Day Parts

The "Display Units" training video, in which we cover "day parts", is part of the "Network Setup" playlist:

• 1 of 5: Loop Policy
• 2 of 5: Criteria
• 3 of 5: Display Types
• 4 of 5: Register a Player
• 5 of 5: Display Units (below)

Note: If you are new to Broadsign Control, we suggest you start with the Network Setup playlist.

Display Units – Describes how to create, configure and clone display units. You can find day parts, in particular, starting at 5:23.

Campaigns Outside Opening Hours

In essence, the start and end times of a Day Part make up the maximum bookable airtime for that Day Part. Opening hours represent an extra mask on the available airtime within the limits of the Day Part’s start and end time range. When a reservation is booked, the start and end times of a Day Part are taken into account, but the opening hours are not.

For example, consider a Campaign that runs from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM each day and a site that opens only at 9:00 AM. If you use multiple Day Parts to define that site’s opening hours, the Campaign will not be booked to that site because it falls outside the boundary of the maximum bookable time. If during the Campaign, the site changes its opening hours to now open at 8:00 AM, the site will not automatically be included in the existing Campaign and it will need to be added manually.

However, if you use a single all-day Day Part with the actual opening hours defined within it, the Campaign will be booked to that site because it falls within its maximum bookable time.

However, seeing as the Campaign runs from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM, the estimated repetitions for that site will be 0 because it is not open while the Campaign is in effect.

If the site changes its opening hours to 8:00 AM during the Campaign, it will automatically be included in the Campaign and the estimated repetitions will be updated to reflect the fact that it will now play for one hour.

Generally, opening hours are best defined within an all-day day part.

• Areas in purple – The player will display content during these times.
• Areas in white – The player will display nothing if turned on during these times.

If you right-click anywhere within the calendar, the context menu appears:

• Create – Creates a new "mask time range" block.

• Edit – Opens the Mask Time Range Editor. You can define the start and end time of the mask.

  

• Remove – Removes the selected time range block from the calendar.
• Remove All – Removes all time range blocks from the calendar.

You can also change the size of a block by grabbing its upper or lower frame and dragging it. Multiple blocks of time can be selected with the Shift key.

• Suspend/Resume screen(s) according to opening hours – If selected, when outside opening hours, the player can send a "no signal" message to the screen. If able to detect the message, the screen will automatically go into standby mode. At the start of opening hours, the player can then send a wake up message to start the screen.

  Note: If you are a developer, you can use the Broadsign Control Player API to activate this feature. See Suspend/Resume Actions.

• Suspend/Resume screens according to opening hours – When activated, allows the player to send a "no signal" message outside of opening hours. Any screens that can detect this message will go to standby mode. They will wake up when the player resumes a signal at the start of opening hours.

You can access the Day Parts properties by double-clicking a day part or clicking the Edit button in the Day Parts tab of the Display Unit Properties dialog.

This presents the Day Parts Properties dialog.

Day Parts Properties contain the following features that you can use or configure:

• Simple Screen Control
• Day Part Transition
• Day Part Weights and Blocking Day Parts
• Frames
• Impressions
• Cloning Day Parts

Simple Screen Control

With the DPMS standards, it is now possible to make use of soft power controls on your screens so they suspend/resume according to the defined opening hours. In the Day Parts Properties, where the opening hours are defined, the Suspend/Resume screen(s) according to opening hours check box indicates whether the opening hours schedule should also be used to put the attached screens into suspend mode (stand-by).

Once enabled, this setting will be effective on all connected monitors of a given player, not just the primary. It then sends a suspend command at the end of a Day Part and exits the suspend state 30 seconds before the opening hour begins. No further configurations are required.

• The Simple Screen Control is different from hard power control as it only controls the screen's low power state. It does not allow the screen to be turned on or off, therefore when the screen is turned off the control will not power it back on.
• Due to its unidirectional nature, the Simple Screen Control feature does not allow for a query of the screen's power state (assert power) nor for the interpretation of return codes, so no incidents will be returned if the controls fail to execute.
• If controlling the hard power or if a higher level of complexity with error handling are required, Device Monitoring.

Day Part Transition

In the case where multiple Day Parts are specified, the switch from one Day Part to the other is smoothly achieved. Rather than immediate abrupt transition, the next Day Part is queued up until the spot currently playing reaches completion.

• In a multi-frame layout where each frame is playing different content, the Day Part switch will occur once the shortest spot finishes playing.
• If you create a day part but do not schedule a campaign to it, Broadsign Control Player will not switch to that day part.

Note: We advise against using transitions with both frame synchronization and custom geometry at the same time, because this combination might produce unexpected playback.

Day Part Weights and Blocking Day Parts

It is possible to set multiple Day Parts to be in effect at the same time on a given day. This makes it possible to have a Day Part that defines standard characteristics over a long period of time, and to be able to preempt it for exceptional cases. For example, a drugstore could be open normally from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM every day but close at 5:00 PM on Christmas Eve and all of Christmas Day.

Broadsign Control Administrator handles this type of situation by using Day Part Weights and Blocking Day Parts. Day Part Weights make it possible to assign priority levels to different Day Parts so that Broadsign Control Player will know which one to use if they overlap at any point in time.

Blocking Day Parts make it possible to “black out” certain times so that no content can be scheduled during that time block. They take precedence over any Day Part that they overlap, regardless of its weight.

For the example of the drugstore given above, the corresponding display unit would have three Day Parts: one that runs all year long every year, and has a start time of 9:00 AM and an end time of 9:00 PM; one that runs on Christmas Eve every year with a start time of 9:00 AM and an end time of 5:00 PM, with a higher weight than the first one, so that it takes precedence on that day; and, finally, a Blocking Day Part that runs on Christmas Day every year.

Note: If a Day Part with a higher weight intersects only part of a Day Part with a lower weight, the Day Part with a lower weight is suppressed completely, not just for the intersecting period.

Day parts can have their weight edited or be set as Blocking Day Parts in the Weight tab of the Day Part Properties dialog.

Frames

In order for a Day Part to be able to display content when it is in effect, a Frame layout must be defined for it. These frames are targeted and booked by Campaigns to display content.

Creating and manipulating frames is performed in the Frames tab of the Day Part Properties dialog.

Multiple frames can be arranged in the same Day Part to independently display different content at the same time. For instance, a movie theater may split the screen into two frames, one of which loops ads and movie trailers while the other shows the showtimes schedule and prices.

A frame’s geometry can be set in Pixels or Percentage. Percentage geometry is simplest and allows the frame’s actual dimensions on the screen to scale to different desktop resolutions of the player displaying it. Pixel geometry is used when more precision is required, however, for it to display correctly, the resolution of the player must match the display type’s resolution. X and Y indicate the position of the top left corner of the frame. Z indicates the depth of the frame, with lower Z-ordered frames appearing beneath higher Z-order frames. Red sections indicate errors where frames of the same z-order are overlapping.

Note: We advise against using custom geometry with both frame synchronization and transitions at the same time, because this combination might produce unexpected playback.

Impressions

The Impressions tab is where you can set the number of impressions per hour that will be measured during this Day Part. Impressions per hour are using in conjunction with media packages that allow you to define CPM-based pricing. By default, the domain impressions will be used but if this screen has a unique value you can override the domain settings and input any specific value that has been measured at the display unit's site.

Cloning Day Parts

You can clone a Day part in the Day Parts tab of the Display Unit Properties dialog. Cloning a Day Part will effectively copy all of its properties, frames, and scheduling to a new Day Part. Use cloning if you wish to add a new Day Part that will be automatically included in all Campaigns that targeted the previous Day Part.