Build a Playlist

A Playlist defines fullscreen content in playback order. A standard Playlist plays its items from top to bottom, then loops. Create one when you want to choose the sequence yourself, or use a Tag-driven Playlist to include matching Ready media automatically.

Create a standard Playlist

1. Open Presentations > Playlists, then select Create playlist.
2. Enter a name, choose Standard playlist, and select Create playlist.
3. Use Add content to choose Ready images, videos, or Widgets. Select Add Layout to include a published Layout.
4. Reorder items in the timeline. Select an item to change its duration, fit, transition, audio, delivery, or availability settings in the Inspector.
5. Select Preview to review the sequence, then select Publish or Submit for review.

If Studio can’t load the Playlist library, select Retry. Studio shows the empty state only after a successful response confirms there are no Playlists.

Changes to a draft don’t change the published Playlist. If your role and the content review policy don’t allow direct publication, submit the draft; it becomes live after approval. A Layout added to a Playlist must already be published. It plays fullscreen for 30 seconds by default, which you can change in the item Inspector.

Studio starts the preview duration for an image, Widget, or Layout when the item is ready to display. A video advances at the end of the media or at its configured trim point.

The popup preview resolves timing, fit, transitions, volume, and audio through the same presentation rules as the Player. Items that use Player defaults use the installation’s playback settings in this generic preview. The preview waits for those settings to load. A specific Screen’s effective policy can differ.

An open popup preview adds content when its availability window begins and removes it when the window expires. Returning to the tab rechecks availability after a background pause.

The Playlist library loads the first 100 matches. Search to narrow results across the library, or select Load more to browse later results. The presentation chooser uses the same search and Load more controls.

Create a Tag-driven Playlist

Choose Tag-driven playlist when the Playlist should follow media labels instead of a hand-maintained timeline.

1. Create a Playlist and choose Tag-driven playlist.
2. Open Playlist details and select Content source.
3. Select one or more Media tags and choose whether the source should match Any selected tag or All selected tags.
4. Set the Image duration, then select Save content source.
5. Preview and publish the Playlist, or submit it for review.

The generated timeline contains Ready media that currently matches the selected tags. Its items aren’t manually ordered. Tilecast orders matching assets by name, without case affecting the sort; an internal stable ID breaks a tie between identical names. Rename assets when you need to control their order. Add or change Tags on assets to change which media matches; edit the source rule to change the matching behavior.

Publish the source rule before assigning the Playlist as a Screen’s default content. Tilecast checks the published rule’s matching media when you assign it. A Tag-driven Playlist needs at least one matching Ready image or video with a playable variant. Archived, deleted, and expired media don’t count. Media with a future availability date can be assigned, but it won’t play before that date. See the playlist API contract for the exact rules.

Restore a Playlist revision

Owners, Administrators, and Editors can restore a revision. In the Playlist editor, open More playlist actions > History to review saved revisions. Select Restore on a revision to copy its available items into the working draft. Restore creates a new revision; it does not change what is playing until you publish the draft or submit it for review.

Tilecast keeps the most recent 30 ordinary revisions. Revisions referenced by a publication or submission may remain longer. Tilecast skips media or Layouts that are no longer available and reports the skipped items. A revision with nothing available to restore cannot be restored.

Playback details

• An item that isn’t Ready is skipped until its media is available.
• Availability windows are evaluated with the Player’s server-corrected clock, including from a cached manifest while the Player is offline. A future item appears when its window opens, and an expired item leaves the playable set without requiring a server round trip.
• If every item is unavailable or fails, the Player does not spin through the Playlist or stay on a blank frame. It reports that the assigned content is unavailable and waits before trying again. Stream-only media can become unavailable during an outage; use Download or Automatic when the item must survive loss of connectivity.
• Item settings can use Player defaults or override fit, transition, audio, volume, delivery, duration, and availability for that item.
• Crossfade blends the visuals. Audio still changes at the normal item boundary.
• Adding the same Playlist to a schedule or Campaign is a separate step. See Schedules and Campaigns.

Deleting a Playlist can’t be undone. Screens assigned to it fall back to their default content.

Next steps

• Upload and organize media.
• Create reusable Widgets or Layouts.
• Put a Playlist on a calendar with Schedules or a Campaign.