The BrightSign Network allows you to distribute presentations to your BrightSign players over the Internet.

The BrightSign Network requires a subscription, so you must first contact BrightSign to obtain an account name, user name, and password. Once your BrightSign players are set up with the BrightSign Network, you can upload your presentations and assign schedules to groups. Your players will then update their content automatically when they connect to the server.

The BrightSign Network distributes presentations and schedules to groups instead of players. Groups can contain any number of players, and you can move BrightSign players from one group to another at any point. See Managing Your Network for details. To publish with BrightSign Network, complete the following steps:

1. Sign into BrightSign Network by clicking Tools > Sign in to BrightSign Network.

2. Open the presentation you wish to publish by selecting File > Open presentation.

3. Click Upload to network (in the upper-right portion of the screen) to upload the presentation to the server.:

4. Click the Publish tab.

5. Select BrightSign Network(above the calendar).

6. Choose whether you want to publish Presentations or BrightWall™ Presentations.

7. Under Selected Group to Schedule, use the dropdown list to specify the group to which you want to publish.

Adding Presentations to Your Schedule

Follow these steps to add presentations to the group schedule:

1. Select a presentation from the list in the Presentations section.

2. Drag the presentation to a time slot during which you want it to play.

3. Click and drag the selection handles to adjust playing time within one day.

If you want the presentation to be a recurring event, double-click the presentation timeframe in the calendar. In the Schedule Presentation window, set the following parameters:

• Presentation: Specify which presentation you want to use in this schedule block.

• Active all day, every day: Check this box if you want the presentation to play at all times (i.e. without day parting).

• Event time: Specify a timeframe during the day when you want the presentation to play:

  • Start: Use the dropdown list to select a time when the presentation should begin

  • End: Use the dropdown list to select a time when the presentation should end.

• Recurring Event: Check this box to have the presentation recur during specified days. If you don't check this box, the Event time will only apply to the single day selected in the schedule.

  • Recurring pattern: Specify the frequency of the recurrence.

    • Daily: Specify Every day, Every weekday, or Every weekend for playback.

    • Weekly: Check the boxes corresponding to the individual days of the week when you want the presentation to play.

  • Range of recurrence: Use this option to limit the recurrence of the scheduled presentation.

    • Start: Specify the start date of the scheduled recurrence. This date defaults to the currently selected date in the schedule.

    • End: Select No end to have the presentation recur indefinitely, or select End by and specify the end date of the scheduled recurrence.

Schedule Interrupts

You can create a day-parted schedule by scheduling presentations in separate time slots of a single day (or a set of recurring days). Later on, you may need to schedule a new presentation in an occupied time slot. This is where schedule interrupts are useful.

If you would like to interrupt a scheduled presentation with another presentation, drag and drop the new presentation into an occupied time slot (you can also schedule an overlap in the Schedule Presentation window). A Schedule Conflict window will appear, providing the following options:

• Keep existing events, cancel new event: Cancels the new schedule presentation action.

• Keep existing events, adjust new event: Opens the Schedule Presentation window, allowing you to schedule the new presentation in an empty time slot. If you schedule the presentation in an occupied time slot, the Schedule Conflict window will appear again.

• Remove existing events, use new event: Completely removes the presentation currently occupying the time slot.

• Interrupt existing events with new event: Schedules an interrupt in the presentation currently occupying the time slot. The date field will be split into two columns: The left column shows the primary scheduled presentation in blue; the right column shows the interrupting presentation in green. Primary scheduled presentations can be interrupted with multiple presentations, but interrupting presentations cannot overlap with each other.

Debugging

Under Debugging, you may optionally enable the following:

• Enable serial debugging: The autorun script will output debugging information related to the presentation to the serial port (as well as over Telnet and SSH if these features are enabled).

• Enable system log debugging: The autorun script will output debugging information related to the presentation to the Log tab in the Diagnostic Web Server.

Firmware Updates

Click Specify Firmware Update to update the group firmware along the schedule. In the Firmware Update window, locate the section corresponding to the BrightSign model type in the group and select one of the following:

• Production Release: The current official release of BrightSign firmware

• Beta Release: The current beta release of BrightSign firmware

• Minimum Compatible Release: The minimum firmware version that supports presentations created by your version of BrightAuthor. The minimum compatible firmware will likely not support all features provided by a contemporary version of BrightAuthor.

• Select specific file: Use the Browse button to select a .bsfw firmware update file from your hard drive. The other options will use update files stored on the BrightSign Network servers.

Publishing the Scheduled Presentation(s)

Once you've created the presentation schedule and configured the publishing options, click Publish Schedule. When the Publish Complete window appears, click OK.