Home

Acquire User Guide 4.0_0

1. Local Sync Enable Local Sync Local Syne Master should only be one Check for Removable Media Updates Now Key l Disabled This is the default option where no Page Synchronisation will operate 7 Player is Master This option means that this player will broadcast Sync messages to all of the players on the local subnet 3 Player is Slave This option means that this player will listen for messages to sync to TIP Depending on the option chosen some or all of the following options may be available 4 Slippage Run Behind slave only as with Run Ahead 5 this allows you to change the slippage if the video is not playing fast enough Typically do not change this option si Slippage Run Ahead slave only as players vary in actual processor speed a small amount of slippage will occur Any excessive slippage needs to be handled and this setting allows you to choose how much it can slip ahead by Typically do not change this setting 6 Enable Smart Sync This feature monitors for regular slippage in the synchronisation and will jump the video ahead if the SmartSync parameters are met T Slip Number If the video slips outside the Slippage settings 5 amp 6 this many times the video will skip ahead 3 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 10 SmartSync Ahead This is how far the video will be jumped forwards If SmartSync is used TIP
2. investigate further No selection unit Info Decomission The Test button will re try the sats Overview Connectivity View Screen 1unit consisting of 1 player 1 watchdog selected J Interact with Screen File Transfer BM CMD Prompt 3 Reboot wake on LAN Task Manager DerloymentStaus Madine Stas inbound connectivity to your unit YY NNNNNYNNBNRYNNYANRYNNYNAYYVYVNAVN me lt 63 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Viewing the Screen of a Unit Provided you have correctly configured the inbound connection to your kiosk or digital sign you have the ability to see what Is playing on the screen Connected To Acquire Digital Reception for 00 00 36 Remote Screen Size 1920x1080 50 View Only OE 49 0 o 000000 s gt Ne a N A N To 16 00 2o Fy 10 C see the full project here http t co U12CkHXggT acquiresigna 04 November Remember that this is only a viewing option so you cannot interfere with the live unit in this case a kiosk Neither will the user of the kiosk be aware that anyone is viewing the screen You will notice that most of the controls at the top of the screen have been greyed out Interacting with a Live Unit VERY IMPORTANT Make sure that you do not have the Auto Close Mandatory Apps option ticked in System Watchdog If you do then the user of you remote unit
3. l Add To Site Demo Room Landscap OOQGumn History l Del From Site Demo Room Portrait 3 A History Demo Room Projector SS QO Large Screen Garage 10 Large Triple Screen Di 100 radarai ms 100 History 4 S 100 History Te 3 MTSP2 History M 4 Q Mms 100 History a 8 msP4 JORGE History Cun 4 8 mss 100 History Loe oath 3 MusicPc m History _ Internal 1P 3 Reception Kiosk 100 History External IP Reception Left 100 _ TcP Ports C Sequence Number Llunit 10 _ MAC Address contain Switch Project Disconnect Bl ouit V lt No selection 16 active units unit Info Decomission 4 Connectivity view Screen G Interact with Screen B File Transfer E CMD Prompt Reboot wakeonLan I Task Manager 3 g i M nn a a a N o gt A mma Overview Machine Status Deployment Status Using this View option you are able to display or hide the various items that you can see on the screen As you get more used to using the Site Manager you will develop your own viewing preferences and can change the screen from here You can also adjust the way In which your units are displayed by using the Expand drop down menus and the filter in the centre column The filter is the section
4. History a Replacement for Aurum Server 2 Resurrect Unit OK and Save Status Not Available 08 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Unit Status tab The Unit ID is important as you will be asked for this should you need to contact the Acquire Digital Support team This information is all set when your engineer installs and commissions the unit in the field i e installs the System Watchdog and runs the Activ8 program Unit Information o E Unit Information S General information Unit Status Connectivity Volume Statistics Logs Bandwidth Usage History Assets Geographical Location Last Contact Syste uptime Hard Disk Space Last Deployment Deployment Progress Unit Status No Known Errors Content Status W Site schedule is up to date More gt gt 59 10GB in use 2735 19GB Available 2794 29GB Total Resurrect Unit OK and Save Status Cancel The Unit Status shows the last time your kiosk or digital sign checked in with the PLUS Network servers and how long the unit has been online since its last restart You can also see how much hard disk space you have available The unit status drop down menu shows that there are no known errors at the moment If an exception occurs this will show a red cross stating that an exception has occurred You can manually change this to an Exceptions Occurred and Noted status or the No Known Errors status If you ha
5. 9 Line Locked If you tick the Line Locked box you will not be able to edit this line in the playlist until you un tick the line This ensures that the line cannot be edited by mistake 1O Edit If you have chosen another playlist as a line item you can directly edit that playlist by pressing this button 11 Schedule Return to the previous schedule window eZ Display End This option can be selected to set an End date and time for the playlist entry er Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Acquire Player When you are ready to test your application deploy your project to the player PC then run Acquire from your Windows Start bar If this is the first time you run It you should see a welcome animation if you have not yet deployed your project Note that a copy of the player is also included with the Editor and can also be run there for a complete test if you do not have a specific test player on your site Once the Player software is running two keys which you will find useful are the ESC key which displays the engineer settings menu and the Alt F4 press the ALT key and the F4 key together which exits the program Acquire Settings Acquire V4 0 0 77 External Trigger on COM 1 S Block for m Database Server waverzion Image Resize Mode Higher Quality fast Recom Use Low Quality for Transparent GIFs Flash Movie Quality Auto High Recommended Video Display Mode
6. T Estimated Ptaytime 00 02 00 Key inactive Qi PatialyActive i Active Drag pages and media into the Playlist Media Pages Page Categories Page Name Page ID Notes Run Time New Page Playlist Editor Once a playlist has been created it will be shown in this window Next to the playlist name that you create will be shown all of the line items in that playlist on a calendar only in the Time View If you are viewing the calendar by month 15 the calendar display will show a green box for days where the content will be available throughout A white box indicates the days when the page is not allowed to play and a half green half red box is shown for pages allowed to play for a portion of that day Use the Scale 15 option to view by day to see when the page is playing or edit the line item for more details TIP You can quickly disable a line item rather than deleting It by clicking the tick box on that line Any media will still be sent so it can be also be used to pre send content which has not yet been approved until such time as you want to turn the page on and let it be seen Display From Here you can jump to a specific date and time to view the calendar Insert Use this option to add a new line to your playlist Use the plus button to choose to either add a Page or a Playlist He Before choosing Add Line if you select a line item in the Playlist Entries window the new line item will appear above the c
