When you are in the playlist editing screen (seen below) you can see you have a dropdown box in the top right of the screen where you can change the type of asset you are adding into your playlist.


This article will deal with how to add in those additional asset types other than images and videos


Nested Playlists

A nested playlist is essentially a playlist which you can add into another playlist, this is a feature which makes it a lot easier to manage a large estate of screens.


For example, you may have separate playlists per screen location so these require to be updated individually with generic assets.


However, you may also have a list of generic assets which you wish to display on each of your screens alongside the generic assets. So in the example below, there are two local playlists (for Manchester and Leeds) and one Master playlist. 


Within NowSignage, you can add the the nested playlists into your master playlists and any other relevant playlist you may need to add it to.

By adding the nested playlist into the Master playlist, this means that they will play the generic assets then start displaying the Manchester/Leeds assets when they come up in the running order. Then if any changes need to be made in the future to the those nested playlists you can manage them directly from the playlist or the main playlist screen. Any changes made to a nested playlist will take affect wherever they have been added in other playlists. 


With nested playlists this allows you to update the content in multiple linked playlists at the same time without having to add each asset individually playlist into each playlist.




IPTV Live Streams

To add a Live Stream video to your playlist, simply select 'Live Streams' from the drop down.

You will now see a list of available live streams, once you find one you are looking to display, click on the 'Add' button next to your chosen live stream.

The Live Stream will default at 300 seconds, however you can edit this to any duration you'd like to display this for. Once you are happy with the duration, click 'Add to playlist' and it will be added instantly to your playlist. 




YouTube Videos

To add a YouTube video to your playlist, simply select 'Other Apps' from the drop down where you will see an option for YouTube.

To add in a YouTube video, click 'Add' next to the YouTube icon, then simply paste or enter in the youtube URL of the video you wish to include in your playlist into the External URL section and enter in the duration you wish the video to play for.

Optional - If the YouTube video has available subtitles click the captions tick box to enable these. (This feature is available on Android v3.0.2+ and all other app builds v0.6.0+)


Please note - Captions are not currently compatible with the BrightSign build of the NowSignage app.


Once you are happy with this, click 'Add to playlist' and it will be added instantly. 


Please note - The 'duration' is not automatically applied to match the length of the video, this needs to be added in manually by the user. For example if the YouTube video is 3 minutes long, you will need to enter in the exact duration in seconds (180 seconds) for the video to play in full.



Web Pages

To add a web page to your playlist, simply select 'Other Apps' from the drop down where you will see an option for web pages.

Now click 'Add' next to the Web Page icon, then simply paste or enter in the Web Page URL you wish to include in your playlist into the external URL section and enter in the duration you wish the Web Page to display for.


Once you are happy with this, click 'Add to playlist' and it will be added instantly. 




Live Streamed Video

To add a custom live stream to your playlist, simply select 'Other Apps' from the drop down where you will see an option for live stream video.

Now click 'Add' next to the Livestreamed Video icon, then simply paste or enter in the live stream URL you wish to include in your playlist into the External URL section and enter in the duration you wish the stream to play for.


Once you are happy with this, click 'Add to playlist' and it will be added instantly. 


Please note -  HLS is the only supported streaming protocol supported within NowSignage at this time and we need a live stream URL link in order to input this into our system, the format we accept is .M3U8. 

An alternate method for live streaming is using the YouTube feature (which supports publicly available live streams if hosted via YouTube).