Sessions & Timers
Sessions are the building blocks of your event schedule. Each session represents one segment — a keynote, a panel discussion, a coffee break, or anything else — with its own countdown timer, speaker information, color theme, and settings.
A half-day conference might look like:
| Session | Duration | Speaker | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening Keynote | 30 min | Jane Smith | Normal |
| Coffee Break | 15 min | — | Break |
| Panel Discussion | 45 min | Multiple | Normal |
| Workshop | 60 min | Alex Johnson | Normal |
Setting Up Sessions
Create your event schedule by adding sessions manually, importing from a spreadsheet, or a mix of both.
Session Types
Every session is either a Normal session or a Break:
- Normal — A standard presentation, talk, or activity. The timer shows on all screens.
- Break — A pause in the schedule (coffee, lunch, intermission). Enable Forward to audience so attendees see the break countdown on audience screens — letting them know when things resume.
When importing from CSV, Tevyr automatically marks sessions as "Break" if the title contains words like "break," "coffee," "lunch," or "intermission."
Creating Sessions
Each session includes the following fields:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Title | The name of the session (e.g., “Opening Keynote”) |
| Speaker | The presenter’s name (optional) |
| Duration | How long the session lasts. Can be a fixed duration, a target end time, or time warp speed. |
| Notes | Internal notes — visible in the controller and optionally on staff screens |
| Labels | Color-coded tags to categorize sessions (e.g., “Keynote,” “Panel,” “Workshop”). Each label has a custom name and color. |
| Color theme | Custom background, text, and accent colors — or use the event’s default theme. Presets available: Dark, Light, Blue, Green, Purple, Orange, Red. |
| Session type | Normal or Break |
| Timer appearance | How the timer displays (countdown, count up, time of day, etc.) |
| Start time | Optional scheduled start time for the session |
Import Rundown from CSV
If you already have your schedule in a spreadsheet (Excel, Google Sheets, etc.), export it as a CSV file and import it into Tevyr. All sessions are created at once.
A CSV template is available for download in the event creation form — use it to see the exact format Tevyr expects.
| Column | Required | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Session Title | Yes | Any text |
| Duration | Yes | H:MM:SS, MM:SS, or plain minutes (e.g., “30”) |
| Start Time | No | HH:MM (24h) or HH:MM AM/PM (12h) |
| Speaker | No | Any text |
| Notes | No | Any text (internal notes visible on Speaker and Staff screens) |
| Labels | No | Comma-separated (e.g., “Keynote, Main Stage”) — colors auto-assigned |
The CSV file can also include optional header fields for event metadata: Company, Event name, Location, Time Zone, and Date.
CSV Format Example
Company:,Acme Corp
Event:,Annual Conference 2026
Time Zone:,America/New_York
Date:,27/3/2026
Start Time,Duration,Session Title,Speaker,Notes,Labels
9:00 AM,0:10:00,Opening Remarks,John Doe,Welcome everyone,
9:10 AM,0:30:00,Keynote,Jane Smith,Main presentation,"VIP,Main Stage"
9:40 AM,0:15:00,Coffee Break,,,Break
9:55 AM,0:25:00,Panel Discussion,"Alice, Bob",Moderated Q&A,"Panel,Main Stage"
Import Details
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| File size limit | 5 MB maximum |
| Excel compatibility | Supports UTF-8 BOM encoding from Excel-generated CSVs |
| Date formats | DD/MM/YYYY and MM/DD/YYYY (auto-detected with heuristic disambiguation) |
| Break auto-detection | Sessions with “break,” “coffee,” “lunch,” or “intermission” in the title are automatically set as Break type |
| Label colors | Auto-assigned from a 14-color palette — no manual color setup needed |
| Plan limits | Sessions beyond your plan’s limit are skipped with a warning |
Per-Session Options
Each session has its own timer behavior, display mode, and scheduling options that you can configure independently.
Timer Display Modes
Each session's timer can display in different ways:
| Mode | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Countdown | Time remaining (e.g., 14:30). The most common mode. |
| Count Up | Elapsed time since the timer started (e.g., 5:30). |
| Time of Day | Shows the current clock time instead of a countdown. |
| Countdown + Time of Day | Both the countdown and current time are shown together. |
| Count Up + Time of Day | Elapsed time and current time shown together. |
| Hidden | Timer runs internally but is not visible on screen. Useful when you only want to track time behind the scenes. |
Duration Types
| Type | How it works |
|---|---|
| Standard | Set a fixed duration (e.g., 30 minutes). The timer counts down from this value. This is the default. |
| Target Time | Set a specific end time (e.g., “finish at 3:00 PM”). The timer automatically calculates how much time is left. Perfect when sessions must end at an exact clock time. |
| Time Warp | Speed up or slow down the visible timer. For example, 2x speed makes a 30-minute session count down in 15 minutes of real time. Useful for rehearsals. |
Time Warp: Screen Behavior
When using Time Warp, different screens show different countdowns. The speaker sees a warped duration while everyone else sees the real time — letting you subtly influence the speaker's pacing without the audience knowing.
