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Controlling your story

Learn how to control your story and assets during a live presentation using TSS Control

Control Features

In TSS Control, you gain granular, real-time control over every element in your story.

With TSS Control, you can:

  • Enter control mode

  • Switch between scenes

  • Show or hide individual assets

  • Play, pause, or scrub video and audio

  • Browse through pdf assets

  • Control web assets

  • Adjust the story's audio level

  • Switch between screens (multi-screen setups)

Tip: present from a phone. TSS Control also works on a mobile phone that's connected to the same AV network as your TSS Control tablet. Use it as a clicker to move through your story, or to find and start a story.

Enter control mode

After tapping Play, a Control button becomes available. Tapping this button takes you into Control mode.

Switching scenes

To navigate through your story:

  1. Simply use the side arrows. This seamlessly switches the story to the next or previous scene.

  2. Or tap Navigate Scenes to view the entire storyline and its assets. From there, select any scene to jump to it.

New in Release 5: the scene thumbnails show the real content of each scene, the same as in Compose.

Screensaver

If a scene is set as a screensaver in TSS Compose, it will automatically play after a defined period of inactivity. This state is also visible in the Control, allowing you to recognize when the screensaver is active.

Turn assets on/off

You can manage exactly what appears on the setup screens, instantly revealing or hiding content as needed by tapping them in the asset grid.

  • Assets with a highlighted border are active and visible on the setup.

  • Assets without a highlighted border are inactive and hidden from view.

  • New in Release 5: assets on a Screen Overlay or Screen Backdrop appear with every scene of that screen.

💡 New to NDI?

NDI assets use a network-based protocol to transmit video, audio, and metadata over a local network (LAN). They allow you to bring live content—such as screen output from an external device, directly into a presentation, making it easy to integrate real-time sources alongside other story assets.

Controlling media assets

Audio and video assets can be controlled directly from their asset cards. Available actions include muting, playing, or pausing media. You can also scrub the timeline to jump to specific moments within the asset.

New in Release 5: the audio icon shows when an asset is muted, and unmuting restores its previous volume.

Controlling web assets

You can manipulate web assets directly from the TSS Control. It allows you to open and navigate web-based content as part of your story, without leaving the presentation flow. When enabled, URL assets become interactive on the screen, giving you more flexibility to present live or dynamic information during your experience.

(i) Activating a web asset

Tap a URL asset thumbnail to activate it in your story. Once activated, it will appear as an element on the screen and become part of the active scene.

(ii) URL preview

Tap the expand button on a URL asset thumbnail to open the URL preview. In this view, you can browse the URL in full screen, with the same web browsing experience as on the main display.

In the URL preview, you can:

  • refresh the web page

  • mute or unmute the audio

  • and navigate through the content by going to the first page or moving to the previous or next page.

(iii) Keyboard for URL assets

You can use a keyboard while navigating a URL asset on TSS Control. This enables interaction with input fields or web applications that require user input. To activate the keyboard, simply tap on the input field you wish to use, and the keyboard will appear.

No support for physical keyboard and mouse

Physical mouse and keyboard input are not supported. All interactions are performed directly on the Control tablet or through touch-enabled setups—no additional hardware is required.

Volume level

The Master Volume control allows you to adjust the overall sound level of the entire story. When pressing the speaker icon, you can mute the sound by brining the audio level directly to 0. When pressing the icon again, the audio will go back to its previous level.

Switch screens

When your setup includes multiple screens, you can switch between them directly in TSS Control. Tap the current screen name in the top-left corner to view all available screens in the setup and select the one you want to control. This allows you to easily manage and interact with content across different screens while presenting your story.

From Release 5, screens that are offline can't be selected.

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