Presentation Settings

The Presentation Settings pane allows you to edit settings that relate to the entire presentation.

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Property Lock

As of the BrightAuthor:connected 1.6.46 release, Presentation Settings contains a Property Lock feature. If your presentation has a script or script plugin that contains functions to configure or change the network settings of the player (for example, HTML or a plugin that modifies device settings), check the Property Lock checkbox to ensure that your settings are not overwritten by BSN.cloud.

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If Property Lock is Unchecked

When this box is unchecked and the presentation is published, player properties are not locked and can be edited and updated through the Properties panel in the Network tab of BrightAuthor:connected.

If Property Lock is Checked

When you check Property Lock and publish the presentation, users can no longer change the player property settings (Player Name, Overview, Device Configuration, Logging, Network Settings and Location) through the BSN.cloud Properties panel. The settings will appear greyed out when viewed in the Properties panel of the player in the Network tab. However, the player property settings can still be changed through JavaScript or plugin script. 

The player should reboot automatically when the presentation is published. If it has not, reboot the player manually.

Presentation

Use this section to edit video and audio output settings.

Display

• Connection Type: Select the video connector that connects the player to the display.

• Target Resolution: Choose a resolution that is compatible with your monitor. See this page for a list of all available video modes.

  • Force Resolution : Check this box to have the player output the selected resolution even if the display reports over HDMI^® that it does not support it. If this box is unchecked, the player will attempt to use the selected Target Resolution,  but will then fall back to the highest resolution supported by the display if it is unsupported. 

  • Enable YCbCr 10-bit output : Check this box to output a 10-bit color video signal to the connected display. See the video encoding page for more details on supported 4K color spaces and bit depths.

  • Enable Full Resolution Graphics: Check this box to enable full-resolution for the selected Target Resolution. When this box is checked, the graphics plane (images, text, HTML animations, etc.) is rendered at the same size as the video output, rather than being upscaled to the output resolution after rendering. This option is only available for certain video modes larger than 1920x1200; all smaller video modes user full-resolution graphics automatically. This setting is subject to additional restrictions based on the resolution and player model-see this page for full details. 

  • Enable Dolby Vision: Check this box to enable Dolby Vision on the video output. The presentation will be limited to a single video zone with this option enabled. This option is supported on XT244 and XT1144 models only.

  • Target Frame Rate: Choose a frame rate that is compatible with your monitor.

• Orientation: The monitor orientation for the presentation. This property must be set when you create a presentation. 

• Background Color: Select a background color for the presentation. This color will show through if there's no content on an area of the screen, or if the content has some level of transparency. 

• Language: Select a language for your presentation. This option affects the time/date display of Clock zones only.

• Delay Schedule Change until current media item completes playback: Check this box to have the player wait until a media item completes playback to switch to a new scheduled presentation. For multi-zone presentations, the first media item to complete playback, no matter the zone, will trigger the scheduled presentation change. If this box is unchecked, a player will switch from one scheduled presentation to another at the specified time regardless of current playback.

• Monitor overscan: Select an overscan setting to determine how the content fills the display screen. 

  • No overscan – use full screen: Displays content to the edge of the video signal.

  • Overscan – action safe area: Restricts the display area to a size that is compatible with most displays.

  • Overscan – title safe area: Restricts the display area to a size that is much smaller than the generated video signal.

Audio

Use the Audio tab to configure audio mixing and output options:

• Audio Volume: Set the Minimum Volume and Maximum Volume for the audio output (0 – 100).

• HDMI Volume: Set the Minimum Volume and Maximum Volume for the HDMI output (0 – 100). If you are using BrightAuthor:connected 1.7.11 or above and multiple HDMI outputs are available on the device, each will be displayed as in the image at right.

• SPDIF Volume: Set the Minimum Volume and Maximum Volume for the SPDIF output (0 – 100).

• Audio Configuration: Configure the audio routing for the presentation:

  • Mixed Audio PCM Only: Multiple PCM audio sources (for example, from a video and audio file playing simultaneously) will be mixed into a single source for audio outputs. Differing sampling rates (e.g. 44.1 kHz vs. 48 kHz) will be merged into a single rate of 48 kHz. This setting also allows for dynamic adding and removing of audio sources while audio is already playing.