| Screen | What it shows | Example (30 min session at 2×) |
|---|---|---|
| Speaker | Warped countdown — the timer runs at the warp speed factor | Speaker sees 15:00 counting down at real speed. They think they have 15 minutes. |
| Audience | Real countdown — the actual session duration | Audience sees 30:00 counting down normally. They see the real remaining time. |
| Staff | Real countdown — same as audience | Staff sees 30:00 so they can coordinate with the actual schedule. |
Time Warp is most useful for rehearsals (run a 30-minute talk in 15 minutes of real time) or for subtly pushing a speaker to speed up without them realizing their countdown is artificially faster. The audience never sees the warped time.
Start Modes
Each session has a start mode that determines how it begins:
| Start mode | How it works |
|---|---|
| Manual | The operator must click Start to begin this session. This is the default. |
| Linked | This session auto-starts when the previous session completes. Used when sessions are linked together (see Linked Sessions below). |
| Scheduled | This session has a specific start time. Tevyr shows indicators when the scheduled time arrives — or if it’s overdue. |
Warning Thresholds
As time runs out, the timer changes color to alert the speaker:
- Warning zone (orange) — A gentle heads-up to start wrapping up. Default: 5 minutes remaining. Customizable per session.
- Critical zone (red) — Time is almost up. Default: 1 minute remaining. Customizable per session.
The progress bar also changes color through these zones, giving a clear visual indication of how much time is left.
Countdown Formats
Change how the countdown timer is formatted across your event. This is an event-level setting that applies to all sessions.
| Format | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Auto (default) | 30:00 | Automatically switches between mm:ss, h:mm:ss, or d:hh:mm:ss based on the value |
| HHH:MM:SS | 1:30:59 | Hours, minutes, seconds — drops hours when zero |
| MMM:SS | 90:59 | Minutes and seconds only — no hour rollover |
| D:HH:MM:SS | 1:17:30:59 | Days, hours, minutes, seconds — for multi-day events |
| With tenths | 30:00.5 | Any numeric format with an extra decimal digit for precision timing |
| Verbose | 2h 30m 15s | Human-readable with unit labels — multiple precision levels (d, d h, d h m, d h m s, h m s, m s, s) |
| Seconds only | 92 | Total seconds remaining — with optional tenths |
The time-of-day clock format is configured separately — choose 12-hour (7:05 PM), 24-hour (19:05), with or without seconds, or let the browser decide.
Scheduling
Set start times, link sessions together, and let Tevyr calculate your schedule automatically.
Start Times
Tevyr tracks three kinds of start times for each session:
| Time | What it means |
|---|---|
| Scheduled start time | The time you set manually (e.g., “10:30 AM”). Only present if you explicitly schedule the session. |
| Calculated start time | If you don’t set a start time, Tevyr calculates one automatically based on the previous session’s end time. For the first session, it uses the event’s start time. |
| Actual start time | The exact moment the timer was actually started during the event. Recorded automatically for analytics and delay tracking. |
Tevyr also calculates a projected start time that accounts for delays and overtime from previous sessions — giving you a realistic view of where the schedule actually stands.
Linked Sessions
Linking chains sessions together so the next one auto-starts when the current one finishes. When Session A is linked to Session B, completing A automatically starts B — no operator action needed.
How to link:
- Select 2 or more sessions and click Link selected from the More menu
- Or select a single session and link it to the one before it
- To unlink, select sessions and click Unlink selected
Linked sessions show a visual chain indicator in the session list. If you reorder linked sessions, the links are automatically maintained.
Running the Show
Control your timers, manage overtime, and automate session flow during the live event.
Timer Controls
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Start | Begin the countdown. All screens start ticking down simultaneously. Records the actual start time. |
| Pause | Freeze the timer in place. Remaining time is preserved until you resume. |
| Reset | Reset the timer back to the full session duration. |
| Next / Previous | Jump to the next or previous session in the schedule. |
| Add / Subtract time | Extend or shorten the remaining time on the fly — useful when a speaker needs extra minutes or finishes early. |
| Skip | Mark the session as completed and automatically advance to the next one. |
| Mark Done | Mark a pending session as completed without starting its timer (for sessions that were handled off-platform). |
| Mark Undone | Revert a completed session back to pending status. |
| Set Timer | Load a session as the active session without starting the timer — it’s ready to go when you press Start. |
Overtime & Extend Mode
When a timer reaches zero, you can configure what happens next. This is an event-level setting that applies to all sessions:
| Behavior | What happens |
|---|---|
| Continue | The timer counts into overtime, showing how much the speaker has gone over (e.g., +1:30 or -1:30). This is the default for extend mode. |
| Stop | The timer stops at 0:00 and stays there. |
| Hide | The timer disappears from screen when it reaches zero. |
You can also choose how overtime is displayed: with a + prefix (+1:30), a - prefix (-1:30), or no prefix (1:30). Tevyr tracks the total overage for each session so you can review it later in analytics.
