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Carousel Release 6.3: The Manual

1. 72 8 3 Successful connection tests 0000000 73 8 4 Connection tests with failures and possible solutions 73 8 5 Player Status and Player Alerts 76 8 6 Player Status list with some troubled players 76 8 7 Player Status list with healthy players 77 8 8 Adjusting the Player Alerts settings distribution list 78 59 Ked Bar Mote 22 seabed x93 EUR BOR EG ow GOSS 78 8 10 The Carousel Display Engine loading zones 79 8 11 Selecting Clone Mode 2 2 o s RR y Exe 80 8 12 The NView TV Output dialog box 0 81 8 13 The ConvertDVI Control Panel 83 8 14 Select Display Properties from the player s desktop 84 8 15 Loading the Display Properties Dialog 85 8 16 The nVidia Advanced Menu 204 86 8 17 Adding a Resolution 86 8 18 Rotating the display cll nn 87 10 1 Email Approval List aoaaa llle 91 10 2 Bulletin Pacing Porm uuu se es RE SOEUR Y X eR EU Exe os 93 10 3 The Bumper Graphic Form 2 i cee ee te nn 93 11 1 The Zone Synchronization Menu 95 11 2 The PONG ONDE ucedg s 4e Ow e ee ERG KE ERE ES 96 11 3 The external data source authentication menu 97 11 4 The proxy configuration menu 0 98 13 1 Picking a Template eRe SERED EME SES EY 104 13 2 The Edit Bulletins Form gf ok wet he wee ees He
2. Full Size DEMO Health 9 If you want to leave it blank for now you can choose the Template Specific option We ll skip over the Select Block and Block Name fields for now Before we can use these fields we need to add a block Once you change your background you ll see it update in the preview window on the left If you want you can instruct Carousel to make the preview window match the size of your zone by clicking the Full Size Preview checkbox As you edit this template you can check uncheck this option as needed Next click the Blocks option which will expand the options for creating a block Click the New button to create a brand new block You ll notice that a whole bunch of menu options just appeared That s because a block has a bunch of options and you re currently editing the new block you just 19 Managing Media Example Step 9 FIGURE 19 12 Dragging a block 19 7 The Template Editor created Also Carousel has helpfully suggested that you name your block and give it one of the types we enumerated back in section 19 7 2 on page 187 v Name and Type Name Simple Rectangle Simple Ellipse Picture Pick a name that is helpful to the person using your template Title or Address or Body of Message For this walkthrough make sure that you set the Type pop down list to Text Next let s move and resize our creation There are three ways to do
3. org and com For example not just anyone can get a mil address as those are reserved for the United States Military In the United States the us works a bit differently for schools in that second third level and fourth level domains are used to drill down to a specific district For example the Bloomington school district in Minnesota is at bloomington kl12 mn us The fifth level domain is managed by the school for internal domains computers and services If you have your own domain name you or your organization is responsible for managing it You have the responsibility to designate a DNS server that will manage any requests that are sent to your new domain Your DNS server tells the world When people look for www myfantasticname org it is at this IP address Most often when you type an address into a web browser there are three parts to an address like www t rms com The www in that address is the third level domain Any domain beyond the second level domain is managed by the organization They are used to designate specific services or computers within an organization s network As an example your computer on your desk is most likely named with a third and possibly fourth level domain depending on the complexity of your network There is a lot of magic in this document because we can t cover everything Appendix M A Not So Short Introduction to Networking Domain levels a
4. FIGURE 19 15 Text Alignment controls 194 Step 14 Step 15 Font Font Arial Black El M Size Text to Fit 32 p g To have the text automatically size to fill the block chose the Size Text to Fit If this checkbox is used the font size pop down list has no effect To change the style use the the style buttons When you create a bulletin in Carousel you have the ability to override some font settings such as color bold and italics You can even make lists We cover these capabilities in section 13 2 1 on page 105 Adding Style using HTML Tags The Text Alignment controls align the text and control text wrapping for the block Text Alignment M Automatically Wrap Text SEE ASE To apply a gradient to your text use the controls in the Text Gradient figure 19 16 on the next page controls The Gradient Color field controls color for the end of the gradient The beginning of the gradient is controlled by the Color field in the Text properties You may also adjust the gradient s opacity Like the color you re only affecting the end of the gradient The Text properties is where to change the beginning Text Outline Text Shadow and Text Glow all operate in the ways that you would 19 Managing Media FIGURE 19 16 Text Gradient controls Step 16 A Note About Reflections 19 7 The Template Editor E Text Gradient Use Gradient Fill for Text Gradient Col
5. You ll see a zone properties form appear like in figure 7 10 on the facing page Also you ll see the preview window update to show you the default position where your new zone will appear 7 Setup Basics Step By Step FIGURE 7 10 Zone Properties Form in Channel Layout 7 Fone Size S80 w by 720 h Position 0 top D left FIGURE 7 11 A zone addedto the SUE preview 80 w by 720 h 480p 720p 1080p weather m Add Messages Step 4 Reposition and size your zones with the Size and Position fields If you place your zone outside of the channel s boundaries or overlap another zone you ll get a warning message Correct these conditions before continuing 2 You can select a zone to edit from the preview window by clicking on the box the represents its size and position Step 5 Keep adding zones until you are finished by going back to step 2 on the preceding page Once you are finished click the Save button Make sure that you don t see any black on your channel s display This would denote a hole in the channel s canvas You want to be sure that all zones touching all edges of the channel or another zone 7 3 3 The Crawl Properties Form Main Menu Configure If you ve specified a crawl zone for this channel select the Craw menu item Channel Configuration from the Channel Configuration main menu The Crawl Settings form adjusts
6. 22222 29 ow n 51 A Carousel System that has not been setup 52 The Carousel Main Menu 22r 92 The SUG Bf ngo om bee FEES RO REE Swede eee 53 Quick Links 22222 d wok ee HRA E VR ERED Eos 54 Selecting Zones with Pop Down Menus 55 Selecting Zones with the Tag Picker 55 The Media Picker es sooo ose som o R9 URGE Re GR 9 RERO 56 Selecting media with tags lll 57 Conn a DEL oe ox bobo ORO A 4 oo b Ro ROO NOR od 57 Configure Main Menu llle len 59 Adding Zones lt 2522229499 eee ee ewe ee ee 60 The Zone Properties Page llc 60 No Channels Defined 25 222 eae ox wan oo es 62 The Channel Configuration Editing Menu 62 The Channel Setup Form uuo ko x X Re wadai 63 Adding full screen alert zones to this channel 63 You can re order the list by dragging and dropping the items 63 The Channel Layout Menu cll rns 64 Zone Properties Form in Channel Layout 65 328 7 11 Azoneaddedtothepreview 65 1 12 The Crawl Settings Men c xo 9 no kom 64444484 66 T3 The Date and Time Ment 2324 ooo 9 RR Rn 67 7 14 Background Audio Form lll lll 68 7 15 The channel list with preview buttons 69 7 16 Example of the web based channel preview 70 8 1 Closing the Display Engine before itloads 71 8 2 The Display Engine Configuration Form
7. Carousel will detect the available fields from your chosen feed and list the available placeholders to you There can be other data within an RSS feed but Carousel can display data from the list of placeholders it gives you Carousel will make one or more bulletins using the RSS data You can format the information in a variety of ways specifying the information you want to show the number of items per page and number of pages that you want to display Verify that you have licensing permission to show the information that you are displaying Different web sites have different policies regarding the use of their RSS information Some limit viewing to personal use which is not compatible with most digital signage applications 17 5 1 Creating an RSS Bulletin FIGURE 17 13 Editing the RSS properties RSS Feed URL OR Upload RSS File Limit to Max Items Per Bulletin Item Sort Order Character Limit Shorten long URLs Item Spacing Time Per Bulletin Excluded Word List Continue Cancel To create an RSS bulletin choose Make a New Bulletin from the main menu click the Dynamic tab and choose RSS Bulletin http blog trms com trms rss xm Username Password optional Choose File No file chosen unlimited bulletins 0 total bulletins 0 total items 4 use 0 to put as many as can fit Feed Default 2 pixels i5 seconds Show Hide List Before we can edit the presentation of the RSS i
8. If you specify a sound file and you have background audio playing on Carousel the system will automatically fade the background audio while your bulletin s audio plays If Carousel is playing the background audio as opposed to pass ing an external audio source through it will even pause the audio while your bulletin s clip plays 108 Carousel will slightly adjust this value based on the number of words on a page If a video clip is present then the time will be the length of the clip 3 For more information about bulletin impression tracking see http blog trms com john 2008 03 carousel 52 bul html 13 Making Bulletins For how long would you like to display this bulletin Let the system decide For 10 second s V Track impression count How would you like to transition into this bulletin O Let the system decide Four corners Would you like to play a sound clip with this bulletin No Sound None 4 Upload Should background audio be faded down for this bulletin 9 Yes O No What is the description of this bulletin ENA is a bulletin s text that I ve typed into the description It will be used for the web output and RSS feeds E Do you want this bulletin to display on the web site Display on web site O Do not display on web site Bulletin Tags doctors schedule public More Finish FIGURE 13 7 The Bulletin Properties Form 13 4 Bull
9. J 1 10 Changing the Application Pool for Installed IIS Applications Step 46 Open Server Manager from the toolbar if it isn t already open Step 47 Expand Roles Step 48 Expand Web Server IIS Step 49 Click on Internet Information Services IIS Manager Step 50 Under the Connections pane expand your Machine Name to show Application Pools and Sites Step 51 Expand Sites and highlight Default Web Site figure J 8 on the next page Step 52 In the Actions pane on the right click Advanced Settings Step 53 Under the Application Pool section of Advanced Settings highlight DefaultApp Pool J 1 Windows 2008 Installation 287 FIGURE J 8 The Default Web Site PRX r FIGURE J 9 Selecting ASP NET E WS Web Server ais l Name Default Web Site v4 0 Classic 288 File Action View Help e e zjm Server Manager ENTERPR TTE ODE 1E a9 B616 EL Hi E Roles V3 Web Server 115 My Internet Inform Features Diagnostics 7 Explore Configuration gt x Storage Edit Permissions Application Pools Edit Si H Sites G Bindings H Default Web Site 1 t E Basic Settings Ne X View Applications NET NET E iuithorwatl Compilation View Virtual Directories i e Manage Web Site 404 Restart NET Error NET Globalization 9 Browse 80 http Advanced Settings Configure Limits Step 54 Clic
10. n 33 FFFFOO Style Alignment O Bold italic Q Underline Strikeeut Alignment Center gt Sizing Le MAutoSize M Wrap Text TR 1 Color Shadow bOn l 2px B Opacity 30 000000 Color Outline tOn W Opacity 100 000000 Color it Backdrop Ones W Opacity 10 000000 B Color Backdrop om s frp _ Opacity 100 gt Outline Td 000000 M Save Cancel The first order of business will be to name the template and give it a description The description helps the user determine the original purpose of the template Next you select the default background for this template in the Background pop down list A user may change this at creation time but they will see this selection first 255 FIGURE E 2 Naming a Template Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 FIGURE E 3 In this example you can see that the Title field was set to EditField and Small The Body field was set to TextArea and Large 256 Step 6 aai i My Mew Template Mame y H This is a description which helps people understand the purpose of Description this template We ll skip over the Select Block and Block Name fields for now Before we can use these fields we need to add a block In the Add a Block pop down select the type of block that you would like to create and click the Add button Once you create a block it will be the selected block shown in t
11. 16 bit Height pixels Color quality Screen refresh rate 86 8 Configuring Players resolution information into this dialog box After clicking OK you may wish to click the Only show custom modes checkbox which will make it easier to pick the resolution that you just added Select the new resolution using the Screen Resolution slider at the top Click Apply to view the results The display should look centered and fill the screen If it does not try using the monitor s positioning controls to center it If it still seems out of adjustment or the display is corrupted you may need to use the Advanced Timing dialog to adjust some of the sync properties This is very rare and should not need to be changed but it is the last option if you are unable to get the display to appear correctly 8 9 3 Setting up a 9x16 Display Carousel may be configured for 9x16 display where the LCD or plasma monitor is put on its side for a portrait display WJ 3 i RU ode FIGURE 8 18 Rotating the 7 A 38 ViewSonic VE700 and NVIDIA GeForce 6600 Pr R display Ir s 1 Li top Screen Saver Appearance Settings cns Adapter i TEE Toet Color Management EJ GeForce 6600 d J rr Em Rl GeForce 6600 Screen Adjustment Display Mode Timing Performance amp Quality Settings Color Correction Video Overlay Settings Tools t NVRotate VIDIA
12. 17 4 Choosing the location for weather information 17 5 The Weather Templates nde kon ox ewd eens y Ron 17 6 The Default Weather Template 17 7 Some of the data fields that are available for use 17 8 Weather crawl options l lr 17 9 Previewing the weather crawl 2 2 008 17 10Selecting a Cable Display Bulletin Type 17 11 Cable Display Bulletin Properties 17 12Editing Cable Display Bulletins 17 13Editing the RSS properties 17 14Editing an RSS Bulletin 0 17 1555 Bulletin PRG uuu o Se ewe aruana 9x9 OR 939 17 16The error message seen when trying to read an invalid RSS or Atom 17 17Checking the Web Interface to see if the RSS feed has updated 17 188SS Crawl Creation 22 o o o o me 17 19The RSS Crawl Properties Form 17 20Editing Twitter properties 2 2 e ee ee 17 21 Editing Facebook properties 17 228s bulletin creation uu uoo ee RC OR HEE HRD REESE EES 17 23 Selecting a Database forEDS 17 24The EMS and Ad Astra Bulletin Properties Form 17 25 An example configuration for Resource25 17 26Here we are restricting the space to a specific ID number 17 27In this screen shot there are no calendars but you can see that this is what setting up an Exchange server within carousel
13. Bring to Front Send to Back Repeat block dynamic bulletin t A So laua Repeating Blocks in Dynamic Bulletins With dynamic bulletins Carousel can repeat blocks for multiple items of data such as room numbers RSS items and shows for Cablecast s schedule FIGURE 19 29 Repeat blocks MTM E E pop down list in Block Options Bring to Front j Send to Back to Back properties Repeat block dynamic m None Header Footer With a block that is repeated you may use one of four different settings that you ll find in the Repeat blocks pop down list in Block Options None The block is drawn where you set it This is the default setting and is what is used for non dynamic bulletins There is no special behavior here Header This actually gets treated the same as the None option Footer A footer is drawn where it is placed but Carousel uses the upper bounds of this block as a don t go past here marker for blocks that repeat Repeat This setting is used for the items that get repeated in the bulletin 200 19 Managing Media Dynamic bulletins have templates that cannot be saved When you create one of these bulletins you modify the template for that bulletin only Therefore the settings in the Repeat blocks pop down list are not applicable to any templates that you make in the Media Templates menu 19 8 Media Tags FIGURE 19 30
14. Carousel 6 3 and up support the Common Alert Protocol CAP It provides an XML interface for creating bulletins Using this feature it is possible to integrate external systems such as alarm systems using simple programs developed in the field This chapter is not a primer on XML or programming It is intended for those that are already somewhat familiar with such technology and are seeking to integrate Carousel into data systems K 1 Communications K 2 Workflow of CAP CAP is implemented by sending a properly formed XML based command to the Carousel server which will reply with a JSON hash with any errors and bulletins affected Communication between CAP applications and Carousel is initiated with a HTTP POST containing raw XML targeted to server Carousel Public cap aspx token token amp tags tag tag2 The Carousel server will listen for a CAPPOST command to be sent to this address Upon receiving a well formed command the server will process it and return a JSON hash response containing any errors and bulletins affected If you do a GET on the URL above you can see a form to paste XML into for testing The token variable in the above address is the security token for authentication This is stored in the TRMS Web Carousel web config file under the CAPToken key and is empty by default which disables CAP Enter a string for CAPToken in the web config to enable CAP and use this value as your token variable when c
15. Composite Channesl ae URL E M Would you like audio with the live stream Audio iv No audio What standby graphic would you like to use Template Specific Select Continue Cancel Clock bulletin Weather bulletin C CableDisplay bulletin RSS bulletin 735 Event Schedule bulletin Live video feed m Display a bulletin with live video or tune to a Zone create one of these bulletins click New Bulletin from the Main Menu and select the Dynamic tab Choose Live Video Feed Your first choice is to pick the source of your video If you are using video input hardware that has been installed on all of the Carousel players that show this zone you can use the Video Input Card option Select the input type from the Input pop down list If the signal is coming from a cable or terrestrial channel enter the channel number in the Channel field If you are using a streaming source choose the URL radio button and enter the link for the source Carousel is compatible with Windows Media streaming and MPEG 4 Next select the Audio option if there is audio accompanied with the video If there is Carousel will automatically fade the background audio while this bulletin is active Otherwise choose the No audio option Finally you may upload a graphic that will be used to fill the zone while there is no video source to replay This is primarily useful when working with streaming media as it i
16. FIGURE 17 25 An example configuration for Resource25 FIGURE 17 26 Here we are re stricting the space to a specific ID number 154 Resource25 Query URL nttp myserver edu ws10 wrd run rm reservations xm Username r2suser Password jeeeeeee How would you like to group the schedule information Ungrouped C By Room C By Time cance You can add any additional query string parameters you need to filter this dataset down to what you want For example you would want to restrict this URL to only pull reservations for a particular room or building Refer to your Resource25 administrator on creating the correct query arguments An example restriction is illustrated in figure 17 26 Query URL wrd run rm reservations xml space query id 1694996 Username r25user Password oor In section 17 9 6 on the next page when you create an EDS page you ll be mapping information in the Resource25 database to the Carousel page The following fields from the XML in Resource25 are mapped to the EDS placeholders rlimes er25 event rzb5 event start dt hndTime r25 event r25 event end dt Event r25 event r25 event name Description r25 event r25 event title Organization r25 event r25 0rganization name Room r25 spaces r25 space name Because the queries on R25 requests can be taxing on the R25 server we have added a special configuration to the Carousel service to limit the frequency that the service update
17. H 2 Installing the Application Carousel Monitor Control is a Microsoft Windows 32 bit application It requires Microsoft Net Framework 3 5 SP1 or higher To install the application run the Carousel Monitor Control exe installer on the computer that will be controlling the monitor The installer will place the runtime files in your target directory and install a shortcut to the system tray application in the startup folder It will also launch the application at the end of the install process ue Because the application runs in the system tray it requires that a user be logged into Windows for it to function Carousel Monitor Control does not run as a service H 3 System Tray Menu Carousel Monitor Control appears in the lower right corner of your screen Right 3 clicking on the icon beings up the menu Edit Configuration Edit Schedule The Edit Configuration menu allows you to adjust the power on and off omer Dn nti commands section H 4 on the next page Power OFF Now The Edit Schedule menu allows you to change when the monitors power on and ER jl off section H 6 on page 269 The Power On Now menu powers the monitor on based on the current configura tion The Power Off Now menu powers the monitor off based on the current configura tion 267 H 4 Edit Configuration There are two options for controlling the monitors The Use Windows power management method uses the power management f
18. Plus Update New Delete Copy Paste 2 16 2007 wo Jor tl y Start Time End Time Room Event 5 00pm r30pm aro o Mothballing Your Battleship 5 30 pm amp o0 pm faio2 Here Comes The Metric System M B 00 pm o 30 pm 4101 Lead Paint Delicious But Deadly M 9 05 pm 10 00 pr A103 Two Minus Three Equals Negative Fun Update New Delete Copy Paste 2 16 2007 as LTE Each zone has an event schedule Select Event Schedule from the Main Menu At the top of the form you will find tools to help you with the events that you create This refreshes the form interpreting the start and end time and sorting accordingly Any time that you hit the Enter key on your keyboard you will be effectively clicking this link Click this link to create a new event To delete one or more items select the according box and then click the delete link To delete all items on the form click the select all arrow V and then click the Delete link To copy links in to the copy buffer click this link To paste items from the copy buffer click this link This is the day that you are looking You may enter a new day directly into this field Clicking this link reveals a handy calendar show in figure 17 32 on the facing page With it you can select a new date to schedule Use this to decrement the day Use this link to go directly to today s date Use this to increment the day Below these tools is the schedu
19. Step 42 Step 43 Step 44 Step 45 Open the SQL Server Management Studio and Connect Expand Databases Carousel50 Security Users Right click on Users and select New User Type IIS AppPool ASP NET v4 0 Classic in the User name field Type the same text in Login name field In the Database role membership box select db owner Click OK figure on page 7 Repeat section on page for the FrontDoor50 database Expand FrontDoor50 Security Users Follow the previous steps for adding IIS AppPool ASP NET v4 0 Classic to FrontDoor50 Appendix J Enterprise Software Installation LocalSystem in Built in ac count E General FI NET Framework Version v2 0 Enable 32 Bit Applications False Managed Pipeline Mode Classic Name Classic NET AppPool Queue Length 1000 Start Automatically True El CPU Limit 0 Limit Action NoAction Limit Interval minutes 5 Processor Affinity Enabled False Processor Affinity Mask 4294967295 E Process Model CE ocasystem zi Idle Time out minutes 20 Load User Profile False Maximum Worker Processes 1 3 Ping Enabled True Ping Maximum Response Time seconc 90 Ping Period seconds 30 Shutdown Time Limit seconds 30 m artium tim my Ano i Identity identityTvpe username password Configures the application pool to run as built in account i e Application Pool Identity recommended Network Service Local System Local Service or as a specific user identity
20. Windows Login Username Administrator Password trms FrontDoor Login Username Admin Password trms Q We recommend changing these immediately 1 5 Upgrading From Older Versions If you are an experienced Carousel user then welcome to this release Release announcements are made on our forums located at http forums trms com 18 1 Introduction 2 The Essentials of Carousel In this essential chapter hence its name we ll cover Carousel vocabulary After reading it the software s mysteries will be yours and its use and setup will make much more sense It s required reading if you are in any way involved in Carousel s installation administration or daily use 2 1 A Quick Note To Carousel Installers If you are installing Carousel either for someone in your organization who is going to use it or as a systems integrator you should probably start this guide by reading appendix A on page 237 Installer s Checklist 2 2 A Quick Note to Carousel s Users and Administrators If you are a user of Carousel most of the information in part II on page 29 Planning and Setup will be lost upon you You ll want to focus most of your attention on part III on page 101 Making Bulletins and part IV on page 165 Managing and Extras We cover making bulletins and managing the content within Carousel in these parts of the manual If you manage the user accounts for Carousel then be sure that you check out FrontDoor The Manua
21. items in this form As the note at the bottom of the form says you will need to restart display engines addressing this channel in order for changes in these items to take affect Once you are finished with the Crawl Settings form click the Save button to save your changes 7 3 4 The Date and Time Properties Form N SN Ya MY 66 Main Menu Configure Channel Configuration Editing Channel Name Date and Time Settings Carousel can display the date and time as an overlay on your channel We can adjust the properties of this display from the Date and Time item in the Chan nel Configuration menu Review figure 7 13 on the next page as you read this section To turn the date and time overlay on click the Enabled checkbox at the top of the form 7 Setup Basics Step By Step FIGURE 7 13 The Date and Time Menu Date and Time Display Enabled Show on All Bulletins Placement Cycle w Font Font Arial Black BA 20 M Color BGI FFFFFF Format Friday Jan 1 2005 12 30 pm BJ FFFFFF Background Rectangle Color Opacity 40 Background Rectangle Enabled Saia Width 1 Pixels Opacity 100 w Color EC 000001 Text Outline Enabled Opacity 10096 m Color E 000001 Horizontal Offset 15 Pixels Vertical Offset 15 Pixels The Placement pop down will determine where the time date display appears Cycling is a nice option if you are worried about monitor burn in A
22. related space name Spaces layout_id gt 3 lt r25 layout_id gt layout_name gt Meeting lt r25 layout_name gt reservation_comment_id gt reservation comments space instruction id space instructions registration url event xl href event xml event id 522375 Gvent d 5522375 7r25 event 1d event locator 2010 TRMS r25 event locator event name Code Review r25 event name event title event type name Development r25 event type name organization id xl href organization xml organization id 889 5889 r25 0rganization id organization name Dev Team r25 0rganization name pre event dt 2010 06 17T00 00 00 05 00 r25 pre event dt event start dt 2010 06 17T00 00 00 05 00 r25 event start dt event end dt 2010 06 17T23 59 00 05 00 r25 event end dt post event dt 2010 06 17T723 59 00 05 00 r25 post event dt profrle rgd 1229950 r 2505protrilG rg profile name Rsrv 1229356 r25 profile name expected count 0 r25 expected count registered count 0 r25 registered count event last mod user R25DMUserc r25 1last mod user last mod dt 2010 03 11T7T13 48 06 06 00 r25 1ast mod dt Space reservation r25 space reservations Enter the URL to rm reservations xml data and the username password you would like Carousel to connect with Carousel will use Basic Digest or NTLM authentication 17 9 The Event Schedule Bulletins 153
23. 2 Display X bulletin s This will show as many events as will fit on X bulletin s The total number of events displayed depends on the template design and text sizes assigned How many events per bulletin Carousel needs to know the number events to display per bulletin This will depend on the dimensions of the zone the font used and the length of each event s title and room information How much space between You can set a gap between each event This number is given in pixels How would you like the date You can set the format of the date and time with these pop down lists What would you like displayed if If no events are listed you can choose to have a message appear or to simply not show the bulletin If this bulletin is on a zone dedicated to it you ll want to show a message If it is on a zone with other bulletins then removing the bulletin is an acceptable option When you are finished with this form click Continue Want EDS to take over a zone when there are events scheduled Create it as an Alert bulletin chapter 15 on page 117 and check the No Page option so that the bulletin isn t shown when there are no events scheduled Now EDS will be the only bulletin shown while there is schedule data and when the schedule runs out your regular bulletin cycle will resume 156 17 Dynamic Bulletins 17 9 7 Editing an EDS Bulletin You can use EDS to function as a digital room sign Create an E
24. Active Unknown PictureTeam 1 until Thursday April 12 adrain 4 impressions p ta Current Name Score Unknown 2012 at 11 59 PM 0 min 48 sec P PictureTeam 2 Name Score Displayed every day from Monday April 05 2012 at 12 00 AM until Friday April 13 2012 admin at 11 59 PM Displayed every day Active Sponsor SnapOn Current CafeCompany Name 17 impressions 2 min 50 sec sptiniar sparts from Monday April 09 2012 at 12 00 AM until Friday April 13 2012 admin at 11 59 PM Displayed every day Active Sponsor SnapOn Current EventCompany Name 22 impressions 3 min 40 sec EON CE The Reporting tab figure 18 12 allows you to select a list of all bulletins on a zone based on the bulletin type status and tags You can then export a CSV report of the bulletins which includes all of the metadata about the bulletins including impression tracking information Initially all Active and Current bulletins on the zone are shown in the list To select which bulletins are included in the report you can adjust the bulletin filters as needed The bulletin type filter allows you to select between Active Alert or Repeating bulletins or any combination of the three Click on a type to select it and shift click to select multiple types For example selecting Alert will limit the report to just Alert bulletins and selecting Active and Repeating will include both Active and Repeating bulletins in the re
25. Bumper Graphic for more information about disabling or replacing this page L 2 No Zones Defined Question How do I define my zones Answer Follow the instructions in section 7 3 2 on page 64 The Channel Layout Form 303 FIGURE L 2 No Zones Defined aor Loading Carousel Connecting to localhost 56901 There are na zones defined on this channel g ar 0 sel 5 0 5 Build 10 Configure Cancel L 3 Not Licensed If you get a NOT LICENSED message on the Carousel splash screen see section 8 6 on page 79 Not Licensed Status L 4 DisplayEngine Hidden Configuration Options There are a few configuration options for the carousel DisplayEngine that are not on the Configure screen These settings are in the TRMS DisplayEngine CarouselDisplayEngine file The config file can be edited with your favorite text editor lt add key RestartOnDisplayError value false f gt lt add key SlowZoneUpdate value false lt add key BulletinFail5afe value 60 gt lt add key BypassProxy value true RestartOnDisplayError Sets the behavior ofthe Display Engine when an exteral display causes the graphics card on the Carousel unit to error This can happen when an HDMI monitor is turned off or goes to sleep Set this to true if your DisplayEngine shows black after a monitor is turned off and back on SlowZoneUpdate This setting causes the Display Engine to not update the zone layout settings as often
26. Computers on the Internet see your computer as though it has the 64 address When you communicate with a computer outside of your network your router uses NAT to make the connection on your behalf address Because TCP communications are based on a connection and that connection 1s basically established by information that is stored in the packets of data that are a part of that communication NAT works NAT does not work very well with UDP communication because there is no con nection and thus no handshake with which to base future communications upon Fortunately some newer routers are able to make educated guesses about where incoming UDP data grams should be sent based on outgoing UDP data grams that your computer recently sent Educated guesses and occasional failures are an ac cepted part of UDP over NAT because the spirit of UDP is to be unreliable 19 Incidentally the destination computer sees you as your router but if they re aggressive enough they can mine your private IP address out of the packet That s how online poker games know if you re cheating mostly There are times when NAT fails even with TCP Examples include certain kinds of FTP MSN messenger file transfers and others 21 using a feature called UDP NAT Traversal 20 Appendix M A Not So Short Introduction to Networking M 7 Firewalls M 7 Firewalls Despite the modern UDP enabling features of NAT equipped routers there
27. Continue C Cancel When you are finished editing this form click Continue You will see the standard form used to edit a bulletin figure 17 14 You will also notice that every field in the default RSS bulletin starts and ends with a sign As in editing a weather bulletin editing an RSS bulletin involves placing special words between signs telling Carousel where to place the text For a list of the various words that are available look to the list labeled Available fields All of the fields that are available for use from the RSS feed will be listed Each field is self explanatory You can delete move or otherwise edit each of the fields as you see necessary by either using the Quick Edit palette or the template editor covered in section 19 7 on page 186 Some RSS feeds contain links to images In Carousel 5 2 you can display these images in your RSS feed Look for a keyword called ItemImageURL This keyword should contain a URL to the image To display these images edit the RSS bulletin s template and add a Web Picture block See section 19 7 2 for more infor mation on Web Picture blocks You can then add the ItemImageURL keyword to the URL field of the Web Picture block and the images will be displayed The ItemTitle and and ItemDescription fields will automatically re peat until the maximum number of items is reached set in section 17 5 1 Simply enter the first item an
28. D Mariueci Arena Sponsership Ames Library of South Asia Armes Library af South Asia Meetings Mathematics Library General Mathematics Library Meetings Continue Cancel When you get the selection you are looking for you can select individual zones by selecting their checkbox or you can select all of the zones selected by your filter by clicking the Select All arrow V above the Zones Matching list As you select zones from the list on the right you will notice them being added to the list labeled Currently Selected Zones You remove individual zones from this list by clicking their checkbox or you can clear them all by clicking the Clear link Notice that the zone you are currently on is automatically selected and cannot be deselected If for some reason you wanted to create a bulletin from a zone and copy it to others without displaying it on the zone you created it from you could just delete it from your zone and the bulletin would remain on the others Click Continue when you are finished 13 7 Duplicating a Bulletin on Multiple Zones 113 FIGURE 13 16 Sending bulletins to multiple zones using the zone picker Would you like ta submit this bulletin to other zones Currently selected tags Zone matching Clear Mon Org Informaitan Borlaug Hall Sponserships Mariucci Arena Sponsership Non Campus News RSS Twin Cities E Traffic Currently selected Continue Cancel 13 8 C
29. EDS bulletin creation clock bulletin weather bulletin C CableDisplay bulletin RSS bulletin Event Schedule bulletin V Live video feed T Display bulletins of upcoming events at your site To create an EDS bulletin click New Bulletin from the Main Menu click the Dynamic tab and select Event Schedule Bulletin You ll be asked about the location of the scheduling data If you select Carousel from the first pop down list then you will choose the zone that contains the schedul ing data Each zone in Carousel may contain a schedule for EDS You do not have to select the current zone s schedule This lets you create a single schedule and have bulletins on multiple zones all display the same schedule If you select iCal you ll be asked to enter the URL to the iCal feed 17 9 2 Setting Up Dean Evans EMS or Ad Astra for EDS 150 SQL Server Authentication If you select DEA EMS proxy or Ad Astra then you will see the database proper ties form in figure 17 23 on the facing page This is the name of the SQL server which is hosting the database that the event management software is using This might be a server name or an IP address Some servers use NT Authentication and others use the SQL server s authentication Either way choose the authentication method and then enter the username and password into the correct fields 6 http en wikipedia org wiki ICalendar 17 Dynamic Bulletins FIGUR
30. If needed the Carousel service itself can be ran under a domain user to allow it sufficient rights J 4 1 Could Not Find Stored Procedure Problem When you try to login to FrontDoor you re greeted with an error that gt 22 reads Could not find stored procedure dbo aspnet CheckSchemaVersion Solution This error occurs because ASP NET has not yet had it s schemas installed in the FrontDoor database This generally happens when Named Pipes is disabled in the SQL Server configuration See section J 1 6 on page 285 for the steps needed to enable Named Pipes Once this has been done uninstall and reinstall FrontDoor first followed by Carousel Framework J 4 2 WebUI Can t Connect To Database 208 Problem When you try to login to FrontDoor or Carousel you re greeted with an error that reads A network related or instance specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server The server was not found or was not accessible Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections Solution This error occurs because of an error in the web config file for FrontDoor or Carousel See section J 3 5 on page 292 for information on how to configure these files for a remote SQL server Appendix J Enterprise Software Installation iz J 4 Enterprise Troubleshooting 200 300 Appendix J Enterprise Software Installation Appendix K Common Alert Protocol CAP
31. L2 TVOne Hardware 22 2 onon aaa EUER RU OR ES 273 L2 1 Steps to setup TVOne T1 C2 750 274 L3 AVerMedia Hardware oo 274 L3 Steps to setup AVerMedia in Carousel 275 L4 Contemporary Research and AVerMedia Hardware 213 L4 Steps to setup 232 ATSC with AVerMedia in Carousel 275 Enterprise Software Installation 271 J 1 Windows2008 Installation 2411 J 1 1 Installing and Configuring IIS Components and Services 277 J 1 2 Installing NET Framework 278 J 1 3 Downloading SQL Server Express and SQL Server Man agement Studio Express 2 0084 219 J 1 4 Installing SQL Server Express 280 J 1 5 Installing SQL Server Management Studio Express 284 J 1 6 Enabling Named Pipes for SQL Server Express 285 J 1 7 Setting up ASP NET to run in Classic Mode 285 J 1 8 Installing Tightrope Software 286 J 1 9 Adding User Permissions to the Carousel and FrontDoor Databases Luo 9 e ao Rob mono ok ee Eom emo HR wd 286 J 1 10 Changing the Application Pool for Installed IIS Applications 287 J 1 11 Final Configuration and System Check 280 J 2 Carousel Player Software Installation 290 J 3 Advanced Enterprise Installations Separating SQL and Media copo CPC 290 J 3 1 WebServerOverview 290 10 J S3 2 Database Requirements 291 J 3 3 Install FrontDoor an
32. M d yy 9 15 2002 or for the 5th 9 5 2002 ddd MMMM dd yyyy h mm ss tt Sun September 15 2005 5 27 13 PM 262 Appendix F Custom Time Format Chart Appendix G PowerPoint How To Import Slides New Bulletin Upload Upload a Bulletin Package Ja e As of version 6 of Carousel directly importing Microsoft PowerPoint presentations is no longer possible This is because Microsoft has eliminated the features that Carousel depended on for importing and playing slides The good news is that we ve added features to the New Bulletin Upload Upload a bulletin Package menu that makes importing JPEG versions of your slides a breeze PowerPoint transitions and videos will not work with the new method of import ing presentations G 1 Saving PowerPoint Presentations As JPEG or PNG files Step 1 E Step 2 FIGURE G 1 Saving a presenta tion as a list of PNG files Step 3 The key to importing a PowerPoint presentation is to export all of the slides as JPEG or PNG images Accomplishing this is very simple In PowerPoint choose the Save As option from the File menu or the Office icon If you click on the arrow to open the sub menu you ll have to pick the Other Formats option Otherwise just click on the Save As option Choose either JPEG File Interchange Format or PNG Portable Network Graphics Format as we do in figure G 1 Lulu Carousel Try 302 Ads Scrapping 5 962 trms com email app
33. Or Move This Bulletin icon H 18 1 Bulletin Lists 171 FIGURE 18 7 Move Copy Bul letins Form Move this bulletin to Like us on Facebook Another Zone ZEPLAY Enhances Fan My Alert Bulletins Experience at Ottawa Senators NHL Games My Saved Bulletins WWW avnetwork com My Stale Bulletins Admin Account s Active Bulletins Copy this bulletin to This Zone duplicate bulletin Another Zone Zone Default Template A bulletin package Continue Cancel There are two groups of radio buttons Move this bulletin to and Copy this bulletin to Three selections require further explanation Moving a Bulletin to Another User s Account Creating a Bulletin Package Zone Template 172 The last selection under the Move this bulletin to label has a pop down list with all of the user accounts provides a way to move a bulletin to another user s account This is handy when you want to create a bulletin for a user and then give them control over it as though they made it within their account They can then edit the bulletin save it or delete it Also when the bulletin goes stale it goes into their stale pages list Selecting the A Bulletin Package option under the Copy this bulletin to label will instruct Carousel to create a bulletin package that you may download A bulletin package is a zip file with the bulletins that you ve selected in side To cre ate a bulletin package with more than one bulletin you must first group th
34. The Manage Bulletins menu is also where you can approve bulletins from other users and delete stale bulletins whose time has passed Carousel utilizes media in bulletins that are created from templates The Media menu includes backgrounds pictures video clips sound files templates and media tags Templates create the outline for a new bulletin predetermining the placement of text graphics video and the bulletin s background The event schedule is for use if you have bulletins that show scheduled information that is entered directly into Carousel This is covered in section 17 9 on page 150 The Event Schedule Bulletins Includes screensaver setup and URL links for RSS feeds and a public web interface for active bulletins see chapter 20 on page 205 Extras This is where you establish settings such as who gets emailed when a bulletin is waiting for approval It also is where you can enable or disable the public web output of carousel The Status Bar at the top of the bulletin illustrated in figure 6 4 is an ever present guide to what s happening and where you are working within the software Also in figure 6 4 you can see that we ve helpfully labeled some of the bar s features We highlight each in the following list Zone Tabs Current Zone Zones Full Screen Alerts Current Zone Building Video P Main Menu Manage Bulletins Active Bulletins Logged in as admin Current Menu Location Status Messages P Co
35. conditions alien invasions these special events demand special attention and you may want to temporarily interrupt a zone s normal flow of bulletins Carousel has two special kinds of bulletins active repeating and alert bulletins Active repeating bulletins insert themselves every n bulletin that is displayed Alert bulletins when active will interrupt all current bulletins When the alert bulletin expires or is disabled the bulletins in the active bulletins will continue their loop 2 4 7 Full Screen Alert Zones Interrupting All of a Channel s Bulletins 24 When something truly demands attention a special zone can be used to remove all other zones from a channel the full screen alert zone When bulletins are active on this zone a Carousel Display Engine will automatically remove all other zones from the display and show this zone full screen Full screen alert zones like regular zones can be used on multiple channels A channel can have any number of full screen alert zone associated with it which means that you can prioritize these zones on a channel to give you powerful control to override other full screen alert zones as well as your channel s bulletins 5 Except crawl zones which we talk about next 2 The Essentials of Carousel 2 4 8 Crawl Zones Carousel has crawl zones that may be attached to a channel They are invisible until a crawl bulletin is activated Once active the channel will reduce all
36. data from databases RSS feeds the list goes on In most systems the majority of bulletins are created by users of Carousel from templates These templates define areas of a bulletin used for text graphics or any other media element that might be employed Bulletins are always created from a zone That is you pick a zone in Carousel and media and templates that are associated with that zone are made available to you Once you re finished making the bulletin it s added to that zone s list of bulletins to display It is very common in larger systems to have zones that serve the same purpose but for different audiences such as two zones that show general bulletins in two different lobbies This is why Carousel makes it very easy to copy bulletins to any combination of zones A bulletin is created for the building s general bulletin zone or zones but you also want the same bulletin to display in different zones To do this you simply copy the bulletin from the general bulletin zone to the desired zone or zones When you tell Carousel to share a bulletin with another zone it automatically resizes that bulletin to the target zone s pixel dimensions When designing your system it s nice to size zones to similar dimensions especially if a lot of sharing is likely to take place 2 4 6 Alert and Repeating Bulletins Interrupting a Zone s Bulletins There are times when the normal flow of things just will not do Elections weather
37. fur fupe fu E E n Li Fade P D LD Message JL BE iJ Pictures LU BKG sa TEN H 122 16 Uploading Bulletins build or modify your flash animation for unattended playback and you want to avoid Action Script commands that will affect timing 16 2 Uploading Flash 123 16 3 Uploading PowerPoint As of Carousel Version 6 importing PowerPoint presentations is no longer sup ported You can however export PowerPoint slides as JPEG or PNG files and import them into Carousel We walk through this process in appendix G on page 263 PowerPoint How To Import Slides 16 4 Uploading Bulletin Packages A bulletin package is a zip file that includes all of the information that Carousel needs to play the bulletin or bulletins These packages are handy when you are importing a series of pictures into Carousel such as from PowerPoint or transferring bulletins from an older system 16 4 1 Anatomy of a Bulletin Package File Example If you re importing a bulletin package which we show how to create in sec tion 18 1 5 on page 172 Creating a Bulletin Package Carousel will insert all manner of cryptic files which are not necessary to understand You can make a bulletin package by putting a bunch of JPEG or PNG files into a zip file Carousel will import them in alphabetical order except that Carousel automatically interprets numbers correctly 08 09 10 11l isthesameas 8 9 10 11 andeither one
38. zone in its correct place as depicted in figure 7 16 on the following page eS Certain bulletin types cannot be displayed in the web based channel preview due to network bandwidth concerns Specifically you will not be able to see Videos Flash Powerpoint or Crawl bulletins 7 4 Previewing Your Channel 69 FIGURE 7 16 Example of the 0060 Carousel Web Display web based channel preview gt c se Mhttp demo trms com Carousel Public WebDisplay aspx ChannellD 3 1 welcome to rosemount welcome to rosemount school Calendar of Events MONDAY Parent Teacher Conference Sixth Grade Supper amp Program Field Day preschool and kindergarten Administration Meeting Lunch School Barbecuc School Board Meeting 7 00PM Gth Grade Dance Early Release Day Schoo out at 12 00PM 7 5 Where We Are At If you have followed along through this chapter then at this point your system is as set up as it needs to be in order to begin adding content to the system However we are lacking backgrounds and we haven t exactly set up the display output of our players So while we are done with the Configuration menu for now we are not quite ready for prime time The next chapter Configuring Players will guide us through the process of config uring the video display for your system 70 7 Setup Basics Step By Step 8 Configuring Players Every Carousel has system has at least three
39. 05 20 P JR VM XP TEST Conference al d gt 10 D 1 66 Room 52 ic pr ls fa a rm E I l ud Era 15 0 1 65 Hallway v 4 v 15 El There are 0 available licenses Delete Cancel the Conference Room player things are up and running once again according to figure 8 7 Looks like there was just a network glitch with the Hallway player because it has checked in again without any intervention The Micro Player Status screen is almost identical to the Player Status screen except that it won t flag versions different from the server as being invalid This is because Micro Players can run on different types of hardware and software and don t need to adhere to version numbering as strictly But what if you re not at your desk to view the player status list and a player gets its power cord kicked out Enter Player Alerts You can tell Carousel to send you an email or even a text message to you cell phone whenever a player goes AWOL Head over to the Alert Settings section seen in figure 8 8 on the following page Here you can adjust the amount of downtime before Carousel decides there s a problem with a player This is the same setting used to determine if there should be a red X in the Player Status screen see figure 8 6 on the preceding page Once this period of time elapses without a check in from a player Carousel will send an alert email to the list of email addresses you ve specified
40. 1 6 Enabling Named Pipes for SQL Server Express Step 27 Click Start gt Programs gt Microsoft SQL Server gt Configuration Tools gt SQL Server Configuration Manager Step 28 Under SQL Server Network Configuration gt Protocols for MSSQLSERVER Double click the protocol name Named Pipes and set the property Enabled to Yes then apply your change ue The Named Pipes address we re connecting to with our installers is pipe sql query This should be set for you as long as you chose the De fault Instance as noted above Step 29 Restart your server at this time to apply all changes and updates J 1 7 Setting up ASP NET to run in Classic Mode Step 30 Open Server Manager from the toolbar if it isn t already open Step 31 Expand Roles Step 32 Expand Web Server IIS Step 33 Click on Internet Information Services IIS Manager Step 34 Under the Connections pane expand your lt Machine Name gt to show Application Pools and Sites Step 35 Highlight Application Pools under your lt Machine Name gt figure J 6 on the next page Step 36 Highlight ASP NET v4 0 Classic in the Application Pools pane and click on Advanced Settings in the Actions pane on the right J 1 Windows 2008 Installation 285 FIGURE J 6 Application Pools on your server in Server Manager Step 37 Step 38 Step 39 E Server Manager Fie Acton View Help ex n H a Server Manager ENTERPR IPTE S TE E
41. 10 2 on page 92 Lists Display Engine section 10 3 on page 92 Display Engine Bulletin Pacing section 10 3 1 on page 92 Bulletin Pacing Default Transition section 10 3 2 on page 92 Default Transition Bumper Graphic section 10 3 3 on page 93 Bumper Graphic B 1 Carousel Menu Structure 245 246 Appendix B Carousel Menu Tree Appendix C Web Page Snapshots Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Ut FIGURE C 1 Selecting a template with a Web Picture block Carousel s Web Page Snapshot feature allows you to capture a portion of a web page and display it inside a Web Picture block within a bulletin Here s how it works Select a new bulletin that has a Web Picture block in it Click Select webpage next to the Web Picture block figure C 1 Enter the URL of a web site you d like to capture figure C 3 on the following page If you need to delay the snapshot by a few seconds to allow time for dynamic content to load enter the number of seconds in the available box Crop the page as needed figure C 4 on the next page Click the finish button at the bottom and you are done See figure C 5 on page 249 for the final output The web snapshot will update in Carousel every 15 minutes so the data on that page will always be up to date Due to their complexity Web Page Snapshots may not always work when the Carousel system is behind a proxy server Tightrope Media Systems cannot guarantee that Web Page
42. 12 2 Multiple People Same Account It is common to have people share the same account especially within a department When this happens it is not possible to decern the exact person that made the message In environments with a lot of turn over assigning a single password to a group of people is a convenient way grant access When someone leaves or every 6 months or so you can change the password on that account leaving the new group of people access with little fuss When two people share the same account they may both log in at the same time without issues Carousel is able to separate each login s session without confu sion 99 12 3 Users and Carousel Solo Carousel Solo systems have one administrator account and one user account You can change the permission levels for the user account in the FrontDoor User Manager but you cannot add additional users Remember multiple people can log in at the same time using the same account You just will not know which person made which message 12 4 Setting Up The Approver When you think about users you may want to allow some of them to make bulletins but hold them for approval before they appear We cover setting this permission in FrontDoor The Manual Carousel has a feature that sends an email whenever bulletins that must be approved are created To tell Carousel the email addresses that should receive those emails follow the steps in section 10 1 1 on page 91 10
43. 15 seconds just like the other two bulletins Carousel is always multitasking It tries to display bulletins exactly as you program it too but sometimes it s too busy doing other important things like playing a video and what not This is why we give it extra time on the last bulletin so that it doesn t try to loop back around to the first Coming up next slide Remember each bulletin that you create in the Cable Display plug in will auto matically update itself Once you create a schedule bulletin Cable Display will walk through the schedule without your intervention If you make a change to your schedule all bulletins affected will automatically update themselves This is the magic of the Cable Display Plug in 17 4 1 Setting Cable Display Bulletin Properties FIGURE 17 11 Cable Display Bulletin Properties for Multiple Bulletin Schedule Which Cablecast Channel 17 4 Cable Display Bulletins After you select the type of Cable Display bulletin that you would like to create you will be presented with a properties form that is specific to your choice Some of the details will be unique to your bulletin Look at the form and read the descriptions below ignoring those that are not applicable for your bulletin Pay close attention to the timing of Coming up next and See it again graphics found in the second item Which Cablecast Channel should this CableDisplay bulletin use BEC TV What schedule information would y
44. 19 25Carousel logo has a higher z order 199 19 26Carousel logo has a lower z order 199 19 27Changing the z order of blocks sns 199 19 28 Bring to Front and Bring to Back in Block Options properties 200 19 29 Repeat blocks pop down list in Block Options properties 200 19 30The Media Tags List lll 201 19 31 The Add Seamless Background form s 202 19 32Splitting a background a 203 19 33 Uploading Media Packages a 203 ZI IBEDXUBRPOUAE us c9 9 X XR OX ox x9 EERE eK ES 205 202 The Poblic Webslite e os nue RR RERO RR EE RR EROR om 206 List of Figures List of Figures 21 1 A Es C 3 C 4 Les Ed EA E 3 E 4 E E 6 E G 1 G 2 G 3 G 4 G 5 G 6 H 1 H 2 I1 L2 I 3 L4 L5 I 6 I 7 I 8 J 1 J 2 J 3 J 4 J 5 J 6 J 7 J 8 J 9 J 10 J 11 J 12 1 13 J 14 J 15 J 16 RDA Diagram 2 2 eer 210 Selecting a template with a Web Picture block 247 A bulletin with a Web Picture block 248 Enter the URL of the page you d like to include in the bulletin and enter a delay if needed uus uoo ob oo ox OR ORC OR E GS 248 Crop the page as needed e xS ex o mE wx 248 Tenik oera RE See he bene ADOS a E 249 The Template Editor Form 42242522353 ys RR Bo HS 255 Naming a Template oe ce deen eee dae dwaee es 256 Template Field Size Example 6 86 e240 66 y x 256 The Po
45. 20 Extras iz 20 3 Public Web Interface 207 208 20 Extras 21 Remote Data Adaptor Pro Enterprise Editions ue ON 21 1 Communications Carousel Pro and Carousel Enterprise include a special feature called the Remote Data Adaptor RDA It provides an XML interface for creating bulletins Using this feature it is possible to integrate external systems such as databases and building systems using simple programs developed in the field This chapter is not a primer on XML XSD database integration or program ming It is intended for those that are already somewhat familiar with such technology and are seeking to integrate Carousel into data systems RDA is implemented by sending a properly formed XML based command to the Carousel server which will reply with an XML based response XML commands are validated against the CarouselRemoteCommand schema which is illustrated later on in section 21 5 on page 213 Communication between other applications and Carousel is initiated on a TCP IP socket connection using port 56906 The Carousel server will listen on this port for a CarouselCommand Upon receiving a well formed command the server will process it and return a CarouselResponse Using the CarouselCommand your application will have the tools to dynamically create bulletins and crawls Using the information that Carousel returns in Carousel Response you also have the ability to manage those bulletins 209 Exter
46. 8 Configuring Players FIGURE 8 10 The Carousel Display Engine loading zones 8 6 Not Licensed Status 8 7 TV Output 30 8 6 Not Licensed Status Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Siemens AG for many years died on January 5 2007 at the age of 70 Horst Langer was born in the Silesian city of Wroclaw After studying electrical engineering i Darmstadt and Munich be joined Continental Elektroindustrie AG a campany later acquired by Siemens in 1961 Yahoo Nows Top Stories 1 26 2007 4 troops abducted Occasionally you may see that when the display engine starts it may complain that itis NOT LICENSED Typically this happens because on the Carousel server the service started but the database has not yet caught up with it If you wait a few moments this condition may resolve itself If after a few minutes you still see the message the system is unable to retrieve a license from the server This might happen if you change a player s IP address and try to reconnect it before Carousel drops its registration To fix this Log into Carousel as the administrator From the main menu click Configure from the right of the status bar Click Players and then click Player Status Click the checkbox next to the Display Engine that you would like to unregister Click the Delete button This simply undoes the registration with the server making a empty registra tion spot available for
47. 9 00p 9730p These are often used to show What s on deck They are nice to have in addition to multi bulletin schedules which can be cumber some to wade through 1100p TIGHTROPE Sap Ap Pop S00p 830p mop This is for showing lots of schedul ing information across multiple bulletins TIGHTROPE City Council Meeting 2 14 2001 channel channel See it Again Will be repeated Sat B 4 4 30 pm Toes 8 7 10 30 pm Non 8 6 4 30 pm channel Author Author Expanding Horizons Planning Commission 2 16 2001 Park and Rec Extra channel isse Special NIN Valley Wildlife Refuge Author Author Expanding Horizons Planning Commission 2 16 2001 Park and Hec Extra channel 17 Dynamic Bulletins Example E Cable Display updates bulletins automatically Interrupt Coming up next and See it again bulletins are all automated alert bulletins That is they are inactive alert pages until the Cable Display plug in activates them at the appropriate time Forty five seconds before a show airs three Coming up next bulletins are activated The first advertises the show s title The second gives it s V Chip rating and the third advertises producer contact and dub request information The first two bulletins are set for a dwell time of 15 seconds while the last has a dwell time of 30 seconds Since Carousel will automatically disable these alert pages after 15 seconds the last page only appears for
48. Chip or producer information Edit your bulletin using the template editor We cover this process in section 19 7 on page 186 17 4 3 Scheduling and Standard Properties Scheduling a Cable Display bulletin is accomplished using the same method outlined in section 13 3 on page 107 Cable Display bulletins have a unique purpose and therefore you ll want to keep some things in mind First it is probably best to check the Until Manually turned off option as you will always want these bulletins active and Cable Display will automatically update them with current Cablecast information If you want to change the look of your bulletins such as for a season or special event you can make a copy of the them and change the old ones to a status of saved When the event or season is over just delete the special versions and re activate the saved bulletins We cover saved bulletins in section 18 2 on Example 17 5 The RSS Bulletins section 20 2 on page 206 RSS Output uo 140 page 173 We cover copying bulletins in section 18 1 5 on page 171 Second when working with Coming up next and See it again bulletins you do not need to adjust the dwell time found in the standard properties form after the scheduling form unless there are multiple bulletins In that case each bulletin will need only its share of the value that you entered back in section 17 4 1 on page 137 How long would you like to display Set the dwell time for t
49. File Folder 10 1 2009 12 22 PM E _Template aspx i KB SPX File 5 7 2008 11 44 AM A E About aspx 1KB ASPX File 57 2008 11 44 AM ht E Create AddNext aspx P vile 5 7 2008 11 44 AM Taye Ale Edb Vew Fawmtes Tools Hein Back vo E Searc F lders 3 K w me Address ce x EJ Go 08 b aay maw Gis chive Copy Here Create Shortcuts Here Cancel J 3 Advanced Enterprise Installations Separating SQL and Media Storage 293 FIGURE J 13 ASP NET Machine Media Properties X Account needs access to the Media directory General Sharing security Web Sharing Customize Group of user names 8 Administrators WONAH TESTBEO ZO Administrators CASE NET Machine Account UONAH TESTBED20WSPN FL CREATOR wNER f Internet Gue t Account JONAH TESTREC2OMUOUSR_TRA T SYSTEM 4 Clfpncine iain Add er Permissions tor ASP NI Machine 4ccourt Allow Dery Full Cantral x Modify Head amp Execute List Folder Contents J EJ EST S S ES FS JLILILILILILI For special permissions or For advanced settings Advanced click Advanced e Install Dir Web Carousel web config e Install Dir services Carouse l TRMS Services Carousel exe conrig Step 6 For Install Dir Web Carousel web config find lt lt add key MediaPath value D Some Other Path To Media Folder gt gt and change it to lt a
