Staying live when the internet drops

Short answer: you don't lose your content, and your screens don't go blank if the internet drops.

How it keeps playing

When an Apple TV loads a gallery, it downloads the media to the device. From then on it plays that content from the Apple TV itself, so a Wi-Fi or internet outage doesn't interrupt the slideshow — it keeps looping the content it already has.

This is a real advantage over Apple's own Conference Room Display, which leans hard on the network and can fall over when the connection wobbles.

What needs a connection

A screen only needs the internet to pick up changes — new media, reordering, edited settings or a notice. Those apply on the screen's next successful refresh. So if you make changes while a screen is offline, they simply wait and appear once it's back online. Nothing is lost.

A brand-new screen with nothing loaded yet does need a connection for its first download. After that first load, it can ride out an outage.

AirPlay still works offline

AirPlay works over your local network, not the internet, so people can still cast to the screen during an internet outage as long as they're on the same Wi-Fi.

If a screen doesn't recover

If a screen was offline and isn't catching up after the connection returns:

• Give it until its next refresh — changes aren't instant. You can force one on the Apple TV with Reload; see The Billboard app on Apple TV.
• Check the network still allows Billboard's domains through any firewall — see Network requirements.
• For anything else, see Troubleshooting or email support@getbillboard.app.