The Room Monitor & Kiosk Hub add-on turns TVs, tablets, projectors, and mini-PCs into automated digital door signs, lobby video walls, and interactive information kiosks.
Turn Your Event Program into Door Signs & Info Screens
Event scheduling and venue displays integrate seamlessly:
- Core Plugin (Convention Schedule & Program Planner 2.0+): Manages sessions, days, halls, speakers, and visitor web layouts (calendar, timetable, live ticker, speaker index) as well as operations tools (Dashboard, Master Editor).
- Add-on (Room Monitor & Kiosk Hub 1.0+): Full-screen, zero-scrollbar displays for conference rooms, multi-venue surveillance grids for lobbies, and an on-screen kiosk launchpad.
Maintain once – displayed everywhere. Whether on the website, attendees' phones, the live ticker, or hall door signs: all views draw from the exact same database. What you change on a session in the admin reflects minutes later across every display in the building.
Requirements & API Validation
- Convention Schedule & Program Planner in version 2.0.0 or newer.
- WordPress 5.8 or newer, PHP 7.4 or newer.
- Checked via constant
EC_ADDON_API = 1rather than plugin versions, ensuring rock-solid compatibility.
Installation & WordPress Integration
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1Verify Core Calendar
Ensure the core plugin is running version 2.0.0 or newer. If older, the add-on remains inactive and shows an admin notice.
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2Install Add-on
Upload
convention-schedule-room-monitor.zipunderPlugins → Add Newand click Activate. -
3Open Settings Card
Navigate to
Events → Settings → Live-Ticker & Monitor. The new card “Room Monitor & Kiosk Hub” appears below the “Live-Ticker” card. -
4Review Preload Settings
Defaults are 336 hours (14 days) and 100 sessions. For a single room monitor, 24 hours and 20 sessions are often ideal.
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5Enter Hub Locations
Configure location lines for your screen launchpad (see Kiosk Hub chapter).
Behavior When Components Are Missing
| Scenario | System Behavior |
|---|---|
| Add-on missing or deactivated | Public visitors see nothing where the shortcode is placed. Logged-in editors see a brief red notice. Raw shortcode strings never leak. |
| Calendar missing or outdated | Add-on skips module loading entirely, registers no shortcodes, and displays a clear notice in the WordPress admin. |
| Both active | Add-on seamlessly integrates into settings cards, label groups, help tabs, generator types, and settings backups. |
The “Room Monitor & Kiosk Hub” Settings Card
Located under Events → Settings → Live-Ticker & Monitor:
| Field | Default | Range | Effect & Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monitor: Preload Window | 336 hrs (14 days) | 1 – 8760 hrs | How far into the future the monitor looks. Preloaded sessions are stored as a local client buffer. |
| Monitor: Preload Limit | 100 | 1 – 500 | Maximum number of preloaded sessions per display. Values above 200 are discouraged for performance. |
| Hub Locations | (empty) | Text block | Pipe-separated location list for [event_monitor_hub]. |
| Delete Data on Uninstall | off | on / off | Deletes the add-on settings upon uninstallation – and only those. |
For a single room monitor, a 24-hour window and a limit of 20 sessions are usually enough. That cuts payload size substantially and improves long-term reliability on low-power display sticks.
The add-on has no separate refresh rate setting: it uses “Global: Refresh Rate” from the “Live-Ticker” card (default 15 minutes, minimum 60-second server throttle).