Publishing Quickstart

Introduction

This guide walks through the process of using BrightAuthor:connected to create a simple presentation and then publishing that presentation to a player.

The player must already have been set up. If this has not yet been done, first go through the player setup process outlined in the BrightSign Player Setup Quickstart.

What You Will Need

A BrightSign player that has already been set up. If you have not set up your player yet, do so by following the BrightSign Player Setup Quickstart.
Mac or PC with the BrightAuthor:connected software installed. This software should have already been installed as part of the player setup process.
For Standalone configured players, you will also need a blank microSD card and a microSD card adapter (computers with SD card readers typically require an adapter to access microSD cards)
Visual access to the display on which the presentation will be displayed.

Creating a Presentation

In the BrightAuthor:connected app:

From the drop-down menu next to the Presentation tab, select New.
Select Single Zone > Playlist as the presentation type.
Enter the presentation Name.
Select a Destination folder.
Select your BrightSign player model under Target Device.
Select the Connector type that is used to connect the player to the display.
Select Start.

Presentations can contain one or more media “zones”. A zone represents a defined section of the display. Each zone can play its own playlist of media content. For example, a presentation could have one zone with a looping series of videos, another zone that displays a slideshow of photos, and another zone with a scrolling market ticker of various stock prices. Each of these zones are simultaneously displayed. In this guide, a single zone presentation will be created. More detail about zones can be found here.

You should see the following screen. From here, you can toggle between the presentation’s Layout (zone placement and positioning) and its Content (media files like video, images, etc.). Select the Content tab to add media files to the presentation. Alternatively, you can double-click on the zone (the green “Zone 1” box in the pic).

From the Content tab:

Select Open (a) to view the file system on the Mac or PC. Select the folder, not the actual media file(s), where the desired media file(s) reside.
Media files within the selected folder will be shown in the Assets pane (b).
Drag and drop items from the Assets pane to the the zone’s Content pane (c).
Select the Save icon (d) to save the presentation to the presentation’s previously defined destination directory.
Select Publish (e).

There is an important distinction between Save and Publish.

Saving the presentation saves any changes to the previously defined destination directory, similar to saving a typical text document or spreadsheet. The saved presentation file (.bpfx file) is not self-contained - it does not contain the various media files (images, videos, etc.). The presentation file is therefore insufficient on its own for display and requires access to the required media files.

When the presentation is published, BrightAuthor:connected gathers all the necessary files (the .bpfx file, images, videos, etc.) and outputs it in a way that the player can read and process.

Generally speaking, you do not want to Save the presentation directly to the microSD card. Rather, you should Publish the presentation to the microSD card.

Selecting Publish will take you to the Schedule tab where you can define schedules to control when the presentation will play. In this example, the presentation will use the default schedule which is to play all day, every day.

Publishing to a Standalone Player

Make sure to erase the microSD card before copying the presentation and media files to it. If the setup files are left on the card, the player may attempt to run the setup process every time it is rebooted and not play the presentation.

For Destination Type, select Local System Storage (a).
Insert a blank microSD card into the computer and select the card as the Destination Local Directory (b).
Select Publish (c). This will publish the presentation to the microSD card. Remove the card from the computer and plug it into the player. The presentation should then play on the display. If the presentation does not play after a few minutes, try rebooting the player.

Publishing to a Local Network Player

For Destination Type, select Local Network (a).
The player should appear in the Networked Players list. If not, select the Refresh icon (b). If the player still doesn’t appear, you may have to select the + icon (b) and manually enter the player’s IP address. The IP address will be shown on the “Congratulations, your BrightSign player is set up!” screen.
Select the player(s) to publish to (c).
Select Publish (d). The player may go through an automatic reboot cycle before playing the presentation.

Publishing to a Web Folder Player

Web Folder Mapped to Local Directory

For Destination Type, select Web Folder (a). If you have a local directory that’s mapped as a volume to your web URL, select Directory (b) and select the folder icon to navigate to and select that local directory.
Select Publish (c) to publish the presentation to the directory you’ve selected. If set up properly, your SFN configured player should detect new content at the web URL, transfer that content to its microSD card, and play it.

FTP

To transfer files to the web URL via FTP, select FTP Site (a) as the Destination Type.
Select the + icon (b) to enter a new FTP site.
Enter the required info for the FTP site and select Submit (c).
Enter the web URL again under Options > Player Configuration (d). Your web folder URL must match the URL you used when setting up the player.
Select Publish (e) to publish the presentation to the specified FTP site. If set up properly, your Web Folder configured player should detect new content at the web URL, transfer that content to its microSD card, and play it.

Publishing to bsn.Content

From the BrightAuthor:connected main Dashboard:

Connect to BSN.cloud by selecting either of the places shown.

You should have already created an account during the setup of your BSN.cloud player. Enter your username and password to login. Once logged in, note the toggle for Local Content and BSN.cloud Content:

This toggle only appears if you are logged into BSN.cloud and is thus only applicable to BSN.cloud users. It governs what content you will see. Local Content mode displays the content stored on your local computer (the computer you are running BrightAuthor:connected on) whereas BSN.cloud Content mode displays content stored on BSN.cloud.

Presentations created in bsn.Content are stored in BSN.cloud and are only accessible through BSN.cloud. Presentations created in Local Content mode cannot be accessed in bsn.Content and must first be uploaded in order to be used in bsn.Content.

Uploading Local Presentations to bsn.Content

If you created a presentation prior to logging into BSN.cloud and wish to use that presentation with BSN.cloud, first select Local Content mode:

Next, select Presentation and select the presentation you wish to use. You may get an “Open presentation error” where you are asked to resolve the location of the presentation’s media files. Select Location and select the folder where the the media files reside, then select Continue.

Next, select the Upload icon to upload the presentation to bsn.Content:

A progress bar should appear at the top of the window showing the transfer progress. When the transfer has been complete, toggle the mode to BSN.cloud Content. Select the Presentation tab and you should see the presentation you just uploaded. Double-click the presentation to open it and then select Publish.

This will take you to the Schedule tab. Select the Group that the player was assigned to. Unless the player was assigned to a different group, it will be part of the Default group.

Select Publish once again. You may see a message about a minimum OS and an OS being required. This message is in error. Select OK. Your presentation will be published to all players in the designated group.

Creating Presentations in bsn.Content

Creating presentations directly in bsn.Content is similar to creating a presentation in Local Content mode with the important distinction being where the media files are located. With Local Content mode, media files are stored locally on the computer running BrightAuthor:connected. As covered previously, presentations created in Local Content mode must first be uploaded before being able to be used in bsn.Content.

Media files used for presentations created in bsn.Content must first be uploaded to BSN.cloud. From the Content tab drop-down menu, select Upload New Media.

Select Choose Files to select content from your local computer’s file manager or simply drag and drop them onto the BrightAuthor:connected window.
Select a folder on BSN.cloud to upload the content to.
Select Upload Content.

After uploading, the content will be available for use in any presentation. The steps to create a simple presentation are as covered previously in the Creating a Presentation section of this guide.

Documentation