Displays & Players

In Vū Studio, a player is any display running the Vū Media Server software — an LED wall, TV, monitor, or web player. You can manage one or many players from a single account.

The Connection Indicator

The connection indicator lives in the top bar of Vū Studio and shows the short ID of the currently connected player (e.g. 47ed, 277a) next to a small broadcast-style icon.

Click the indicator to open a popover with:

• The active player name and ID
• Disconnect — drop the current connection
• Sleep — send a dedicated Sleep command to put the player's display to sleep
• Wake — send a dedicated Wake command to bring the display back from sleep
• Manage connections — open the Display Dashboard to switch to a different player or manage multiple connections

Connecting to a Player

By QR code: Scan the QR code displayed on the player's splash screen with your mobile device. You'll be prompted to log in if needed, then connected automatically. The QR code is shown by default; admins can hide it from the system settings.

By ID:

1. Click the connection indicator in the top bar
2. Choose Manage connections to open the Display Dashboard
3. Find the player by name or ID and click to connect

From the Display Dashboard: Open the Display Dashboard at one.vu.studio/library/dashboard — click the Vū Studio icon to go Home → click Display Dashboard in the left sidebar — and click any player card or group's Connect button.

The Splash Screen

When no content is playing, the player shows the Splash Screen — Vū's default idle view. By default it displays:

• The connection QR code
• The player ID
• Date and time
• Software version
• Any active system notifications

Admins can disable the QR code on the splash screen from the system settings if it shouldn't be publicly visible.

Player Settings

Player settings are configured on the Settings page (left sidebar → Settings, or the profile menu → Settings). Available controls include:

• Player picker — choose which connected player you're configuring
• Name — rename the player
• Mode — toggle between Demo Mode (open access) and Session Mode (controlled access)
• Vū Media Server License — view or revoke the license bound to the player

A row of action buttons exposes:

• Check For Updates — see if a newer version of the Vū Media Server software is available
• Settings — open the on-player settings panel
• Show QR Code — display the connection QR code
• Send Logs — package and send diagnostic logs to Vū support
• Restart Media Server — remotely restart the Vū Media Server software

The Display Dashboard

The Display Dashboard (one.vu.studio/library/dashboard, left sidebar → Display Dashboard) has been redesigned as the central place to set up and control content across your players and player groups. Each display in the group is shown as a display node you can interact with directly.

The dashboard works in two modes:

• Planning Mode — build and arrange a composition on the display nodes without sending anything to the physical screens. Use this to prepare content ahead of time.
• Live Mode — the display nodes reflect the connected players, and changes are sent to the physical screens.

Each display node carries a header strip with the player name, its short ID, the display number (Display 1, Display 2, and so on) and a status indicator, so you can read the state of a whole group without opening anything.

Copying Content Between Displays

Once you have a display looking the way you want, you can reuse it on other displays instead of rebuilding it drop by drop. Copying takes the display's whole content stack, so a display running several stacked layers is reproduced with all of its layers intact rather than just the topmost asset.

To copy content from one display to another:

1. Open the context menu on the display card you want to copy from — either from the card's menu control or by right-clicking the card itself.
2. Choose the copy action.
3. Open the context menu on the display you want to copy into and choose the paste action. Repeat for each additional display.

The pasted content behaves exactly as if you had dropped it there yourself: in Planning Mode it is staged on the planning canvas and only reaches the wall when you go live, and in Live Mode it is sent to the target player straight away, which means the target player must be online.

Finding a Player in a Group

Large groups are easier to work with from the player list than from the canvas. Click Find players in the dashboard's controls to open the Players in this group panel. It lists every display in the group with:

Column	What it shows
Status	A live online/offline dot for the player — green for Online, red for Offline, grey while the status is still Unknown
Player	The player's name
Display #	Which display on that player the row refers to
Resolution	The display's pixel dimensions

Type into Search players... to narrow the list by player name; the panel tells you when nothing matches. Click a row (or drag it) to bring that display to the front of the canvas so you can work on it.

The Status column is live: each player in the group is watched individually, so a player reports as online the moment it connects and flips to offline when it drops, without you refreshing the page or reopening the panel. Use it to confirm a group is fully online before casting or going live.

