Other Legacy FAQs (Software)

The BrightSign Network (BSN) is an affordable subscription-based content hosting and distribution service, to serve your digital signage network. It makes delivering remote content to one or many units easy and frees you from the complexities of hosting and maintaining your own network. It offers strong, reliable security using standard web technologies, and can support any size of network. It also includes the BrightAuthor PC software application, which lets you monitor your network health and create, schedule, and distribute presentations.

The WebUI

The BSN offers a browser-based interface that allows you to schedule presentations and manage players from anywhere with an Internet connection. You can use the WebUI to do the following: 

• Upload image, audio, video files to the BSN Library.

• Create and publish simple looping presentations with images, video, and audio.

• Create Dynamic Playlists, Live Media feeds, and Live Data feeds.

• Organize players into customizable groups.

• Schedule presentations for groups of players.

• Add customizable tags to content files and players.

• Use tags to generate filtered playlists.

• Monitor the health of players connected to the BrightSign Network.

• Send reboot, recovery, and upload log commands to networked players.

• Monitor the statuses of networked players: This includes the current active presentation, total network traffic, and device error logs.

• Generate various playback logs (Event, State, Diagnostic, Playback) to keep records of player and presentation activity.

• View the subscription status of players.

• Add purchased subscriptions to players. You can also choose to have the BrightSign Network automatically manage your purchased subscriptions (which is the default setting).

BrightPlates (End-of-life Jun 9, 2022)

BrightPlates is a browser-based service that allows you to quickly and easily craft professional digital signs using HTML5 templates. You can select from our collection of default templates, build your own from scratch, or connect with content partners to craft your own look. After crafting your sign, it only takes a few clicks to distribute it to networked players and send instantaneous updates.

If you cannot use BSN.cloud or BrightAuthor:connected, here are some workarounds to publish to a BrightSign player using a Mac:

• A growing number of third-party CMS partners support using BrightSign players with their systems.  Some of them may have Mac OS clients. See The BrightSign Partner Network | BrightSign®

• BrightAuthor can be run on Intel-based Macs using Windows emulation software like Parallels. 

  • Macs running Apple silicon (e.g., M1, M2, etc.) can emulate Windows ARM but not Windows x86 (Intel/AMD). BrightAuthor is a Windows x86 application and thus cannot be emulated on Macs running Apple silicon. 

  • For Parallels, and possibly other Virtual Machine software, it is best to use Bridged Networking mode which puts the Windows virtual machine on the same network as the host, just like if it was a real computer. See this article about networking modes in Parallels for more information: http://kb.parallels.com/en/4948

• If you are using the player for simple full screen playback without network updates, you can display looping content on the player by simply copying content to the flash card and powering up the unit with that card. No playlist file is required. The files will play back alphabetically as a looping playlist. Ensure that the content types are supported and the proper extensions are used.

• You can perform many operations from the BrightSign Network WebUI (an account is required). Player setup can now be performed directly from the WebUI. You can also use the WebUI to create full screen, non-interactive playlists and publish them to your networked player(s). See the BrightSign Network product page and  BSN WebUI User Guide for more information. 

• You can create a script file using any plain text editor and copy that script along with your content to the flash card. Scripts allow greater control of playback, including Interactive playlists.

• BrightSign players support legacy playlist (autoplay.bsp) and Interactive playlist (autoplay.csv) formats. These can be edited with any plain text editor.

The BrightAuthor 4.6.0.5/8/14/15 installer may fail if Windows Firewall is disabled. To fix this issue, enable Windows Firewall before installation. Once the installation process is complete, you can disable it again.

Publishing may fail if you use a card for Local File Networking and then use it for Local Storage. To fix, clear the flashcard and publish, or create setup files again.

1. Verify that the playlist and your content are in the root of the flash card.

2. Verify the playlist file is named "Autoplay.bsp".

3. For the HD2000, also verify you have the correct version of the autorun script in the root of the flash card. The latest is 2.0.43, which requires 2.x software. If you are using firmware version 1.3.x, you need autorun version 1.3.07. The HD600 Requires autorun 1.2.7.