1. What is Channel Studio?

Channel Studio is the screen where you build and manage Channels. A Channel is the piece of content a screen plays - a playlist of videos and pictures, a single image, a live web page, a scrolling news ticker, and so on. Think of a Channel as a TV channel you programme yourself.

In Channel Studio you can:

• See every Channel on your account in one searchable, sortable list.

• Create new Channels of any type.

• Build and reorder a Multimedia Playlist - the most common Channel - by dragging entries around.

• Set exactly when each entry plays: date range, time of day, days of the week, and more - one entry at a time, or several at once.

• Upload new pictures and videos - several at once - straight into a playlist.

• Preview a picture, video, design or web page before it ever reaches a screen.

• Check which screen layouts are using a Channel before you change or delete it.

• Rename, duplicate and delete Channels.

Important idea: Channels belong to your account, not to one screen. The same Channel can play on one screen or on fifty. That is why Channel Studio shows you every Channel you have access to, whether or not you opened it from a particular screen licence.

Equally important: changing a Channel does not change what is on a screen right now. A screen plays what it was last published with. See section 12.3.

2. Opening Channel Studio

1. Sign in to OnePass as usual.

2. Open the NexSigns licence for the screen you are working on.

3. In the menu on the left, click Channel Studio ^Beta (this entry used to be called Manage Channel).

Channel Studio opens as a full-screen page with a dark background. The dark background is intentional - it matches how content looks on an actual display, so colours and photos appear the way your audience will see them.

The first thing you see is the channel list. Click any row to open that Channel; click Exit at the top right when you are finished.

You can also reach Channel Studio without picking a licence first. If you open it from a place that has no licence attached, it simply shows every Channel on every account you can access, and the Owner column appears so you can tell them apart. Everything works the same way except two things that genuinely need a licence: adding a Template, and the layout half of the usage check. Switch to Classic still works once you have opened a Channel, because Channel Studio knows which licence that Channel belongs to - it is only unavailable on the channel list itself.

3. A tour of the screen

4. Finding the channel you want

4.1 Search

Type in the Search box at the top left. It matches the Channel's name, its description, and its type - so typing "playlist" finds every Multimedia Playlist, and typing "scrolling" finds every ticker. Results narrow as you type; there is no Enter to press. Press / at any time to jump straight into the search box.

4.2 Filtering by type

The row of rounded buttons next to the search box is a type filter. All is selected by default, and there is one button for each type you actually own, plus a single Advanced button that collects the specialist types. Click a button to show only that type; click All to clear it.

4.3 Sorting the list

Click any column heading - Channel, Type, Owner or Modified - to sort by it. A small arrow shows which column is in use and which direction. Click the same heading again to reverse the order.

Modified is the most useful for day-to-day work: one click puts the Channels you changed most recently at the top. Your sort choice is remembered the next time you open Channel Studio.

4.4 The Owner column

Most people never see this column. It appears only if your OnePass login has access to more than one company account - for example an agency managing several clients. When it appears you also get an owner picker in the toolbar so you can show one account at a time, and each Channel row shows which account it belongs to. Your own Channels are labelled My channels.

5. Creating a channel

Click + New Channel. A window opens with a card for each type. Pick a card, give the Channel a name (and an optional description), then click Create channel. The Channel opens in the editor straight away.

If you can see more than one account, a Create under picker appears so you can choose which account owns the new Channel. It defaults to the account that owns the licence you came in from.

5.1 The channel types you can build here

5.2 Advanced channel types

Four more types appear in a separate Advanced types group in the create window: Time Condition (switch between whole layouts on a schedule), Screen Apps, Multi Screen Layout (rotate between layouts) and Video Input (a live HDMI or capture-card feed).

You can create, rename, duplicate and delete these in Channel Studio, but their contents are still edited in the classic editor. Open one and you will see its properties plus an Open in classic editor button. This is expected - those types contain entire embedded layouts, and moving them into the Studio is planned for a later release.