50. GUID gt 77c0592c el13e 4 6de b2dc 5617e119452a lt GUID gt lt DeletePage gt lt CarouselCommand gt DeleteAllUserPages The DeleteAllUserPages command deletes all bulletins associated with a particular user If you use a specific account for creating all RDA bulletins this command is a quick way to clear them all out lt xml version 1 0 encoding utf 8 gt lt CarouselCommand xmlns http www trms com CarouselRemoteCommand gt Sending this command will permanently delete ALL pages created by John gt lt DeleteAllUserPages gt lt UserName gt John lt UserName gt lt Password gt trms lt Password gt lt DeleteAllUserPages gt CarouselCommand DeactivateAllAlertPages If you have alert bulletins running the DeactivateAllAlertPages command will turn them all off at once lt xml version 1 0 encoding utf 8 gt lt CarouselCommand xmlns http www trms com CarouselRemoteCommand gt Sending this command will turn off all alert pages on a Zone gt lt DeactivateAllAlertPages gt 216 21 Remote Data Adaptor lt UserName gt John lt UserName gt lt Password gt trms lt Password gt lt Zone gt all lt Zone gt lt DeactivateAllAlertPages gt CarouselCommand 21 5 3 Response Examples Here s a typical response after sending a CreatePage command lt xml version 1 0 encoding utf 8 gt CarouselResponse xmlns http www trms com CarouselRemoteCommand gt lt Result
51. Imagecropper Registration Code value 1061267 6918263 gt lt add key weatherbugapi key value ader2172 786 gt cand bey wasthar arin ce St ee n api wxbug net webservice v1 asmx Medjabirector c f 5 x RIIE ale Far iE i I rem zl APP SETTINWGS gt zappsett ings Cres ed sadd k y RemotingPort values 56901 2 4 lt add key pisplaystatusPort value 56902 gt lt add key RemotecommandPoart yalue 5F9065 fs lt add keys RemoreEvenrPort yalue 560 7F gt lt add key CleanupTime value 1 004M gt lt add keys seAct veFTF value false s gt lt add kevys DynamicupdateInterval va ue 15 gt add keye weatherbugapikey values a4672172 786 gt lt add key weatherhugserviceUrl ve ue http api wxhug net webser Next restart the Carousel service so that it picks up the new settings figure J 15 on the following page We need to configure IIS to have a new virtual directory that points to the new Media location We can open up the IIS management counsel expand the web sites and find the Carousel web application Right click on it and create a new Virtual Directory figure J 16 on the next page We will make sure to name it Media figure J 17 on page 297 and point it at our new media directory path figure J 18 on page 297 Next log into Carousel and go to the Manage Bulletins My Active Bulletins menu See that the thumbna
52. In chapter 13 on page 103 we covered the process of creating a bulletin in Carousel by using a template In this chapter we cover uploading pre made bulletins There are five options for accomplishing this task all in the New Bulletin menu under the Uploaded tab Use this to upload a bulletin that was created in a program outside of Carousel such as Adobe Photoshop See section 16 1 You can upload Adobe Flash animations directly into Carousel See section 16 2 on page 121 Carousel can play back Apple QuickTime Windows Media and MPEG 1 2 and 4 files When uploaded here they take up the entire zone See section 16 1 Carousel can play Microsoft PowerPoint presentations as individual slides or as an entire presentation See section 16 3 on page 124 You can import bulletins from a previous version of Carousel or from another system See section 16 4 on page 124 16 1 Uploading Video and Pictures 16 1 1 Picture Formats 16 1 2 Video Formats Start and end videos with black Uploading a picture or a video as a bulletin in Carousel is simply a matter of finding it on your hard drive and clicking the Upload button It is important to consider the size of the video or picture in order to achieve the maximum quality that is possible Carousel will automatically shrink expand or stretch your content but if you can create it at the same dimensions as your zone Carousel will have less processing to do on the image For p
53. Local System H ds SQL Server Configuration M a Cryptographic Serv Automatic Local System EA Indexing Service Sa DCOM Server Proc All Tasks Automatic Local System m 5 Ey Internet Information Service SR DHCP Client MET Pat Automatic Network S A Distributed File Sys Refresh Manual Local System amp amp Distributed Link Tra Properties Automatic Local System amp amp Distributed Link Tra Disabled Local System 4 Distributed Transac Help tarted Automatic Network S 4 DNS Client Resolves a Started Automatic Network 5 Computer Management EL E D System Tools _J App Data Al Event Viewer Btn E Shared Folders Ej css Local Users and Groups By Dictionaries Performa 7 tt 1 Device Explore B amp Storage Open Removal Permissions DiskDefr Browse e Disk Man i Met gt Virtual Directory B d Services and E H E Telephon a Tass l Virtual Directory From file Services View p JAddPackage aspx oy wMICon New Window from Here AddPackage Confirm El HM SQL Serv ESS EES Indexing Delete Ei Py Internet Refresh ableDisplay aspx ableDisplay Properti J Appli Export List lock aspx B J Web onfirm aspx Properties E I E Mots y opyZone aspx ES Help rawl aspx E af LILISE aM reate Date aspx ide B eme deem EE SAEN dbo g Create EventDisplay Filtering Crowd Appiitcetion E Create Eventiisplay Properti T Als off e
54. Release History List of Figures 2 1 PAS oA 3 2 4 1 4 2 5 1 32 ENG 5 4 Dd 5 6 A 5 8 5 9 5 10 6 1 6 2 6 3 6 4 6 5 6 6 6 7 6 8 6 9 6 10 TA Ta p 7 4 p 7 6 pe 7 8 L9 7 10 Monitor Variete uou ssc s eee tarat i RR der resi 21 Channel Layout ne eR oo REO CEU ew de E n 22 Multi Zone Example 2221252925 A 9 x 3 x ex 33 Photoshop Guides 9 oko pPUR RERO oe ee E GRESAO RR Wed 34 A comparison between the different available Carousel Player soft WAGE wb eee EBLE Ae hE EES GE ES 35 Preferred export settings in Flip4Mac for Carousel videos 36 The rack rail that is screwed to the server 40 Hold the lever open and pull until the server s rail is separated from the rest of the rack rail new he wee 499 aue x x33 40 Separating the two rail components The hand in this figure is holding the component that is screwed to the server 4 The middle mounting point is for the front of the rack rail 41 The L bracket that you attach to the rack 42 The mounting bracket that you attach to the L bracket 42 This is what ground loop interference looks like 44 This is the TCP IP settings dialog in Windows 46 Select the time zone that the server is in from the pop down list and choose OK uo xu Seb Se ww X EROS OE X Xx oe 47 The Carousel display engine configuration screen 48 The FrontDoor login
55. Roma Eare aa E Control Modules nome 2 Step 2 From the Clone Tool splash screen select Export Select a channel you would like to export and click OK SL Select a channel to export Somng 4x3 230 22 Clone Tool Step 3 Specify a location for it to be saved Save Carousel Package As Sr My Computer La My Network Places Step 4 The Clone Tool will report its status while it exports The tool will provide you with a Your Channel Name csl file in the location that you specified 22 1 2 Importing a Channel Step 1 Take the Your Channel Name csl file that you exported from Carousel or down loaded from Tightrope Creative and copy it to the desktop of the Carousel server to which you are importing the channel Double click on the the Your Channel Name csl to launch the tool Click on the Yes button to confirm the import If the channel you are importing is unique to the system the Clone Tool will close once completed and the your channel will be in the system If the channel that you re importing already exists in your system and you are simply duplicating the channel please move on to Step 2 Channels larger than 4 gigabytes will have a csxl extension and cannot be imported into Carousel versions 5 2 4 or below 22 1 Using the Clone Tool 23 Step 2 When duplicating a channel Clone will ask you to rename the channel By default it will append a number to the name if it is the sam
56. Snapshots will work behind a proxy server Title Event Title Information Additional Information Web Picture http Select webpage Background Template Specific select Upload Continue Cancel Potential uses e Grab a snapshot of a stock chart from a financial web site e Display manufacturing output data from an intranet report page e Highlight sales forcasting information from your company sales site For more information on Web Pictures see section 19 7 2 on page 187 247 FIGURE C 2 A bulletin with a ES sports Event Web Picture block Three Piece Message Event Title Ef Two Columns and Image eon Lofermatiin Two Image with Details E Urgent Message am Webpage highlight FIGURE C 3 Enter the URL of Select a webpage close the page you d like to include in the bulletin and enter a delay 1f needed This utility allows you to take a snapshot of a web page and have it displayed as a picture within Carousel The snapshot will be periodically refreshed automatically What is the URL of the web page you would like to convert http www trms com Does this web page require a delay for dynamic content to load or scripts to run if you don t know leave it set to 0 seconds Continue FIGURE C 4 Crop the page as Select a webpage close needed 248 Appendix C Web Page Snapshots Event Title Additional Information E c p 250 Appendix C Web Page Sn
57. Step 1 Click on the Zones menu item figure Zones Step 2 You will see an empty list where you can add zones Click the Add New Zones button and type in the name of your zone Select the type of zone that you want to create Bulletin crawl or full screen alert We explained each type in section 2 4 5 on page 24 Bulletins When you re finished click the add link figure 7 2 FIGURE 7 2 Adding Zones Configuration Zone Configuration No zones have been added to the system General Messages Bulletin ae Add Cancel 7 2 1 The Zone Properties Form FIGURE 7 3 The Zone Properties Page Name Type Tags Description General Messages for corporate headquarters Resolution a00 wx 300 H Resize Madia Time Settings Use server s time settings Daylight savings time observation Show Zone Synchronization Settings Main Menu Configure Click the name of zone that you just added and you will see it s properties form Zones lt Zone Name gt illustrated in figure 7 3 The following steps will help you edit the zones proper ties Step 1 Re edit the name as needed 60 7 Setup Basics Step By Step In larger installations it is a great idea to prefix zone names with the channel that they will be on if they will only be on one channel For example Library If they will be on multiple channels picking some other prefix might be appropriate such as Non Org Info or Org
58. VGA monitor Your monitor may be named by its vendor or it will be called Analog Display figure 8 11 4 Screen Resolution i Screen Refresh Rate IH Color Quality nview Display Settings Vertical Span b Horizontal Span Performance amp Quality Settings w Clone CE CI Ty ViewSonic VASOS SERIES m y ViewSonic VASU3 SERIES TV Single display E Color Correction FT Tv Output NVIDIA Control Panel About MVIDIA settings Exit The video output will now be active If nView Display Options is not available it is probably because the graphics card does not sense a connection on its video output Check your cabling 8 7 2 Adjusting the TV Output Settings 80 A Carousel machine s video output is adjusted by the factory to produce acceptable video levels for TV applications If these become lost or need to be adjusted follow the steps in this section 8 Configuring Players Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Use Overdrive to keep video lev els legal Step 4 FIGURE 8 12 The NView TV Output dialog box Notice that the Overdrive box is checked 8 7 TV Output 300R select TV Output by right clicking on the Nvidia icon in the server s system tray The dialog box appears shown in figure 8 12 Use the sliders to adjust the video levels The Overdrive option locks the brightness and contrast together By default this option is activated and the adjustment is set to
59. a channel and zones already created within it navigate e Media Zone Tab to Media Zone Tab Templates Templates Step 2 At the bottom of the list of templates available for the current zone you ll see an Add button Click it This will bring up the Edit form for a new template which is illustrated in figure 19 11 W Template Properties Name New Template Dimensions 1060x596 Background DEMO Health 4 QO Full Size Preview FIGURE 19 11 Making a New Template Step 3 In the Template Properties section name your new template as New Template is a terrible name for your creation 19 7 The Template Editor 189 Media Back grounds Zone tab Step 4 Background PA frre lite Q Full Size Clock DEMO Health 190 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Step 8 iy Template Properties Name Carousel Tutorial Dimensions 1060x596 Background Template Specific B C Full Size Preview Next you select the default background for this template in the Background pop down list A user may change this at creation time but they will see this selection first If you want a background in your template that you don t already have available in your zone you ll need to upload it first To do that you ll have to skip over to Media Backgrounds Zone tab and we cover adding it in section 19 5 on page 181 Media Asset Lists Dimensions 1060x596 Background y Template Specific Clock
60. about one third This setting produces a video signal where pure white is about 90 IRE Use the arrows in the Screen positioning tool to adjust the size and position of the TV output Device Adjustments TV Output t VIDIA Screen Adjustment C Screen positioning Brightness Contrast Overdive Flicker filter Saturation Restore Defaults Presets Custom default v From Wikipedia An IRE is a unit used in the measurement of composite video signals Its name is derived from the initials of the Institute of Radio Engineers A value of 100 IRE was originally defined to be the range from black to white in a video signal A value of 0 IRE corresponds to the zero voltage value during the blanking period The sync pulse is normally 40 IRE below the zero value so peak to peak an all white signal should be equal to 140 IRE 81 8 7 3 But My Video Is Black and White If this happens follow the instructions from section 8 7 2 for navigating to the TV Output dialog Note the settings that are there and click on the Restore Defaults button This will clear out any misconceptions that the graphics card may have received about your setup and restore the color to your display You will have to restore your settings once you have done this because this procedure will revert your system back to Nvidia s defaults which are generally set to a video level that is too hot for broadcast 8 85 TV Output 310R The Caro
61. add a tag to the bulletins just type the tag into the Bulletin Tags field Click the Add button when you re done To add multiple tags at once separate them by commas figure 13 11 on the facing page this adds four tags As you type a tag that is already in use you ll see Carousel helpfully display the existing tag as we show in figure 13 10 on the next page Just arrow down to the desired tag to use it 13 Making Bulletins FIGURE 13 10 Existing tags will appear as you type Bu leti n Ta g S SC Add schedule This feature helps eliminate duplicate tags that happen from misspelling and the use of plurals Use this feature to guard against these problems and your tags will be much cleaner To delete a tag hover over the doomed tag and click as we show in figure 13 12 You ll see a minus appear as you hover over the tag to indicated that clicking will delete it FIGURE 13 11 Adding four Bul eti n Tags bulletin tags at once this adds four tags Add doctors schedule public ea APDSNIDAES doctors schedule public this adds tags bulletin tag 13 5 Adding a Bulletin to a Group You can add another bulletin to the one you just created This creates another bulletin using the same template as the one you just created There is no practical limit to the number of bulletins that you can add by clicking the Yes button illustrated in figure 13 13 If you want to group bulletins that
62. an option that you can set A web picture is just like a picture except that instead of loading an image into Carousel you give it the web address of a picture This is often used to display dynamic weather maps or traffic cameras Carousel can place a video clip into a block Unlike a picture block Carousel will stretch the video to fill the rectangle regardless of the video s original aspect ratio Every element can have a backdrop and outline defined for its area You may find the need to define a rectangle that is outside of any given element s dimensions In those cases you can use a rectangle block You can add circles and ellipses to your template with this block type 19 7 3 Walking Through the Template Editor Form 188 As of Carousel Release 6 there is a new template editor Yay If you are using a more modern web browser such as Safari Chrome FireFox or Internet Explorer 19 Managing Media Version 7 or greater you can rejoice in the drag and drop goodness of this feature If not you ll have to use the older template editor which we cover in appendix E on page 255 Limited Template Editor Let s make a brand new template together We ll walk through creating a text block on your template By doing this we ll be able to see the vast majority of the features of the template editor What we don t cover we will pick up at the end Making a Text Block in a Template Step 1 In a Carousel system that has
63. are thousands of services that may be provided on any network 99 of local area networks are using Ethernet hardware and a software networking package which is usually included with the computer s operating system The key to understanding a network is to see it as one group of computers that is wired together both l which is called a stack 305 M 1 1 IP Address 306 physically All of the computers are wired together with network cabling and can electrically get to each other logically All of the computers are configured so that their network software represents them as on the same network Physical connections are straightforward In most networks today you have Ethernet cables CAT5e that connect computers to an Ethernet switch which is a box that is able to send networking singles between computers in an efficient way When everything is connected to the same switch you have a simple network that is just begging for the connected computers to be configured in such a way that they can communicate with each other The logical side of networking refers to the protocols software and configuration that make up a network In the post Internet Boom almost every network in existence runs on an Internet Protocol IP network IP networks have four basic components that are within the scope of this article The rest of this section is devoted to those components If you know one thing about networks
64. created The Application pool that Carousel is running must have read and write access to the Carousel Media directory Make sure it is running under an Identity with the correct permissions Eg Local System Carousel uses the ASP NET state server for session management The web server also runs the Carousel service This is a Windows service that runs in the background It is responsible for marking pages active and stale in the database keeping an in memory cache of the bulletins to be displayed for the Display Engines and coordinating alert bulletins J 3 2 Database Requirements The database in Carousel stores user logins settings and the lists of bulletins The database can be hosted on the Web Server on a separate server The database can be installed via a sql script provided with the Carousel Framework installer Carousel can use Integrated or SQL authentication to log into the database server The requirements are e Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or higher Express is acceptable e Microsoft NET Framework 4 0 J 3 3 Install FrontDoor and Carousel Framework on the web server Step 1 Install FrontDoor You may change the default install directory in this installer Step 2 Install Carousel Framework Again you can change the install directory The installers attempt to attach the databases to the local database server If SQL Server is not on the web server the installers will error Ignore the errors J 3 4 Inst
65. didn t fall within your subnet would be considered unreachable M 1 4 Domain Name System DNS Address 308 When you type an address into your web browser you typically type a name such as www trms com Imagine if we had to remember the IP address for every site that we wanted to visit DNS is a service that is able to resolve names to IP addresses When your computer gets a name instead of an IP address the computer listed as the DNS server will be asked to translate it If you have spent any time with your web browser you ll notice that all of the names that you type end in a common suffix like com org uk etc These are called top level domains and are governed by various organizations depending on the specific domain in question The name that comes directly before the last dot 1s called the second level domain Examples of these would be whitehouse gov or trms com Second level domains are managed by various domain name registration companies including Network Solutions and Register com If you want to reserve one for your organization you simple go to one of these companies search for an available name and pay them some money When you re picking a name you can choose the top level domain that is most appropriate for you naming yourself myfantasticname org or myfantasticname com You can even be both if the names are available Some top level domains work differently than standard ones like
66. easy to use and reli able Carousel is a family of web centric digital signage products for common area display networks Carousel is used every day in schools businesses banks hospitals religious centers and on television channels The system displays a series of bulletins in an ordered sequence and on a schedule specified by the bulletins creator These bulletins are displayed on screens throughout a building or between programs on a television channel Tightrope s mission is to design Carousel as a zero training zero administration system Carousel is zero training because it is designed to be easy enough for anyone to create a bulletin without prior training It is zero administration because it does not require intervention during normal operation unless a new bulletin arrives and requires approval Carousel has a few components that make up the system The web foundation that the software is built upon is called FrontDoor All of Tightrope s products utilize this common platform in an effort to provide you with a reliable easy to use and instantly familiar interface to our system FrontDoor is what manages the user logins and rights on the system s web interface For further information you ll want to read FrontDoor The Manual It is possible that your Carousel server has Tightrope s Cablecast television automa tion system If this is the case you will want to read the Cablecast The Manual for further information Using the C
67. ee Aone DB 2 0 oc9 ck ono Ro oO ee X yo 11 2 4 External Data Source Authentication 1L2 5 Proxy Configuration 29 o ashe debe ea ee 11 2 6 System Information 2 12 Users and Carousel LLI Permissions 1 202 bee REDE SoS 12 2 Multiple People Same Account 12 3 Users and Carousel Solo 2 om eee ee eee Ros 12 4 Setting Up The Approver 2 008 III Making Bulletins 13 Making Bulletins 13 1 Selecting a Template o ss s c od eese HEED ER E RUP S 13 2 Editing and Creating Bulletins 13 2 1 Adding Style using HTML Tags 13 2 2 Checking your spelling 89 89 90 91 91 91 92 92 92 92 92 93 95 95 96 96 96 97 97 98 98 99 99 99 100 100 101 103 103 104 105 105 13 2 3 Editing the Template of the Bulletin 13 3 Scheduling AUN ak uo xxx o xXx ee Ea 13 4 Bulletin Properties o oco 9 ooo Roe 13 4 1 Bulletin Dwell Time aka Timing 13 4 2 Tracking Bulletin Impressions 13 4 3 Bulletin Transitions ss 13 4 4 Sound File 13 4 5 Bulletin Description 13 4 6 Bulletin Tags 13 5 Adding a BulletintoaGroup 13 6 Setting the Bulletin Type Active or Repeating 13 7 Duplicating a Bulletin on Multiple Zones 13 7 1 Selecting Zones with the Zone Selector 13 8 Confirmation 3 ee 6 bb eho a e
68. figure 17 29 that the template s first field is labeled HeaderDate If we removed the word Header then the date would repeat down the page with each event In our example it is obvious that one bulletins that showed a single day of scheduling would work for this configuration We see an example of this in figure 17 30 2 16 2007 6 00 PM Mothballing Your Battleship A101 6 30 PM Here Comes The Metric System A102 If you enclose text within curly braces you make it conditional on any fields that are within that text If you type This event ends at EndTime and the event does not in clude an end time the entire sentence will be omitted 157 17 10 EDS Bulletin Scheduling EDS bulletins are scheduled like any other bulletin In fact all of the properties of an EDS bulletin behave the same as for a regular bulletin created from a template We cover these properties in section 13 3 on page 107 However you ll want to remember that Carousel is dynamically updating the data in EDS bulletins expiring the old events as they pass If you check the Until Manually turned off box in the scheduling form then this bulletin will run forever automatically updating the scheduling information without intervention from you or your staff 17 11 Scheduling EDS Within Carousel FIGURE 17 31 The Event Sched ule Form 158 Update New Delete Copy Paste The Date Ellipsis Minus t
69. figure is holding the component that is screwed to the server Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 FIGURE 5 4 The middle mount ing point is for the front of the rack rail 5 1 Hardware Installation Attach the rail that has the lever to the side of your server using the included screws making sure that the tapered end of the rail is at the back of the server Generally there will be only one way that hole pattern on the rail will match up with the tapped screw holes on the server Repeat from step 1 on the preceding page for the other side of the server making sure that the tapered end is again at the back of the server and that you re putting the rail at the same position horizontally and vertically as the rail on the other side Your rack should include three mounting points that are vertically One will be in the front another in the back and another in the middle an example of which is shown in figure 5 4 The back and middle mounting points are where you typically want to attach the rack rails to your rack If you don t have a middle mounting point then you ll have to use the front mounting point Attach the L bracket shown in figure 5 5 on the next page to your rack so that when you attach the mount bracket shown in figure 5 6 on the following page to it you 4 will have the correct amount of space to insert the server Do this on both the middle mounting point and the rear mounting point Trial and error will come
70. font that the countdown will use Lets you turn the seconds display on or off You can either countdown to and subsequently back up from a specific date and time or you can count down to a certain time every day resetting the countdown at midnight every day This 1s the date and or time that this timer will countdown to This option lets you change the color of the timer text after the specified date time has elapsed Example Once class has started you may want to turn the timer text red so students know they re late 17 2 The Weather Bulletins The weather bulletin is a very popular feature It uses WeatherBug for forecast and current conditions based on your zip code 17 2 1 Select Location and Caption FIGURE 17 4 Choosing the location for weather information Location 55114 Find Caption At TRMS Outlook 3 Weather outlook is divided into time periods amp g Today Tomorrow Nest Length Day Enter the number of time periods you would like displayed D WeatherBug Weather data provided by WeatherBug Continue Cancel The first order of business is to enter your desired location in the Location field This can be either a Zip Code in the US or your latitude and longitude The weather plugin will find the nearest WeatherBug station and use it to gather weather data If you re using a web browser that supports finding your location a Find link will appear next to the Location field Clicking this wi
71. for O second s TUE T1937 a The bumper graphic is a graphic that appears once a loop It is a welcome message that lets people know who the zone belongs to usually a logo Think of it like a station identification on television or radio By default this feature is turned on You can turn it off by clicking the Show bumper page checkbox To have the bulletin appear for the minimum amount of time a setting we adjusted in section 10 3 1 on the preceding page set it to Automatic timing Otherwise Man ual timing show for will allow you to enter a specific amount of time To change the display engine graphic click the Upload button at the bottom of the form You will be asked to upload a picture file Make sure it is either a JPEG or PNG file and it is always best to match the zone s aspect ratio and resolution When you are done adjusting these settings click the Save button Especially if your system has the default Tightrope Scary Eye 93 94 10 The Zone Settings Menu 11 The Configuration Menu The Missing Pieces We have yet to cover every nook and cranny in Carousel s Configuration menu most of which was covered in chapter 7 on page 59 here are the rest of the pieces To start navigate to the main menu and click the Configure button on the far right located in the status bar 11 1 Synchronizing Zones Example Imagine that you have multiple players displaying content in close proximity to
72. forwards that request to your web server Port forwarding is at the heart of many networks that provide services on the Internet It is a fantastic way to partially shield a computer behind a firewall while allowing specific traffic through to services that are running on that computer M 9 Virtual Private Network 316 A Virtual Private Network VPN is a method of extending a private network to computers that are located on a remote network through the use of a public networking infrastructure When you use a VPN from home to get into your work s Appendix M A Not So Short Introduction to Networking network you are making a connection on top of your Internet connection You are in effect dialing into your work s network over the Internet This new connection is an encrypted link that effectively joins your home computer to your work s network This connection includes its own IP address subnet mask DNS address etc It is a new connection in every sense of the word Your home computer now has all of the rights and privileges that you would normally have if you were on your computer at work Typically this means that you can print to a printer at work see all of the network resources that are normally available etc Incidentally we say that VPN is a tunneling protocol in that you tunnel through the Internet and into a remote network VPN wraps all of your communications into encrypted packets and unwraps them at the front door
73. get started 6 1 Logging Into Carousel Provided that your Carousel system is on the network you can login by simply typing its IP address or network name into your favorite web browser ue For a detailed guide on installing your Carousel system and putting it on the network please see the chapter 5 on page 39 Hardware Setup FIGURE 6 1 The FrontDoor login Welcome to FrontDoor Please log in User Name admin Password eee Log u Once you see something like the picture in figure 6 1 type in the account information for the administrator By default this will be a username of admin and a password of trms This is the default password for the administrator account Once your system is online and ready it is critical that you change this password Once you successfully log into the system you ll be greeted with the FrontDoor Carousel menu Setting up your FrontDoor server is covered in FrontDoor The Manual so Server Setup 1 go read that reference if you re curious about Server Setup or User Management For now go ahead and click on the Carousel menu option 6 2 TheMain Menu A fresh installation will look like figure 6 2 on the following page If you or someone else has already walked through the initial setup of your system or you ve 51 FIGURE 6 2 A Carousel System that has not been set up FIGURE 6 3 The Carousel Main Menu 22 store trms com demo trms com About Fro
74. have been updated to have proper default options on their content blocks Apostrophe in username can make Carousel display errors If your username had an apostrophe certain areas such as the my media list would display an error immediately N 5 Carousel 6 4 6 Release Notes 324 Bug 8238 Bug 8282 Bug 8249 Bug 8273 Bug 8121 Bug 8221 RSS Weather Crawls that err disappear Crawls no longer disappear when there is an error EventDisplay Bulletin that is set to show text when no event is scheduled does not render The correct text is shown when there is no content for an EventDisplay bulletin Special case block needs to exist to be used as a back drop New block type has been added that can be used as a backdrop that can be overlapped by other blocks Clone Tool Imported Weather doesn t work Fixed a bug in the Clone tool that caused 6 4 5 weather bulletins to become corrupted during export CAP is using the old weekday trick should use the new no content status CAP now uses the correct method of handling a no content status Lots of tags can slow down system Significantly improved scalability of bulletin tags Appendix N Release History Bug 8222 Error accessing proxy migration txt when server doesn t have access to root A more useful error message is given if the service does not have rights to clean up the proxy migration txt file N 5 Carousel 6 4 6 Release Notes 325 326 Appendix N
75. kei 168 18 1 2 Filtering By Tags uso o9 3 REX E33 169 ELS SAO 22x aceu m amp oKch wey mom ee Se Se 170 18 1 4 Moving Bulletins or Groups Within a List 170 18 1 5 Copying and Moving Bulletins 171 182 My TUS n oe erred anenai sie Ep cR x O3 EEE 173 18 2 1 My Bulletins as the Administrator 173 18 3 Approving Bulleins 222r 173 18 4 Housekeeping uu uso HS CE E Xe Or OEE Ee E TS wc 174 IN Reporting 5 6 6 o9 yo OR ON HOES EE E GDS 175 18 5 1 Filter by bulletintype 175 18 5 2 Filter by bulletin status 176 18 5 3 Filter by bulletintags 00 176 18 5 4 Export CVS Report lll 0048 176 18 6 Slide Show 4 ck t ms 177 19 Managing Media 179 19 1 My and Zone Tabs 22 lr 180 IS PUPS oe e Loo 9o m RR POE RC OX ROB Rh RO OS 180 19 2 1 File Compatibility 181 19 3 Logos and Irregularly Shaped Pictures 181 19 4 Aspect Ratios ee ee 181 19 5 Media Asset Lists o oos uoo RRR 4 x X Xov x 3 9 ox X ES 181 DOA co qv 182 20 21 22 19 5 2 Form Buttons 00484 182 19 5 3 Copying Media Assets cnn 184 19 6 Media Asset Properties css eb ee o o ooo o Rs 185 19 7 The Template Editor 186 19 7 1 Editing a Bulletin s Template vs Permanently Editing a Template uus ke Shek 4 3 R A ES e x 186 1
76. major parts to it the web interface the Carousel Service and one or more Carousel Display Engines These Display Engines and their setup are the topic of this chapter Remember all Carousel Solos and the Carousel Server include a display engine You will need to follow the procedures in this chapter for these devices even if you are using them as your main Carousel system web server and Carousel Service The Carousel Pro and Enterprise Servers do not include a display engine Some of the procedures outlined in this guide apply to the hardware that is a part of the Carousel Solo series and the Carousel Server If you are making your own Carousel Players from a Carousel Software Display Engine then setting the resolution and TV output options of your display may be different 8 1 Closing the Display Engine When the Carousel player is turned on it will eventually load the Display Engine If you are quick you can click the Cancel button before it loads figure 8 1 You will want to close the display engine before it starts so that you can perform the steps described in this chapter FIGURE 8 1 Closing the Display Engine before it loads Loading Carousel About to connect to localhost 56901 E er 6v e KIO Build T3 Configure E If you missed your chance to close the display engine you can close it while it is running by double clicking repeatedly until it closes The other more dignified method is to ho
77. of the bulletins properties including the author its schedule the method used for making it and the transition setting Active Repeating bulletins will have their frequency listed next to their type Example Type Standard bulletin repeating every 4 bulletins 18 1 2 Filtering By Tags If you click on the Filter view by tags link at the top shown in figure 18 2 the available tags for this zone will appear FIGURE 18 2 Filtering by tags Active Bulletins LA Hide queued waiting bulletins 3 Expand all groups _ Filter view by tags doctors public schedule Clear 4 Firet Flane amp Gocnnd Finner Third Finner Fourth Finner Fifth Click on any of the tags and you ll see bulletins that contain that tag Click the Clear link to deselect all tags and see the full list again To select more than one tag like we do in figure 18 3 hold down the shift key when you select additional tags FIGURE 18 3 Select two tags by Active Bulletins shift clicking LA Hide queued waiting bulletins Filter view by tags doctors public schedule Clear This is a bulletin s text that I ve typed into the descripti 9 R ner Admin Account led from Today at 12 00 AM until Today at 11 59 PM Displayed every day Standard bulletin sn Four corners 0 doctors public schedule 18 1 Bulletin Lists 169 18 1 3 Groups Bulletins that are grouped are contained in a group frame shown in figure 18 4 A group has control icons o
78. of the network that you are accessing M 10 How Do I Access Cablecast or Carousel From Home This is the most common sales and support question that we get at Tightrope Media Systems Because our products are web based people assume that they will be able to access them from home This assumption is correct provided the network is configured to let it happen There are three ways to gain access to your Cablecast or Carousel system from the Internet each with their own security and accessibility tradeoffs M 10 1 Option 1 Hang It Out On the Internet If you give your computer a public IP address people will be able to access your Tightrope server Using this method you will not only be able to update your system but others will be able to access the public web interface of Cablecast and Carousel giving them the ability to view messages and see your Cablecast system s schedule The down side is that your server is hanging out on the Internet ready to be infected with the latest worm or controlled by the next bored teenager Because of the insecurity of this option and the relative ease of the alternatives security professionals suggest that you seek alternatives to exposing your servers directly to the Internet M 10 2 Option 2 Use Port Forwarding The most popular method of putting your Tightrope server on the Internet is to use port forwarding Your server sits inside your network on a private IP address and traffic that come
79. of the zones on the display providing the room necessary to show the crawl bulletin The crawl zone may be placed at the top or bottom of the screen Like full screen alert zones only one crawl zone may be added to a channel However a crawl zone may be used on any number of channels Unlike regular zones a full screen alert will not remove a crawl 2 5 Pro and Enterprise Editions Added Flexibility If you purchased Carousel Pro or Carousel Enterprise there is even greater flexibility in your system s configuration To explore this increased flexibility let s break down more of the components of Carousel 2 5 1 Channel Licenses Display Engines and Players The Carousel Server Carousel Channel Licenses Carousel Player Licenses A Carousel system consists of This is the software hardware combination that provides the web interface and manages the bulletins for all of the zones It also runs the database and services that manage Carousel A Carousel system comes with one of these and more may be purchased Every channel defined in Carousel must have a license Each Carousel Player or Display Engine connected to the server takes one license You may purchase more Player licenses if you have multiple Carousel Players displaying one channel Carousel Micro Player Licenses Micro Player licenses are a stripped down version of Carousel Player licenses Carousel Display Engine that don t support many multimedia func
80. on the zone before transitioning to the next bulletin in the cycle If the clock is the only bulletin in the zone it will be displayed continuously Allows you to pre pend some text to the clock Example The time is now Lets you adjust exactly what is shown A number of preset time formats are available in the drop down menu If you d prefer to customize the display even further you can select Custom from the dropdown list and enter a custom format string into the Custom text box For a list of formatting options click the Show Legend link that appears when you have Custom selected To create a line break use the pipe character Allows you to select the font that the digital clock will use The countdown timer will display the time remaining or since a specific point in time This is perhaps best described by example or two Your office is throwing a party to celebrate a new product release scheduled for the first of next month You can create a countdown timer to display the days hours minutes remaining until the official release Now everyone will know exactly when they can pop the champagne 127 Example You re a principal at a high school that has 6 class periods every day You can FIGURE 17 3 Analog Clock Properties Countdown Options Clock Color Opacity Clock Background Duration Caption 128 create and schedule six countdown timers that each count down to the start of
81. on this screen And if you know the SMS email address for your cell phone you can enter that address here as well and be alerted anywhere anytime without needing to be next to a computer TI FIGURE 8 8 Adjusting the Player Alerts settings distribution list Carouse Configuration Configuration Players Alerts Settings Alert the following people when players have the wrong version or have not checked in for the last 15 minutes adminiemy companvy cor carouseglimy company com Seperate email addresses with a comma l Savel Cancel 8 4 Cached Mode When Carousel cannot contact the Carousel Service it will continue to operate from its cached pages This is called Red Bar Mode due to the red bar that the system puts as a warning at the top of the screen shown in figure 8 9 FIGURE 8 9 The red bar at the top of the display notes that Carousel cannot connect with the Carousel Service It will run cached pages until it reconnects Carousel will automatically try to reconnect with the Carousel Service so there is no need to manually restart the display engine once the network comes back online 8 5 Loading Zones When Carousel loads zones for display it does one by one as you can see in figure 8 10 on the next page If you forget to populate your channel with zones or you leave a hole in the channel s palette you can easily detect that by watching Carousel move through the process 78
82. optional identifier for the crawl you wish to update If not specified this w SelectBulletinTags when used instead of UpdateGUID will be used to send this command to multiple CrawlText is the text you d like to crawl ZoneSet specifies the zones on which this crawl should run See the documentation for ctZoneSet 21 6 RDA Schema 221 222 Zone is depreciated Use ZoneSet instead AlwaysOn sets the crawl to always run until manually deleted or turned off DateTimeOn sets the date and time that the crawl will become active Overridden if AlwaysOn tru DateTimeOff sets the date and time that the crawl will deactivate Overridden if AlwaysOn true CycleTimeOn sets the time that the crawl will start beign shown on any given day Overridden if CycleTimeOff sets the time that the crawl will stop being shown on any given day Overridden if Weekdays is a byte determining which days of the week the crawl will be show Overridden if Alw WebEnabled determines if this crawl should be displayed on Carousel s public web site If not sy Description is an optional text based description for the crawl xs documentation xs annotation lt xS sequence gt lt XS lt XS lt XS element name UserName type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 element name Password type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 choice maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt lt xs element name UpdateGUID type xs string gt lt xs element na
83. posts to page Here you can limit the number of bulletins that are created and displayed from the data feed Carousel needs to know ahead of time the number of items that will appear Enter that number here When checked bulletins will shorten URLs whenever possible and appropriate to display just a domain name such as trms com This will prevent a long URL from taking up a lot of space on a bulletin This will insert padding between the items in the Twitter feed This value is in pixels so to insert 10 pixels of space between the Twitter items enter the number 10 This adjust the dwell time for each bulletin You can exclude items that contain certain words by adding them to this list Separate each word with a comma When you are finished editing this form click Continue You will see the standard form used to edit a bulletin You will also notice that many fields in the default Twitter bulletin starts and ends with a sign As in editing a RSS bulletin editing a Twitter bulletin involves placing special words between signs telling Carousel where to place the text For a list of the various words that are available look to the list labeled Available fields All of the fields that are available for use from the Twitter feed will be listed Each field is self explanatory You can delete move or otherwise edit each of the fields as you see necessary by either using the Quick Edit palette or the templat
84. services from the channels ports that your cable company provides Networks are similar in that communications are handled on ports which are like a channel When you ask for a web page you basically say Hey computer I need to ask port 80 to give me your home page and send it back to me at IP address 208 40 80 2 on port 51 589 where 51 589 is any arbitrary port number that your computer has available The server responds back with Hey so you want to talk Your computer says Yup The connection is then established Some port number assignments are governed by The Powers That Be gt Port 80 is HTTP a k a the web port 21 both UDP and TCP is FTP mail is port 25 there are thousands of services that are available on a network Some are famous and are always expected on a specific port Others are arbitrarily assigned by their designer and may conflict with someone else s choice There is a lot more to ports and how they work For our purposes it s enough to know that IP addresses are used to locate computers while ports are used to locate services on those computers and to facilitate multiple connections between different computers at the same time It is important to understand ports because the topic will come up when we explore NAT and firewalls in later sections M 5 Private and Public IP Addresses 212 There are hundreds of millions of computers and hundreds of thousands if not millions of networks in operat
85. some words objectionable and others embarrassing and there fore not appropriate For example you do not want your audience learning that Ford just came out with an awesome new car if your system is installed in a Chevrolet dealership 10 3 Display Engine 10 3 1 Bulletin Pacing 10 3 2 Default Transition The items within this tab relate to adjusting the Display Engine s behavior Carousel will automatically count the number of words on a page and hold the bulletin for an appropriate length of time You can also set the minimum number of seconds a bulletin will hold on the screen Carousel will use an effect to transition from one bulletin to the next If you would like to pick a specific transition choose it from the Default Transition pop down list The Random choice results in a random transition being displayed When a several bulletins use the same background as often is the case with schedules and zones dedicated to an RSS feed it s best to pick a wipe or a fade transition to make it appear as though the text is changing while the background 92 is Static 10 The Zone Settings Menu FIGURE 10 2 Bulletin Pacing Form 10 3 3 Bumper Graphic FIGURE 10 3 The Bumper Graphic Form 10 3 Display Engine Pace Minimum display time Slower 20 seconds C 15 seconds 10 seconds O seconds Faster 5 seconds Save Cancel C Show bumper page 9 Automatic timing Manual timing show
86. special information that may be helpful to keep in mind This is a tip Tips show unique ways to use the software and tricks that have been picked up by other users This is a warning Warnings call attention to actions that may result in unforeseen consequences such as actions that delete large amounts of data or configurations that might have network security implications This is a margin note Example GO View Pref erences Channels Example 16 If we want to highlight a section of the text that is critical to a particular topic we ll insert a margin note like the one you see next to this paragraph Margin notes might also include small pictures of the user interface when a figure would be too cumbersome If we need to call special attention to something that is critical you might see the symbol that you now see to the left When the text references a particular menu item field or label within the software that text will appear as follows Click on the Record button When we talk about or reference a menu in the software we use a special style and reference it in the margin When we reference menus we leave out the main menu and we separate each menu with a colon To change your channels names go to View Preferences Channels When the text references user input this format will appear 1 Introduction Example Enter 1234 into the number field Pro Enterprise Ed
87. tend to stutter although we have tested high definition WMV files with great success Because the players are processing other aspects of bulletin management and probably displaying other zones at the same time your video performance milage will vary 16 1 3 Notes on Uploaded Pictures and Video After you have uploaded your video or picture file Carousel s message creation process becomes identical to that of creating a message from a template with a few exceptions First with an uploaded picture the Description field covered in section 13 4 on page 108 Bulletin Properties will be set to the picture s name You will want to change this if you are using the RSS or HTML output of Carousel Second when uploading videos the length settings have no effect as Carousel will play each video from start to end Also remember that Carousel will start the bulletin in black and end it in black so any transition that you choose will be from black to and from the video ue An audio file cannot be attached to an uploaded video bulletin Finally Carousel does not show video on the screensaver output It shows that there is a video on the HTML and RSS output but it does not provide a link to or show the video in any way eS Carousel automatically fades down any background audio during the playback lt gt of video clips 120 16 Uploading Bulletins 16 2 Uploading Flash The ability to play flash animations is a powerful feat
88. the Pop Down Menu 55 6 5 2 Zones withthe Tag Selector 55 66 The Media Picker 222r 56 6 6 1 Selecting Media With Tags 57 6 7 Common Icons and Their Purpose 58 Setup Basics Step By Step 59 7 Configuration Menu 00000002 eee 59 Jue Ce Yon LOES ea he eee eae eGo 59 7 2 1 The Zone Properties Form 60 T gt Delne YourUnannels lt 64225 ee i woe 0 ox ERE TS 9c 61 7 3 1 The Channel Setup Form 62 7 3 2 The Channel Layout Form 64 7 3 3 The Crawl Properties Form 65 7 3 4 The Date and Time Properties Form 66 7 3 5 The Background Audio Form 68 7 3 06 Adding Background Audio to Carousel 68 7 3 7 Adding a Seamless Background 69 7 4 Previewing YourChannel 208 69 7 5 Where WOERIGA 2 444564 64 4844456664485 2a es 70 Configuring Players 71 8 1 Closing the Display Engine 00 71 8 2 Configuring the Display Engine 72 8 2 1 Carousel Server Settings 2s on dw er eee eee ws 72 Bae TIO EU HIE uou ehh RR US 9 Rok ew So SHS 74 8 2 3 Display Settings ooo ok ooo mot Ro 86 xs 74 8 24 Live Video Input 2 208 75 8 3 Monitoring Your Players aaaea aaa 75 Bol Player Stat s 2 224432 ead Ewe 9 8 ees 75 8 3 2 Micro Player Status soe oo Ro o eR t o RR FE 55 PYTANI uuu uso X uoo oo
89. the above requirements installed you may proceed with the Carousel Player software installation and configuration For more info on configuration see chapter 8 on page 71 Configuring Players J 3 Advanced Enterprise Installations Separating SQL and Media Storage This section is for Pros Only We won t explain IIS concepts here If you re having trouble understanding the concepts you ll need to seek paid assistance from Tightrope Media Systems or one of our qualified installation partners Please understand that support does not handle Enterprise installations These installations are a part of our service offerings which must be purchased and scheduled J 3 1 Web Server Overview The web server requirements are IIS 5 1 or higher NET Framework 4 0 ASP NET Application Server ASP NET State Service 290 Appendix J Enterprise Software Installation The three components to Carousel Enterprise Server besides the Player s Display Engine are e FrontDoor Web UI e Carousel Web UI e Carousel Service The web server for Carousel must have two virtual directory applications Carousel and Front Door Furthermore the Carousel virtual directory must have a Media directory either standard or virtual inside it The FrontDoor and Carousel Frame work installers will create these virtual directories for you on the default web site If you need to move them make sure the paths are the same and the applications are
90. the next player that connects to the server Adding any additional hardware accessories to your machine will often invalidate the license code therefore causing a the system to become NOT LICENSED OR There are a few procedures related to video output which are relevant only if you are using the composite output on your Carousel Server or Solo 300R The composite output is located on the back of the computer which is illustrated in the Carousel QuickStart Guide Solo 100 and 200 s do not include a television output option 79 8 7 1 Enabling the TV Output Step 5 Step 6 FIGURE 8 11 Right click the NVidia icon from the system tray and navigate through the menu to select TV Analog Step 7 By far the most common technical support question that we receive is I ve got no video output What happened The answer is that your system automatically disabled the video output because it did not sense a monitor or other 75Q load To re enable your video output Plug in a 75Q load This could be a monitor routing switcher or any other video device Restart your server or Right click on the NVidia Settings icon in the system tray Select nView Display Settings If you do not see an option for nView Display Settings your video card is not detecting enough resistance on the composite output Verify connectivity and restart your machine Select Clone Select the option that shows your TV
91. there is a 1 in the mask it associates the corresponding bit in the IP address as a network address When it sees a 0 in the subnet mask the computer thinks computer s address Examine the table below We can see how a computer is able to separate the network address from a specific computer s address by using a subnet mask C Bem OOOO O w IP Address 192 168 1 1 11000000 10101000 00000001 00000001 Subnet Mask 255 255 255 0 11111111 11111111 11111111 00000000 Network Portion 192 168 1 X 11000000 10101000 00000001 XXXXXXXX Address Portion XXX XXX XXX 1 XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX 00000001 After reading the last four paragraphs you should be very confused If not you prob ably don t need to read this paper So let s explain things a little further As an example that is technically illegal a subnet mask of 0 0 0 0 would define any computer IP address as being within your network Generally this is not a number that you will ever see Conversely 255 255 255 255 would define a network with exactly one computer on it As the example in the previous table shows us 255 255 255 0 would mean that all computers that shared the first 3 numbers of their IP address would be on the same network If you are interested in the math networking software performs a bitwise AND operation on the IP address of the local network interface and the subnet mask It then performs the same operation using th
92. these bulletins are active because they are queued in the Carousel loop at the current time They may not be displayed right this second but will be once Carousel loops around to their position in the list The yellow dot signifies bulletins that are scheduled for some point in the future but are not yet activated because their schedule doesn t fall within the current time and date When a bulletin icon is gray it has been submitted by a user that does not have automatically approved bulletins then their bulletins are held in this status even though they appear in the list that they were created for Active Active Repeating etcetera Hopefully you ll never see this red icon If there is trouble with a bulletin Carousel will keep it in the list with this status icon 18 Managing Bulletins If you don t want to clutter up your list with pages that aren t currently active then click the Hide queued waiting bulletins icon 4 from the top of the list Examine one of the bulletins in figure 18 1 on the preceding page Within its frame you will see a preview picture of the bulletin For bulletins made within Carousel using a template or uploaded pictures you ll see a preview of the actual bulletin For other types you ll see a stand in icon You can drag this preview into other positions within the list to move the bulletin a topic covered in section 18 1 4 on the following page To the right of the preview there is a summary
93. this list may be reactivated or deleted by using the Housekeeping menu covered in section 18 4 on page 174 A user may be able to make a bulletin for a zone but they are held for approval by Carousel These bulletins will sit in this list until they are approved or deleted In versions prior to Carousel Release 5 crawls would be in the same list as bulletins Now they are separated because they are in separate zones Whenever you see a list of bulletins you ll see something like that in figure 18 1 j 1 TRMS E E Admin Account e until manually turned off id Displayed every day Video file 2 System m 3 Tightrope Media Systems features digital Sulletins 2 Active 2 e zi 05 La l3 Tightrope Media Systems features digital signage and televis ver Admin Account Until manually turned off Displayed every day Standard bulletin System ai Product Spotlight Carousel Pro 5 0 adds enterprise class co Admin Account until manually turned off Displayed every day Standard bulletin System You can see three bulletins in figure 18 1 They each have control icons in a column along their left side which we described in section 6 7 on page 58 Across the top of each bulletin you ll notice the title which defaults to the text of the bulletin or the video picture s name In the right corner there is a status dot which changes color depending on the status of the bulletin The green dot signifies that
94. to 5pm on the above days gt lt CycleTimeOff gt 17 00 00 lt CycleTimeOff gt lt Display this page for 30 seconds each cycle gt lt DisplayDuration gt 30 lt DisplayDuration gt 21 5 Schema and Examples 213 1 Show the page every day gt lt Weekdays gt 127 lt Weekdays gt Allow the page to be seen on the web gt lt WebEnabled gt true lt WebEnabled gt gl An optional description OI this page gt lt Description gt This is a sample page that we created via the remote command system lt Description gt lt This is a standard page not an alert page gt lt PageType gt Standard lt PageType gt Use the Title Body template gt lt PageTemplate gt lt TemplateName gt Title Body lt TemplateName gt t Stick Hello into the Title block gt lt Block Name Title Value Hello gt Clea Stick World anto the body block gt lt Block Name Body Value World gt lt PageTemplate gt lt CreatePage gt lt CarouselCommand gt CreatePage Same bulletin on multiple zones with ZoneTagging Here s a CreatePage command that will create the same bulletin on several zones using the ZoneSet element lt xml version 1 0 encoding utf 8 gt lt CarouselCommand xmlns http www trms com CarouselRemoteCommand gt lt CreatePage gt lt UserName gt John lt UserName gt lt Password gt trms lt Password gt lt l 2 hist the zones to which this bull
95. to conflict with another application on your computer When you access your Tightrope server you will have to designate the port number by entering a then the number after the address Example carousel mydomain org 8080 Appendix M A Not So Short Introduction to Networking FIGURE M 5 Changing your port number Default Web 5ite Properties TCP Part j L Fort Connections Connection Timeout seconds HTTP Keep Alives Enabled qr 1192 108 T T9080 M 12 Time Synchronization UDP and NAT M 13 Summary We spent so much time talking about NAT UDP and TCP in this guide because there are situations where you will want to use UDP through your router and will have problems doing so The most common situation is where you want to synchronize a Tightrope server s clock to Internet Time using a service called Network Time Protocol NTP NTP uses UDP port 123 Some organizations will have an NTP server running within their network and configuring a Tightrope server to use it is trivial See Front Door The Manual for details on how to accomplish this If there is no NTP service available you will have to configure your router to forward all NTP traffic to your Tightrope server or enable UDP NAT Traversal which is able to guess at the destination of incoming UDP packets based on recent outgoing traffic On inexpensive consumer cable modem routers simple versions of UDP NAT Traversal are often enabled by d
96. to send an email to designated people a process we demonstrated in section 10 1 1 on page 91 173 Typically these addresses would include people charged with the duty approving bulletins but they could be any valid email address An example email is shown in figure 18 9 on the previous page FIGURE 18 10 The Waiting Waiting Bulletins Bulletins List amp Apprave all waiting bulletins 3 Approve all waiting bulletins to a single group Carousel Making a message in Carousel is fun February 22 Approve Andrei Starks in from Today at 12 00 AM L3 until Saturday February 24 2007 at 11 59 PM Displawed every day Im d Standard bulletin anaton System m Unknown PictureBulletin creation is what it is all abaut C Approve Andrew Starks IVE fram Today at 12 00 AM until Saturday February 24 2007 at 11 59 PM E Displayed every day 3 ype Standard bulletin spite system The Waiting Bulletins list has some unique buttons that aid in the process of approving bulletins The Approve all waiting bulletins icon does just what it says The Approve all waiting bulletins to a single group icon does the same thing except that all of the new bulletins will be grouped together making it easier for you to find them later Each bulletin may be individually approved by clicking on the Approve link to the right of the bulletin s title 18 4 Housekeeping FIGURE 18 11 The
