Guides / Administration / Approve content before it airs

Approve content before it airs

Send a playlist or schedule for review and decide on requests waiting for you.

A location can ask for a sign-off before content reaches its screens. Use this guide to turn that rule on, to send content for review, and to decide on the requests waiting for you. Approvals are a team and enterprise default, so the Approvals entry appears in the sidebar only on those plans.

What you can do

Turn on approval for a location

  1. Select Settings in the Account group of the sidebar.
  2. Select Organization in the settings list.
  3. Select the Structure tab.
  4. Select the card of the location that needs the rule.
  5. Select More settings at the bottom of the panel.
  6. Find the Approval section.
  7. Select Needs approval first.
  8. To add a second sign-off from the parent location, tick the escalate-up checkbox.
  9. Select a person in the + Add reviewer list.
  10. Repeat step 9 for each reviewer.
The Structure tab of Organization settings. Each card in the chart is one location, and the panel holds the rules for the location you select.
The Structure tab of Organization settings. Each card in the chart is one location, and the panel holds the rules for the location you select.
️ The section holds three buttons. Publish straight away puts content on the screens at once. Needs approval first asks for a sign-off. The third button follows the parent location, and the label names the outcome you get today.
️ Name no reviewer, and anyone with the approve permission for the location can review. An owner can always approve.
️ Where the rule is on, only approved content plays. A playlist, a schedule, a layout or a template in any other state does not reach the screens of that location.
️ Brix emails each named reviewer, with the subject Approval needed. A location with no named reviewer sends no email. The reviewer finds the request in the CMS instead.
️ To change the rule you need the org-unit edit permission. Without the permission the section states the current rule and nothing more.

For the people and the roles behind the reviewer list, read organization, people and roles.

Send a playlist for review

  1. Select Playlists in the Content group of the sidebar.
  2. Open the playlist.
  3. Select Request approval at the top right of the editor.
  4. Choose the location under Where is this being published?
  5. Type a note for the approver if there is anything the approver must know.
  6. Select Send for approval.
  7. Check that the button now reads Pending approval.
The Request approval dialog: the location list, the note box, and the Send for approval button.
The Request approval dialog: the location list, the note box, and the Send for approval button.
Request approval appears only where the location of the playlist asks for approval. Most workspaces never see the button.
️ The location you choose decides who reviews the request, because the approver for that location gets it.
️ The note is optional.
️ If the request fails to send, the dialog stays open and states the error. Send the request again.
️ An edit to the playlist withdraws the open request. The approver decides on a frozen copy, so finish the edit first. Then send the playlist again.

To build the loop itself, read playlists.

Send a schedule for review

  1. Select Schedules in the Content group of the sidebar.
  2. Open the schedule.
  3. Set the fallback content of the schedule.
  4. Select Request approval at the top right.
  5. Choose the location under Where is this being published?
  6. Type a note for the approver.
  7. Select Send for approval.
️ Without fallback content, Request approval stays dim. Point at the button to read why.

For the weekly grid and the blocks, read schedules.

Send a template for review

  1. Select Templates in the Content group of the sidebar.
  2. Open the design you want on the screens.
  3. Select Request approval beside the status pill at the top.
  4. Choose the location under Where is this being published?
  5. Select Send for approval.
️ The status pill reads Draft, Pending approval, Approved or Rejected. Request approval hides itself once the pill reads Pending approval.

To design the template, read design a sign.

Decide on the requests waiting for you

  1. Select Approvals in the Account group of the sidebar.
  2. Stay on the Pending tab.
  3. Read each card for the content name, the location, the requester and the number of changes.
  4. Select Approve to let the content air.
  5. To turn the request down, select Reject on the card.
  6. Type your reason under Why is this being rejected?
  7. Select Reject request.
The sidebar. The Approvals entry in the Account group carries a red count of the requests waiting for you.
The sidebar. The Approvals entry in the Account group carries a red count of the requests waiting for you.
️ The red count beside Approvals is the number of requests waiting. The count refreshes about every minute.
️ A blue strip at the top of the page also tells a reviewer that requests wait. Select Review to open the inbox, or dismiss the strip until more requests arrive.
️ The requester reads your reason, so name what to change. An empty box records No reason given.
️ Brix asks for no note when you approve.
️ On a chain of two tiers or more, your sign-off sends the request up to the next tier. Brix reports Signed off, and the request stays open.

Check what changed before you decide

  1. Select the card in the Pending tab.
  2. Read the preview at the top of the panel.
  3. Read What changed for each added, removed, edited and moved item.
  4. Read Approval chain for the tiers that must sign off.
  5. Read Publishing to for the location the content goes to.
  6. Read Note from requester.
  7. Select the link at the end of the panel, for example Open the playlist.
  8. Select Approve or Reject at the bottom of the panel.
️ Brand-new content has nothing to compare against. The panel states so, and the preview is the whole thing.
Approval chain appears only where the request crosses two tiers or more. A tick marks a tier that signed off, and Now marks the tier that holds the request.

Track a request you sent

  1. Select Approvals in the Account group of the sidebar.
  2. Select the My requests tab.
  3. Read Waiting on for the reviewer who holds the request.
  4. Read the step counter where the request crosses more than one tier.
  5. Select Withdraw to cancel the request.
Withdraw asks for no confirmation. Send the content for review again when you are ready.
️ A decided request keeps its card in My requests. Read the reason for a rejection there, fix the content, and send it again.

Read past decisions

  1. Select Approvals in the Account group of the sidebar.
  2. Select the Decided tab.
  3. Read each card for Approved, Rejected or Withdrawn.
  4. Read the name of the person who decided, and the time of the decision.
  5. Select a card to open the full panel.
️ The tab you are on is part of the web address. Copy the address to send a colleague the same tab.

What happens after a decision

Brix marks approved content Approved, and the screens of that location start to play the content. Rejected content stays off those screens until an approver approves a later request.

️ An edit to approved content sets the content back to Draft. The screens keep playing the last approved version until an approver approves the new one.
️ If your role can approve content at a location, Brix approves the playlists you create there as you create them. No request reaches the inbox.

To put the approved content on a screen, read put content on a screen.

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