6. Building a Multimedia Playlist

Open a Multimedia Playlist and you get the Playlist card, followed by a collapsed Advanced bar holding two rarely-used cards: Playlist Takeover and Connection token. Click the Advanced bar to show or hide them - and even while it is closed, the bar carries small tags telling you whether a takeover or a token is currently set, so nothing active is ever hidden from you. This section covers the playlist; sections 9 and 10 cover the other two.

6.1 Adding content

Click + Add and choose what to add. Uploading sits at the top, on its own; the two ways of including a whole other playlist sit at the bottom:

• Upload new asset(s) - upload pictures and videos from your computer, several in one go. See the note below.

• Video(s) - pick videos you have already uploaded. Search the list by name, click as many tiles as you want (click again to un-pick), then press Add selected - they all join the playlist in one go.

• Image(s) - the same, for pictures.

• Website - type a web address and how many seconds it should stay on screen.

• Visual design - a design you built in Visual Design Studio. You can pick several at once here too.

• Template (EAS) - a NexSigns template connected to this licence. Only offered when you opened Channel Studio from a licence.

• Multimedia playlist - drop a whole other playlist in as one entry. See section 9.

• Connection token - include a playlist that belongs to a different OnePass account. See section 9.

6.2 Changing the play order

Entries play from top to bottom, then the playlist starts again. To move one, press and hold the dotted handle on the left of the entry and drag it to its new place.

6.3 How long each item stays on screen

Pictures, websites and visual designs have a Seconds box directly on the entry. Type a new number and it takes effect on the next save.

Videos and templates have no Seconds box - they play to their own natural length. If you want a video to repeat before the playlist moves on, use the Play Once label (section 7.6).

New pictures start at your account's standard display time, which an administrator can change. Whatever number you see in the box is the number that will be used, so if you want something different, just type it.

6.4 The playlist summary line

Directly under the buttons is a one-line summary of the whole playlist, for example: "12 entries - 4 image, 6 video, 2 website - timed content runs 1 min 20 sec plus 6 entries that play their own length - 248.5 MB to download".

Two numbers there are worth watching:

• Run time tells you roughly how long a loop takes. Videos are not counted because their length is not stored in OnePass, which is why the sentence separates "timed content" from "entries that play their own length".

• Download size is how much a screen has to fetch before this playlist can run. It counts everything, including the full media size of any playlists you have included (their size also shows right on their entry). On a slow connection a very large playlist takes a long time to appear on the screen, so this number is a useful sanity check before you publish.

The download size counts everything in the list right now, including entries you added a moment ago and have not saved yet. And whenever the list differs from its last saved version, the size is followed by the difference - for example "(+15 MB unsaved)" after adding media, or "(-20 MB unsaved)" after clearing some out - so you can see exactly what your save is about to change before you press the button.

If any entry points at media that has been deleted, an orange warning appears under the summary telling you how many entries are affected.

6.5 Previewing an item

Anything you can see, you can check. Move the mouse over an entry's thumbnail or its name - if the cursor turns into a magnifier, click it. A picture opens full size, a video plays (muted, click the speaker to unmute), a visual design renders live, and a website loads in a frame with an Open in new tab button if it refuses to be embedded.

Hold the mouse over a thumbnail for the file's details. A small panel appears showing the file size, the picture's dimensions, and the date it was uploaded - the same information the classic editor showed on hover, now on every playlist and takeover entry, and repeated under the media inside the preview window. For an included playlist the panel shows its total playlist size instead.

Templates and included playlists have nothing single to render, so they have no preview.

6.6 Duplicating an item

The small icon next to the red X duplicates that entry with its entire schedule. This is the fastest way to build things like "the same poster, but one copy for weekday mornings and one for weekend afternoons" - duplicate, then change just the days on the copy.

The icon is hidden for entries that cannot be recreated: media that has been deleted, a playlist included from another account by token, and templates when you opened Channel Studio without a licence.

6.7 Removing an item - and undo

Click the red X on an entry to remove it. A message appears at the top right with an Undo button; click it within a few seconds and the entry comes back in its original position with all its settings.

Even if you miss the Undo, nothing is lost until you save. Click Channels to go back without saving and choose Discard changes, and the playlist returns to its last saved state.