97. using it as the built in administrator account can serve that purpose User accounts are something that you should concern yourself with if you will want additional contributors to the system not everyone should have full access to every part of Carousel We cover creating user accounts adjusting permissions and roles within FrontDoor The Manual We re just going to cover some topics that relate to Carousel within this chapter The built in administrator account admin always has full access to every part of the Carousel system Other accounts may be created with any level of access that is needed Additionally an account can have varied roles for different zones within Carousel A person can have the ability to create a message on a general bulletin zone without having it approved by anyone At the same time and because of a different role applied to a second zone they may also have their messages held for approval when sent to a zone that appears on all of the displays throughout the organization These roles are assigned to users and applied to either zones or zone tags When a role is applied to a zone tag the user is given a specific level of access to any zone which shares that tag If you have a tag called Public Spaces and you add a Carousel player that has a new zone with that tag then the user would be automatically given the assigned permission to that zone if they had a role applied to the Public Spaces zone tag
98. want the weather in the corner of all of your channels All of the display Draw zones on paper before you make them in Carousel 3 1 Designing Your Channel engines will be in the same city so you make a single zone that will be used on all of your channels When you are planning the look of a channel draw boxes for each zone on the 33 E FIGURE 3 2 With Photoshop you can use the guide feature to visualize where your zones will be placed Then you can place backgrounds and text to help guide the look of your channel Use this method to guide the creation of your templates which is something we cover in section 19 7 Tags for zones are important in large installations 34 channel to give you a visual idea of the look before you set them up in Carousel s interface One awesome tool for doing this is Adobe Photoshop The guide function is especially useful as you can easily visualize the layout of your channel To activate guides in Photoshop show the rulers of your canvas by pressing CTRL R if they aren t already active Then click drag from the ruler and onto your canvas Examine figure 3 2 You ll see a blue guide which you can use as a border for your zones Also consider situations where you have many zones that are serving a similar purpose Again you may want to make sure that they are also sharing similar dimensions in case you want users to be able to send bulletins to multiple zones Carousel will a
99. which appears at the top or bottom of the display Under most conditions this crawl will not display excessive or distracting stuttering but occasional stuttering is to be expected Stuttering can be minimized by e Keeping the display resolution to 720p or lower e Minimizing playback of video files that use high performance codecs H264 e Minimizing playback of Flash animations with many moving components 4 Carousel s Video Capabilities As of Carousel 6 2 a less graphically intensive crawl that rolls over has been added to the Performance Graphics Manager See section 8 2 on page 72 for information on changing the Graphics Manager for the Display Engine 4 4 Crawl Performance 37 38 4 Carousel s Video Capabilities 5 Hardware Setup This chapter is a reference for physically installing your Carousel system If you are the installer of the Carousel system then this chapter is for you Inevitably the hardware installation process will include some software configuration which is what the chapters after this one are about In order to complete the tasks in this chapter someone will have had to read chapter 3 on page 31 The Setup Plan Use the information learned in this chapter and the checklist in appendix A on page 237 to inform your actions here eS Please refer to the label on the back cover of this manual to determine your c specific hardware configuration 5 1 Hardware Installation As a result of the diffe
100. window and in the form where the user will edit the text for the bulletin v Text Default Value New Block 9 One line Multi line Field Size Small Text Color Text Opacity 100 E The Default Value field sets the text that appears first on the bulletin You might provide the user with an example of what was intended for this block Q 4 The Default Value field is limited to 511 characters in length If you re allowing the user to enter a great deal of text such as multiple sentences you might select the Multi line Field Size radio button For short bits of text such as titles the One Line option might be more appropriate One line Multi line Field Size Small Similarly the size of the field that they type in is controlled by the small medium large pop down list To limit the amount of text that can be entered in a text block select the Limit Length check box and enter the maximum number of characters allowed in the available box The Text Color and Text Opacity control the color and transparency of the text You can see the value s effect in the preview after your adjustments See sec tion 19 7 3 on page 197 for notes about picking colors Step 12 The font controls figure 19 14 on the next page affect the entire block of text You can use these controls to adjust the appearance of all of the text in this block 19 7 The Template Editor 193 FIGURE 19 14 Font controls E Step 13
101. within these dimensions If you copy a template to another zone Carousel will stretch it to fit that zone if it doesn t have the same dimensions of the original Let s go over all of the things that are in a template First every template has a background which is in back of everything that you see in your bulletin You can change that background when you are making a message but the background that is associated with the template 1s the first choice that the user will see In addition to a background templates contain blocks which are elements of the message that may be placed on the template Templates may have any combination of the following blocks Each text box has font color size and placement properties Carousel will auto matically wrap text as needed provided that the area given to the text box is large enough to support additional lines of text 187 Picture Web Picture Video Simple Rectangle FIGURE 19 10 The yellow out line is around a simple rectangle block In this case the box 1s surrounding multiple text fields Simple Ellipse A picture contains a single graphic element usually a PNG or JPEG file Carousel will automatically resize the image so that it fills the provided area either horizontally or vertically Carousel can maintain the picture s aspect ratio which means that it may not fill the entire area if that area does not share the picture s aspect ratio This is
102. would show in the expected order 16 4 2 Uploading a Bulletin Package File FIGURE 16 4 Bulletin Upload Confirmation 124 Once you locate the zip file and upload it to Carousel it confirms the upload with the number of slides that it found as you can see in figure 16 4 The package PowerpointDemoExport zip has been uploaded There are 63 Bulletins Save Save To Group Cancel If you click Save the bulletins will be added to your active pages list one after another If you click Save To Group all of the bulletins will be added as a single group which can be deleted and managed en masse You can then re edit and reschedule them as needed If the bulletins were scheduled in the past be sure you go to the stale pages list and re activate your pages 16 Uploading Bulletins 17 Dynamic Bulletins Clock Bulletin Cable Display Bulletin Weather Bulletin Weather Crawl RSS Bulletin RSS Crawl Twitter Bulletin Facebook Bulletin Event Schedule Bulletin Live Video Feed Interactive Bulletin 17 1 The Clock Bulletins Carousel features special types of bulletins called Dynamic In short these are bul letins that are driven by data and require special forms in order to be created If the current zone is a crawl zone then you will see the choices for dynamic bulletins limited to those that use the crawl and listed below the Create a Crawl menu item Here is a brief de
103. xs element name Zone type xs string gt lt xs element name ZoneSet type ctZoneSet gt e xsscolee element element element element element element element element element element element lt xs sequence gt lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS name AlwaysOn type xs boolean maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 name DateTimeOn type xs dateTime maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name DateTimeOff type xs dateTime maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name CycleTimeOn type xs time maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name CycleTimeOff type xs time maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name DisplayDuration type xs int maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name Weekdays type xs byte maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name WebEnabled type xs boolean maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name Description type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name PageType type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt name PageTemplate maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 type ctTemplate gt lt xs complexType gt lt xs complexType name ctTemplate gt xs annotation lt xs documentation gt A template is identified by the TemplateName which corresponds to the list of templates lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS in the Carousel Web Interface In a template there can be several blocks of text If yo want to enter text in a particular bl
104. xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs choice maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs element name GUID type xs string gt lt xs element name SelectBulletinTags type ctBulletinTagList gt lt xs choice gt lt xs element name Status type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs sequence gt lt xs complexType gt xs complexType name ctDeletePage xs annotation lt xs documentation gt This command allows you to delete a particular page owned by UserName from the system If you d rather turn the page off for some time use ChangePageStatus UserName is a valid user in FrontDoor Password is UserName s password GUID is the identifer for the page you wish to delete which was returned when you creat This page must be owned by UserName 220 21 Remote Data Adaptor lt xs documentation gt lt xs annotation gt lt xs sequence gt lt xs element name UserName type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs element name Password type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs element name GUID type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs sequence gt lt xs complexType gt lt xs complexType name ctDeleteAllUserPages xs annotation lt xs documentation gt This command will delete all pages created by the specified UserName UserName is a valid user in FrontDoor Password is UserName s password lt xs documentation gt lt xs a
105. your display engine is receiving data from a remote Carousel server then you may type the IP address or network name of that server To check the connection type the server s address and then click the XJ button to the right of the field The Display Engine network diagnostics screen will appear and run through a series of tests to determine if a connection to the server you entered will be successful The connection diagnostic tests will look something like figure 8 3 on the facing page You ll find a list of each test that was performed plus a green check for each test that passes At the bottom of the screen you ll find a short description of the test results In this case all of our tests succeeded so we should have no problems with our Carousel system If one or more of the tests fail you ll see a screen similar to figure 8 4 on the next page If you read the test results at the bottom you ll see several possible reasons for why the test failed and some possible solutions you can try to get it passing In the case of figure 8 4 on the facing page the Carousel Service wasn t running on the server After starting the Service all the tests passed and the Display Engine ran as expected Here s a list of all the tests that are performed 8 Configuring Players FIGURE 8 3 Successful connec tion tests Checking Connection to demo trors com Valid Server 66 187 100 181 W Connect to Server 7 channels Carum 4 Do
106. 0 12 Users and Carousel II Making Bulletins Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after Anne Morrow Lindbergh Gift From The Sea 101 102 13 Making Bulletins section 2 4 5 on page 24 Bulletins There are several ways to make bulletins in Carousel You can upload pre made bulletins and videos create them from external data or even upload Microsoft PowerPoint presentations By far the most common way to create a bulletin in Carousel is to create one through a template Templates are a bulletin starting point with a background and areas for a combination of text pictures rectangles and video The template editor is covered section 19 7 on page 186 If you have previously installed the default template package section 9 2 on page 90 or someone has made some templates for you you can proceed with this chapter If not you ll want to learn how to make your own templates first so that you have something to work with In this chapter we focus on making a bulletin from a template However apart from selecting and using the template the process for creating a bulletin is nearly identical no matter what type you are making Therefore we reference this chapter heavily when making other types of bulletins 13 1 Selecting a Template The first order of business is to select the zone from which you would like to create a bulletin Do that by selecting one of the main
107. 0 Pixel Shader 2 0 feature on the computer s graphics card This mode is for hardware that lacks Pixel Shader 2 0 It is mostly for older hardware which is running newer software 8 Configuring Players ha E gt Performance Diagnostic Mode 8 2 4 Live Video Input The Simple mode is not thread safe This means that it is not compatible with dual processor machines or with processors that have Intel s Hyper Threading technology This mode only supports cross fade transitions and uses a less graphically intense crawl that rolls over to give the best visual performance This runs the display engine in a window with a list of diagnostic information that is helpful to our support department when resolving problems In the future there will be additional modes added to the Carousel Display En gine Part of the elegance of its design 1s that more can be added for specialized applications and as new technology is developed If your computer has a video input option such as Tightrope s CAR TVI you may select it from the Device pop down list Usually there is only one device per computer so it will most likely be selected by default Once you select the device Carousel will test for compatible input options including Composite S Video and Tuner You will see them listed to the right of the pop down list If a player has more than one audio device you may select it as the audio input in the Audio field Again
108. 234 Appendix 235 Installer s Checklist 237 A Carousel Checklist ss 238 Pull PETO au oz a SHG R73 9 3 EE Seb bE 238 ELA ZO 6 ano 2k HEHE 25 30x o9 EEE EHO 239 A 1 3 Verify Display Quality and Content 240 A 1 4 Verify Carousel Communication 240 ALS Clean Up Testing 234 93kGR AHR SE E os 241 A 1 6 Communicate With the Customer 241 Carousel Menu Tree 243 B l Carousel Menu Strctite i coe ko o UR OOo deck s 243 Contents Contents Web Page Snapshots 247 Sample Carousel Templates 251 Limited Template Editor 255 Bl The Preview Window saxo om oom ono o X x 9 o x s 258 Custom Time Format Chart 261 EI Ele 404 486 ea66 Bee STK oe HERES SK BERS 262 PowerPoint How To Import Slides 263 G 1 Saving PowerPoint Presentations As JPEG or PNG files 263 G2 Making ihe Zip File oestro om ox yo vx RS 264 G 3 Importing the Slides Into Carousel 264 Carousel Monitor Control 267 H 1 Where Do I Find Carousel Monitor Control 267 H 2 Installing the Application les 267 H 3 System Tray Menu oos o og m kaw XX G xGG 267 H 4 Edit Configuration ee 268 Ho ele SOES n4 44x 4x3 ho ow HSE eH 269 Pity Edit Schedles 6 9o o9 MEE EEE Rok OR EEE ROO BEES 269 H 7 Allowing Network Control 269 Live TV Input TVI Devices 271 L1 Hauppauge Hardware lll 271 I 1 1 Steps to setup Hauppauge 271
109. 286 Selecting LocalSystem in Built in account 287 The Default Web Site lens 288 Selecting ASP NET v4 0 Classic c 9 9 24 a 288 The path to your TRMS installation 280 Carousel s Media Directory lll sn 293 Moving Media to anew share 293 ASP NET Machine Account needs access to the Media directory 294 An example of the config files being changed 205 Bouncing the Carousel Service 296 Creating the virtual directory ll nn 296 324 J 17 J 18 J 19 Ll Lice M 1 M 2 M 3 M 4 M 5 Naming the virtual directory n 297 Typing the path to the virtual directory 297 Testing the remote Media storage in Carousel 298 Disabling the Bumper Page lll rns 303 No Zones Defined Error 222 eee 304 A Network Domain Tree len 309 Network Address Translation 04 314 Port Forman o uou a do RES EERE 3x BE ES 316 Navigating to Internet Information Services 320 Changing your port number lll 321 List of Figures
110. 4 The Channel Setup Form FIGURE 7 5 The Channel Config uration Editing Menu Main Menu Configure Channel Configuration Editing Channel Name Channel Setup Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 62 Configuration Channel configuration No channels have been added to the system There are 3 available channel licenses _ Add Channel Execute these steps to define the channels in your Carousel system In a fresh system you ll see no channels defined like in figure 7 4 In this example you see three channels ready for action Your system might have fewer or more Click the Add Channel button to start the configuration of a channel 66 A 99 Your new channel will be called New Channel with a handy star after it to let you know that this is the one that was just created Click the title which is a link which opens the Channel Setup Form Carousel Configuration close Configuration Channel configuration Editing DEMO Health i2 Channel Setup Channel Layout Crawl Date and Time Background Audio Background Audio Playlist Add Seamless Channel Background l EELEE In Channel Configuration you ll see the menu in figure 7 5 We ll start with the first menu item and click Channel Setup to edit your channel You will see the form in figure 7 6 on the facing page Name your channel in the Name field Remember to name it something th
111. 5 to 80 Northwest winds 15 to 20 mph Available Data Fields show hide didak p to oe Weather data provided by WeatherBug Preview Continue Cancel Good Bad news out of the way let s explore the splendor of the Cable Display for Carousel plug in which we get to from New Bulletin on the Main Menu Dynamic tab and then selecting Cable Display C Coming up next io Interrupt C See it again Single bulletin schedule C Multiple bulletin schedule Continue Cancel 17 Dynamic Bulletins The first form that you see shown in figure 17 10 on the preceding page will ask you What type of Cable Display bulletin would you like to create There are five types shown in the table that is on the next page 17 4 Cable Display Bulletins 155 136 Coming up next Interrupt See it again Single bulletin schedule Multiple bulletin schedule Displays before a show typically to advertise the show s title and any other information the viewer may find relevant TIGHTROPE This is a slide that shows during the program It works well with confidence monitoring equipment in that this is the graphic that will air on your channel in the event of a technical difficulty TIGHTROPE These slides display after a show is done typically to advertise the times the show will repeat or any other information the viewer might find interesting like where to get a dub of the program TIGHTROPE 7395p
112. 6 on the next page to a Carousel Server Carousel Solo or Carousel Player The T1 C2 750 is an external scaler that composites picture in picture or PIP the Carousel output with other HD video sources These instructions assume you 273 FIGURE I 6 The TVOne hardware OE TASKC MENU PIP 1T C2 750 lglmg Dual DVI Scaler PLUS T n OW KEY ABI FADE INFUT PRESET 1 PRESET 2 STANDEY ir ie k kE are familiar setting up the T1 C2 750 unit for more information go to the TVOne website at http www TVOne com While Carousel will only turn on turn off and position the PIP window it assumes that other settings have been pre configured in the TVOne Tightrope can not help you configure the TVOne unit if you do not know how to use TVOne products please contact TVOne tech support LI 2 1 Steps to setup TVOne T1 C2 750 Step 1 Connect Carousel into DVI I 1 Step 2 Connect your HD video source into DVI I 2 Step 3 Connect the HD PC SCALED OUT to your monitor or distibution equipment Step 4 Connect the RS232 port to the serial port of the Carousel unit Step 5 On the TVOne using the onscreen menus or the C2 Control Panel software cofig ure the following Step 6 Configure the Output resolution in the Output tab is the same resolution as the Carousel unit s output resolution Step 7 Configure Window A in the Windows tab to Input Source DVI I 1 aka the Carousel input Step 8 Configure Window B i
113. 9 7 2 Basics of the Template Editor 187 19 7 3 Walking Through the Template Editor Form 188 19 8 Media Tags a ee Xs Re Re EROR eR OR S SD BSS R9 RS 201 19 9 Creating a Seamless Background for a Multi Zoned Channel 201 19 10Adding Media Packages 203 19 11 Creating Media Packages 0 2 2 00084 204 Extras 205 CON SO ok kee a EE ERO Rob EUR OR WO Cod de EE 205 20 2 RSS Output s ok wow eserdi ddh ROS om EE RES 206 20 3 Public Web Intetface 2 64 eee et be Cee xo xo ox ox 206 Remote Data Adaptor 209 21 1 Commu ni ations 3 ss 4 osex RR EMA UR vo x ER EA wo 200 21 2 Workflow of RDA 0 0 00 00002 ee eee 210 21 3 Elements of CarouselCommand 211 21 4 Elements of CarouselResponse l l n 212 21 5 Schema and Examples 252a xem 33679 RR SE EHS 213 21 5 1 CarouselRemoteCommand XSD 213 21 5 2 Command Examples ux 4 eo hee kdek oe Es 213 21 5 3 Response Examples 4 454 99 x 59 E RBS 217 21 0 MOA SCh Ma dex koe Rom mom EREAG ESE DES xoxo 218 Clone Tool 229 22 1 Using the Clone Tool 4 26244 446484504464 E EP S 229 22 1 1 Exporting a Channel 6 ses Se Ee eww x xus 229 22 1 2 Importing a Channel 231 22 2 Advanced Settings usu eRe EER EEG 233 22421 Remote SUL Seryers uos mon xoa won E RE Ge 3e xo e 233 22 2 2 Remote media storage uuu es m o o9 on RR RR 234 22 2 5 Command line arguments
114. ASP NET Application Server ASP NET State Service FrontDoor Installer Carousel Framework Installer Hardware License Key from Tightrope Media Systems J 1 1 Installing and Configuring IIS Components and Services Step 1 Open Server Manager from the toolbar and click on Roles in the left pane fig FIGURE J 1 Server Manager in the Roles snap in ure J 1 alo x File Action View Help S zi M UNUM ETO g Roles ag Features ai E Diagnostics _ View the health of the roles installed on your server and add or remove roles and features E gfi Configuration gt 8 Storage Roles Summary H Roles Summary Help Roles 0 of 17 installed MA Add Roles as Remove Roles 2T Step 2 Click Add Roles Step 3 Click Next Step 4 Under the Role Services window choose ASP NET figure J 2 FIGURE J 2 Adding ASP NET Add Roles Wizard E x i Select Role Services Before You Begin Select the role services to install for Web Server IIS Server Roles Role services Description Web Server IIS Ei lil Web Server ASP NET provides a server side object oriented programming environment Role Services E E Common HTTP Features for building Web sites and Web SEAL A ri Static Content applications using managed code V Default Document ASP NET is not simply a new version Progress V Directory Browsing of ASP Having been entirely re V HTTP Errors architected to provide a highly Results pr
115. Bulletins _ Media Event Schedule _ Extras i Zone Settings Go to the creative store and purchase a professionally designed channel that will add templates backgrounds pictures and other content that will look fantastic on your displays Go to Tightrope s demonstration site and log in using one of the example systems that you ll see The log in information is included next to each example Once you ve logged in you ll see a working Carousel system that will be perfect to use as you follow along in this chapter Keep in mind that the zones and channel names used on the demonstration system are probably not what you will eventually choose 6 Introduction to Carousel s User Interface New Bulletin New Alert Bulletin Manage Bulletins Media Event Schedule Extras Zone Settings 6 3 The Status Bar for your system First let s look at the main menu This is where you go to create any kind of bulletin except Alert Bulletins These in clude bulletins created by users uploaded through the web interface or dynamically created by Carousel through data sources When you need to interrupt a zone s bulletins for a special event such as in an emergency you can use an Alert Bulletin When active an Alert Bulletin will suspend all normal bulletins When they are de activated the normal flow of bulletins will resume Once bulletins are in the system you can change their order move delete and edit them
116. Carousel system Do not plug it in through an active balun routing switcher or other video distribution system If you need to adjust Carousel s screen resolution you may do so by right clicking 8 9 Adjusting the Video Resolution 83 FIGURE 8 14 Select Display Properties from the player s desktop Arrange Icons Bw F Refresh Paste Paste Shortcut NVIDIA Display ew Properties on Carousel s desktop and clicking on Properties This opens the Display Properties dialog box Click and drag the Screen Resolution slider until the native resolution of your display appears as shown in section 8 15 on the next page 8 9 2 Custom Monitor Adjustments Tightrope is not responsible for any damages to your display as a result of following the procedures outlined in this section Manually entering sync and resolution settings has the potential to permanently damage your display if it is done incorrectly If you are utilizing an LCD or plasma monitor there is a chance that you may need to specify a resolution that is not selectable using the procedure outlined in the previous section Check to see if there is any software that came with your LCD or Plasma display This may include the monitor definitions for your display and prevent you from having to set a custom resolution Check with the display s documentation for the specifications related to the monitors 3 If the display engine is running double click until it c
117. CheckinUTC gt 2009 06 17T00 00 00 lt LastCheckinUTC gt lt SubscribedChannelName gt Channel2 lt SubscribedChannelName gt lt PlayerStatus gt 21 5 Schema and Examples 217 lt PlayerStatusList gt lt CarouselResponse gt 21 6 RDA Schema This section contains the RDA Schema If you are familiar with XML this may be helpful information for you 218 21 Remote Data Adaptor lt xml version 1 0 encoding utf 8 xs schema id CarouselRemoteCommand targetNamespace http www trms com CarouselRemoteCommand elementF lt xs element name CarouselCommand gt lt xS annotation gt lt xs documentation gt A Carousel Command consists of exactly one of the following commands CreatePage CreateCrawl ChangePageStatus DeletePage DeleteAllUserPages DeactivateAllAlertPages GetPlayerStatus UpdatePage GetZoneList GetTemplateList GetBulletinList GetPictureList GetVideoList ArchivePage 5erbsgeorgtus Definitions of the commands are described later lt xs documentation gt lt xstannotation gt lt xs complexType gt lt xs sequence gt lt xs choice gt lt xs element name CreatePage type ctCreatePage gt lt xs element name CreateCrawl type ctCreateCrawl lt xs element name ChangePageStatus type ctChangePageStatus gt lt xs element name DeletePage type ctDeletePage gt lt xs element name DeleteAllUserPages type ctDeleteAllUserPages gt lt xs element name
118. Configuration System menu This will be the home for this section In here we will configure some of Carousel s more esoteric set tings Full Screen Alerts Main Menu Logged in as admin Zones Current Zone Fennel Hall General Zones matchin JOG Ic ang win Cities r i ast Cukrentiy selected tag cled ones matching Public and Twin Cities and Ea East Bank 7 Public 7 zb Borlaug Hall General Twin Cities 7 orga Har fence hips s Library General Mathematics Library Meetings Mon Campus Mews RSS Non Org Informaiton 3 er en M cM Libraries 2 Meetings and Events 2 RSS 2 Student Union 2 Advertising 1 General 1 The instructions for the single field in this form are pretty clear If your system has more than the number of zones in the Switch to Zone field you ll see the zone picker appear If not the standard pop down list of zones appears 11 2 2 Administrator Email Setup 96 In section 10 1 1 on page 91 you can define who is emailed when a bulletin is waiting for approval on a specific zone This is handy if you have multiple administrators 11 The Configuration Menu The Missing Pieces each in charge of specific sets of zones If you re the only one approving bulletins for a multi zone system however it can be a pain to enter your email address on each an every zone This area of the system setup allows you to enter a set of email address that are notified anytime a bulle
119. DS bulletin as an alert bulletin chapter 15 on page 117 select Display Active or Current events only and select No Page so the bulletin isn t shown when there are no active events Now whenever an event occurs Carousel will create an alert bulletin for that event that interrupts your regular cycle for the duration of the event When the event is finished your regular cycle will resume No more taping handwritten pieces of paper the wall FIGURE 17 29 Editing an EDS Bulletin Example Field names that start with Header show once Example FIGURE 17 30 You can see that the date in this EDS bulletin shows only once whereas The Simpson s inspired events repeat down the bulletin 17 9 The Event Schedule Bulletins Example HeaderDate j Date ss Time eTimet SS Event sgvent amp Room Room ss Background Template Specific Select Upload Avallable database fields Date Time EndTime Room Building Event Status Type Note Enclose conditional text in curley braces Continue Cancel Editing an EDS bulletin is just like editing a standard bulletin except that EDS information is enclosed in symbols Whenever you want to show the time of an event simply place Time somewhere in one of the fields If you want to show a field one time and not repeat it with every event then make the template s name start with Header You can see in
120. DeactivateAllAlertPages type ctDeactivateAllAlertPages gt lt xs element name GetPlayerStatus type ctGetPlayerStatus gt lt xs element name UpdatePage type ctUpdatePage gt lt xs element name GetZoneList type ctGetZoneList gt lt xs element name GetTemplateList type ctGetTemplateList gt lt xs element name GetBulletinList type ctGetBulletinList gt lt xs element name GetPictureList type ctGetPictureList gt lt xs element gt lt xs element name GetVideoList type ctGetVideoList gt lt xs element name ArchivePage type ctArchivePage gt lt xs element name SetPageStatus type ctSetPageStatus gt lt 7XG Choree gt lt xs sequence gt lt xs complexType gt lt xs element gt lt xs element name CarouselResponse gt lt xS annotation gt lt xs documentation gt After sending a CarouselCommand expect a CarouselResponse The Result will be either Success or Error 21 6 RDA Schema 219 The optional Description field will contain any details The optional GUID fields will contain the GUID of pages created via a CreatePage or Crea The optional PlayerStatusList field will contain a list of player statuses if this is a response lt xs documentation gt lt xs annotation gt lt xs complexType gt lt xs sequence gt lt xs element name Result type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs element name Description type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccur
121. E 17 23 Selecting a Database for EDS SOL Server ems server SQL Authentication NT authentication SOL Authentication Username carousel Password enn Database EventDisplaySchedule Reload Database Once the authentication information is entered you might see the list of databases in the Database list If you do not click the Reload link then select the event management database from the list Regardless of the source of your data you may choose from three methods of grouping scheduled events Ungrouped Each item will be listed by the time the event will happen By Room All events will be listed by the room in alphanumeric order and then by time The room will be listed and then each event will be listed below By Time A time will be listed and each event that matches that time will be listed beneath This is useful when events happen at exactly the same time like in a classroom situation 17 9 3 Editing EMS and Ad Astra Properties FIGURE 17 24 The EMS and Ad Astra Bulletin Properties Form What events would you like to display Room Status Type Athletic Academic a Can fi rme d an d Fun d ra i ser Maintenance Meeting Shared Space Tentative v Note Control or shift click to select multiple items Note All of the abowe criterial must be met in order for an item to be displayed What statuses do you want to display as canceled Cancelled Confirmed Shared Space v How wo
122. Housekeep ing Menu Bulletin housekeeping deletion criteria Bulletin Type Active v Stale Saved waiting Belonging to Admin Account On Zone This Zone Church Weather v The Housekeeping tab figure 18 11 allows you to delete bulletins en mass based on a specific set of criteria Bulletins may be deleted by type Active Stale Saved 174 18 Managing Bulletins 18 5 Reporting FIGURE 18 12 Bulletin Reporting 18 5 1 Filter by bulletin type 18 5 Reporting or Waiting by User or All Users and for All Zones or the Zone that you are operating from Once the criteria has been selected and you click on the Delete button a summary page will display allowing you a preview of the bulletins marked for deletion If the list is correct click on the Delete button on the summary page for permanent deletion Bulletin Reporting for Sponsors Filter by bulletin types OR Active Alert Repeating Filter by bulletin status OR Current Queued Waiting Saved Stale Filter by bulletin tags AND menu sponsor sports Found 4 bulletins that matched Total Impressions 51 Generate CSV Report Preview Status Description Schedule Owner Impressions Tags SPECIALOF THE DAY Food Active Item Price Lorem Until manually turned off dmi 8 impressions Current ipsum dolor sit amet Displayed every day Somin i min 36 sec consectetur adipisicing elit Sporting Event Title from Today at 12 00 AM
123. If you have ever watched CNN or Fox News you ll notice crawls and graphic areas on the side of the screen while a dashing anchor delivers the news in the main area Carousel can be configured in a similar manner In fact you can even put CNN or Fox News in a corner of the display provided you have cable television and the optional video input card for Carousel 22 This magic is made possible by two key features of Carousel channels and zones Channels are like an empty canvas that fills the entire display s screen You tell Carousel that you want a channel with 1280 pixels across and 720 pixels down You name it something descriptive like Channel 68 CG or Fennel Hall Lobby You fill the channel s empty palette with zones Each zone contains lists of bulletins that follow rules laid down by the administrator and the creators of each bulletin When you add a zone to a channel you re adding another information area to the players that address that channel in your Carousel system 2 The Essentials of Carousel Want to use multiple zones on a channel but have them look like one seamless presentation Check out section 19 9 on page 201 Creating a Seamless Back ground for a Multi Zoned Channel which easily divides a channel sized picture into individual backgrounds for each zone on your channel The term player is used to describe any device that is acting as a display engine for Carousel A display engine is
124. It is used for extreme bandwidth sensitive networks BulletinFailSafe This is the maximum number of seconds that the between bulletin list synchro nization from the Diplay Engine to the server agian used for extreme bandwidth sensitive networks BypassProxy By default the Display Engine is instructed to bypass proxy servers for to avoid caching problem this behavior can be overrode 304 Appendix L Troubleshooting Appendix M A Not So Short Introduction to Networking If you are not a network person by profession or hobby this paper may serve as a helpful guide in understanding some basic concepts We overview networking rules conventions and issues This guide was written with Tightrope installations in mind but the basic concepts are universally applicable None of the information in this paper should be considered complete Many difficult concepts are glossed over and oversimplified Our goal is to provide you with useful information that may lead you to accomplishing your goals or at the very least communicate those goals to someone who can do it for you M 1 The Basics What is a Network A computer network is a group of computers connected by hardware and software that are able to directly communicate with each other The word directly is emphasized in our opening paragraph because it is possible for computers to communicate even when they are on two different networks but that ability does not make their networks i
125. Matrox Convert DVI Control Panel E P Ir S Control Panel General Genlock Region of Interest Admin Video Output Analog Output Type Output Desktop as v Ant flcker filter v Underscan mode 16 9 to 4 3 Conversion letterbox Maintain aspect ratio 7 5 IRE T Embed audio in SDI output os 8 9 Adjusting the Video Resolution This section covers two major topics adjusting the video resolution for plug and play monitors and adjusting the resolution for monitors that do not provide accurate settings for the graphic card driver If you are operating your system with a standard television monitor in 4x3 mode then the default setting 800x600 pixels is the best for this configuration If you plan to operate your system in 16x9 mode then you will have to consult with your monitor s guide for the display s optimum resolution If you plug your monitor into Carousel and it does not allow you to select the correct resolution using the Windows Display Properties resolution slider you will have to hand enter your monitor s resolution and sync rates This process is covered in section 8 9 2 on the following page 8 9 1 Standard Resolution Adjustments Generally if you are running Carousel in 4x3 mode there is no need to adjust the display s resolution It runs in 800x600 and this is optimal for all applications Before you proceed be sure that your display is directly plugged into the
126. NAT is a feature of a router that enables computers inside your network that are using private IP addresses to communicate with computers on the Internet When you ask for something that is outside your network your computer goes to the router A router using NAT in turn completes the request on your behalf The destination computer then establishes a connection with your router and your router is responsible for marshaling the packets back to you Your computer thinks that it is communicating directly with the destination computer and the destination computer thinks that it is talking to you from your router s 17 For fun open up a command prompt on your desktop computer Type ipconfig Chances are that your address falls within one of the ranges listed above 18 You ll remember that a router routes IP traffic to remote computers A router is at the edge of your network and links it to other networks 313 Office Computer 192 168 1 101 Ethernet Switch Network Router 314 192 168 1 101 to 209 98 98 98 connection Server on Internet 209 98 98 98 192 168 1 1 eS 64 122 237 46 NE with NAT two addresses 209 98 98 98 to 64 122 237 46 connection FIGURE M 2 A router with NAT will use at least two addresses In this example they are 192 168 1 1 for the local address and 64 122 237 46 for the public IP address Local computers ad dress it from the 192 address
127. Name Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 5 2 System Setup Many systems that Tightrope makes are based on a web centric design This means that day to day operation and most of the configuration of these systems is accomplished through a web interface This section covers basic setup procedures such as setting IP addresses Connect the system to your network using the Ethernet port on the back of the server The Carousel Server and Carousel Pro require static IP addresses Carousel Players do not need a static IP address Setting the IP address is covered in section 5 2 1 on the following page Often you can address a Tightrope server by its name This may be easier than obtaining a static IP address although it is less reliable since the network name will point the computer at its address If that address changes you re at the mercy of Windows Networking and its ability to rediscover the address To find the network name From the Windows desktop right click on My Computer In Windows XP right click on My Computer from the Start menu Click Properties Click the Computer Name tab at the top The name to the left of Full computer name is the name of this computer 45 Setting the IP Address of a Server By designating a static address you may address the machine using its IP address instead of its network name This gives you some flexibility in how the computer is named It may even be necessary especially if y
128. Re port link to download a CVS file containing metadata about each bulletin in the report The CSV report contains the following fields for each bulletin The ID guid of this bulletin Bulletin type Active Alert Repeating Bulletin status Current Queued Waiting Saved Stale The bulletin s description The object type of this bulletin When the bulletin becomes active When the bulletin becomes inactive stale What time of day should the bulletin start while it is active What time of day should the bulletin stop while it is active If true the bulletin is always active ignoring DateTime CycleTime settings How many seconds the bulletin should be on screen If set to 1 the system will choose the dwell time based on number of words in the bulletin If set to 0 dwell time cannot be calculated for this bulletin type Description of which days of the week the bulletin is scheduled for User account that owns the bulletin 18 Managing Bulletins ImpressionCount ImpressionSeconds RepeatInterval SoundEnabled WebEnabled WordCount PreviewURL Tags 18 6 Slide Show FIGURE 18 13 The Slide Show Number of times the bulletin has been shown on any Display Engine Estimate of number of seconds the bulletin has been on screen Calculated by multiplying ImpressionCount by DwellTime For Repeating bulletins the number of bulletins to wait before repeating this bulletin True if sound is en
129. S RECON EI Sj Roles E E ENTERPRISEVM gt Application Pools ua Ei ie E EE Web Server IIS ETE i i 18 v Dp 3 EH Features E Diagnostics EH ji Configuration Ed Storage M Internet Infor 4x Add Application Pool amp Start Page Set Application Pool Defaults B 3 ENTERPRISEVM ENTERA be page lets you view and manage the list ee IS o application pools on the server e Help Application Pools Application pools are associated with worker H B Sites processes contain one or more applications Online Help and provide isolation among different applications Name NET Fr f Classic NET App Started v2 0 DdefaultAppPool Started v2 0 Under the Process Model section of Advanced Settings highlight Identity and click the button that appears on the right side of that line Select LocalSystem under the Built in account drop down box and click OK figure J 7 on the facing page Click OK again to close the Advanced Settings window J 1 8 Installing Tightrope Software Step 40 uo Step 41 Run the FrontDoor installer and follow the Installer Wizard You might see a login error for user null This is normal FrontDoor will install anyway Run the Carousel Framework installer and follow the Installer Wizard J 1 9 Adding User Permissions to the Carousel and FrontDoor Databases 286
130. Screen Resolutions amp Refresh Rates l Desktop Management Menu Editing CO Landscape degree rotation E Portrait 90 degree rotation C Inverted landscape 180 degree rotation Inverted portrait 270 degree rotation To accomplish this simply navigate to the NVRotate menu from the Advanced settings in Display Properties figure 8 18 Use the arrows to rotate the display until the illustration matches the way your monitors will be mounted After you click OK the video output will be adjusted so that everything will appear right side up when the monitor is rotated 8 9 Adjusting the Video Resolution 87 88 8 Configuring Players 9 Adding Content Now that you have established your system s configuration plan and have perfectly executed that plan in the previous chapter you are ready to begin adding some meaning to your Carousel system After all what good is configuration without content to display In this chapter we import the default graphics into our Carousel system Even if you do not plan to use the graphics that are included with Carousel reading this chapter will be helpful in creating your own background and media packages 9 1 Zones and Aspect Ratios In older Carousel systems a zone was equal to a channel Therefore it was a safe bet that loading up a system with default backgrounds would result in an attractive starting point for the new owner section 2 4 1 on page 20 Di
131. The Media Tags List This is a list of all tags that can be applied ta zone Media Abstract Blue Brown Buildings Food and Drink Information Natural Office Outside Party and Events Technical bee m e fd e peg e fe ee Weather Media tags are used for all of the media for the entire Carousel system That is they are not specific to any given zone Simply click the Add button to add a new tag or delete tags that no longer make sense Multiple tags may be added by separating them with a comma rather than adding them one at a time 19 9 Creating a Seamless Background for a Multi Zoned Channel When you have a channel in Carousel that uses multiple zones sometimes it looks nice when the backgrounds used for those zones have edges that blend into each 19 8 Media Tags 201 N configuration Chan nels channel name Add Seamless Channel FicugdiatBg3ouimlhe Add Seamless Background form 202 Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 other making a seamless background You can do this manually in your favorite paint program but Carousel has a way to do it for you automatically Carousel takes a background and stretches it to fill a channel Then it cuts the image apart using the edges and position of each zone that is used in that channel Finally it saves that image as a background in that zone prepending the word Seamless Background Audio A Background Aud
132. This is usually the System32 or SYSWOW64 folder depending on your version of Windows The config file only needs the following two lines within it Channel ChannelID URL lt Server IP or Name 205 20 2 RSS Output All Carousel systems include the ability to export their bulletins as an RSS feed Clicking on the link will open the feed in your web browser Copy the link into any software that can consume RSS This is a great way to integrate Carousel into other software including other web applications 20 3 Public Web Interface Carousel can display a zone on a publicly available web link which is displayed here Simply click on this link to see this web interface You may also link to it from another website A bit of web master speak here IFrames come in in handy here Just plunk this link into an IFrame inside your website and you re done Your web visitors can see the Carousel bulletins and still navigate your site Be sure to visit section 10 1 2 on page 92 to learn how to enable the public website output for the desired zones FIGURE 20 2 The Public Website 1 TRMS Product Spotlight Product Spotlight Carousel Pro 5 0 adds enterprise class common area signage to your facility and Carousel d B uso Curse Pro 5 0 adds enterprise class tomman ares signage te your facility and teaturcs web certric interface with dats Orived capabilities Sotheby s 206
133. Tightrope servers as you would any other computer on the Internet The biggest limitation is that you cannot connect any machine within your building s network to any Tightrope server For Carousel machines this is not a significant limitation unless you are uploading large video files For Cablecast installations with video servers this is a problem because you will not be able to transfer video files into the server using Windows Networking Another consideration has to do with the type of Internet connection that you purchase It is very common for cable companies to block certain ports on your network Also obtaining a static IP address is often difficult or expensive to accomplish For ways around these limitations see the next section Appendix M A Not So Short Introduction to Networking M 11 Avoiding The Tyranny of Cable Modem Providers M 11 1 Dynamic DNS If you are on your own or find it impossible to put your Tightrope system on the Internet through your IT department getting your own connection might be the best option When an organization wants to put out a web presence they will purchase a connection that is designed for the task Traditionally this has meant a T1 connection which is very expensive A great alternative to a T1 is a DSL or cable modem connection which can be had for less than 40 dollars per month in some cases Unfortunately these connections are designed for consumers and as such lack static IP
134. Wide Step 2 Tag the zone as needed If no tags exist or you need a tag that does not yet exist add it to the Tags field and then click the add button You can add more than one tag at a time by simply entering commas between them If you want to select multiple tags hold down the control key or shift on the Apple and click the additional tag This will keep your original selection while adding the new one Step 3 Type in a description This should describe the purpose of the zone and if known where it will be seen Step 4 For bulletin and full screen alert zones choose the size of the zone in pixels This step is incredibly important to get right This is where all of your planning comes into play as knowing the correct dimensions of the zone will determine the size of all of the media and templates that are created within it If you get it wrong then you will have to redo everything or resize all of the media within which may reduce quality Crawl zones don t have dimensions They go on the top or bottom of a channel The channel determines the fonts and colors for any zones that appear See section 7 3 3 on page 65 The Crawl Properties Form to learn how to adjust the crawls appearance on a specific channel Step 5 If you re walking through these steps for the first time the resize media link will be of no help It is for when you mess up the size of a zone add a bunch of media reset the size of the zone and now w
135. ZoneSet specifies the zones on which this bulletin should run See the documentation for ctZoneS Zone is depreciated Use ZoneSet instead AlwaysOn sets the page to always run until manually deleted or turned off DateTimeOn sets the date and time that the page will become active Overridden if AlwaysOn true DateTimeOff sets the date and time that the page will deactivate Overridden if AlwaysOn true CycleTimeOn sets the time that the page will start beign shown on any given day Overridden if CycleTimeOff sets the time that the page will stop being shown on any given day Overridden if DisplayDuration forces the page to be displayed for a given number of seconds If not specified Weekdays is a byte determining which days of the week the page will be show Overridden if Alwa WebEnabled determines if this page should be displayed on Carousel s public web site If not sup Description is an optional text based description for the page 21 Remote Data Adaptor PageType is either standard or alert Any active alert pages will override all active stand PageTemplate determines which Carousel template this page should use If you are updating a page lt xs documentation gt lt xs annotation gt lt xs sequence gt lt xs element name UserName type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs element name Password type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs choice maxOccurs 1 minoccurs 1 gt lt
136. a new period Students won t have any excuse as to why they were late to class You can even let the timer go negative or into the red so students know exactly how late they are The countdown timer setup screen is shown in figure 17 3 What style would you like for the clock dl Style Countdown Clock Color Les amp FFFFFF S Opacity Emr Clock Background Template Specific 4 Select Upload Duration 39 second s Note unis chock nulle Ub ioe Hie fol pulletin ow azoni TE will pen Caption Font Lucida Console Seconds Show Seconds eae a certain time each day Ja specific date and time paw iesse inher mwalid dab Alternate Iv After event change clock to a different color Color Ld o Color FFFFFF 2d Opacity 30 Continue I Cancel 1 Here are the options for the countdown timer Sets the color for the countdown text Allows you to make the countdown text semi transparent Sets the background for the countdown Determines how long this countdown should be displayed on the zone before transitioning to the next bulletin in the cycle If the clock is the only bulletin in the zone it will be displayed continuously Allows you to pre pend some text to the countdown Example Time until class begins 17 Dynamic Bulletins Font Seconds Countdown Until Date Alternate Color Allows you to select the
137. a piece of licensed software that accesses the main Carousel system in search of a specific channel of Carousel Once the display engine has contacted the server it requests the bulletins for the channel that was selected in the preferences for the display engine It then retrieves the bulletins that are assigned to the zones on that channel and then displays them accordingly Hereinafter we will use the term player to describe this device In reality it could be the display engine on a Carousel Server a Carousel Solo or some other device Channels and display engines are licensed in Carousel These licenses are included with a Carousel Solo Zones are not licensed and hence there is no limit to the number that can be added to your system The simplest channels have one zone and in this configuration the distinction between channels and zones is almost irrelevant This is most common when Carousel is used for television display as the display is too confined for a large number of regions of information More complex configurations might have six or more zones on a single channel providing the audience with a vast array of information at any given time 2 4 4 Zones on Multiple Channels T Example Example In Carousel you can place a zone on any number of channels Imagine that you have a Carousel Server and two different Carousel Solos in the same geographic region In this configuration the system is capable of displayi
138. able Display plug in described in section 17 4 on page 134 Carousel works with Cablecast in several important ways You will not want to miss these features Tightrope Media Systems is a manufacturer of broadcast and digital signage sys tems We are the best at developing whole product solutions that deliver a tailored experience and fantastic utility for our customers For more information on Tightrope Media Systems please visit our web site WWW trms com Email us at sales 2trms com Even here Carousel automatically emails the administrator when the new bulletin arrives thus negating the need to check Carousel for new bulletins 15 Email Support Request Form Online Documentation Training Videos Blogs Community Forum Phone Jae SS Our Address is Tightrope Media Systems 800 Transfer Road Suite 1B Saint Paul Minnesota 55114 For customer service please contact your dealer or Tightrope Media Systems directly support trms com An online support request form is at www trms com support www trms com support documentation www trms com support training blog trms com http getsatisfaction com trms 866 866 4118 612 866 4118 The fastest way to get support is through email or the online support form The community forum is a great place to share tips and tricks too Throughout this guide the following conventions will be used This is a note Notes are used to call attention to
139. abled for this bulletin false otherwise True if this bulletin can be shown on the public web interface false otherwise Number of words found in the bulletin URL to a preview image of this bulletin A comma delimited list of tags set on this bulletin AAA Carousel lQ Inquisitor New Alert New Bulletin Manage Bulletins About Log Out Ma out FrontDoo in Menu Current Zone Confrence Room celebration Carousel includes a little slide show utility under the Slide Show tab The slide show gives you a small preview of what this zone s output will look like This slide show utility can only display certain bulletin types due to bandwidth con cerns You will not be able to preview Video Flash or Powerpoint bulletins The slide show preview only shows you the bulletins on any one zone To preview an entire channel use Carousel s channel preview feature covered in section 7 4 on page 69 Previewing Your Channel Carousel also features an HTML and RSS output for each zone We cover activating this feature in chapter 20 on page 205 Extras 18 6 Slide Show 177 178 18 Managing Bulletins 19 Managing Media Backgrounds Pictures Video Clips Sounds Templates Media Tags Add media package In this chapter we will explore the menu items and features found within the Media menu which you access from Carousel s Main Menu In Carousel media or media assets means anyth
140. ack to the main screen 161 If the Inactivity timeout is set to 0 zero the Interactive Bulletin will never time out This is used if your interactive content has it s own timeout routine or it is not desired to reset the display The Carousel Display Engine will normally exit if you double click the mouse or hold the Escape key When there is interactive content double clicking is disabled so users can t accidentally close the display To exit the Display Engine you will have to hold the Escape key Carousel sets the web browser to the size of the zone that is displaying the content As you create content make sure you target the resolution of that zone Carousel may crop the web site if it is not designed to fit in the zone Carousel disables the built in scroll bars and navigation buttons so that functionality will need to be built into the content if it extends past the zone resolution For more tips on creating interactive content check out our blo g and forum 17 14 Dynamic Bulletin Errors FIGURE 17 36 Dynamic bulletin error on main menu FIGURE 17 37 Dynamic bulletin with no items to render 162 Carousel will notify you when there is a problem processing a dynamic bulletin You will see red text on the right side noting that one ore more dynamic bulletins could not be rendered in the zone you re currently viewing Zones Crawls Full Screen Alerts Current Zone DSE Education Community 1 Mer Coster ea
141. acters l http en wikipedia org wiki Hexadecimal http en wikipedia org wiki ASCII 268 Appendix H Carousel Monitor Control H 5 Example Strings Power on String 4F4E 13 Power off String 4F4646 13 The Power on string and Power off string will check if you have entered an invalid string If so it will alert you To see the alert message mouse over the alert icon Furthermore it will alert you about any non hexadecimal characters H 6 Edit Schedule There are two available schedules in the application They are time and week day based The Power On Time and Power Off Time events will occur on the weekdays selected for that schedule FIGURE H 2 Schedule Window pe j Carousel Monitor Control Schedule When would pou like the monitors to power on and off Power On Time Power OFF Time s meman wow s Power On Time Power OFF Time MGnPM Emam iE If the Power On Time is later than the Power Off Time the application will assume that the event spans midnight and will offset the day appropriately For example if you tell the application to power on at 10 00 PM and power off at 3 00 AM on Saturday the monitor will power on at 10 00 PM on Saturday and power off at 3 00 AM on Sunday H 7 Allowing Network Control The Allow network control checkbox turns on and off remote network control of the Carousel Monitor Control App When this option is turned on the Monitor Control app will register
142. addresses In some cases the Internet Service Provider ISP will even block incoming access to common ports like TCP port 80 in an attempt to stop you from hosting web sites with your connection Sometimes your provider will have a business version of their services which will provide you with everything that you need to host a web site If your ISP does not offer business class service or it is cost prohibitive you have one last option Many Tightrope customers have a working relationship with their cable provider The policies in place might be more applicable to high traffic sites than it is to your situation and you may be in a position to ask for some flexibility BEFORE YOU CONTINUE READING THIS SECTION Call your cable provider and ask them if the following steps are acceptable to them You do not want to circumvent their policies only to suffer their wrath when you find they ve canceled your account and you are facing possible legal action Get any negotiated exceptions to their policies in writing Tightrope Media Systems does not condone nor advocate wanton violation of your ISP s acceptable use policies The first order of business is figuring out how to find your Tightrope server from outside your network To do this you use a technology called Dynamic Domain Name Service DDNS DDNS providers offer the same services as DNS except that they are able to track your dynamic IP address using special software that you install
143. age 140 The RSS Bulletins Event Schedule bulletin section 17 9 on page 150 The Event Schedule Bulletins Live Video Feed section 17 12 on page 159 The Live Video Input Bulletins Interactive Bulletin section 17 13 on page 161 Interactive Bul letins e Manage Bulletins chapter 18 on page 167 Managing Bulletins My Bulletins section 18 1 on page 167 Bulletin Lists Active Bulletins section 18 1 on page 167 Bulletin Lists Active Repeating Bulletins section 18 1 on page 167 Bulletin Lists x Alert Bulletins section 18 1 on page 167 Bulletin Lists x Saved Bulletins section 18 1 on page 167 Bulletin Lists Stale Bulletins section 18 1 on page 167 Bulletin Lists All Bulletins section 18 1 on page 167 Bulletin Lists Active Bulletins section 18 1 on page 167 Bulletin Lists Active Repeating Bulletins section 18 1 on page 167 Bulletin Lists x Alert Bulletins section 18 1 on page 167 Bulletin Lists 244 Appendix B Carousel Menu Tree Waiting Bulletins section 18 3 on page 173 Approving Bulletins Housekeeping section 18 4 on page 174 Housekeeping Delete all stale bulletins section 18 4 on page 174 Housekeeping Delete all saved bulletins section 18 4 on page 174 Housekeeping Delete all waiting bulletins section 18 4 on page 174 Housekeeping Delete all active bulletins section 18 4 on page 174 Housekeeping Delete a user s bulletins section 18 4 on page 174 H
144. alicized Let s make a word Let s pet Q If you mess up by not closing out a tag lt b gt or use a tag that is not supported none of the text in that block will be shown 13 2 2 Checking your spelling In case you might have made an unintentional spelling error you can check it by clicking the Spell Check icon y 13 2 3 Editing the Template of the Bulletin To edit the template for this bulletin and this bulletin only click the Edit Template icon When editing the template from a message you are only modifying that 13 2 Editing and Creating Bulletins 105 template for this bulletin If you need to permanently modify the template then edit it from the Media menu before you make the bulletin FIGURE 13 5 The Quick Edit Palette es EN TE EEIPETI hares L TTL ARZT TET ELITT Edit Column One Properties Font venis JI Etre Style B U Size 76 Iv Auto Size P Move lt v Color Quick edit makes quick changes By default the area below the preview is taken up by a listing of some of the general to bulletins properties for this bulletin If you click on an element within the preview such as a picture or a block of text a limited set of tools to edit the layout or attributes of the selected element will appear For example you can change the font color size and position of a text box by clicking on it in the preview The Quick Edit palette shown in figure 13 5 provides these
