Program Planner DOCS & HELP

Overview & Signage Scenarios

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.
Core Philosophy

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 = 1 rather than plugin versions, ensuring rock-solid compatibility.

Installation & WordPress Integration

  1. 1
    Verify 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.

  2. 2
    Install Add-on

    Upload convention-schedule-room-monitor.zip under Plugins → Add New and click Activate.

  3. 3
    Open Settings Card

    Navigate to Events → Settings → Live-Ticker & Monitor. The new card “Room Monitor & Kiosk Hub” appears below the “Live-Ticker” card.

  4. 4
    Review Preload Settings

    Defaults are 336 hours (14 days) and 100 sessions. For a single room monitor, 24 hours and 20 sessions are often ideal.

  5. 5
    Enter 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Calendar missing or outdated Add-on skips module loading entirely, registers no shortcodes, and displays a clear notice in the WordPress admin.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:

The “Live-Ticker & Monitor” tab: the calendar’s card with the global refresh rate at the top, below it the add-on’s “Room Monitor & Kiosk Hub” card begins.
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.
Sizing Recommendation

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).