6.8 Shuffle and Clear expired media

Shuffle randomises the order of the whole playlist once. It is a one-off reordering, not a "play in random order" setting - the screen still plays top to bottom.

Clear expired media (N) appears next to Shuffle only when at least one entry's display end date has passed - the number in brackets is a live count of how many. Click it and Channel Studio confirms before removing them all. If nothing has expired, the button simply is not there, so its presence alone tells you the playlist needs tidying. This is the quick way to clean up after a season of promotions.

6.9 Editing several entries at once (batch edit)

Every entry that has schedule settings carries a small tick box on its left. Tick two or more and a highlighted bar appears above the playlist: "2 of 12 selected", with Batch edit, Select all and Clear selection.

Batch edit opens a window with one section per setting - date range, time of day, days of the week, persona tags, recurring schedule, play times, and display duration. Each section has its own tick: only the sections you tick are applied, and they replace the current values on every selected entry. Everything you leave unticked stays exactly as it is on each entry - so you can set the same date range on ten entries without touching their personas or durations.

Two sections apply only where they make sense: play times only changes videos and templates, and display duration only changes pictures, websites and designs - the window tells you how many of your selected entries each one affects.

The same rules apply as when editing one entry: an impossible range shows a message and the Apply button stays greyed out until it is fixed. Included playlists have no tick box, because their schedule lives on the entries inside them.

7. Scheduling: the coloured labels

Under each playlist entry is a row of small coloured labels. Each one states, in plain words, what that setting is currently doing - "Display Always", "Show on [MON,TUE]", "Persona Match [vip]", "Play Once". You never have to open anything to see how an entry is scheduled.

Click a label to change that setting. A small panel opens underneath with the controls for it. Change what you need, then click Done (or click the label again) to close it. The label updates as you type, so you can always see the effect. If a range is impossible - an end date before the start date, say - Done greys out and a short message under the boxes explains what to fix.

Entries that are included playlists have no labels. Their scheduling lives on the entries inside that playlist, which is how the classic editor behaves too.

7.1 Display date range

Green reads Display Always. Set a start date, an end date, or both - same as the classic editor. Leave the start empty and the entry plays from now until the end date (the label reads "Display between [now] to [...]"); leave the end empty and it plays from the start date with no end. The entry plays from 12:00 AM on the start date to 11:59 PM on the end date - the end date is included, so an event finishing on the 30th should have the 30th as its end date, not the 29th.

The date pickers will not offer an end date before the start date; if a range somehow ends up backwards, a message explains and Done stays greyed out until it is fixed. Click Display Always inside the panel to clear both dates again.

7.2 Display time of day

Green reads Display All Day. Pick a start and an end time from the two dropdowns - the same half-hour choices as the classic editor, from 12:00 AM (Midnight) up to 11:59 PM - to restrict the entry to part of the day, for example a breakfast menu from 06:00 AM to 11:00 AM. Both must be picked and the end must be after the start; until then, a message explains the problem and Done stays greyed out. Click Display All Day to clear the range again.

7.3 Days of the week

Green reads Display Everyday. Click the day buttons - MON through SUN - to switch individual days off and on. The label then reads, for example, Show on [MON,TUE,WED,THU,FRI]. Switch every day off and the label turns red and reads Never Display - a useful way to park an entry without deleting it, but easy to leave by accident.

7.4 Persona

Green reads All Persona. Personas are tags you can put on screens so that one playlist behaves differently in different places - for example tagging your airport screens "transit" and your mall screens "retail".

Type a tag and press Enter to add it. An entry with tags only plays on screens carrying all of those tags. No tags means it plays everywhere.

7.5 Recurring schedule

Green reads Always Recurring, which means "no repeat pattern". Switch it on to make an entry appear on a cycle: choose a start date, how many days between each appearance, and how many days it stays up each time. Click Preview next dates to see the next few occurrences before you commit.

A good example: a special that runs for 2 days, every 14 days, starting on the 1st of the month.