7. Version 4 0 Unit Management This option gives the user the right to commission and decommission units The commissioning option here is shown by activ8 This is the terminology used when activating a unit on the PLUS Network Reporting In order to access the reporting server you will need to go to www acquirereports co uk and Input your PLUS Network account user name and password acquire User name _ Password This service is provided for authorised users of Acquire s PLUS Network only Any other use is strictly forbidden by law For more information about the PLUS Network Acquire or Kioskmonitor please visit the Acquire website or Kiosk Monitor website version 3 4 2009 05 15 Content Management This controls the user s access to the Site Manager Itself Remote Unit Control Remote Unit Control dictates how the user can access your field based kiosks or digital signage units If you have a webcam or speakers attached to your unit then you can authorise a user to receive the live Stream Conversely the user will also be able to send a video or audio stream to your remote unit Notifications Here you can set up the frequency of the notifications sent to the various users You can also set up whether they are sent by email or SMS text message In order to use the SMS text message option you will need to contact us to pre purchase SMS credits User Site Assignments In
8. Acquire User Guide tionising digital interaction Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Contents Introduction Planning a Project Project Structure Project Testing Project Deploying System Requirements Setting up your System Minimum system requirements Acquire Editor Getting Started Creating a new project Setting Up Acquire Project Settings Page List Template Chooser Page Design Editor Window Toolbox Playlist Manager Playlist Settings Playlist Editor Playlist Line Editor Acquire Player Acquire Player Settings Testing amp Distributing the Project Acquire Deployment Manual Deployment Wizard The PLUS Network Introduction to the PLUS Network Group Manager Scheduler Using PLUS Network PLUS Activs Acquire Site Manager Basic Settings Connecting to the Servers Account Settings Managing Account Settings Managing User Accounts Nn oa go oa a a A KR KR KR A 14 15 16 26 28 30 31 33 34 39 40 42 43 43 47 48 50 92 52 53 53 53 54 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 User Administration Unit Management Reporting Content Management Remote Unit Control Notifications User Site Assignments Exceptions amp Resolutions Editor Screen Snapshots Working With Your Units Decommissioning a Unit Connectivity Reverse Access Connection Connection Test Viewing the Screen of a Unit Interacting with a Live Unit Switching of
9. For urgent updates Acquire can push content to the players instantly with a Priority Message which Is sent and active within seconds To assist the Content Manager and Network Manager many in depth details are automatically recorded by the PLUS Network and are available to view through the Site Manager These include details of who did what and when the sequence of events as a deployment is sent and applied Bandwidth usage and much more These are invaluable in enabling larger networks to operate Acquire also makes managing failures simple Although most hardware is usually reliable occasionally faults or damage can occur to them However Acquire allows you to decommission failed players and when the replacement player is commissioned the failed player can be selected and all of the previous settings are retained whilst all of the content which should be on that player will automatically download and deploy As you see Acquire and the PLUS Network are powerful tools to enable you to create and operate a live network of remote players with the minimum of fuss Although these instructions may seem daunting at first you will find that is quite easy to set up and manage a network and as time goes by the tools and information provided will become more useful to you 46 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Group Manager First use the Group Manager to set up your groups and sub groups When you close the Group Manager
10. Deploy to Drive Once a drive has been chosen 1 select the deploy button to deploy to the chosen folder 4 Browse for Folder Here you can select a folder for the deployment Select the Browse button then select a folder This can be on either a local or a networked drive You can then burn the folder to CD DVD G Deploy to Folder Once a folder has been chosen select the deploy button to deploy to the chosen folder TIP All files in this folder will be deleted to ensure only the deployment files are contained here Especially do NOT choose C or similar 42 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 The PLUS Network The PLUS Network is our dedicated private network for facilitating central control of screens It is based upon a bank of high tech reliable servers installed in worldwide secure server data warehouses for secure and encrypted distribution of your projects The network allows you to control update and monitor the status of your player machines in real time from any location whilst it constantly monitors and communicates with the players to ensure maximum up time Typically the system operates what is known as a pull technology where the players regularly contact the servers and pull the updates to themselves but in the case of emergencies content can also be pushed to the players If multiple player units are located at a single site a Media Server can be installed which assists in the collect
11. DirectShow YMA windowed Aecommended OU Transparency Low Quality Faster to Render Recommended ha Quicktime Made Actives Playback Recommended w Automatically Refresh Dynamic Variables SYNC when Scrolling Use High Quality Transitions Multithread Page Plugins Isolate Fast Page Switching may lower video quality Ant allased Shapes Check for Removable Media Updates Now fe Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Acquire Player Settings System Setting tab Acquire Settings Acquire V4 0 0 77 S System Settings Master Slave Date 03 November 2014 EY Time 10 38 gt yl Set Date and Time 3 l Display on Monitor Span Across All Monitors Please contact support for information about using multiple monitors 4 Master Volume Left O T Master Yolume Aight 6 Protect Config Screen with Password Go Out of Order if pages in a row have errors Performance Optimisations Cache Page Plugins Smart Video Wall Cropping Cache Memory Size ME 8 _ Disable Windows Vista Aero while Player is Running requires player restart 3J J Check for Removable Media Updates Now Key Settings Tabs Here is where you can select which Configuration Setting you would like to change view 2 Date Here you can select change the date on the computer TIP We recommend setting the time on the remote players to automatically update from a central time server to ensure that t
