Location programs: zones and live maps

Zones are the ambient layer of a location program. You draw areas on a map, and while the display is inside one, that zone's content plays and loops. As the vehicle moves from one zone to the next, the content changes with it.

Triggers and manual cues interrupt this layer. Zones are what's playing the rest of the time.

Draw a zone

Open your location program and go to the Zones tab. Zones are drawn directly on the map, as either of two shapes.

• Polygon: click each corner in turn, then close the shape. A polygon needs at least three points. Use this for a harbour, a park, a stretch of coastline or a city district.
• Circle: place a centre point and set a Radius (metres). The default radius is 50 m and the minimum is 1 m. Use this for anything roughly round, or for a catchment around a point.

Zones can be polygons or circles. The list order decides which wins where they overlap.

Give a zone content

Each zone plays one of three things.

• Playlist: loops for as long as the display is in the zone.
• Media item: a single image, video or audio file.
• Live map: a moving map showing the vehicle's position. See Live maps below.

Set the order of overlapping zones

Zones commonly overlap, and the list order settles which one plays. Builder states the rule on the page: Where zones overlap, the one highest in this list wins.

Drag zones up and down the list to set their priority. The topmost matching zone plays, and the others are ignored while it does.

You can draw a large general zone covering a whole route, then smaller, more specific zones on top of it. Put the specific ones above the general one.

Cover the gaps between zones

If the vehicle moves outside every zone, the screen goes blank — no content plays at all.

To avoid this, draw one large zone that covers your entire route and give it a general-purpose playlist, like a welcome loop or your logo. Place it at the bottom of the zone list so it sits behind all your other zones. That way, the smaller zones play when the vehicle is inside them, and the large zone catches everything in between.

Live maps

A live map is a moving map with a marker for the vehicle, and a zone can show one instead of media. It's what people expect on a ferry or a tour bus, showing where you are right now and moving as you go.

Zoom rotation

You set this up by adding steps. Each step has a zoom level and a duration (how long to hold that view before moving to the next). The map plays through the steps in order, then loops.

For example, you could show a close-up of the immediate surroundings for 15 seconds, then zoom out to the full route for 15 seconds, and keep alternating.

If you don't add any steps, the display picks a zoom level and stays there.

Zoom rotation cycles the map between levels.

The vehicle marker

By default the map uses a standard pin. To use your own icon, like a boat, a bus or your logo, set the program's Live map marker to an image media item.

The live map marker setting in the program editor

The marker has to be an image, and it's always drawn upright regardless of which way the vehicle is heading. It's set once for the whole program, not per zone.

Behavior notes

• When the vehicle crosses into a new zone, that zone's content starts from the beginning, at item one of its playlist.
• The exception is a display with Sync display turned on. Synchronised displays stay in phase with each other instead of restarting. See Synchronised playback across multiple displays.
• The basemap is downloaded to the device when the program loads, so a live map keeps working with no connectivity. You'll see "Downloading offline map" during the loading sequence.
• An audio media item in a zone plays over the zone's visual when that visual is a live map. The map stays on screen and the commentary plays over it.
• In any other case an audio item takes the screen. Its thumbnail image fills the display if the media item has one, and the screen is black if it doesn't.

FAQ

Can a zone apply only at certain times of day?

No. A zone is pure geography, and there are no time rules on it. If you need content to vary by both place and time, assign separate location programs to the display at different times. You can also build the variation into the playlist itself.

What happens outside every zone?

The screen is blank. Draw a large low-priority zone over the whole operating area if you'd rather show something.

Next steps

• Location programs: triggers: content that fires at specific points.
• Set a display's location source: where the position actually comes from.
• Synchronised playback across multiple displays