145. alling the database on a database server Step 1 Copy the files FrontDoor50 CreateDB sql Carousel50 sql sql and FrontDoor50 PopulateDB sql from Install Dir Database Scripts to the database server Step 2 You will need to modify the FrontDoor50 CreateDB sql and Carousel50 sql files Open each file and change the CREATE DATABASE command to the physical path you want the database file created at There is one path for the mdf file and one for the 1df file Step 3 Using your management console or oSgl run the FrontDoor50 CreateDB sql script J 3 Advanced Enterprise Installations Separating SQL and Media Storage 291 Step 4 From the command prompt run C Windows Microsoft NET Framework v2 0 50727 aspnet_regsgql exe E d FrontDoor50 A mrp This will populate the database with the ASP NET roles and memberships for the web server Step 5 Using your management console or oSql run the FrontDoor50 PopulateDB sql script Step 6 Using your management console or oSql run the Carousel50 sql1 script Step 7 Make sure you have a login for the web server for the FrontDoor50 and Carousel50 databases J 3 5 Configuring the database login and the web server Step 1 Modify the following config files using your favorite text editor You need to add the login connection string in the lt connectionStrings gt area for the following files TInstall Dir Web FrontDo
146. alls Do you have all of the required mounting hardware for Carousel includ ing equipment rack accessories behind the monitor mounting brackets etc Do you know where all of the monitors are going Do you know which monitors are going where and how they will be oriented Do you know how your are getting video audio to each display and do you have all of the required equipment for that Do you have everything that you need from IT A static IP address for your Solo Server Any required open ports to or from the internet See section 5 2 1 on page 45 Configuring the Network Settings Any domain permissions policies or virus software that needs to be installed on the players or server Do you know the channel names for each of their channels and where each channel is being loaded Did they purchase andy Tightrope Creative Channels store trms com Have they decided which ones they are Have you downloaded them 238 Appendix A Installer s Checklist A 1 2 Setup A 1 Carousel Checklist All Carousel equipment is properly mounted provided with power and KVM access where required All monitors are safely mounted All video distribution hardware is properly connected to the players and their monitors Any television control hardware that may be required has been installed serial cables IR blocks etc Servers have been configured to operate on the network d LI LILI LJ They have been jo
147. am Use a commas to seperate multiple addresses Save Cancel To access this menu Select Zone Settings from the main menu Be sure the Network tab is selected Select Email Setup Add one or more email addresses to the Email addresses text box figure 10 1 Click the Save button 91 10 1 2 Other Outputs E Pro Enterprise Editions 10 2 Lists We cover adding that access right in FrontDoor The Manual We cover approving messages in section 18 3 on page 173 In addition to the Display Engine Carousel can display messages on a public web site To enable this feature for this zone click on the Enabled checkbox From this screen you also have the ability to disable the public output of any RSS bulletins for any specific zone To see the URL for this zone go to the main menu and click Extras You ll see the address for the current zone at the bottom of the list Carousel Pro and Enterprise are also able to display messages on a screensaver client which can be downloaded from the Extras menu The Lists tab includes lists of fonts transitions and excluded words that you don t want your RSS reader display The first two are lists with checkboxes next to them Simply uncheck the fonts or transitions that you do not want available for this zone For RSS words type all of the words that you want the RSS reader to filter when it filters items Any item with that word will not be displayed You may consider
148. an or remove ET baraer 3 server roles and features Eg Storage Za Configure Server Manager Remote A Local Area IPv4 address assigned by DHCP Management Connection IPv6 enabled Remote Desktop Enabled Server Manager Disabled Remote Management Product ID Not activated Do not show me this console at logon gt Security Information d Go to Windows Firewall a Configure Updates Windows Firewall Public On 4 Check for New Roles peritos Nos cinfgured a Run Security Configuration Wizard Yip Configure IE ESC Last checked for Never updates x 2a Last Refresh Today at 8 42 AM Configure refresh Step 18 Under Security Information in the right pane click on Configure IE ESC Step 19 Turn IE ESC off for Administrators then click OK figure J 5 Step 20 2008 Server needs SOL Server Express SP3 which can be downloaded at Mi J 1 Windows 2008 Installation 279 FIGURE J 5 Turning off IE En hanced Security for Administrators crosoft s web site You can select the link in the PDF version of this manual or search for SQL Server Express SP3 Make careful note on installing the cor rect version If you re running a 64 bit version of 2008 make sure that you get the 64 bit installer for Management Studio J 1 4 Installing SQL Server Express Step 21 Run the SQL Server Express 2008 or 2012 installer 280 Appendix J Enterprise Software Installation El Microsoft SOL Server 2005 Setup Welc
149. and Irregularly Shaped Pictures 181 FIGURE 19 3 A List of Backgrounds Clicking an items link edits the properties 19 5 1 Items 19 5 2 Form Buttons 182 Add Tag Backgrounds for Fennel Hall General filtered by Natural Hide Tags Abstract 4 Buildings 03 Food and Drink taj Information 13 Mat Outside 11 Weather 10 j Partu and Events Technical 0 Unselect All KAJ Branches Buds Flower 1 Flower 2 Matural Brown Outside Matural Abstract I atural Matural Flower 3 Flawer 4 Flower 5 Leaf 1 Matural amp bstract Matural Brown Matural Brown Matural Figure 19 3 is a view of the top of a background list populated with some of the default backgrounds included with Carousel Let s examine some if the fea tures First notice that in our example we have filtered the backgrounds by the Natural tag which means that only backgrounds with that tag can be seen We can erase this by clicking on the blue remove icon B Next notice that Buds and Flower have been selected We can select any combination of items by clicking on them Take note if you click on the item s hyperlink the item s properties form will appear We cover editing a media asset s properties in section 19 6 on page 185 Media Asset Properties If you would like to un select items you ve clicked on click the Unselect All link at the top of the list If nothing is selected you ll notice the link says Se
150. annel Name Channel Setup section 7 3 1 on page 62 The Channel Setup Form Channel Layout section 7 3 2 on page 64 The Channel Layout Form Crawl section 7 3 3 on page 65 The Crawl Properties Form Date and Time section 7 3 4 on page 66 The Date and Time Properties Form Background Audio section 7 3 5 on page 68 The Background Audio Form Background Audio Playlist section 7 3 6 on page 68 Adding Background Audio to Carousel Zones section 7 2 on page 59 Create Your Zones Zone Name Players section 8 3 on page 75 Monitoring Your Players Player Status section 8 3 1 on page 75 Player Status Alert Settings section 8 3 3 on page 77 Player Alerts System section 11 2 on page 96 System Configuration Menu x Zone Selection Style section 11 2 1 on page 96 Zone Selection Style Administrator Email Setup section 11 2 2 on page 96 Administra tor Email Setup x Zone Tags section 11 2 3 on page 97 Zone Tags System Information section 11 2 6 on page 98 System Informa tion e New Bulletin chapter 13 on page 103 Making Bulletins Standard chapter 13 on page 103 Making Bulletins Uploaded chapter 16 on page 119 Uploading Bulletins x Upload an image file section 16 1 on page 119 Uploading Video and Pictures Upload a flash file section 16 2 on page 121 Uploading Flash x Upload a video file section 16 1 on page 119 Uploading Video and Pictures Upload a PowerPoin
151. ant to make all of the media conform to the new size Step 6 The Use server s time settings check box locks this zones time settings to that of the Carousel server If the zone 1s 1n another time zone then uncheck this box and choose the time zone for the geographic location that these zones will be displayed in That is if your zone is used in the lobby of the Bangalore India office go ahead and select 5 30 4 Step 7 The items hidden by the Show Zone Synchronization Settings tab are outside of this walk through See section 11 1 on page 95 Synchronizing Zones for detailed information on synchronizing zones Step 8 When you re finished click the Save button Step 9 Add additional zones by going back and repeating from Step 2 until you are finished 7 3 Define Your Channels Now that all of your zones have been created we re ready to define the channels that your system is licensed for If you are coming to this part of the manual from Configuration Zon setting up your zones a process that we did in the previous section then you can up navigate back to the main configuration screen by clicking on the Configuration link at the top of the screen Otherwise click the Configuration button on the status Main Menu Configure bar of Carousel s main menu Then click the Channels menu item Channels 7 3 Define Your Channels 61 FIGURE 7 4 No channels are defined when a system is first installed Step 1 Step 2 7 3
152. apshots Appendix D Sample Carousel Templates Below are the default templates provided with new systems Please see the quick start guide for information regarding uploading and installing these on your sys tem 251 TITLE Event Information f Education Additional Information a Event Message Event Invitation 1 Event Title Event Tnformatton Event with Image Four Piece Message Important Message Industrial Event Title Additional Information Mellow Yello INFORMATION x s E i a c p LEE A n n 252 Music Off Broadway with Image Office Bulletin Appendix D Sample Carousel Templates Title NUM enrevsel Column EEL Information Olive Recipe card with image Simple Message with Image ORGANIZA Information Special Event information Simple Message with Title Simple Message Sports Event I ened Left rAMIZAT Right Additional RS Contents Conta tion Contents Invitation Information eeocrevsel Laie Special Coutact Inf c 4 KITEET D LI n Three Piece Message Two Columns and Image Two Image with Details ATTENTION Additional Information Urgent Message 253 Calendar of Events wOna I Information VeEE ERA M mmn tnis Title us THURSDAY Sefer FRIDAY m Tue E ei NN A Title and Body Calendar of Events Celebrate Additio
153. are many administrative and protocol headaches associated with NAT Since NAT came after the design of the Internet it wasn t a part of the underlying design of IP networking As a result it violates basic assumptions embedded into the design of the Internet to accomplish its amazing feats It is for this reason that we all look forward to a day when a new version of IP networking called IPv6 is able to finally retire the current one The key thing to remember about NAT is that there are two connections you with the router and the router with the destination The router makes a connection on your behalf and forwards all return packets back to your computer For the most part it works just like if your computer were directly connected to the destination computer A firewall is a device or a feature on a router that is able to block specific IP traffic based on a set of rules Firewalls were traditionally installed on the edge of your network but have become an important feature of operating systems and software firewalls are now found on many desktop computers To understand the significance of firewalls we need to acknowledge a troubling fact all non trivial computer systems have bugs It doesn t matter what platform you operate on or if you are up to date with your Microsoft Patches There are bugs in your system and many of them can be exploited to gain access to your network resources One of the central purposes of a firewall i
154. arousel Pro or Enterprise a Carousel Solo is needed for every channel of output 2 The Essentials of Carousel Tightrope Media Systems introduces Carousel 5 0 the latest version of their award winning digital signage system weather PEA Tightrage Media prems inetnodagces Carauset 55 the Healthier Living Presented by Medica open TI FK Mit Vsesion Gt Boom A101 D eir award Tightrope Media Systems Digital Signage a warming digits Room Piti Sue Sy Sar Mothballing your Battleship Emerald fi sa wam z Borate shag c Mre Bunch le Besorg beerti cnini 1 m Byki Badia ptam Dag um gegen Pertti FIGURE 2 1 Monitors can be in 16x9 9x16 and 4x3 aspect ratios Engine which is the software that makes the pictures on the display at your new server You can of course buy a separate Carousel system and operate it independently but as we ll see in later sections this is a limiting proposition There are other options for adding more channels to a Carousel system if you have Carousel Pro or Enterprise Read section 2 5 on page 25 after you ve completed this section With the standard Carousel Server you can add up to two Carousel Players for a total of three unique channels With Carousel Pro the limit is 200 channels The number of channels for a Carousel Enterprise system is determined by your server s hardware The bottom line is Carousel Solo systems act as stand alone digital signage sys
155. at will remind you of the location of the displays that are addressing this channel If this channel 1s to have a crawl zone associated with it then choose that crawl zone in the pop down labeled Subscribe to Crawls from zone If the channel is to have one or more full screen alert zones click on the Click here to configure subscriptions link 7 Setup Basics Step By Step FIGURE 7 6 The Channel Setup Form FIGURE 7 7 Adding full screen alert zones to this channel FIGURE 7 8 You can re order the list by dragging and dropping the items 7 3 Define Your Channels Name DEMO K 12 2010 Subscribe to Crawls from zone Crawl 2 Subscribe to Full Alert bulletins Click here to configure subscriptions Note crawls do not work on channels that run in portrait mode Save Cancel Mel _ M I This channel subscribes to Big Time Alert Zone Drag and drop to change the priority of zones C Delete Not That Big Time Alert Zone Add Save Cancel L o a i Substep A Any full screen alert zone that you may wish to add to this channel may done on this form shown in figure 7 7 Select all of the zones from the pop down list and click the Add button Keep repeating until all of the full screen alert zones have been added Substep B Full screen alerts are prioritized from top to bottom That is if both the first and the second zones have bulletins in them then the bulle
156. ate new Web Virtual Directory Appendix J Enterprise Software Installation FIGURE J 17 Naming the virtual Virtual Directory Creation Wizard director r y Virtual Directory Alias Specify a short name or alias for this virtual directory Type the alias you want to use to gain access to this Web virtual directory Use the same naming conventions that wou would for naming a directory Alias Media FIGURE J 18 Typing the path to yi Directory Creation Wizard ise Window the virtual directory wren re Content Directory Where is the content you want to publish on the Web site Enter the path to the directory that contains the content for this feb site Fath KAM edia Browse Cancel J 3 Advanced Enterprise Installations Separating SQL and Media Storage 29 FIGURE J 19 Testing the remote Media storage in Carousel New Zone Main Menu Manage Bulletins My Active Bulletins My Bulletins All Bulletins Waiting Bulletins Housekeeping Slide Show Admin Account 3 Ive from Today at 12 00 AM until Today at 11 59 PM Displayed every day gt Image file System J 4 Enterprise Troubleshooting Carousel and its underlying processes must adhere to the security put in place on your network As such ensure that the server has sufficient rights to write to disk and communicate on the network if installed on a domain
157. ator such as feedvalidator org or validator w3 org feed can be helpful for this task If you can successfully create a bulletin but it only updates once it is most likely a proxy server on your network Carousel downloads the RSS data every 15 minutes A proxy server caches data downloaded from the internet in an attempt to speed up your network but in some cases proxy servers will cache RSS feed data too Carousel displays a Last Updated date and time in the manage bulletins screen This is updated every time it successfully downloads the data If the data is old then something was cached or the data was not updated from the publisher RSS Feed from http rss cnn com rss cnn topstories rss e ner Admin Account ve Until manually turned off je RSS Crawl izt 7 RSS Feed a 44 12 10 2008 7 10 58 AM heck data Show Hide Crawl Text CNN com 12 10 2008 Blagojevich plans to return to i work today Indicted Illinois Gov Rod Blagojevich ld reportedly plans to return to work today a day after federal corruption charges against him were unveiled Meanwhile state lawmakers sald they are preparing to take away the governor s power to fill the Senate seat vacated by President elect Barack Obama Blagojevich Resolutions e Bypass the proxy server e Check the last update field in Carousel e Check the data downloaded by Carousel to see if it is out of date if it is it 1s most likely the proxy server The RSS bulletin seem
158. aved bulletins edit them or re activate them Remember you can use the Copy Send Transfer LM to move a bulletin to another user s list If you want to move a stale bulletin into a user s saved list then you must first move it to the current user s saved list and then transfer it We cover copying and moving bulletins in section 18 1 5 on page 171 Logged in as admin New Bulletin Welcome to Carousel Select a menu item on the left to get started New Alert Bulletin Manage Bulletins Media There is 1 bulletin waiting to be approved Event Schedule Extras 7one Settinas When a user without permission to auto authorize makes a bulletin it will be held for approval before it is added to Carousel s Active Bulletins list Whether or not a bulletin has to be approved is determined for each user and is configurable for each zone for which they have bulletin creation permission See FrontDoor The Manual to learn about how to set these permissions To find the list of waiting bulletins go to the Waiting Bulletins tab within the Manage Bulletins menu lo Andrew Starks Ce Subject Bulletin Waiting for Approval Carousel 5 0 0 191 2 22 2007 8 18 42 AM This is the Carousel service running on ISIAH There is a new a bulletin waiting for approval Unknown PictureBulletin creation is what it is all about Carousel Training TIGHIROPE MEDIA When a new bulletin arrives from one of these users Carousel is able
159. ay change it to a more suitable entry This is the default text for this message The user will probably Default Text enter their own text pus HO Opacity 100 v Font SassySharpie v FFOOOC Style Alignment L Bold Liitatic LJ Underline C Strikeout Alignment Center w Sizing 6 M v AutoSize v wrap Text Color O 00 L Shadow On v ipx M EHO Opacity 80 v 000000 Outline On v Ealar Opacity 100 Everything else in this area of the form is devoted to the style of the text and is orga nized in rows by Font Syle Alighment Sizing Shadow and Outline Everything should be pretty straight forward with a couple of notable features First Carousel can optionally size a text block based on the block s size and the 2257 amount of text When Auto Size is selected Carousel ignores the value in the Sizing pop down list and resizes the text to fill the block Second if you do not check the Wrap Text checkbox Carousel will allow text to run off of the side of a block unless you have Auto Size selected In that case your text will get very small very quickly Make sure that the field that you are defining is going only have text that will fit Step 9 The last section of the Template Editor form is devoted to the backdrop and outline As we mentioned before it is useful to turn either one of these on while you are getting the block s size and position
160. ay or sharing zones across channels opens an That is it s as square or rectangular as your display is 2 That s a lie Because Carousel 4 didn t have zones there was no need to set them up You told Carousel the size of the channel and that was the size of any bulletins that would be on that screen At least in setting it up Carousel Release 5 is a tad more involved 32 3 The Setup Plan FIGURE 3 1 This example has six zones each updating independently In a multi channel system it is likely that two or three of these zones would be used on other channels almost endless number of possibilities You will add a zone to a channel when you want a specific kind of information to always be visible even while other bulletins are displayed on other parts of the screen figure 3 1 Tightrope Media Systems introduces Carousel 5 0 their latest version of their award winning digital signage system Snowing Temp 245 Humidity 100 Wind North at 13mph With a zero training zero administration design Carousel makes enterprise digital signage attractive affordable and manageable lil ab Eth Cheaat W at 26th Street ucl CLE E a Healthier Living Through Eating Glue Room A101 3 30 pm Tightrope Media Systems Digital Signage Presentation Room Bi102 4 00 pm Mothballing your Battleship Emerald Room A ER You must understand zones and channels before you go about creating them withi
161. ayerStatus GetBulletinList GetTemplateList GetZoneList GetVideoList GetPictureList Username The following commands are available in the CarouselCommand data structure Creates a bulletin from a template Creates a crawl bulletin Get the status of bulletins that you create with your application Changes a bulletin s status Moves a bulletin to the users saved folder Sets the status of a particular page Current 1 Queued 2 Hold 4 Saved 8 Stale 16 Deletes all of a user s bulletins Deactivates all alert bulletins on a specified zone Updates a current bulletin Returns an array of status messages for all of the players on your Carousel system Returns an array of bulletins that are in a zone Returns an array of templates that are in a zone Returns an array of zones that a user has access to Returns a list of video elements that contain a name value GUID and URLs for a preview image Returns a list of picture elements that contain a name value GUID and URLs for a preview image When creating an application that sends data to Carousel you will include some or all of the following information in your CarouselCommand This is the username that was created in FrontDoor that the application will use to authenticate Bulletins created via RDA will be owned by this user Generally this will be an account used exclusively by the RDA plug in 211 21 3 Elements of CarouselCommand Pas
162. bed zones so the highest priority full screen alert zone for that channel will override any other zone s bulletins That way you can use full screen alert zones to announce important things that are not emergencies but also have a full screen alert zone that overrides these special bulletins as well as any other bulletins in your channel s layout Any bulletin zone may have an alert bulletin created by clicking on New Alert Bulletin from the main menu From there creating the page is exactly the same process as a standard bulletin a topic covered in chapter 13 on page 103 When an alert page is active no other bulletin from that zone will be displayed until all of the alert bulletins have expired Thethird tab from the top will show either the name of the full screen alert zone on your system or Full Screen Alerts if you have more than one of these zones Once you select a full screen alert zone the system will switch to that zone and you may create and manage the zone like any other The one exception is that you may only create an alert bulletin from this zone by activating a bulletin from this zone removes all other bulletins from the channels that use it Remember full screen alert zones appear on one or more channels A channel can have any number of these zones 117 118 15 Alert and Full Alert Bulletins 16 Uploading Bulletins Picture Flash Video PowerPoint Bulletin Package
163. both tags Tags are also useful when you re creating a bulletin and want it displayed on a specific group of zones Using the above example you can drill down to all zones in Common Areas on the Minneapolis Campus Alternately you could select all Library zones in the East Bank This feature is extremely important in very large installations where there is a need to filter choices in order to quickly find the zone or zones that you are looking for What is nice about this approach is that you can select a specific set of zones according to your needs 2 5 Pro and Enterprise Editions Added Flexibility 27 28 2 The Essentials of Carousel II Planning and Setup A goal without a plan is just a wish Antoine de Saint Exup ry 20 30 3 The Setup Plan ue If you are installing this Carousel system for another user such as for a customer US because you are the systems integrator you ll need to have the questions that this chapter raises answered before you can perform your installation Otherwise you won t know key information such as the channels name zone layouts etc As the systems integrator read this chapter but understand that only customer is going to be able to answer the questions within As we mentioned in The Essentials of Carousel you need to use the check list in appendix A on page 237 to guide your installation The setup process in Carousel requires that you make
164. by adding them to this list Separate each word with a comma If the item includes any of the words in this list the entire item is omitted That is not just the word is excluded but the entire item In addition to offensive words you may also want to consider excluding words that are not appropriate to your environment such as competitor s names or words associated with violence 17 Dynamic Bulletins FIGURE 17 14 Editing an RSS Bulletin section 13 2 on page 104 Editing and Creating Bulletins _ Display images in your RSS bulletins Item titles and descriptions automatically repeat 17 5 2 Scheduling RSS amp ChannelTitles it ChannelTitle DJ ChannelPubDate ChannelPubDate ChannelCopyright ChannelCopyright ItemTitle s ItemTitle3 ItemDescription d TtemDescription Background Template Specific i jselect Upload Bulletin Properties Avaliable fields Display for 15 seconds ChannelPublicationDate ChannelCategories ChannelCopyright Transition System ChannelDescription ChannelGenerator ChannelImageURL Date and Time 8 26 2008 12 00 AM ChannelLink ChannelManagingEditor ChannelRating ChannelTitlez ChannelWebmaster ItemAuthor ItemCategory until 8 26 2008 11 59 PM ItemPublicationDate ItemTitle ItemDescription ItemLink Note Enclose conditional text in curley braces
165. cable Next launch the Carousel Display Engine shortcut on the desktop and click the Configure button In the configuration window look for the Live Video Input Device section and select the Contemporary Research on Port 1 device I 4 Contemporary Research and AVerMedia Hardware 215 FIGURE I 8 Configuring the Display Engine Configuration At this point your hardware and software are now configured See section 17 12 on page 159 for information on creating Live Video bulletins using the TVI box 276 Appendix I Live TV Input TVD Devices Appendix J Enterprise Software Installation Installing Carousel Enterprise on a web server is very involved because web servers are flexible and IT requirements vary Therefore it really is impossible for us to give a casual computer user all of the information needed to install Carousel Enterprise successfully in every environment This chapter is for the advanced user only The next few sections will walk you through installing Carousel Framework on your Windows Server 2008 environment in a simple limited installation The last section section J 3 on page 290 Advanced Enterprise Installations Separating SQL and Media Storage covers topics such as remote media directories and existing SQL servers J 1 Windows 2008 Installation Prerequisites e Windows Server 2008 or 2008R2 Internet Information Server 7 or Higher Microsoft NET Framework 4 0 SOL Server 2008 2012 e
166. ccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name Weekdays type xs byte maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name WebEnabled type xs boolean maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name Description type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name PageType type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name Block maxOccurs unbounded minOccurs 0 type ctBlock gt name ExclusiveAlertOn type xs boolean maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt lt xs complexType gt xs complexType lt xs sequence gt lt xs element lt xs element lt xs sequence gt name ctGetZoneList gt Mnoccurs L 7 gt minoeccurse qe 7s maxoccurs 1 maxOccursew name UserName type xs string name Password type xs string lt xs complexType gt lt xs complexType lt xs sequence gt lt xs element lt xs element lt xs element lt xs sequence gt name ctGetTemplateList gt name UserName type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt name Password type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt name ZoneID type xs int maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs complexType gt xs complexType lt xs sequence gt lt xs element lt xs element lt xs element lt xs sequence gt name ctZone name ZoneID type xs int name ZoneName type xs string name ZoneType type xs string gt gt lt xs complexType gt lt xs complexType lt xs sequence gt lt xs element lt
167. click Save We cover this in the Tightrope Server Installation Guide 68 7 Setup Basics Step By Step 7 3 7 Adding a Seamless Background A seamless background is a background uploaded into Carousel that covers the entire channel Once it is uploaded Carousel cuts it up to fit in the zones that are placed within that channel saving the slices for use in templates within those zones We cover this process in section 19 9 on page 201 Creating a Seamless Background for a Multi Zoned Channel 7 4 Previewing Your Channel After you have designed your channel you can preview it directly in your web browser Head back to the Channel list in the configuration screens and click the preview icon next to the channel name as shown in figure 7 15 FIGURE 7 15 The channel list 000 Carousel with preview buttons C il Ob http demo trms com Carousel Main aspx Q Q Inquisitor Now Alert New Bulletin Manage Bulletins About FrontDoor Log Out Main Men Carousel Configuration close Configuration Channel configuration O DEMO Community TV O DEMO Corporate Financial DEMO Worship O DEMO Hotel Convention Center O DEMO Health Facility O DEMO Elementary High School O DEMO University RAPA SAS Ii There are 13 available channel licenses Add Channel Delete Selected Channels A new browser window will open and you will see the entire channel with each
168. computers have broken and been replaced Thirty of them got a virus and needed to be rebuilt You added another 100 computers to one department and got rid of 30 from another You can see how time consuming network administration can become when you have to manually enter the networking information into a large number of com puters Enter a magic technology Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol or DHCP DHCP is a service that runs on a network If a computer is configured to use DHCP it will seek out this service and automatically configure its network settings using the DHCP service s instructions Typically if your computer uses DHCP it leases an IP address This means that your IP address can change after a predetermined amount of time We call these addresses dynamic IP addresses If your computer is sitting on your desk and you use it for email and surfing the web this is fine Nobody cares about your IP address because nobody relies on your computer for any network services Dynamic IP addresses are a problem if your computer does have services that people need to find For example a web server needs to be at a fixed IP address because people need to know where they can find it Using DHCP does not have to mean a dynamic address DHCP can be configured to make a specific computer s address static There are other features of DHCP that are worth exploring Check out Wikipedia org for detailed information about it The bot
169. configuration such as a remote SQL server or media directory Further information on enterprise setup and configuration can be found in appendix J on page 277 We ll go over the possible scenarios below 22 2 1 Remote SQL servers To interface with a remote SQL server you ll need to edit the Clone Tool s config file If we don t the Clone Tool won t know how to contact the SQL server database Step 1 Modify D TRMS Tools Clone exe config using your favorite text editor You need to add the login connection string in the lt connectionStrings gt area Example Connection string login into a remote server with SQL authentication might be lt add name FrontDoorConnectionString connectionString Data Source MyServer UserID MyUser Password MyPwd Initial Catalog FrontDoor50 gt lt add name CarouselConnectionString connectionString Data Source MyServer UserID MyUser Password MyPwd Initial Catalog Carousel50 gt ue Be sure to set both of the connection strings FrontDoor and Carousel each have their own line and need to be updated 22 2 Advanced Settings 233 22 2 2 Remote media storage To set your remote media storage location click on the icon located in the top right corner of the Clone Tool window In this window you re also given the option for the Clone Tool to set folder and file permissions at Launch Disabling this can increase the speed of the Clone Tool for large installations but you must en
170. cripts FrontDoor50 PopulateD Where lt DriveLetter gt is the drive the Tightrope software is in stalled to This is generally either the C or D drive 289 Direct your web browser to your FrontDoor address once again and it should now correctly load Step 72 Log into FrontDoor By default the username is admin and password is t rms You ll want to change this Step 73 Contact Tightrope Support to obtain a license key Once licensed the system should be ready to use If you don t already have a customized design visit store trms com for a variety of free designs or the option to have on customized for your organization J 2 Carousel Player Software Installation It s possible that you ve purchased copies of our Carousel Player software to install and run on your own hardware If so this section will quickly touch on the requirements needed to run the Display Engine from the Carousel Player software This includes e Windows XP or Windows 7 e DirectX 9 Compatible Graphics Chipset e Microsoft NET Framework 2 0 The Carousel Player software uses a unique Security Identifier SID to differ entiate itself from other Players in the Player Status list This SID is created when Windows is first installed If you re cloning your Players from a single OS installation beware that these players will all share the same SID causing the Player Status screen to not operate correctly Once you have
171. cs Timeout This value must be langer than the longest possible Tuh page cycle duration These timeouts are system wide They will affect all Zones Art consisting of a painting or carving especially an altarpiece on three panels usually hinged together In this case three LCD panels with graphics are considered art 95 The first checkbox Synchronize with other zones This enables the feature and Carousel will wait for all other zones that also have this feature enabled before it will advance slides The Bulletin length timeout field sets the maximum duration for a single slide If a slide goes past this length Carousel will automatically advance all of the zones The Cycle length timeout field is the amount of time that should pass before Carousel gives up on a zone s cycle That is if all of the pages take longer than the value in this field to display Carousel will reset all of the zones back to the beginning The Page and Cycle values work to eliminate possible problems related to misbe having slides in a presentation It stops the zones from being permanently locked up on a particular slide Carousel can only support one of these configurations per system That is you cannot have one set of four zones that are synchronized together and another set of three synchronized independently 11 2 System Configuration Menu 11 2 1 Zone Selection Style FIGURE 11 2 The zone picker First let s navigate to the
172. cs Za Ar ovvscel Release 6 4 6 The Manual tigntrope media systems X OTightrope Media Systems Documentation on how to use and administrate Carousel Version 6 4 6 Build 61 Printed June 4 2014 Contents I Introduction and Tour 13 1 Introduction 15 1 1 WelcometoCarousel 0 00000 2 ee eee 15 1 2 About TIONS ei oe Poe ROO we koX BUR ORO m s ee Oe x 15 1 3 About This Documentation llle 17 1 3 1 Turnkey and Software Only Versions 17 1 3 2 Carousel Editions and Options 17 1 4 DefaultPasswords 22er 18 1 5 Upgrading From Older Versions rss 18 2 The Essentials of Carousel 19 2 A Quick Note To Carousel Installers 19 2 2 A Quick Note to Carousel s Users and Administrators 19 2 5 What Does Carousel Do 0 000000 8 19 2 4 Displays Channels Zones Bulletins and Media 20 A41 Displays pot 4 4 4 4 9 5 b dda OSS rh s 20 2 4 2 Carousel Players Adding More Outputs 20 2 43 Zones and Channels 22 2 4 4 Zones on Multiple Channels 23 243 Bulletins 44x omo domom binrin Ki 24 II 2 4 6 Alert and Repeating Bulletins Interrupting a Zone s Bulletins 24 2 4 7 Full Screen Alert Zones Interrupting All of a Channel s oli 24 sop omea eee ee eS a ee 24 2 4 8 Crawl Zones 223499909 EERE OS ww X xx AS 25 2 5 Pro and Enterprise Editions Added Fle
173. ctions in section 5 1 2 on page 43 for configuring the player s video output Note that you will need to point this server at the main Carousel Server To do this start the display engine click on the Configure button and enter the IP address into the Server field located in the Carousel Server Settings are of the Configuration screen In order to verify connectivity to the Carousel Server click the check mark to the right of the Server field This action will verify that Player and the Server can communicate with each other If you see the status of OK choose the channel you want displayed from the Channel drop down menu and choose Save If FATLED appears the player cannot communicate with the server verify network connectivity network settings and the server s IP address See the Installation Guide for information regarding network port requirements for display engines especially if you are operating a player that is separated from a Carousel server by a network router Configuration Display Settings Monitor Offset In i Carousel Server Settings Hide taskbar av Hide cursor Server localhost Channel Church Graphics Manager Standard Time Settings Live Video Input Time Synchronize Time Device a Audio F Offline Hours Mone C from LS i fo 12 emen 5 2 4 Language Support Changing The System Locale 48 Carousel language support introduced in version 6 3 is two things
174. current zone add it to other zones under either the Zone or My tabs We cover this in section 19 5 3 on page 184 Copying Media Assets It is important to note that the list of bulletins available within your private list is unique for each zone If you have a background tucked away in your My Backgrounds stash it will not be available to you when you go to another zone Again this is where copying media comes into play and we cover that in sec tion 19 5 3 For backgrounds and pictures Carousel supports e Portable Network Graphics PNG e JPEG e BMP For sound files e WAV e MP3 e Unprotected WMV Finally Carousel supports the following video formats MPEG 1 2 4 AVI any properly configured codec including Microsoft DV QuickTime any properly configured codec including QuickTime DV and H 264 Windows Media 9 19 Managing Media 19 2 1 File Compatibility Carousel does a nice job of detecting invalid picture and background files However there is no verification for video and audio files Be sure that you are using standard formats with codecs that are installed an all of your players We cover more details on specific hardware capabilities including high definition playback in section 4 3 on page 36 Video File Playback Performance and Resolutions 19 3 Logos and Irregularly Shaped Pictures The PNG format is especially useful for logos or any irregularly shaped picture as Carousel can cut a hole for
175. d Carousel Framework on the web server 291 J 3 4 Installing the database on a database server 291 J 3 5 Configuring the database login and the web server 202 J 3 6 Moving the media directory to another server 202 J A Enterprise Troubleshooting lll 208 J 4 1 Could Not Find Stored Procedure 208 J 4 2 WebUI Can t Connect To Database 208 Common Alert Protocol CAP 301 K1 Communications uo 969 EHR RO EO Y REESE EE BS 301 K 2 Workflow of CAP 22h 301 Troubleshooting 303 Li Carousel Bumper Page 2 22 225 229 o c 303 L2 No Zones Defined 2 2 2o sooo o o o 9 o og n 303 L3 Not LAGS ies ceo un ode OR uoo RE mo de DURO AGRO de EDU 304 L 4 DisplayEngine Hidden Configuration Options 304 A Not So Short Introduction to Networking 305 M 1 The Basics What is a Network 305 Mil IP RISE uoo oe eh eo ama OHS obe we GO OHS 306 M L2 Subnet Mask 6h ee ee 9o x ROS ED EE HES 307 M 1 3 Network Router 2 000000 307 M 1 4 Domain Name System DNS Address 308 M 1 5 Summary of Basic Network Concepts 309 M 2 Dynamic Addresses and DHCP 310 M 3 TCP and UDP Glossed Over rn 310 M 4 Network Ports susc ceo eo x ER ED A Re Res 311 M 5 Private and Public IP Addresses 0 312 M 6 Network Address Translation 004 313 ALT PSs op hh SG eR eS ode EUER e Sod
176. d Media Package 204 Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 e V n Se Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 The zip files that are uploaded into Carousel follow a special file structure to inform Carousel what type of media they are backgrounds templates pictures etc Complete the following steps to create a media package Create a folder called Media Package Within the Media Package folder create a folder entitled Media Within the Media folder create a folder entitled with the type of media that it contains i e Backgrounds The following keywords may be used e Backgrounds e Pictures e Sounds e Templates e Videos For information on acceptable file formats see section 19 2 on page 180 You can create multiple folders inside the Media folder to upload several different types of media at once Zip the Media Package folder From the Carousel web interface head into the Media Zone tab Add Media Package Browse to the Media Package zip file and Upload Choose if you d like these files copied to any other zones and choose Save Your uploaded media is now in the system and able to be used for future bulletin creation 19 Managing Media 20 Extras FIGURE 20 1 The Extras Form 20 1 Screensaver Carousel includes alternate output capabilities that are available from the Main Menu by clicking on Extras e Screensaver Windows Macintosh Macintosh 64 bit for MacOS X 10 6 or lat
177. d a million that lie outside it The term network interface is more precise than saying computer because a computer might have more than one network card or the connecting device might not be a computer Network Interface covers any host on a network This is probably true for every scenario that you will come across There are special cases where a computer might have the same IP address on the same computer usually for redundancy or performance reasons in high capacity installations We mention it in a footnote so that when a network nerd corrects you on this point you can say Yeah I know One of my close friends and one of the biggest nerds that I know has a bumper sticker that reads There s no place like 127 0 0 1 It is at Thinkgeek com if you want your own 6 255 255 255 255 is special so we don t include it in the standard IP address range Appendix M A Not So Short Introduction to Networking M 1 2 Subnet Mask Put simply the subnet mask s job is to split an IP address into a network address and a host address This helps networking software determine when an address falls within the local network and when it does not Like an IP address a subnet mask is a group of four numbers separated by a period Each of the four numbers must always be between 0 and 255 2 The subnet mask is a bit mask Since computers think in 0 s and 1 s it can quickly take this number and mask it over the IP address Whenever
178. d in section 18 1 4 and click the Delete this Group icon 4 on the far right Carousel has no undo function for delete bulletins or groups Be careful that you are not unintentionally throwing valuable bulletins away Remember you can always opt to transfer a bulletin to your stale or saved bulletins list which allows you to recall them at a later date 18 1 4 Moving Bulletins or Groups Within a List You can move bulletins and groups to another location in the list by clicking on their preview picture or folder icon and then clicking between the gaps of two bulletins illustrated in figure 18 5 on the facing page 170 18 Managing Bulletins FIGURE 18 5 Moving a bulletin State Street Video between two bulletins You can P nad PEATA also move a bulletin into another e until manually turned off E Displayed every day bulletin to create a group ae Videa file mor System URGENT MESSAGE February 6th Digital signage seminar will b I Admin Account from Tuesday January 30 2007 at 12 00 AM until Thursday February 15 2007 st 11 59 PM i Displayed every day EN Standard bulletin System Burnsville Holiday Inn Diaital Sianaae Free seminar and we amp In Carousel you can view a list of bulletins that belong only to you which are located in the My Bulletins tab In this view you cannot move bulletins or groups between two bulletins You can however group bulletins together from w
179. d its description and Carousel will create the rest immediately below You can see an example of this in figure 17 15 on the next page The rest of the RSS bulletin creation process is identical to that of a standard bulletin You simply schedule it and modify the bulletin as you would one that you created with a template Check out section 13 3 on page 107 for further information You may want to check the Until Manually turned off checkbox on the schedule form This will leave this bulletin on until you manually remove it Carousel will automatically update the RSS data as it changes 17 5 The RSS Bulletins For example Flickr http flickr com publishes photosets as an RSS feed that contains links to each photo gt For more information see http blog trms com john 2008 06 carousel 52 ima html 143 FIGURE 17 15 The second item was automatically added after the first KONO NEWS OQU NEWS MVNO Eek Men fleeiaiter seeing Plant Eat UP AP A tury Uninvited guest had manly men dian Iron Range tire shop shrieking and hopping on desks It was pretty humorous said conservation officer Dan Starr who filed a report on the critters break in Here were these big burly outdoors guys running around screaming Park won t lift elephant with human hair AP AP A Taiwanese theme park has dropped a plan to use a cable made of 320 000 human hairs to lift an elephant a report said Friday The United Daily News said the th
180. dd key MediaDirectory value X Media gt Step 7 For Installdrive TRMS Services Carousel TRMS Services Carousel exe config 294 Appendix J Enterprise Software Installation FIGURE J 14 An example of the config files being changed Active Bulletins Step 8 Step 9 Step 10 Step 11 Manage Bulletins Mep 12 Step 13 find lt add key MediaDirectory value D Path To Media gt and change it to add key MediaDirectory value X where the value of X is your new Media directory s path The service auto matically appends the Media to the end of it s MediaDirectory value and that is why the paths need to be different E Web tonii Bebera 7 AE He Gore Forme ue HA lt xml version 1 0 encoding UTF 8 gt p lt contiguration xmlnss http schemas micrasofrt com Netconfiquratian vz 0 CONFIG SECTION for our uploader module gt zconfigsections lt section name Mediachase rileuploader McHtrpModule rypes Mediacha z configsections lt Mediachase Fi lelploader mMcHttpModu e zhtrprFile TempstoragePaths s TEMPS gt zhttpPost BufTersizesz 65536 gt lt Mediachase Fi leup oader McHttpModules gt amp l APP SETTINGS gt lt appsertines gt lt add keys rrontpoorUurl valuae Erontpaor gt lt add key Imagecropper Registration Name values TRMS lt add key Imagecropper License Type value Enterprise gt lt add key
181. decisions about the look and configuration of your displays You may want to show the weather on all of your displays in one corner and meeting room information in another Maybe you are a television station and you want your station s schedule always visible in the bottom quarter of the screen with weather and general bulletins in the upper part If you are running a Carousel system with many channels you may have some zones that are shared across channels You may have other zones that are similar in function but will show different information for different audiences Carousel can meet all of these needs This chapter will help you make decisions about your Carousel system s setup We hope you consider it time well spent saving you hours of work reconfiguring your system after you realize you got it wrong Alternately it could be a waste of time There is risk in everything 3 1 Designing Your Channel As we discussed in chapter 2 channels contain one or more zone s and they can be placed on any number of channels Every display engine tunes to a channel These facts hold the key to determining how your system will be configured 4 For single channel systems most of your decisions will be very obvious Just follow along and you ll be able to pick out the parts of this section that apply to you Dimensions of channel moni Your first step is to determine the size of the channel and what you want your tor s resolution channe
182. deos 315 M 7 1 Dire Warning About Firewalls 316 M 8 Port Forwarding ee 316 M 9 Virtual Private Network lll 2 eee 316 M 10 How Do I Access Cablecast or Carousel From Home 317 M 10 1 Option 1 Hang It Out On the Internet 317 M 10 2 Option 2 Use Port Forwarding 317 M 10 3 Option 3 Use VEN ou nu ee eG oo E BOX OSSA E E Rs 318 M 10 4 The Forget the IT Department Option 318 M 11 Avoiding The Tyranny of Cable Modem Providers 319 M 11 1 Dynamic DNS llle 319 M 11 2 Change Your Port Number 319 M 12 Time Synchronization UDP and NAT 321 Mi eye nuno o heh Che Oe ow oem ES BH 321 Release History 323 N 1 Carousel 6 4 0 Release Notes onono a a lll ln 323 N 2 Carousel 6 4 1 Release Notes nono a a lll sn 323 N 3 Carousel 6 4 4 Release Notes lll 004 324 N 4 Carousel 6 4 5 Release Notes lll 0040 324 N 5 Carousel 6 4 6 Release Notes lll 324 Contents List of Figures 327 Contents 11 12 Contents I Introduction and Tour I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there Richard Feynman 13 14 1 Introduction 1 1 Welcome to Carousel 1 2 About Tightrope Thank you for purchasing a Carousel system from Tightrope Media Systems We have worked hard to make your new system versatile
183. dio buttons to Use the following IP address and Use the following DNS server addresses Step 6 Enter you servers network settings into the provided fields If you are unsure about the required settings consult your network administrator or see the nstallation Guide for more information Step 7 Click OK to save your settings 5 2 2 Setting the System s Time All Tightrope servers will automatically attempt to synchronize their system clock using the Network Time Protocol NTP At this point we ll assume that this is working and only worry about setting the time zone For more information on synchronizing the clock refer to FrontDoor The Manual From the server s desktop double click on the time in the lower right of the screen This will open the Date and Time Properties dialog box Click on the Time Zone tab to reveal the window shown in figure 5 9 Select your time zone from the list ue It is important that you set the time zone for all servers and Carousel Players FIGURE 5 9 Select the time zone that the server is in from the Date and Time Properties pop down list and choose OK Date amp Time Time Zone GMT 06 00 Central Time LIS amp Canada Automatically adjust clack Far daylight saving changes This region of the screen is called the system tray 5 2 System Setup 47 5 2 3 Installing Carousel Players FIGURE 5 10 The Carousel display engine configuration screen Follow the instru
184. djust the font s typeface size and color within the Font section of the form The Format fields offer some control over the format of the time and date Pick from the presets offered or click the Custom option If you pick Custom then make sure you select the Show Legend link below the pop down It reveals a table of formatting codes that you will need to create your custom date time format appendix F on page 261 Custom Time Format Chart The Background Rectangle section is used to adjust the appearance of the back drop of the time and date If you don t want a rectangle behind your time and date then set the Opacity to dc t dd 7 3 Define Your Channels In the Background Rectangle Outline section you may enable and adjust the appearance of an outline around the backdrop The settings are self explana tory In the Horizontal Offset and Vertical Offset field you are adjusting the distance 67 from the edge that the time and date box will appear The default value is pretty good for most circumstances 7 3 5 The Background Audio Form FIGURE 7 14 Background Audio z m Form Background Audio List Line Input Save Cancel Audio Source If you are going to use the background audio feature of Carousel and your Carousel player is configured to provide audio or loop audio through from an external i source then you will want to configure the audio settings From the Channel Main Menu Configure Config
185. e Em Fvant mith Tm ana 13 2 Editing and Creating Bulletins FIGURE 13 2 The Edit Bulletins Zones Crawls Full Screen Alerts Current Zone Fennel Hall General Form Main Menu New Bulletin Standard bulletin Event CAROUSEL TRAINING Header Column Want to make bulletins like this One one Join us for Carousel training and learn how you can put this new communication tool to work for you Image my TRMS select Upload Bulletin Properties Important Friday July 8 Display far automatic Dates Room 101A Transition System 3D0 1 ST ERU SU Date and Time 2 4 2007 12 00 AM until 2 4 2007 11 59 PM Background Template Specific Select Uplaad Continue Cancel The next screen to appear is the bulletin editing form It includes all of the elements that are a part of the chosen template In figure 13 2 we can see a good example of what to expect with a template First notice that on the left is a form with text and pop down fields that define the message On the right is a preview and properties section Looking carefully at the preview picture you can see that the fields on the right are represented in the preview although the text is a bit small To create your message fill out the form on the left You will notice that the pop down lists correspond to either a video or a picture depending on the field You can make a new selection by using the pop down selecto
186. e The next page will let you adjust the look of your weather bulletin slightly Click on any text inside the bulletin to change some properties such as text color size position etc For more advanced control you can edit the weather bulletin using the full featured template editor Just click on the Edit Template button above the preview Once you are in the template editor whose operation we cover in section 19 7 on page 186 you can add or remove blocks change the text etc You will notice that some fields have the symbol before and after a word These strings are called data fields and when Carousel comes across one of these it will replace the field with the corresponding weather data To see a list of all the available data fields and their current values click the show hide link next to Available Data Fields You will see options to display 130 17 Dynamic Bulletins FIGURE 17 6 The Default Weather Template Edit Weather Bulletin Template Click on a block inside the bulletin to edit it m M Pr By zh E B ee Rraptionti Gorton Sarena Puri smemiritutulli amp rinmg rm Sheng Today Temperature temp outlook Available Data Fields show hide Cancel various temperature data in both Celsius and Fahrenheit along with numerous other options You can use any of these data fields in your weather bulletin For an example of some of the fields that are available see fig
187. e Twtter only ndexes tweets up to about a week ago for searches Twitter Authentication twitter com gt Items to fetch S maximum item s Limit to unlimited bulletins 0 total bulletins Max Items Per Bulletin 1 use 0 to put as many as can fit Shorten long URLs r4 Item Spacing 2 pixels Time Per Bulletin seconds 15 Excluded Word List Show Hide List Continue Cancel Enter your search phrase for Twitter in this box You can use a variety of search techniques to narrow your results but note that Twitter only indexes tweets up to about one week in the past Search examples are shown below the text entry box Select the form of Authentication to use with Twitter from this box Twitter bulletins can not pull data until authentication has been set up Authentication is configured under External Data Source Authentication located in the System Configuration menu and is covered in section 11 2 4 on page 97 This controls the number of items to fetch from Twitter whena a request is made The larger this number the longer it will take to communicate with Twitter 147 Limit to Max Items Per Bulletin Shorten long URLs Item Spacing Time Per Bulletin Excluded Words section 13 2 on page 104 Editing and Creating Bulletins 17 8 Facebook Bulletins 148 Facebook Authentication Show content from Search Facebook for Search Facebook for page Show posts by page Show all
188. e Rename the channel and click OK please enter a new name Step 3 Now you are asked to rename the zones giving you control over how the channel is setup If you re planning on sharing the same content on both the original channel and the duplicate channel you should map the duplicate channel s zones to the original zones which is the tool s default The benefit being that bulletins would only have to be created in one zone which would serve multiple channels Note that each zone is independent so if you need a zone unique to your duplicate channel simply uncheck Map to Existing Zone for that zone and give it a new name If you want to make a true copy of the channel including all of the zones uncheck Map to Existing Zone for each zone enter a new unique name for each zone and click OK 232 22 Clone Tool Conflict xl Tha Zone Crawl already exists please enter a new name Crawl Z F Map to Existing Zone Crawl Importing 5 zones Step 4 The Clone Tool will report its status while it imports Once finished depending on how the tool was launched it will close or report the process complete signaling a successful import e Visit our help page for detailed instructions and video tutorials at http store trms com pages help 22 2 Advanced Settings If you re running Carousel on an enterprise system provided by your organization there is a chance that Carousel has been configured to use an advanced
189. e editor covered in section 19 7 on page 186 These bulletins pull information from Facebook based on a series of critera you enter Select the form of Authentication to use with Facebook from this box This generally will be View Public Posts No Authentication unless you ve setup authentication under a specific account Authentication is configured under External Data Source Authentication located in the System Configuration menu and is covered in section 11 2 4 on page 97 Use the radio buttons to choose between searching Facebook for a phrase or for a particular page This will display public posts matching the search phrase that is entered This will allow you to search and display posts from a page selected from your search criteria Enter the page name you are looking for and click the Search button You can select the specific page you want to display from the drop down list or you can click Back to search to try another search term Select the radio button to select which posts to display from the selected page When this is selected only posts made by the page itself are displayed This option shows all posts to a page including those made by other users 17 Dynamic Bulletins FIGURE 17 21 Editing Facebook properties Max Items Per Bulletin Items to fetch Limit to Shorten long URLs Item Spacing Time Per Bulletin Excluded Words 17 8 Facebook Bulletins Facebook Authent
190. e Display Bulletin Properties Contents Contents 17 4 2 Editing the Cable Display Bulletin 138 17 4 3 Scheduling and Standard Properties 140 1223 The R55 Bulletins uuu so ccor esada Rem ewe e Bed Rs 140 17 5 1 Creating an RSS Bulletin 2 oe a 141 17 5 2 Scheduling RSS 256544505484 e 143 17 5 3 Troubleshooting RSS rr 144 IL Tite BRSSLIEWIS u wu ok op Om Sh m deam e eumd 146 177 Twitter Dulletins 1 22 ee ER Oe ERS x ox 147 17 8 Facebook Bulletins cuu oux o qox xo See X3 E x 9 m oon 148 17 9 The Event Schedule Bulletins ss 150 17 9 1 Creating an EDS Bulletin 150 17 9 2 Setting Up Dean Evans EMS or Ad Astra for EDS 150 17 9 3 Editing EMS and Ad Astra Properties 151 17 9 4 Setting Up Resource25 for EDS 152 17 9 5 Setting Up Exchange Server 2007 SP1 and 2010 for EDS 155 17 9 6 Editing EDS Properties css 155 17 9 7 Editing an EDS Bulletin 157 17 1OEDS Bulletin Scheduling 158 17 11 Scheduling EDS Within Carousel 158 17 12The Live Video Input Bulletins 159 17 13Interactive Bulletins 24 46 ok eee hd be ea ee bee 161 17 14Dynamic Bulletin Errors llle 162 IV Managing and Extras 165 18 Managing Bulletins 167 5 1 HULA 3099 9 o9 X 9 d m 9v 9X 909 ee 9 2 3 eS 167 IS L1 Bulletins 2d Ron vox m qo Re mcm b oUR oe
191. e bulletins within the bulletin list an process covered in section 18 1 3 on page 170 You can import bulletins within the Media Channel Bulletin Package menu covered in section 19 10 on page 203 Copying a bulletin to a zone template will create a new template with the character istics of the current bulletin If the selected bulletin is dynamic this option will be named Zone Defalt Template This will cause all future dynamic bulletins of that type to display like the original bulletin 18 Managing Bulletins 18 2 My Bulletins 7 All users can see the My Bulletins tab in the Manage Bulletins menu Any user can edit their bulletins and see the bulletins that Carousel has expired and placed in the Stale Bulletins list Over time a user might stash bulletins for reuse in the Saved Bulletins list Saved or stale bulletins can be edited and rescheduled When you reschedule a stale or saved bulletin Carousel will automatically activate it if the new schedule is set to display If you move a stale or saved bulletin to the Active bulletins list Carousel will automatically ask you to reschedule it 18 2 1 My Bulletins as the Administrator 18 3 Approving Bulletins FIGURE 18 8 A Bulletin is Waiting for Approval FIGURE 18 9 A bulletin is waiting for approval 18 2 My Bulletins As the administrator you may access all bulletins regardless of the list they are in or the user that created them You can view their stale and s
192. e button Now any backgrounds or templates within the zip files that you ve selected are available when you make standard messages within Carousel If you choose not to add the a set of default templates to your zone you will have to create your own We cover that in section 19 7 on page 186 9 Adding Content 10 The Zone Settings Menu Zones Main Menu Settings Network Lists Display Engine 10 1 The Network Tab 10 1 1 Email Settings FIGURE 10 1 Email approval can be for one or more person Just separate their names with a comma Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 There is a separate set of zone settings apart from those found in the Configuration menu It is available from the main menu and it is called the Zone Settings menu This menu addresses the day to day settings of a zone and some of its visual properties Once you click on this menu option you will see three tabs at the top of the form They help to categorize some of the options within this menu The items in this tab relate to emailing administrators for notification and alternate zone Outputs If some of your contributors will need to have their bulletins held for approval before being published you may want to have Carousel send an email to the person that is in charge of approving bulletins Notify the following people of new messages Email addresses jane schmoedtrms com jack publicattrms cam homer simpsondtrms c