12. Acquire Typically a Player PC will be used to power each individual screen within your network Minimum system requirements You should ensure that the PC you are using has the following minimum requirements Windows 7 Windows 7 Embedded and Windows 8 or above Intel or AMD compatible processor 1GHz or above 1 GB of system memory 20 GB MB of hard disk space plus space for your media DirectX compatible graphics adapter Sound card if sounds are required DirectX 9 x runtime installed this is done during installation of Acquire Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 and above and Media Player 9 installed for some functionality this is done during the installation of Acquire If necessary e 1x Free USB port for a Pen drive to Update OR a CD Rom drive OR any TCP IP based network link such as ADSL Wireless LAN GPRS modem etc This is dependent on project size and may require more system memory for better performance xx This IS a minimum system requirement and we recommend more disk space where possible Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Acquire Editor Getting Started This is the Welcome Screen or main menu Ss Acquire oe Editor Project View Features More Welcome to Acquire Ss Please select the project you wish to work on Q x New Project ID 1 Size 1920x1080 Project created on 21 October 2014 at 10 19 08 All of your Digital Signage projects will be listed here Double click
13. If you are using Flash animations in your project you may find they will be slow and jerky on slower PCs or at higher resolutions To reduce processor loading you can override the Flash animation setting to speed up playback at the cost of lower quality here 39 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 10 ER i 13 14 to 16 I7 te 19 Video Display Mode Depending on the graphics card on the Player being used videos may play back better using one or other of these modes If the videos are playing back OK you should not need to change this option 50 Transparency If you use a PNG graphic with Alpha channel information you can specify the mask for each pixel being on off or midway meaning 33 66 When this Midway is rendered it is actually created using a sequence of on off pixels in a pattern On slower PCs you can choose a Simple pattern to use which will speed up page changes containing these masks Quicktime Mode Choose from ActiveX or Standard Playback Automatically Refresh Dynamic Variables Usually switched on unless a variable has a very large number of lines of text Use High Quality Transitions A trade off with processor load Fast Page Switching A trade off with processor load VSYNC when Scrolling Makes scrolling smoother by using the vertical synch function from the graphics card The downside is that it puts a greater load on the processor Multithread apps Useful when more
14. User Guide Version 4 0 Decommissioning a Unit If you wish to remove or replace a particular unit from the PLUS Network then you can choose this option To complete the process you must type the word YES in the box and press accept oe as Acquire Site Manager AIl Projects Acquire Site Manager Expand v Screen Snapshots View All Tickets La New EL css cos Name Media Server Progress DeploymentProgress Notes Last z 400 10 Edit Site 2 Phokibooth a 27 neilpc 10 L Delete Site 8 RobPC 100 RobPC x Decommission Unit Warning m none a 100 2 ts 100 _ 2 Decommission Unit Warning 2 100 THis system has a large s 2 You have requested to DECOMMISSION unit Photobooth 24097 NOTE This process Eon 5 08 20 can lose historical data stored on the network for this unit e a 5 100 _ _ Please select what you want to decommission 100 POS Expander Touch Scr 2 PE eco peli oie presets 100 Rob PC A Player C Media Server Watchdog Sentinel j 5 AAE 09 9 _ 2 Please explain why you want to decommission this unit x Reason For Replacement v 2 Used for demonstration p A Please confirm that you want to decommission the unit by enter the word OK 00 Used for demonstration p 2 in the following box and press Accept 100 Used for demonstration p 21 100 _ 2 2 Accept W XA 100 Use
15. action should be to set up the basic playlist features lt Editor Sample Project Christian Church ES Project Media Pages Playlist Editor Features Editor Master S Playlists Playlist Settings Donation Master Sunday Playlist Playlist Description Master 10 10 2014 Weekday Playlist Playlist Notes lt Editor Sample Project Christian Church oR Project Media Pages Playlist Editor Features Editor Master S Playlists E Length Rules Donation Tiii i All have infi Sunday Playlist Allow pages to have infinite page times Wooky Pispiist Force infinite page times to be seconds long C Restrict page lengths to be a maximum of 240 seconds s Editor Sample Project Christian Church EJ Project Media Pages Playlist Editor Features Editor Master S Donation Play playlist sequentially in order Sunday Playlist OPlay 1 lines from the playlist per loop OPlay 1 random lines from the playlist per loo C Skip this playlist every 1 loop s _ Maintain Playlist Position between Instances of this Playlist 28 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Key I Playlist Settings Playlist Entries Tabs Here you can switch between the Playlist Settings and Playlist Entries windows Ze Playlist Description Use this field to provide a description for your playlist TIP If you have any pages in your playlist which need t
16. can use normal multi select features Shift and CTRL keys to select more than one playlist entry even in different players playlists You can then move these line items delete them or edit them Any new line items using Add Media Add Item will also appear at the chosen positions Edit Edits the line item s Note that multi selected lines will all receive the changes made Delete deletes the selected line s Move Up Moves the selected line s up in the playlist Move Down Moves the selected line s down in the playlist Schedule window After selecting a player or group of players in the Groups Window each player s specific schedule will show here TIP By double clicking on the player in the Schedule Window you are able to edit that specific playlist using the Playlist Editor 49 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 PLUS Activ When installing a player use the Acquire PLUSActiv8 program to commission the player onto the PLUS Network i e tell the PLUS Network about the new player and check the connectivity between the player and the network Once you do this the player will appear in the Site Manager for that account Your content manager can then assign the player to a specific project by dragging it into a group for a specific project and then any logs and settings are retained by the PLUS Network for that player s account If at any time you need to replace the player with a new unit the player should first
