System automations and scenes run your business, not a single room. They’re the right home for open/close schedules, lobby lighting and music, signage, and reactions to location-wide devices. Because they belong to your location as a whole, a System automation is always available — it works regardless of which rooms are running, and it doesn’t need any particular game to be in play. ARC describes this area as “Rules for business-wide schedules, devices, and system events.”
You build them at System → Automations and System → Scenes.
Looking for in-room logic that runs during a game?
That’s game automations — lock releases, hint stings, prop reactions, win and lose sequences. Those live inside one game and are only active while that game runs, so they can read that game’s objectives, timer, and variables. This page is about business-wide rules that aren’t tied to any one room. The builder is the same in both places; only the scope and what each can reach differ.
What belongs in System
Reach for a System automation or scene whenever the behavior is about your building rather than a puzzle:
- Open and close schedules — lobby lights and music on at opening, off at closing.
- Signage — flip the open/closed sign, or light a “session in progress” indicator.
- Lobby effects — a welcome cue when the doors open, ambient lighting changes through the day.
- Reactions to location-wide devices — a front-door contact, an occupancy sensor, a panic or maintenance switch.
- Heartbeats and housekeeping — a periodic check that your shared gear is alive.
If a rule depends on a specific room’s objectives, props, or timer, build it as a game automation instead. Ask: “Does this depend on one room’s puzzles or clock?” If no — if it’s about the lobby, the schedule, or shared signage — it’s a System rule.
Automations vs. scenes
ARC gives you two kinds of saved behavior, and System holds both.
An automation is an “if this, then that” rule. It has three parts:
- When — a trigger, the event that starts the rule (a device changes, an interval elapses, an MQTT message arrives).
- If — optional conditions that must be true for the rule to continue.
- Do — one or more actions that ARC runs.
Automations fire on their own. You set one up once, and from then on ARC watches for the trigger and runs the actions whenever the conditions allow.
A scene is action-only. It has a Do list but no trigger and no conditions — a saved sequence of steps that runs only when something asks it to: a staff member runs it by hand, an automation runs it with a Run a scene action, or you press Test Run while building it. A “house lights up” cue or a “close-down” sequence is a natural scene.
The simple rule
If you want ARC to react automatically, build an automation. If you just want a reusable set of steps you can run on demand, build a scene.
The When / If / Do builder
Both System and game automations use the same three-column builder. Every automation reads as one sentence: when something happens, if the location is in the right state, do these things.
- When — the triggers. The events that can start the rule. You need at least one.
- If — the conditions. Optional checks. If you add any, they must be satisfied for the actions to run.
- Do — the actions. The steps ARC runs, top to bottom.
Triggers most useful business-wide
A trigger is the event ARC watches for. Several triggers shine for location-wide rules:
| Trigger | Fires when |
|---|---|
| Device state | A location-wide device changes — the front door opens, an occupancy sensor reads “present,” a maintenance switch flips. |
| Interval | A set amount of time passes — run every N seconds. Good for periodic heartbeats and repeating checks of your shared gear. |
| MQTT Message | A message arrives on an MQTT topic — handy for tying ARC into other building systems. |
The Timer, Objective, and Game triggers exist too, but they’re geared toward a single game’s clock and puzzles, so they belong in game automations.
Conditions
Conditions are optional. They let a rule run only when your location is in the right state — for example, “only if the lobby light is currently off.” You can check a device’s value, and combine checks into All (AND), Any (OR), and Not groups for more involved logic.
Actions
Actions are the steps ARC runs, in order, from the top of the Do column down. The ones you’ll lean on for business-wide rules include:
- Set device — change a location-wide device (lobby lights on, sign to “open,” music on).
- Play media — play a sound or track on a target, pulled from the shared media library.
- Speak text (TTS) — read text aloud using text-to-speech.
- Send message (MQTT) — publish to an MQTT topic for other building systems.
- Run a scene — fire a saved business-wide sequence.
- Delay — wait a set number of seconds before the next action, for sequencing a cue.
Overlap mode
Overlap mode decides what happens if a trigger fires again while the automation is still running: Single (ignore the new trigger), Restart, Queued, or Parallel. Single is the safe default; reach for the others when a rule uses Delay steps and could realistically be re-triggered mid-run.
Business-wide recipes
The quickest way to learn the builder is to start from a working rule. ARC ships with presets you can drop in and adjust. A few that fit a location-wide setup well:
| Recipe | What it does |
|---|---|
| Periodic Heartbeat | On an Interval trigger, run a check or send a keep-alive so you know shared gear is responding. |
| Device Change Alert | When a location-wide device changes — front door, maintenance switch — notify staff or fire an effect. |
| Hue Scene on Game Start | Set a Philips Hue lighting look on a cue (adapt the trigger to your own schedule signal for a lobby look). |
| MQTT Device Command | When something happens, publish an MQTT message to drive another building system. |
Worked example: lobby lights and music at opening
Turn the lobby on with a single business-wide scene you can also run by hand.
- Go to System → Scenes and create a scene named "Open the lobby."
- Add a Set device action that turns the lobby lights on.
- Add a Set device action that flips the open/closed sign to open.
- Add a Play media action that starts your waiting-area playlist from the shared media library.
- Press Test Run and watch the activity log. When every step reads Success, save.
To make it run on its own, build a System automation with the trigger that signals opening — for example a Device state trigger on a front-door or master switch — and a single Run a scene action pointing at “Open the lobby.” Now staff can fire it manually and it runs automatically.
Worked example: close-down sequence
A scene that resets your shared spaces at the end of the day:
- In System → Scenes, create "Close the lobby."
- Add Set device actions to switch off the lobby lights and stop the music, and flip the sign to closed.
- Add a short Delay between steps if a device needs a moment to settle.
- Test Run it, then run it from a button or wire it to a closing-time signal with an automation.
Test before you trust
Both automations and scenes have a Test Run button. Press it to fire the behavior on demand and watch live status move through Starting, Queued, Running, Waiting, and finally Success or Error, with a per-action log so you can spot any step that misbehaves. Always test a business-wide rule before you rely on it to open or close your day.
Where to go next
- System devices — the location-wide gear your rules drive.
- Shared media — the files your Play media actions pull from.
- Game automations — in-room logic that runs while a single game is playing.