TV Signage Guide

The everyday flow

Each page shows these steps at the top with a Next step button.

Slides

The Slides page has three views along the top: Slides, Playlists and Photos & videos.

• New slide → 1 · Pick a layout: start from a template (Lobby look, Flyer + info strip, Photo spotlight, Event countdown, Holiday countdown, Break room board, Centers board, Staff news, Urgent alert, Bilingual notice, Full-screen timer, Full-screen break schedule) or a blank layout (full screen, side by side, 2×2…). Save as template (top bar) keeps any look you make for next time.
• 2 · Drag content into a section: an Announcement, a Photo or video, a Countdown to a date (Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year’s, Halloween… or any date you pick; it counts the days by itself and holidays start over each year), anything under Your photos & videos (with an Upload button right there), a countdown timer, Who's here, the clock, weather, Today's break schedule or any live card. Or click a section, then click the content.
• The big preview is the TV. Click a section to edit it; drag one section onto another to swap them.
• 3 · Name it & finish: a name (you pick slides by name in schedules), how long it stays on, and until when.
• Ticker along the bottom: Off, or On and type the messages for this slide. Ticker style (speed, size, colors) applies to all slides. The layout keeps room for it automatically.
• Videos play muted and loop for as long as the slide is on.
• The Slides page is your library: a slide only plays where a schedule picks it. Each card says Scheduled (and in which schedules) or Not scheduled; Start / Pause / Reset run a countdown right from the card.

Playlists

A playlist is a group of slides that plays in order. Put the whole group into a schedule in one go.

• Slides → Playlists → New playlist: name it (“Morning welcome”), then click slides in the order you want them — the numbers are the play order.
• Edit to add, remove or reorder; Duplicate for a variation (e.g. a holiday version).
• Change a playlist once and every schedule using it picks up the change.
• The same slide can be in several playlists.

Photos & videos

Your uploaded files. Upload here or straight from the slide builder.

• Drop files on the page or click to upload: photos, videos (MP4 under 95 MB) or a PDF — each page becomes its own picture. Great for flyers made in Canva or Word.
• Rename or delete files here. Each file says how many slides use it; take it off those slides before deleting.
• To show a file: put it in a slide section (drag it from Your photos & videos in the builder). A full-screen layout with one photo is a classic “picture slide”.

Schedules

A schedule decides what plays when. Make one for each kind of day or TV.

• A · The rest of the day: click the playlists (top row) and/or single slides to show whenever no time slot is running; the numbers are the play order. Only what you pick plays. Pick nothing and the TV shows the BrightSpots logo and clock between slots.
• B · Time slots: pick a day tab → Add a time slot → name (“Centers 1”), From / Until, the days (or Weekdays), and the playlists or slides. Each day can differ; Copy … to other days saves retyping. The timeline shows the day at a glance.
• C · TVs using this schedule: Choose TVs… here, or on the TVs page.
• TVs switch exactly on time when a slot starts or ends.
• On / off: the switch on each schedule card. Off = its TVs show the logo screen until you switch it back on.
• Special days (top of the Schedules page): New special day → name it (“Halloween”), pick the date(s), the TVs, and click the slides to show. Those TVs show just those slides that day, then go back to normal by themselves. End now stops it early.
• D · Night mode: tick Turn the screen dark outside office hours and set On at / Dark at (8:30 / 5:00 to start) and the days. At closing the TV plays a slow sunset, then shows a dim drifting clock with a kind message (you can edit the list); at opening it plays a sunrise with “Good morning” and the day’s slides come back. Dark all day on weekends and (if ticked) office holidays. Timer sounds stay quiet at night. Tip: for the TV to be truly off overnight, also set the TV’s own on/off timer.

TVs

Any TV can be a screen. Apple TVs use our own app; everything else opens a web page.

• Pair: the TV shows a 6-letter code. On the TVs page click Pair a TV, type the code and name it (“Lobby”, “Centers”). Codes expire after 30 minutes — the TV just shows a new one. A TV remembers its pairing through restarts and power outages.
• Schedule dropdown on each card: pick a schedule. With No schedule, the TV shows the logo and clock.
• Each card shows a live picture of the TV, what's running now (“Now: Centers 1 until 10:00”), and Live / Offline.
• Identify flashes the TV's name on that screen. Reload ↻ restarts its player. ⚙ renames it, sets the transition, or removes it (back to a pairing code).

The Centers TV

The countdown and the day's break schedule, during the two centers blocks.

• The break schedule is the real sheet from the Clients app. In Clients → Break Coverage, click Save. That also sends the TV its picture of the sheet (kids shown as the first 2 letters of first and last name, e.g. “AvSm”; staff as first name + last initial). Save again after changes and the TV updates within seconds.
• Until today's coverage is saved, the section shows a simple list of break times and who's on break.
• Set up once: a slide with the Center rotation timer in one section and Today's break schedule in the other (it reads best in a big section). Then a Centers day schedule with time slots Centers 1 and Centers 2 using that slide, and the Centers TV set to that schedule.

Countdown timers

For anything you time every day — center rotations, snack, clean-up. Make them on the Timers tab.

• How long: type minutes and seconds, or tap a quick chip (1, 5, 10, 15, 30, 60 min).
• Repeat: starts the next round by itself. Add a break between rounds — the “time's up” message shows during the break.
• Schedule: pick the days and a start time (and when to stop). It starts by itself every day.
• Controls: Start, Pause / Resume, +1 / −1 min, Reset (back to its schedule) — on the Timers page, on the slide card, or from your phone. TVs follow within seconds.
• On a TV: drag the timer into a slide section in the builder.
• It turns yellow near the end and red in the last 10 seconds. Every TV shows the same second.

Live info

The cards in the slide builder update by themselves — you never retype them.

Apple TV tips

Theobald Home is a normal Apple TV app — use the TV for anything else and open signage when you want it.

• Start it: open Theobald Home on the home screen, or say “Hey Siri, open Theobald Home.” Drag it to the top row so it's one click away.
• Leave it: press Back or the TV button. The TVs page then shows it as Offline — that's expected.
• While it's open, the TV won't sleep. It opens straight into its last content, even with no internet.
• Adding another Apple TV is a one-time setup from the Mac (pair it in Xcode, then run the installer). The install lasts a year before it needs refreshing.

Which tool for which job

If something's off

• A change isn't showing: give it 10–15 seconds. Still old? Click Reload ↻ on that TV's card.
• The break sheet is old or missing: check that today's coverage was saved in Clients. The toast says “TV sheet updated” when it worked.
• TV shows a pairing code again: it was removed (or is brand new) — pair it again.
• “Offline” on the TVs page: the app is closed or the TV lost internet. It keeps playing its saved content.
• A section shows “—”: that information isn't available right now (e.g. nobody clocked in yet).
• Video won't upload: keep it under 95 MB — compress it with HandBrake (“Fast 1080p30”).