17. create the deployment Do Not Change Project StartUp Settings Acquire normally changes the remote player s settings with the ones you have specified for the project on the Editor PC However if you have different settings configurations at each player site you can choose this option to ensure these settings are retained and not over written Only Include Signed Off Pages If this is selected ONLY pages that have been signed off using the Sign Off will be included in the deployment Force Inclusion of Player Program in deployment If you have updated the player program on this PC Acquire will automatically upgrade the remote player to the same version Now all of the options have been set you are ready to create the deployment Press Next to start the build of your deployment 4 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Manual Deployment Wizard Manual Deployment Wizard Manual Deployment Wizard Begin Update Build All required information has been gathered to make an update Press Nest to build it Step 1 of 3 WARNING Once you press NEXT the media will be marked so it will not be included in future updates unless you change it If you miss performing the update on a remote unit then the only way to get it up to date would be to do a full refresh on it Step 3 builds the deployment This may take a while depending on how large your project is and the options you chose Acquire will warn you of any possible faults inc
18. order to modify this setting you will first have had to set up your sites Refer to the section Sites Setup in this manual to see how to do this Acquire Site Manager Site Acquire Digtal Test Expand Acquire Site Manager All Projects Expand v Screen Snapshots Manage User Assignment to Sites Site User Assignments Use this dialog to assign users to sites or sites to users Manage From Stes Manage From Users Name Users amp test account Username ws Account Y Ca EB View Extras v l f Ss bo Sscreen studio Rat ia VANN eee ee eo Nn wo oo Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Exceptions and Resolutions Acquire Site Manager AIl Projects gt Ea Se _ E S SSS If you do not set up your Acquire Site Manager i m T a Exceptions and Resolutions exceptions and resolutions lists a Exceptions and Resolutions S effectively then YOu will not iaa aed Psy Mahmod Notes wed receive the correct alerts The a je History aA 5 m si i first thing to do Is to click on the ey 1c Revert to Default Exceptions 3 button This will populate the Large Triple Screen Displa 2 tye lists and give you a good Idea of Site ee what can be achieved aamen ba History 2 JE gt ted unit info Revert to Default Exceptions ox on LAN i Task Mana
19. password 2 Password Enter the password that you have been supplied to access your account Q User Name Password Please note that a live connection to the PLUS servers must be available throughout this process and your account must have privileges to commission new units Network Settings lt lt Back Next gt gt 50 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 PLUS Activ8 V4 0 0 2 Activation Settings connection with the PLUS Network has now been established In order to activate this computer with the PLUS network please select what you want to do O Register this computer az a new unit O Register additional options to this already activated unit Activate this unit from one which has been decommissioned Decomissioned Units Location Ea x 5 Key ast PLUSI 1 Register this computer This registers the player on the PLUS Network 2 Register additional options to this already activated system This activates other features like Watchdog or Media server 3 Activate this system from one which has been decommissioned You can re use a machine that has been decommissioned by selecting this option the selecting the machine that you want to use from the drop down menu Display units that contain PY gg Back Key 1 Name Add the name of the player in this field 2 Description Give the player a description in this field 3 Locati
20. than one app is present on a page Anti allased Shapes Smoothes shapes but increases page loading time Check for Removable Media Updates Now Checks for updates that are either on USB key hard drive CD DVD etc 36 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Master Slave tab If you have a number of players on the same subnet and want all of the players to play the same playlist Simultaneously you are able to set one of the players to be a master machine to send a timing signal to the others using this option This is ideal when you have a number of kiosks at a site showing a screensaver which can then be interacted with However be aware that the Master machine must not be used interactively otherwise all the slave machines will follow this path Acquire Settings Acquire V4 0 0 77 es slate Master Slave Modes Player Controls D Disabled Master Slave Group 9 _ Player is Master Mute sound when running script not interactive Player ts Slave Disable Syne when Interactive Sync Slave Playlist Positions Slippage Allow movie clips to run behind by 200 milliseconds betore r synchronising therm Allow movie clips to run ahead by 200 S milizeconds before re zynchronising them SmartSynce Sune Frequency Enable SmartSyne wait IO Use SmartSyne if video slips times In a row seconds before going into local content SmartSyne ahead by S00 we milliseconds
21. then select the Unit Status drop down menu and choose the green No Known Errors option 6 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 House Keeping IMPORTANT Acquire Editor uses the project s media directory to manage the content delivered within each deployment to ensure only the content in use Is actually maintained at the remote sites and is deleted when no longer required It operates as follows If a media item is included in the media directory but is not used anywhere within a project it is NOT sent UNLESS it Is included in a directory named ALWAYS SEND Any media stored in the NEVER SEND directory within your media directory will NOT be sent to the remote players and So will not overwrite any existing files in that location This is useful if for instance you have a different logo for each site called C my media never send logo jpg If a media item is included in the media directory and is used within any page of a project it is SENT to the players note see deployments later If a media item was used in a project and is no longer being used but the file remains in the media directory it will remain on the player machine If a media item was used In a project and is no longer used AND the file has been deleted from the media directory it will be DELETED on the player units with the next deployment Because of this please DO NOT use an existing directory e g C or My Documents to con
22. 141103 103817 920 Application Settings Loaded Sucesstully Check for Removable Media Updates Now Log Entries Here are the most recent events that Acquire noted They are listed by time a specific logging ID code and a short deploy listing of the event You may be asked to report these Items If you contact Working Solutions for support 38 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Testing amp Distributing the Project Once the entire project has been completed it is time to test and deploy it When you install the Acquire Editor a copy of the Player is also included You can either use the Preview buttons throughout Acquire to view your project or you can use the Player software In preview mode by pressing Preview on the main menu to do a final check before deploying If you have configured the player correctly you should now be seeing the introduction page media page or playlist as you defined If you are using the Scheduler to schedule different content to different players you can preview these through the Scheduler or by changing the player settings in Settings to play those specific playlists When previewing the playlist in this way interactive content can also be checked Use the system as you would if the computer was inside a kiosk If you have a menu structure use this or scan a barcode or insert a coin or whatever is required to operate the system to test the project works with
