Screens go wrong on Sunday morning when nobody owns them the rest of the week. The fix is a short routine, done by one person at the same time every week: add what’s new to the Library, make this Sunday’s presentation, take last week’s off the TVs, and check every screen from your phone. It takes about ten minutes. Here it is, step by step.

Pick one time and one person

The routine only works if it happens. Choose a time that’s always free, like Thursday lunchtime or Saturday evening, and one person who does it. Put it in their calendar like any other job.

Don’t leave it to Sunday morning. You want time to notice a TV that’s gone quiet, and to send someone to plug it back in, before the building fills up.

Step 1: Add what’s new to your Library

Most of a Sunday is the same as the one before: the welcome, the songs the children know, the pickup picture. Those are in your Library already, so you only add what’s new. Usually that’s a short list:

  • this week’s story,
  • the memory verse,
  • any new song words,
  • the pickup time, if it’s changed.

In Displayte, go to Library and choose Add files. Each one is ready for the TVs in about a minute.

If you make your slides in Canva, PowerPoint or Keynote, export them as pictures first: PNG or JPEG. Add slides from Canva, PowerPoint or Keynote has the steps for each.

Step 2: Make this Sunday’s presentation

On Presentations, choose New presentation. It asks one thing at a time:

  1. Its name.
  2. When: Scheduled, with this Sunday’s date.
  3. How it plays: With the remote for a lesson, so the leader moves it on, or By itself, looping, with Each picture set to how long it stays up.
  4. Its files: Choose from the Library. A folder comes whole, or pick single pictures, like this week’s story.
  5. Which TVs show it: the TVs that show last Sunday’s are ticked already. Change any, then choose Create presentation.

Its editor opens next. Drag the pictures into the order you’ll use them. Changes save as you go: when it says All changes saved., you’re done with this step.

Displayte’s Presentations page: Sunday in Kids under Upcoming, on the Nursery, Preschool and Elementary TVs; the café menu and the lobby welcome under Always available; and Sunday, Oct 4 under Past.

The new one goes under Upcoming, and last week’s moves down to Past once its Sunday has gone. Nothing is lost: last week’s is still there if you need it again.

Step 3: Take last week’s off the TVs

The TVs you ticked have this week’s now, and still have last week’s. Take it off: a TV with one presentation opens straight into it, and a TV with two shows both, with last week’s story one press away.

On Displays, choose Manage Multiple Displays:

  1. Under Select TVs, tick the TVs that have last week’s.
  2. Untick last week’s presentation. It says Comes off.
  3. Choose Save.

Each TV has the change within a minute.

Step 4: Check every screen from your phone

Last, open Displays on your phone and look down the cards. Each one shows a picture of what that TV is showing right now and the presentation it’s playing.

A TV’s card on Displays, as a phone shows it: the Nursery TV, online and playing Sunday in Kids, with a picture of what’s on its screen and Manage Display under it.

You’re looking for two things:

  1. Every TV is on and connected. A TV that has gone quiet says Offline, with a picture of what it last showed.
  2. Every room has this week’s presentation. If a card still names last week’s, go back to step 3 for that TV.

If something needs fixing, you have days, not minutes. If everything is right, you’re finished.

What you don’t have to touch

Some screens show the same thing every week: the lobby welcome, the café menu, a hallway loop. Make each of those once as Always available, playing By itself, looping, and leave it on its TVs. They sit under Always available, separate from the Sundays, so the weekly routine never gets in their way.

When something in one of them changes, like a new coffee price, swap that one picture in the presentation. Every TV that has it gets the change.

When you’re away

A routine that depends on one person stops when they go on holiday. Write the four steps down, and invite a second person so they can cover. Displayte has unlimited people, each with their own sign-in:

  • An editor adds and edits content, and chooses what plays: they can do the whole routine.
  • An operator changes what’s on the screens but can’t edit anything: right for someone who only does step 3 and step 4.

Ten minutes, once a week, by someone who knows it’s their job. That’s what keeps last week’s story off this week’s screens.

You can try the whole routine in the demo, on a church with six TVs already set up. The demo doesn’t take new pictures, but its Library has plenty to choose from.