Scheduled Mode
Scheduled Mode lets a FreePlay TV run itself. You build playlists and put them on a calendar in FreePlay Admin at admin.freeplay.church. Each TV paired to that calendar downloads the week ahead and plays whatever is scheduled, by the clock, with nobody pressing Start. Because the files are already downloaded, playback keeps going even if the Wi-Fi drops.
FreePlay Admin uses your ChurchApps login, the same one you use for B1 Admin. There's no separate account to create.
How It Fits Together
FreePlay Admin has four main pages, listed across the top of the site:
- Screens - The TVs you've paired, their status, and the screen groups they belong to. Screens in a group share one calendar and one default loop
- Playlists - Loops of images and videos you pick from your content providers
- Calendar - What each screen group plays, and when
- Providers - The content sources your playlists pull from. You connect each one once for the whole church
When nothing is scheduled, a group's screens play its default loop. If the group has no default loop, the screens go dark.
How It Differs from Plan Mode
- Plan Mode follows one service plan type from B1 Admin. Someone presses Start Plan on the TV, and the lesson plays when they do
- Scheduled Mode follows a calendar. Content starts and stops at the times you set, so it works well for lobby signage, announcement loops, and classrooms where the lesson should be up before anyone walks in
A calendar entry can still play a service plan. Pick the plan type under Service plans when you add a schedule, and the screen plays whatever plan is current in B1 Admin that week.
Getting Started
Until you've done each of these, the Screens page shows a Get started checklist with a link for every step:
- Connect a provider - Link Dropbox, OneDrive, Lessons.church, or another source on the Providers page
- Build a playlist - Pick images and videos from a provider
- Put it on the calendar - Choose what plays when, or set a default loop for the group
- Pair a screen - Enter the four-letter code shown on the TV
Click Hide to dismiss the checklist.
Press Ctrl+K (⌘K on a Mac), or click the search box in the header, to open the command palette. From there you can jump to any page or start an action like Pair screen, Add playlist, or Add schedule.
In This Section
- Pairing a Screen - Show the code on the TV and pair it in FreePlay Admin
- Managing Screens and Groups - Check status and downloads, and organize screens into groups
- Connecting Providers and Building Playlists - Link content sources and build loops of images and videos
- Scheduling the Calendar - Decide what plays when, and what happens when it finishes early
- Scheduled Playback on the TV - What the TV does on its own, and how to use the remote during playback