23. 6 0 4 Svstem Watchdoa System Status System Log Monitored Levels PC Status Plugns Connected To Acquire Digital Reception for 00 00 36 Remote Screen Size 1920x1080 50 View Only A i on SLT me a4 Sak 2 EN Ban E gt fe CtrleAltDal Watchdog Refresh __ Taskman _Exploror_ Cad __Fiegtdt__FallScreum_View__ _ Win Kay _ ALT Key_CTAL Koy Prestirt Unit Monitoring 24May 11 at 07 08 0d0h 18m 24 May Liat 07 23 DOLE Cane a Stat 1366 by 768 pi Mandatory Programs ERATIONAL 24 May 2011 Benned Programs 0 1 27 1 more aasdasd amp Services used Crash Monitor Remote oninection image 24 05 2011 06 51 38 727 EventLog Erro MH Windows Background Fro MM Virtual Memory Paging file 24 05 2011 06 49 45 022 ACQUIREPRE 24 05 2011 05 49 45 022 ACQUIREREM Triggers C Email Settings A Security Settings af Firewall amp Change Escape Sequence System Watchdog Settings 510 C see the full project here http t co U12CkHXggT acquiresigna 66 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Export Data to CSV ay oa ee ea System Up THDD Usag Support Status Notes Last Contact Call Home Location UnitID External IP IntemallP E Moved airside 19 05 2011 07 55 15 mins New York 30224 111 68 44 202 10 0 1 26 503 minutes n a iNo Known Errors Needed to speak to restaurant manag
24. 7th July 2014 at St Mary s Church Verse of the Day 24 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Acquire Page Designer Sample Project Spa Estimated Play Time 00 02 00 5 pg NO we k eo pee an Bw v B ta 2 x ala sal ass sss laa ala sal asn asa daa ala sal ssassn lanal salasa asa kasaka bal annasa lanalanal annasa fanaka aal anasan Masaka asl ann ana Man aka aal nna asa Mas aka aak nan ana Masala sal ana sma das ala salann saadan ala salann aaa danaa salasa ssndaaala Toolbox 913 1267 75 heaton hall FIE FTE day spa Page rto Seling lym Layouts Ooprg 00 Acquire Page Designer Sample Project Spa Estimated Play Time 00 90 30 oe we on o0 wee Key 1 In the pages tab click the three dots next to the Foreground page data entry box and add your foreground page Whatever content you apply on this page will always sit behind the foreground page content neaten Nall GEVA 0 09 55 refresh this summer NYY Ask at the reception to know more about the outdoor spa offers available throughout this summer Zo Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Playlist Manager After creating your pages you may want to put a sequence of them together either as an attractor for an interactive system or for your passive digital project After selecting the Playlist Manager from the Main Menu you will be asked to choose your project Once you have done so you will see the s
25. Acquire does not do this for you Check that the font you used to edit the project is installed on the player PC Acquire does not do this for you Check that the Font Size and DPI settings are the same as the editing machine Check that the Acquire player program you are attempting to run is actually stored or runs in the original install directory otherwise the Database engine will not be able to connect to the database Try recreating the deployment Otherwise you may have corrupted the database or Acquire installation Re install Acquire To avoid customers repeatedly scanning the same product or pressing a push button Acquire includes a Barcode Blocker which ignores subsequent scans for a period of time Change the value to increase or decrease this time appropriately in milliseconds 8 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Tel 44 0 116 231 892 US toll free 1 844 291 3501 e customersales acquiredigital com w acquiredigital com acquiredigital com 9
26. Depending on the option chosen some or all of the following options may be available Master Slave Group Many different channels of synchronisation can be used simultaneously on the same network Recent Log Entries tab Sync Frequency This is how long the player waits for a sync signal on a page change before it reverts to playing its local content To assist in fault finding Acquire maintains a constant log of what is happening at all times You are able to see the most recent log entries within this window This is useful in identifying the sequence of events in your project and to help in tracking down problems Note that this information is also stored as a number of log Tiles in the Acquire Player folder and these log files are automatically transferred to the PLUS Network or onto your update device whenever a deployment is made so that playout reports can be created Key iP Acquire Settings Acquire V4 0 0 77 Se Recent Log Entries 20141103 103817 305 Starting new UTC Logfile with limit of 124k per file and starting a new one A 20141103 103817 920 Creating External Trigger Session 20141103 103817 920 Loading System Settings 20141103 103817 902 Checking database 20141103 103817 902 Checking project settings 20141103 103817 902 Enabling INI file for Project ID 20141103 103817 902 Loading project 350 20141103 103817 308 Acqure V4 0 0 77 NOT SET 20
27. Info Decomission gt Connectivity View Screen Interact with Screen File Transfer B CMD Prompt 3Reboot Biwake onLAN IW Task Manager Stats Overview Deployment Status Machine Status Managing User Accounts This option allows you to add users and assign their access rights by selecting the relevant boxes under each of the six tabs You can also change a user s password and Increase the level of security by adding IP Restrictions Acquire Site Manager AIl Projects 0 EZ User Administration e User Editor TIP If a user does not have li z User Editor S the status of Account ad a Manager then they cannot Us Username change account settings Name RA from the Accounts tab PEE Phone Number Preferred Contact Method Ema User Administration Unit Management Reporting Content Management Remote Unit Control Notifications C User can add edit and delete user accounts _ User can setup Exceptions and Resolutions _ User has the status of Account Manager _ User can view all sites not just the sites they have been assigned to e x a unit Info Decomission gt Connectivity View Screen _ Interact with Screen File Transfer CMD Prompt Reboot Biwake onLAN IW Task Manager NMWNMMMYMWMMM Www me we St Overview Deployment Status Machine Status 54 Acquire User Guide
28. ady done so you will need to install a copy of the Acquire Player on the PC that you want to deploy to What type of deployment do you wish to make Point2Point Deploy over LAN WAM or Internet f PLUS Network Deploy via the fast and secure Acquire PLUS Network Cloud 2 Manual Create a deployment file to transfer manually on a flash drive etc Key l Point2Point Uses an advanced form of FTP transfer see Point2Point manual 2 PLUS Network Use the internet to Multicast to all players If you have subscribed to PLUS Network then you are able to use it to securely and automatically multicast your content to the remote players a Manual Select this option if you would like to deploy to a pen drive write to a CD DVD ROM or otherwise transfer it manually from a folder on your PC or network 40 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Key Manual Deployment Wizard Ez Manual Deployment Wizard Update Type Step of 3 There are two types of update available Please select the one best suited to your needs Sequential Update 4 sequential update only saves changes that were made since you last ran this tool This means that the updates will be smaller than if everthing was copied as only the changes are copied C Complete Refresh 4 complete refresh causes an update to occur that includes everthing even if no changes have been made since last run This i useful if one of
