Help / Screens and schedules

Offline play and alerts

What happens when the internet drops, and getting an email when a screen goes quiet.

Your TVs keep playing without the internet

Every player keeps a checked copy of everything it plays. When you publish, it downloads only the files it doesn't already have, checks each one, and switches to the new version only once all of it has arrived. If the internet drops, the server can't be reached, or a download fails, the TVs carry on with what they have. They never go blank over a connection problem.

While a screen is offline:

• Slides, videos and background music keep playing, in time, from the copy on the player.
• Schedules keep switching playlists and slides by the player's own clock.
• TV times keep turning the TVs on and off.
• Countdowns keep counting, and an urgent message it already has stays up until its end time.
• Menus show the prices and sold-out items from the last time the screen was online.
• News tickers and calendars show the headlines and events from their last good check.
• Slides with a web page in them are left out, so the TV never shows a browser error. They come back by themselves once the screen is online again.
• All of this carries on through a restart or a power cut.

When the screen is back online, it picks up anything you published meanwhile within about 15 seconds. You don't need to do anything.

How you can tell a screen is offline

A player checks in every 15 seconds. If it hasn't for two minutes, Screens shows it as Offline, and the count at the top (like 1 of 2 online) drops. A screen that needs a look says why, for example Offline for 3 h. Check its power and network.

Each screen has one of these statuses:

You can filter Screens by status to see only the screens that need attention.

Offline alerts by email

Pixigns can email you when a screen stops checking in, and again when it's back, so you hear about a problem before your customers do. Offline alerts come with the Premium plan.

How they work

• When a screen has been offline for the alert delay (5 minutes unless an owner changes it) while its location is open, everyone on the alert list gets one email: <screen> at <location> is offline, with when it went down and what to check.
• When it has been back online for the same delay, they get a second: <screen> is back online, with how long it was down. The “back” email comes at any hour, so whoever heard about the problem hears it's over.
• A screen that drops and comes back several times in a row sends one “offline” email and one “back” email, not one for each drop. A drop shorter than the delay sends nothing at all.
• Times in the emails are in your business's time zone.

Who gets them

• Owners get alerts unless they turn them off. Everyone else, editors and viewers, chooses to turn them on. Each person sets their own in Settings, Your account: tick Email me when a screen goes offline.
• Other addresses: an owner can add up to 10 more email addresses, for people who don't sign in to Pixigns, like a manager or your IT person. In Settings, General, under Offline alerts, type them in Also email, one per line, and press Save Changes.
• People shows who has alerts on.

Change the delay

An owner sets how long a screen has to be offline before the email: in Settings, General, under Offline alerts, choose Email after 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes, 1 hour or 2 hours, then press Save Changes. A longer delay means fewer emails about short blips.

Opening hours: no emails while you're closed

Give each location its opening hours, and “offline” emails go out only while it's open. Without opening hours, alerts come at any hour.

1. In Screens, choose the location on the left.
2. Press Opening Hours.
3. Choose Set hours, tick each day you're open and set the opening and closing times. Days left unticked are Closed. Or choose No set hours for alerts at any hour.
4. Press Save. You'll see Opening hours saved.

Hours are in your business's time zone. A closing time earlier than the opening time runs past midnight: 18:00 to 02:00 means open until 2 am.

Quiet times

Pixigns also holds back “offline” emails when the screen is meant to be quiet:

• For 15 minutes after someone asks the screen to restart from the admin.
• While the screen's TV times say its TVs are off. If you switch the player off at the wall overnight, you'll only get an email if it's still down once its TVs are meant to be on.

Turning the TVs off doesn't make a screen offline: the player stays on and keeps checking in.

If a screen is offline

1. Check that the player is plugged in and switched on.
2. Check that the internet is working where it is: try a phone or a laptop on the same network.
3. If you moved the player or changed your Wi-Fi, see Set up your player to connect it again.
4. Unplug the player's power, wait ten seconds, and plug it back in.

Until it's back, the TVs keep showing what the player has. See Troubleshooting for more.