Building Scenes by Drag and Drop

On larger screens, the Display Dashboard shows your media assets alongside the display nodes so you can build scenes by dragging content directly onto a display — or onto several displays at once.

To build a scene by drag and drop:

1. Open the Display Dashboard and select the player group you want to work with.
2. Locate the asset you want to use in the dashboard's media area.
3. Drag the asset onto a display node and drop it. To place the same content across multiple displays, drop it onto each display node in turn.
4. The dropped assets are composed together into a scene for that group, which you can then take live, save as a theme, or schedule.

Where drops are accepted:

• In Planning Mode, you can always drop assets onto a display node — the composition is built on the planning canvas.
• In Live Mode, a display node accepts a drop only when its player is connected and online. If you drag over an offline player in Live Mode, the node shows that it can't receive content until the player is back online.

tip

Drag-and-drop scene building is designed for larger screens. On smaller screens (for example, a phone), there may not be enough room to show the media assets next to the display nodes, so this workflow may not be available.

Dropping a whole folder (Beta):

You can drag a folder from the dashboard's media area onto a display and play its contents as a looping slide show, without building a playlist first. Drag the folder tile over a display node and the drop target reads Cast folder as playlist, marked with a Beta tag.

A settings window opens before anything is sent to the screen, so you can review the slide show's defaults — and change them — before playback starts. Confirm the settings to start the slide show; cancel and nothing is sent to the display.

What to expect from a folder slide show:

• Only the folder's direct contents play. Assets inside subfolders are not included.
• The folder's assets play in order and loop for as long as the slide show is running.
• Only playable media is included — images, videos, web content, text, and animated backgrounds. Anything else in the folder is skipped, and the dashboard tells you how many items it skipped.
• A slide show is player-wide, like a scene: starting one takes over the player rather than occupying a single display.
• Folders cannot be added as a layer. Dragging a folder over the layer half of a display shows Folders cannot be added as layers.
• There is an upper limit on how many assets one slide show can carry. Drop a folder with more than that and the dashboard names the limit and asks you to split the folder into smaller ones.

While the dashboard is resolving the folder's contents the display node shows a Casting… badge; once the slide show is running, the node shows a Playlist badge for as long as it plays.

Scenes in Folder Casting

A folder you cast to a display can now include saved scenes alongside images, videos, and other media. Each scene plays as one item in the slide show, in its place in the folder order.

When a scene's turn comes up in a folder slide show:

• It plays with its layout, its layer order, the position of each asset, and its Scene Transform settings as you saved them — see Transform and Scale for the Whole Scene.
• It stays on screen for the folder's duration setting, the same as any other item in the slide show.
• The slide show then moves on to the next item, whether that is another scene or a different kind of asset, and loops back to the start as usual.

To cast a folder that contains scenes:

1. Save the scenes you want into the folder — see Creating a Scene. As with any folder cast, only scenes that sit directly in the folder are used; scenes in subfolders are not included.
2. On the Display Dashboard, drag the folder onto a display node and drop it on Cast folder as playlist.
3. Review the slide show settings and confirm to start playback.

A scene in a slide show plays on one display. A folder slide show addresses a single display, so a scene in it shows only the layers it has for that display. If a scene was built across several displays, the layers it has for the other displays are not shown during the slide show. To play a multi-display scene across the whole wall, cast the scene itself rather than a folder that contains it.

Preview Before Going Live

You can preview a composition before sending it to a connected display, so you can check how content looks before it appears on the wall. Build your layout in Planning Mode to preview it on the display nodes without affecting the physical screens, then push it to the connected player when you're ready to go live.

Connection Indicators on Display Nodes

In Live Mode, each display node shows a connection indicator that reflects the player's last reported status:

• Green — the player is online and connected.
• Red — the player is offline or not connected.
• Blue — the player is online and connected, but its display is in Sleep Mode. Hovering the indicator reads Player asleep.

This replaces the previous single-color dot, so you can see the state of every display in a group at a glance rather than checking each one individually.