29. age your content By using The Integrity Checker you can view pages with missing media view media that is no longer used In you pages or view Playlists with missing entries then either resolve the problem or delete a Page Playlist or Media item Pages with Missing Media tab If a piece of media has been deleted or moved and It Is still contained in one of your pages the page will be displayed in the window below From here you can choose to open the page and re import the media or delete the page Key Acquire Integrity Checker Oo X Integrity Checker S 1 Pages with missing media Media no longer used Playlists with missing entries Any pages listed here use files that are missing from the media folder l If pou wish you can ether delete the pagels or double click the page to choose alternative media Note after resolving problems or deleting pages we recommend r e checking your project to ensure that your changes have not affected any other parts of the project Delete Selected Import Media Select All Select None Fi Re check rr Pages with missing media This is where the file name of the missing media and Page ID of the pages that contain media that is missing is displayed Edit You can edit a page in the Page Editor directly from this window by highlighting the page you wish to edit in the Pages with missing media window then pressing the Edit button Recheck Recheck
30. an be made to a page like updating text without having to redesign an entire page from scratch Playlists A playlist is made up of 1 or more pages The time date and order that playlists appear can all be edited in the Acquire Editor Acquire Project A project is typically made up of playlists and other commands for example you could specify a time at which your screen goes into sleep mode to preserve the longevity of the screen when not being viewed Project Testing You can preview your project before deploying to ensure that your project works correctly and there are no hidden problems If you have created an interactive project it is a good Idea to select every possible option to ensure that your project navigates to the correct page Project Deploying Once you are happy with your project it can be sent to your players to be shown on your screens There are 3 methods of deployment including a manual deployment transferring your project by using a memory stick deploying across a local network or by using our highly secure and fast Plus Network Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 System Requirements Setting up your System You will need 1 Editor PC the Editor software should be installed on this and will act as your central editor suite used to create projects and edit content 1 Player PC the Acquire Player Software should be installed on this and will enable you to playback your digital project created in
31. be Decommissioned in Site Manager then the PLUSActiv8 program run on the new player this time choosing Activ8 from a decommissioned machine and then choosing the machine you are replacing will mean that all settings and log files will be retained and the new player will automatically begin collecting any content it should have PLUS Activ8 V4 0 0 2 5 Key 1 Next By clicking the button you begin the activation process PLUUSI TIP Once you have successfully logged onto the CT Lane network the PLUSActiv8 program will ensure you have the latest version of all programs including itself If the PLUSActiv8 program has to update itself the process will restart and you may need to re enter your username Welcome to PLUS Activ IP Address 192 168 7 106 Gateway IP Address 192 168 7 1 an d p aSswd rd This program allows you to re reqister installation of software which requires access to the PLUS Network as well as to specify information about this unit and how it should communicate To begin Activation click the button marked Next gt gt If you need to configure your network adapter then click the button marked NetworkSettings Don t Have a PLUS Network Account Key PLUS Activ8 V4 0 0 2 a Login Details 1 User Name Enter the username that you Please enter your user details PCUSI have been supplied to access your account Please enter your PLUS Network username and
32. creen below Key S Acquire Playlist Manager New Project ae SSS __ SSeS Playlist Manager S Groups All Playlists File Name a Playlist Description File Name ylist gt Ungrouped Default aqs Default 21 10 2014 Oo Add Flayist Copy Playlist Edit Playlist Delete Playlist Preview Snapshot Advancedy Ed 000009 J Playlist Groups To help manage large projects you may wish to group similar playlists together To do so right click in this window and select Add Group for a new top tier or Add Sub Group to create a second or third tier You can then drag and drop playlists into this new group from the All Playlists window Note that any playlists which have not yet been added to a group will be held in the Ungrouped group Add Playlist Select this option to add a new playlist Provide a name for the playlist and press OK to create It Copy Playlist After highlighting a playlist s clicking this will make a duplicate copy with a new name you choose If you have selected a number of playlists to copy the words Copy of will be placed in front of each of them and you will need to rename them if required by right clicking and choosing Rename Playlist Edit Playlist Select this option to edit an existing playlist first you must select the playlist that you wish to ed
33. d for demonstration p a f A 100 issi i switche 3 Eee PC Recommissioned using ne X 3 Thinclient_Test_unit o Hictory 2 Disconnect 8 ws Demo Black 100 Has the Signarama CP Dig 2 Bl ouit Bm wernema niiad Ta newer the 2 Gamennn a v lt gt Connectivity Clicking on the Connectivity button at the bottom of the page brings up the window shown below Acquire Site Manager AIl Projects Acquire Site Manager Refresh v EB View v Account Y Name La New cooo cco 0 Media Server Progress DeploymentProgress Notes gedit site 89 4 Screen PC 100 History cs i 8 Acquire Digital Recepti 6 100 History Lad Delete Site Add To Site Demo Room Landscap 100 History 1 Del From Site 89 Demo Room Portrait 3 100 History Ne eee Please Choose IP Address te H100 Large Triple Screen Displa Choose IP Address S 100 History 100 History Would you like to connect to the unit using its internal or external IP address LOORGe History 100 History Cne DEGE 100 History Unit ID 34465 100 History Uk E Nek paon History Connection Reason View remote screen via watchdog Your IP Address 62 254 101 154 Unit Internal IP Address 192 168 7 94 Unit External IP Address 62 254 101 154 Request Reverse Access ZEN E