193. e destination s IP address to determine if they are within the same network If not the network communication is sent to the network s router For a detailed explanation of subnet masks see Wikipedia org The bottom line is that the purpose of the network s subnet mask is to help computers decide if a communication request is within the network by separating an IP address into two parts a network address and a host address If a communication request does not fall within a computer s network we involve the M 1 3 Network Router A network router also known as the default gateway sits on the edge of your network and handles traffic between networks When you are at your computer 7 Sometimes this value is used when you are using an old time modem 8 All of our examples are with either 255 or 0 Other numbers are possible but not any number Specifically if you read a subnet mask in binary from left to right all of the 1 s would be packed together followed by all of the 0 s There may be no 0 s before any 1 s in a valid subnet mask M 1 The Basics What is a Network 307 and you ask for a computer that s not in your local network that request is sent to your router Using magic your router figures out how to get to the computer that you are asking for and the connection is complete If it cannot then you get an error Incidentally if your network did not have a router then any request that
194. e net m New Bulletin Vielcome t Carousel Sect a mene Bem on the lef to get stated New Alert Bulletin Manage Bulletins Media Event Schedule Extras Zone Settings When you view the Manage Bulletins menu in Carousel you ll see dynamic bulletins marked with either a red or grey status depending on the error A grey status circle indicates that Carousel was able to connect to the feed but there are currently no available items for it to display E Timeline for Tightrope Media Systems Aditi Speci Until manually Gare off Displayed every day Fecebank bullet e Timeline fer Tightropa Madia ad System 13 16 3013 3 33 43 EM 2 A red status circle means that Carousel was unable to communicate with the source of the dynamic data feed The reason for the error is posted at the bottom of the bulletin 7 http blog trms com 5 http forum trms com 17 Dynamic Bulletins FIGURE 17 38 Dynamic bulletin without authorization 17 14 Dynamic Bulletin Errors 3 Posts from Tightrope Media Systems gi Adeun Accourk Until manually turned off Displayed every Gay Facebook hulebn Posts for Tightrope Media Systems iad 12 16 2013 2 24 46 PM brent Not authensed 163 164 17 Dynamic Bulletins IV Managing and Extras The reasonable man adapts himself to the world the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself Therefore all progress de pends on the unreasonable man George Bernard Sha
195. e the Media directory here so that the new path is Example X MMedia where X is your mounted share s drive letter Step 4 Get the security properties on the new media directory and verify that the Carousel web application pool will be able to read and write to this directory as seen in figure J 13 on page 294 e The two config files are a little different Pay close attention to the next steps Step 5 Change the following config files to point at the NAS in the lt appSettings gt area 202 Appendix J Enterprise Software Installation FIGURE J 11 Carousel s Media ASI In Carousel Directory File Edit View Favorites Tools Help Q eak co FT Search M Folders ix De WD Mame App Data File Folder 10 12009 12 22 PM ibin File Folder 10 1 2009 12 22 PM css File Folder 10 1 2009 12 22 PM Dictionaries File Folder 10 1 2009 12 22 PM Extras File Folder 1Of1 2009 12 22 PM Images File Folder 10 1 2009 12 22 PM is File Folder 10 1 2009 12 22 PM Ji File Folder 10 1 2008 12 22 PM Public File Folder 10 1 2009 12 22 PM Services File Folder 10 1 2009 12 22 PM FIGURE J 12 Moving Mediatoa Jet jo x new share File Edt Mew Favorites Toole Halp 4 IU oe eee RBE 7 EBENEN RN Address me CATRMSVWeblCarousel 18B ao F EXE E Falder Loy 1 2006 12 22 PM ex Media File Folder 10 1 2008 12 22 PM Public File Folder 10 1 2009 12 22 PM i Services
196. e will be show Overridden if Alwa WebEnabled determines if this page should be displayed on Carousel s public web site If not sup Description is an optional text based description for the page PageType is either standard or alert Any active alert pages will override all active stand PageTemplate determines which Carousel template this page should use If you are updating a page lt xs documentation gt lt xs annotation gt lt xs sequence gt lt xs element name UserName type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs element name Password type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs choice maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs element name UpdateGUID type xs string gt lt xs element name SelectBulletinTags type ctBulletinTagList gt xs xos Choices 21 6 RDA Schema 225 element element element element element element element element element element element element lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt xs sequence gt name AlwaysOn type xs boolean maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name DateTimeOn type xs dateTime maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name DateTimeOff type xs dateTime maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name CycleTimeOn type xs time maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name CycleTimeOff type xs time maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name DisplayDuration type xs int maxO
197. ea tures built into windows This is the same technology that puts your monitor to sleep after a period of inactivity ate H 1 Configuration Carousel Monitor Control Configuration nml x indow How would you like to control the monitors f Use Windows power management Use serial port control Baud Parity Databits Stopbits E 500 None x s z I Power on string m Power off sting min strings are 2 character hex values ie FFOD decimal 255 then 13 use a comma for a 500ms delay Would you like to allow network control se cm ue Not all monitors support Windows power management The Use serial port control method sends data out the serial port to control the monitor This can be used for displays that do not work properly with windows power management and that have a serial port with an available protocol The Carousel Monitor Control application does not come with predefined control codes for controlling monitors via the serial port It is the responsibility of the installer to find the codes for the particular display they are controlling Tightrope cannot provide assistance finding codes or programming for specific ew UN displays The Power on string and Power off string fields allow you to enter monitor control codes in hexadecimal format Strings are two character hex values For example FFOD decimal 255 then 13 Use a comma for a 500ms delay between char
198. eans that you establish the connection first then you begin communicating When you re done talking you hang up or drop the connection Because there 1s a constant connection the two communicating computers are able to monitor the packets of information ensuring their correctness and that they arrived The down side is that these connections have a significant amount of overhead that each communicating computer must deal with By contrast imagine that you are leaving your office and before you shut the door you yell out Bye Lock up before you leave Did anyone hear you Who knows You left before you got a response UDP is much like yelling in the dark It stands for User Data gram Protocol and using this method the computer sending the data packages the information into a data gram and sends it into the network You have to rely on hope that it will get to its final destination because Unlike TCP UDP does not require a connection before communication can occur Furthermore it does not make any promises about if when or in what order each UDP message will arrive If a UDP data gram doesn t make it to its destination your networking software will not return an error UDP data grams usually contain a return address so if a response is expected the computer that receives the data gram knows where to send it UDP has very low overhead and is therefore very popular to use for services where success does not ne
199. ecast bulletin zone Cablecast vertical Cablecast weather Church Video zone Ghurch Community Church Time Church weather Church wwaelcame Crass campus craw Healthcare Bulletin Healthcare Clack The tag selector will appear when you want to switch zones or when Carousel asks if you want to copy a bulletin to other zones When copying a bulletin you can This number is defined by the user Main Menu Configure System Zone Selection Style 6 5 Selecting Zones 55 6 6 The Media Picker FIGURE 6 8 The Media Picker My and zone media are unique to that zone 56 use tags to filter down to exactly the combination of zones that you are looking for instead of having to pick through the entire list You can set the threshold for when Carousel uses the pop down list and when it uses the tag selector We cover this topic in section 11 2 1 on page 96 Zone Selection Style There will be times when you need to select a background or picture When this happens you can pick one from a pop down list or use Carousel s media picker tool illustrated in figure 6 8 You get to this screen by clicking the select button next to any background or picture pop down list Select a background close ae Admin Account s and zone Backgrounds for Fennel Hall General filtered by no tags Shaw Tags My Backgrounds Super Thomas Backgrounds for Fennel Hall General L1 DJ Attention Attention Blue Glow Blue Glow O
200. ed to be guaranteed like synchronizing your computer s clock or streaming audio on a Voice over IP VoIP call We talk about these two communication types because there are important limita tions when dealing with UDP and network address translation a topic we explore in section M 6 on page 313 Network Address Translation As we learned a couple of sections ago every computer on a network must have a unique IP address It is kind of like a temporary serial number in that it identifies one specific computer on one specific network But not necessarily immediately as it uses retransmission to achieve those guarantees 1 Most services that use UDP such as DNS implement their own retransmission strategy so it s a bit more complicated than yelling in the dark 15 Tf a chunk of audio doesn t arrive in the right order the receiver can buffer it or drop it since there is no time to retransmit In VoIP low latency is much more important than complete accuracy M 4 Network Ports 311 But there are many things to do on a network and they can all happen at the same time We may know where a computer is but how do we address the service that is on the computer that we want Think of a cable box A cable box sits on top of your television and it is addressed by your cable company using its serial number IP address When you turn your TV on and flip through the channels on your cable box you receive different television shows
201. ee 14 Making Crawls 14 1 Multiple Crawls atthe Same Time 14 2 Choosing a Crawl Zone 14 3 Creating a Crawl 2 6s ieee ee eR eee we 14 4 Scheduling and Properties 15 Alert and Full Alert Bulletins 15 1 Zone Based Alerts 152 Full Screen Alerts 16 Uploading Bulletins 16 1 Uploading Video and Pictures 16 1 1 Picture Formats 16 1 2 Video Formats 16 1 3 Notes on Uploaded Pictures and Video 16 2 Uploading Flash uos woo m wee eae x we dcs 16 2 1 The Flash Properties Form 16 2 2 Flash Animation Timing 162 3 Audio and Flash 16 2 4 Notes on Flash in Carousel 16 3 Uploading PowerPoint 16 4 Uploading Bulletin Packages 16 4 1 Anatomy of a Bulletin Package File 16 4 2 Uploading a Bulletin Package File 17 Dynamic Bulletins 17 1 The Clock Bulletins noon ex X xo RR 9 o9 om xm En 17 1 1 Analog Clock 235 tee ERE SoH 17 1 2 Digital Clock oso ae on x Ro 17 1 3 Countdown Timer 17 2 The Weather Bulletins 17 2 1 Select Location and Caption 17 2 2 Changing the Backgrounds 17 2 3 Editing the Weather s Template 17 3 The Weather Crawls 0 4 17 4 Cable Display Bulletins 17 4 1 Setting Cabl
202. efault More expensive router firewall NAT combi nations require some configuration In this paper we were able to cover quite a bit of ground You should now have a basic grasp on the following concepts M 12 Time Synchronization UDP and NAT 32 e P addresses subnet masks routers and DNS e DHCP and Dynamic IP addresses e The difference between TCP and UDP and why it matters e A basic understanding of network ports e Understand private and public IP addresses e Network Address Translation e Firewalls and port forwarding e Virtual Private Networking e The various options for getting your system on the Internet 227 Appendix M A Not So Short Introduction to Networking Appendix N Release History Tightrope makes frequent revisions to Carousel Below is a detailed list of those changes from the beginning of Carousel Release 6 N 1 Carousel 6 4 0 Release Notes New 7788 New 7975 New 7779 New 7737 New 7738 New 7915 New 7806 New 3484 New 7721 New 7765 Bulletins that exist on other zones now have an indicator in the web interface A list of other zones on which a bulletin exists now appears in the manage bulletin list Queued dynamic bulletins are now rendered Any dynamic bulletins that are queued will be rendered along with any current bulletins so that they are immediately available when their time comes Webpage Snapshots now allow for a delay When using a webpage snapshot you can now s
203. eme park made the decision after critics said the act could scare the animal Copyright c 2007 Yahoo Inc All rishts reserved 17 5 3 Troubleshooting RSS When RSS feeds are not updating in Carousel the usual suspect is the network It can also be the data in the feed or the bulletin layout This section will help you troubleshoot why RSS is not updating Can t Create a RSS Bulletin If you get the error in figure 17 16 Could not read the feed URL Please check that the URL is valid RSS or ATOM when creating a bulletin it means that Carousel can not download the feed This either because the URL is not an RSS or Atom feed OR the Carousel server can not contact the URL FIGURE 17 16 The error message seen when trying to read an invalid x IRAE RSS Feed URL feed https mail google com mail feed atom RSS or Atom feed ee a Username ljmccleary g Password eeeeeeeses optional Could not read the feed URL Please check that the URL is valid RSS or ATOM Resolutions e Make sure the Carousel server can get to the internet e On the Carousel server enter the feed into Internet Explorer and make sure it loads e If you are behind a proxy server be usre Carousel is configured correctly to use it 144 17 Dynamic Bulletins The RSS bulletin does not update FIGURE 17 17 Checking the Web Interface to see if the RSS feed has updated e Verify that the data is actually formatted as valid RSS or Atom feed A valid
204. eplace the failed power supply Pull down on the tab at the top of the failed unit Pull the failed unit out of the chassis Insert the new unit into the empty slot Plug the power cable into the new unit A ground loop is unwanted current between two connections usually a ground It manifests itself as bars of noise in the video signal of your equipment as shown in figure 5 7 5 Hardware Setup 5 1 4 Powering Up the Server Loading Carousel aarewse 505 0w 10 5 2 System Setup Eliminating ground loop can be tricky An excellent article on the subject can be found on Wikipedia at en wikipedia org wiki Ground loop electricity Plug the power cable into the unit If the unit does not power up automatically press the power button on the front If you re turning on a Carousel Solo or Carousel Server not Pro the computer will automatically start the Carousel Display Engine To stop it click the Cancel button when the Carousel splash screen appears If you hear a loud constant tone when you boot up the Carousel Pro verify that you have connected power to both of the onboard power supplies See section 5 1 3 on the preceding page Now that your servers are mounted and powered up it s time to configure them for operation This section covers software configuration that should happen prior to the users getting their hands on the system 5 2 1 Configuring the Network Settings Discovering a Computer s
205. er WMV Quicktime 7 and higher QT MPEG 1 2 4 including H264 MPG M4V Standard AVI files supported by a default Windows XP installation especially DV AVI Carousel supports playback of these formats at resolutions up to 1280 x 720 720p but only if the display engine s resolution is at 720p or lower If the display engine is set to a higher resolution stuttering will occur Also high performance codecs such as H264 may stutter more often than lower performance codecs such as MPEG 2 We ve had the best lucking using the WMV 9 Advanced codec and setting the bit rate to over 20mb s If given the option keep the size and frame rate at current See figure 4 2 for an example of these settings in Flip4Mac Flip4Mac WMV Export Settings Flip4Mac WMV Export Settings Profiles Custom Settings re Profiles Custom Settings Video Audio Content Silverlight ideo Audio Content Silverlight vi Export using WMA 9 Standard n Vi Export using WMV 9 Advanced rsd Coding Method Coding Method One pass constant bit rate CBR B Two pass variable bit rate VBR re 128 kbps 48 0 khz Stereo Quality 100 Smoother Shaper Advanced Js Bit rate 26000 3 kbits second 52000 Frame Format Size Current re Rate 59 0 ERSTES second 5 6 p 7 5 red J 10 M About Cancel C OK T About 12 Cancel C j Be o a Ew Carousel supports a crawl ticker
206. er e An RSS feed of the active bulletins on this Zone can be found at this URL http 10 0 1 95 Carousel Public PublicSiteRSS aspx ZoneID 4 The Public web interface for Carousel for all zones can be found at this URL http 10 0 1 95 Carousel Public e The Public web interface for the current zone Spring 4x3 Community can be found at this URL http 10 0 1 95 Carousel Public Frameset aspx ZoneID 4 The web preview for this zone can be found at this URL http 10 0 1 95 Carousel Public WebDisplay aspx ZoneID 4 Carousel Pro and Carousel Enterprise include a screensaver option This feature will run a specified channel s bulletins as a bouncing display when installed on your desktop computer Video Flash PowerPoint Crawls and audio are not included in the screensaver presentation The Windows and Macintosh hyperlinks provide the installers for Apple s Mac OS X and Microsoft s Windows 2000 XP and Vista operating systems Download these installers and run them on the computers that you desire Go to the operating system s screen saver and select Carousel Screensaver From within the settings menu enter the URL of the server as well as the Channel you d like to display If you re planning on deploying the screensaver to a large number of systems a generalized config file may be created to install on each system Create a file named CarouselScreenSaver cfg and save it in the same directory as the CarouselScreen Saver scr file
207. er October November December The year without the century If the year without the century is less than 10 the year is displayed with no leading zero The year without the century If the year without the century is less than 10 the year is displayed with a leading zero The year in four digits including the century The hour in a 12 hour clock Single digit hours will not have a leading zero The hour in a 12 hour clock Single digit hours will have a leading zero The hour in a 24 hour clock Single digit hours will not have a leading zero The hour in a 24 hour clock Single digit hours will have a leading zero The minute Single digit minutes will not have a leading zero The minute Single digit minutes will have a leading zero The second Single digit seconds will not have a leading zero The second Single digit seconds will have a leading zero The first character in the AM PM The AM PM designator The time zone offset or followed by the hour only Single digit hours will not have a leading zero For example Pacific Standard Time is 8 The time zone offset or followed by the hour only Single digit hours will have a leading zero For example Pacific Standard Time is 08 The full time zone offset or followed by the hour and minutes Single digit hours and minutes will have leading zeros For example Pacific Stan dard Time is 08 00 261 F 1 Examples MMMM dd yyyy September 15 2002
208. es 104 13 3 Adding HTML tags to some bulletin text 105 13 4 Example of HTML tags inaction 105 115 The Qvick Edit Palette uuu ub os mox UE we otken 106 13 6 Scheduling Bulletins 2 2 24222222 2x9 107 13 7 The Bulletin Properties Form oono a 109 13 8 Viewing Bulletin Impression statistics 110 13 9 Choosing a sound a 110 13 10Existing tags will appear as youtype 111 13 11 Adding four bulletin tags at once ooa 111 13 12Deleteing a bulletin tag oao noaa a 111 13 13 Adding Another Bulletin 112 13 14Selecting the bulletin type 112 13 15Sending bulletins to multiple zones using the zone list 113 13 16Sending bulletins to multiple zones using the zone picker 114 13 17Bulletin Confirmation 222r 114 List of Figures List of Figures 14 1 Example Crawl Free kudos if you name the band that wrote these o0 CPC 14 2 Choosing a Crawl Zone 2222s 14 3 Making a Crawl Bulletin lens 16 1 Uploading a picture or video 16 2 Flash Bulletin Properties usus no nooo a 16 3 Insert a background in Flash to avoid a black background 16 4 Bulletin Upload Confirmation 17 1 Analog Clock Properties ens 17 2 Analog Clock Properties lens 17 3 Analog Clock Properties
209. et a number of seconds to delay before taking the snapshot to allow script to load and render content Proxy settings are now in the web interface The Proxy settings for the service web interface and players are now configured in Carousel no longer in the scary config files Add option to copy bulletin to template Standard bulletins can now be promoted to being a my or zone template Dynamic bulletins can be promoted to zone default templates Web interface now shows errors for dynamic bulletins The manage bulletin list now has a red or gray dot if a dynamic bulletin has an error or has no items that match Native Facebook support You can now put content from Facebook into Carousel Character limit on Carousel bulletins A template can now specify a character limit for a text block to prevent user or dynamic data from getting too long and keeping auto sized text from getting too small Native Twitter support No more messing with RSS now you can put Twitter content directly into Carousel Web interface shows preview for Clock bulletins The full previews while editing clock bulletins now show and update the face of the clock as configured Also the WebDisplay now will display the clock face as well N 2 Carousel 6 4 1 Release Notes Bug 8022 Bug 7783 Uploading large video files caused System out of memory error The video upload will now accept larger files Web Page Snapshots won t display if you se
210. etin Properties 109 FIGURE 13 8 Viewing Bulletin Impression statistics FIGURE 13 9 Choosing a sound 13 4 5 Bulletin Description 13 4 6 Bulletin Tags 110 ier Admin Account Until manually turned off Displayed every day Standard bulletin isition System 10 672 approx 1 days 05 hrs 38 min Would you like to play a sound clip with this bulletin No Sound None Upload 5 Next Carousel asks What is the description of this bulletin This description is used within the web interface to label the bulletin and more importantly to describe the bulletin in RSS feeds and HTML output It defaults to all of the text fields in order separated by semicolons If you do change the description and you are using Carousel s RSS output covered in section 20 2 on page 206 then you ll want to make the description more verbose and appropriate for readers that will not see the graphic image Both the RSS and HTML output provide the image but not all readers will bother to load it Example To exempt this bulletin from being displayed on any alternate output such as HTML or RSS choose the Do not display on web site option If you are finished click the Finish button If not click More You can filter bulletins by tags covered in section 18 1 2 on page 169 Filtering By Tags and use tags with Carousel s RDA feature which is covered in chapter 21 on page 209 Remote Data Adaptor To
211. etin will appear at exactly the start time and date period that you have activated It merely means that this bulletin is active during this time If you have 30 bulletins in your active bulletins list and this is an active bulletin then it is simply number 31 With or without the Until Manually turned off checkbox you can still choose to filter active times by periods of the day and or days of the week Simply uncheck the days of the week that you do not want your bulletin to be active To filter times of the day pick the span of time that you want the bulletin active for in the fields below the And only between label At this point you can click the Finish button to complete your bulletin Clicking 107 13 4 Bulletin Properties the More button allows us to add more bulletins in a group edit some of the advance properties or play with the frequency of display within Carousel s bulletin loop For most bulletins the default settings are appropriate If you are following along in this chapter you will click the More button If you want to edit some of the details of a bulletin figure 13 7 on the next page you can do so in the Bulletin Properties Form which you can access by clicking the More button on the Bulletin Schedule form 13 4 1 Bulletin Dwell Time aka Timing At the top Carousel asks us For how long would you like to display this bulletin The default Let the system decide instructs Carousel to hold the b
212. etins 2 If you have multiple bulletins of the same type you can enter unique values for each bulletin but the implications are too mindboggling to even fathom especially if earlier version have a lower number than later bulletins Instead when it comes to this field bulletins of the same type should have the same value What schedule information For Multiple bulletin schedule you need to specify the total quantity of shows that you would like to display You can limit this number by either days or bulletins Cable Display will only show one day per bulletin 2 Because Cable Display only shows one day per bulletin in a Multiple Bulletin schedule you only need to show the date once displaying only the time next to the show s run How many schedule records In Single bulletin and Multiple bulletin schedules Cable Display needs to know how many shows will appear on each bulletin For Single bulletin schedule this will be the total number of shows to display For Multiple bulletin schedules each bulletin will have this maximum number of shows per bulletin How would you like the date We are choosing the date and time format for our bulletin We can get fancy by choosing the custom option A table and examples of custom formatting are provided in appendix F on page 261 17 4 2 Editing the Cable Display Bulletin Accepting a few added features editing a Cable Display bulletin is the same as a standard bulletin w
213. ffice Blue You ll notice in figure 6 8 the My Backgrounds and Backgrounds for labels These two labels separate backgrounds which are only viewable through your account and backgrounds available to anyone using that zone Remember both the My and zone backgrounds pictures are unique to that zone That is if you switch to another zone you will see a unique set of backgrounds or pictures listed in both the My and backgrounds sections To select a picture when you are using it in a bulletin click anywhere within the picture s box When you are editing pictures from the Media menu clicking on the title of the picture allows you to edit its properties Clicking anywhere where else within the picture s box selects it Also you may select more than one picture When To keep things simple in this section picture means the same thing as background and vice versa since they are treated the same in the media picker 6 Introduction to Carousel s User Interface editing pictures you will notice a Select All or Select None label at the top of the list 6 6 1 Selecting Media With Tags FIGURE 6 9 Selecting media with tags Admin Account s and zone Backgrounds for Fennel Hall General filtered by Weather and Natural Hide Tags Abstract 1 Blue l 4 Brown 13 Food and Drink 9 Green n Monochrome 23 Natural 13 Party and Events 0 Red 03 Technic x Backgrounds for Fe
214. gies Carousel does not allow you to create interactive content it just displays it We decided using web standards for interactive content was a more powerful and flexible option for content creators Interactive bulletins are designed to be the only bulletin in a zone They will not work like you expect if there are multiple bulletins in the zone FIGURE 17 35 Interactive bul letin options 17 13 Interactive Bulletins To specify the interactive content you can either enter the Interactive URL which is a link to a the interactive content or Upload a file This interactive content can be any web page flash animation or web element The uploaded file is a zip archive of content This archive is extracted then hosted on the Carousel server and served the players with Internet Information Server IIS Interactive URL http OR Upload a file Choose File no file selected Note If the uploaded file is a zip archive the index file e g index html index htm or default asp must in the root Inactivity timeout 35 seconds Note A value of O will disable the inactivity timeout Continue Cancel The Inactivity timeout allows you to set a duration of inactivity before Carousel will reset this bulletin After there has been a specified time of inactivity Carousel will either go to the next bulletin in the rotation or navigate back to the Interactive URL This will reset the interactive content b
215. gt Success lt Result gt lt Description gt Pages were sucessfully created lt Description gt GUID 77c0592c e13e 46de b2dc 5617e119452a GUID lt CarouselResponse gt And here is a typical error response lt xml version 1 0 encoding utf 8 gt lt CarouselResponse xmlns http www trms com CarouselRemoteCommand gt lt Result gt Error lt Result gt lt Description gt The specified page GUID does not exist lt Description gt lt CarouselResponse gt Here is a sample response to the GetPlayerStatus command lt xml Versions TI 0 encoding uti 3 2 gt CarouselResponse xmlns http www trms com CarouselRemoteCommand gt lt Result gt Success lt Result gt lt PlayerStatusList gt lt PlayerStatus gt lt HostName gt PLAYER1 lt HostName gt lt HostAddress gt 192 168 0 1 lt HostAddress gt HardwareID XXXX HardwareID lt VersionStatus gt OK lt VersionStatus gt lt PlayerVersion gt 6 0 0 lt PlayerVersion gt lt CheckinStatus gt OK lt CheckinStatus gt lt LastCheckinUTC gt 2009 06 17T00 00 00 lt LastCheckinUTC gt lt SubscribedChannelName gt Channell lt SubscribedChannelName gt lt PlayerStatus gt lt PlayerStatus gt lt HostName gt PLAYER2 lt HostName gt lt HostAddress gt 192 168 0 2 lt HostAddress gt HardwareID XXXX HardwareID lt VersionStatus gt OK lt VersionStatus gt lt PlayerVersion gt 6 0 0 lt PlayerVersion gt lt CheckinStatus gt OK lt CheckinStatus gt lt Last
216. he Select Block field Rename this field to something descriptive like Title or Message Body then click the Update button If you ve added a text item you will notice a pair of Field Style pop down lists The first list denotes the style of the entry form that the user will use to enter text An edit field is a single line of text while a text area is a multiple line text box Choose a size that matches the purpose of the block The second pop down next to the Field Style label is used to set the size of the field This does not limit the user from entering more or less text into the field it only acts to suggest the amount of text by limiting expanding viewable area of text You can see an example of this in figure E 3 When you are finished selecting the block s text field size click the Update button to save your changes Body Body Background Template Specific Select Upload Continue Cancel If you ve added a video picture or web picture block then you ll see a selection section appear below the preview window This is where you can select the default file or location in the case of web pictures that will be selected when the user first loads this template Appendix E Limited Template Editor Step 7 FIGURE E 4 The Position and Size Tools Step 8 FIGURE E 5 Text Editing Properties For picture blocks you ll also find the Opacity pop down which defaults to 100 Adjust this as desired For al
217. he last bulletins that it goes a little past this value If you have three See it again bulletins and the total amount of time given to these graphics is 45 seconds then set the first two s dwell time to 15 seconds and the last bulletin s to 20 seconds for a total of 50 seconds That way if there is any delay in Carousel s timing it won t loop back to the first See it again bulletin RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication It s an XML specification that publishers and data providers use to syndicate summary information This information could be a news story word of the day the latest production data or anything else that you could dream up What is more RSS data can come from a web site database or any other application In fact Carousel publishes its bulletins in RSS making it possible to see a summary of bulletins using any RSS reader There are different flavors of RSS in the wild Carousel supports RSS and Atom feeds that are well formed If Carousel doesn t display a feed it is most likely non standard in which case Carousel will not display it An RSS feed has a channel with many items while an Atom feed contains a feed with many items If you re not familiar with the specifics of RSS and Atom feed creatation information on both is widely available online When you create an EDS page fields from RSS and Atom feeds are mapped to EDS placeholders http en wikipedia org wiki RSS 17 Dynamic Bulletins
218. he system You deleted any channels in Carousel Only within Carousel Do not remove any licenses from FrontDoor The server and players do not have any USB keys keyboards or mice that were used for software updates and installation still attached to them The server and player do not have any left over icons zip files or installers on Ld their desktops that were a part of the any software updates or configuration A 1 6 Communicate With the Customer The customer knows which channels are displaying on which monitors The customer knows the address of the server and of the players if the players do not have dynamic addresses The customer knows the user name and password of the system The customer is properly registered with Tightrope Media Systems for support and warranty purposes The customer has a copy of the Carousel Manual and any other supplied documentation The customer knows when training is scheduled The customer is satisfied with the installation and has no further questions LL Ld LL LL A 1 Carousel Checklist 241 242 Appendix A Installer s Checklist Appendix B Carousel Menu Tree Below is an outline of the Carousel menu system ue The electronic version of this manual has hyperlinked reference points for quick lt retrieval B 1 Carousel Menu Structure e Configure section 7 1 on page 59 Configuration Menu Channels section 7 3 on page 61 Define Your Channels Ch
219. hey can route That is why they are called non routable or private IP addresses Addresses that are outside the range of those listed above are considered route able or public If you arbitrarily choose a public IP address and then connect it to a router which is connected to the Internet you will create problems and your network will not work correctly People creating networks in their own organization almost universally use private IP addresses Back in the early days of the Internet this was thought of as a second class solution Now reality has set in addresses are scarce security concerns abound and we all have private IP addresses on our desktop computers The trouble with a private address 1s that you cannot communicate with anyone outside your network If I try to go to www trms com and my computer uses a private IP address the remote computer will not know where to respond to because the routers that are in between our two computers will not allow traffic to go back to a private IP address If this is true then how is it that we all have private IP addresses and we are still able to communicate on the Internet That question leads us to our next section M 6 Network Address Translation M 6 Network Address Translation Network Address Translation NAT is a magic technology that makes our Internet possible Without it there would be a lot fewer computers on the Internet and that would be a Bad Thing But what is NAT
220. hich we cover in chapter 13 on page 103 The key differences in Cable Display bulletins are the special text fields that we can add A list of the available fields is provided below the standard forms Simply include the symbols before and after the desired filed to tell Cable Display to insert the text at that spot Example To insert the time and date that a program will repeat enter RunRepeat into one of the fields Conditional Text Sometimes you would like to include text in a bulletin but only if a particular field has data After all what sense does This producer can be reached at for 138 17 Dynamic Bulletins FIGURE 17 12 Editing Cable Display Bulletins Example Repeating Fields and Headers Example Run Time RunTime Run Title ecGritle amp DateHeader RunDate Background Template Specific w setectlupload Avalable Cablecast fields ShowlD LocallD CGTitle Length EventDate Category ProducerName zzProducerPhones Producer4ddress Custom1i 84 ZoneName RunDates amp RunTimes RunRepeat Note Enclose conditional text in 1T curley braces Continue Cancel more information make To accommodate conditional text enclose it in curly braces 99 This producer can be reached at ProducerPhone In the above example only when there is a phone number will this information be displayed For most Cable Display bulletins f
221. ic function of this tool allows you to export and import a channel out of or into Carousel including all of the zone settings and media associated with the channel The end product is an exact duplicate of the original channel hence the term Clone Tool There are two common scenarios when the Clone Tool comes into play The first scenario being anytime that you want to duplicate an existing channel perhaps after adding a new channel to your Carousel configuration Imagine that the new channel will have the same layout and basic content as the initial channel with minor adjustments making it unique to its purpose The second scenario being after you purchase a Channel Design Package from Tightrope Creative 22 1 Using the Clone Tool Before we start using the Clone Tool we need to verify the following e You must be running Carousel version 5 2 1 or above The Clone Tool was introduced in version 5 2 1 prior versions do not contain this functionality e Every channel in Carousel must have a license If you are not replacing an existing channel an additional channel license is required To verify the number of available channel licenses select the Configure button from the Main Menu of Carousel then click on Channels The number of available channel licenses will display under the channel list e As a precaution we recommend that you back up your database before using the Clone Tool For instructions on backing up your Carousel database p
222. ication View Public Posts No Authentication Show content from Search Facebook for Tightrope Media Systems Search Facebook for page Search Show posts by page Show all posts to page includes posts by other users Items to fetch 5 maximum item s Limit to a unlimited bulletins g total bulletins Max Items Per Bulletin 0 use 0 to put as many as can fit Shorten long URLs wf Item Spacing 2 pixels Time Per Bulletin 15 seconds Excluded Word List Show Hide List Continue Cancel This controls the number of items to fetch from Facebook when a request is made The larger this number the longer it will take to communicate with Facebook Here you can limit the number of bulletins that are created and displayed from the data feed Carousel needs to know ahead of time the number of items that will appear Enter that number here When checked bulletins will shorten URLs whenever possible and appropriate to display just a domain name such as trms com This will prevent a long URL from taking up a lot of space on a bulletin This will insert padding between the items in the Facebook feed This value is in pixels so to insert 10 pixels of space between the Facebook items enter the number 10 This adjust the dwell time for each bulletin You can exclude items that contain certain words by adding them to this list Separate each word with a comma When you are finished editing this form clic
223. ictures Carousel supports JPG BMP and PNG files For the purposes of uploaded bulletins Carousel will ignore any alpha channel settings in these pictures For video all Carousel editions support MPEG 1 2 and 4 If you have a Solo 210 300R or Carousel Server then in addition to all three types of MPEG Carousel also supports QuickTime Windows Media and AVI files This includes DV AVI and QuickTime DV files although you must set the QuickTime file to play back in high quality mode in order for it to play back correctly See QuickTime documentation for details For best effect all videos should fade up and fade down to black as Carousel will cut to black before showing and before leaving the video bulletin Starting and ending with black hides this limitation 119 FIGURE 16 1 Uploading a picture or video Select an image file to be uploaded as new bulletin For optimal quality upload a graphic that is 62 px by 4 7Upx Browse Upload Cancel ue The maximum allowed file size for an uploaded video is gigabyte Carousel works very hard to play video without glitches or stutters However it does not use dedicated video hardware to decode video streams It is best to experiment with different codecs and bit rates especially if your Carousel players were not purchased from Tightrope Typically MPEG 4 at 2 3 megabits plays very well as does MPEG 2 at 4 6 megabits Very high bitrate WMV or QuickTime files will
224. ields will need to repeat You do this by setting the Block Options for the template s block that holds the CableDisplay information We discuss the settings in section 19 7 3 on page 200 Repeating Blocks in Dynamic Bulletins If you are using an older web browser enter the word Header after the template s fields name a RunDate entered into a template field called Date would appear for each listed show If it were entered into a template field called DateHeader it would only appear once Repeating fields will repeat all by themselves Simply enter the repeating field into the template at the spot where you want the list to start Cable Display will automatically insert the next item below the previous Editing The Look of your Cable Display Bulletin E 17 4 Cable Display Bulletins It is extremely important that you edit the look of your Cable Display bulletin at least changing the background which includes Tightrope s logo and a channel designation of 34 The example bulletins are a great starting point Use them as a guide to see how basic information is entered into the type of Cable Display bulletin that you are creating Pay special attention to how certain fields are entered such as DateHeader fields which do not repeat 139 You may add or delete fields to your Cable Display bulletin which is especially useful when creating non standard bulletins such as Coming up next bulletins with V
225. iginal resets the picture or background to the original version that was first uploaded The image will return to its orig inal state regardless of the amount of time that has passed since you made the alterations ue If you copied this asset to another zone and edit this version it will not change Z on the other zone The two will still be linked however and deleting one will prompt Carousel to ask you if you want to delete the other 19 6 Media Asset Properties 185 FIGURE 19 8 The Properties Form of A Media Asset 19 7 The Template Editor Media Templates Name Leaf 1 Preview Tags Blue Nati he RR ia Food and Drink Abstract Weather Technical Office Party and Events Brown Buildings Outside Information Add Effect Blur v A Little Update Flip Horizontal v Colorize Grayscale Update arity When you create a bulletin you can upload it in its entirety and display it on Carousel s Display Engine as a picture or video that has the message already baked in It s more common to type some text and add some pictures directly within Carousel The placement of the pictures and text and the style of each are predefined by something called a template Templates are a starting point for a bulletin that combines media into one message To create and edit these templates we use Carousel s Template Editor The Template Editor
226. ils for your bulletins appear in the web interface as you can see in figure J 19 on page 298 Run the Display Engine on one of your Carousel Players and make sure that it caches the new bulletins from your new Media storage J 3 Advanced Enterprise Installations Separating SQL and Media Storage 205 FIGURE J 15 Bouncing the Carousel Service FIGURE J 16 Creating the virtual directory 206 m Lomputer Management E 1 System Tools Ez ol Event Viewer B F Shared Folders Bn NET Runtime Opti Microsoft Manual Local System By Alerter Notifies sel Disabled Local Service Sy Application Experie Process ap Started Automatic Local System Local Users and Groups Application Layer G Provides s Manual Local Service 3 Performance Logs and Alert Sa Application Manage Processes i Manual Local System 5 rA propager Gy ASP NET State Ser Providess Started huieietic COUDES s gt CEEP Removable Storage amp amp Automatic Updates Enables th art i Local System Disk Defragmenter S Background Intelli Local Siti L4 Disk Management Carousel TET Automatic Local System d Services and Applications a ClipBook i Sa Disabled Local System m B Telephony S COM Event Syste Automatic Local System i Services By COM System Appl per Manual Local System 2 WMI Control Sa Computer Browser RESI Automatic
227. ilt in safe guards to protect them against out of bounds monitor resolutions and sync rates but do not rely on these Tightrope is not responsible for any damages to your display The dialog shown in figure 8 17 on the next page will appear Enter your display s 8 9 Adjusting the Video Resolution 85 FIGURE 8 16 The nVidia Ad vanced Menu 3 Display Properties GeForce 6200 Turbo ache TM nView Display Settings Performance amp Quality Settings Color Correction Video Overlay Settings Full Screen Viden Tools Ii NWVRaotate Temperature Settings Screen Resolutions amp Refresh Hates E Desktop Management Menu Editing FIGURE 8 17 Adding a 38 Plug and Play Monitor and NVIDIA GeForce 6200 T F i Adapter Color Management General HVIDIA Screen resolution Color quality Less Mare J S00 by GOO pixels Medium 16 bit v FF E Monitor settings Screen refresh rate E Hertz v Show only physical panning resaltan Hide modes that this monitor cannot support Custom resolutions and refresh rates Add Remove Advanced Timina Only show custom modes Last attempted mode SOO 6O0 16 bit 60 Hertz App li 1 Resolution E Custom Resolutions Enter custom resolution values here To enter a refresh rate that does not appear in the list vou may type it in Custom resolution settings Width 1920 pixels 1152
228. in the system You can specify zones by their ID or Name or you can specify a Zone Tag and all zones with that ti You can use as many ZoneID ZoneName and ZoneTag elements as you d like and you can specify them lt xs documentation gt lt xs annotation gt lt xs choice minOccurs 1 maxOccurs unbounded gt lt xs element name ZoneID type xs int gt lt xs element name ZoneName type xs string gt lt xs element name ZoneTag type xs string gt lt xs choice gt lt xs complexType gt lt xs complexType name ctGetPlayerStatus gt xs annotation xs documentation This command will return a ctPlayerStatusList containing an array of ctPlayerStatus elements repre All the registered players on the system will be returned See the documentation for ctPlayerStatu lt xs documentation gt lt xs annotation gt lt xs sequence gt lt xs element name UserName type xs string gt lt xs element name Password type xs string gt lt xs sequence gt lt xs complexType gt lt xs complexType name ctPlayerStatus gt lt xS annotation gt lt xs documentation gt After calling GetPlayerStatus you will receive a response containing array of ctPlayerStatus elem HostName The DNS host name of the player HostAddress The IP address of the player HardwareID The Carousel HardwareID of the player VersionStatus Will either be OK if the player s version matches the Carousel server or ERRO PlayerVers
229. ined to the domain if required The Carousel server has a static IP address Any Carousel Players have access to the Carousel Server See port infor mation in section 5 2 1 on page 45 Configuring the Network Settings Carousel has access to the outside internet if required See port infor LLL IL ILE I mation in section 5 2 1 Carousel s Server software is configured correctly It has the latest version It is configured with the correct licensing including any plug ins and all required channel licensing L IL All purchased Tightrope Creative Channels have been added and in stalled See the documentation that came with the Creative Channel All purchased channels have been added to Carousel and named cor rectly All Carousel Players have been configured correctly All Players are on the latest version 239 All Players are pointing to the correct channel on the Carousel Server chapter 8 on page 71 Configuring Players Any TV Input devices are installed and configured correctly in the Carousel Display Engine section 8 2 4 on page 75 Live Video Input All Players have their resolution and screen aspect ratio set correctly and optimized for the display that is plugged into it section 8 2 3 on page 74 Display Settings A 1 3 Verify Display Quality and Content A basic zone setup has been created for each channel or Tightrope Creative Channels have been loaded on to each channel All chan
230. ing and add a DNS entry for your Tightrope system s web server That way if someone is looking for carousel mydomain org the firewall NAT server will forward them to the Carousel machine instead of your main web server 3 Use a different port on your Tightrope server by changing it in Internet Information Server Instead of using port 80 for web access you could use port 8080 See section M 11 2 on the next page Change Your Port Number for information about how to do this This is a limiting option because all of the public web features of Tightrope s system will be unusable given that there is no anonymous access from the Internet to your Tightrope server It is secure however because you are simply using the same VPN access that you would use for your regular network access If your organization already uses VPN you don t even need to involve your IT department M 10 4 The Forget the IT Department Option 318 Instead of fighting your network administrators you may be able to buy an inexpen sive connection of your own DSL or cable modem connection might cost you only 30 to 80 dollars per month and provide a method to access your computer from outside your network Using this method you would access your system from your desk at work by going out on the Internet through your regular network and back into your building through the new connection that you purchased for your Tightrope System You access your
231. ing s hallways All of these zones are placed on the channel that is being addressed by the players in Fennel Hall The naming becomes obvious when you understand the differences These names might not make sense to you but remember You are describing the location of the displays that will be driven by the players that are addressing this channel You want to be able to identify them in a meaningful way within the software so choose a name carefully In larger installations remember to make the names unique If you are managing 25 lobbies it is not enough to call a channel lobby Finally take note of the aspect ratio of your channel Draw a box on a sheet of paper that has the same aspect ratio This will help you when you determine the zones that will occupy your channel s canvas 3 1 1 Planning Tips for Your Zones Single zone channels Channels must have at least one zone In single zone configurations channels show one bulletin at a time plus any crawls that may be active In this configuration you will create one zone for the channel and its resolution will be that channel s resolution It couldn t be simpler Even if you create only one zone for a channel you can still add a crawl for that channel Crawls are special in that you don t leave room for them on your channel Carousel will squish your zones up or down when a crawl message is activated Multiple zone channels Mixing multiple zones on one displ
232. ing that gets added to a template a process that we cover in section 19 7 on page 186 The Template Editor Media assets include Every bulletin has a background You can add backgrounds to zones and use them in bulletins You may also upload a background that is automatically split into several backgrounds for all of the zones on a channel which creates a single seamless background on that channel We show how to upload seamless backgrounds in section 19 9 on page 201 Creating a Seamless Background for a Multi Zoned Channel Pictures are graphic files that are placed on top of the background Like pictures these videos are placed on top of a background within a template Sound files within this menu are exclusively for bulletins made from a template They are not included in the Background Audio list a topic covered in section 7 2 on page 59 Create Your Zones Templates are where everything else comes together to create a bulletin The above media elements are gathered and arranged into blocks next to text that is entered by the bulletin s author Tagging media helps people sort and organize As the number of files that you manage grows you will appreciate the time spent adding these keywords to your files We cover the application of these tags in section 19 8 on page 201 Exclusive to the zone view section 19 1 on the following page this option allows you to import media from a zip file In addition you can even import bulleti
233. into play FIGURE 5 5 The L bracket that you attach to the rack FIGURE 5 6 The mounting bracket that you attach to the L bracket When you screw the L bracket to the rack and the mounting bracket to the L bracket tighten them all the way down and then back the screw out a half turn This will secure the brack and mount but allow you to make adjustments once you put the server in place When everything is in the right spot tighten the screws back down again Step 6 Next screw the rack rails the half that is not already attached to the server into the brackets that you just attached to the rack Make sure that both sides are mounted at the same point and do not tighten the screws all of the way down You will most likely need to adjust them once the server is in place 42 5 Hardware Setup Step 7 Step 8 With help from at least one other person Slide the server into place adjusting the position of the rails to accommodate the server Make sure that you can slide it all the way into the cabinet and that you can pull it out enough to service the top of the server Once the adjustments have been made tighten down all of the screws on all of the mounts and brackets It is probable that the above steps will not get your rack rails installed correctly There are many kinds of racks and many ways to install rack rails Take your time make sure you have help and in some cases be creative Installing rack rails is al
234. ints to the luminance selector The higher the value the more luminance ALS y L2 Eme If the luminance selector is all the way down you ll get a completely black color no matter the hue When you create a picture block you ll have access to the picture block properties shown in figure 19 22 on the next page You can adjust the opacity of the picture with the Opacity slider You can also instruct Carousel to maintain the pictures aspect ratio Notice the example in figure 19 23 on the following page The Carousel logo on the left 1s in a picture box with the Maintain aspect ratio checkbox off The logo on the right has the checkbox on which means that it looks correct even though the dimensions of the block are much wider than the actual logo Leave Maintain aspect ratio on when you want your picture to remain as tall as it is wide relative to the original picture When you want it to completely fill the block turn it off New Word Ugily In a way that is ugly 197 FIGURE 19 22 Picture block m properties Pi cture CAR logo 4 M Maintain aspect ratio Opacity of picture 10096 EELB A m FIGURE 19 23 The logo on the left has Maintain aspect ratio deselected C 0 xc ee en en ae ee eae Web Picture Addresses If you make a web picture block the Picture properties will give you the option to enter an address of a picture figure 19 24
235. io Playlist Add Seamless Channel Background R To access this feature go to the configuration Channels lt channel name gt Add Seamless Channel Background form shown in figure 19 31 Select a file to be uploaded to the background media of the zones in this channel Choose File Background2 jpg CI Cancel Click the Choose File button to select the background file that you want to upload Remember this file is going to be stretched to fill the current channel that you have selected It s best if the file matches the channels total resolution Click the Upload button and your background will be processed You ll see a form like the one in figure 19 32 on the next page A background of the name listed in the What would you like to name this back ground field will be created for each of the zones that are checked below the To which zones would you save this background label You can see a preview of the backgrounds that will be created to the right You may change the name of the background to anything that you like If you uncheck any of the zones in the list the background will not be created for that zone 19 Managing Media FIGURE 19 32 Splitting a Your background has been uploaded background What would you like to name this background Seamless Background2 To which zones would you like to save this background M DEMO Public Access Banner vf DEMO Public Access Community M DEMO P
236. ion 39 The Cablecast Bundle SX LE CG 250 Carousel Server and Carousel 300R are rack mounted but do not require rear support and do not include rack rails Unfortunately there are many different variations on installing these rails and your choice may have much to do with the type of rack that you are installing this into Use this section as a guide Your installation will vary so be sure that however you complete the task your rails and the server are securely fastened When following the instructions for installing your rack rails keep in mind that each side of the server uses identical rail parts as there is no such thing as a right and left part The parts installed on the right side of the server are upside down from the left side and there is only one lever that makes this evident To install the rack rails Step 1 Locate one of the two rack rails shown in figure 5 1 FIGURE 5 1 The rack rail that is screwed to the server Step 2 There are three parts to the rail two of which may be separated Separate the FIGURE 5 2 Hold the lever open and pull until the server s rail is separated from the rest of the rack rail 40 component of the rack rail that attaches to the server from the one that attaches to the rack by holding the lever shown in figure 5 2 open and pulling it out shown in figure 5 3 on the facing page 5 Hardware Setup FIGURE 5 3 Separating the two rail components The hand in this
237. ion The version of the Carousel Player software installed on this player CheckinStatus Will either be OK if the player has checked in recently or ERROR if this pla LastCheckinUTC The time of the last checkin from this player specified in UTC SubscribedChannelName The name of the Carousel channel that this player is currently subscribed lt xs documentation gt lt xs annotation gt lt xs sequence gt lt xs element name HostName type xs string gt lt xs element name HostAddress type xs string gt lt xs element name HardwareID type xs string gt lt xs element name VersionStatus type xs string gt lt xs element name PlayerVersion type xs string gt lt xs element name CheckinStatus type xs string gt lt xs element name LastCheckinUTC type xs dateTime gt lt xs element name SubscribedChannelName type xs string gt lt xs sequence gt 224 21 Remote Data Adaptor lt xs complexType gt lt xs complexType name ctPlayerStatusList gt xs annotation lt xs documentation gt Simply a container for the ctPlayerStatus objects lt xs documentation gt lt xs annotation gt lt xs sequence gt lt xs element name PlayerStatus type ctPlayerStatus maxOccurs unbounded gt lt xs sequence gt lt xs complexType gt lt xs complexType name ctBulletinTagList gt lt xS annotation gt lt xs documentation gt A list of Tag elements which should contain bulletin tag
238. ion throughout the world The geniuses that invented the Internet back in the 70 s never imagined that everyone and their mom would be using it The result is that there are not nearly enough IP addresses to accommodate the number of devices that are using the Internet To alleviate this problem The Powers That Be decided to reserve three blocks of addresses for private networks e 10 0 0 1 10 255 255 255 e 172 16 0 1 172 31 255 255 e 192 168 0 1 192 168 255 255 14 Nerds call this process The Three Way Handshake or SYN SYN ACK ACK which reminds this author of the movie Mars Attacks 15 The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority 16 Again The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority Appendix M A Not So Short Introduction to Networking History dictates that not only are these private address blocks differently sized they are also segmented differently For example the 192 168 x x block is most often represented as 256 different networks with 255 IP addresses each with a subnet of 255 255 255 0 Since these addresses are private there is nothing written in stone about how you segment your network It s just what other networking types would expect to see when they look at your network configuration Someone that decides to use these IP addresses can do so without any coordination with an outside organization That is because by their very definition routers on the Internet will not view these as addresses that t
239. ist of selected tags at the top of the media picker 6 7 Common Icons and Their Purpose Move Size Color Wheel Remove Copy Move Bulletin i Delete Bulletin H Select All V Edit Bulletin l View Full Screen Refresh Spell Check Edit Template B Un group 58 This section includes the common icons that you will see throughout Carousel These four arrows are used for two purposes to move a graphic element or to resize one When it is used to resize you resize from the bottom right Clicking the right arrow widens the element and the bottom arrow makes it taller This icon opens a color palette used to change an element s color property This icon is visible when you are filtering by one or more tags It appears to the right of the filter by label and you click on it to remove the filter that it is next to Used when you want to copy or move a bulletin either to another zone or within this zone It 1s also used to move a bulletin to the saved or stale bulletins list which we talk about in chapter 18 on page 167 Managing Bulletins To delete a bulletin completely use this icon This little arrow appears above lists with checkboxes preceding each item Once you click it it selects all items in the list If they are already selected it will deselect them Once a bulletin is made you can edit it by selecting this icon This icon is also used to edit a group of bulletin
240. it s self as a Bonjour service and listen on TCP port 26908 for incoming data If it receives a character on the port the monitor will turn on if it receives a character the monitor will turn off This feature allows other software applications to communicate and control monitors remotely H 5 Example Strings 269 270 Appendix H Carousel Monitor Control AppendixI Live TV Input TVI Devices This appendix describes how to configure and add if needed supported TVI input devices to a Carousel Server Carousel Solo or Carousel Player I 1 Hauppauge Hardware Here we go over how to add and configure an external Hauppauge TVI box fig ure I 1 to a Carousel Server Carousel Solo or Carousel Player FIGURE I 1 The Hauppauge hardware S Video In Cable Antenna Composite In USB 2 0 to Carousel Audio Left In Power Supply AC Adaptor Audio Right In 1 1 1 Steps to setup Hauppauge Step 1 Plug the TVI unit into AC power using the included power supply Step 2 Connect the TVI unit to the Carousel machine using the included USB cable Step 3 Browse to the C V TRMS Production Drivers V TVI folder and run the Setup exe application ef If the drivers have not been loaded into this directory you can download them lt gt from here hauppauge lightpath net software install_cd cd_4 6a zip Extract the zip file and run the Setup exe application Step 4 After launching Setup exe select Ste