Sleep Mode is not the same as offline. A display that has been put to sleep — by Sleep All, by the connection indicator's Sleep command, or by a scheduled Sleep action — is still connected and still accepting content; only its screen is dark. This matters most for a Vū Studio Player desktop player, whose screen simply goes black in Sleep Mode: without a distinct indicator it is easy to read a sleeping desktop player as an unreachable one and start troubleshooting a connection that is perfectly healthy. The blue Sleep Mode indicator tells the two apart, so the fix is to wake the player rather than to chase its network.

To bring it back, use Wake Up All in the dashboard's control bar, the connection indicator's Wake command, or a scheduled Wake action. See Sleep All and Wake All below.

Managing Player Groups

The dashboard keeps a player group dropdown. Its Manage button opens a player group management modal where you can delete a group and, on a team profile, share or un-share the group with your team. Team player-group visibility is toggled with a switch. See Player Groups → for more.

The player group list view. Opening the Display Dashboard without a group loaded shows a list-style overview — one row per player group — under the heading Choose a player group to open its dashboard. Each row carries:

• The group name, with a team badge when the group belongs to a team, and the number of players in it.
• A strip of preview tiles, one per display in the group, so you can recognise a group by what is on its screens. A group that has never been laid out reads Not yet configured — open to set up instead.
• A Manage group control (the cog) that opens the same player group management modal described above.

Click anywhere else on the row to open that group on the dashboard canvas.

The list view is a way in, not a replacement for the canvas — every grouping function is still there. Multi-select, drag and drop, and the rest of the group editing tools work exactly as before once a group is open, and adding or removing players is still done from the player group management modal.

Above the list:

• Search groups or players... filters the list by group name, team name, or the name of any player in the group.
• New Group creates a group inline — type a name and confirm.
• Show team groups (team profiles only) toggles teammates' shared groups in and out of the list. Your choice is remembered for next time.
• The Groups and Players tabs switch between the row-per-group list and a table of the underlying players. The dashboard remembers which tab you were last on.

Removing a player from a group. When you remove a player from a group in the player group management modal and save, the dashboard boards update straight away: the removed player's display nodes disappear from the canvas, any content staged for it in Planning Mode is dropped with them, and the group's player count is corrected — no reload or reopening the group required. The player itself is untouched; only its membership of that group changes, and whatever it was playing keeps playing until you tell it otherwise.

Sleep All and Wake All

The Display Dashboard's control bar includes a single button that puts all displays in the current view to sleep — or wakes them all — in one action, so you don't have to sleep and wake each player individually.

• When the displays are awake, the button reads Sleep All. Click it to send a sleep command to every connected player.
• When the displays are asleep, the same button reads Wake Up All. Click it to bring them all back from sleep.

This is useful for powering an entire group of screens down at the end of the day and waking them together before opening. For scheduling this automatically, see Display Power and Playback Actions.

Clearing All Displays

The Display Dashboard's control bar has a Clear All Displays button that empties every display in the current player group at once. Because clearing a live wall can't be undone, the dashboard now asks you to confirm first.

• In Live Mode, the confirmation reads Clear all displays? and explains that this stops playback on the displays in the group and blanks them immediately, and that it can't be undone — for example, "This stops playback on 4 displays in "Lobby Wall" and blanks them immediately. It can't be undone." Confirm to clear the physical screens, or cancel to leave them playing.
• In Planning Mode, the confirmation reads Clear the planning board? Confirming removes the planned content from the display nodes. Anything you haven't saved as a theme is lost, but displays that are currently playing are not affected.

To clear a single player instead of the whole group, use Clear displays in that player's row menu in the Fleet view — see The Fleet View.

Player Offline Status

In Live Mode, when a player is offline its display node makes this clear rather than showing a blank or stale preview. The node is dimmed and labeled Player Offline so you can immediately tell which screens aren't reachable. If you drag content over an offline player, the node also indicates that it can't receive content until the player reconnects.

Because offline players can't receive content, resolve the connection (check the player's network and that the Vū Media Server software is running) before casting, scheduling, or taking a composition live for that display.

The Fleet View

The Fleet view is a table of every player you can reach — one row per player — whether or not the player belongs to a group. Use it to check which players are online, find a particular player quickly, and act on one player at a time without opening a group's layout.