    • Auto level volume: Check this box to level all PCM audio streams on a particular audio output to a similar volume level.

  • Mixed Audio PCM / Compressed: The behavior is the same as the Mixed Audio PCM Only setting, but compressed audio is supported as well. This is either Mixed PCM Audio or a Compressed audio source (compressed audio cannot be mixed), that can be routed to an audio output.

  • Fixed Audio: Audio sources are mixed only if their sampling rates match. If you attempt to add or remove audio sources while audio is playing, playback will fail.

Support Content

Use the Support Content section to add supplementary files to a presentation. 

Files

Add custom files that will be published along with the presentation. This feature is useful if you frequently publish files that are not used in the presentation itself (for example, a media file being played by a custom script) and you want to automate the process of publishing both presentation files and custom files. 

• Name: Specify a name for the auxiliary file.

• Select File: Locate and select the auxiliary file.

Script Plugin

Script plugins allow you to add custom scripts to a standard BrightAuthor:connected presentation without actually modifying the autorun file. For example, you can use script plugins to change variable values, extract information from a .txt, .csv, .xml, or .json file to display onscreen, change the contents of a playlist, or change how the presentation responds to external input. Script plugins also allow you to access features that are enabled in player firmware, but haven't yet been built in BrightAuthor:connected.

This custom functionality can be triggered by events (button press, touch, video end, etc.) or by commands, such as a Zone Message or UDP Command. A script plugin can also be triggered by a Plugin Message command, which allows you to target the function of a specific plugin.

See the Plugins and Parsers tech note for more information on building script plugins.

• Name: Specify a name for the script plugin. This name must match the initialization function in the plugin.

• Source: Locate and select the script plugin file.

You can find examples of plugins on the BrightSign GitHub page: 

• Widget Hide or Show: Allows you to hide or show a Ticker or Clock zone by sending Plugin Message commands.

• Touch Audio Feedback: Plays an audio file over HDMI whenever a touch event is triggered in the presentation.

Parser Plugin

This feature allows you to add a custom BrightScript snippet for parsing feeds in your presentation. It can be added to states that use feeds to download and display content such as Media List, and, like plugins, can display information from a .txt, .csv, .xml, or .json file or change playlist contents. Parsers are not triggered by a command or associated with an event. Any function that uses an event as a trigger must be written as a plugin, not a parser. 

A parser does not need to work exclusively with the data in the associated feed. Once the parser starts running, you can use it to delete a file on the storage, send a UDP command, or download another feed or file. See the Plugins and Parsers tech note for more information on building parsers.

• Parser Plugin Name: Specify a name for the parser plugin file. The name should be the same as the subroutine name in BrightScript.

• Parser Plugin Source: Locate and select the parser plugin file.

• Feed Parser: Enter the name of the feed-parser function in the script.

• User Agent Parser (optional): Enter the name of the parser function for user-agent strings.

• User Variable Parser (optional): Enter the name of the user-variable parser function in the script.

You can find examples of parsers on the BrightSign GitHub page:

• RSS Converter: Converts a standard RSS feed into the same format as a BSN Live Text feed, allowing you to display RSS feed items by index number in a Live Text state.

• Live Text Title and Description: Allows you to display both the title and description of an RSS item in a Live Text State.

Video Mode Plugin

This plugin changes the video resolution, frame rate, color space and color depth. BrightSign offers the following Video Mode plugins:

• SetMultiScreensVideoMode.brs configures video for series 5 players. See video-mode-plugin/SetMultiScreensVideoMode.brs at master · brightsign/video-mode-plugin for more details.

• SetSingleScreenVideoMode.brs configures video for series 4 and below. See video-mode-plugin/SetSingleScreenVideoMode.brs at master · brightsign/video-mode-plugin for more details.

Once you have updated the .brs file with your desired screens settings, you can add it to BrightAuthor:connected. See Supported Video Modes and VideoMode Multiscreen Configuration for more information about which values are valid for your player.

