Setup General FAQ

Can I use BrightAuthor/Windows and BrightAuthor:connected/Mac to manage the same player?

No. These are separate platforms. A player can only be associated to and managed by one platform or the other.

Should I use BSN.cloud and/or BrightAuthor:connected instead of my current digital signage CMS?

Many of our CMS partners are already actively working on expanding the functionality of their products by taking advantage of our new BSN.cloud platform. Our platform improvements enable our CMS partners to simplify BrightSign player setup and bring new features and functionalities to their products, so we expect you will enjoy the benefits of our updated platform while using the CMS that you are familiar with.

Can I have BrightAuthor:connected installed at the same time as BrightAuthor?

Yes. Both BrightAuthor and BrightAuthor:connected can be installed on the same Windows PC.

I have a mix of players with BrightSign OS 8 and older BrightSign firmware 7.1. Can I use BSN.cloud?

No. BSN.cloud requires players to be on OS 8 (8.0.119) or newer.

Will BSN.cloud and BrightAuthor:connected work without internet access?

The Mac or Windows BrightAuthor:connected client software will operate in all the traditional non-connected modes, such as publishing for Standalone or using Local Network. There are additional features available when BrightAuthor:connected is connected to BSN.cloud and those features will require internet connectivity.

Do I need to add exceptions to my firewall or port-forward for BSN.cloud to work?

Please see this page for port and URL information.

Does Local Network work over the internet in BrightAuthor:connected?

You can only use Local Network over a local network, not over the internet.

Local Network supports a maximum of ten players on a local network. If you add more players, you may get unreliable behavior when you publish content. For larger deployments, we recommend using publishing methods which work over the internet, such as Web Folder or bsn.Content (Content Cloud). 

Can I network a BrightSign player without creating a BSN.cloud account?

You can distribute content to players without a BrightSign account using the following methods:

• Any BrightSign player with an ethernet or wireless connection can access RSS feeds, media RSS feeds, and Live Data, as well as sending and receiving commands over the network--even if the player has a Standalone setup. You can also use networked XD and 4K players to download and display remote HTML content.

• Local Network allows you to see a player on the local network in BrightAuthor:connected under Schedule > Type > Local Network. Select your unit to publish schedules, playlists, and other content directly to it. 

• Web Folder allows you to distribute content to BrightSign players remotely using your own web server. You can use BrightAuthor:connected to upload presentations and schedules to the web server. This feature does not support FTP. 

Why won’t my Mac OS open BAconnected (malicious software error)?

1. Open to Apple Menu > System Settings (System Preferences on older OS versions)

2. Go to Privacy & Security

3. Scroll down to Security. If you just tried to open BrightAuthor:connected, you should see a message like the one in the image below.

4. Select Open Anyway and Open in the following dialogue box:

Open

Can I play files without presentation software (BrightAuthor, BAconnected, etc.)?

If you don't want to use presentation software, you can turn off the player, put image, video, and audio files in the root folder of your SD card (or other storage device) without a presentation script, and then turn it back on. These files will then play alphabetically as a looping playlist.

This option has significant limitations:

• There is no control over output resolution/rate

• Scheduling is not available

• There is no storage management, which will wear storage more quickly

• There is no control over image duration (always 6 seconds), transitions, or scaling

• You cannot control media playback order except for (re)naming files

• There are no checks for media compatibility which can cause poor playback and reboots. 

If this playback method isn't working:

1. Make sure that there isn't an autorun.brs or Autoplay file (Autoplay.xml, Autoplay.bsp, Autoplay.csv, autoschedule.txt) on the storage device.

2. Check that the media files are in the root folder of the storage device (for example, "SD:\").

3. Make sure that you are using image, video, or audio content that the player supports. You may need to set your PC to show file extensions to ensure that the media extensions of your content files are supported.

4. Verify that images are no larger than 1920x1080. If images are too large, they'll fail to display. 

Can I play content from a USB thumb or hard drive?

Any player model with a USB port can play content from a USB thumb or hard drive. BOS versions 6.1.57 and later allow players to support storage devices up to 1TB. Earlier BOS versions let you use USB drives up to 500GB. The storage device should be formatted using FAT32 or exFAT.

You can format your drive using NTFS to play files larger than 4GB if your player doesn't support exFAT. However, this is only compatible with Standalone players: NTFS-formatted storage cannot receive network updates (it will be read only). Furthermore you cannot use any functions that write to the storage including Logging, Remote Snapshot, and User Variables.

Can I display HTML pages without BrightAuthor:connected, BrightAuthor, or BrightScript?

Yes, players are capable of displaying HTML pages by placing the index.html file, along with any required content files, in the root folder of the storage device. HTML presentations can be published using either the Standalone publishing mode (i.e., copying the files directly to the storage device and inserting the storage device into the player) or by uploading the files to the player's microSD card via the SD tab of the player's Remote Diagnostic Web Server.

Players support True Type Font files (.ttf) as well as Web Open Font files (.woff/.woff2) which can be added to the player's storage device. If no fonts are specified or provided, the player will use its default system font.

While BrightAuthor:connected is required to create multi-zone presentations, a limited set of interactive functionality is available for HTML pages via JavaScript BrightScript objects.

Can I enable or disable the splash screen progress bar?

Use the linked scripts to disable or enable the startup progress bar. 

1. Unzip the attached file.

2. Copy the "autorun.brs" file to an SD card or USB thumb drive.

3. Insert the card or thumb drive into the player and power it up.

4. Give the player a minute to boot up and run the script. The script will indicate on-screen that the boot screen has been enabled or disabled.