241. it is probably the concept of the IP address On any network every network interface must have a unique IP address An IP address is a number that for the sake of readability is broken up into four numbers separated by a period Example 192 168 1 1 Each of the four numbers must be between 0 and 255 When we speak of a computer s IP address it s important to understand that there are many addresses that are not considered valid because they are reserved for special purposes That is 0 0 0 0 and 255 255 255 255 are examples of addresses that are not considered valid 127 0 0 1 is another special address called the oopback address It represents the local computer and is effectively saying go to me and ask myself for something Another important concept to understand is that in an IP network the IP address serves two purposes The first purpose is to identify the network and the second is to identify a specific network interface on that network When we say identify the network we are alluding to the fact that the complete range of possible IP addresses are always segmented into smaller networks That is no valid network has an IP address range of 0 0 0 1 to 255 255 255 254 We break them up into smaller chunks for manageability reasons How do we determine the part of the IP address that signifies the network and the part that identifies a specific computer on that network We do that with the 2 an
242. ithin this list This limitation is due to the fact that you cannot see all of the bulletins that are within the list This prevents bulletin placement ambiguity when reordering from this list To group one bulletin to another bulletin or to another group click in the bottom portion of a bulletin Be sure to wait for the blue bar to appear figure 18 5 as this tells you that you ve hit your target When you group bulletins together from within a list they retain their schedule If you want them to have the same schedule edit the new group by clicking the Edit this Group icon l and following the directions If you want to be fancy you can drag the the bulletin s preview to the spot that you want it to appear as shown in figure 18 6 In some browsers moving past the visible window in your browser is not a precise endeavor requiring some finesse with the mouse to get it to scroll the page as you hit the edge of what is visible Usually it s easy to just click the preview and mouse over the desired target and then click even though it s not as cool FIGURE 18 6 You can alternately a sppioset virium J drag your preview into its target damnit amp ecoliat E v5 cove until manually turned off location Ly ec Displayed every day mage file ld Im BB Safety copy o l c owner Admin Account 18 1 5 Copying and Moving Bulletins You can make copies of bulletins and groups of bulletins by clicking on the Copy
243. itions When quotes are used to display user input do not include them in your input unless specifically told to do so You ll notice that we ve used a couple of Examples in this section You will see those throughout the text They highlight examples We also use the label to the left to highlight information that is applicable only to Carousel Pro and Carousel Enterprise 1 3 About This Documentation This is the Carousel Guide and is intended for the installer administrator and user of your Carousel system This includes e Those responsible for installing and configuring Carousel for the first time We cover these topics in part II on page 29 Planning and Setup e Those who will adjust Carousel s settings approve other s pages and other wise have greater control over the system These topics are covered in part IV on page 165 Managing and Extras e Those who will use Carousel on a day to day basis Check out part III on page 101 Making Bulletins for information on these topics 1 3 1 Turnkey and Software Only Versions Some systems come as turnkey devices computers and servers with Carousel pre installed Others come as a software only solution We discuss the installation of Carousel Enterprise the server software in appendix J on page 277 Enterprise Software Installation The Software Display Engine installation is covered in chapter 8 on page 71 Configuring Players Physically installing your Carousel ser
244. ivers high resolution video through CAT 5 cabling No matter there is no limit to the number of displays that may be connected to a single output of Carousel 2 4 2 Carousel Players Adding More Outputs 20 But what happens when you want to display something different on two sets of displays What happens if you re operating two television channels and you need different bulletins on each What happens if you want one information channel in the lobby and another in the lunch room Do you buy a second Carousel system The answer depends on your goals Carousel comes in two different flavors The Carousel Solo series and the Carousel Server series Each can stand on their own as a digital signage system with some differences The principle difference being that with Carousel Servers you can add one or more Carousel Players as players managing them from the server s web interface If you started with a Carousel Solo and want to expand to multiple channels then it would be time to buy a Carousel system from Tightrope s server line Carousel Solos may be used as players by simply pointing the Solo s Display Often especially with LCD panels you ll replace the 9 with a 10 because computer manufactures liked 768 pixels vertically instead of 720 or 1200 instead of 1080 Sometimes these baluns are powered so that they can go great distances Powered baluns are called active baluns 3 With Carousel Server you get an additional output With C
245. ject in chapter 7 on page 59 Setup Basics Step By Step New Alert New Bulletin Manage Bulletins About FrontDoor Log Out Main Menu The quick links at the top of the bulletin figure 6 5 are always with you within Carousel s interface They provide shortcuts to many menu items such as making alert and standard bulletins managing bulletins and returning to the main menu In addition there is a link to log out return to the main menu and to exit to FrontDoor s main menu The About Screen is accessible only from the quick links at the top of the screen If you call in for technical support you may be asked to navigate to this screen which gives you current version information There are two ways to select zones within Carousel One is through the standard menu shown in figure 6 6 on the next page When there is more than one zone the tabs at the top will be labeled Zones Crawls and Full Screen Alerts Hovering over these tabs will reveal all of the zones under each category All zones will always be shown in the pop down zone menu for the built in administrator account admin Other user accounts may have limited access to zones in which case Carousel customizes the menu according to granted permissions See FrontDoor The Manual for further details 54 6 Introduction to Carousel s User Interface 6 5 1 Zones with the Pop Down Menu FIGURE 6 6 When there are only a few zones a pop down menu will appear whe
246. k Continue You will see the standard form used to edit a bulletin You will also notice that many fields in the default Facebook bulletin starts and ends with a sign As in editing a RSS bulletin editing a Facebook bulletin involves placing special words between signs telling Carousel where to place the text For a list of the various words that are available look to the list labeled Available fields All of the fields that are available for use from the Facebook feed will be listed 149 Each field is self explanatory You can delete move or otherwise edit each of the section 13 2 on page 104 Editing and fields as you see necessary by either using the Quick Edit palette or the template Creating Bulletins A editor covered in section 19 7 on page 186 Facebook Bulletins receive their information from an external data source setup by Tightrope Media Systems The Carousel server will need to have access to the following address to function correctly https carousel facebook proxy herokuapp com 17 9 The Event Schedule Bulletins The Event Display System EDS is a component of Carousel that is adept at showing meeting information for one or more meeting rooms EDS can read scheduling information from Ad Astra Dean Evans Event Management System EMS Resource25 iCal feeds Exchange Server 2007 SP1 or 2010 and Carousel s own built in schedule 17 9 1 Creating an EDS Bulletin FIGURE 17 22
247. k the button that appears on the right side of that line Step 55 Select ASP NET v4 0 Classic under the Application Pool drop down box figure J 9 Physical Path C TRMS Web Physical Path Credentials Physical Path Credentials Logon Type ClearText bitte Select Application Pool EE Select Application Pool x El Behavior zi Connectior icati Enabled Pr M Internet Inform B Features Diagnostics Configuration a Storage Net Framework Version 2 0 Pipeline mode Classic oe ce Step 56 Click OK Step 57 Click OK again to close the Advanced Settings window Step 58 Expand Default Web Site to see both the FrontDoor and Carousel web applications Step 59 Highlight FrontDoor Step 60 Repeat step 52 on the previous page through step 57 for FrontDoor Step 61 Highlight Carousel Step 62 Repeat step 52 on the previous page through step 57 for Carousel Appendix J Enterprise Software Installation J 1 11 Final Configuration and System Check Step 63 Step 64 Step 65 Step 66 Step 67 Step 68 Step 69 FIGURE J 10 The path to your TRMS installation Open Server Manager from the toolbar if it isn t already open Expand Roles Expand Web Server IIS Click on Internet Information Services IIS Manager Under the Connections pane expand your Machine Name to show Application Pools and Sites Expand Sites and highlight Default Web Site In the Actions pane on the right c
248. l That is where we cover FrontDoor s features including adding users to Carousel and changing their permission levels 2 3 What Does Carousel Do Carousel is designed to manage and show bulletins which are short graphical messages on common area displays or on your television channel In order to accommodate the widest variety of installations Tightrope developed Carousel in such a way that it can be configured to show bulletins in different places on different equipment in different sizes on different displays with different aspect ratios variety requires a bit of explanation With that said your need to read every bit of the information within this chapter will depend upon whether or not you own Carousel Solo Carousel Server or one of its bigger siblings Carousel Pro and Carousel Enterprise Carousel Server and Carousel Solo have relatively simple installation scenarios while the Pro and Enterprise editions include components that increase the number of possibilities We will call out the appropriate edition where the distinction matters If you would like to follow along in a live Carousel system while you read this manual visit our demo website located at http demo trms com and login using our predefined administrator account Pick one of the logins that most closely matches your organization 19 2 4 Displays Channels Zones Bulletins and Media 2 4 1 Displays We start by examining the most fundamental concept
249. l blocks the Position and Size tools figure E 4 You may use the arrow icons i to position and size the block Position ele by Spx Size lt gt by 5pm Rotate TER degrees Block top 31 px Block Width 750 px Updare Block left 25 px Block height 97 px e Update Update The Block Top and Block Left fields show the current position of the block as seen from the upper left corner of the block The Block Width and Block Height fields are self explanatory Changing them will change the dimensions of the block holding the upper left corner in its place while the lower right corner moves to resize to the new settings When you use the Size arrow icons Carousel will resize from the lower right That means that to heighten a block you actually need to select the down arrow To widen it click the left arrow This is probably the most important tip of the Carousel manual When you are trying to resize or position a text or picture block turn on the outline of the block even if you do not want an outline in the final template This will show you the outer bounds of the block and save you from endless hours of guessing Of course when you re finished you may turn the outline off if it is not a part of the design For text blocks an entire section devoted to the style of the text will appear At the top you will see a Default Text box This will initially be set to the name of the block but you m
250. l on this server Confirmation Features Description Progress Microsoft NET Framework 3 5 1 combines the power of the NET Framework 2 0 APIs with new technologies for building applications that offer appealing user interfaces protect your customers personal identity information enable seamless and secure communication and providethe ability to model arange of business processes Results L BranchCache Connection Manager Administra Desktop Experience DirectAccess Management Console Group Policy Management C Ink and Handwriting Services C Internet Printing Client Internet Storage Name Server LPR Port Monitor N Message Queuing C Multipath 1 0 C Network Load Balancing Peer Name Resolution Protocol Quality Windows Audio Video Experience Remote Assistance Remote Differential Compression lil Remote Server Administration Tools Installed ag install Cancel More about features J 1 3 Downloading SQL Server Express and SQL Server Management Studio Express Step 17 Open Server Manager from the toolbar if it isn t already open and click on Server Manager in the left pane figure J 4 FIGURE J 4 Server Manager Server Manager lolx File Action View Help amp ws H Se eee SSR ge Roles penu Get i f the status of thi form t t tasks and add dim Diacnostics et an overview of the status of this server perform top managemen
251. l will automatically update the weather data as it changes Weather Crawls are made using the same method used to create a weather bulletin The crawl options screen is shown in figure 17 8 Zip Code 55114 Weather Format Today s weather Currently currently temperaturefull Available Data Fields show hide CD WeatherBug Weather data provided by WeatherBug f Preview Continue Cancel Enter your desired zip code in the Zip Code field The weather plugin will find the nearest WeatherBug station and use it to gather weather data The Weather Format field lets you alter how your weather crawl is displayed It uses the same data field concept from the standard weather bulletins Whenever Carousel comes across one of the magic data fields it will replace that field with the corresponding data from the weather station To see a list of the available data fields for your weather crawl click the show hide link next to Available Data Fields To preview what your crawl will look like after Carousel parses the Weather For mat string click the Preview button as seen in figure 17 9 on the next page When you are happy with your weather crawl click Continue and schedule the bulletin as usual The bulletin will appear as a crawl on your channel using the settings for the crawl properties for that zone You can adjust these settings by following the steps in section 7 3 3 on page 65 Typically
252. lable General Messages Zones Add No zones have been added to this channel save Cancel Next we will edit the channel s layout which defines the placement of each zone that will use this channel To begin click the Channel Layout menu item from the Channel Configuration figure 7 9 menu and follow the steps below First choose the channel s resolution which will match the video output of the Carousel player s that are addressing it in the Output Display fields Common resolutions are entered by clicking on the shortcuts just below the fields We will cover setting up a player s video output in chapter 8 on page 71 Configuring Players We haven t done it yet because we don t have a channel to point it to which is what we re doing in this chapter Most often there will be one player addressing your channel When this is not the case keep all of the player s video outputs the same When this is not practical then match the resolution to the most important player s output The Step 2 Step 3 64 other player s will automatically scale the channel to fill its their display When you are setting up a portrait display then you will want to remember to flip the width and height dimensions from what would be considered andscape For example 1280w x 720h becomes 720w x 1280h Next we ll add one or more zones to our empty display Pick one from the Available Zones pop down list and click Add
253. ld the Esc key down until it disappears This turns pages on and off and controls Carousel Players 71 8 2 Configuring the Display Engine dk Carousel Display Engine FIGURE 8 2 The Display Engine Configuration Form 8 2 1 Carousel Server Settings 72 When you double click on the Carousel Display icon you will see the Loading Carousel splash screen appear figure 8 1 on the preceding page Before the Configuration button counts down to 0 click it This will load the Display Engine Configuration Form illustrated in figure 8 2 In the following sections we ll explore each of the four quadrants of this form Carousel Server Settings Display Settings Time Settings and Live Video Input By doing so you will learn all there is to know about configuring a display engine for use in your system Configuration Carousel Server Settings Display Settings Server localhost Displays Default 1a Hide taskbar TEE b 0 Channel K 12 Graphics Manager Standard i Wt Hide cursor Time Settings Live Video Input Time Synchronize Time Device v Difhne Houts None Audio Aealtel HD Adice inp CO from IEU ah HL Lol Lor PEL a Save Cancel The first field Server Settings is where you can type the address of the Carousel Server If it is the local machine such as with a Carousel Server or when a Carousel Solo is acting in stand alone mode then localhost will be the appropriate setting If
254. le awaiting your entries Each column is a link which you can click on to sort the list by that item Clicking the column again will toggle ascending decending sorts 17 Dynamic Bulletins FIGURE 17 32 The EDS Calen dar Tool February 2007 gt gt M TWN I F 5 30 31 1 2 3 b fF o 9 10 13 7415 16 1 20 21 22 P 27 28 4 3 BF 8 810 Today Enter the start and end time of the event into the Start Time and End Time fields You can type 1 00pm 1 00p 1 00 or 1 To Carousel these are all the same 1 means 1 00 AM Entera room and event description into the next two fields Be sure that the room information is entered accurately and consistently so that Carousel can group the rooms together if that option was selected Do not close the web browser or navigate away from this page using the browser s navigation buttons without clicking the Update link You will lose any changes that were made 17 12 The Live Video Input Bulletins Carousel works with optional hardware to overlay an external video feed These feeds might be terrestrial or cable television DVD players a camera or some other source video source They may also be a Windows Media stream on the network To 17 12 The Live Video Input Bulletins 159 FIGURE 17 33 The Live Video Form FIGURE 17 34 Live video bul letin creation 160 What is the source for the live video Video Input Card Input
255. lease reference FrontDoor The Manual e Lastly you will need remote or physical access to your server and an internet connection 4 If there are no additional channel licenses available you will be asked if you would like to overwrite a channel If you choose to overwrite the original channel the setup will be replaced with the new setup however your zones bulletins and media will remain intact If you have an additional channel license the Clone Tool will add the channel without overwriting anything 22 1 1 Exporting a Channel Step 1 From the Jools directory on the Carousel server double click on Clone exe to launch the application For more information about Tightrope Creative please visit our website http store trms com If necessary additional channel licenses should be purchased through your dealer 229 We E Somin Come apa a E Documents and Setting Angetc Sot Primer Claes ci CZ Adreristr ater B C Desktop E CERTUM e Anm a oe Ue a du Wy Favorkes ibis i y roa Mela zm E E Py Documents 3 3 Propane 5i 79 Shortcut te E C All Users E D aed Bi C2 VTEST en mis eda S oL Program Files HE EFIE DD L TRMS Produchen D WINDOWS LEADUE AL interop StdTyne di E Uu T MS D 3 D num r nin Ea TRMS E T CablecastDSk i office Mierop Pow Merotot Server Batch aes E LC CarcussiDisplayErm Daa DNE a BaF IC Carcussitedeack Mg eee nte
256. lect All instead Examine the item in figure 19 4 on the facing page Notice that the name of the item is a link As we mentioned in section 19 5 on the previous page clicking on it brings up the items properties section 19 6 on page 185 If we click on the item it selects it Below the item s name is a list of the tags that are attached to this item At the bottom of the media asset list will be a collection of buttons Let s examine each After selecting one or more items you can add tags to them with this button If you already have media tags in your system matching tags will appear in a box below the Add Tag field figure 19 6 on page 184 If your entry doesn t match any existing tag a new one will be created 19 Managing Media FIGURE 19 4 An Item in a Media Asset List Weather Forecast 1 Blue Matuiral Weather Outside Intarrmatiam FIGURE 19 5 The Buttons at the Bottom of a Media Asset List Weather Sun Wheat 1 Wheat 2 Natural Weather Natural Inforrnatian Natural Information information Add Tag Clear All Tags 19 5 Media Asset Lists 183 FIGURE 19 6 Adding a Tag Clear All Tags Auto Tag Add Delete Copy Export 19 5 3 Copying Media Assets 184 Information This button clears the tags off of any selected items This button is not available for templates as they do not have tags Carousel will look at the name of each selected item and tag create a tag f
257. lement lt xs sequence gt name Name type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt name Value type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt name PreviewlmagePath type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name TinyImagePath type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 name ThumbnaillmagePath type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 name FulllmagePath type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 lt xs complexType gt lt xs complexType name ctArchivePage gt lt xs sequence gt xS sxs S lt xs sequence gt element element element lt xs complexType gt lt xs complexType name ctSetPageStatus gt lt xs sequence gt lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS element element element element lt xs sequence gt name UserName type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt name Password type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt name GUID type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt name UserName type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 name Password type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 name GUID type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 name Status type xs int maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 lt xs complexType gt lt xs schema gt 21 6 RDA Schema 227 228 2 Remote Data Adaptor 22 Clone Tool The Clone Tool is a simple yet powerful application used to replicate and implement a channel The bas
258. lick Basic Settings Edit the Physical Path field to show where your TRMS Web folder resides This generally will be D TRMS Web or C NTRMS Web figure J 10 a Features 1 m Diagnostics gll Configuration Storage E 1 m Ky Internet Inform aS w NUS oniica Bier nnol dit Permissions Default Web Site Classic NET AppPool Physical path C ITRMS Web I mm few Applications Pass through authentication few Virtual Directories Connect as Test Settings Step 70 Launch the web browser and type localhost in the address field and press the Step 71 J 1 Windows 2008 Installation enter key If you see the error Could not find stored procedure dbo aspnet CheckSchema Version when trying Substep A Substep B Substep C Substep D Substep E Substep F Substep G Substep H Substep I to login to front door follow these steps In Windows browse to C Windows Microsoft NET Framework v4 0 30319 Double click on aspnet regsql exe Click Next Select Configure SQL Server for application services if it isn t al ready and click Next Under the Database drop down list select FrontDoor50 and click Next Click Next once more Click Finish Open the command prompt by typing cmd into the Run the Start menu in Windows option in Type oSql E i lt DriveLetter gt TRMS Database S
259. ll allow your browser to determine your location for you 17 2 The Weather Bulletins The Caption field sets the words that precede the text of the bulletin You will definitely want to change this from the defaults For example if you are creating a weather bulletin for a school you might choose to set the caption as Conditions at Springfield Elementary Finally the Outlook Length field lets you set how much forecast data to display in your weather bulletin Enter the number of days of forecast you d like to see For example entering 3 will display the forecast for today tomorrow and the following day Thanks to http www weatherbug com for providing this data 129 Click Continue when you are finished 17 2 2 Changing the Backgrounds FIGURE 17 5 The Weather Confirm Weather Bulletin Backgrounds Templates S PartlySun The next form shown in figure 17 5 displays all of the different bulletins that might appear as a part of running this plug in You can see that all of them except Unknown relate to a possible condition that might happen Carousel automatically adjusts the background to the current conditions If it catches an unknown condition it then uses the Unknown background If the default background is fine then just click the Continue button at the bottom of the page If not click the upload link underneath the pictures and upload your new backgrounds 17 2 3 Editing the Weather s Templat
260. looks like LH SUP Properties 20 3 o4 ERAGE YH EWES SOE ES EG 1729Editing an EDS Bulletin 6 1 cee 2o ee REG 17 30An Example of an EDS Bulletin 17 31 The Event Schedule Form 266648 o o o RR 17 34 Ibe EDS Calendar Tool o e vv Reo om EY E dex E xw I7 331Ihe Lave Video Form oo o os a ox ooo ERE ea 17 34Live video bulletin creation lll 17 35Interactive bulletin options l rn 17 36Dynamic bulletin error on main menu 17 37Dynamic bulletin with no items to render 17 38Dynamic bulletin without authorization 18 1 A List of Bulletins o o aoao aaa 330 18 2 Filtering by tagS ou su ouo oko mom Roy AES RR Rn 169 18 3 Select two tags by shift clicking 169 18 4 Bulletin Groups 0 20 00 0000 2 eee eee 170 18 5 MovingaBulletinInaList 171 18 6 Dragging a Bulletin In a List 171 18 7 Move Copy Bulletins Form 02 172 18 8 A Bulletin is Waiting for Approval 173 18 9 Waiting Bulletin Email len 173 18 10The Waiting Bulletins List lens 174 18 11The Housekeeping Menu 0 4 174 18 12Bulletin Reporting 0004 175 18 13The Slide Show 2 2 2 eh 177 19 1 The My and Zone Tabs llle 180 19 2 Alpha Channel Example 181 19 3 A List of Backgro
261. loses 84 8 Configuring Players FIGURE 8 15 Loading the Dis play Properties Dialog BE CAREFUL WHEN ADDING CUSTOM RES OLUTIONS Display Properties Themes Desktop Screen Saver Appearance Settings Drag the monitor icons to match the physical arrangement of your monitora Display 1 Plug and Play Monitor on NVIDIA GeForce 6200 Turbabache TM 4 Screen resolution Color quality Less More Highest 32 bit 1280 by ANS EIAS NE Hi Use this device as the primary monitor Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor resolution and sync Take careful note to look for the native resolution of the display All displays are able to sync and display a variety of resolutions If you select a non native resolution the display s processor will have to re scale the image which will degrade the image quality Armed with this information open the Display Properties dialog as we did in the previous section Click on the Advanced button You will see tabs at the top of the dialog box Click on the tab that starts with the word GeForce On the left you will see a tab slide out providing additional menu options Select Screen Resolutions amp Refresh Rates figure 8 16 on the following page Click the Add button You will get a tremendously wordy warning about how you can destroy your monitor s display if you enter the wrong information into the next dialog box Heed this warning Generally monitors have bu
262. ls to look like The size will most often be determined by your display s output Some common sizes are 4x3 Standard Definition Television 800 pixels across by 600 pixels down 720p High Definition 1280 pixels across by 720 pixels down 1080p High Defnition 1920 pixels across by 1080 pixels down 1280 pixels by 768 pixels Many LCD monitors use this resolution It s called 16x10 31 Other monitors especially LCD monitors may have additional resolutions Check with your monitor s specifications and then test to make sure that the Carousel player can use that resolution If it can t you can usually get close enough so that the player and the monitor will agree and display a high quality picture In this manual we talk about a player for Carousel This is any device with the display engine software including the Carousel Server a Carousel Solo or some other device you are using with a display engine Remember that channels within Carousel s world refer to a collection of zones that players can address Therefore while you are in the planning process take time to name your channels Helpful names might be e Blackhawk Middle School e Corporate HQ Lobby and Lunchroom e Fennel Hall e Eagan Office Room 101b Wall Sign In the above examples the difference between zones and channels comes into sharper focus Fennel Hall might have weather traffic information and general bulletin zones for the audience in the build
263. ludes Flash play back support but keep the animations very simple if you expect great perfor mance It is best fade the animation up from and down to black because this will hide the fact that Carousel will show black in the beginning or end of Flash animations When building Flash for Carousel it is best to place a background layer that covers the entire canvas and spans the duration of your video This will eliminate any unintended see through problems with your zone Carousel will resize and stretch your animation to fill the entire zone With Flash it is critical that you build the animation to the exact size of the zone as dynamically resizing the animation will always result in a pixel or two of overlap Carousel will provide playback for HTML output but will not show Flash content on any screensaver client or in an RSS feed n Interactivity within will cause issues with Flash playback In short you want to 16 2 Uploading Flash 121 FIGURE 16 2 Flash Bulletin Your flash file has been uploaded Properties What would you like ta name this bulletin Mate Loops will be disabled during playback Flash animation timing play based an the flash animatian s main timeline not controlled by action scripts C play for 240 seconds Does this Flash animation hawe audio in it s Wes E Ma Continue Cancel FIGURE 16 3 Insert a back ground in Flash to avoid a black background EE EEE um up ue
264. mation For information on how to change your Display Engine type see section 8 2 on page 72 Display Engine Display Engine Display Engine Player Micro Simple Performance Standard License Optmized for video playback and low Low power Room Low power power For most modern sign Ubuntu 10 Linux Windows based Windows based Windows based players Snap Purpose players players player hardware Players Multi zone Yes Yes Yes Yes Transitions Cut Only Fade Only Effects Fade Only Crawl Mo Swoop Up Horizontal No Video Yes Yes Yes No Flash Yes Yes Yes No Live Video Yes Yes Yes No Local Caching of Content Yes Yes Yes No 4 2 Video Output Resolution ee All Carousel Players and Solos officially support the following resolutions e e e e e e e e e Other resolutions may run just fine but these resolutions are specifically sup 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 720 1280 x 768 1366 x 768 1440 x 900 1680 x 1050 1920 x 1080 1920 x 1200 ported Carousel s Players and Solos support landscape or portrait mode where the screen is either shown widescreen default or standing on its end See section 8 9 3 on page 87 Setting up a 9x16 Display for more information on adjusting this setting 35 4 3 Video File Playback Performance and Resolutions FIGURE 4 2 Preferred export settings in Flip4Mac for Carousel videos 4 4 Crawl Performance 36 Carousel supports the following video file formats WindowsMedia 9 and high
265. me SelectBulletinTags type ctBulletinTagList gt lt xs Choice gt XO lt XS element name CrawlText type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 chorce mMaxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs element name Zone type xs string gt lt xs element name ZoneSet type ctZoneSet gt lt xs choice gt SXS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS element name AlwaysOn type xs boolean maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 element name DateTimeOn type xs dateTime maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 element name DateTimeOff type xs dateTime maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 element name CycleTimeOn type xs time maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 element name CycleTimeOff type xs time maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 element name Weekdays type xs byte maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 element name WebEnabled type xs boolean maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 element name Description type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 lt xs sequence gt lt xs complexType gt xs complexType name ctCreatePage gt lt xS annotation gt lt XS documentation This command will create or update a page on the system UserName is a valid user in FrontDoor Password is UserName s password UpdateGUID is the optional identifier for the page you wish to update If not specified this wi SelectBulletinTags when used instead of UpdateGUID will send this command to multiple bulletins 1
266. most never easy 5 1 2 Connecting the Video Outputs If you are connecting your Carousel Server or 310R to a NTSC or PAL video system you will setup and configure the ConvertDVI hardware which is covered in section 8 8 on page 82 If you are using a VGA or DVI distribution system then you will use the system s DVI connector and a DVI to VGA adapter if needed marked in the system diagrams Once your video connections are in place your Carousel Player may be ready for configuration which is covered in chapter 8 on page 71 Configuring Players The trouble is if you have yet to set up your channel names section 7 3 on page 61 Define Your Channels and zones section 7 2 on page 59 Create Your Zones so your channels won t show you any information at this point Setup up your channel in chapter 8 before you adjust the video output of your players which we do in chapter 8 5 1 3 Power for your Carousel Servers gt e Uninterruptible Power Supplies 5 1 Hardware Installation Like any computer server your Carousel Server Solo requires power This chapter speaks to some best practices for providing power to your system Your players are a different matter They will probably not be subject to ground loops redundant power or UPS systems They re out in the field attached to monitors and will most like just take power directly from the wall Your server however should have a power source that is protect and this section is
267. mostly speaking to the issues related to its environment An uninterruptible power supply UPS is an essential part of your system Not only does this help to keep you on the air but it also protects your system s integrity from sudden power loss brown outs and most power spikes The size of your UPS will depend upon the number of computers in your system and whether or not you want to include other devices in addition to your Tightrope Servers Power requirements for your Tightrope equipment is found in chapter on page 43 Redundant Power Supplies Replacing a Power Supply Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Ground Loops FIGURE 5 7 This is what ground loop interference looks like 44 All servers from Tightrope that end in Pro come with redundant power supplies This includes your Carousel Pro and Cablecast Pro machines Furthermore your SX2 or SX4 server may have been ordered with a redundant power supply If you have redundant power supplies you must connect both power supplies to a power source to avoid an alarm from sounding which warns you of failure in one of the power supplies It s a good idea to connect your power supply to separate circuits If one circuit goes dead your system is still running albeit with an annoying alarm sounding in your rack To replace a power supply that has failed Unplug the power from the failed unit It is not necessary to power off the computer to r
268. n Carousel If you are wrong and want one zone instead of two or need a zone sized differently you will be in for a lot of effort duplication Better to plan first and get it right the first time In short make a zone for a channel when you always want its information on the screen Example Do you want the weather always in one corner of the screen while other messages Do not confuse categories of messages with zones rotate through Then make one zone for weather and position it the corner Do you always want your meeting schedule or your station s programming schedule in the lower part of your screen Then that would be another zone Any time that you want bulletins updated separately you will create another zone for them Do not confuse this with having bulletins of a specific category That is do not make a zone just for sports and just for meetings unless you really want two parts of the screen to always show each category It s usually the case that you want many different topics of bulletins on the same zone with specialized zones for very specific applications like TV guides meeting room schedules traffic conditions weather etc If you want a zone to show on more than one channel make sure that you plan the size and aspect ratio ahead of time It s is best to keep them the same size on each channel Otherwise the Carousel Display Engine will resize them for you which may slightly reduce their quality Example You
269. n the Windows tab to Input Source DVI I 2 aka the HD video source Step 9 Launch the Carousel Display Engine shortcut on the desktop and click the Con figure button Step 10 In the configuration window look for the Live Video Input Device section and select the TVOne T1 C2 750 on the appropriate COM port Remember Carousel only sets to on off state and position of the PIP window To make setup easier you can turn on the PIP window and position it manually to verify that both sources are working correctly then let Carousel fine tune the positioning Furthermore any other settings processing you manually configure stay active during Carousel control I 3 AVerMedia Hardware Here we go over how to configure the internal AVerMedia capture card included in the 310 models of Carousel hardware The AVerMedia capture card is capable of taking in Composite Component S Video and HDMI signals 274 Appendix I Live TV Input TVI Devices 1 3 1 Steps to setup AVerMedia in Carousel Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 FIGURE I 7 Configuring the Display Engine Connect your video source to the AVerMedia card in the Carousel machine using the included breakout cable plugged into the port labeled AV IN or by plugging HDMI directly into the port labeled HDMI Next launch the Carousel Display Engine shortcut on the desktop and click the Configure button In the configuration window look for the Live Video Input Device section and select
270. n the upper right of its frame which we covered in section 6 7 on page 58 FIGURE 18 4 Bulletin Groups y Tightrope Media Systems features digital Bulletins 2 Active F sms iL j Tightrope Media Systems features digital signage and televis m X n2r amp dmin amp ccount Fur until manually turned off Displayed every day fun cA uer fae rac zgra threg ort b A Mo ziras brin 7 MEM rwn Standard bulletin System Product Spotlight Carousel Pro 5 0 adds enterprise class co a o ssim eT waneer Admin Account e Until manually turned off g amana a a E Every day but Tuesday and Thursday mJ Standard bulletin in System To save screen realestate you can collapse a group by clicking on the small plus sign next to the group s folder icon To really save realestate click the Contract all groups icon at the very top of the list You can use the Ungroup This Group icon to break the group apart If you want to edit the group you can click on the Edit this Group icon l which opens Edit a group to change all of its a form to change the groups name or to reset each bulletin s start and end date bulletins schedule to a single setting To move a group to another zone or to another list click the Copy Transfer Send icon in the Click the Delete this group icon to be forever rid of all of the bulletins within the group To delete bulletins enmasse group them together explaine
271. n you hover over any zone tab that has more than one zone Jones Building Video Corporate Weather Traffic News RSS Full Screen Alerts Meetings A43 aeons X Manage Bulletins Tad Maria Notice that in figure 6 6 the first selection Building Video has a greater than gt arrow next to it This is to highlight that this zone is currently selected The gt signals the current zone 6 5 2 Zones with the Tag Selector In a system with multiple zones Carousel allows you choose how you view the list of zones By default Carousel will display systems with less than 15 zones in a pop down menu and systems with greater than 15 zones in a Zone Selector window At the start all of the available tags and zones are listed When you select a tag on the left side only zones that include that tag will be shown In addition only tags that are also in the remaining zones are shown That is if there are no zones that have both the Minneapolis and Saint Paul tags then Saint Paul would not appear after you selected Minneapolis FIGURE 6 7 When you select tags on the left Carousel will filter out tags and zones that don t match the selected tag You can keep selecting tags until you find the zone s that you re looking for fone Selector High Education 3 Welcome Area 3 ones matching All Zones Bank Ad Area Bank Clock Bank Side Info Bank Welcome Cabl
272. nailed down In that role they can act as visual placement guides FIGURE E 6 Editing the Back E drop and Outline Backdrop on B Opacity Backdrop Color B CJ o Outline ee E 1 The Preview Window As you make changes to your template the preview window will update automati cally You can force an update by clicking on the refresh icon If you click on a block within the preview picture Carousel will select that block and you can begin editing its properties FIGURE E 7 Template Editor s Preview Window 258 Appendix E Limited Template Editor If you would like see a larger example of your template click on the Full Screen Preview icon 4 E 1 The Preview Window 259 260 Appendix E Limited Template Editor Appendix F Custom Time Format Chart The day of the month Single digit days will not have a leading zero 7 The day of the month Single digit days will have a leading zero 07 The abbreviated name of the day of the week Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Thu and Sat The full name of the day of the week Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Thursday Friday and Saturday The numeric month Single digit months will not have a leading zero The numeric month Single digit months will have a leading zero The abbreviated name of the month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec The full name of the month January February March April May June July August Septemb
273. nal Data Processing Program or Script CarouselCommand TCP 56906 CarouselResponse Page definition in XML Status or Error Code in XML Carousel FIGURE 21 1 An application or script sits between your data and Carousel It communicates on TCP port 56906 and sends Carousel a CarouselCommand XML data structure Carousel returns a Carousel Response which is a status or error 21 2 Workflow of RDA Example 210 Generally applications that interact with Carousel through RDA will follow a standard workflow Bulletins and crawls are created and controlled by the RDA using a valid FrontDoor user account just as if you were creating and controlling bulletins through Carousel s web interface By establishing a user account and templates specifically for RDA you can construct remarkably powerful applications with very little hassle A CarouselCommand consists of one of many unique commands If your application wishes to create a bulletin on Carousel it would first construct a CreatePage command specifying the template it wants to use and the text it wants to place within the template The application would then send the command to Carousel and assuming success Carousel responds in kind with a success message with a unique identifier for the new bulletin This Global Unique Identifer GUID is used so your application can later send a command that references that specific bulletin either to delete it deactivate it o
274. nal EVENT TITLE Information Information Classic 2 Classic 3 Classic Additional amp Contact Information E Information Linortank Dates are Contact amp Important Dates _ Address iniormation EVENT HEADER Column and Image with Title Contact Information Detailed Message 254 Appendix D Sample Carousel Templates Appendix E Limited Template Editor FIGURE E 1 The Template Editor Form Step 1 Step 2 If you are using an older web browser such as Internet Explorer Version 6 Carousel will automatically provide you with the older style template editor This template editor is much more limiting and cumbersome to use so we do recommend using a more modern web browser if that is possible What follows is a walkthrough of the classic template editor in Carousel me LLL OMM Template Name A Title and Body Description L EA Background Template Specific select Select Block Block Name Title Delete Move Up Move Back Title Update ee Field Style EditField f Medium Update Add a Block Text Add Position ele by 5px Size a gt by 5p x Y Rotate 0 degrees Block top 31 px Block Width 750 px aT Update Block left 25 px Block height 97 Update Update Title Default Text oM Color Font Arial Black igo Opacity 100
275. neae optional Header Format 4 ChannelTitles ChannelPubDate Item Format 4 ItemTitle 4 ItemDescription Item Limit a Excluded Word List Show Hide List Footer Format ChannelCopyright Available Fields FeedUpdatedOn FeedCategories FeedSubtitle FeedLink FeedAuthors FeedTitle ItemAuthors ItemCategory ItemPublishedOn ItemSummary ItemContent ItemLink ItemTitle Preview ay Tightrope Media Systems 6 7 2010 Announcing Carousel 6 0 3 and FrontDoor 5 3 4 We are excited to announce the release of Carousel 6 0 3 and FrontDoor 5 3 4 Continue Reading InfoComm 2010 The formula for success in digital signage Is on display all aver Infa namm thle vear With Carniicel winninn cuctemce intenratare awarie and hiindrenc of nrierctc larne and mall arrnee the From the top This is the address of the feed Some RSS feeds require a login to view them If you are using a RSS feed that requires this simply enter your username and password into these fields Carousel will use Basic Digest or NTLM authentication This is a useful feature for people trying to access Microsoft SharePoint RSS feeds Enter the text that you would like to appear at the beginning of this crawl Surround RSS fields with the character A list of available RSS fields is below the text entry field Each item will include the text in this field Again a list of available RSS fields is below the
276. nels are running content and you can see them on each monitor Each monitor is precisely showing the Carousel output with no black borders on any side of any monitor The picture settings are adjusted correctly and the monitors look attractive ALI LL Each player is showing the correct bulletins A 1 4 Verify Carousel Communication You are able to access Carousel from all areas of the facility where access is expected Each player is showing the correct bulletins You are able to create a bulletin on a zone on each channel and verify that it appears You are able to delete a bulletin on a zone on each channel and verify that it disappears You are able to create full screen alert bulletins for each channel that has a full screen alert zone assigned to it P LI LI LILI LJ Full screen alert zones appear in a timely fashion under 10 seconds on each channel 240 Appendix A Installer s Checklist Full screen alert zones disappear in a timely fashion when you disable them for each channel A 1 5 Clean Up Testing You delete any test bulletins that you made If they did not purchase Tightrope Creative channels or you otherwise created fake zones and or channels to test the system Only delete fake information If there is customer supplied information on these systems skip the following steps as required You removed all of the zones off of the system You removed any media that you uploaded into t
277. nfiguration Button FIGURE 6 4 The Status Bar Zone Tabs These tabs list all of the zones that are available to the current user There are three 6 3 The Status Bar zone types zones crawls and full screen alerts We cover each in part 3 part III on page 101 Making Bulletins 53 Current Zone Current Menu Location Status Message Configuration Button 6 4 Quick Links FIGURE 6 5 Quick Links 6 4 1 About Menu 6 5 Selecting Zones This label highlights the zone that you are currently working on It s an extremely important label because everything in Carousel tends to center around the current zone that you are working on That is all of your backgrounds templates and the screens on which your bulletin will appear on are all determined from which zone you create them As you navigate through the software you are presented with different menus The navigation of these menus is displayed in this label You ll notice that the current menu is shown as text while previous menus are hyperlinked You can navigate to previous menus by selecting these links Carousel used this area to communicate information such as a warning or the result of an action you took This button is available only from the main menu and only to users that are given permission to change Carousel s configuration This is where you are presented with access to all of Carousel s internal configuration settings We go into detail on this sub
278. nformation we must tell Carousel how we would like it processed The first form that we see is the one shown in figure 17 13 We ll explore each field from top to bottom RSS Feed URL This is where you type the address of the RSS feed that you would like to reference Example http blog trms com trms rss xml 17 5 The RSS Bulletins 141 Is it RSS or XML XML is a generalized way to present any kind of data By specifying what is in your data and how it should be presented you can create a common way to handle certain kinds of information with multiple programs RSS is an XML specification and the information in an RSS feed is represented in XML In this section we ll talk about an XML file with RSS data in it which Username and Password E OR Upload RSS File Limit to Max Items Per Bulletin E Item Sort Order Character Limit Shorten long URLs Item Spacing Time Per Bulletin Excluded Words 142 is the most accurate way to represent what is happening Some RSS feeds require a login to view them If you are using a RSS feed that requires this simply enter your username and password into these fields Carousel will use Basic Digest or NTLM authentication This is a useful feature for people trying to access Microsoft SharePoint RSS feeds If your RSS feed is not authenticated then leave these fields blank If instead you would like to upload an RSS file into Carousel y
279. ng three different channels You want to add a zone on each channel that shows weather information You could create three different zones one for each channel A much more efficient configuration would be to create a single zone devoted to weather bulletins and place it on all three channels Zones have pixel dimensions and all bulletins created from that zone will use those dimensions However when you add a zone to a channel you re free to stretch it in any way that is needed Obviously displaying a zone in anything other than its native resolution will reduce quality but sometimes this is desirable Let s say you have an LCD panel in your lobby that has several zones displayed on its channel One of the zones is called General Bulletins In the rest of your building you are displaying that same general bulletin zone solely using televisions on a RF network In the lobby the channel reduces that zone to a smaller size making more room for the other zones On the televisions the full 800x600 channel is consumed by the zone which has the same resolution This was the only configuration possibility with releases prior to Carousel Version 5 2 4 Displays Channels Zones Bulletins and Media 23 2 4 5 Bulletins Example E Bulletins are single messages created in Carousel There is a wide variety of bulletins that can be created in Carousel which can include graphics text dynamically updated web pictures streaming video
280. nguage for non Unicode programs section select the desired language from the drop down menu Click OK If needed follow the guided instructions to install any needed files Restart the computer after installation is complete Click Start gt Control Panel Click Clock Language and Region gt Region and Language Click the Administrative tab Under the Language for non Unicode programs section select the desired language from the drop down menu Click OK If needed follow the guided instructions to install any needed files Restart the computer after installation is complete 49 50 5 Hardware Setup 6 Introduction to Carousel s User Interface This chapter shows you how to log into Carousel and will introduce you to many of Carousel s common user interface features This chapter is important both as an introduction and as a reference while you read other chapters Instead of repeating instructions on forms that appear multiple times within the software we put them here At this point some of elements of the user interface may not be relevant to you Just glance through the later parts of this chapter knowing that you will return here often as you read through the rest of the manual Remember Carousel is a web application and you access it from your network There is no need for users to install special software to create and manage bulletins other than your favorite web browser So let s
281. nks for the RSS feeds and Public site you should see a ZonelIDzX parameter The X is your Zone ID Additionally the Blocks command noted above now also returns a type field along with the original value You can specify the block type when updating a bulletin but this is not required It will keep the block type it is currently using The Block types are The specified value will be the text of the block The value specifies a URL for an image The value specifies a GUID for an image see GetPictureList The specified value will be a GUID for a video media item see GetVideoList The value specifies a URL for a live stream video bulletin The value specifies a URL for the feed in an RSS bulletin or crawl There are several other parameters to each of the CarouselCommands For more details see section 21 5 2 on the next page Command Examples 21 4 Elements of CarouselResponse Result Description GUID 2427 After sending a CarouselCommand a response will be generated indicating the result of the command Common response data includes Either Success or Error depending on whether the associated command has successfully executed A short message describing what happened as a result of the command If the result was an error the message will state what went wrong If bulletins were created there will be a GUID listed for each bulletin 21 Remote Data Adaptor PlayerStatu
282. nnel Hall General 4 Fo l ET Weather ClearSky Weather Cloudy Weather Fog Weather Forecast 1 Blue Natural weather Hatural Weather Matural Weathar Blue Matural Weather hTanachrarmig One of our favorite features of Carousel is what we call the tag pile The tag pile is a pile of tags Actually it s an alphabetical list of all of the tags that have been defined for the pictures within a zone Clicking on a tag will filter out any picture that lacks the selected tag You ll see that because you will then be looking at a sub set of all of the available backgrounds tags that are no longer valid will be grayed out As you can see in figure 6 9 there are three colors for tags Dark Brown Tags that you have selected Light Brown Tags that are selectable Light Grey Tags that are not selectable because no pictures or backgrounds match the current filter FIGURE 6 10 Clearing a Tag Admin Account s and zone Backgra filtered bv Weathe Hide Tags Abstract 1 SO Backgrounds far Fennel Hall Gene Tags are a great way to drill into a set of pictures and they are especially helpful when you have a large number of pictures to sift through 6 6 The Media Picker 57 We cover the task of adding tags to backgrounds and pictures in chapter 19 on page 179 Managing Media If after selecting a tag you decide that you no longer want to include it in your filter you can click the next to the l
283. nnotation gt lt xs sequence gt lt xs element name UserName type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs element name Password type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs sequence gt lt xs complexType gt lt xs complexType name ctDeactivateAllAlertPages gt xs annotation lt xs documentation gt This command allows you to deactivate all alert pages on a Zone Note that the alert page deleted Instead their expire time is set to now They will then be automatically moved of the user who created the alert page UserName is a valid user in FrontDoor Password is UserName s password ZoneSet restricts the deactivation to a certain set of Zones Alert pages on Zones not Zone is depreciated Use ZoneSet instead lt xs documentation gt lt xs annotation gt lt xs sequence gt lt xs element name UserName type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs element name Password type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs choice maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs element name Zone type xs string gt lt xs element name ZoneSet type ctZoneSet gt lt xs choice gt lt xs sequence gt lt xs complexType gt lt xs complexType name ctCreateCrawl gt lt xS annotation gt lt xs documentation gt This command will create or update a crawl on the system UserName is a valid user in FrontDoor Password is UserName s password UpdateGUID is the
284. nother channel license which gives us the ability to create another channel in our system We also add a zone to Carousel and make it unique to the second channel Then we will address the second display engine to this new channel giving us a unique display in our second building Notice how we were able to incrementally grow our small system by first adding a second display engine and then adding the channel license It may not seem that impressive when we talk about two zones but this flexibility becomes significant in challenging environments or in installations with more than 20 zones N You may access your system s licensing information in FrontDoor 2 5 2 Categorizing Zones with Tagging 26 Example Another feature that is important to the Pro and Enterprise editions is the ability to tag zones Tags are keywords that describe a zone Example tags might be Lobbies Cafeteria Western Region or Common Areas A zone can have as many tags as you like You might have a zone dedicated to a channel that is used for a display engine in a library s entry way This zone may be tagged with Library Entryway Common Areas East Bank Minneapolis Campus and General Bulletins In a system with 6 Tags also describe media but that s for chapter 19 on page 179 2 The Essentials of Carousel 300 zones you may wish to ease locating this zone by selecting the Library and Entryway tags which filters out zones that don t have
285. ns from another Carousel system This is handy for sharing between two Carousel Solos or when upgrading from an older system When you sum the items in this list you get the bulk of the resources for creating bulletins within Carousel Everything within your Media menu with the exception of importing bulletins from other Carousel systems is the exclusive domain of bulletins created using templates All media regardless of its type is managed the same way within Carousel We will cover the deleting copying tagging and editing of all media assets in this chapter 179 19 1 My and Zone Tabs FIGURE 19 1 The My and Zone Tabs Put media assets in the My tab when you want to hide it from other users 19 2 File Formats 180 Carousel makes a distinction between media files available to everyone that creates a bulletin within the zone and those assets that belong only to your account You will find two tabs that separate these categories My and Zone en a NON Carum LUN SN OM B BRS TUTO mtm P Main Menu Media My Zone E Rarkarnainde If you upload a media asset during the process of creating a bulletin it is added to the My tab You may copy these bulletins to other zones while creating the message but only within the My tab thus making the addition unavailable to other users of Carousel Within the Media menu however you are free to copy a media asset anywhere you wish You can make another copy on the
286. ns to which you would like to copy this background My Zone wj Corporate A fl Weather M fl Traffic wW News RSS O Meetings Ji Tool L Fi Copy Cancel CH2 MAIN ZONE 19 6 Media Asset Properties When you click on a media asset s hyperlinked name shown in figure 19 4 on page 183 the properties form will appear for that item Backgrounds and pictures will have all of the controls that you see in figure 19 8 on the next page Video clips and sounds will be missing the image control features listed at the bottom If you are editing a template then you are in the wrong section Skip ahead to section 19 7 on the following page The Template Editor The Name and Preview sections have obvious purposes The Tags multi select list provides another method to select tags for this asset If you d like to add a new tag type the new tag into the field below the list and click the Add button Use the Effect options to alter the appearance of an image when editing pictures or backgrounds Just choose the effect from any of the pop down lists and click the Update button to the right The Effect pop down list has a secondary pop down that includes options like A Little and A Lot This refers to the strength of the effect For Brightness and Contrast the negative values will apply each effect in negative directions They have no effect on other choices The Update button labeled Revert to Or
287. nstalla tions that operate a single channel or as a player in a larger Carousel system When adding a Carousel Solo to a Carousel Pro or Enterprise system you are adding everything that you need for an additional channel as the Solo includes a display engine and channel license A display engine license may be purchased separately This is called the Software Display Engine The Software Display Engine is installed on a compatible computer and it addresses an existing channel It may be helpful to review the chart in section on page Main Menu Server Setup Licensing The simplest configuration is the Carousel Pro server with a single Carousel Solo Every bulletin created on a zone is positioned on the system s only channel The display engine running on the Carousel Solo addresses this channel The video output is plugged into the distribution equipment which delivers the signal to the monitors or it s plugged into a routing switcher in television applications Now let s add a computer and a Software Display Engine license We have two computers both addressing the system s only channel This scenario is common when we want the exact same bulletins displayed on monitors that are separated in such a way that video distribution cannot reach all of them such as in two separate buildings If ever there was a need to run one bulletin in one building and not in another this configuration would fall short In that case we ll add a
288. ntDoor Log Out Main Menu Tightrope Media Systems edie carovsei Main Menu Configure Logged in as admin Welcome to Carousel EE o C7 ovsel It appears as if this is your first time using Carousel Here s what you need to do to get started 1 Create a Zone You can add Zones by clicking on the yellow Configure button at the top right of this screen 2 Create a Channel Channels are also made inside of the Configure area Don t forget to add your Zones to the new Channel 3 Add some media to your Zone You can add media to a Zone by clicking on the Media link which will appear on this Main Menu Details about this process can be found in the Carousel Quick Start Guide Thanks for using Carousel purchased a Tightrope Creative Channel then you ll be staring at something like figure 6 3 Since this would be a very short chapter with nothing to explore we ll pretend your system is already set up If you want to follow along and it isn t showing you the good ness in figure 6 3 then you have two options New a New an mur Bulletins i i About FrontDoor Log Out Main Menu quA Tightrope Media Sy stems s Va CE WU a a Zones Crawl Emergency Current Zone Corporate Main Menu Configure Logged in as admin p New Bulletin Welcome to Carousel Select a menu item on the left to get started New Alert Bulletin _ Manage
