Presentation

Overview

The Presentation tab has a dropdown with the following options:

• New Presentation: see New Presentation for more information about building a new presentation 

• Import Presentation: see Import Presentation for more information about importing presentations

• Recent Presentations: allows you to select a presentation from a recent presentation

• All Presentations: lets you select a presentation from the existing presentations in your network

New Presentation

To create a new presentation, select New Presentation or the New Presentation icon in the Recent Presentations, or the New Presentation screen. For a visual reference, see the accompanying tutorial video for a step-by step guide to building a new presentation.

Series 5 Players with Multiple Outputs

If you select an XC5 or XT5 player, you will see the following screen and a Screens tab (the additional options have been moved to the Screens tab):

Open

Other Players

If you select a single output Series 5 player, or Series 4 or older players, you will see the following screen:

Open

1. Select Template: Select a pre-made zone layout for your presentation. You can modify the zone layout later when editing the presentation.

   1. Single Zone: A single image, video, Node.js application, or HTML page occupies the screen at any time.

      • Playlist: Videos and images are displayed in a playlist

      • HTML: A single HTML page is displayed

      • Video In: Video from the HDMI^® input is displayed (available on XTx44, XTx43, and 4Kx42 players only).

      • Video Stream: Video from a remote streaming source is displayed

      • Node.js application: A Node.js application is added to the presentation as “Support Content" and can be added, updated, removed later, through “Support Content“.  See Presentation Settings | PresentationSettings-Node.js

   2. Multi-Zone: Multiple media items (images, videos, text) are displayed simultaneously.

      • Two Zone Horizontal: A playlist of videos and images is displayed with a text ticker beneath.

      • Two Zone Vertical: A playlist of videos and images is displayed on the left, while a playlist of images occupies the right side of the screen.

      • Three Zone: A playlist of videos and images occupies the left side of the screen, a playlist of images occupies the right side, and a text ticker occupies the bottom.

2. Preview: View a preview of the zone layout (green indicates a Video or Image zone, Blue an Image zone, and yellow a Ticker zone).

3. Name: Enter a name for the presentation.

4. Destination (Local mode only): Choose a location to save the presentation project file on your local machine.

5. HTML Presentation (HTML template only): Specify a HTML site to display on screen. 

   • URL: Specify the URL for the HTML page to display.

   • Local Content: Browse your local machine to locate the .html file that you wish to display.

6. Video Stream URL (Video Stream template only): Specify the streaming video URL to display on screen.

7. Target Player: Select the target player model for the presentation. This will determine the available video resolutions, zone types, widgets, and events in the presentation.

8. Connector: Select the connector type that connects the player to the display.

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

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

11. Screen Orientation: Select a screen orientation for your presentation: 

    • Landscape: Content is not rotated.

    • Portrait – Bottom Left: Content is rotated counter-clockwise 90 degrees. Select this option if the bottom of the monitor is on the left when it is portrait oriented.

    • Portrait – Bottom Right: Content is rotated clockwise 90 degrees. Select this option if the bottom of the monitor is on the right when it is portrait oriented.

12. Start: Go to the playlist/layout editing screen.

Presentation Builder Overview

1. Content Mode: Presentation content may be stored in one of two places. Importantly, a presentation cannot contain a mix of content storage types. Changing this option thus requires that you exit your current presentation. More details here.

   • bsn.Content Content is stored on BSN.Cloud.

   • Local Content is stored on your local computer.

2. Library / Tree View
   The Library displays available content from either your BSN.Cloud network or your local computer, depending on the selected Content Mode as described above. If you need to add media to your BSN.Cloud network, select the dropdown next to the Content tab and select Upload New Media.
   
   Tree View allows you to quickly view and search through a presentation by displaying it as a set of expandable/collapsible zones, states, events, and commands. See here for more info.

3. Layout / Content: Select Layout to change the presentation layout and edit zone properties; select Content to edit the content in a zone. Series 5 players will also display a Screens tab in this location. See Multiscreen Video Playback for information about how to set up a multiscreen presentation using the Screens tab.

4. Presentation Name: The name of the presentation. A  icon indicates that the presentation uses BSN.cloud content, while a  icon indicates that the presentation content is stored locally.

5. Save: Select the  icon to save the presentation (either locally or on your BSN.Cloud network) or select Save As from the file drop down menu to save the current presentation with a different name.

6. Upload: Select the  icon to upload a locally created presentation to BSN.Cloud.

7. Publish: Select the  icon to publish the presentation to one or more BrightSign players.

8. Zones: Use this pane to add, delete, and layer zones. See below for more details.

9. Presentation Settings: Modify various settings that apply to the entire presentation. See Presentation Settings for more details.

10. Zone Properties (Layout tab only): Modify settings associated with a selected zone. See Zone Properties for a description of each zone type.

11. State Properties (Content tab only): Modify settings associated with a selected state. See State Properties for a description of each state.