Switch Presentation

Add supplementary presentations that will be published along with the primary presentation. You can use the Switch to Presentation command to switch to another presentation while a presentation is running.

• Presentation Name: Specify the presentation name, which will be used in the Switch to Presentation command.

• Presentation Source: Locate and select the .bpfx presentation file.

You can also switch presentations based on a timeout event. This feature is available in both local and BSN mode.

To do this:

1. Make sure that your presentation is connected to a Timeout Event and save it.

2. Open the Switch Presentation drop down by selecting the plus sign. Select the name with the red dot (see Image 1).

3. Enter a new Presentation Name and Presentation Source.

4. Under Event Properties > Advanced, select Add Command (see Image 2).

5. Select Other in the Command drop down.

6. Under Command Parameters, either:

   1. Select Switch to Presentation and specify the new Presentation Name. 

   2. Or select Specify via user variable and create a new variable (under Variables) with the new Presentation Name as the Default Value. Enter that variable under Specify via user variable.

7. Save your changes.

Data Feeds

Add Data Feeds to the presentation.

• Name: Specify a name for the Data Feed.

• URL: Source the Data Feed from an RSS URL.

• Dynamic Playlist: Source the Data Feed from a Dynamic Playlist on your bsn.Content network.

• Live Media Feed: Source the Data Feed from a Live Media Feed on your bsn.Content network.

• Live Data Feed: Source the Data Feed from a Live Data Feed on your bsn.Content network.

• Parser Plugin: Select a feed parser to parse the feed data before it is passed to the Data Feed.

• Optimize Feed Updates (use HEAD calls): Check this box to have the player make an HTTP HEAD request before retrieving the contents of a Data Feed. See the Data Feed section

• Automatically generate User Variables from Data Feed:  Use the Data Feed to populate a set of User Variables for HTML pages. The User Variables can then be retrieved using JavaScript. Use the  <title> tag of the Data Feed to specify the Name  of a variable and the  <description> tag to specify its default value. 

  • User Variable Access: Select Shared to make the User Variable accessible to other presentations scheduled on the player. If two presentations use a variable with the same name, the value of the variable with the Shared attribute will be used for the variable with the Private attribute.

Node.js

Select the + sign to add Node.js® applications to your presentation. Each application included here will be automatically launched when the presentation starts. Use WebPack to reduce the number of files in your application before uploading it.

Internal Web Page

The Internal Web Page allows you to view and edit User Variables over your local network. In order to display a standard or custom device web page, the Local Web Server must be enabled on the player.

• Disable: Choose this option if you would like to enable the Local Web Server but do not want the device webpage to be accessible.

• Standard: Choose this option to enable the default device web page, which lists all User Variables and their default/current values on a sparsely formatted page.

• Custom: Choose this option to use a device web page with custom appearance, formatting, and functionality. See this tech note for more information (though this note describes BrightAuthor classic, it has information that can be useful to BrightAuthor:connected users).

Variables

Use the Variables section to create, edit, and delete User Variables. User Variables are customizable values that can be used in User Variable states, as well as commands and conditional targets. The values of User Variables can also be changed during a presentation using the Set Variable or Reset Variable commands.

Creating Variables

Click Add Variable to add a new variable to your presentation:

• Variable Name: Enter a unique name for the User Variable.

• Default Value: Specify an initial value for the User Variable. Whenever a User Variable is reset (via the Reset Variable command), it will return to this default value.

• Access: Select Shared to make the User Variable accessible to other presentations scheduled on the player. If two presentations use a variable with the same name, the value of the variable with the Shared attribute will be used for the variable with the Private attribute.

• Type: Select a User Variable type: 

  • Local: Local variables can be changed with the Set Variable/Reset Variable commands or via the Device Web Page. They can also be set with properly formatted serial, UDP, and Plugin Message events.

  • Networked: Networked variables are set and modified using a feed (RSS, Dynamic Playlist, Live Media Feed, or Live Data Feed). Note that every RSS entry has a <title> value and a <description> value: use the <title> value to designate the name of the User Variable being modified; use the <description> value to change the value of the User Variable.