289. nto a single entity they are two different networks It is important to limit the definition to direct communication because we need to differentiate between the meaning of a single network and a group of networks Often people say network when they mean wide area network WAN which is a term used to describe several networks that are interconnected and under the control of a single organization Computers can communicate with any other computer on the WAN but they must do so through the use of networking equipment that is able to route traffic between networks within the WAN This is not the same as one big network Some will try to emphasize that you are speaking about a single network by using the term local area network LAN but this is no more precise than just using the word network In this document local area network and network mean the same thing Much of the text clarifies the mechanics of these difference so if you don t get it that s ok you can come back to this later On most networks all computers are considered peers That is there is nothing inherently special about a server in the network closet that makes it different than the computer sitting on your desk It is the roles that we assign these computers that make them special These roles are called services They include web servers email file servers time synchronization security authentication and many others There
290. o a Windows Media stream or will pull video from the optional TV Input card See section 17 12 on page 159 This bulletin lets you define or upload a web site that can be used for an interactive display See section 17 13 on page 161 Carousel supports three ways of displaying time Analog clocks digital clocks and a countdown timer To pick between clock styles select your preferred style in the Style dropdown menu A touchscreen display device is required and is sold separately 125 17 1 1 Analog Clock Carousel s analog clock simulates a wall clock complete with hands for the hour minute and second You can select a variety of hand styles and you can upload your own backgrounds for a variety of clock faces The analog clock setup screen is shown in figure 17 1 FIGURE 17 1 Analog Clock What style would you like for the clock Properties Clock Color m em FFFFFF Opacity 30 Clock Background Template Specific ast l Select Upload Duration 30 second s Note i tive clock null il h bull amp tii ri Options Seconds C Show Second Hand Hand Style Square gt Preview f Continue Cancel Analog Clock Options Here are the options for the analog clock Clock Hand Text Color Sets the color for the clock s hands Opacity Allows you to make the clock s hands semi transparent Clock Background Sets the background for the clock Duration Determines h
291. o bulletins separating them with a dash You can change the order in which they appear by re ordering them in the active bulletins list which we talk about in section 18 1 4 on page 170 14 2 Choosing a Crawl Zone FIGURE 14 2 Choosing a Crawl Zone Full Screen Alerts Fennel Hall Public raw fn Fennel Hall Staff Area Crawl Borlaug Hall Crawl Zones Main Menu Logged in as Mariucci Arena Ice Time The first step is to choose the crawl zone you would like to use keeping in mind that this is how you determine were the crawl will be seen You pick the zone from the second tab at the top of the menu shown in figure 14 2 If you have only one crawl zone the second tab will show the zone s name instead of the word Crawls 115 14 3 Creating a Crawl FIGURE 14 3 Making a Crawl Bulletin What information would you like to appear in the crawl Create a fancy crawl by typing it out an your keyboard We ll learn other methods for making a crawl in later sections Cancel First click New Bulletin from the main menu and select Create a Crawl the first menu option The form shown in figure 14 3 will appear Type your message in the text area and check your spelling with the Spell Check icon 4 When finished click the Continue button 14 4 Scheduling and Properties Scheduling a crawl is just like scheduling a regular bulletin an activity we learned in section 13 3 on
292. ock it must be listed here You can set the text of 0 or more blocks regardless of the number of blocks in the templa An attempt to set the text of a block that cannot be found inside the template will be ign lt xs documentation gt lt xs annotation gt lt xS sequence gt element element element element element element lt xs sequence gt name TemplateName type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt name Block type ctBlock minOccurs 0 maxOccurs unbounded name PreviewImagePath type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name TinyImagePath type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name ThumbnaillmagePath type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name FulllmagePath type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt lt xs complexType gt xs complexType name ctBlock gt lt xS annotation gt lt xs documentation gt Each block inside a template has a unique Name To set the text in a block provide the text in the Value attribute lt xs documentation gt lt xs annotation gt xs attribute name Name type xs string use required gt xs attribute name Value type xs string use required gt 21 6 RDA Schema 223 xs attribute name Type type xs string use optional lt xs complexType gt lt xs complexType name ctZoneSet gt xs annotation lt xs documentation gt A ZoneSet is used to represent a collection of Zones
293. odi tive programming experience P Redirection basettion the NET Framework __ L WebDAV Publishing ASP NET provides a robust I Application Development infrastructure for building web 7 applications V NET Extensibility C AsP L cer V ISAPI Extensions J ISAPI Filters Server Side Includes lll Health and Diagnostics V HTTP Logging Logging Tools V Request Monitor Tracina z More about role services lt Previous next gt intel Cancel Step 5 It will tell you there are other required role services needed as well Click Add Required Role Services Step 6 Click Next Step 7 Click Install Step 8 Click Close once the installation of IIS has completed J 1 2 Installing NET Framework Step 9 Open Server Manager from the toolbar if it isn t already open Step 10 Click on Features in the pane on the left Step 11 Click on Add Features Step 12 Under the Select Features window choose NET Framework 3 5 1 Features fig ure J 3 on the next page It will tell you there are other required features needed as well Click Add Required Features Step 13 Click Next Step 14 Click Install Step 15 Click Close once the installation of NET Framework 3 5 1 has completed Step 16 Install NET Framework 4 0 from Microsoft s web site 278 Appendix J Enterprise Software Installation FIGURE J 3 Adding NET Frame work 3 5 1 A HOPES i eatures Select one or more features to instal
294. ome to the Microsoft SQL Server Installation Wizard S up wil help you install modiy of remove Microzoll SOL Serves To conbrue click Next Step 22 Enter your name and company uncheck the Hide advanced configuration options checkbox and click next J 1 Windows 2008 Installation 281 ie Microsoft SOL Server 7005 Express Edition sabin Registration Information The following information will personalize your instalation Step 23 Click on Connectivity Components select Will be installed on local hard drive and click next 282 Appendix J Enterprise Software Installation i Microsoft SOL Server 7005 Express Edition Setup Feature Selection Select Ehe program Features you want installed Database Services Client Components will he installed on local hard drive LIP nr UT zn ot Step 24 Select Default Instance from the Instance Name dialog box and click Next J 1 Windows 2008 Installation 283 c Microsoft SOL Server 7005 Express Edition Seip Instance Name You can install default instance or you can specfy a named Instance Step 25 Click Next on the next two screens keeping the defaults selected J 1 5 Installing SQL Server Management Studio Express Step 26 If you re running SQL Server Express 2008 and 2012 ensure that you install the management tools from the installer 284 Appendix J Enterprise Software Installation iy Microsoft SOL Server Management Studio Express Seti J
295. ommunicating with CAP in Carousel The tags variable determines what Carousel bulletin tags are affected by the incoming CAPPOST command First we find all bulletins on any zone that are tagged with any tag specified in the query string Next we look for blocks in the bulletins that have names that match tags in the CAP XML Specifically anything under the info tag inside alert will get mapped to a block i e category severity etc The eventCode tag contents get interpreted as a seperate name gt value mappings i e alertCategory gt Emergency Alert Each value in the mapping gets inserted into a text block s text or web picture block s URL and then the bulletin gets re rendered We then activate the bulletin by setting all of the days in the schedule to be on If the alert info event or alert info description values are CLEAR we will deac tivate the bulletin by setting the days all off 301 302 Care should be taken with bulletins that are intended to be used for CAP so that they are tagged properly This means all of the days of the week on the schedule screen are unchecked The CAPPOST page will activate and deactivate the bulletin as required as long as the rest of the schedule says it 1s still valid See below for an example of CAPPOST command XML data lt xml version 1 0 encoding UTF 8 gt alert xmlns urn oasis names tc emergency cap 1 1 gt lt identifier gt 255 lt identifier gt lt sender gt lt
296. on your Tightrope server This service is generally very inexpensive The down side to this service is that if your IP address changes your site may be down for a short period of time This is because the software might not discover the switch right away To find a dynamic DNS service provider simply Google the term dynamic DNS You ll find many from which to choose M 11 2 Change Your Port Number Your ISP may choose to block incoming data packets on specific ports You can get around this by changing the port on which your Tightrope system s web server is listening M 11 Avoiding The Tyranny of Cable Modem Providers 319 Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 FIGURE M 4 Navigating to Internet Information Services Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 320 Right click on My Computer on your Tightrope server s desktop Select Manage Expand the Services and Applications Branch Expand the Internet Information Services and Web Sites branches Right click on Default Web Site and click properties figure M 4 E Services and icia SOL Servers Services WMI Control Fr Default Explore Open Browse Stop Pause New kr All Tasks k New Window from Here Rename Refresh Properties Help PF Lae a Under the Web Site tab find the TCP Port field figure M 5 on the next page Enter a port that is higher than 50 000 These are called unregistered or user ports and are unlikely
297. one another such as in a triptych display For effect you would like to build each channel with one large zone and synchronize each display so that every message is the same across all three monitors This effect is accomplished by setting the zone s configuration form located within the Zones area This feature will hold each zone s bulletins until they are all ready to advance Additionally Carousel will hold each zone on the last message of its cycle until all of the zones cycles have completed If there are 30 bulletins in two zones and 31 in another and they are all synchronized together Carousel will hold the first two zones on the last page of their cycle while the third zone shows its extra message That way when the zones loop back to the beginning they will all be showing their first slide in the sequence In order for this feature to work the zones must be on separate channels That is you cannot have two zones on the same channel that transition at the same time Sorry about that It s just how Carousel was made FIGURE 11 1 The Zone Synchro nization Menu Select your zone then click the Show Zone Synchronization Settings link This will display the form shown in figure 11 1 Synchronize with other Zones This setting will override normal page pacing 120 secs This value must be longer than the longest possible single Hage duration including etc J Page Length Timeout Cycle Length 300 se
298. onfirmation When you are finished Carousel gives you a quick summary of your accomplish ments Click Ok to create your bulletin FIGURE 13 17 Bulletin You are about to add this bulletin ta the system Confirmation Tightrope Affair Date On Sat 2 10 2007 12 00 AM Date Off Sat 2 10 2007 11 59 PM Edit this bulletin OK Cancel 114 13 Making Bulletins 14 Making Crawls ue Carousel s approach to crawls is different than previous versions where the c Crawl was associated with the channel In Carousel a crawl zone is just like a bulletin zone in that one can be placed on any combination of channels We cover this in section 2 4 8 on page 25 FIGURE 14 1 Example Crawl Free kudos if you name the band that wrote these lyrics w before go I will see you crawl Fell oft Making a crawl in Carousel is just like making a standard bulletin but with fewer choices Whereas a standard bulletin can be made from a template a crawl is just text that is placed in a line that crawls across the bottom or top of the screen figure 14 1 The attributes that determine the speed and look of the crawl is estab lished in the Configuration Channel Configuration Editing Channel Name Crawl Settings menu which we covered in section 7 3 3 on page 65 14 1 Multiple Crawls at the Same Time If you schedule two crawls to appear at the same time on the same zone Carousel will append the text of the tw
299. options Don t worry if your zone is not exactly the resolution or aspect ratio of any of the background or template packs Carousel will stretch each to fill your zone and if it is close enough you will not be able to see that any stretching took place Just pick the closest choice 89 9 2 Uploading Backgrounds and Templates 90 Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7 Step 8 We cover uploading media packages into Carousel within this section even though some may find it more appropriate for chapter 19 which is about managing media We cover it here because most often you upload content in bulk from the default media packages that come with your system From the Zones tab at the top choose the zone to which you would like to add content If you only have one zone in your system then click the first tab at the top which will be labeled with your zone s name From the main menu chose the Media item Click on the Zone tab Choose Add Media Package Click the Browse button Navigate to and select the zip file in D TRMS CarouselMediaPackages that most closely matches the aspect ratio of your zone Click the Upload button You will see a confirmation that you are about to add a number of backgrounds or templates to the system If you would like to at this point you can have Carousel add these same templates backgrounds to other zones in your system Select them now and click the Sav
300. or FFFFFF Gradient Opacity 10096 C O expect If you have doubts try the different controls out to see there effects While the controls that begin with Text modify the look of the text within the block the controls that start with B ock control the rectangular area that surrounds the block You can put a gradient shadow and outline around your text block in addition to adding these propertied to the text itself When you ve changed the data in a field and would like to update it quickly you can use the TAB key Perhaps the only control requiring explanation 1s the Block Reflection control shown in figure 19 17 on the following page It adds a fading reflection of the block and its contents below the borders of the block These controls are available for any block but require special attention in text blocks because the reflection looks best when it touches the bottom of the text which usually requires playing with the Offset slider When it s set correctly you ll see something like what is shown in figure 19 18 on the next page When it is not the reflection text will either overlap or be too far away Sometimes the reflection will be so far away that you won t see it at all This 1s because the Hight slider is set to something less than 100 If the reflection is far down enough it will be beyond the visible part of the reflection For this reason slide Hight to 100 while you re adjus
301. or each word This works well when you name the files for this purpose Obviously using this feature on a file named A Pretty Flower In The Woods will have poor results This button is not available for templates Brings up a form that allows you to upload a new item Deletes the selected items If you delete an asset that has been copied to other zones you will be asked if you would like to delete it from there as well Carousel keeps track of assets that are copied so that you can later delete them in one step Brings up the Copy form where you select the targets for copying the selected items We detail this in section 19 5 3 Copying Media Assets This appears only for templates Clicking it will turn the selected templates into a media package which you can download and import into another Carousel system To copy one or more assets click on them and then click the Copy button at the bottom of the list You will see the form pictured in figure 19 7 on the next page By default Carousel selects the current zone in the current mode My or Zone This will create a duplicate of the asset If you check a box for another zone Carousel creates a duplicate that is linked to the original That way when 1f you delete one of the copies Carousel knows to ask you if you want to delete all of them or just the version in the current zone 19 Managing Media FIGURE 19 7 Copying a Media Asset Please select the destinatio
302. or web config Install Dir Web Carousel web config Install Dir Services FrontDoor TRMS Services TimeSync exe config Install Dir Carousel TIRMS Services Carousel exe config ee Example Connection string login into a remote server with SQL authentication might be lt add name FrontDoorConnectionString connectionString Data Source MyServer UserID MyUser Password MyPwd Initial Catalog FrontDoor50 gt ue Be sure to set all of the connection strings TRMS Services Carousel exe config in particular has two related to Carousel and both need to be updated J 3 6 Moving the media directory to another server If your media is on a separate network attached storage NAS device configure the media store on the web server by copying the media verifying the Windows permissions on the new Media directory configuring the Web UI and Carousel Service to use the new path configure IIS to use the new path and test it Step 1 First create a mounted share of your remote storage Carousel cannot use a network path to reach the Media directory It must be a mounted share like X not NAMyServerMMyDrive Step 2 Open up Windows Explorer and find the C TRMS Web Carousel directory figure J 11 on the next page Your drive letter may be different depending on the installation directory you chose during installation of Carousel Framework Step 3 Open up the mounted share that you created in step 1 Mov
303. ou can do so by clicking the browse button and selecting the file Again this must be a valid XML file with RSS data Some feeds have hundreds of items You may want to limit the number that you display and you can do so either by bulletin or by total number of items Carousel needs to know ahead of time the number of items that will appear Enter that number here The number of items will depend on the size of your zone the font that you select and the maximum number of characters that you allow for a specific item You can sort the items in a feed by any of the fields in this pop down list The Feed Default option instructs Carousel to maintain the item order found in the XML file This is the maximum number of characters for the item s description Carousel will attempt to truncate the item at the end of a sentence If this is not possible then it will pick the last word and add an ellipsis A value of 0 will impose no limit on the number of characters When checked bulletins will shorten URLs whenever possible and appropriate to display just a domain name such as trms com This will prevent a long URL from taking up a lot of space on a bulletin This will insert padding between the items in the RSS feed This value is in pixels so to insert 10 pixels of space between the RSS items enter the number 10 This adjust the dwell time for each bulletin You can exclude items that contain certain words
304. ou like to display days Show 2 worth of schedule information bulletins How many schedule records would you like to display per bulletin How would you like the date and time displayed Date Mon 1 1 2005 custom Time 12 30 pm custom Continue Cancel This pop down list selects the Cablecast channel that Carousel should retrieve data from for its scheduling information 137 How long would you like to display You are choosing the time frame that Cable Display will allocate for all bulletins of this type That is if you have one bulletin that is a Coming up next graphic then that bulletin will be displayed for the amount of time that you depict here If you have five bulletins of the Coming up next variety then Cable Display will allocate the amount of time you enter in this field for all five bulletins You can adjust each bulletin s dwell time in that bulletin s standard properties form after you schedule it Pay close attention to Cable The sum of this value for Coming up next and See it again should be a few seconds cast s interstitial length setting longer than Cablecast s interstitial length The interstitial length is an amount of time in seconds that Cablecast forces between two shows If two shows are back to back then there should be just enough time to get through both sets of bulletins before the next show airs This field only applies to Coming up next and See it again bull
305. our organization uses a domain controller and restricts access to computers outside your domain To set the IP address to a static number Step 1 From the Windows desktop navigate to the control panel by clicking on the Start menu Step 2 If the Control Panel is in category view select Networking and Internet Con nections then click Network Connections If the Control Panel is in classic view double click on the Network Connections icon Step 3 Right click on the Ethernet icon and select Properties Step 4 Double click Internet Protocol TCP IP to open its properties dialog figure 5 8 FIGURE 5 8 This is the TCP IP settings dialog in Windows Internet Protocol TCP IP Properties i General a fou can get IP settings assigned automatically if your network supports this capability Othermise vou need to ask your network administrator For the appropriate IP settings C3 Obtain an IP address automatically Use the following IP address IP address 182 Subnet mask 255 Default gateway l 192 A P kl i j i 4 2 11 f iI pyr E Ir zilli rg L rub I x Lifes SHIGE l IS Cs Use the following ONS server addresses ee Preferred ONS server a d s Ja B gg Alternate DNS server Advanced 2 useful when joining it to a domain 46 5 Hardware Setup Step 5 Change the ra
306. ousekeeping Slide Show section 18 6 on page 177 Slide Show e Media chapter 19 on page 179 Managing Media My section 19 1 on page 180 My and Zone Tabs Backgrounds chapter 19 on page 179 Managing Media Pictures chapter 19 on page 179 Managing Media Video Clips chapter 19 on page 179 Managing Media Sounds chapter 19 on page 179 Managing Media Templates section 19 7 on page 186 The Template Editor Media Tags section 19 8 on page 201 Media Tags Zone section 19 1 on page 180 My and Zone Tabs Backgrounds chapter 19 on page 179 Managing Media Pictures chapter 19 on page 179 Managing Media Video Clips chapter 19 on page 179 Managing Media Sounds chapter 19 on page 179 Managing Media Templates section 19 7 on page 186 The Template Editor Media Tags section 19 8 on page 201 Media Tags Add Media Package chapter 19 on page 179 Managing Media X xXx X X X Xo X X X X X X e Event Schedule section 17 9 on page 150 The Event Schedule Bulletins e Extras chapter 20 on page 205 Extras e Zone Settings chapter 10 on page 91 The Zone Settings Menu Network section 10 1 on page 91 The Network Tab Email setup section 10 1 1 on page 91 Email Settings Other Zone Outputs section 10 1 2 on page 92 Other Outputs Lists section 10 2 on page 92 Lists Excluded Fonts section 10 2 on page 92 Lists Transitions section 10 2 on page 92 Lists RSS Excluded Words section
307. ow To Import Slides Step 9 Carousel will confirm that your bulletins were processed as you can see in fig ure G 5 It s a great idea to use the Save To Group feature which clumps all of your slides into one group ordered by slide number FIGURE G 5 Upload Bulletin The package PowerpointDemoExport zip has been uploaded Package Confirmation form Save To Group is a nice way to organize There are your PowerPoint presentation 63 Bulletins within Carousel Save Save To Grcko Cancel If you chose the Save option instead your slides will be placed individually and in order but will be harder to delete and otherwise manage the presentation 3 PowerpointDemoExport Bulletins 63 Active 63 amp g Li led FIGURE G 6 The presentation 29 imported as a group G 3 Importing the Slides Into Carousel 265 266 Appendix G PowerPoint How To Import Slides Appendix H Carousel Monitor Control Carousel Monitor Control is a system tray application that allows the user to schedule a monitor to power on and off It can control the power state by either using windows power management technology or by issuing a command via the serial port The application allows you to have four 4 power events per day two on events and two off events H 1 Where Do I Find Carousel Monitor Control The Carousel Monitor Control application is an open source application that can be downloaded for free at labs trms com
308. ow long this clock should be displayed on the zone before transitioning to the next bulletin in the cycle If the clock is the only bulletin in the zone it will be displayed continuously Show Second Hand Allows you to turn the second hand on or off Hand Style Sets how the clock s hands should be drawn Select from Square Round or Pointed A small preview of the hands is shown 17 1 2 Digital Clock Carousel s digital clock displays the current time and optionally date within a zone The digital clock setup screen is shown in figure 17 2 on the next page 126 17 Dynamic Bulletins FIGURE 17 2 Analog Clock Properties Digital Clock Options Clock Hand Text Color Opacity Clock Background Duration Caption Format Font 17 1 3 Countdown Timer Example 17 1 The Clock Bulletins What style would you like for the clock Style Digital Clock Color Bit Opacity 30 gt Clock Background Template Specific RI Select Upload Duration 30 second s Note inis clock null i thi Sole Bulletin ni displayed cortim karri B oration FE Options Caption Format 92 30 23 pm b Custom Font tuddaConsoe f Continue Cancel Here are the options for the digital clock Sets the color for the clock text Allows you to make the clock text semi transparent Sets the background for the clock Determines how long this clock should be displayed
309. p 1 Install Drivers figure I 2 on the follow ing page Step 5 The installer will begin to install the drivers figure I 3 on the next page Step 6 When the installer has finished select Drivers have been updated Successfully click to exit figure I 4 on page 273 271 FIGURE I 2 The TVI Driver 9 Hauppauge WinTV Installation CD Installer E Step 1 Install Drivers Step 2 Install WinTV Register Browse CD Exit FIGURE I 3 Installing the drivers Hauppauge Searching INFs Documents and Settings Administrator Desktop cd_4 6a DRIVERS SHOW 3BDA INF pdating Device SBWID_2040 amp PID_750147300 00 FO4E 3D30 272 Appendix I Live TV Input TVI Devices FIGURE I 4 Installation has finished Step 7 Step 8 FIGURE I 5 Configuring the Display Engine I2 TVOne Hardware L2 TVOne Hardware Hauppauge Drivers have been updated Successfully click to exit gt gt Next launch the Carousel Display Engine shortcut on the desktop and click the Configure button In the configuration window look for the Live Video Input Device section and select the Hauppauge device figure I 8 on page 276 Configuration At this point your hardware and software are now configured See section 17 12 on page 159 for information on creating Live Video bulletins using the TVI box Here we go over how to add and configure an external TVOne T1 C2 750 scaler box figure I
310. page 107 In fact the rest of the properties for creating a crawl are the same as for a regular bulletin with some exceptions e The following items from the Bulletin Properties form have no effect Bulletin timing Bulletin Transitions There can be no sounds e You cannot create a group of crawls e You cannot create an active repeating or alert crawl Once you are finished you will see the confirmation screen You can always go back and re edit your bulletin by clicking on the Edit this bulletin link 116 14 Making Crawls 15 Alert and Full Alert Bulletins E 15 1 Zone Based Alerts New Bulletin New Alert Bulletin g Manage Bulletins Media Event Schedule 15 2 Full Screen Alerts Zones Public Crawl Full Scsgen Main Meng z Logged ih ka wI New Bulletin New Alert Bulletin Alert bulletins remove the currently playing bulletins until they expire You can have any number of Alert bulletins active at any time We discussed how they are used in section 2 4 6 on page 24 and section 2 4 7 Full Screen alert bulletins are just like alert bulletins except that they are created on a special zone When they are active any channel that uses them will remove all of the normal zones from the display showing only the full screen alert until all of its pages are expired Channels can subscribe to any number of full screen alert zones Priority is given to the highest zone in the channel s subscri
311. port 175 18 5 2 Filter by bulletin status 18 5 3 Filter by bulletin tags 18 5 4 Export CVS Report 176 PageID Type Status Description ObjectType DateTimeOn DateTimeOff CycleTimeOn CycleTimeOff ManualDuration DwellTime Days Owner The bulletin status filter allows you to select between Current Queued Waiting Saved or Stale bulletins or any combination thereof Click on a status to select it and shift click to select multiple statuses For example selecting Queued will limit the report to just Queued bulletins and selecting Current and Stale will include both Current and Stale bulletins in the report If you have tags defined on any bulletin in the zone see section 13 4 6 on page 110 Bulletin Tags you ll see a filter for bulletin tags The filter will not appear if there are no tagged bulletins in the zone Selecting a tag will limit the report to only include bulletins with that tag You can shift click multiple tags to add additional tags to the filter In contrast to the type and status filters selecting multiple tags will limit the report to bulletins tagged with all of the selected tags For example in figure 18 12 on the previous page if you were to select both the sponsor and sports tag the report would only include the third bulletin as it is the only one with both sponsor and sports tags Once you have filtered the bulletin report you can click the Generate CVS
312. provides an interface to select a background and place message elements on the screen Once the template is created from Carousel s Media Templates menu you may access it when you create a standard bulletin The Template Editor is also used when creating certain dynamic bulletins and when changing the look of a bulletin that is being created 19 7 1 Editing a Bulletin s Template vs Permanently Editing a Template 186 When you create a bulletin you can edit the template using the Quick Edit palette covered in section 13 2 on page 104 Editing and Creating Bulletins You can also 19 Managing Media FIGURE 19 9 In this bulletin the red arrows point to elements placed with the template editor oe edit the message using the Template Editor by clicking on the Edit Template icon P When you edit templates during the process of creating a message you are only editing the template for that bulletin When you edit the template from the Media Template menu you are permanently changing the template Those changes will be applied to all future bulletins that use that template Existing bulletins will remain unchanged 19 7 2 Basics of the Template Editor Blocks Elements of a Template 19 7 The Template Editor Text Like most things Carousel a template originates from a zone Therefore a template shares the dimensions of the zone it was created from and all of the pretty things that make that template up are placed
313. r otherwise change its status Someone passes through a security gate An application looks up the person in the company s database then sends a CarouselCommand to create a new bulletin using a special template that welcomes the person by name Fifteen seconds later 21 Remote Data Adaptor Example the application sends a delete command that includes the GUID so that Carousel knows to delete that bulletin A fire alarm is tripped and a special application interacts with Carousel to inform people of the appropriate exit plan First the application sends a deactivate com mand which deactivates all current alert bulletins on the target zones Then it creates a series of alert bulletins on those same zones using the CreateAlertPage command Each zone unique to specific parts of the building then displays 4 or 5 bulletins that give relevant exit information based on the alarm that was triggered and the location of the display When the alarm is canceled the application sends another deactivate command As you read through the rest of this chapter you will get an idea of how Carousel s CarouselCommand structure and the information contained in the CarouselResponse help create a powerful tool for integrating Carousel with external systems 21 3 Elements of CarouselCommand CreatePage CreateCrawl ChangePageStatus DeletePage ArchivePage SetPageStatus DeleteAllUserPages DeactivateAllAlertPages UpdatePage GetPl
314. r or by clicking the select button which brings up Carousel s media picker We covered the media picker in depth in section 6 6 on page 56 If you re putting text in a multi line text box you can resize the box by clicking on the little icon in the lower right corner and dragging it Notice the preview palette on the right hand side illustrated in figure 13 5 The 104 13 Making Bulletins biggest feature of this palette is the preview of your message As you are editing your bulletin you can update this thumbnail representation by clicking the Update Preview icon amp 9 just above the preview If you would like a closer look at your bulletin click the Full Screen Preview icon 4 to open a larger view 13 2 1 Adding Style using HTML Tags sede s PE HTML tags This is some text lt b gt Now it s bold lt b gt Now it s b i bold and italicized lt i gt lt b gt Let s make a font color red gt red lt font gt word Let s lt s gt not lt s gt Some tags are supported in Carousel s bulletin text boxes b b Bold text lt i gt lt i gt Italicized text lt u gt lt u gt Underlined text lt s gt lt s gt Strike out text font colorz red font Change the color of a font An example of this in action is shown in figure 13 3 which made the bulletin in figure 13 4 This 1s some text Now it s bold Now t s bold FIGURE 13 4 Example of HTML tags in action and it
315. re like a tree where the top level is the trunk and each subsequent level is a branch that comes off of the previous level The highest level domain might be considered the leaf which represents a service or a specific computer There can be any number of levels to a domain See figure M 1 for an illustration of domain levels Top Level Domain apple microsoft Second Level Domain mail employee Third Level Domain Fourth Level Domain FIGURE M 1 The above example illustrates how domain names are structured where each level drills down into a specific service or computer To get to the news computer you would use the news employee acme com domain name ue When you refer to a computer s name you might say news or be more specific and say news employee acme com The full name is known as the fully qualified domain name Domain levels higher than the second are particularly interesting to Tightrope customers who are operating within an established network as they may provide a means of addressing your server even if there is already an existing one In fact this is how Tightrope operates its demonstration site which is a full blown Cablecast and Carousel system If you go to www trms com you get our corporate web site If you go to demo trms com our network hardware and configuration is able to redirect you to the demonstration system We will explore this topic further when we talk about firewalls and po
316. ring size chassis mounting varies between servers See the guide below for more information e Do not plug the unit s power in at this step Since the machine automatically turns on when power is supplied plugging it in will boot the system This could reset the system s video settings Pro Chassis When mounting servers that are in the Pro chassis you must first install the included rack rails Instructions are found in section 5 1 1 Installing in a Rack 2 These servers are heavy especially when you are trying to hold them perfectly flat and slide them precisely into the rack rails This is a job that is best accomplished with two people Carousel Server and 310R Chassis The Server and 310R chassis only need to be mounted using the front ears 240 Chassis The 240 chassis ship with mounting brackets that can be mounted to either side of the chassis using the included screws in one of two positions 9 These screws happen to align with the distance between two VESA 75 mounting points which will be on the back of many monitors 5 1 1 Installing in a Rack The Carousel Pro server includes rack rails which provide support for the server when installed in an equipment rack e These rails are required The depth and weight of these servers will cause them to sag and eventually break if they are not installed Due to the weight distribution inside the chassis only the front ears are required for installat
317. rough a HTTP connection We have tested the integration with version 10 of R25 Carousel pulls the r25 space reservations namespace In most cases this is found at an address that looks something like http myserver edu wslO0 wrd run rm reservations xml space query id 1694999 Here is an example of the XML data Carousel is looking for 17 Dynamic Bulletins Code lt xml version 1 0 encoding utf 8 lt r25 space_reservations xmlns r25 http www collegenet com r25 xmlins xl http www w3 org 1999 xlink pubdate 2010 06 17T12 16 46 05 00 gt lt r25 space_reservation xl href reservation xml rsrv_id 12713412 gt Sy aA STA Sr Zoos lt 25 LEZIS 1251 Sr2z5 ALS 125 r251 SIZ5s SZ SIZO SA lt r25 S2 lt r25 Sp lt r25 S2 amp r29 SE2D r25 SI 29 lt 29 SEZ lt r25 aA lt r25 a i ato Fy lt r25 lt r25 ay hoe reservation 1d 12713412 r25 reservation id reservation type 1 r25 reservation type reservation start dt 2010 06 17T00 00 00 05 00 r25 reservation start dt reservation end dt 2010 06 17T23 59 00 05 00 r25 reservation end dt act head count 0 r25 act head count shared gt F lt r25 shared gt reservation state gt 1 lt r25 reservation state Spaces xl href Space xml space_id 58 gt Cr lt r 25 lt r 25 Sr291 PhD oF space_id gt 58 lt r25 space_id gt space name Conference Room lt r25 space_name gt related space id
318. rt forwarding M 1 5 Summary of Basic Network Concepts All computers on a network must have an IP address that is unique so that other computers can find them All computers on a network will have the same subnet mask which is just a number that defines the size of the network Using math the networking software on your computer is able to figure out if an IP address is inside or outside your network based on this subnet mask If it is outside the network your computer will forward your request to the router on your network that will using magic forward it off to the computer with which you are trying to communicate If there is no router defined then you can only communicate with computers within your network M 1 The Basics What is a Network 309 DNS servers interpret friendly names that humans understand like www trms com into numbers that computers understand like 64 122 237 46 If there is no DNS server defined then you will have to use IP addresses and not names M 2 Dynamic Addresses and DHCP Imagine that you are a network administrator for a new organization that just received 500 desktop computers Your first task is to get these computers on your network You begin assigning each computer an IP address subnet mask DNS and router information This would be extremely time consuming but you get it done thanks to your hard work and dedication to repetitive tasks Now imagine that it is a year later Some of these
319. s 0 gt lt xs element name GUID type xs string maxOccurs unbounded minOccurs 0 gt lt xs element name PlayerStatusList type ctPlayerStatusList minOccurs 0 maxOccurs 1 gt lt xs element name Zone type ctZone minOccurs 0 maxOccurs unbounded gt lt xs element name Template type ctTemplate maxOccurs unbounded minOccurs 0 lt xs element name Bulletin type ctBulletin minOccurs 0 maxOccurs unbounded lt xs element name Media type ctMedia maxOccurs unbounded minOccurs 0 lt xs sequence gt lt xs complexType gt lt xs element gt lt xs complexType name ctChangePageStatus xs annotation xs documentation This command allows you to make a user s page active or inactive For example after creating a page to run every day all day for the next month let s say you decide that it shouldn t be run for the next few hours Use this command to set it s status to off until you re ready for it to go back on the air at which point you d set rt s status back on UserName is a valid user in FrontDoor Password is UserName s password GUID is the identifer for the page you wish to modify which was returned when you creat This page must be owned by UserName Status XS either on or orr lt xs documentation gt lt xs annotation gt lt xs sequence gt lt xs element name UserName type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs element name Password type
320. s Bulletins matching all of the specifie Tag The name of a bulletin tag lt xs documentation gt lt xs annotation gt lt xs sequence gt lt xs element name Tag type xs string maxOccurs unbounded minOccurs 1 gt lt xs sequence gt lt xs complexType gt xs complexType name ctUpdatePage gt xs annotation lt xs documentation gt This command will create or update a page on the system UserName is a valid user in FrontDoor Password is UserName s password UpdateGUID is the optional identifier for the page you wish to update If not specified this wi SelectBulletinTags when used instead of UpdateGUID will send this command to multiple bulletins ZoneSet specifies the zones on which this bulletin should run See the documentation for ctZoneS Zone is depreciated Use ZoneSet instead AlwaysOn sets the page to always run until manually deleted or turned off DateTimeOn sets the date and time that the page will become active Overridden if AlwaysOn true DateTimeOff sets the date and time that the page will deactivate Overridden if AlwaysOn true CycleTimeOn sets the time that the page will start beign shown on any given day Overridden if CycleTimeOff sets the time that the page will stop being shown on any given day Overridden if DisplayDuration forces the page to be displayed for a given number of seconds If not specified Weekdays is a byte determining which days of the week the pag
321. s You can change the display name for the group and you can change each bulletin s on off time within the group This icon and another variation of it appears when you have the option to magnify a preview in another window This appears when a preview may be refreshed Generally this happens after you have edited a text box when making a bulletin Carousel includes a spell checker Clicking this icon will automatically check the spelling of all fields in the bulletin that you are editing To edit the template of a bulletin that you are making you can click this icon If you would rather make minor edits you can try the quick edit palette described in section 13 2 on page 104 Editing and Creating Bulletins When bulletins are grouped together you can break off each slide in the group by clicking this button 6 Introduction to Carousel s User Interface 7 Setup Basics Step By Step In this section we walk through the process of configuring your Carousel sys tem Sorry to repeat ourselves but it is absolutely necessary that you understand channels and zones and how they work on your system You will make decisions during this section that will take a large amount of time to undo Read chapter 2 on page 19 The Essentials of Carousel if you have not done so already 7 1 Configuration Menu Main Menu Configure FIGURE 7 1 Configure Main Menu 7 2 Create Your Zones To set up Carousel you ll have to log in wi
322. s are really just a small but important part of an overall security Strategy Firewalls do not address the human elements of security like phishing scams and viruses that come through email attachments Furthermore they do not stop attacks on the services that you do expose on the Internet Also there is something called the chewy middle of your network that can completely negate a firewall s effectiveness This is where someone within your network shows some initiative by installing a 40 wireless access point and provides anyone within a reasonable proximity to your network full and un encrypted access to the inside Port forwarding is a feature of a router that is typically used in conjunction with NAT and firewalls This feature forwards incoming traffic on specified ports to addresses that are inside the network An example of port forwarding might be Forward all incoming traffic on TCP port 80 to the computer at 192 168 1 3 192 168 1 3 Port 80 64 122 237 46 Port 80 Tightrope Server 192 168 1 3 Web Service Listening on TCP Port 80 S Network Router with NAT set to forward Port 80 requests Internet Client to 192 168 1 3 Looks for web page at 64 122 237 46 FIGURE M 3 In this example a computer on the Internet is looking for a web site that you are hosting behind a router configured with NAT and port forwarding It looks for the site at your router s external IP address and the router
323. s difficult to sense video loss with an external source From here scheduling a live video feed is just like scheduling a regular bulletin created from a template which we covered in section 13 3 on page 107 One thing to keep in mind however is that often you will want to specify the start and end time for these bulletins as you may want a zone to go to a television channel during lunch and back to bulletins at all other times of the day 17 Dynamic Bulletins 17 13 Interactive Bulletins Interactive bulletins allow Carousel users to upload or link to interactive content This interactive content is displayed on a Carousel player and allows the viewer to interact with the digital signage There are several different applications for interactivity including way finding digital directories and many more You will need a touch panel display for interactivity to work properly The Carousel Display Engine composites Internet Explorer together with the rest of the digital signage channel This allows you to place interactive bulletins into any zone alert bulletin or full screen alert You can also schedule different interactive content just like you would schedule any bulletin in Carousel This is powerful and simple Because Carousel is using Internet Explorer the interactive content can be anything a standard web browser can display web pages dynamic web pages flash animations etc Carousel is not locked into any proprietary technolo
324. s in on a specific port is forwarded to your server The upside to this configuration is that any type of access that you need on your Tightrope server can be accommodated including anonymous access to the system s public web interfaces On an existing network this configuration might be difficult to accomplish because of security concerns and existing configurations Specifically if your network administrator forwards a port to your Tightrope server there is still no guarantee that the server will not become infected or compromised Once it is compromised the rest of the computers on your network are in jeopardy M 10 How Do I Access Cablecast or Carousel From Home 317 M 10 3 Option 3 Use VPN The most effective way past this obstacle is to place your Tightrope server inside your network s DMZ which actually does stand for Demilitarized Zone A DMZ is a tiny network with a firewall on either side One firewall separates the DMZ from the Internet and the other separates the DMZ from the internal network That way if your Tightrope server is infected only the computers within the DMZ are at risk The second obstacle is that your network may be using the port that you need There are three ways around this problem Usea new public IP address for your Tightrope servers This will eliminate the port conflict because your server will be the only computer using that port on that address 2 Use a firewall that supports named forward
325. s of Carousel and how it helps you to organize the content of your display These building blocks include displays channels zones bulletins and media We ll take each in order and explain how they are interrelated By carefully reading this section you will have a good foundation with which to continue In fact you ll see more than a few warnings in this manual that implore you to understand the content that you ll be reading here Your audience will see your system s bulletins on what we will generically call a display Displays include televisions LCD panels plasmas or anything else that can display the video that the Carousel system can output All Carousel systems output a VGA and DVI signal In addition Carousel Servers the Carousel Solo 300R has a composite video output The Carousel Solo 230 has an HDMI output with embedded audio Since displays come in a variety of shapes and sizes we must describe them to Carousel before we use them For systems where the target is a standard definition television this is simple 800 pixels across by 600 pixels across hereinafter written as 800 x 600 For other displays the number of choices increase dramatically but usually they are in a 16 x 9 9x16 aspect ratio Whatever the display it is very common to have a large number of them plugged into the output of a single computer in a Carousel system The video is usually distributed via RF modulator or by a balun system that del
326. s out of date Something to note about RSS feeds is that the ChannelPubDate field is only updated when the data changes so if you have a RSS feed that has an old Chan nelPubDate it will appear in Carousel that RSS is not updating In reality what is really happening is that the RSS feed has not added or updated the feed since the PubDate WebUI looks correct but the Player shows old data 17 5 The RSS Bulletins If the RSS bulletin and data look up to date in the web interface then your Carousel player may be offline Check the player configuration to ensure that it 1s receiving 145 17 6 The RSS Crawls FIGURE 17 18 RSS crawl creation FIGURE 17 19 The RSS Crawl Properties Form RSS Feed URL Username and Password E Header Format Item Format Item Limit 146 updates from the server Create a crawl Choose a source from which Carousel will fetch and display RSS items such as your favorite news site on the internet Fn Create a weather crawl 1E Grestenan RSS crawl The process of creating an RSS crawl is similar to creating an RSS bulletin You select Create an RSS Crawl from the New Bulletin menu option of your favorite crawl zone Once you do you will be able to edit the properties of your RSS feed using the form in figure 17 19 What information would you like to appear in the crawl RSS Feed URL http blog trms com trms rss xml Username tightrope Password lesese
327. s the R25 data Carousel will still expire and remove old events from the bulletins this only adjusts how often we fetch the data from R25 To turn this feature on you will need to modify a file on your Carousel server which is located in the following directory D TRMS Services Carousel TRMS Services Carousel exe config You ll want to change the value in the following key where the entry in value is in minutes lt add key EDS R25 UpdateInterval value 15 gt 17 Dynamic Bulletins 17 9 5 Setting Up Exchange Server 2007 SP1 and 2010 for EDS e FIGURE 17 27 In this screen shot there are no calendars but you can see that this is what setting up an Exchange server within carousel looks like 17 9 6 Editing EDS Properties How much schedule Carousel can connect to Microsoft Exchange servers to get calendar information This feature is compatible with Exchange 2007 SP1 and 2010 Carousel uses the Exchange Web Services EWS to communicate the Exchange server Make sure your server is configured to support EWS Carousel pulls the list of private and public calendars associated with your account as shown in figure 17 27 Exchange Exchange Server myserver Server Version Exchange 2007 SP1 Username trmsuser Password oo Calendar Ei Reload Carousel maps the following fields from the Exchange appointment to the EDS placeholders Time appointment Start EndTime appointment End E
328. s to block access on your network so that bad people can exploit fewer bugs Why expose a service to the Internet that might be a way in when you are not even using it In fact it doesn t even need to be a bug to allow access What happens if you have a web server running on your computer that isn t configured properly It is just waiting for someone to configure it for you Firewall rules may be set for incoming traffic and outgoing traffic Incoming traffic refers to traffic from outside the network coming into your network Outgoing traffic refers to requests made from within your network to the outside Incoming rules help protect your computer from attacks Outgoing rules help protect everyone else from your computer should it fall victim to a virus or hacker The most common type of rule that a firewall will follow is a port rule These rules simply block traffic either incoming or outgoing on a specified port For example your firewall may block all traffic on TCP port 23 which is commonly used for the telnet service Other rules might be based on traffic that comes from specific IP addresses Your firewall may be configured to block all incoming traffic on port 23 except when it comes from an IP address that is from a remote location within your organiza tion 315 M 7 1 Dire Warning About Firewalls M 8 Port Forwarding Many people view a firewall as the answer to their security issues They are not In fact firewall
329. sList If you set a GetPlayerStatus command this will contain a list of player statuses for all of the players in your Carousel system For examples see section 21 5 3 on page 217 21 5 Schema and Examples This section contains the full CarouselRemoteCommand XSD plus an example of each command 21 5 1 CarouselRemoteCommand XSD The XSD file for RDA can be found living in the same directory as the Carousel Service Typically this will be D TRMS Services Carousel CarouselRemoteCommand xsd 21 5 2 Command Examples In this section we ll demonstrate RDA s power through some examples CreatePage Here s a CreatePage command filled with descriptive comments lt xml version 1 0 encoding utf 8 lt CarouselCommand xmlns http www trms com CarouselRemoteCommand gt lt CreatePage gt amp lee Login Ino gt lt UserName gt John lt UserName gt lt Password gt trms lt Password gt lt This page will run on ZoneID 1 gt lt Zoneset gt ZoneID 1 ZoneID lt ZoneSet gt lt This page will run on a schedule defined below gt AlwaysOn false AlwaysOn lt Start running the page on Oct 26 at midnight gt lt DateTimeOn gt 2005 10 26T00 00 00 lt DateTimeOn gt lt l Stop at the last second of Oct 29th gt DateTimeOfRf 22005 10 29T723 59 59 DateTimeOFff Only run the page from 8am gt lt CycleTimeOn gt 08 00 00 lt CycleTimeOn gt lt
330. scription of each type Display the current time in a variety of formats including analog digital and a countdown timer See section 17 1 This option appears if you have Cablecast active on your system It renders bul letins before and after shows displays the schedule and holds a static slide during programming See section 17 4 on page 134 This will retrieve and display weather data based on your zip code See section 17 2 on page 129 This bulletin is the same as the Weather Bulletin except in crawl form You will see this option when a crawl zone is active See section 17 3 on page 133 RSS bulletins display items that are published by RSS feeds See section 17 5 on page 140 for how to make them and a definition of RSS This 1s the crawl version of RSS Bulletins seen when a crawl zone is active See section 17 6 on page 146 This bulletin will show information from a public Twitter search or from a specific Twitter account with the correct authorization This will pull information from either a public Facebook page or a private Facebook page with the correct authorization These bulletins are a part of the Event Display System EDS This plug in is great at reading event information and displaying it in intelligent ways See section 17 9 on page 150 for information on creating EDS bulletins See section 17 11 on page 158 to learn how to schedule events for use with EDS from within Carousel This bulletin opens a link t
331. se the proxy settings configured in Internet Explorer for the application user currently ASP NET v4 0 Classic HS APPPOOL for the Carousel Web UI If you can t log in and run Internet Explorer as this user don t use this option Use proxy server or script Use authentication for proxy Default credentials for the application user ASP NET v4 0 Classic IIS APPPOOL Use specific credentials User Password Domain if required Also use these proxy settings for players Save Cancel Some sites require the server and possibly players to use a proxy to access the internet This menu is where you tell Carousel about the specifics of your site s proxy if one is needed to access the internet It is a good idea to discuss these settings with your IT staff to make sure you get the right options configured or maybe they can configure the firewall to have exceptions for the necessary sites so the server has direct access The system information form provides a wealth of interesting information including the amount of disk space consumed by all of the media in your system It also displays version information for all software memory usage and processes currently running on the machine It is extremely helpful information when troubleshooting your system 11 The Configuration Menu The Missing Pieces 12 Users and Carousel 12 1 Permissions Example You do not need to create and configure user accounts within Carousel to begin
332. sender gt lt sent gt 2011 07 05T17 46 09 00 00 lt sent gt lt status gt Actual lt status gt lt msgType gt Alert lt msgType gt lt scope gt Public lt scope gt lt info gt lt category gt Safety lt category gt lt event gt Important Alert from UTEP lt event gt lt urgency gt Unknown lt urgency gt lt severity gt Unknown lt severity gt lt certainty gt Unknown lt certainty gt lt audience gt 127 0 0 1 lt audience gt lt eventCode gt lt valueName gt alertCategory lt valueName gt lt value gt Emergency Alert lt value gt lt eventCode gt lt headline gt Important Alert from RSAN lt headline gt lt description gt Test Test Test Test lt description gt lt I o gt lt alert gt Appendix K Common Alert Protocol CAP Appendix L Troubleshooting Common problems and questions from our support department are compiled here for easy reference For the most up to date information checkout our web site for knowledge bases live chat video helpers documentation and more L 1 Carousel Bumper Page Question How do I get rid of this awful figure L 1 page FIGURE L 1 Disabling the Jure hr Jan 2 Bumper Page baaem A Answer This page is a default bumper page set in the system to take the place of a blank screen 1f there are no bulletins to be displayed Also by default this bulletin is set to be shown once per loop in the bulletin cycle Please see section 10 3 3 on page 93
333. side this range This section covers advanced setup options that are used only in specific circum stances The first Displays refers to the configuration in a dual head configuration rare There are couple of important notes on this feature 1 Monitor Offset is not supported by Tightrope s technical support depart ment This is because the official policy is that computers that are running the Carousel Display Engine should be dedicated to that task to optimize processor performance 2 The Display Engine is a real time program that demands a lot from the computer s processor and graphics card It s not engineered to coexist with other applications 3 The Display Engine will do everything it can to hide your mouse and other wise annoy while you try to use it If you do not want the task bar or cursor hidden you may uncheck the two checkboxes to the left of the Monitor Offset field 4 All graphics cards will accelerate video in a way that makes your primary monitor show the video correctly while your secondary monitor will show a black hole where the video would be if it were shown on the primary display 5 You must have the monitor that the Display engine uses on to the left of the monitor that will display the desktop The second label is Graphics Manager As of this writing there are three This is the most advanced setting with all of the acceleration and transitions enabled It requires Microsoft s DirectX 9
334. sition and Size Tools les 257 Text Editing Properties oe beh ae x9 ARE kee 4 257 Editing the Backdrop and Outline 258 Template Editor s Preview Window 258 Saving a presentation as a list of PNGfiles 263 Have it save every slide rns 264 Make the folder into a ZIP fle 264 Importing a zip file as a bulletin package 264 Upload Bulletin Package Confirmation form Save To Group is a nice way to organize your PowerPoint presentation within Carousel 265 The presentation imported asagroup 265 Configuration Window 268 Schedule Window leen 269 The Hauppauge hardware 0 0000 eas 271 The TVI Driver Installer 2 55 o o9 o REE eee X xn 212 Installing the drivers ne o uo Robo o3 4c X Oo 212 Installation has finished llle 273 Configuring the Display Engine 273 The Tyne TERNI uu erore areri genira eK EO 274 Configuring the Display Engine 219 Configuring the Display Engine 276 Server Manager in the Roles snap in 217 Adding ASPNET 443 ch 5 eke ees oa eee ewe EOE eS 278 Adding NET Framework 3 5 1 2 0 0 0 0 aaa aaa 279 Server Manager cu oo cda se SS eee og Ue ENS ee ee 279 Turning off IE Enhanced Security for Administrators 280 Application Pools on your server in Server Manager
335. splay once Carousel gets around to it We might be more specific and specify a particular bulletin as waiting for its on date and time when the bulletin will be skipped over by the display engine because the current time and date do not line up with the bulletin s schedule even though it will display at some point in the future One bulletin is scheduled for all day from today until next Wednesday Another has no end date and is on from 3 00 PM to 5 00PM on weekdays It s currently 2 00 PM on a Saturday Even though the first bulletin is active now and the second will be active in 49 hours they are both in the Active Bulletins list Active Repeating bulletins bulletins follow the same scheduling rules as active bulletins except that they are inserted between active bulletins The frequency is determined by a value set when the bulletin was created We covered this in section 13 6 on page 112 When an alert bulletin is active and not waiting for its on date and time it temporarily removes any other bulletin that is scheduled on that zone until its disabled Users may save bulletins that are already active or add them to the saved list during the creation process 167 Stale Waiting A S FIGURE 18 1 A List of Bulletins 18 1 1 Bulletins Active Bulletin Waiting Bulletin Waiting for Approval Corrupt 9 168 When a bulletin s schedule expires it is automatically moved to this list Bulletins in