Auto-Play & Auto-Load
These event-level settings automate the flow between sessions:
- Auto-load — When a session ends, the next session is loaded automatically (but paused). The operator just needs to press Start.
- Auto-play — When a session ends, the next session loads and starts automatically — no operator action needed. Perfect for tightly-packed schedules.
You can also configure which screens show upcoming pending sessions using the Up Next dropdown — choose All Screens, Speaker only, Audience only, or Staff only.
Progress Bar Direction
The progress bar at the bottom of each screen shows how far through the session the speaker is. You can choose which direction it fills:
- Down (default) — The bar starts fully filled with green, orange, and red zones. As time passes, the elapsed portion darkens from left to right — like a fuel gauge emptying.
- Up — The bar starts empty and fills progressively as time passes, changing from green to orange to red — like a loading bar.
Session Indicators
Tevyr displays real-time indicators on your session list to flag timing issues, so you always know the state of your schedule.
Timing Indicators
These appear between or on sessions when the schedule has issues:
| Indicator | What it means |
|---|---|
| Gap | There’s an unplanned gap between two sessions (e.g., a 10-minute hole in the schedule). Shows the gap duration. |
| Conflict / Overlap | Two sessions overlap — one starts before the previous one ends. Shows the overlap duration. |
| Scheduled Due | A session with a scheduled start time is overdue — the scheduled time has passed but the session hasn’t started yet. Shows how late it is. |
| Scheduled Conflict | A scheduled session’s start time has arrived, but another session is still running. You need to decide whether to interrupt or wait. |
| Target Time Past | A session using “Target Time” duration has its target time already in the past. The session would start in overtime. |
Status Indicators
These appear on completed or running sessions to show how they went:
| Indicator | What it means |
|---|---|
| Delay | A session started more than 1 minute late compared to its expected time. Shows “Started X min late” in red. |
| Early | A session started more than 1 minute early. Shows “Started X min early” in green. |
| On Time | The session started within 1 minute of its expected time — right on schedule. |
Event Delay Banner
At the top of the session list, a banner shows the overall timing status of your event:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| On Schedule | The event is running within 1 minute of its planned schedule. |
| Behind | The event is running more than 1 minute behind schedule. Shows how far behind. |
| Ahead | The event is running more than 1 minute ahead of schedule. |
| Overtime | The current session has passed its duration and is running in extend mode. |
Resolve Actions
Click any indicator to see one-click actions for fixing the issue. Each action either edits the surrounding sessions (extend, shrink, shift, merge), takes a scheduling decision (start now, delay, start anyway), or dismisses the notification.
| Issue | Available actions |
|---|---|
| Gap between sessions | Create break session · extend or shrink the previous or next session · shift the previous or next start |
| Conflict / overlap | Merge sessions · shrink the previous or next duration · shift the previous or next start |
| Scheduled due (not started) | Start now · delay +5 / +15 / +30 min · dismiss |
| Scheduled conflict (another running) | Start now (completes the running session) · delay +5 / +10 min · dismiss |
| Target time past | Start anyway (overtime) · update target time · convert to fixed duration · dismiss |
Managing Sessions
Reorder, edit, and perform bulk actions on your sessions — even during a live event.
Reordering & Editing
You can manage your session list at any time:
- Drag to reorder — Rearrange sessions by dragging them. Links are automatically adjusted.
- Edit on the fly — Change a session's title, speaker, duration, or settings mid-event
- Duplicate — Clone an existing session to quickly create a similar one
- Delete — Remove sessions you no longer need
Selection Mode & Bulk Operations
Enter selection mode to select multiple sessions and perform operations on all of them at once. A toolbar appears with these actions:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Delete | Delete all selected sessions |
| Duplicate | Clone all selected sessions (respects your plan’s session limit) |
| Move | Move selected to the top, bottom, or after a specific session |
| Link / Unlink | Chain selected sessions together, or break their links |
| Fix times | Automatically adjust scheduled start times on selected sessions to eliminate gaps and conflicts |
| Clear start times | Remove all scheduled start times from selected sessions |
| Timer Appearance | Set the display mode (countdown, count up, time of day, etc.) for all selected sessions at once |
| Progress Bar Direction | Set Down or Up direction for all selected sessions |