Timer types
Countdown
The workhorse: set a duration and it counts down to zero. Use it for talks, breaks, and anything with a fixed length. It drives the wrap-up colors on the viewer as it nears the end.
Count-up
Counts elapsed time from zero with no fixed end. Reach for it in an open-ended Q&A or a discussion where you want to know how long you've been going rather than how long is left.
Time-of-day clock
Shows the current wall-clock time instead of counting. It's handy as a reference on a stage screen, and it doesn't count toward the free plan's per-room timer limit — clocks are free extras, not segments.
Durations
A countdown's length can be anything from a few seconds to several hours — there is no cap on runtime on any plan. When you type a duration you can use plain minutes, or mm:ss and h:mm:ss for precision. The same flexible parsing powers the CSV importer described in Import a rundown from CSV.
Wrap-up time
Each timer has a wrap-up time — the point where the display turns yellow to tell a speaker to start landing. Set it to whatever margin suits the segment: two minutes for a lightning talk, five for a keynote. As the timer passes that mark the viewer shifts to yellow, then to red as it runs out, and the optional wrap-up chime fires at the same threshold.
Match the warning to the talk
A good wrap-up margin is long enough for the speaker to actually wind down. For a 20-minute talk, a 2–3 minute warning gives them room to reach their conclusion instead of stopping mid-sentence.Triggers: manual, linked, and scheduled
How a timer starts is up to you:
- Manual — nothing happens until you press start. Best when you want full control of the pacing between segments.
- Linked — the timer starts when the previous one ends, chaining segments together. Combine this with the controller's auto-advance to roll a whole rundown hands-free.
- Scheduled — the timer begins at a set wall-clock time. Use it for a session that must start at the top of the hour or a doors-open countdown that ends exactly on cue.
The auto-advance switch that ties linked timers together lives on the controller.
Rundown metadata
A timer is more than a number. Each one can hold the details that make it a real running order:
- Speaker — who's on for this segment, so the operator always knows who's up next.
- Notes — internal reminders for the operator (“roll intro video,” “unmute panel mics”) that never appear on the audience display.
- Description — a short summary of the segment.
- Hard-out — the segments that genuinely cannot run long, so you know which warnings to treat as firm.
This metadata rides along when you export the rundown to CSV and is recognized on import, so you can plan a show in a spreadsheet and bring the whole thing — speakers and notes included — into TimedFlow in one step.