34. dd notes to the page These can be notes to yourself or can be added by a person who signs off the page 4 Transition Use this option to add transitions to your pages transitions include fade slide up Zoom up etc The transition that you set on the page will happen when the page displays D Transition Time Here you can set the time length for the Transition effect 6 Category Set a category to your page T Wallpaper If you using a graphic as a background it can be easier to set it as a wallpaper 8 Colour If you do not wish to use a Wallpaper 7 you can set the background as a colour Note that you can only choose a colour OR a wallpaper not both 9 Time Here you can set a page time how long the page will run for This is in seconds If you need a page to never timeout set the time to 1 If you need a page to last until a media item has finished i e Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 10 P EA TS 14 t5 a video set the time to 0 If you have multiple items on a page the page will complete when the last one finishes OR the page length in seconds is exceeded Page Size Set and edit your page size Page Actions Here you can add a page action that is implemented when the page exits You can also add variables here Targets Set a target for your page External Source Controls Configure and manipulate external feeds etc Page Locked Locks the page whilst you are editing it so that nobody else ca
35. ded Video Display Mode DirectShow WMR Windowed Recommended S04 Transparency Low Quality Faster to Render Recommended 11 Quicktime Mode Actives Playback Recommended 13 Automatically Refresh Dynamic Yarables L SYNC when Scrolling ye Use High Quality Transitions Multithread Page Plugins Isolate qe i Fast Page Switching may lower video quality Ant allased Shapes 5 Check for Removable Media Updates Now Cancel En Og TIP All of the functions listed within this menu will affect the performance of the delivered project Key b Settings Tabs Here is where you can select which Configuration Setting you would like to change view 2 Screen Location Here you can describe where your player is physically located ed External Trigger This can be set as a physical device e g Numerical keypad barcode scanner RS 232 device 4 Database Server Typically do not change this option 5 Database Username Typically do not change this option 6 Database Password Typically do not change this option re Use Low Quality for Transparent GIFs Useful for less powerful players 8 Image Resize Mode If the player PC has a different screen resolution than the Project was set for Acquire will resize all of the content to fill the screen On slower PCs this may cause a slight delay between pages so you can instead perform a quicker but lower quality resize to speed this up 9 Flash Movie Quality
36. ducts Load Layout from Template Save Layout as Template Foreground amp Background Pages Background and foreground pages are a great way of keeping page designs consistent throughout your project A background page will always sit in the background of the page you set It to a great way to keep design elements such as background wallpaper logo clock etc in the same position Background Page Acquire Page Designer Sample Project Christian Church Estimated Play Time 00 02 00 oR x ne head us pe we re eet a Toolbox 2241 12 75 cnristian SS _Hour24 iania Bf tono CC min Te Gd id ees 23 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Page with a Background Page applied EJ Acquire Page Designer Sample Project Christian Church Estimated Play Time 00 01 30 om e l ow tow rep Aw Pon F Toolbox 2036833 75 Key z jo mone DIr de Lid Ee 1 In the pages tab click the three dots next to the Background page Recent Weddings cat data entry box and add your ecm background page Whatever content you apply on this page will always sit in front of the background page content N A foreground page will always sit church in the foreground of the page you Set it to a great way to keep design elements such as masks sidebars titles etc in the same Recent Weddings ee position Mr William Davis amp Miss Elizabeth Jenkins married on 2
37. e a Bring to front Positions a media item on top of other media items 3 Send to Back Positions a media item behind of other media items 4 Undo Undoes the last change you made D Delete Del Select a page item first and then click the delete button to delete the item 6 Preview CTRL F12 Previews your page in Player mode Page will not link to other pages in this mode k Dock all tabs 8 Rulers On Off Turns Rules on and off 9 Guides On Off Turns guides on and off 10 Snap to Grid Snaps page items to grid when dragging 11 Snap to Guides Snaps page Items to guides when dragging i Grid On Off Turns grid on and off Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Page tab The page tab allows you to set details about your Individual project pages Toolbox 1000 144 100 bio homo Save Cancel Page Info Settings Page ID New Page Name New Page Notes A kd Transition None v C Default Time U Slow Fast Wallpaper Cor 00h 02m 00s Page Size 1920 x 1080 Page Actions External Source Controls Page Locked _ Ignore Page Errors 14 ED Key if Page ID This is where you give your page an ID This can be a short name or a number such as a barcode but It must be unique Zz Name Unlike the shorter Page ID 2 this is a friendly name for the page which can be longer ed Notes Here you can a
38. e location etc and the Activ8 program will create a new player account on the network for this unit Once this is done the player will appear in the Site Manager for this account with all the details that the engineer entered against It When the Content Manager logs onto the PLUS Network they will be asked to choose a project If they move the player into any groups this player will become associated with this project and will no longer be visible in any other projects unless it is removed from all groups in the project By doing this you are able to use the same login account to manage players which have completely separate content and keep this content 45 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Now the player will be seen in the Scheduler and Site Manager and can have content assigned and deployed to it Thousands of groups and sub groups can be created and Players can be placed into one or more of these to enable you to manage similar Players together for content management e g Players could be in the United Kingdom group and have nationwide UK based content added to the playlists but some of these players could also be in a Plasma Screen group and also have 16 9 format content added whilst other players in a Projector group would have 4 3 format content added ee anager Acquire will keep you updated Group Manager with the status of the machine and any deployments to It by coloured markers a co
39. e clips and Acquire is unable to determine the actual play length This is useful for getting accurate playlist timings so that you can use the Playlist Length option in the playlist editor to check your playlist s runtime To use this feature add this on the first frame of your flash movie on the first line enter the following action playlist root totaltime timeinseconds Where the timeinseconds is the play length of the flash animation in seconds 2 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Hidden Settings Depending on the circumstances Acquire assists in fault management by using settings in the INI file and through a command line prompt If you wish to use these facilities you do so at your own risk Please ensure you do not alter any other settings otherwise this may cause Acquire Player to stop working Setting OOORES TART lt X gt NORESTART lt 1 0 gt MAXMEM lt x gt SILENTSTART lt 1 0 gt NOESCAPE lt 1 0 gt SHOWCURSOR lt 1 0 gt STARTUPDELAY lt xX gt SAFEMODE SILENTSTART Action Acquire will track all errors that occurs and will show the chosen Out of Order screen for the project As we do not know what the cause of the Out of Order was it is typically not advisable to continue running Acquire it may be a missing or corrupt file However if you prefer Acquire to try to recover from the error use this setting to enable Acquire to restart itself automatically after showing the Out
