Screen care: pixel shift, night mode, safe area, rotation

A flight board in a lobby is on for many hours a day, often for years. Four settings help the screen through that: pixel shift, night mode, a safe margin and a setting for screens mounted upright. This article explains what each one does, why it exists, exactly how it behaves, which plan it needs and how you see it in the preview. At the end you find a recommended setup for a screen that runs around the clock.

Where you find the settings

Open Displays in the portal, open the screen, go to the Design tab and open the section Screen. It holds four settings.

Pixel shift is included in every plan.

Safe margin is included in every plan.

Screen mounted upright is included in every plan.

Night mode needs a Pro or Premium plan. On Basic it is shown with a plan badge so you can see what it would do.

As everywhere in the editor, nothing reaches the screen until you press Save. A running screen picks up saved changes within about 20 seconds. These settings apply to the lobby screen only; the guest view on a mobile phone ignores them.

Pixel shift

Some screen technologies can keep a faint trace of an image that stands in the same place for a very long time. On a flight board, that is the header, the logo, the column headings and the footer, which never move. Whether your panel is sensitive to this depends on the model, and its manual is the authority on that. Pixel shift is a simple precaution that costs nothing.

When pixel shift is on, the whole board moves by exactly one pixel every 15 minutes. It follows a small loop of eight positions and is never more than 2 pixels away from its original place, horizontally or vertically. After two hours it is back where it started, and the loop begins again. The thin strip that becomes visible at the edge is filled with the board's own background colour, so there is no black line and nothing is cut off in a way a guest would notice.

Pixel shift is off by default. All new styles in the style gallery switch it on; the classic looks leave it as it is. We recommend it for every screen that runs for many hours a day.

Night mode

Night mode changes the board during the hours you choose, for example when the lobby is quiet. It needs a Pro or Premium plan.

Switch on Night mode, then set Night from and Night until. The defaults are 23:00 and 06:00. The times are the board's local time, as set on the General tab: either the airport's time zone or your hotel's. The window may cross midnight, as the default does. If both times are the same, night mode never starts; a mistake in the times will not leave the screen black for a whole day. The board checks the time every 30 seconds, so night mode begins and ends within half a minute of the times you set.

Under At night you choose what guests see.

Dimmed lays a dark veil over the board. The board keeps running underneath and stays readable up close, which suits a lobby with night arrivals.

Clock and next flights only replaces the board with a large clock and the next three flights on a calm dark surface. It shows departures, or arrivals if the screen shows only arrivals. Flights that have left or are cancelled are skipped, and if there is nothing left to show, only the clock remains.

Screen black shows a completely black picture.

In every variant the board keeps running in the background. It keeps its flight data current, keeps reporting to the portal so it is never counted as offline, and, if LobbyFlight releases an update and Automatic updates (same section) is set to At night or When nobody is using it, uses the night hours to reload itself. An emergency notice always appears above night mode.

A black picture is not the same as a switched-off TV. The panel stays powered, so night mode is about what guests see rather than about saving energy. For real power savings, use the timer of the TV or media player; Keep a Display Running Around the Clock explains what that means for the offline warning.

Safe margin

Many TVs enlarge the picture slightly and cut off its edges. This is called overscan, and on a flight board it can cost you the clock, the first letters of a destination or the footer. Safe margin offers None, 2.5 % and 5 %.

The margin is measured from the width of the board and added on all four sides. On a 1920-pixel-wide picture, 2.5 % is 48 pixels and 5 % is 96 pixels on each side. The board shrinks to fit inside, and the margin is filled with the board's own background colour, not with a black frame.

If your TV has a picture-size setting that shows the full picture without enlarging it, often called something like "Just scan", "Screen fit" or "1:1", use that first; it keeps every pixel of the board. Use the safe margin when the TV does not offer such a setting.

Screen mounted upright

Some lobbies have a TV mounted on its side, as a tall screen. The best way to handle that is to let the device rotate its own output: most media players, Android devices and computers can do this in their display settings, and the board then simply receives an upright screen.

Screen mounted upright is for the case where the device cannot do that. It offers No, Rotated right (90°) and Rotated left (270°). The board then turns its whole picture, including night mode and emergency notices, and lays itself out for the tall format. Which of the two directions you need depends on which way the TV was turned; if the text is upside down, choose the other one.

Use only one of the two ways. If the device already rotates its output and you also set a rotation here, the picture ends up sideways or upside down. Rotation by the device is the better choice whenever it is available.

How it looks in the preview

The live preview next to the settings shows your unsaved changes, with a few deliberate differences.

Pixel shift is not shown in the preview, because a moving thumbnail would only be distracting.

Safe margin is shown as it will look on the screen.

Screen mounted upright is shown upright, the way a guest will see it. While it is set, the preview's switch between landscape and upright screens is locked.

Night mode does not darken the preview. If the current time lies inside the night window, a small band reading "Night mode active" appears at the top instead. To see the real night view, choose Night mode under Try a situation.

Recommended setup for a 24/7 lobby screen

For a screen that is on day and night, this combination works well.

Pixel shift on, on every screen that runs for many hours a day.

Night mode (Pro) from shortly after your last evening arrivals until shortly before the first morning departures. Choose Clock and next flights only if guests pass through at night, or Screen black if the lobby is closed.

Safe margin only if the edges are cut off and the TV has no full-picture setting. Start with 2.5 %.

Screen mounted upright only if the TV hangs on its side and the device cannot rotate its output.

A dark palette under Design → Colours & template if your panel's manual advises against large bright areas.

Troubleshooting

Night mode does not start at the time I set. Check the time zone on the General tab. The night window follows the board's local time, which is either the airport's or the hotel's. Also check that Night from and Night until are not the same time.

The screen stays black in the morning. Check Night until. If the screen is still black after that, the TV itself may have switched off; that is a device setting, not night mode.

I cannot switch on night mode. Night mode needs a Pro or Premium plan. On Basic it is shown with a plan badge.

The board is upside down or sideways. Choose the other direction under Screen mounted upright, or set it back to No if the device already rotates its output.

There is a coloured border around the board. That is the safe margin. Set it to None if the TV shows the full picture.

Next steps

Keep a Display Running Around the Clock covers screensavers, device timers and the offline warning.

Styles for your board explains the style gallery; all new styles switch on pixel shift.

Emergency notice describes the message that appears on every screen, above night mode.

Activate Kiosk Mode for 24/7 Operation covers running the board full-screen without supervision.

Support

If something here does not match what you see, write to info@lobbyflight.com or call +43 650 753 1811. Support is available Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00 CET.

Screen care: pixel shift, night mode, safe area, rotation