Ensuring planned and reactive content fit on a Digital Sign

Owned by Justin Acuesta (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Dec 01, 2022
6 min read

In this article, users will be taught how to troubleshoot and update content on their digital sign to prevent the cropping of content which occurs when too much content is added to a digital sign.

Below is a table of contents to help divide the sections for your convenience.

Planned Content vs Reactive Content

Planned Content: This is content that will be displayed in advance before an experience begins or in normal day-to-day operation (e.g. Restroom or Parking content)

Reactive Content: This is when an experience name overrides a location (e.g. STADIUM could become GUNS N ROSES 2021 TOUR which overrides the original name and could take 3 lines instead of 1 on a digital sign)

Introduction to Message Cropping on Digital Signs

As a user adds content to a digital sign they are able to preview the changes in real-time. There are situations where content gets cropped off because too much content has been added (refer to photo below)

This is a common scenario and the user can fix this by removing some content from the digital sign

A Digital Sign might not display all the information because:

  • Destination or Messaging Dictionary words are too long and take up multiple lines on the sign

  • Too many content slots are being used for one digital sign

To avoid content from being cropped, here are some suggestions:

  • Don’t overload signage with too many navigational choices

  • Transfer some content to other nearby signs to prevent overflowing

  • Simplify wording on Destination / Messaging Dictionary items if possible

Updating content on a Digital Sign

Steps

1. On the PAM navigation menu, go to 360 Planner > Digital Signs

2. Select Digital Sign Tab

3. Search or click on your digital sign on the map. For this example, we are using sign P 3.1 18-170 (Side A)

HINT: You may notice that there are two P 3.1 18-170 this means that one is faced towards the front (Side A) and one is faced towards the back (Side B).

4. When you select a sign, the Digital Sign preview and its information will pop up on the right side. The preview shows the content ‘INFORMATION CENTER’ with ‘CENTER’ being completely cut off

Note: If the cropped content is essential users can remove other content to make space and transfer the removed content to another nearby sign. PAM can only support a certain amount of content for each sign due to the screen size.

Removing Other Content

Steps

1. For this example, we will remove ‘BANK’ from this digital sign to make space for ‘INFORMATION CENTER’. To do this go to Content Slots, scroll down to Slot 7 and click on the X

2. On the preview, you will notice that ‘BANK' has been removed and 'INFORMATION CENTER' is fully displayed with no cropping issues.

3. Save changes

Check reactive content on a Digital Sign

We will now show an example of how reactive content may cause message cropping if activated.

Steps

1. In the PAM navigation menu go to 360 Planner > Digital Signs

2. Select DIGITAL SIGN MAP tab.

3. Search for a sign that contains reactive content. A reactive content can be a regular experience (i.e. Weekly NFL game) or a status of a parking lot (i.e. Parking Lot is now Open). We will continue to select sign
P 3.1 18-170 (Side A) for our example.

4. For this example, in the sign preview ‘THEATER’ is the location that contains reactive content

5. This is indicated by the star symbol on the left of Theater in slot 8, signifying the location currently has an active experience

6. Enable REACTIVE and this will now automatically update the preview with the live changes

7. ‘THEATRE’ has now changed into ‘AUSTRALIAN OPEN’. This doesn’t mean Theatre has disappeared its now become Australian Open because this event is currently happening at Theatre.

8. Notice that Blue Zone and Brown Zone Parking has disappeared completely. This is because they were both disabled prior to Reactive being activated. All locations are seen by default but when Reactive is turned on, only locations that are not disabled remain.

9. If reactive content is also good and not cutting any content, save your changes.

What if I make the fonts smaller?

How to include Sublocations on a Digital Sign

Steps
1. In the PAM navigation menu, go to 360 Planner > Digital Signs

2. Select DIGITAL SIGN MAP

3. Select a Directional Sign on the map or search it

4. Lake Park is the location and Event Lawn 1 & 2 are the Sublocations

5. Theatre is the location and VIP Entry 6 & 7 and Entry 1-5 are the Sublocations

6. Please Maintain Social Distance is a Pedestrian message

7. Click on the settings icon for more configuration options. You have to adjust each slot individually, meaning the settings icon needs to be clicked for the slot you want to adjust.

8. The little ‘A' means the slot size will become smaller. Since little 'A’ is highlighted in light blue, this means that you have selected this option.

9. The big 'A' means the slot size will become bigger.

10. The indent on the left-side, means that you want to push the content in this slot to be more inward towards the right. Since this is selected, as highlighted in light blue, you cannot adjust this further.

11. The indent on the right-side means that you want to push the content in this slot to be more outward on the edge of the sign towards the left.

12. Selecting this will put a dividing line between content slots. For example between Lake Park and Theater there is a dividing line to show they are not related to one another.

13. Making changes with the settings in Steps 8-12 will show you a preview of how it looks like each time you make an adjustment.

14. Save changes.