Build a rotation

A rotation is the sponsor loop that plays on a perimeter board. To open the Perimeter view, select the ad-board icon in the top bar. The rotations are listed on the left, and each row shows the board and the cycle length, for example Perimeter · 12:00. A green dot and On air mark the rotation that is playing now. The selected rotation fills the rest of the view.

Sponsor rotations are available on Pro. On Club, the Perimeter view asks you to upgrade, and an LED perimeter plays an idle clip or a sequence instead. See Plans and limits.

Before you start

A rotation plays on a board, which is a surface with Type set to LED perimeter. Create the surface and a canvas for it first. See Describe an LED surface and Create a canvas.

You can build a rotation without LED hardware. The preview stays live all the time.

Create the rotation

1. At the top of the list, select +. Its tooltip is New rotation. The New rotation dialog opens.

2. Type a Name, for example Half-time sponsors.

3. Under Board, select the board that the rotation plays on. The dialog lists each board with its sections at their real proportions. The sections are read-only here; you change them in Configuration → Venue → Patch.

   If you have only one board, the dialog selects it for you.

4. Select Create.

Create stays disabled until the rotation has a name and a board. Plays on shows No board selected until you select one.

If you have no board, the dialog shows No LED board yet. Select Set up a board in Settings to open Configuration → Venue → Patch.

You can keep any number of rotations, but only one rotation plays on a board at a time.

Edit a rotation

To open the dialog again, select the pencil in the toolbar. Its tooltip is Rotation settings. It is the same dialog, with Save in place of Create.

If you switch to another board while items sit in sections that the new board does not have, the dialog warns you. The items stay, but they do not play until you move them to a section of the new board.

Find the rotation number

The app gives each rotation a number when you create it. The number shows at the start of its row in the list. You cannot change it. It stays the same when you rename or move the rotation, and the app does not give it to a new rotation after you delete the rotation. OSC messages use the number. To get the address, use the Address finder in the OSC pane. See OSC control.

Delete a rotation

1. In the dialog, select Delete rotation…. You can also right-click the rotation in the list and select Delete…. On a screen narrower than 1500 px, open the rotation name menu in the toolbar first.
2. To confirm, select Delete.

The app removes the rotation and all its items. The media and the sponsors stay in the library. You cannot undo a deletion. You cannot delete a rotation that is on air, so stop it first.

Work with sections

By default, a rotation fills the whole board. If the board has sections, the editor shows one column for each section.

Zones are not configured separately: the sections of the canvas's surface are the zones.

1. In Configuration → Venue → Patch, give the surface one section for each independent region.
2. Select a rotation that plays on that board.
3. Check that the editor shows one column for each section, with the section name.

A canvas with no surface, or a surface with one section, shows one column that plays across the whole board.

If you rename a section, only the label changes, and its items stay with it. If you remove a section, its items have no section. The editor keeps and shows these items, and does not move them to a neighbouring section. When you have decided what to do with them, select Remove N unplayable items to remove them.

Read the editor

Screenshot pending

rotation-editor-01-timeline — Rotation editor with the board strip, three section columns, a coupled item and a gap, and the settings panel open. Tracked in website/SCREENSHOTS.md.

The editor has a toolbar, the board strip and the timeline, with the board strip between the other two. The settings panel opens on the right when you select an item.

• The toolbar runs across the top. It shows the name of the rotation, the settings pencil, the mode chip (Edit mode or On air), Go on air and Stop. Then comes the status strip: Ready or On air, the cycle that plays, for example Cycle 3, a progress bar and the time in the cycle, for example 00:27 / 01:00. At the right end are the zoom control, Follow and the cycle length, for example Cycle 01:00.
• The board strip shows the whole board in one line. See Run a rotation.
• The timeline has one column for each section, with time running from top to bottom. The height of each block matches the length of its item. The ruler on the left counts in m:ss.

Each column has a header with a small board tile, the section name, and a line with the number of items and the total length, for example North and 4 item(s) · 00:30. When the rotation is stopped, the tile shows the item at the playhead (at first, the first item) and the text is dim. When the rotation is on air, the tile shows the item that is playing and the text is bright. The numbers count the items of each section, so each column starts at 1. The total length also includes the coupled items from other sections that play on this section, but not the gaps.

The zoom control in the toolbar zooms the timeline. Select − or + to change the zoom, or the middle button to fit the whole cycle in the view. The editor opens at Fit. Zooming changes the height of the blocks.

The items play from top to bottom, and then the rotation starts again from the beginning. When the rotation is stopped, select a time on the ruler, or an empty part of a column, to move the playhead there. Drag along the ruler to move the playhead continuously. The board strip and the column tiles show the items at the playhead. Selecting a block opens its settings without moving the playhead.

