Corporate and local content on the same screen works by splitting a playlist's airtime: head office keeps a locked share for brand content, and each store fills its own slice with its own photos and offers. In Brix this is Shared airtime, set in the playlist's Share dialog. Pair it with a locked template so the logo, colors, and layout stay fixed.
Local teams sometimes call content that is 100 percent from head office "corporate propaganda" — the same five slides, on loop, with nothing about their store. Mixing in a local slice is what fixes that: the screen still carries the brand message, but it also shows something that store's own customers recognize.
Why all corporate or all local content fails
A fully centralized screen looks consistent everywhere, but it ignores the store: the same promo plays in a quiet branch and a packed one, with no local event, closure, or deal. A fully local screen feels relevant, but it drifts off the brand, because nobody at head office reviews what goes up.
Most chains and franchise networks want a middle option: head office keeps control of the brand and the main message, and each store adds its own photos, offers, or notices in a part of the screen that is theirs.
| Model | Local relevance | Brand control | Who manages it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fully centralized | Low | High | Head office only |
| Fully local | High | Low | Each store, unchecked |
| Shared playlist, split by airtime | High | High | Head office sets the split; each store fills its own share |
A shared playlist with a split makes the split itself a setting, not a workaround built from two accounts, a shared folder, or an email to head office every time a store wants a change.
Give stores a slice of the airtime
Shared airtime is on by default for a workspace set up for more than 10 screens. A smaller workspace turns it on under Settings → Organization → Feature defaults.
One playlist, one owner, two pools of content:
- Head office builds and owns the playlist.
- Head office reserves a share of the airtime for a store, or a group of stores. The share is a percent of screen time, spread evenly, not a block of slots.
- Each store fills its own share from its own location: its own photos, its own login. A store never edits head office's playlist.
- Time a store does not fill goes straight back to head office. The screen never shows a blank slot.
Brix sets the split when it builds the loop. Brix counts each pool's time by the real length of its items — a probed video's length, a GIF's loop time, a nested playlist's total — so a 10-second local photo and a 45-second head-office video do not count as one slot each. A store's 25 percent default share stays close to 25 percent of the clock, about 15 minutes an hour, even when clip lengths differ.
A store's share plays only on that store's own screens. A region set to 25% and one store inside it set to 40% both apply there and add together, up to 99% in total, so head office always keeps at least 1%. A sibling store never sees, or competes for, another store's share. The same split works whether the playlist fills the whole screen or just one zone of a multi-zone layout — Brix resolves a shared playlist the same way either place.
Set it up
- Open the playlist in Content > Playlists and select Share.
- Under Add locations, roles or people, add the stores that get a share, and set their access to Can add content.
- Set the percentage. One default share applies to every store you add. Give a single store a different number as an exception. A strip under the slider shows how their content mixes with yours as you drag it.
- Turn on Check their content before it airs if you want to review content before any of these stores' uploads go live. This one switch covers every store with "Can add content" access on this playlist — you cannot require approval for one store but not another. It is off by default, so a store publishes right away.
- Each store opens its own Content > Playlists, finds the share under Shared with you, and adds its own media to fill it.
For the full walkthrough, including giving one playlist slot to a single group instead of a percentage, read share digital signage content across locations.
Keep the logo out of a store's hands
A percentage split protects the schedule. It does not protect the design. For the head-office share itself, lock the template so a store can edit the headline and the offer, but never the logo, the colors, or the layout. Share a locked template the same way you share airtime: pick what a store may change, and the rest stays fixed no matter who opens it.
Read locked digital signage templates for local edits to set that up.
Checklist before you turn this on for every store
- Decide the default share. Brix starts a newly added store at 25 percent; change it to whatever fits before you add every store.
- Decide whether every store's content needs sign-off before it airs, or can go live right away — it is one switch for the whole playlist, not a per-store choice.
- Build the locked template first, so a store's first upload already fits the brand.
- Tell stores what their slice means: it is measured in seconds of screen time, not in items, so a long video uses more of their share than a photo.
- Add one store first, check its screen after its first upload, then add the rest.
Where Brix fits
Brix runs the split on the same playlist a store already plays. You do not need a second account or a shared folder. The same setting works for a two-location shop testing the idea and for a chain setting one split across every store at once. If a store's screen should show nothing but its own content, with no head-office share, it does not need this feature. Give that store its own playlist instead.
FAQ
Does a store need its own Brix account?
No. A store needs a role scoped to its own location inside your workspace, with permission to add content. It never touches head office's playlist, files, or settings.
Can a separate franchise account fill a share from its own workspace?
No. Shared airtime splits a playlist between locations inside one workspace. Each location fills its own slice from its own login inside that workspace; a separate franchise account in its own workspace cannot fill a share on another workspace's playlist.
Does the split work inside one zone of a multi-zone layout?
Yes. A shared playlist resolves the same way whether it plays as the whole screen or sits inside one zone next to other content, so the split still holds in a multi-zone layout.
Try the split on a test playlist with a free trial. No card needed.