Signage software has one idea: the loop. Put slides in, they rotate forever. A movie night doesn’t loop — it has an order, a showtime, and a person in charge. In Cloud Cinema Pro that order is a sequence: the run sheet for the night, built in the portal and driven live at the screen.
The night, in order
A typical sequence reads exactly like the night itself: the sponsor pre-show reel as the crowd settles → a hold for housekeeping and one last trip to the ice cream van → the feature film, with its intermission if it has one → a hold while the credits land → the thank-yous and see-you-next-time slides. Every item has its place, images carry their own display durations, and each item’s exit rules decide how the sequence steps forward. Nothing plays out of order, and nothing plays twice because a loop happened to come back around.
Holds: the night runs at the pace of the audience
A breakpoint hold pauses the sequence on whatever you choose — a “back in five” slide, a sponsor card, or plain black — until the operator continues it. Waiting for genuine dark before the feature, stretching the intermission because the queue is long, holding while the MC draws the raffle: all one tap from a phone via remote control. Each hold can also auto-continue after a set time, so the night never stalls if the operator is mid-conversation. The sequence follows the room, not the clock.
Intermissions belong to the film
An intermission is a property of the feature itself — a point in the running time and a duration — not something you rebuild in every schedule. Set it once against the film and every screening gets it right, in any sequence, at any site.
The pre-show pays for the night
Tag pre-show content to its sponsor and the platform does the rest: it records what actually played, then builds a sponsor report from real playback events — “your content ran 14 times, totalling 3 hours”. No spreadsheet, no screenshots as proof of play. The reel that opens your night is also the evidence that keeps your sponsors renewing.
Sequences and everything else
Sequences slot into normal scheduling — the pre-show can start itself at 7:30 while the operator is still parking cars — and when something unplanned comes up, Play Now puts any content on screen immediately, with the schedule resuming when it ends. The run sheet is the backbone; the rest of the platform bends around it.