336. splays With Carousel Release 5 zones have changed that assumption Now zones can not only be 16x9 or 4x3 they can also be very tall very wide 9x16 etc The aspect ratio of an image is its displayed width divided by its height usually expressed as x y For instance the aspect ratio of a traditional television screen is 4 3 or 1 33 1 Wikipedia org Shipping a new Carousel system with a pre determined zone loaded with back grounds at a pre determined aspect ratio seemed counter productive so Tightrope ships each system with optional templates Located in D TRMS CarouselMediaPackages is a collection of backgrounds and templates that are included with every Carousel system Each set of backgrounds comes in four sizes that are each suitable for a zone s unique aspect ratio 9x16 Vertical These backgrounds have very tall aspect ratios suitable for zones that are narrow 4x3 This is a standard 4x3 aspect ratio found on standard television sets Use this for all zones that use standard definition video Banner These backgrounds have a very wide aspect ratio 16x9 Horizontal Any time you need a background for a 16x9 or 16x10 aspect ratio use these backgrounds They re perfect for filling an entire wide screen monitor or any time that you have a channel that will be showing wide screen content such as some movies or high definition television content Visit store trms com for many FREE channel template
337. support for non US date formats throughout Carousel and support for bulletins to be created in other languages The date support requires the server and player s operating system to be configured for English but with another country s locale set Carousel will respect the locale for any date formatting such as in EDS Date Time display scheduling etc The server s locale will be used for any rendering the player s locale will be used only for the Date Time display the one that rotates around and is set up on a channel it does not have to agree with the server but usually will Support for other languages includes right to left text Arabic Hebrew Farsi and Asian language word wrapping Japanese Simplified Traditional Chinese and Korean Any other unicode text will be rendered but will be treated with European direction and word wrapping rules Only one language class should be used per text block in a template i e we don t support embedding English words inside Arabic text you need to use multiple text blocks for that 5 Hardware Setup Windows XP Windows 7 5 2 System Setup Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Read on for more information about changing the locale on the Carousel Server and all Carousel Players Click Start Control Panel Double click the Regional and Language Options icon Click the Advanced tab Under the La
338. sure that folder permissions are set correctly 22 2 3 Command line arguments The Clone Tool will accept the following command line arguments Export a channel to a file clone exe export Channel Name Path Import a channel from a file clone exe Path force Display the help message clone exe help 234 22 Clone Tool V Appendix I have spent my life learning incredible amounts of disparate disconnected obscure useless pieces of knowledge and they have turned out to be almost all of them extremely useful Chandler Burr 239 236 Appendix A Installer s Checklist If you are installing Carousel for your self or as a paid systems integrator it will be helpful to use this chapter as a starting point for a checklist When you turn the system over to the users and administrators of Carousel you will want to be sure everything is working as expected and that they feel like they are ready to go Use this checklist as a starting point for something more specific for your installation If you do decide to use it as it is that S why we re starting it on the next page That way you can print the checklist off separately 2257 A 1 Carousel Checklist A 1 1 Preperation E Do you have everything that was ordered Do you have all of the Carousel equipment from Tightrope Do you have all of the required license keys Usually only needed for software only installations such as Enterprise inst
339. sword d GUID SelectBulletinTags ZoneSet Template Name Blocks E TRMSTextBlock TRMSWebPictureBlock TRMSPictureBlock TRMSVideoBlock TRMSVideoURL TRMSRSSURL This is the password associated with the above username that the application will use to authenticate Think twice before using a real life user account with RDA By using a new account specifically for RDA you won t run the risk of programmatically deleting someone else s bulletins This is a bulletin s unique identifier When you create a page using RDA Carousel will return a success code that includes this GUID Your application should save this information so that it can later manipulate it through RDA Instead of referring to bulletins via their GUIDs you can select bulletins to update using Bulletin Tags An example of this is shown in section 21 5 2 on page 215 A list of Carousel zones on which the bulletin you are creating is to be displayed Inside of a ZoneSet you can can refer to zones by their ZoneID their ZoneName or by specifying a ZoneTag all zones with that ZoneTag will be used This is the name of the template Carousel will use to render the bulletin This is a list of the blocks referenced by name within the above specified template Each block has a value that will be used to render the text for that block To determine the ZoneID visit the Main Menu Extras page for the Zone of interest In the li
340. t UserName gt lt Password gt trms lt Password gt lt CrawlText gt This is the text I d like to see at the bottom of the screen lt CrawlText gt lt Zoneset gt lt ZoneID gt 3 lt ZoneID gt lt ZoneSet gt lt AlwaysOn gt false lt AlwaysOn gt lt DateTimeOn gt 2005 10 26T00 00 00 lt DateTimeOn gt DateTimeOff 2005 10 29T723 59 59 DateTimeOff lt Weekdays gt 127 lt Weekdays gt lt WebEnabled gt true lt WebEnabled gt lt CreateCrawl gt lt CarouselCommand gt Here s how to change a bulletin s status using the ChangePageStatus command lt xml version 1 0 encoding utf 8 gt lt CarouselCommand xmlns http www trms com CarouselRemoteCommand gt This command will set the status of the specified page to on gt 215 lt ChangePagestatus gt lt UserName gt John lt UserName gt lt Password gt trms lt Password gt lt GUID gt 77c0592c el1 3e 46de b2dc 5617e119452a lt GUID gt lt Status gt on lt Status gt lt ChangePageStatus gt CarouselCommand DeletePage Deleting bulletins is easy as long as you know the GUID of the bulletin you want to remove lt xml version 1 0 encoding utf 8 gt lt CarouselCommand xmlns http www trms com CarouselRemoteCommand gt lt This command will delete the specified page assuming that the user John has permission to do so gt lt DeletePage gt lt UserName gt John lt UserName gt lt Password gt trms lt Password gt lt
341. t file section 16 3 on page 124 Uploading PowerPoint 243 Upload a bulletin package section 16 4 on page 124 Uploading Bulletin Packages Dynamic chapter 17 on page 125 Dynamic Bulletins Clock bulletin section 17 1 on page 125 The Clock Bulletins Weather bulletin section 17 2 on page 129 The Weather Bulletins CableDisplay bulletin section 17 4 on page 134 Cable Display Bulletins RSS bulletin section 17 5 on page 140 The RSS Bulletins Event Schedule bulletin section 17 9 on page 150 The Event Schedule Bulletins Live Video Feed section 17 12 on page 159 The Live Video Input Bulletins Interactive Bulletin section 17 13 on page 161 Interactive Bul letins e New Alert Bulletin chapter 15 on page 117 Alert and Full Alert Bulletins Standard Uploaded Upload an image file section 16 1 on page 119 Uploading Video and Pictures Upload a flash file section 16 2 on page 121 Uploading Flash Upload a video file section 16 1 on page 119 Uploading Video and Pictures Upload a PowerPoint file section 16 3 on page 124 Uploading PowerPoint Upload a bulletin package section 16 4 on page 124 Uploading Bulletin Packages Dynamic Clock bulletin section 17 1 on page 125 The Clock Bulletins Weather bulletin section 17 2 on page 129 The Weather Bulletins CableDisplay bulletin section 17 4 on page 134 Cable Display Bulletins RSS bulletin section 17 5 on p
342. t too long of a delay The timeout used for the snapshot will now take into account the specified delay 323 Bug 8002 New 8047 Bug 7741 Bug 8037 Unable to upload a picture to create a bulletin You can once again upload single images as bulletins Updating sibling bulletins should show on the confirmation page The confirma tion now shows a list of zones that the bulletin is shared with and whether or not they ll be updated when you proceed Standard bulletins with WebPictureBlock errors won t show their errors Stan dard bulletins with WebPictureBlocks will now show a red dot and their error message if an error occurred when updating them SQL 2012 create script incompatibility SQL Server 2012 can now create a new database on initial install Previously existing databases needed to be migrated over to SOL 2012 N 3 Carousel 6 4 4 Release Notes Bug 8192 Copies to the same zone can repeat shared zone names Carousel no longer lists multiple copies of a bulletin on the same zone under the shared on zone list N 4 Carousel 6 4 5 Release Notes Bug 8234 Bug 8235 Bug 8236 Twitter and Facebook default templates will cause the No blocks could fit on the current template error The default templates have been updated to have proper default options on their content blocks RSS bulletins will give the following error Error Specified argument was out of the range of valid values The default templates
343. tabs at the top and for now avoiding any crawl zones Not only will choosing a zone determine where the message will appear it also changes the templates and media that you will be able to use as these are specific to zones Main Menu From the desired zone tab select New Bulletin from the Main Menu Provided icc D that the Standard tab is selected a list of templates will appear figure 13 1 on the next page 5 qme Choose a template based on the type of message that you intend to write Tem Manage Bulletins plates generally are designed with a purpose and include a graphic layout designed to assist in creating a specific message such as an important date or the lunch menu Templates can also be used as a starting point You can change the back ground picture elements and text blocks remaking the template into whatever you want In figure figure 13 1 we chose Column and Image with Title from the default set of templates l The second tab over if you forgot what you read in chapter 2 on page 19 103 FIGURE 13 1 Picking a Template Standard Uploaded Dynamic Pl a Title and Body Calendar of Events Celebrate I classic Classic 2 classic 3 column and Image with Title El contact ueteri IF Detailed Message EJ Education r C F ww yT zd Event Invitation 1 4 EVENT HEADER x Column and Image with j Title Zone Template 7 Event Invitation 2 EJ Event Messag
344. tems When you want to create a system of signage channels where content can be shared and users can edit content from a single web interface you need a Carousel server and more than one player Carousel Solos can act as players in these multi channel 2 4 Displays Channels Zones Bulletins and Media 21 2 4 3 Zones and Channels FIGURE 2 2 Here is an example of a channel layout with three zones and a crawl systems but Carousel Players are a bit cheaper and are what you would purchase if you re not upgrading from a Solo system to a multi channel system To get a clearer picture of how products in the Carousel line differ see the chapter on page Let us look at a single display for a moment It s easy to imagine what our Carousel s bulletins will look like each rotating through and looping around to the beginning once they ve all had a turn Imagine the ability to display weather data standard bulletins and meeting schedule information simultaneously Since Carousel Version 5 we introduced zones which provide you with the ability to break up the screen into several areas of unique information as seen in figure 2 2 VOLUNTEER The Soup Kitchen Every Sunday from 9 00AM 5 Accounting Every Monday at from 4 00PM to S 00PA T G Childcare Service Wednesday Thursday Sunday DAM to lt Clcan Up Every Friday at 4 30PM AP Wall Street struggled to steady itself Tuesday climbing back from an early plunge afte
345. text entry field 99 You can limit the number of items that will be included in this crawl A limit of 0 will remove the limit and display all available items 17 Dynamic Bulletins Excluded Word List Footer Format Preview E E 17 7 Twitter Bulletins FIGURE 17 20 Editing Twitter properties Search Twitter for Twitter Authentication Items to fetch 17 7 Twitter Bulletins Items that contain these words will be excluded from the display The text within this field will be displayed at the end of the feed You can test the feed by clicking preview icon 9 This is a good way to see if your RSS link is working It is also a good way to see if you are displaying a feed with too much information If there are too many items then you can set the Item Limit field to a lower number and refresh the preview to see if it worked The process of scheduling and editing the properties of an RSS crawl is identical to that of a standard crawl We cover that in section 14 4 on page 116 You may want to check the Until Manually turned off checkbox on the schedule form This will leave this bulletin on until you manually remove it Carousel will automatically update the RSS data as it changes These bulletins pull information from Twitter based on a series of critera you enter Search Twitter for Tightrope Media Systems e g hashtag these search words cow OR horse from trms dog cat or cat pictur
346. th an account that has full access to Carousel Typically the admin account is used for this purpose We covered the login process in section 6 1 on page 51 Logging Into Carousel Once you are logged into Carousel you may be greeted with a menu that looks much like figure 6 2 on page 52 because there are no zones in a fresh Carousel system In this case the main menu is blank If you ordered a Tightrope Creative Channel you may follow along in this chapter taking note of the steps and adjusting your system s settings as necessary including changing the name of your channel and zones Also your Creative Channel came with instructions for adjusting most of the settings that you would need to set so you can use that guide as well You will not however want to follow all of the steps in this chapter as you d wreck the creative channel that you purchased if you did Assuming that you do have a system that has not yet been set up click on the Configure button to the right of the status bar Carousel Configuration Configuration Channels Zones Players System Once you have logged in and navigated to the Configure menu your next step will be to create and configure your system s zones At this point you could make your channel first and come back and add zones after you ve created them Instead we 59 will choose to make the zones first define our channels and then place our zones on those channels Main Menu Con
347. the Editing Channel Name display properties of the crawl for this channel Review figure 7 12 on the following Crawl Settings page as you read through this section 7 3 Define Your Channels 65 FIGURE 7 12 The Crawl Settings Menu Placement Top 9 Bottom Speed Slow O O O Fast Firg Bawdy 1 LAW A i FFFFFF Background 00000 Offset 5 Pixels Changes will not take effect until the DisplayEngine is restarted Save Cancel By default the crawl will appear on the bottom of the display To make it appear on the top click the Top radio button The speed is adjusted by the Speed radio buttons There is no hard and fast rule as to how fast a particular player will display a crawl The middle selection is generally considered readable Faster speeds may result in some jerkiness on some displays The Font items adjust the color font and size of the text Click the color wheel button to reveal a palette of colors Alternately enter a specific color in the field below the color wheel using the HTML color model The background of the crawl is a solid color adjusted by the Background color wheel To adjust the number of pixels separating the edge of the monitor and the crawl enter a value into the Offset field The default value of 5 pixels is a pretty good starting point for most LCD or Plasma monitors NTSC PAL television screens may need a value as high as 15 There are several stared
348. the AVerMedia device Configuration Xx Display Settings Displays Default Get v Hide taskbar Graphics Manager standard v Hide cursor Carousel Server Settings Server localhost Al Channel Demo Channel T Time Settings 34 ideo Input Time Synchronize Time Device Mene Audio Real HD Audio Input C fom 12 00 AM py EE At this point your hardware and software are now configured See section 17 12 on page 159 for information on creating Live Video bulletins using the TVI box I 4 Contemporary Research and AVerMedia Hardware ha Qe This appendix describes how to configure the Contemporary Research 232 ATSC along with the internal AVerMedia capture card included in the 310 models of Carousel hardware The 232 ATSC allows the tuning of channels via a RS 232 connection and must be connected to the AVerMedia card via component cables You MUST connect the 232 ATSC 4 to the internal AVerMedia card via compo nent a connection all other connections will not work L4 1 Steps to setup 232 ATSC with AVerMedia in Carousel Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Connect power and a signal wire ATSC or Cable to the Contemporary Research 232 ATSC Use a female to female null modem RS 232 cable to connect the Carousel hardware to the 232 ATSC Connect your 232 ATSC to the AVerMedia breakout cable using a component
349. the image using its alpha channel An alpha channel is a gray scale image with the same dimensions as the visible picture Where the alpha image is white the picture will show Where it is black the background will show through Grey areas will blend the picture as you can see in figure 19 2 FIGURE 19 2 Alpha Channel Example The first version is the picture without an alpha channel The second is the alpha channel while the third is the result of applying it to the picture 19 4 Aspect Ratios Note that when you upload videos and backgrounds into Carousel the system will stretch them to fill the block or zone that you are using That is a background will be stretched to fill a zone and the video will stretch to fill the hole carved out for it in the template It is best to design the background or video with its Carousel target in mind Pictures are not affected by aspect ratios They are shown pixel for pixel and evenly resized if needed retaining the original look of the picture When you upload a picture into Carousel it does not resize it like it does for a background Therefore take care not to upload a huge image file when a medium or small one would do Carousel will resize just about any image but you could be needlessly taxing the system Whenever you click on any of the Media menu s items except Media Tags and Add Media Package you will be greeted with a list of items that are in that zone 19 3 Logos
350. the weather crawl is pretty long Therefore if you would like to use your crawl for important information you may want to refrain from using the weather crawl It will make it unlikely that people will notice your crawl 133 FIGURE 17 9 Previewing the weather crawl 17 4 Cable Display Bulletins At this point we have good news and bad news The good news is that if you do not own Cablecast you can skip this section as this is about Cable Display for Carousel a plug in that reads television schedules from Cablecast and displays the information as a bulletin in Carousel If you have Cablecast the bad news is that you have to read it Of course by reading this section you will learn of all the wonderful things that Cable Display will do for you and in the end that is good news FIGURE 17 10 Selecting a Cable Display Bulletin Type What type of CableDisplay bulletin would you like ta create 134 55114 Today s weather Currently currently temperaturefull Preview Today s weather Currently Sunny 83 F Friday Mostly sunny Highs around 90 Southeast winds 10 mph Saturday Cloudy with showers and thunderstorms likely in the morning then partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon Highs around 80 South winds 5 to 10 mph shiftitg to the west 10 to 15 mph in the afternoon Chance of rain 70 percent Sund artly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of showers and thundersto Highs 7
351. there is usually no need to adjust this setting 8 3 Monitoring Your Players 8 3 1 Player Status 8 3 Monitoring Your Players For larger Carousel installations managing several dozen Carousel Players can get a bit tricky It s hard to know which channel they re displaying or even if they re running at all unless you re standing in front of the display This is why we have Player Status Monitoring There are three ways to keep tabs on your Carousel Players Player Status Micro Player Status and Player Alerts From Carousel s Configure menu click on Players figure 7 1 You ll be presented with the Player Status Micro Player Status and Player Alert options as in figure 8 5 on the next page In figure 8 6 on the following page you can see four players that are registered with Carousel including their hostname IP address and the Carousel channel that each player is tuned to Additionally you can see the version of the Display Engine software and the last time that the Display Engine checked in with the server Under normal circumstances the Display Engine will check in with the server approximately once every minute As you can see this system is having some trouble The Main Lobby player hasn t checked in since 2 AM this morning the Conference Room player is running an old version of the software and although the Hallway player has checked in recently it taking a little longer than usual for the next check in
352. this First by dragging and dropping the block in the preview window Substep A In the preview window click on your block and drag it Make sure that you click and drag somewhere within the block but not near the edges as shown in figure 19 12 This is a good time to click the Full Size Preview checkbox in the Template Properties section E E 23 Aj aa Substep B To resize a block just drag one of the yellow dotted corners on the right or the bottom right corner as in figure 19 13 on the next page If you need to get pixel accurate you can do this two ways One way is to click on the Size and Position section 191 FIGURE 19 13 Resizing a block in the preview window Step 10 up down left right arrow keys shift arrow keys page up page down home end 192 Size and Position Top 149 px Bottom 360px ESES O Left 178 px Right 694px TE a Width 518 px Height 211 px C O Another way to get pixel perfect adjustments with blocks is to use some keyboard shortcuts Select any block then use the following keys These keys move the selected block by 1 pixel Move the selected block by 10 pixels Use these keys to snap the block to the top or bottom of the template snaps the block to the top left of the template snaps the the block to the bottom right 19 Managing Media Step 11 With text blocks you can set how the block appears in the preview
353. time If these times are too far apart bulletins might not appear on screen as you d expect 6 Checks the Carousel software versions on both the Server and Player looking for a version mismatch For help on networking and a listing of required ports for Carousel servers and players please review the Tightrope Server Installation Guide Once you have entered an address for your server and verified its connection you 8 2 Configuring the Display Engine 73 8 2 2 Time Settings 8 2 Display Settings 74 Standard Simple will see a list of channels that this display engine can address Choose the desired channel from the list There are two settings in this section The first is a checkbox labeled Synchronize Time This instructs the Display Engine to synchronize its clock with the Carousel server If the player is a part of a windows domain or is otherwise receiving time synchronization leave this unchecked Otherwise you can check it and the display engine will keep its time in synchronization with the Carousel server The second label is Offline Hours You can tell Carousel to go off line refusing all updates during a period of time each day If your network is congested during the day and you do not want Carousel to update this Display Engine during those hours you can enter a from and to value by moving the radio button to the from option In this mode the Display Engine will not update it while the time is out
354. tin is waiting for approval on any zone in the system 11 2 3 Zone Tags Tagging zones is extremely important in large systems where you want to be able to easily select a zone by filtering out ones that do not meet a certain criteria They are also handy when you want to copy a bulletin to many zones of a specific type or you want to give a user access to a set of zones and you don t want to list them individually They are unimportant for smaller systems We covered how and why to tag zones in section 2 5 2 on page 26 To add a zone V aga HIS here click the add button To delete one click the delete button after selecting the L Advertising um e tag s checkbox wt d 4 Mariucci Arena Spon rsnip Fl Athletics l If a zone tag has zones that use it you will see them listed beneath the tag s Tagged Zones Mariucc Mariucci Arena name 11 2 4 External Data Source Authentication This menu is where you manage authentication for external data sources such as Twitter Facebook and domain wide RSS feeds FIGURE 11 3 The external data ME Configuration System configuration External Data Source Authentication source authentication menu Data Source Domain User Key twitter com twitter com trms RSS Feed TRMS TRMRSS RSS Add Delete To add a new data source select the type of data source you ll be connecting to from the drop down box and click add The next steps depend on which data source yo
355. ting the offset and then set it to what looks good when you re done Keep in mind that if your text is auto sizing the offset value will be different for different text requiring the user to go into the template and edit the value when they create their bulletin Also when rotating blocks text or otherwise the same adjustment requirements 195 19 17 The Block Reflec FIGURE The Block Reflec Block Reflection tion controls M Draw Block Reflection Maximum Opacity 55 EE Height 73 LL A Offset 121 px FIGURE 19 18 A reflection example FIGURE 19 19 The reflection collides with the picture Ge er e a AVailable Aours 196 19 Managing Media FIGURE 19 20 In Block Reflec tion an offset of 72 pixels was added to take away the collision A Note About Picking Colors FIGURE 19 21 Add luminance to the color in order to see a change when you select a new hue Picture Blocks 19 7 The Template Editor will apply Take a look at figure 19 19 on the facing page Notice how the reflection collides ugily into the rotated picture In figure 19 20 the problem was solved with an Offset of 72 pixels You ll notice that when changing colors you may not see any difference in the preview This is probably because you have black selected Changing the hue won t have any effect until you add sum luminance to your selection Notice the red arrow in figure 19 21 It po
356. tins in the first zone in this list will be shown but not any of the zones beneath Just drag each item around on the list as needed to re order the list This channel subscribes to A Kat That Rin Tima Alar Tanp M Big Time quent Zone Drag and drop to change the priority of zones 2 This way you can have a special full screen alert zone that is used for emergencies and other zones that you use just to override the normal display If an emergency happens even the other full screen alert zone s bulletins will be overridden Substep C If you ve added a zone that you didn t mean to just click the checkbox next to the name and click the Delete button Substep D When you re done click save and the new settings for the full screen alerts on this channel will take effect 63 Step 4 he e To save your changes for the channel s setup click the Save button on the Channel Setup form Due to technical limitations Carousel does not support running crawls on a display configured in portrait mode It will load and won t crash but it will not look good 7 3 2 The Channel Layout Form FIGURE 7 9 The Channel Layout Menu Main Menu Configure Channel Configuration Editing lt Channel Name gt Ch IL t annel Layou Step 1 Configuration Channels configuration Editing HQ Lobby Channel Layout dp Output Display 800 w by 600 hh Resolution 4x3 480p 720p 1080p Avai
357. tionalities such as video Each Micro Player connected to the server takes one license This is the software that generates the digital signage output on a display The display engine creates the magic by obtaining data from the server caching it locally and then delivering the output to your display Multiple display engines may display the same channel for example a bank with a branch downtown and a branch uptown would each have a display engine per site containing identical content The determining factor for this configuration 1s that the banks are at two different physical locations It is important to note that only one display engine can run on a computer at a time Carousel may be packaged in a variety of ways For example the Carousel Pro Server edition includes the server Purchasing Carousel Pro Server and a Carousel Solo would give you everything needed to run a single channel on a single display engine Carousel Enterprise is a software only solution that does not include any channel licenses or display engines To complete a Carousel Enterprise installation a combination of server hardware and software display engines channel licenses and or Carousel Solos will need to be purchased You may also purchase the channel license display engine combo for Carousel Pro 2 5 Pro and Enterprise Editions Added Flexibility 25 Step By Step Example dS Carousel Solos are special Carousel systems designed for either very small i
358. tivated This is handy when you have not finished with the content of the bulletin and need to revisit it When finished click Continue 13 7 Duplicating a Bulletin on Multiple Zones This section highlights an extremely powerful feature of Carousel which is the ability to send bulletins to multiple zones Figures 13 15 and 13 16 show the two styles of zone selection that are possible within Carousel The zone list is used when a smaller number usually less than 15 or so of zones are available to choose from When more are present Carousel automatically switches to the Zone Selector in figure 13 16 on page 114 Since the zone list is straightforward we will focus on the Zone Selector 13 7 1 Selecting Zones with the Zone Selector The Zone Selector features a list of available zone tags on the left As you select tags from the left zones are filtered out on the right To clear the selection click the Clear link above the tag list explained in section 2 5 2 on page 26 and established in section 7 2 on page 59 112 13 Making Bulletins FIGURE 13 15 Sending bulletins to multiple zones using the zone list Would you like ta submit this bulletin ta ather zones Organization Wide Twin Cities Weather i Twin Cities Traffic M Non Campus News RSS Fennel Hall Meetings Borlaug Hall General Borlaug Hall Meetings Borlaug Hall Sponserships Mariucci Arena Entryways M Mariucci Arena Locker Rooms
359. to occur Thankfully the Back Office player is running smoothly Looks like there needs to be some investigation After plugging the network cable back into Main Lobby perhaps an overnight maintenance person accidentally unplugged it and installing the latest software on 75 FIGURE 8 5 Player Status and Player Alerts FIGURE 8 6 Player Status list with some troubled players 76 Carousel Configuration Configuration Players Player Status A Micro Player Status Alert Settings Carousel Configuration a Configuration Players Player Status Address Channe ersion Last Checkin ddress Channel vatsion voor ash 3R VM XP DEV 10 0 1 88 Main Lobby es 7 x sam T3 zau B L2300B 2 12 15 M pj J amp V X TEST i955 Back Office v e M ya me 5 424 D 235 O l 2bDDB bL 25 25 PIN JR VM XP TEST Conference x ee ee l 10 0 1 68 nA TTL Hass Y Cipcked in JR VM XP TEST wf i i 3 BOARS Fre Wey 5 20 38 6 17 2008 1 18 24 PM There are 0 available licenses ira Ss e f Delete Cancel 8 Configuring Players FIGURE 8 7 Player Status list with healthy players 8 3 2 Micro Player Status 9 3 3 Player Alerts 8 3 Monitoring Your Players Carousel Configuration Configuration Players Player Status W Hostname Address Channel Version 25t aki Refresh JR VM XP DEV 10 0 1 88 Main Lobby V v en z Jai 10 0 1 67 Back Office v A 5D0R 2
360. tom line is DHCP is a service that automatically configures networking on a computer and usually gives it a dynamic IP address Desktop computers are generally configured with DHCP and servers like those from Tightrope can only use this service if the address it gets 1s static and not dynamic M 3 TCP and UDP Glossed Over 310 Within a network communication is happening Computer A is saying something to computer B and they both must agree on how that communication is established and negotiated There is a protocol to it all like a handshake when you meet someone new 10 like Tightrope s Cablecast or Carousel computers Appendix M A Not So Short Introduction to Networking M 4 Network Ports There are two primary methods for communicating on IP networks that are within the scope of this paper TCP and UDP TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol We don t care why it s called that but we do care that TCP is the most common way that two computers will commu nicate on a network It is the TCP in TCP IP networks TCP is a connection based protocol that is able to guarantee proper communication between two computers It is a reliable stream of data that is guaranteed to reach the destination with the same data in the same order We say that TCP communication is connection based because before data is trans mitted a connection is established Just like picking up a telephone to call your neighbor communicating with TCP m
361. tools You can limit a user s ability to edit bulletins in two ways You can stop them from being able to add or edit templates and you can stop them from using the Quick Edit tools This is important if you are trying to control the look of your communications otherwise known as your brand When you are finished click the Continue button 106 13 Making Bulletins 13 3 Scheduling a Bulletin FIGURE 13 6 Scheduling Bulletins 13 3 Scheduling a Bulletin Every bulletin in Carousel can be scheduled using the form illustrated in figure 13 6 Simply click the start day on the from calendar and then choose the end day from the to calendar If you need to specify the exact time of day that these bulletins will appear dissappear you can enter that into the fields labeled at directly below the calendars When would you like this bulletin displayed From Feb 2007 E S MT We T F feo 9 30311 2 z d i ue 1 17 16 18 20 21 22 2 24 ef JS 2p 20 al 4 5 6 8 98 10 at 12 00 Al Until Manually turned off During the above period but only on CD F M Iv Ive I D Sun Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat And only between 1 00pm and 5 00pm Mare Finish Cancal If you want a bulletin to be on forever then click the Until Manually turned off checkbox This will result in Carousel ignoring your calendar input Remember unless you are scheduling an alert bulletin the schedule does not mean that your bull
362. u X RO x Ad SS 71 8 4 Cached Mode llle len 78 Contents Contents 9 10 11 8 5 Loading Zones 2o edhe ee eee ew RR EOD OE RE 5 6 Not Licensed S tUs lt 4 546 53 wed Hee m s oos 57 TVA SOU soos oko ew ko Ree eS EO 8 7 1 Enabling the TV Output 8 7 2 Adjusting the TV Output Settings 8 8 TV OU HUS ui uuu au Rom ERE RE RE ROS ER Ee RES 8 8 1 Physical Configuration ln 8 8 2 Software Configuration lll 8 0 Adjusting the Video Resolution 0 4 8 9 1 Standard Resolution Adjustments 8 9 2 Custom Monitor Adjustments 8 0 3 Setting up a 9x16 Display Adding Content 9 1 Zones and Aspect Ratios osooso e ls 9 2 Uploading Backgrounds and Templates The Zone Settings Menu 10 1 The Network Tab aoaaa a 10 1 1 Email Settings 10 1 2 Other Outputs sso cR t om RR o HET LH 2993929555439 459 4 5 9 X3 oe 102 Display EOS uns oe oie ak ew RO GRO RR e eon ID B lentin Pacini uu oe ros ooa 99 RE SSO BH ES 10 3 2 Default Transition uox unm 9o 9xoE EGER ARX xw s 10 3 3 Bumper GG gt gt s gt s sree X o9 ee Ro as The Configuration Menu The Missing Pieces ILI Synchronizing Zones oaoa R9 3 EG 11 2 System Configuration Menu llle 11 2 1 Zone Selection Style 2c wee 29 nm ux 11 2 2 Administrator Email Setup
363. u ve chosen RSS Enter a name for the RSS Feed along with a domain username and password Click Save when done Credentials entered here will always be the default for new RSS bulletins unless they are set otherwise in an individual bulletin Twitter Follow the link provided to complete authentication with an existing Twitter account Facebook Follow the link provided to complete authentication with an existing Facebook account Facebook authentication does expire so this authentication will need to be updated roughly once a month 11 2 System Configuration Menu 97 11 2 5 Proxy Configuration FIGURE 11 4 The proxy configu ration menu 11 2 6 System Information 98 This Carousel server both the Web UI and Carousel Service needs to access the internet to download content for certain dynamic bulletins such as weather bulletins which access http api wxbug net webservice v1 asmx Facebook bul letins which access https www facebook com and https carousel facebook proxy herokuapp com index html Twitter bulletins which access https api twitter com web pictures web snapshots and RSS bulletins Additionally players may need a proxy to download their media from the Carousel server over HTTP Interactive bulletins will always use the Internet Explorer proxy settings for the user the player software is running under No Proxy Use default proxy Use system proxy The system proxy will set Carousel to u
364. ublic Access Facility Info M DEMO Public Access Additional Info TIGHTROPE Save Cancel When creating a channel that uses seamless backgrounds very often you ll only use backgrounds that are seamless You won t want users putting their own backgrounds in any of their messages and you won t want any of the generic backgrounds that come with Carousel in any of the zones that are in use for those channels 19 10 Adding Media Packages Media packages are zip files created by Carousel that contain any combination of templates backgrounds pictures sounds videos and Carousel bulletins eS For information on creating media packages see section 19 11 on the following Ex page Creating Media Packages When you upload Carousel bulletins the original schedule is retained FIGURE 19 33 Uploading Media Packages The package Templates 2 23 07 122031 zip has been uploaded There are 2 Templates Would you like this package copied to other zones Cl Organization Wide L Twin Cities Weather Twin Cities Traffic Ei T im c After a successful upload Carousel gives you a confirmation noting the items that it found Check the zones that you would like the items copied to and Click Save to import them 19 10 Adding Media Packages 203 19 11 Creating Media Packages 3 j Media Package E Media O Backgrounds c3 Pictures 9 Sounds C Templates O Videos Media Zone tab Ad
365. uld you like canceled events displayed Color ano FF0001 Text Canceled Continue Cancel If you are creating an EDS bulletin from an Ad Astra or EMS database then you have some additional options that are not applicable to those creating a bulletin 17 9 The Event Schedule Bulletins 151 7 Example using Carousel s scheduler These properties are displayed in figure 17 24 on the previous page The top section of the form asks What events would you like to display Each multi select box represents a filter Within each box you may select as many of the items that you wish Only those items that match an item in all three boxes will be displayed Looking at figure 17 24 you can see that an event in room 101 with a sta tus of Tentative that is of a type Athletic will not be displayed because Tentative is not selected as an event that will appear You may display canceled events so that people know when they arrive that the event is not taking place If you would like to display canceled events then select the relevant statuses from the multi select that is labeled What statuses do you want to display as canceled We can select one or more statuses from this list Next pick a color for these events and add some text to precede the event s title When you are finished click the Continue button 17 9 4 Setting Up Resource25 for EDS 152 Example Carousel uses the Resource25 XML API to pull data th
366. ulletin for an amount of time determined by the value set in section 10 3 1 on page 922 Switch the radio button to the second option to override this setting 13 4 2 Tracking Bulletin Impressions 13 4 3 Bulletin Transitions 13 4 4 Sound File If you would like to keep track of how many times this bulletin has been displayed across your entire Carousel digital signange network be sure to enable the Track impression count checkbox With this setting enabled the Carousel Display Engines will contact the server each time they display this bulletin and a counter will be incremented A simple calculation based on the number of impressions and the dwell time specified in section 13 4 1 will also be made to give you a reasonable estimate on the total amount of on screen time To view the statistics for a bulletin navigate to the active bulletins list see chap ter 18 for the zone the bulletin is scheduled on Bulletins that have impression track ing enabled will have an extra attribute which reports the total number of impressions plus the approximate on screen time as seen in figure 13 8 on page 110 3 Carousel will use the zone s default transition unless you change it under the How would you like to transition into this bulletin label A helpful preview adorns the right side of this pop down list Below the transition list you can choose a sound file for this bulletin If the right file is not yet loaded click the upload button
367. unds 000000088 182 19 4 An Item ina Media Asset List 183 19 5 The Buttons at the Bottom of a Media Asset List 183 196 JAOOUECH BE une omo x9 Wow ox X x EROS eRe RED 184 19 7 Copying a Media Asset 22222 lll 185 19 8 The Properties Form of A Media Asset 186 19 9 Bulletin Made from Template 187 19 10The yellow outline is around a simple rectangle block In this case the box is surrounding multiple text fields 188 19 11MakingaNew Template cens 189 19 12Dragping a block uou cou s ook emasna 9er ER es 191 19 13Resizing a block in the preview window 192 19 14Font controls uuo go 9 x g R Deke sesse siras es 194 19 15Text Alignment controls llle 194 19 16Text Gradient controls 44 ooo o Rx RR RE REY RS 195 19 17The Block Reflection controls 196 ID LGA reflection example uo ec m GE o X E x RR EEE ES 196 19 19The reflection collides with the picture ll 196 19 20In Block Reflection an offset of 72 pixels was added to take away the collision ee 197 19 21 Add luminance to the color in order to see a change when you select No p 0 NEETER 5 Ew ee ee SS 197 19 22 Picture block properties uoo ee eH 3 xx es 198 19 23The logo on the left has Maintain aspect ratio deselected 198 19 24Web picture address uoo wx Romo E 3 X RS Ee EE we 198
368. untitled folder ZeplayPictures 2009 05 22f5ingle File Web Page GIF Graphics Interchange Format JPEG File Interchange Format File name PNG Portable Network Graphics Format N x TIFF Tag Image File Format Save astype PowerPoint Presentation lt ancel cout The dialog box in figure G 2 on the following page will appear Choose the Every Slide option to export every slide of your presentation If you want only a sub set of slides delete the excluded slides and save You can always undo this action when you re done exporting the slides 263 FIGURE G 2 Have it save every slide G 2 Making the Zip File Step 4 Find the folder that was created which has the name of the presentation and contains all of the slides FIGURE G 3 Make the folder into a ZIP file Step 5 Right click on the folder and choose Send To gt Compressed zipped Folder figure G 3 This will be the file that Carousel will import G 3 Importing the Slides Into Carousel amp New Bulletin Step 6 In Carousel go to New Bulletin Uploaded Upload a Bulletin Package Uploaded Up T Step 7 Choose the zip file that you created in step 5 Package Step 8 Click the upload button figure G 4 FIGURE G 4 Importing a zip file Select a zip file to be uploaded that contains a package of bulletins as a bulletin package Choose Figli PowerpointD Export zip Uploay Cancel 264 Appendix G PowerPoint H
369. uration menu select the Background Audio menu item Channel Configuration Editing lt Channel Name gt Background Audio Set tings To play out whatever is coming from the player s line input leave it at the default settings To loop through items in the system s background audio list next step then select the Background Audio List radio button 7 3 6 Adding Background Audio to Carousel Main Menu Configure If you selected the Background Audio List option from the previous section then Channel Configuration you will want to add audio to that list Click the Background Audio Playlist item Editing Channel Name from the Channel Configuration menu To add music to the list follow these Background Audio List steps Step 1 Click the add button to add a new file You ll be taken to a screen where you can upload audio files Step 2 Click the Choose File button and the browse menu will appear Select a single audio file to upload and click the Upload button uf Acceptable file formats are listed in section 19 2 on page 180 File Formats 2 Have a bunch of files to upload Add them all to a zip file and upload the zip file Step 3 Once you have added a few tracks you can alter the playback order by dragging the song s title up and down the list e Prefer to have the songs randomized Select the Randomize Order radio button Step 4 To remove a song from the list click the Delete button Step 5 When you have finished
370. ure 17 7 on the next page Make sure the outlook field has plenty of space because unlike the other fields there are typically multiple lines of text that fills this field You can control the amount of data using the Outlook Length property described in section 17 2 1 on page 129 You can split the outlook and current conditions into two slides by making two weather bulletins one with the outlook and the other with everything else For the outlook bulletin make all of the backgrounds in section 17 2 2 on the preceding page the same because the current condition will determine what is used which may look odd if there is a dramatic change in the weather 17 2 The Weather Bulletins 131 FIGURE 17 7 Some of the data fields that are available for use 132 RainTears 4 84 it RainTodayFullString s 0 00 5tates3 MN StationName Concordia University SUNrIiSe 6 26 2009 5 27 27 AM sunset 6 26 2009 9 03 16 PM lemperature 32 TemperatureHigh B4 TemperatureLow 65 TemperatureRate 0 3 TemperatureRateUnit F h TemperatureUnit F TemperatureFullString 82 F TemperatureFeelsLike 61 17 Dynamic Bulletins 17 3 The Weather Crawls FIGURE 17 8 Weather crawl options 17 3 The Weather Crawls You may want to check the Until Manually turned off checkbox on the schedule form for all of your weather bulletins This will leave these bulletins on until you manually remove them Carouse
371. ure of Carousel With it you can incorporate all of the power of Adobe Flash including existing material that you may already be using on your web site 16 2 1 The Flash Properties Form Uploading Flash is as simple as browsing to the SWF file on your computer and clicking the Upload button Once the Flash animation is uploaded Carousel asks a number of questions of you in order to optimize playback The first field allows you to name the animation It defaults to the file name 16 2 2 Flash Animation Timing The second option controls how Carousel treats the length of the animation If your animation is controlling the playback length through Flash s Action Script Carousel will not be able to decipher the end of the animation In that case chose the Play for option and enter the number of seconds that the Flash animation should play If the animation s main timeline has a real length and ends after a number of frames then Carousel can accurately detect the end of the animation and you can pick the first timing option which is to base it off the time line and is much more accurate 16 2 3 Audio and Flash If the animation has audio that you would like to include in Carousel s output select Yes in answer to the audio question on the bottom of the form Carousel will then fade the background audio and include the animation s 16 2 4 Notes on Flash in Carousel The Carousel Solo 100 has very limited processing power It inc
372. use different templates you can create them separately and group them together in the list that is home to your bulletin Active Bulletins Active Repeating We cover this in section 18 1 3 on page 170 You can set a unique schedule and edit the properties for this bulletin separate from any previous When you are finished adding bulletins to your group click the No button 13 5 Adding a Bulletin to a Group 111 FIGURE 13 13 Adding Another Bulletin Would vau like to add another bulletin that would appear after this bulletin in a group Ma Yes Cancel 13 6 Setting the Bulletin Type Active or Repeating Standard bulletins show once a loop To repeat them more often choose the second mvi 7 etis option Active Repeating Bulletin After clicking Continue you will be asked to contmus cance enter the frequency of the bulletin eS Active repeating bulletins will interrupt grouped bulletins FIGURE 13 14 Selecting the bulletin type How often would you libe this bulletin eplayedi What bulletin type would you like to make this bulletin Active Bulletin to be displayed when scheduled C Active Repeating Bulletin to be displayed when scheduled and repeated at a certain interval during each cycle Create as a saved bulletin Continue Cancel To create this bulletin as a saved bulletin click the Create as a saved bulletin checkbox Regardless of the schedule this bulletin will not be ac
373. usel 310R hardware does not have a natively built in TV output Instead an external ConvertDVI hardware unit to provides both a composite and SDI video output The configuration needed is quite simple 8 8 1 Physical Configuration Step 1 Plug in the Diplay Port to DVI adapter Step 2 Plug the white Matrox cable into that DVI as well as into a USB port Step 3 If you plan to use embedded audio SDI through the ConvertDVI Plug the mini in on the white Martox cable into the green line out jack on the back of the Carousel unit ef We tell you to use the Display Port as it can only output DVI and can not be s converted to VGA whereas the DVI on the video card can be converted to VGA for KVM dual display use 8 8 2 Software Configuration You will first need to set the output resolution to the unit Info on setting resolutions in Windows 7 can be found here http trms zendesk com entries 20155652 how to setup multiple outputs on a carousel running windows 7 You will want to set the output running to the ConvertDVI to 800x600 and make sure it is set as the primary monitor At that point all that is left to do is make sure that the Convert DVI control panel has the correct settings This menu is launched from the task bar near the system clock Look for the purplish circle icon The output type should be set to whatever output you running out of the Convert DVI unit 82 8 Configuring Players FIGURE 8 13 The ConvertDVI
374. utomatically resize the bulletin as it is copied across zones however zones with a radically different aspect ratios or sizes will not look as good as the bulletin on the original zone section 2 4 5 on page 24 With multi channel systems the most important thing is to plan your zones and channels deciding what content will be on what zone and what zones will be duplicated on which channels While you are creating zones it is important to establish the tags that you will use for your zones especially in larger installations Not only do you not want Lobbies and Lobby as tags but you also want to consistently apply those tags to all of your zones If you have channels displayed exclusively in your lobbies make sure that all of them get that tag Try to think of all the ways you may want to group displays You can add or delete tags at any time it s just easier to get it right the first time We introduced this topic in section 2 5 2 on page 26 3 The Setup Plan 4 Carousel s Video Capabilities Carousel Players and Solos run the Carousel Display Engine These devices are designed for smooth attractive playback of a wide range of content Here are some guidelines to follow 4 1 Carousel Player Software Comparisons FIGURE 4 1 A comparison between the different available Carousel Player software types Carousel has multiple types of Player Software available each with their own strengths See figure 4 1 for this infor
375. vent appointment Subject Description appointment Body Room appointment Location Use these symbols when creating an EDS page in section 17 9 6 Carousel can treat EDS data in a number of different ways You decide these pa rameters with the EDS properties form figure 17 28 on the following page From the top You can limit the type number of days hours or bulletins to display Display active or current events only Active or current events will only display events currently happening Display X hour s Display X calendar day s Events scheduled for later in the day won t be shown until their start time has been reached This will show all events that start within the next X hour s Calendar days are defined as the time between 12 00AM and 11 59PM If you select one calendar day it will only show events through 11 59 tonight 17 9 The Event Schedule Bulletins 155 FIGURE 17 28 EDS Properties How much schedule would you like ta display Display active or current events only Display 12 hourts 4 Display 1 day s Display 3 bulletin gs 4 How many events per bulletin would you like displayed 2 maximum Haw much space would you like between events 2 pixels How would you like the date and time displayed Date 1 1 05 Time 12 30 pm What would you like displayed if there are no events scheduled C No page Text Em are no events scheduled Continue Cancel 77
376. ver into your head end is covered in the chapter on page and chapter 5 on page 39 Hardware Setup 1 3 2 Carousel Editions and Options 1 3 About This Documentation Carousel is divided into two product families Server and Solo Products in the Carousel Server family operate as the center of a digital signage framework They manage multiple channels of information from a single web interface and can accommodate multiple users with varying levels of access Cur rently there are three products in the server family Carousel Server Carousel Pro Server and Carousel Enterprise Server Carousel servers work with external players to provide their channels although the standard Carousel Server includes one channel Products in the Carousel Solo family include the Solo 220 and Solo 300R These machines operate as either stand alone digital signage systems or as players within a system controlled by one of the servers in the Carousel Server product family In stand alone mode the Solos include everything required for a single channel of digital signage just add monitors and cabling However Solos only provide one administrator account and one user account and can not communicate with other Carousel Solos for message sharing 17 To learn more about multi channel Carousel systems see section 2 4 2 on page 20 1 4 Default Passwords When your Carousel server shipped from our warehouse the following usernames and passwords were used
377. vin should be sent gt lt Zoneset gt lt ZoneTag gt EastCampus lt ZoneTag gt ZoneID 4 ZoneID lt 7OnelD gt 5 lt Zone LD gt lt ZoneTag gt Libraries lt ZoneTag gt lt ZoneName gt Classroom320 lt ZoneName gt ZoneID 4 ZoneID lt ZoneName gt MiddlebrookHall lt ZoneName gt lt ZoneSet gt lt AlwaysOn gt t rue lt AlwaysOn gt lt PageType gt Standard lt PageType gt lt PageTemplate gt lt TemplateName gt Title Body lt TemplateName gt 214 21 Remote Data Adaptor Block Name Title Value Hello Block Name Body Value World gt lt PageTemplate gt lt CreatePage gt lt CarouselCommand gt UpdatePage Updating existing Bulletins with SelectBulletinTags CreateCrawl ChangePageStatus 21 5 Schema and Examples lt xml version 1 0 encoding utf 8 gt lt CarouselCommand xmlns http www trms com CarouselRemoteCommand gt lt UpdatePage gt lt UserName gt John lt UserName gt lt Password gt trms lt Password gt lt SelectBulletinTags gt lt Tag gt DailyAnnouncement lt Tag gt lt SelectBulletinTags gt Block Name Title Value TodayaAZs announcement gt lt ExclusiveAlertOn gt true lt ExclusiveAlertOn gt lt UpdatePage gt lt CarouselCommand gt Here s a sample CreateCrawl command lt xml version 1 0 encoding utf 8 gt lt CarouselCommand xmlns http www trms com CarouselRemoteCommand gt lt CreateCrawl gt lt UserName gt John l
378. w 165 166 18 Managing Bulletins 18 1 Bulletin Lists Active Example Active Repeating Alert Saved Managing bulletins is a part of the everyday process of administrating a Carousel system In this chapter you will learn about the different bulletin lists how to move bulletins between and within those lists how to approve pages run reports and how to clean house Carousel simplifies this process by keeping to a few common interfaces that will guide you through any management process All of the activity in this chapter takes place in the Manage Bulletins menu There are several lists of bulletins within Carousel all of them presented within the Carousel interface in a similar fashion There are lists for Active Active Repeating and Alert bulletins On top of that there are sub lists for every user of Carousel for each of those categories plus a list for everyone s Saved and Stale bulletins Finally there is a list of bulletins that are waiting for approval All of them present bulletins in the order that they will appear on the display with special rules for alert and Active Repeating bulletins Let s review the meaning and purpose of each type of list An Active bulletin is queued in the Carousel loop at the current time It is either scheduled to be displayed right now or will be at some point in the future Specifi cally we say that a bulletin is active when it is a part of the pages that will di
379. which defaults to a picture located on Carousel and may be changed to any address of any picture FIGURE 19 24 Web picture Ban Picture http localhost Carousel Images TRMS This is just the default value The user of the template will most likely change the picture address when they create their bulletin 198 19 Managing Media Changing the Blocks Depth or Z Order Each block is layered in a particular order on top of the background As you create a new block it goes on top of any other block you may already have within the template Notice how in figure 19 25 the Carousel logo is in front because its z order is higher In figure 19 26 the Carousel logo is in back because the z order is lower or another way to put it the Carousel logo was drawn first FIGURE 19 25 Carousel logo has a higher z order FIGURE 19 26 Carousel logo has a lower z order You can change the order that blocks are drawn by dragging Blocks properties which we demonstrate in figure 19 27 FIGURE 19 27 Changing the z order of blocks i Blocks Blocks Upload Product Image Here B Field Entry and Drawing Order Product Name Product Description 19 7 The Template Editor 199 If you want to move a block all the way forward or back you can use the Bring to Front or Bring to Back buttons in Block Options shown in figure 19 28 FIGURE 19 28 Bring to Front Rotate block 0 o and Bring to Back in Block Options properties
380. wnload Data from Server downloaded 185 K Server lt Download Bulletin Information downloaded 1 1 MB Channe x Server Time Local 6 16 2008 2 33 03 PM Server 6 16 2008 2 33 02 PM Tme amp P Server Version Local 2 0 Build 38 Server 5 2 0 Build 38 This player can successfully communicate with the Carousel Server FIGURE 8 4 Connection tests with failures and possible solutions Checking Connection to demo trms com Valid Server 66 127 100 121 I Connect to Server Camus w Download Data from Server downloaded 185 K Server W Download Bulletin Information downloaded 1 7 MB Channe S Server Time Time 5i T acie Carousel Server s name not the ias of this athe dre server eds ue iti i ee ne incorrect server name or f the se Offline ies isa Sandane player Lin m Ie ue clever it must be cui Arenita Aloi HE arib en TEF got 56901 i there is isa RAA Mete server or between the player and the server it must allow i DS connections on TEP part 56501 to reach the server Seek Pings the server address that you ve entered to make sure that a computer is on the network that responds to that address Connects to a Carousel Service running on that address Downloads some data from the Carousel Service Downloads some data from the Carousel Web Server o e gt 2 Checks the time on the server and compares it to the Player s system
381. xOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt name DisplayDuration type xs int maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt name PreviewlmagePath type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 gt name TinyImagePath type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 name ThumbnaillmagePath type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 name FulllmagePath type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 name GUID type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 name ObjectType type xs string name PageStatus type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 lt xs complexType gt lt xs complexType name ctGetPictureList gt lt xs sequence gt x8 xS x81 lt xs sequence gt element element element lt xs complexType gt lt xs complexType name ctGetVideoList gt lt xs sequence gt XS S x81 lt xs sequence gt element element element name UserName type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt name Password type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt name ZoneID type xs int maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt name UserName type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt name Password type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt name ZoneID type xs int maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt lt xs complexType gt lt xs complexType name ctMedia gt lt xs sequence gt lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS element element element element element e
382. xibility 23 2 5 1 Channel Licenses Display Engines and Players 25 2 5 2 Categorizing Zones with Tagging 26 Planning and Setup 29 The Setup Plan 31 3 1 Designing Your Channel lr 3l 3 1 1 Planning Tips for Your Zones 32 Carousel s Video Capabilities 35 4 1 Carousel Player Software Comparisons 35 4 2 Video Output Resolution 2 20000 35 4 3 Video File Playback Performance and Resolutions 36 4 4 Crawl Performance lees 36 Hardware Setup 39 5 1 Hardware Installation e 39 5 1 1 InstallinginaRack 39 5 1 2 Connecting the Video Outputs 43 5 1 3 Power for your Carousel Servers 43 5 1 4 Powering Up the Server 45 2 4 PO ks ns ew um ee a BOW Ue ee E ee 45 5 2 1 Configuring the Network Settings 45 25224 Setting the Systems Time u s xx o o oye 47 5 2 3 Installing Carousel Players 48 5 2 4 Language Support Changing The System Locale 48 Introduction to Carousel s User Interface 51 6 1 Logging Into Carousel 51 62 TheMainMenu 2 000000 2 ee eee 51 Go Wie Sieh ew owe Oe RGR P 3 X 9v EERO EERE 33 OA See LAR uos 4X ox oh CE OA B SUE aoo Sc oS 54 64 1 About Menu 54 6 5 Selecting Zones uoa ox uo onu eee S e Ree ema se dei 54 6 5 1 Zones with
383. xs element lt xs element lt xs sequence gt name ctGetBulletinList name UserName type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 name Password type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 name ZoneID type xs int maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 lt xs complexType gt lt xs complexType lt xs sequence gt lt xs element element element element element element element element element lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS 226 name ctBulletin gt name Description type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 name CrawlText type xs string maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 0 name Block type ctBlock minOccurs 0 maxOccurs unbounded name AlwaysOn type 2 xs boolean maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 name DateTimeOn type xs dateTime maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 name DateTimeOff type xs dateTime maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt name CycleTimeOn type xs time maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt name CycleTimeOff type xs time minOccurs 1 maxOccurs 1 name Weekdays type xs byte maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 21 Remote Data Adaptor lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS lt XS element element element element element element element element element element lt xs sequence gt name WebEnabled type xs boolean maxOccurs 1 minOccurs 1 gt name PageType type xs string ma

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