    • Parser Plugin: Select a feed parser to parse the feed data before it is used to update the variable.

    • Optimize Feed Updates (use HEAD calls): Check this box to have the player make an HTTP HEAD request before retrieving the contents of a feed. See the Data Feeds section above for more details.

    • Automatically generate User Variables from Data Feed: Use the feed to populate a set of User Variables for HTML pages. See the Data Feeds section above for more details.

  • SystemVariable: System variables are not determined by the user, but by independent system parameters, such as firmware/autorun version number, IP address, RF channel count, and various types of EDID (extended display identification data) information received from the display over HDMI. Note that displays will often lack a complete set of EDID parameters. Make sure to test the EDID values of a certain display model before using them in a presentation.

    • System Variable: This option will appear if you selected System Variable under Type. Use it to select a system variable from the drop down list. See the image below.

    • Connector: This option will be visible if you selected an EDID System Variable under Type:

      • If you are using a BS device with one HDMI output, this option will be greyed out and show only HDMI-1.

      • If you are using a BS device with multiple HDMI outputs, you can use this feature to link the variable to the available HDMI outputs for that device.

Viewing Variables

Expand All | Collapse All is useful if you have multiple variables in your presentation. It allows you to easily expand or collapse all of the variables in your presentation with one click:

Editing Variables

You can also configure settings that apply to all variables in the presentation:

• Alphabetize variables in app display: Check this box to list variables on the Device Web Page alphabetically. Select the arrow next to Variable Name to sort the variables from A to Z or Z to A. New variables will be added to the end of the alphabetized list and the arrow next to Variable Name will revert to a dash (which indicates that the list is again unsorted).

• Automatically create media counter variables: Check this box to create Media Counters for all media files in the presentation. Media Counters record how many times a file has played in a presentation. They can be displayed in a Live Text or User Variable state.

• Reset Variables to their default value on presentation start: Check this box to reset all User Variables to their default values whenever the presentation begins. If this box is unchecked, User Variable values will be preserved on the SD card after the device reboots, the presentation is switched, etc.

• Update frequency for networked variables: Specify how often networked User Variables should be refreshed by feeds.

User Events

These event types allow you to save interactive event types and parameters, so that you can access them more readily in the future, and allows you to combine multiple interactive events into one User Event.

For example, if you frequently use a five second Timeout Event, you can create a User Event with this specification. In the future, instead of having to set each Timeout Event to five seconds, you can instead use this User Event. Or you could combine multiple transition events like Button Press, Keyboard, Touch, and GPIO into a single User Event.

To create a User Event, select Add Event and enter a unique name. Use the drop down list to select an interactive event (a Timeout Event is shown in the image), and enter any parameters that are needed for that event type. Repeat this process for all of the events you want included in the User Event. To assign the User Event to content, select the content in the center pane and assign a User Event to it.

You can also copy a User Event using the copy icon in the top right corner.

When in “Local” mode, User Events can also be imported from other presentations, or exported to other presentations. See Dashboard and Menu Items. The import and export functions can be found under the Edit menu.

Interactive

The Interactive section allows you to configure interactive I/O for the presentation.

Touch

Use this tab to configure BP200/BP900 button panels and touch screens.

Button Panel

Use the Button Panel dropdown list to select the type of button panel (BP200 or BP900) you wish to configure. The A, B, and C letters specify which device is enumerated first; the B and C letters are only applicable if you are connecting more than one BP device to the player.

Choose one of the following:

• Automatically configure which buttons are enabled: Only buttons that are configured with BP200/BP900 events in the presentation will be enabled. All other buttons will not light up or react to button presses.

• Specify which buttons are enabled: Only the specified buttons will be enabled regardless of whether there are BP200/BP900 events in the presentation configured to use them. If this option is selected, a BP200/BP900 event set to the Any Button option will only react to button numbers that have been enabled.

