Most schedules are one of these.
Office hours
One rule: Weekdays, 07:00 to 19:00.
Outside that window the playlist is not eligible, so the screen shows whatever else is assigned, or nothing.
Dayparting
Different content at different times of day, built with several playlists rather than one schedule. A breakfast playlist scheduled 06:00 to 11:00 and a daytime playlist scheduled 11:00 to 18:00 hand over between themselves.
The screen needs no telling. Each playlist is eligible during its own window, and the screen plays what is eligible now.
Leave no gap unless you want one: a screen with nothing eligible has nothing to show.
A campaign that expires
One rule with a start and end date. The playlist begins and stops on its own, with nobody remembering to turn it off.
This is the fix for the campaign label that never gets removed. Put the dates in the schedule and the problem solves itself.
Different hours at the weekend
Two rules, not one:
| Rule | Days of week | Time of day |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Weekdays | 07:00 to 19:00 |
| 2 | Weekend | 10:00 to 16:00 |
One playlist, one set of content, two windows. See Combining rules.
Skipping holidays
Add the holiday dates as except dates on the rule. The playlist keeps its range and skips those days.
Worth knowing: each except date splits the range into more pieces, so a long list of them can make a schedule too complex to save. A handful is fine; a year of public holidays across five countries is not. See Complex schedules.
Something that has to interrupt everything
That is not a schedule question. A priority playlist takes the screen exclusively while its schedule is active. See Priority override.
An announcement at the same moment everywhere
Schedules run in each screen’s local time, so a 09:00 rule fires at 09:00 in each city rather than simultaneously.
For a synchronised moment, set every screen involved to the same time zone. See Time zones.