Show clock & timers

OnAirFlow gives you two layers of timing: a master show clock that tracks your whole broadcast, and per-story timers that count each segment against its planned duration. Both are synchronized from the server, so every producer, host, and open tab sees the same time — and when a story runs long, everyone in the show gets an overtime alert at the same moment.

The master clock

The master clock sits in the board header. It shows elapsed show time in a large readout, next to a status badge: READY before you start, LIVE while the show runs, and ENDED after you finish. Click the time itself to toggle between elapsed-time mode and a wall-clock display of the current time.

If you have clock-control permission (producers and admins by default), you get the control buttons:

• Start begins the clock and sets the show live.
• Pause freezes elapsed time; the readout turns yellow and a pause marker appears on the LIVE badge.
• Resume continues from where you paused.
• End stops the clock, marks the show completed, and closes out the timer on whichever story was live.
• The undo button reverses your last Pause or End — useful when someone hits the wrong button mid-show.
• The reset button clears the clock to zero and returns the show to a pre-live state.

Every action is written to the server and broadcast to all connected clients, so the clock stays consistent even if someone reloads or joins late. Clock and timer events are also recorded in the show's on-air event log.

Story timers

Each story can carry a planned duration. When someone with live-control permission presses Set Live on a story card, that story's timer starts automatically — there is no separate stopwatch to manage. Setting a different story live ends the previous story's timing and starts the next.

While a story is live, the segment timer in the board header shows:

• The live story's title with a LIVE badge.
• A countdown of remaining time (or the amount over, prefixed with +, once you pass the plan).
• A progress bar that runs green, turns yellow at 80% of the planned duration, and red once the story goes overtime.
• Elapsed and planned times side by side.

Timers are computed from server timestamps, not a local stopwatch, and the server re-syncs connected clients periodically — a refreshed browser picks up the correct elapsed time immediately.

Overtime detection

The server checks the live story against its planned duration every second. The moment a story exceeds its plan, OnAirFlow marks it overtime and broadcasts a single Story Overtime alert to everyone in the show. The alert shows the story title, how far over you are, and planned versus elapsed time; it can be dismissed manually and auto-dismisses after ten seconds. The overtime flag and the story's actual duration are stored, so you can compare planned versus actual timing after the show and in exports.

Up next cue

Below the segment timer, the Up Next panel lists the stories queued to go live, in order, with their planned durations. Add a story to the queue from its card on the board; the first queued story is highlighted so the host always knows what is coming. In compact view the header shows just the next title plus a count of what follows.

Turning story timers off

If your format does not use per-story timing, an admin can switch off Show Story Timers in Display settings. This hides the segment timer, duration readouts, and overtime warnings for the whole organization; the master clock is unaffected.

Tips for live use

• Set planned durations before the show — a story with no planned duration still gets timed, but there is nothing to count down against and no overtime detection.
• The clock controls and Set Live are permission-gated, so you can give hosts a view-only board while producers drive timing.
• Timing data feeds show analytics and exports, so ending stories cleanly (by setting the next story live, or ending the show) keeps your actual-duration numbers accurate.