule to a group rather than screen by screen. Go to Displays > Display Groups and click Add Display Group, then use Members from the group’s row menu and tick the displays that belong to it.

One event then covers every screen in the group, and a display added later inherits the group’s whole schedule straight away. Retrofitting groups after fifty single-display events is grim work.

Everything that has to be true

Watch out A layout reaches the screen only when all of these hold at once. One missing condition is enough to keep it off.

The layout is published. Edits sit in a draft until you publish them, and drafts never leave the CMS. It is by far the most common cause.
The display is authorised and checking in. A player that registered but was never connected through Add a display is inert, it downloads nothing and shows nothing.
The schedule covers the current moment, in the right timezone. A display can carry its own timezone, and it follows the CMS timezone when that field is left empty. Read Timezones and dayparting before blaming the event.
Nothing of higher priority is overriding it. Priority is compared only between events of the same Event Type, 0 being the lowest, and the normal schedule resumes on its own when the high-priority event ends.
The layout and its media have finished downloading, and none of its files are on the player’s fault list.

Fail any one and the layout is skipped silently, there is no on-screen error, you get the default layout or the splash screen.

How long to wait before worrying

easyCMS notifies the player as soon as you save, so most changes start downloading within moments. If that notification does not get through, the player picks the change up on its next check-in, five minutes by default. Allow one full interval plus download time before worrying, a large video over a modest connection is not instant.

Watch it arrive on the Displays page rather than staring at the screen. The logged-in column shows a tick once the player has reached easyCMS, and a cross when it has not. A cross usually means the device is offline or switched off. The status column tells you how far the transfer has got. A cloud means content is waiting. A cross means the download is still running. A tick means it is up to date. A tick in both columns with the wrong content on screen is a different problem from a cloud icon that never changes.

When it still does not play

Work through Scheduled content is not playing, which takes these conditions one at a time. If the screen never got past the logo, start with Screen stuck on logo instead. If both leave you stuck, raise a support request with the display name, the layout name and what the Displays page shows.