Synchronize Presentations
Overview
The Link Synchronize advanced command and Synchronization Event are used in BrightAuthor:connected to synchronize playback across zones in a single player or between players, and using these two together establishes a leader/follower relationship between those zones.
To sync media across zones in groups of networked players, the presentation zones and the player clocks must both be synchronized. In this scenario, a leader/follower relationship is established between zones, and BrightSign player clocks are synchronized through the Presentation Properties settings. This creates a leader and follower relationship between players.
Video synchronization works by means of a synchronization command issued in the transition to the video state. The state proceeding the synchronized can be any of the available state types.
Since XC5 players have multiple outputs, the presentation clock does not need to be synchronized unless you are playing a presentation from multiple XC5 players or an XC5 player and another type of BrightSign player. However, you will need to create leader and follower zones by adding a sync command that gets triggered by a keyword.
BrightAuthor:connected 1.16.0 and Below, BOS 9.0.75 and Below
Synchronizing Presentation Zones across Players
To synchronize video states inside of video zones in a BrightSign presentation, you must send a Link Synchronize message in a leader zone and receive that message in an event that will listen for that message in follower zones. To do this:
Creating the Leader Zone Message
Create a presentation with content inside of zones. Make sure to set the toggle to Interactive on the top right.
Select the transition event in the leader zone in your presentation. It may be helpful to include “Leader” and “Follower” in the zone names.
Add a transition event to the content you want to display first, then drag that event to the other content in the presentation.
In Event Properties > Advanced, select Add Command.
Select the Link command and the Synchronize command parameter.
Toggle the down arrow to enter a Keyword. This will be used to trigger follower players to display content.
Save the presentation.
Creating the Follower Zone Event Listener
Select the follower presentation zone.
Add a Synchronize event to the content you want to display first, then drag that event to the other content in the presentation.
In the Event Properties pane, under Specify synchronization keyword, enter the Keyword you selected in step 5, above. When the follower presentation zone receives this keyword from the leader zone, it will start to play.
Do this for all of the follower zones in the presentation then select Save. You can also select Save as to save the presentation with a different name for additional players (for example “Player 3 follower presentation”).
If you are publishing from a single XC5 player, you can then select Publish to publish the synced presentation. Otherwise, use the following section to synchronize the clocks of the players that will display your presentation.
To synchronize between zones on the same player, use the Link command with the Zone command parameter.
Synchronizing Presentation Clocks
To synchronize multiple BrightSign player clocks on the same local network, the leader presentation must have a presentation setting that defines that player as the leader, and other presentations must be set as followers. To do this:
Select the transition event leading to the Video State in the leader zone.
In Presentation Settings > Interactive > Synchronization (under the Networking tab), select Enable enhanced synchronization and choose Master.
Select a transition event leading to the Video State in a follower zone in your presentation.
In Presentation Settings > Interactive > Synchronization, select Enable enhanced synchronization and choose Slave.
Do this for all the follower zones in your presentation, then Save and Publish. You can also select Save as and Publish the presentation with a different name for additional players (for example “Player 3 follower presentation”).
BrightAuthor:connected 1.19.3 and Above, BOS 9.0.101 and Above
Synchronizing Presentation Zones within a Player
As of BrightAuthor:connected 1.19.3 and BOS 9.0.101, you no longer need to use Link Zones (Jam sync) to synchronize presentation zones on a player. Instead, when you want to synchronize zones, use Link Synchronization and it’s follower component called the Synchronization Event. This method only uses software synchronization, not hardware (clock) synchronization.
To do this:
Create your zones and indicate in the name which zone is the leader and which are followers.
Make all of the zones interactive by setting the Interactive toggle to on (in the top right corner).
Select the leader zone and add the content elements to synchronize.
Add your timeout and transition commands to the content. Add UDP commands to the content with indications like “start” and “end” that can be used to trigger transitions.
Select the timeout and transition commands on the initial content, and add the Link command and Synchronize command parameter under Advanced. Enter whatever Keyword you have chosen to start the content.
Do the same for the content that should play after the initial content. Use the keyword “end” (or whatever keyword you have selected) in the final command that returns you to the initial content. See the image below.
Select all of the content and commands and copy them to each of the follower zones. Delete the events, since only Synchronize events are needed in the follower zones.
Now add Synchronize events to all of the content in the follower zones and specify the necessary Keyword (for example, “start” or “end”). Your presentation is now ready to publish.
Synchronizing Presentation Zones across Multiple Players
To synchronize clocks in multiple video players on the same local network, you should have multiple presentations. The leader presentation must have a presentation setting that defines that player as the leader, and other presentations must be set as followers. These instructions assume that you have set up the necessary timeout and transition commands in your zones and added the Link Synchronize advanced command (as described in steps 1-6 in the section above).
To do this:
Select the leader presentation.
In Presentation Settings > Interactive > Synchronization (under the Networking tab), select Enable and choose Leader.
Select a follower presentation.
In Presentation Settings > Interactive > Synchronization, select Enable and choose Follower.
Do this for all follower presentations, then Save and Publish. You can also select Save as and Publish the presentation with a different name for additional players.
Make sure that Domain is set to the same value for both the leader and the follower presentations. For example, if the Domain of leader is set to 10 make sure that the follower(s) are also set to 10.
The Domain value is what differentiates one set of synchronized players from a different set of synchronized players on the same network. This allows for multiple synchronized presentations sets on the same network.