Adding Screens
A screen is the logical broadcast surface that campaigns target. Screens are built from player frames and do not consume licenses — licenses belong to players.
Screen types
CS Play supports two screen types:
- Simple screen
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Exactly one frame of one player. The most common type — standalone billboards, indoor panels, single LED screens.
- Composite screen
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A video wall that combines frames — possibly of several players — into one unified surface. See Video Walls for details.
Automatic creation
When you create a player, a simple screen for its default full-size frame is created automatically (this is the wizard default). For a basic network you may never need to create screens manually — one player, one frame, one screen.
Creating a screen manually
Create screens manually when you add extra frames to a player or assemble a video wall:
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Go to Screens in the left navigation menu.
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Click Simple screen or Composite screen.
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Enter a name for the screen.
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Select the frame (for a simple screen) or arrange the frame grid (for a composite screen).
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Click Create.
A frame can back only one active screen at a time.
Screen statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
Active |
The screen participates in targeting and playback. |
Inactive |
The screen is switched off from broadcasting. |
Archived |
The screen is archived — for example, when its player was archived. |
The screens list can be filtered by type and status.
CamGrabber licences
Screens are free; players are metered by a licence each; and there is a third, separate pool that surprises people, because it is spent from a page that has nothing to do with either — the CamGrabber licence.
A CamGrabber licence is attached to one grabber device, not to a screen and not to a player. It is what decides whose campaigns that device may photograph:
- Free
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The device photographs only platform programmatic campaigns. Your own campaigns are refused. Free devices do not draw on the paid pool.
- Paid
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The device photographs your organization’s own campaigns, honours the photo-report schedule and the per-ad shot counter, and can be put under a campaign’s full-coverage setting. It takes one licence out of the organization’s paid pool for as long as it holds it.
The pool is counted per organization and shown in Settings > Subscription as used out of total, alongside the photo-capture disk quota that grows with it. To raise the count, ask your CS Play provider.
What the operator sees when there is none:
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Registering a device as Paid, switching an existing device from Free to Paid, or reactivating a paid device when the pool is full all stop with the server’s own message — You have no more licenses. Nothing is created and nothing is changed; the previous state stands.
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A device can only be given a paid licence while it is Active. To change the licence type of an inactive device, activate it first.
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Unpairing a device releases its licence back to the pool. Deactivating does not — an inactive device keeps its licence and its place in the count, which is deliberate: it lets you park a device over a quiet season without losing its slot to somebody else.
A change of licence type reaches the grabber the next time the player collects its configuration.
Registration, states and photo-report settings are described in CamGrabber Photo Reports.
Deleting a screen
Open the screen’s Settings tab and click Delete. Deleting a screen removes the logical surface only — the underlying player and frames are not affected.
Next steps
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Review the screen’s tabs on the Screen Card page
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Set up content zones using Frames
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Assign Targeting Criteria for campaign delivery