7.6 Play N times

Only shown for videos and templates. Green reads Play Once. Raise the number to make a video repeat before the playlist moves on - handy for a very short clip in a long playlist.

8. Auto Update

Auto Update is the switch at the top right of the Playlist card. It exists only on Multimedia Playlists.

With Auto-Update switched on, screens already showing this playlist will pick up your content changes on their own, during their next restart, without you publishing the layout again. With it off, changes only reach a screen when the layout using this playlist is published.

Auto-Update is especially useful when several screens share one playlist, and when you are using included playlists (section 9) - update the shared playlist once and every screen follows.

9. Sharing and reusing playlists

You can put one whole playlist inside another as a single entry. The classic articles call this a Nested Playlist or Sub-Playlist. It is the standard way to keep several screens consistent: build your company-wide content once, then include it in each location's playlist.

There are two ways to do it, and the difference is who owns the playlist. Either way, the entry shows the included playlist's name and its total media size the moment you add it, and that size counts into your playlist's download total.

9.1 Same account: Multimedia playlist

Use + Add > Multimedia playlist and pick from the list. You keep full access to both playlists, and the included entry gets an Open button so you can jump straight in and edit it. Your browser's Back button brings you back to where you were.

Only playlists that do not already include another playlist can be added, because a screen only follows one level of nesting.

9.2 Another account: Connection Token

A Connection Token lets someone else include your playlist in theirs without giving them any access to your account. They can play it; they cannot change it.

Part 1 - the owner of the playlist to be shared:

1. Open the playlist in Channel Studio, expand the Advanced section under the playlist, and find the Connection token card.

2. Click Generate token (or Generate new token if one already exists).

3. Click Copy and send the token to the other person.

Part 2 - the person adding the shared playlist:

1. Open their own playlist and choose + Add > Connection token.

2. Paste the token and click Add channel, then Save.

The playlist's real name and size appear in the list immediately - and if the token is wrong, Channel Studio says so right away instead of failing later at save time. The entry appears with a padlock and the words "Include only (another account)", and it has no scheduling labels - the schedule belongs to the owner.

10. Playlist Takeover

A Playlist Takeover periodically interrupts the playlist with one piece of media - useful for a "happy hour starts now" moment that should break into whatever is running. When the takeover finishes, the playlist carries on where it left off.

The card lives inside the Advanced section under the playlist - click the Advanced bar to show it. It reads [Not Active] until you add something, and even while the section is closed, the Advanced bar itself shows whether a takeover is set and how many conditions it has. To set one up:

1. Click + Image(s), + Video(s) or + Website and choose the media. (The pickers let you tick several items and add them together, and + Upload lets you upload new pictures or videos from your computer - several at once - straight into this list.)

2. Give it a schedule using the same coloured labels as the playlist - dates, time of day, days of the week and persona. (Repeat count and recurring schedules are deliberately not offered here.)

3. Set the Trigger period (seconds) at the bottom - how often the playlist pauses to check whether a takeover should run.

4. Click Save.

If you add more than one takeover entry, order matters: drag them so the most important is at the top. When the trigger fires, the first entry whose schedule matches right now is the one that plays.

11. The other channel types

11.1 Image

Click Choose image... and pick a picture - or use the picker's Upload files... button if it is not in your library yet. The preview underneath shows what you selected - click it to see it full size. If the picture behind the Channel has been deleted you get an orange warning telling you to pick a new one.

11.2 Video

A simple ordered list of videos. Use + Add video... to add (the picker has an Upload files... button for new videos), the drag handle to reorder, and the red X (with Undo) to remove. Each video plays to its full length, then the list repeats.

11.3 Website

Type the address in Website URL and click Preview to check it before you save. Addresses must be normal web addresses; if you type a bare domain like example.com, https:// is added for you.

Browser engine should stay on Default. Switch it to Software rendering (compatibility) only if a page shows visual glitches on a particular player - it is slower but more forgiving.

11.4 Slide Show

Each slide is a card with its picture and four settings: Fade, Zoom, Panning and Seconds. Use the arrow buttons on a card to move it earlier or later, and the red X to remove it. Click a slide's picture to preview it full size.

