Location programs: manual cues and controller mode

Manual cues are content that a guide or driver triggers by hand — for the parts of a tour that don't happen at a fixed place. The safety briefing, the welcome, the announcement that lunch is served. Someone presses a button and the content plays.

Cues can be organized into groups for easy access, and a cue always replaces whatever is currently playing on screen.

Set up a cue

Each cue has three settings:

• Label: what the driver sees on the button. Keep it short — a cue button on a moving vehicle is read in a glance, so Safety beats Pre-departure safety briefing (all routes).

• Content: a playlist or a media item.

• Display time (seconds): how long the cue stays on screen. The default is 30 seconds. This only applies to content with no length of its own, like a still image — a video or playlist plays for its full duration.

Cues are buttons the guide presses. Groups nest one level deep.

Organize cues into groups

Groups keep a long list manageable — Safety, Commentary, Announcements.

Groups nest exactly one level deep. A group holds cues — it can't hold another group, and it has no content of its own.

Empty groups and cues with no content assigned are hidden from the picker. If a cue you created isn't appearing, check that it has content on it.

A cue always replaces what's playing, regardless of the program's When a trigger interrupts setting. If a guide presses a button and nothing happens, it looks like a fault — so cues always take the screen.

The driver's controls

Beyond the cue buttons, the driver or guide has three controls:

• Stop: clears what's playing, empties the queue, and returns to the ambient zone layer.

• Blank screen: turns all screens black. Useful for a night crossing, a quiet leg, or any time content would be intrusive.

• Arm / disarm triggers: turns automatic triggers on or off. A trigger already playing is allowed to finish, and zones keep working normally.

Disarming triggers is useful when you want the map and background content but not the automatic commentary — for example, a private charter, a repeat group, or a route being run out of sequence.

Set a display to controller mode

Every display can work in one of two modes:

• Player — shows content to passengers (this is the default)
• Controller — shows a list of cue buttons for the guide or driver to press

So the guide carries a tablet set to controller mode, and uses it to control what appears on all the passenger screens (the players) around the vehicle.

You set this in Builder on each display's record. Controller mode requires a Signage - Standard license.

Connect the players to the controller

Once you have a controller device and player screens, you need to tell each player where to get its cues from. Open the display's settings in Builder and find the Cue source dropdown:

• None: this display doesn't receive manual cues.

• This device's driver mode: this display is the controller.

• Poll a driver device: this display is a player — enter the controller's URL so it knows where to check.

When controller mode is running, the controller shows its URL on screen. Copy that URL into each player's cue source setting.

Player displays poll the controller for its current cue.

Each player screen checks in with the controller at regular intervals to find out what's playing. If the player checks too slowly, it can miss a cue entirely — for example, if a cue lasts 30 seconds but the player only checks every 60 seconds, the cue could start and finish between checks.

Make sure the poll interval is shorter than your shortest cue duration.

This works the same way as the location source polling. See Set a display's location source.

Use the cue picker in a vehicle

For vehicles with Android Auto, the cue picker appears on the head unit. It's a reduced, safe-to-use-while-driving view with the current status and the cue list. Settings and configuration stay on the phone as parked work.

Two practical notes if you're planning this:

• Wired Android Auto will not work through a USB-C hub. The head unit has to be the USB host and the phone the accessory, and a hub reverses that. No cable or hub fixes it.
• Vehicles without native wireless Android Auto need a wireless adapter. Treat that as a provisioning requirement, not an accessory.

Talk to us before committing to an Android Auto deployment.

Behavior notes

• A cue's display time only governs content with no length of its own, such as a still image.
• Disarming triggers does not affect zones. The ambient layer keeps resolving as the vehicle moves.
• Stop empties the queue as well as clearing the current item, so a queued trigger doesn't play afterwards.

FAQ

Why isn't my cue showing on the picker?

It has no content assigned, or it's inside an empty group. Both are hidden rather than drawn broken.

Can a group contain another group?

No. Groups nest exactly one level deep.

Will a cue interrupt a trigger that's playing?

Yes. A manual cue always replaces whatever is on screen.

Next steps

• Location programs: an overview
• Set a display's location source
• License types and what each includes