News & RSS Feed Elements

The News & RSS Feed Element lets you display live, up-to-date news headlines and articles directly on your digital signage screens. By connecting to any standard RSS feed or choosing from a library of curated news sources, you can keep your audience informed with minimal ongoing effort.

⚠️ Note: This element requires an active internet connection to fetch and display feed content. Screens that are offline will not be able to load new articles until connectivity is restored.

What Is a News / RSS Feed Element?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a web standard that allows websites to publish regularly updated content — such as news articles, blog posts, or press releases — in a structured, machine-readable format. The News & RSS Feed Element reads these feeds and renders the latest items on your screen in real time.

Common use cases include:

• Displaying industry news in corporate lobbies or break rooms
• Showing local or national headlines in waiting areas
• Streaming sports scores, financial news, or weather updates
• Keeping staff informed with company blog or intranet RSS feeds

Connecting an RSS Feed URL

To connect a custom RSS feed, navigate to the element settings and enter the feed URL in the RSS Feed URL field. Most news websites and blogs publish a feed URL that ends in /feed, /rss, or /rss.xml.

Steps to Add a Feed URL

1. Open the element editor and select the News & RSS Feed Element.
2. In the Source section, choose Custom RSS Feed.
3. Paste the full RSS feed URL into the URL field.
4. Click Validate Feed to confirm the URL is accessible and returns valid RSS content.
5. Save your changes. The element will begin fetching articles on the next refresh cycle.

If the feed URL requires authentication or is behind a paywall, it may not be accessible. Use publicly available RSS feeds for best results.

Display Options

The News & RSS Feed Element offers several layout and display options to suit different screen sizes and content strategies.

Headline Ticker

The headline ticker scrolls article titles horizontally across the screen, similar to a news broadcast chyron. This layout is ideal for supplementing other content without taking up significant screen real estate.

Ticker settings include:

• Scroll speed (slow, medium, fast)
• Font size and color
• Background bar color and opacity
• Separator character between headlines

Card Layout

The card layout displays each article as a visual card, typically showing the article headline, a brief excerpt, the source name, and — when available — a thumbnail image. Cards cycle through automatically or can be displayed in a grid.

Number of Items Shown

You can control how many articles are fetched and displayed at a time. The default is 5 items, but you can typically configure between 1 and 20 items depending on your layout. Showing fewer items keeps content focused; showing more ensures variety across longer display cycles.

Refresh Interval

The refresh interval determines how often the element fetches new content from the RSS feed. You can set this in the element settings under Refresh Interval.

Recommended intervals by use case:

• Breaking news or live sports: every 5–10 minutes
• General news or industry updates: every 30–60 minutes
• Blog or intranet feeds with infrequent updates: every few hours

Setting a very short refresh interval (e.g., every minute) on feeds that update infrequently is unnecessary and may increase bandwidth usage. Match the interval to the feed's actual update frequency.

Curated News Sources vs. Custom RSS Feeds

You have two main options for sourcing content: using the built-in library of curated news sources, or connecting your own custom RSS feed URL.

Curated News Sources

The platform includes a pre-vetted library of popular and reliable news sources across categories such as world news, business, technology, sports, and entertainment. These sources are maintained and verified to ensure feed reliability.

Benefits of curated sources:

• No URL configuration required — just browse and select
• Feed URLs are kept up to date automatically
• Sources are categorised for easy discovery
• Reduced risk of broken or invalid feed URLs

Custom RSS Feeds

Custom RSS feeds give you full control over the content source. This is the right choice when you need to display content from a specific publication, an internal company feed, or a niche source not included in the curated library.

Considerations for custom feeds:

• You are responsible for ensuring the feed URL remains valid and accessible
• Some feeds may change URLs or go offline without notice
• Feeds behind authentication or paywalls will not load
• Test the feed URL in a browser or RSS reader before adding it to your signage

Tips for Keeping Content Relevant and Appropriate

Because RSS feeds are live and automated, it is important to take steps to ensure the content displayed is always suitable for your environment and audience.

Know Your Audience

• Choose sources and categories that align with your viewers' interests and expectations
• Avoid general news feeds in environments with mixed or sensitive audiences (e.g., healthcare waiting rooms, schools)
• Consider using industry-specific feeds to keep content professionally relevant

Monitor and Review Regularly

• Periodically preview the element on a test screen to check what is currently being displayed
• Check that feed URLs are still active, especially after extended periods of inactivity
• If a feed consistently returns irrelevant or low-quality content, replace it with a more targeted source

Connectivity and Fallback

• Ensure your screens have a reliable internet connection, as this element cannot refresh content offline
• Consider pairing the News element with static content in your playlist so screens remain useful even if the feed temporarily fails to load
• Some platforms cache the last successfully fetched articles and display them until new content is available