Editing the Presentation Layout

In the Layout tab, click on a zone to select it. The selected zone can be resized by manually dragging the drag handles (light blue squares) or by entering pixel values for the zone’s Size and Position in the Properties tab. Pressing the Delete key deletes the selected zone. Various properties can be configured for each zone. See the Zones page for more details.

The Zones pane organizes visible zones into three layers:

• Graphics: This layer includes all Ticker, Clock, Video or Images, and Image Only zones.

• Video 1: This layer contains a Video Only, Video or Images, or Background Image zone.

• Video 2: This layer contains a second Video Only or Video or Images zone. The Video 2 layer is only supported on player models with multiple video decoders: XTx44, XDx34, XTx43, XDx33, and 4Kx42

Use the  icon to change the display order of the three layers - top layers are displayed on top of lower layers.

For a more comprehensive explanation of the various layer types, please refer to the Zones page.

The display order of graphics zones within the Graphics layer can be unpredictable, and may change if the player OS is updated or other presentation settings are changed. To ensure one image is displayed behind other graphics elements, place a Background Image zone in a video layer behind the graphics layer.

Building a Non-Interactive Playlist

A non-interactive playlist displays media in a looping playlist. Click the Content tab (or double-click a zone) to begin editing a non-interactive playlist.

To add content to the playlist, drag items from the Assets or Widgets pane into the playlist area above. To align the elements in your playlist area, right-click on the background grid to bring up the Snap to grid checkbox option. You can also adjust the spacing of the grid by selecting Grid Spacing. Use the arrows in the pop up to adjust the spacing.

Transitions occur automatically at the end of audio and video files, but you can configure the display duration of image and HTML files by selecting theicon after an image/HTML file to modify its display duration.

1. Library: Select a folder containing media files or components that you wish to add to the presentation playlist. The Library is sourced from either your BSN.cloud network or local machine, depending on the setting of the Storage Selector. If you need to add media to your BSN.cloud network, click the Content tab and select Upload New Media. 

2. Assets / Widgets: Switch between adding media files (Assets) and other presentation states (Widgets). See State Properties  for more details about various widgets.

3. Select All / Clear: Select/unselect all media files in a folder. You can select multiple files:

   • Select a series of adjacent media files – Hold the Shift key as you select the files in the Library.

   • Select a group of non-adjacent files – Hold the Ctrl key as you select the files in the Library.

4. Search: Enter text in the search field to search the folder for a filename

5. Sort: Use the dropdown list to select a sort criteria. Use the  icon to toggle between ascending and descending order.

6. Refresh: Select the icon to query the contents of the folder again.

7. Resize: Use the dropdown menu to change the size of the media thumbnails in the Assets pane.

8. Playlist: Drag media or widgets into this area to add them to the playlist. Once an item is added, you can also drag it  to a different position in the playlist. To delete an item or state from the playlist, hover your cursor over it and click the "X" that appears in the top right corner of the object.

9. Presentation and Zone: The name of the presentation project and the zone that the playlist belongs to. If your presentation has multiple zones, switch between zone playlists in the Navigator pane.

10. Simple or Advanced Presentation: Use the drop-down to select whether the presentation will be Simple or Advanced. Simple presentations contain basic functionality (e.g., looping images or videos) while Advanced presentations can contain interactivity, widgets, etc.

11. Zones: Configure zones and set zone layers.

12. State Properties: Edit the properties of media items and widgets. See State Properties to learn more about different state properties.

Advanced Presentations

Unlike Simple presentations which loop endlessly, Advanced presentations can transition to new media by responding to events, such as input from a GPIO button or touchscreen. To make a presentation Advanced, click the Simple / Advanced drop-down menu and selected Advanced:

Choosing a Home Screen

The Home Screen is the first media file or widget in an Advanced playlist. It is where the Advanced playlist begins. 

By default, the first media file or widget you drag into an Advanced playlist will become the Home Screen, identified by theHome icon. You can change the Home Screen at any time by selecting a state in the playlist and checking the Initial State box in the State Properties pane.

Defining Advanced Events

Advanced events link states in the playlist and determine what must occur before one state transitions to another. Follow these steps to define an event:

1. Select an event icon in the Event Toolbar. 

2. Click (and hold) the state name below the thumbnail image of the current state.

3. Drag the pointer to the thumbnail of the state you want to play next.

Alternatively, you can select an event and click the state name. This will add the event to the state, but will not define the transition target. You can then set the target state in the Event Properties > Target State pane. This is useful if you haven't added all states to the playlist yet or if the presentation is too complex to easily drag the mouse cursor between states.

Event Inputs

Most events are triggered by a specific input that you need to define. A red dot on an event indicates that it is missing the required input.

Select an event to view the Event Properties pane on the right. See the Event Properties page for more information on defining interactive triggers for different events.

Import Presentation

Import Presentation lets you import BrightAuthor Classic presentations in Local Content mode. Alternatively, you can do this via File > Import… In bsn.Content mode, Import Presentation can also import presentations from a BrightSign Network (not BSN.Cloud) account.