Video Synchronization

BrightSign players can synchronize their clocks; synchronize videos playing in zones; and Jam Sync, Frame Sync, and HDMI Clock Sync work behind the scenes to make sure that videos start at the same time, continue to play and sync, and are drawn to the screen all at the same time. These synchronization features are described below.

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Player Synchronization

Synchronized BrightSign players communicate over ethernet. When you have more than one BrightSign player connected and synchronized, their clocks will be synchronized using PTP synchronization (see https://brightsign.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DOC/pages/423035878 for more detailed information). The leader player will set the pace for the follower players.

Synchronization over WiFi is not supported, and different player models (for example, the HD and XD) should not be synchronized since performance varies between models.

Zone Synchronization

Zone synchronization can be done in one player or across multiple players. One zone and its associated video player is a leader and the other zones, with their associated video players, are followers. This can be done all on one player, which doesn't require clock synchronization, or it can be done across multiple players which requires the synchronization of clocks, zones, and videos.

Video Synchronization Features

These features synchronize videos across players and zones behind the scenes to ensure that videos start at the same time, stay in sync across playback over time, and that the videos are drawn to the screen in the same way so that they're always in sync: 

• Jam Sync: This forces the videos to start at the same time with the leader directing the followers.

• Frame Sync: The leader sets the pace for the playback video and the followers adjust their playback either by speeding up or slowing down on a frame by frame basis so the video is always in sync.

• HDMI Clock Sync: When the video leaves the HDMI outputs of one player or multiple players, the HDMI output clocks are in sync so each line of the video is drawn to the screen at the same time.

Synchronization Options

These four methods can be used to create synchronized presentations:

BrightWall™

This BrightAuthor feature allows you to create and publish looping video playlists for video walls (images cannot be included in the playlist). It is only available in versions 3.8.0.x and later and is not available in BrightAuthor:connected. See this section for more information.

BrightWall has the following features:

• Tools to generate video wall content by splitting up a single video or integrating several video files into a synchronized wall.

• You can save the video wall project as a single presentation file.

• You can publish using Standalone or Local File Network, without separate publishing steps for each player in a deployment.

• Advanced IP configuration is not required for most networks.

BrightWall drawbacks include:

• You can only create simple looping playlists: There are no options for interactivity.

• Only MP4 and TS video file formats are supported (images cannot be included in the playlist).

Autowall

The Autowall Plugin Kit allows you to publish video walls that automatically resize to fit the number of players in the wall. Autowall presentations play videos from BSN Dynamic Playlists or MRSS feeds (any image or audio files that are part of the feed will be ignored), and also supports a multi-screen ticker option. See this page for more information.

Enhanced Synchronization

This feature, in BrightAuthor:connected and BrightAuthor versions 3.8.0.x and later, allows leader and follower synchronization events to execute within a few milliseconds of each other. Also, though Enhanced Synchronization presentations can be more complicated to create and publish than BrightWall presentations, they let you create an interactive presentations that include synchronized videos. See this page for more information on this feature in BrightAuthor:connected.

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Link Zone Synchronization

This older method is a very simple way to synchronize zones (images and videos) within a presentation.

Additional Resources

• Synchronize Presentations in BA:connected

• https://brightsign.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DOC/pages/1275723777

• https://brightsign.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DOC/pages/1258029057 for XC2055, XC4055, and XT2145 players