Sub-screens: split one screen into multiple zones

What are Sub-screens?

A Sub-screen is a virtual screen that runs on a single physical device. One player, one hardware output, but the device behaves as if it were several separate screens. Each sub-screen has its own content, its own schedule, its own overrides and its own Proof-of-Play report. From the dashboard, you manage them as fully independent screens, even though they share one device and one license.

This is different from a Split Screen design or template. Read the next section to understand the difference before you get started.

Sub-screens versus the Split Screen app

Both features divide a screen into areas, but they solve different problems.

The Split Screen app is a content item. You build a fixed layout with content in it, save it as a single item, and then publish it to a screen or add it to a playlist. The split is part of the content. If you want to change what plays in one area, you have to reopen the Split Screen editor and republish.

Sub-screens is a property of the screen itself. Each zone behaves in the dashboard like its own screen. You push content to it, schedule content on it, apply overrides to it and report on it, exactly as you would with any other paired screen. Nothing is baked in. You can replace the content of one zone without touching the others, and the schedule on zone A keeps running while you push a flash promotion to zone B.

When to choose which:

Choose the Split Screen app when the layout and the content belong together as a single whole, for example a designed dashboard with fixed widgets that you want to appear alongside fullscreen items within a playlist.
Choose Sub-screens when each area of the screen needs to be managed separately, with its own content, its own audience, its own schedule or its own report.

When do you use Sub-screens?

Example 1: double-sided LED billboard

An LED billboard alongside a road is positioned between two lanes of traffic, with one side facing north and the other facing south. One player drives the entire LED surface. With Sub-screens, you split the device into two zones, one per direction. The north zone runs a campaign aimed at traffic from one city; the south zone runs a different campaign for the opposite direction. Each side has its own schedule and its own report for the advertiser.

Example 2: airport flight information screen with paid advertising

An ultra-wide screen in an airport terminal shows live departure information on the left and rotating ads on the right. Everything runs on a single media player connected to a single screen. The left zone plays the departure feed driven by a schedule; the right zone plays an ad playlist that the airport sells to brands. Each brand gets a Proof-of-Play report that covers only its own zone.

Other common situations:

A retail screen that combines product information with a promotional video
A lobby screen that mixes a welcome message with a live menu or news feed
A hotel screen that shows wayfinding on one side and a sponsor loop on the other

Activating Sub-screens

Go to Screens in the sidebar.
Click the screen you want to split.
Open Settings and scroll to Advanced.
Under Render mode, choose Sub-screens.
Click Configure sub-screens to open the configurator.

Configuring zones

In the configurator, choose a layout and set up each zone.

Using a template

The Templates tab offers ready-made layouts:

50/50 for two equal zones, perfect for two viewing directions
70/30 for a main zone with a sidebar
Three-way split for three equal zones
Quarters for a grid of four zones
L-shape for an asymmetric layout
Picture-in-picture for a small zone over a larger one
Free-form to start with a blank canvas

Custom layout

On the Screens tab, you can manually add and rename zones, and drag the corners to resize them.

Canvas resolution

Set the canvas resolution using the toolbar at the top. Common presets are Full HD (1920x1080) landscape or portrait, and 4K (3840x2160). For non-standard screens, you can also enter custom dimensions.

Click Save to confirm the configuration.

Pushing content to a sub-screen

Once your screen is split, each zone appears as its own row in the Screens list, indented beneath the parent device. From that point on, a sub-screen behaves like any other screen.

Open Files or Playlists.
Select content and click Push to screen.
In the target list, the sub-screens appear with the parent screen's name as a prefix, for example "Reception screen - Screen 1".
Choose the sub-screen and click Send.

In the same action, you can push different content to different zones by selecting multiple sub-screens. You can also push the same content to the parent device and to a zone on a different device in one go.

Schedules, overrides and reports per zone

Because each sub-screen is a full screen in its own right, every per-screen feature also works at the zone level:

Schedules are linked to a sub-screen the same way as to a regular screen. Each zone follows its own schedule, independent of the others.

Temporary overrides can target a single zone. The other zones keep playing their normal content. Handy for a flash promotion on one side of a billboard without interrupting the other side.

Proof-of-Play reports support zone selection. When creating a report, you choose whether to track the entire device, a specific zone, or multiple zones across different devices. Each zone produces its own playback data, which is essential when different advertisers buy different zones on the same screen.

Undoing the split

To turn a split device back into a regular full-screen device:

Open the screen settings.
Under Render mode, choose Standard.
Click Save.

All zones are removed and the device resumes full-screen playback at the next heartbeat.

Tip: Sub-screens don't count as extra licenses. The split is a configuration on a single device, so your billing doesn't change. The hardware resolution stays the same; the canvas dimensions only describe how the zones are logically divided across that one physical output.