When the rotation is on air, the playhead moves with playback, and selecting the ruler does not move it. Select Follow to keep the playhead in view: the timeline turns the page when the playhead reaches the bottom. If you scroll or zoom by hand, the timeline stops following and a Playhead pill appears. Select the pill to follow again. When the rotation is stopped, the pill appears whenever the playhead is out of view, and selecting it brings the playhead back into view.

On a screen narrower than 1500 px, the app makes more space for the timeline:

• The rotation list hides. Select the rotation name in the toolbar to open the rotation list as a menu. Select a rotation to edit it, or select + New rotation at the end of the menu.
• Go on air and Stop show only their icons. The status strip and the right end of the toolbar do not show the cycle.
• The ruler, the board tiles in the column headers and the thumbnails are smaller.
• The settings panel floats over the timeline instead of pushing it aside.

Add content

• Select + at the bottom of a column and select files from the library.
• Drag video or image files from your computer onto a column. The files go where you drop them. The app ignores other files.

The + opens the media picker with the title Add to and the name of the section. The chip Video and images next to the title shows that the picker lists only files that a rotation can show.

1. To find files, type in the search field, select a folder in the folder list, or select Tags ▾ and select one or more tags. All, Video and Image narrow the list to one type.
2. Select each file that you want. Each selected file gets a check mark, and the footer shows how many files you selected. Clear removes the selection.
3. Select Add and the number, for example Add 3.

The app adds the files in the order you selected them. The preview on the right shows the last file that you selected, with its details and tags. To hear the sound of a video, select ▶ in the preview, and the sound plays on PFL. To show the files as tiles, select the grid button at the right end of the toolbar.

Reorder, move and copy

Drag a block up or down to change its position in its column. To move a block to a different column, drop it in that column. That section becomes the home of the item, and the app removes any coupling to the new home. To copy a block, hold Alt when you release it, or use Duplicate in the item menu or in the settings panel. If you release a block outside the timeline, the drag is cancelled.

Edit an item

Select a block to edit it in the settings panel on the right. Right-click a block to open its menu with Settings…, Replace media…, Duplicate and Remove….

Setting	Does
Length	The time that the item plays, as mm:ss or as seconds. A video starts with its own length. A shorter video loops, and the app cuts a longer video.
Fit	How the media is placed. Center scales the media to fit and keeps the original shape, with space around it. Repeat puts copies side by side across the full width, at the natural height. Stretch fills the area exactly, which can distort the media.
Scroll speed	Available only with Repeat. It moves the copies continuously, in millimetres per second, so the same value looks the same on a coarse or a fine pixel pitch. A positive value scrolls left, a negative value scrolls right, and 0 does not move.
Media	The file of the item. Select Replace… to choose a different file. The length, the couplings and the position do not change.
Remove…	Removes the item, after you confirm. To do the same, select a block and press Delete (Backspace on a Mac).

Every item in the list plays, and there is no switch to skip one. To skip an item, remove it. After the upgrade, items that an earlier version set to off are on.

Repeat puts copies across the section width of the item, not across the whole board. If you change the media, Fit or Scroll speed of an item that is on air, the board shows the change immediately and the item starts again from the beginning.

The Default transition of the target canvas controls how an item comes into view. Each section changes independently. See Create a canvas.

Edit mode and on air

When the rotation is stopped, you are in edit mode. When it is on air, the editor is locked: you cannot drag, drop, add, remove or rename anything, and the settings panel is read-only.

The mode chip shows a lock. Hover over it to see Stop the rotation to edit. The panel shows Stop the rotation to change settings. Select Stop to edit again.

In the dialog, only the Name can change on air. The chip shows On air · Cycle and the cycle number, and Stop the rotation to change its board shows in the dialog header. The board list stays visible but dimmed, and Delete rotation… is disabled.

Play one item on several sections

In the settings panel, under Also plays on, select each section on which the item also plays. The section that has the item is its home. The home section is always selected, and you cannot clear it.

A coupled item plays on its home and on all coupled sections at the same time. Its copies show in the other columns as dashed blocks with a link icon. Selecting a copy edits the home item.

When an item is coupled, Render appears:

• Span shows one picture across the coupled sections if they are adjacent.
• Repeat shows one full copy in each coupled section.

If a section that an item is coupled to is deleted, a warning appears above the board strip, and the item no longer plays on that section. The app removes the coupling the next time it saves the rotation, and any change to the rotation causes a save. The warning stays until ArenaDirector starts again.

Gaps and the shared cycle

All sections use one shared cycle. A coupled item must start on all its sections at the same time, so it waits until all of them are free. The time that the item waits is a gap. The editor shows a gap as a hatched area, and on the board a gap is black.

The cycle is as long as the longest section. A shorter section ends with a gap until the cycle starts again.

See also

• Run a rotation
• Your first rotation
• LED boards