Touch

• Cursor: Select a mouse display option for Touch events. The default cursor setting for touch screen events is Auto display cursor: The cursor will be displayed if there's more than one touch region currently on the screen; if there's only one touch region on the screen, the cursor will be hidden. This option does not apply to HTML 5 States (the cursor in HTML 5 states is enabled/disabled on a case-by-case basis in State Properties > Options).

  • Always hide cursor: The mouse cursor will never appear with Touch events.

  • Always display cursor: The mouse cursor will always appear with Touch events.

  • Auto display cursor: The mouse cursor will be present only if there is more than one Touch event region on the screen.

• Flip coordinates: Check this box to reverse the coordinates of the touchscreen input.

Connectors

Use this tab to configure serial port, GPIO communication, and IR Remote configuration.

Serial

• Port: Select a serial port to configure. Most standard serial devices enumerate on port 0 (on the HO523, they will enumerate on port 1).

• GPS Receiver (Port 2 only): Check this box if the port is being used to connect a USB-serial GPS device to the player.

• Protocol: Determine whether the serial data is formatted as Binary or ASCII.

• Baud rate: Set the baud rate for serial communications on the port.

• Data bits: Set the number of data bits.

• Parity: Set the parity.

• Stop bits: Select the number of stop bits.

• Send EOL: Select the end-of-line character when sending data to a serial device.

• Receive EOL. Select the end-of-line character when receiving data from a serial device.

• Invert Signals: Check this box to invert the TX/RX signal levels on the serial port. This allows the player to communicate with devices that use -12V to 12V signaling. Inversion is only supported on the following ports: The DE9 and USB ports on the 4Kx42, as well as the 3.5mm serial port on the XTx43/XDx33 (units that are rev H or earlier) and HDx23. Except for the 4Kx42, all of these ports perform 5V signaling.

GPIO Configuration

Many BrightSign models feature a DA15 or Phoenix-style GPIO port for device communication and interactive input/output. Select Input or Output for each GPIO button to indicate whether it should be used to receive or send information.

IR Remote Configuration

The user can select from the events and/or commands available based on their IR In Source and IR Out Destination selections.

• Remote Control: This can be either one of BrightSign remotes (RC-1001 or RC-1002), or a user specified remote.

• IR In Source: This configuration is one of a dedicated IR, or Iguana (USB), or None.

• IR Out Destination: This configuration is either dedicated IR, or Iguana (USB), or None.

Networking

Use this tab to configure UDP communications and PTP synchronization.

UDP

• UDP Destination Address: Specify where UDP commands generated by the presentation should be sent:

  • Specific IP Address: Enter a single destination IP address in dotted quad form.

  • All devices on the local subnet: Broadcast UDP messages to all devices on the local subnet.

  • All devices connected via Ethernet: Broadcast UDP messages to Ethernet-connected devices on the local subnet.

  • All devices connected via Wireless: Broadcast UDP messages to Wireless-networked devices on the local subnet.

• UDP Destination Port : Specify the destination port for UDP messages generated by the presentation.

• UDP Receiver Port: Specify the port used by the player to receive UDP messages (for triggering UDP Events on the player).

UDP Input List

This section lists all UDP events in the presentation. For each event, you can specify the following options:

• Label: Specify a label for the UDP command button in the BrightSign App. By default, the command label will be the same as the UDP message string.

• Show in BrightSign App: Check this box to have the command button corresponding to the UDP Input event appear in the BrightSign App.

Synchronization

You should always use enhanced synchronization between players. This feature passes synchronization events from leader to follower players (in video walls, for example). 

• Enable Enhanced Synchronization: Select this checkbox to put players in a synchronization domain (this domain selects a PTP address where clock and synchronization events will be published from the leader player and read by the follower player).

• Leader (formerly Master): Makes the currently selected player a leader player.

• Follower (formerly Slave): Makes the currently selected player a follower player. There can be multiple follower players.

• Domain: Enter a domain number between 0 and 127 that is unique for each set of leader/follower presentations on the local network. This will ensure that multiple groups of synchronized presentations can operate on the same local network without synchronization messages interfering with each other.