Smart Triggers: Let Your Screens React to the Real World

A digital screen that plays the same content loop all day is doing half the job it could be doing. Smart Triggers is Digipal's system for connecting real-world inputs to content decisions, letting your screens respond to what is actually happening in the environment around them.

What Is a Trigger

A trigger is a rule that maps an input condition to a content action. When the condition is met, the screen switches to a designated piece of content or a playlist. When the condition is no longer met, it reverts to the default schedule. You configure triggers from the Smart Triggers section of your dashboard and assign them to individual screens or screen groups.

Triggers sit above the normal scheduling system. A scheduled playlist is the baseline, and triggers override it temporarily when their conditions are active. This means you do not need to rebuild your schedules to add contextual content, you simply define what should happen when certain conditions are detected.

Trigger Types

Audience detection: switch content based on the estimated age range or group size detected by the on-device camera
Hand gestures: trigger content on swipe, wave, or point gestures using MediaPipe hand tracking
Motion: activate when the camera detects movement within a defined zone
Sound level: trigger when the ambient noise level crosses a threshold
Weather: switch to weather-relevant content based on current conditions from wttr.in
External sensors: receive signals from Bluetooth Low Energy devices, barcode scanners, or HID keyboards
API webhooks: trigger from any external system that can send an HTTP request

Multi-Trigger Priority Chains

Screens in high-traffic environments often have multiple triggers configured. Digipal resolves conflicts using a priority chain. Each trigger is assigned a priority level, and when multiple triggers are active at the same time, the highest-priority one wins. When that trigger deactivates, control passes to the next active trigger down the chain, or back to the default schedule.

This makes it possible to build sophisticated behaviour without complicated logic. A retail screen might have a high-priority gesture trigger for passers-by who wave at it, a medium-priority audience trigger that shows family content when children are detected, and a low-priority weather trigger that shows seasonal promotions. Each layer is managed independently.

The Learn Mode Workflow

Physical sensor triggers such as barcode scanners and HID buttons require a learning step. In Learn mode, the player listens for input signals and records the raw data. Once you have captured a signal, you can associate it with a content action. This makes it possible to use almost any USB or Bluetooth device as a trigger input without writing any code.

Weather Triggers in Practice

Weather triggers are one of the most practical for retail and food service environments. A coffee shop can show hot drink promotions when the temperature drops below 10 degrees and switch to iced drinks content when it rises above 25. The trigger checks weather conditions at a configurable interval and updates all assigned screens automatically.

Webhook Triggers

The webhook trigger type is the most flexible. Any external system that can make an HTTP POST request can trigger a content change. Common integrations include point-of-sale systems (trigger a upsell screen when a specific item is scanned), queue management systems (show wait time content when a queue is detected), and building management systems (show evacuation routes when a fire alarm is triggered).

Getting Started with Smart Triggers

Smart Triggers is available on Professional and Enterprise plans. Open the Smart Triggers section of your dashboard, create a new trigger, choose the type, configure the condition and the content response, and assign it to one or more screens. Changes take effect on the next player sync cycle.