September 14, 2026
Signital blog
4 min read
Most questions we get in support come down to one thing: where should this content go? Signital keeps the answer small. There are three containers, each solves a different problem, and once you see the pattern you stop thinking about it.
First, the path every item takes. You upload media or configure a widget. You add it to a scheduled plan, which says what plays, in what order and when. The plan belongs to a display or a channel. You press Publish changes. The player fetches the published plan and plays it.
Every display has a plan of its own, so you never need to create anything else to get a single screen going. Add a display, connect it, press Add to plan, publish. A reception screen that shows the visitor welcome and the weather, and nothing else anywhere, belongs here.
Use it when one display shows something only it shows. The moment a second screen should show the same thing, stop and read on, because copying items between displays is how menus drift apart.
A channel is a plan that many displays can follow at once. Put the lunch menu on a channel, point ten displays at it, and they play the same thing. Edit the channel once and press Publish changes, and all ten update within seconds. A display follows exactly one channel at a time, and the channel page tells you how many do: Active on 10 displays, 9 online.
Channels are orientation-specific, so a landscape channel is only offered to landscape displays. They also carry the transition between items, from Crossfade to Slide, and the layout when you split the screen. When you add a display you can pick its channel in the same dialog, so a new store opens on the right content before anyone has touched it.
A playlist is an ordered run of content you build once and drop into any plan as a single item. Ten seasonal promotions become one row on the channel, and updating the playlist updates every channel and display that plays it. On the plan it shows as one row with a Playlist badge, its items nested underneath and a duration summed from them.
Reach for a playlist when the same sequence belongs in several channels, or when a channel is getting long and you want to manage a campaign as one thing. A playlist cannot contain another playlist, and it is authored for one orientation.
Twelve branches share a brand channel, but one branch runs a local event this week. Do not fork the channel. Leave eleven on the channel and take the twelfth off it with Remove channel on its display page; its own plan resumes. Drop the shared content in as a playlist, add the local item, publish. Next week, Connect to channel again and it is back in line.
Alternatively, keep the branch on the channel and put the shared content in a playlist that also carries the local item on a schedule. Which you choose depends on whether the exception is a week or a way of life.
An item inside a playlist can have a schedule, and the playlist row on the plan has one too. The item plays only when both agree. A promotion set to 08:00 to 12:00 inside a playlist the plan shows from 10:00 to 18:00 plays from 10:00 to 12:00. If the two windows never overlap, the item never plays, and nothing warns you, so check the plan preview.
Before you publish a shared channel or a playlist, glance at its Active on line. That number is how many screens are about to change.
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