Auto-Screens – Automatic Full-Screen Network Presentation
NetCrunch Auto-Screens allow you to cycle through live views in full-screen mode across one or more displays. Designed for NOC and control room usage, Auto-Screens help keep teams informed in real time by rotating through non-scrollable dashboards, topology maps, and other visual summaries.
Overview
The Auto-Screens application is available in the NetCrunch Console, under Applications → Auto-Screens. It allows you to play full-screen live presentations of selected network views, cycling through them automatically at a defined interval.
This feature is designed for:
- NOC displays and monitoring stations
- Wallboard presentations
- Rotating status dashboards in control rooms
Auto-Screens are available in both the desktop and web console. You can open:
- Multiple scenarios in the same console session
- Multiple windows, each running a separate view sequence
This makes it easy to distribute different Auto-Screens across different monitors or browser tabs.
Creating and Managing Scenarios
Users can create and configure screen scenarios, each containing a set of live views. A scenario defines:
- The name of the screen sequence
- The interval (in seconds) for switching between screens
- The views to be displayed (routing maps, physical segments, graphical dashboards, etc.)
Each scenario is shown as a tile in the Auto-Screens panel, with the option to start playback or edit the scenario.
Scenario Editor
Clicking on a scenario opens the Edit Screens dialog. Here you can:
- Add or remove views from the scenario
- Select dashboards and maps for each node or group
- Choose which widgets (e.g., Status, Top Charts, Map) to include
Only non-scrollable views are supported—tables and long reports are excluded because they are not suitable for display in rotating dashboards. This is an intentional design decision to ensure each screen:
- Displays relevant, real-time status
- Is fully visible without interaction
- Does not require scrolling to understand
❗ Dashboards should always present live system state at a glance. Scrollable, dense tables are not dashboards—they are tools for filtering, sorting, or reporting. Many users confuse this with Grafana-style “dashboards” that act more like static reports. In Auto-Screens, the focus is always on presenting the current situation clearly and immediately.
Using Auto-Screens Effectively
- Create scenarios tailored to different teams (e.g., network, server, security)
- Use short intervals (5–15 seconds) for fast-paced environments
- Deploy in full-screen kiosk mode on wall-mounted monitors
- Run multiple windows on large setups to track distinct locations or domains
Whether used in a data center, campus NOC, or remote support team, Auto-Screens provide a passive, real-time awareness layer that augments active alerting and troubleshootin