Open it at one.vu.studio/displays/players: click the Vū Studio icon to go Home → Display Dashboard in the left sidebar → the Fleet tab at the top of the dashboard. The tabs across the top — Fleet, Groups, and Layout — switch between this table, the player group list, and a group's layout.

What Each Column Shows

Column	What it shows
Status	The player's live connection state: Online, Asleep, Offline, or Never reported. Checking… shows briefly while the dashboard waits for the first reading.
Player	The player's name, or Unnamed player if it hasn't been named.
Mode	Demo or Session — see Demo Mode & Session Mode.
Group(s)	The first group the player is in, with +1, +2, and so on if it is in more; hover the count to see the others. Players in no group read — no group.
Access	Admin if you administer the player, Shared if it's in a group your team shared with you, or Previously connected if it's listed because you connected to it before.
Displays	How many displays the player drives. A dimmed number is the last known count; expand the row for the live count.
Last seen	now for a player that is online or asleep, otherwise how long ago it last reported (for example, 2h 15m ago), or never.

Some columns are hidden on narrower screens to leave room for the player name.

Asleep is not offline. A player whose displays are in Sleep Mode still reports in and still accepts commands, so it shows Asleep rather than Offline and its Last seen reads now. See Connection Indicators on Display Nodes.

Finding Players

Above the table:

• Search name, ID, serial, group… narrows the list as you type. You can search by the player's name, its ID, its hardware serial number, or a group name.
• The filter chips — + Status, + Mode, + Group, and + Power — each open a list of values to tick. An active chip shows its choice (for example, Power: Asleep); select its × to clear it.
  • Status filters by Online, Offline, or Never reported. Online includes players that are asleep.
  • Power narrows online players to Awake or Asleep — for example, to find every screen that was left asleep.
  • Group includes — no group, so you can find players that aren't in any group yet.
• Show: switches between Mine, Shared with me, and All players.
• The count beside the filters (for example, 12 of 40 shown) tells you how many players match.
• Compact rows / Comfortable rows changes the row height.

Select a column heading to sort by it. The current filters are kept in the page address, so you can bookmark a filtered view or send the link to a colleague.

Player Details

Expand a row to see the player's displays, or select the player's name to open its details panel. The panel lists the player's Status, Last seen, Mode, Access, Groups, Team, and Screensaver setting, and a Displays list with each display's size. A Serial line appears only for players that report a hardware serial number.

Actions for One Player

Each row has an actions menu. Depending on the player and your access, it offers:

Action	What it does
Sleep	Puts the player's displays to sleep.
Wake	Wakes the player's displays.
Clear displays	Stops what is playing and clears the player's displays.
Identify	Flashes a border on the player's displays so you can tell which physical screen it is.
Rename…	Renames the player (reads Name this player… for an unnamed player).
Add to group…	Adds the player to one of your groups.
Show in layout	Opens the player's group layout on the dashboard.
Send logs to support	Sends the player's logs to Vū support — see Sending Logs to Support.
Restart player app…	Restarts the player software.

Actions that change what is on screen — Sleep, Wake, Clear displays, and Restart player app… — ask you to confirm first.

When an action isn't available, it stays in the menu with the reason next to it, such as Player is offline, Add this player to a group first, or Ask this player's owner for access. Some actions — Rename…, Send logs to support, and Restart player app… — are only available on players you administer. Identify and Send logs to support aren't available on a Web Player.

Players in Session mode can only be commanded from a Display Dashboard connection, so their device actions are turned off in the Fleet view rather than reported as sent.

Renaming a Player

1. Open the row's actions menu and select Rename… (or Name this player…).
2. Type the new name.
3. Select Save name, or Cancel to keep the current name.

You can rename only players you administer.

Selecting Several Players

Tick the checkboxes at the start of the rows to select several players. A bar shows how many are selected (for example, 3 of 12 filtered players selected), with Copy player IDs to copy their IDs to the clipboard and Clear selection. Player actions themselves are per row: use each row's actions menu.

Adding a Player

Select Add player at the top of the Fleet view to add a player by Enter a player code (the code shown on the player's screen) or Add players by serial (paste a list of serial numbers; each player sets itself up the next time it starts). See Connecting a Player.