BrightAuthor Version 4.4

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Tip

This tutorial video provides an overview of publishing via local storage.

Publishing a presentation using Local Storage lets you copy your presentations to an SD card or USB flash drive. When you want to update your scheduled presentations, you must save the updated content on the SD card or USB flash drive and insert it into your BrightSign player.

Unless you are updating content, an SD card or flash drive should always remain connected to the BrightSign player. However, if your BrightSign player has a USB port, we recommend that you create setup files with an SD card, leave it in the player permanently as internal storage, and use a USB flash drive whenever you need to update content. You can publish updated content to the USB flash drive, insert it into the player to update the SD card, and then remove the flash drive.

To publish via Local Storage, complete the following steps:

Save the presentations you want to publish by clicking File > Save… As. You will also be prompted to save a presentation if there are unsaved changes to the presentation when you switch to the Publish tab.
Click the Publish tab.
Click Local Storage (below the Publish tab).
Choose whether you want to publish Presentations or BrightWall™ Presentations.
Click Browse under Presentations to navigate to and select the folder where your presentations are stored.

Adding Presentations to Your Schedule

Follow these steps to add presentations to the player schedule:

Select a presentation from the list in the Presentations section.
Drag the presentation to a time slot during which you want it to play.
Click and drag the selection handles to adjust playing time within one day.

Note

Alternatively, you can schedule a presentation by double-clicking a blank area on the schedule to open the Schedule Presentation window.

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 RS-232 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.

Publishing Options

Select among the following publishing options:

Standalone Unit: Publishes the scheduled presentation(s) to the player using an SD card.
- Specify Password:(Optional) Click this button to set up, change, or remove password protection for USB content updates. The password protection feature ensures that a player cannot be updated with the Publish for USB update option unless the correct password is supplied.
  - Keep Password: Leaves the current content update password for the player unchanged.
  - Set New Password: Sets a new content update password for the player. Enter the new password in the field.
  - Clear Password: Removes the content update password. This allows USB updates to be published to the SD card without restrictions.

Standalone unit with setup: Publishes both the scheduled presentation(s) and player setup files at the same time. When you click the Publish button, the BrightSign Unit Setup window will open, prompting you to configure the player for Standalone use.
Setup unit for BrightSign Network: Includes player setup files for the BrightSign Network with the scheduled presentation(s). This option is useful if you want to ensure that a newly set up player will run a presentation even if it cannot initially connect to the BrightSign Network. Once the player connects to the BrightSign Network, it will update to the current presentation and schedule for its assigned group. When you click Publish, you will be prompted to set up the player for the BrightSign Network.
Publish for USB update: Publishes the scheduled presentation(s) to a USB flash drive. You can then insert the flash drive into a BrightSign player to update the SD card on the player. This allows you to update content on a Standalone player without ever needing to remove the SD card. USB updates only work with players that are configured for Standalone publishing.

Important

A schedule must already be published to the SD card for the USB update to work. Publish an initial schedule via the SD card first; you can then use the USB update feature for subsequent publishing operations.

Specify Password: Click this button if you are publishing a USB content update to a player or set of players with password protection. Enter the USB Content Update Password. You must enter the same upgrade password designated for the player or else the player content upgrade will fail. You can choose the password when you set the player up for standalone use or when you use the Set New Password feature (see step 5a above).

Note

If no update password is currently set for the player, entering a phrase in this field will designate it as the new update password.

USB update (FW only): Publishes a firmware update file to a USB flash drive. You can use this feature to update the firmware on a player without ever needing to remove the SD card or publish a new schedule to the player. Use the Specify Firmware Update button (described below) to determine the update version.

Logging

Click Specify Logging to enable/disable logs on the player:

Enable playback logging: Records playback start and end times, zone names, media types, and file names.
Enable event logging: Records timestamps, state names, zone names, event types, and event data.
Enable state logging: Records current and last state names, timestamps, and media types.
Enable diagnostic logging: Records timestamps, firmware and script versions, and the current presentation.
Enable Variable logging: Records the current and default values of all User Variables in the presentation. This log is only generated when logs are uploaded to custom log handler URL.

Firmware Updates

Click Specify Firmware Update to include a firmware update file with the published schedule. In the Firmware Update window, locate the section corresponding to your BrightSign model 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 download the update file from BrightSign when the presentation schedule is published.

You can use the Update type dropdown menu to determine the behavior of the firmware update:

Standard: The firmware update is applied, the player reboots, and the .bsfw update file deletes itself from the local storage.
Different: The update will only be applied if the version of the .bsfw update file does not match the current firmware version of the player. The file is not deleted after the update process is completed.
Newer: The update will only be applied if the version of the .bsfw update file is newer than the current firmware version of the player. The file is not deleted after the update process is completed.
Save: The firmware update is applied, but the .bsfw update file is not deleted. The device will only reboot once the storage device containing the update file is removed.

Publishing the Scheduled Presentation(s)

Once you've created the presentation schedule and configured the publishing options, follow these steps to publish the schedule to your BrightSign player(s):

Insert an SD card or USB flash drive into your computer.
Under Publish to, click Browse. Navigate to and select the drive where your storage device is located. Make sure to select the root folder of the SD card or USB flash drive (e.g. "SD:/").
Click Publish. When the Publish complete window opens, click OK.
Update your BrightSign player:
1. Turn off the BrightSign player by unplugging the power adapter (or Ethernet cable if the player is being powered by PoE).
2. Insert the storage device into the player.
3. Turn on the BrightSign unit by reconnecting the power.

Note

If an SD card is already in the player and you are updating it via USB, you don’t need to turn off the player. Insert the USB flash drive into the player, wait until the Update Complete message appears on the display, and then remove the flash drive.

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