11.5 Scrolling Text

Each row is one message. Set the text, an optional font size, a text colour and a background colour. Leave font size at -1 to let the player size the text automatically, and leave the colours empty to use the layout's defaults. Colours accept anything a web page accepts, such as #ffffff or red.

11.6 RSS News Feeds

Add one row per feed: the feed address, a display label, and how many of the most recent stories to show. Underneath, Display settings control how the headlines are presented - how long each story stays up, how long the transition takes, how often the feed is re-fetched, and the font sizes and weights for the headline and the description.

11.7 Web Script and Custom Code

Both are code boxes for technical users. Web Script adds a Refresh interval (in seconds; -1 means never refresh) and a Viewport scale for zooming the rendered result. Custom Code is raw HTML dropped straight into the layout. If you are not sure what to put in these, you almost certainly want a different channel type - talk to the Kuusoft Support Team first.

12. Saving, and what happens next

12.1 Save and Save & Close

Nothing you change is stored until you save. Whenever you have unsaved work an Unsaved changes marker appears next to the Save button, and leaving the page warns you first.

• Save (or Ctrl+S) stores your changes and keeps you in the editor.

• Save & Close (or Ctrl+Shift+S) stores them and returns you to the channel list.

After a save the editor reloads the Channel from the server, so names, thumbnails and sizes for anything you just added fill themselves in.

The Last changed time on the Channel properties card - and the Modified column in the channel list - updates the moment you save, reads "just now", and keeps counting up on its own while the page is open. What you see is always the true age of the last change, even if you have been idle for a while.

12.2 "This channel was changed elsewhere"

If someone else - or you, in another browser tab, or in the classic editor - saved this Channel after you opened it, your save is stopped and a window appears offering Load newest version or Keep my changes.

• Load newest version throws away your unsaved edits and loads theirs. Safe, and usually right.

• Keep my changes leaves your work on screen so you can copy it somewhere before reloading. It does not save.

This is a safety net, not a nuisance - it exists so two people editing the same playlist cannot silently wipe out each other's work.

12.3 Publishing

If you are not sure which layouts need republishing, use Where is this channel used? (section 13.3) - it names them.

13. Renaming, duplicating and deleting

These live in two places: the "..." button at the end of a row in the list, and the "..." button next to Save when a Channel is open.

13.1 Rename

Choose Rename... from a row's menu, type the new name and click Rename. Renaming only changes the label you see in OnePass - screens keep playing exactly what they were playing. You can also just type over the name at the top of the editor and save.

13.2 Duplicate

Duplicate makes a full copy called "<name> (Copy)", with all of its content and scheduling. The copy does not inherit the original's connection token or its Auto Update setting - it starts fresh on both.

Duplicating from inside the editor copies the last saved version, so save first if you want your current edits included. Channel Studio will remind you.

13.3 Where is this channel used?

This is the question the old interface could never answer. Choose Where is this channel used? and Channel Studio scans your screen layouts and your Channels - across every account you have access to - for anything pointing at this one, then reports back:

• A green message means nothing is using it - safe to change or remove.

• An orange message lists exactly what is using it, naming each Screen Layout and Channel. A Channel on a different account than this one also shows that account's name, so you know exactly whose playlist is involved.

Small notes at the bottom of the result tell you what was not searched, when that matters: in licence mode only that licence's layouts are checked (open Channel Studio without a licence to check them all), and a playlist shared by connection token may also be in use on accounts outside your access, which cannot be checked from here. On very large accounts the check is skipped rather than left running; it tells you that too, instead of pretending the Channel is unused.

13.4 Delete - and doing it safely

1. Choose Delete from the row menu or the editor's "..." menu.

2. A confirmation window opens and runs the usage check for you. The Delete channel button stays greyed out until the answer comes back, so nobody deletes a live Channel by reflex.

3. Read the answer. If layouts are listed, point them at different content first - a layout whose Channel has vanished will show an error the next time it is published.

4. Click Delete channel to proceed, or Cancel to back out.

14. Keyboard shortcuts