What is a Scene?

In ScreenManager, scenes are powerful tools that allow you to design captivating visuals and set up intricate layouts for your digital signage screens.

Let's explore how you can leverage scenes to create dynamic content and multi-zone layouts that capture your audience's attention.

A playlist is simply a collection of content (media files and scenes) that play in a loop. While you can define a layout for the playlist, the design possibilities are quite limited.

In contrast, a scene offers a powerful visual editor akin to tools like Canva or Microsoft's Movie Maker. With a scene, you can design more complex visuals, allowing for greater creativity and flexibility in your digital signage content.

1. Add/Upload New Media
2. Back & Save
3. Aspect Ratio Picker
4. Editor Mode
5. Scene Preview
6. Media Layers
7. Timeline
8. Zoom settings

With these icons, you can add new media files to the scene.

You can upload videos, images and PDFs.
Click on “Upload media” button to start or choose already uploaded media from the list.

• Web Page
• Current Weather
• Instagram Feed
• Clock
• Running line / Marquee (from RSS feed)
• RSS Feed (text & images)
• Menu Boards and more.

• The videos should be in the top most layer otherwise the device might hit performance issues. Please, do not put any other content over the videos otherwise the Android players might put the video over the content.
• When a scene consists of multiple videos that play simultaneously, always test the performance on real devices. Some (even more expensive) Android players have performance limitations so the video can feel "choppy".

Allows you to create headers and text boxes and change text settings inside both. Click on “Add heading” and/or “Add a body text” and new boxes will appear on the right side of the screen.

After you click on the text box an editing menu will appear on the left side of the screen (instead of “Create” buttons).

Text editor allows you to:

• Change text color
• Change text formatting (bold, italic, etc.)
• Change text alignment (to the left of the screen, in the middle middle, to the right)
• Change text font size. Use numerical values or the slider to adjust.
• Add and edit tables. Once you click on Tables, an extra set of settings will appear. They allow you to change border width and color, edit padding, add and remove rows and columns. Use numerical values or the slider to adjust.

Timing and position editor allows you to change how the text will be displayed relative to percentage and to aspect ratio. You can adjust X, Y, Width and Height using the corresponding boxes.

Additionally, while you are in the Advanced editor mode, you can also see and manage the playback duration panel under the scene.

Is handy to play more media files in a loop or to schedule the playback time of media files. With this you can create quite complex layout in just a few clicks.

Allow you to create Rectangles and Circles and change settings for both. Click on “Add rectangle” and/or “Add circle” and shapes will appear on the right side of the screen.

After you click on the shape an editing menu will appear on the left side of the screen (instead of “Create” buttons). Background color allows you to:

• Choose Background type (Gradient and Fill)
• Change shape color and modify its gradient type.

Border settings editor allows you to change the size of the shape and change the shape of its borders using sliders.

Timing and position editor allows you to change how the text will be displayed relative to percentage and to aspect ratio. You can adjust X, Y, Width and Height using the corresponding boxes.

Additionally, while you are in the Advanced editor mode, you can also see and manage the playback duration panel under the scene.

List all items in your scene and allows you to select and manage their placement in a scene, when Media files are on top of each other.

Additionally every Media, Text, Playlist and Shape box has an additional smaller menu atop of it. It lets you (in order):

• Change box's position - click and hold on the symbol to drag and move the box.
• Duplicate the box and all its formatting.
• Delete the box and all its contents.
• Bring forward - this box will be displayed atop of all other boxes.
• Send to back - this box will be hidden/covered by all other boxes.

From Layers menu you can also manage additional settings tied to media (in order):

• Bring forward - this item will be displayed atop of all other items.
• Send to back - this item will be hidden/covered by all other items.
• Edit the item and open this item’s settings.
• Delete this item and all its contents.

• Click “X” to leave the editor or “Save” or “Save & Publish” to save the changes.
• Changes are not auto saved as in Playlist Editor

You can change between Landscape (16x9) and Portrait (9x16) aspect ratios. You can also create a custom aspect ratios for more advanced use cases.

There are two modes that you can use to design your scenes. This selection can be made at the top right corner of the scene editor.

• In "compact" mode, all content is displayed for the duration of the longest element in the scene. For example, if one video is 10 seconds long and another is 30 seconds long, all elements will loop, and the scene will have a total duration of 30 seconds. 
• This mode is ideal for situations where synchronization of all elements to the same duration is needed without detailed configuration.

• When "advanced" mode is selected, a playback panel will appear under the Scene. With its help user has full control over the duration of each element in the scene. Using the timeline, the exact playback duration of each element can be set. This mode is intended for users who need detailed and specific timing settings for their scenes, allowing for the creation of more complex and dynamic presentations.

If you can’t see the playback panel, try zooming out the Scene first.

• Note that this mode is not ideal for content where the duration is not known in advance such as Instagram Feed, RSS Feed or Playlists.

These modes ensure that the ScreenManager application provides users with both simple and advanced tools for managing and customizing scenes according to their needs. We recommend primarily using the compact mode for simplicity and ease of use.

Click on Media boxes inside of the preview window to edit them.

Represent an overview of all the items within the scene. Each Media item has its own "layer." You can adjust the order of the layers by using the small up and down icons to bring the item forward or backward.

Allows you to modify the timing of the elements. However, we advise not changing the timing of content items when one of them is a Playlist.

Allows you to change Scene's zoom settings. Click on the icons in order to:

• Zoom out,
• See current zoom %. Click to reset it to 100%.
• Zoom in.
• Screen icon - reset zoom to 100%.