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How to Use Sensors with a Video Wall

Completion Time: 30 minutes

This guide explains what a sensor can change on a Video Wall, then walks you through the most common setup: one sensor that switches every screen of the wall at once, for example to show a different ad when someone walks up to the wall.

New to sensors? Start here

This guide assumes you can already connect a sensor, see what it sends and react to it in a Content. If not, build your first sensor Content first: it covers the basics everything below relies on.

Learn more: Create your first sensor interaction content

How sensors work on a Video Wall​

  • A sensor event works like a tap. When a device receives a sensor event, the Content runs the action you set for it, just as if someone had tapped the screen. Unlike touch events, sensor events also work when the Content uses Performance mode.
  • One sensor belongs to one device. Only the device that has the sensor connected and configured receives its events. Being part of a Video Wall does not change that.

Three ways to use a sensor on a wall​

Take a wall of three screens, with the sensor connected to the device of screen 3:

What happens when the sensor firesHow to set it up
1. Only that screen changesScreen 3 changes, screens 1 and 2 keep playing.A sensor event in the Content, with no datasource. Only the device of screen 3 receives it.
2. The whole wall changesAll three screens switch together, screen 3 included.The device of screen 3 acts as the wall's controller: it writes the event to an internal datasource, and the wall's Content follows the datasource. See the walkthrough below.
3. Every screen has its own sensorEach screen reacts to its own sensor.Possible, but not recommended: it takes much more logic in the Content. If the screens need to react separately, give each screen its own Content instead of using a Video Wall.

The same options apply to walls built with the classic soft matrix.

Option 2: switch the whole wall from one sensor​

The devices of the wall share an internal datasource:

  1. The device with the sensor writes a value (for example, the name of a page) into the internal datasource when the sensor fires.
  2. The wall's Content watches the same datasource and jumps to the matching page when the value changes. Because every screen of the wall plays the same Content, every screen switches.

What you need​

  • A Video Wall that is already set up. Learn more: Set up a Video Wall
  • One sensor, connected to one device of the wall and configured on it. Learn more: Sensor events
  • One internal datasource.
  • One Content: the Content the wall plays.

Step 1: Create the shared internal datasource​

  1. Go to Datasources and create a new Internal datasource, Custom and name it Wall trigger.
  2. Turn on Allow displays to update data. Without it, the device with the sensor cannot write to the datasource and the change is rejected.
  3. Give it a simple structure with one field that holds the page to show:
{
  "page": "Default"
}
  1. Save.

Learn more: Internal Table Datasources

Step 2: Make the wall Content follow the datasource​

  1. Open the Content the wall plays. Build it at the wall's resolution, as for any Video Wall.
  2. Add one page per state, for example Default and Promo.
  3. Open the Content-level settings and find the External events section. Click Edit datasource events.
  4. Add an event bound to the page field of your Wall trigger datasource.
  5. For each page, add a rule with Evaluation type set to equals, comparing page to that page's name, with the action Jump to and the matching page as target.

Learn more: Evaluation Types and Jump To Action

Step 3: Let the sensor write to the datasource​

Stay in the same Content.

  1. In the External events section, click Edit sensor events and stay on Content wide events.
  2. Click Add new and fill in the condition with the values your sensor sends.
  3. As the action, choose Overwrite internal datasource (group Internal Datasource Value Management):
    • Datasource: Wall trigger
    • Value origin: Static value, with Data set to {"page": "Promo"}.

Every screen of the wall plays this Content, but only the device with the sensor ever receives sensor events, so only that device writes to the datasource. It is the wall's controller, but not a separate one: it is still a screen of the wall, shows its own part of the Content, and switches together with the others when the datasource changes.

Learn more: Override Internal Datasource Value

Step 4: Assign and test​

  1. Assign the Content to the wall in the Video Wall editor with Choose content, then Save.
  2. Trigger the sensor. Every screen of the wall should jump to the Promo page within a few seconds.
  3. Open the datasource in Datasources and check that page holds Promo.

Good to know​

  • Plan the way back. The wall stays on Promo until the value changes again. Write Default back the same way, from a second sensor event when the person walks away. Most proximity and motion sensors send a separate event when nobody is in front of them anymore: for example, the PIR motion sensor unit sends deactive when its onLeave event fires. Check what your own sensor sends in the device console, as shown in Create your first sensor interaction content, and add a second rule for that event with the data {"page": "Default"}.
  • The same value twice does nothing new. The wall reacts when the value changes, so triggering the sensor again while the value is already Promo does not restart the page.
  • Page timing. If the pages have their own durations, the wall may move on by itself. On each controlled page, turn off Automatic under Next page so the page waits for the datasource instead of advancing on a timer.