40. e the unit to be marked with an error No notifications are sent 100 History 2 but this will appear in the error report if you enable it 100 2 History x 100 History 2 SS ted and resol tically resol pann ny a Exceptions cause tickets to be created resolutions can automatically resolve 100 History and close tickets Notifications are sent about changes to each ticket as they a occur If more than one exception is raised on the same unit at a time each 00 History 2 ticketis treated totally separately 100 A Create Tickets in Linked Mode Exceptions cause tickets to be created and resolutions can automatically resolve and close tickets Notifications are sent about changes to each ticket as they occur If more than one exception is raised on the same unit at a time and a ticket on the unit has been picked up but not dosed then the newly created tickets will be attached to this one and marked as picked up Bil ouit y lt gt No selection 1 unit consisting of 1 player 1 watchdog selected Overview Deployment Status As you can see from the Account Settings options you can choose to activate two separate ticketing methods These are Single Mode and Linked Mode and are explained in the screenshot shown above Your units will need to be changed back to green To do this double click on the unit in the main Site manager window then select the Unit Status tab and
41. ength of a Flash movie A Normally Acquire has no way of knowing how long a Flash movie will play but there is a method whereby you can fix the page length for a Flash movie without explicitly stating it in the editor All you need to do is to set the page length to Infinite to ensure the page shows continuously then at the last frame of your Flash movie insert stop Externallnterface call Quit to tell Acquire that the movie is complete and it is OK to move to the next page 6 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Trouble Shooting Editor The following tables contain information for problems on both the Editor and Player Please check our online forums and support for up to date FAQs and support Problem Acquire fails to work starts loading then quits Acquire fails to work no message or splash screen Acquire says there is a Database Error upon starting When pressing the button for a Jump To can t see all of my pages When pressing the button for a playlist can t see all of my pages can only preview one page at a time When use another program then return to the Acquire Page Editor the Toolbox Is missing The menu Items are off screen throughout Acquire When using a mask the edges are very noisy A playlist is reported Locked in the Playlist Editor Solution Check that the USB dongle is installed correctly or that your licence key has not
42. er 24 05 2011 12 47 15 mins Airport Restaur 30272 111 68 44 202 10 0 1 27 418 minutes 39 No Known Errors e Recommissioned using new partition 20 10 2009 17 03 15 mins Milan 25376 82 21 214 114 192 168 1 8 528 minutes 8 No Known Errors Engineer 323 carried out installation 22 12 2009 09 28 15 mins Shopping Mall 26576 82 21 214 114 192 168 1 167 534 minutes n a No Known Errors 1 2 3 4 5 6 id 8 9 1n This option allows you to export the data shown on the Site Manager screen to a CSV file which you can open in Microsoft Excel for reformatting and report writing Support Ticketing System Site Manager provides the option for a fully integrated support ticketing system If you already use such a system then you will realise what a powerful and effective tool such a system can be Acquire Site Manager AIl Projects Acquire Site Manager Units Account Y Refresh v E View v Sites Expand v Expand v Screen Snapshots Name La New Site pa ee Name a Media Server Progress DeploymentProgress Notes Last C a a Se i E p100 History AA Account Settings 100 History 3 100 21 Account Settings S 100 History x 100 History 2 100 2 Please select the error reporting style you require 5 1100 Large Triple Screen Displa 2 Raise Exceptions default 100 History x Exceptions caus
43. expired Check that the USB dongle or licence key is for the appropriate version of Acquire you are running see the label on the dongle Check that nosplash 1 has not been set in the in1 file This is usually due to the Acquire Database Engine service not operating Check that the Service is Started Only the pages with Page IDs are listed here Ensure all of your pages have unique Page IDs Only the pages with Page IDs are listed here Ensure all of your pages have unique Page IDs This is intentional If you wish to test you project as a whole use the Player which has also been installed on your PC to do so You do not have to exit the Editor program but It is recommended that you are not in the Page Editor This is a Known issue usually when you are using multiple monitors First check that you do not have a dialog box showing e g File selector If this is not the case try previewing the page using the shortcut combination ALT F12 Quit the preview and the toolbox should have returned This is a Known issue with Windows XP Use the Display Settings option in Control Panel and check the DPI settings on your PC and ensure they are set to 72DPI Also it is recommended that you choose Windows Classic Style windows and buttons Although Acquire allows you to use mask images which are BMP PNG or JPEG format JPEG images are often not clean images and leave a rough edge when used as a mask Clean your images up and sa
44. ey only contain these items otherwise deployment and directory lookups will be very long For instance selecting the C folder for your media will cause Acquire to scan every sub folder on your hard drive for content when deploying Instead make a sub folder for the project and then three sub folders within this named Media apps and Playlists this way you only need to copy the finished content into these and you know that it is all in there and not scattered around the drive This is similar to website development where you create separate HTML and Content folders TIP By default Acquire creates a uniquely named folder in C Program Files Acquire or C ProgramData Acquire which stores your media per project To make finding the respective folders easier Acquire has also installed a new column in Windows Explorer which will show the project name next to the folder name for you To see this browse to the Acquire folder and choose the Details view Then right click on the column headings and choose more on the dialogue that appears Here you can choose the columns that are displayed Towards the bottom of this list you will find a column called Acquire Project Name Ensure that this is ticked and move It in the order you want It displayed Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Screens and Pages tab This tab contains the same settings that can be found in the player software It allows you to select
45. f Auto Close Mandatory Applications Remotely Changing the Default Graphic Export Data to CSV Support Ticketing System House Keeping Integrity Checker Keyboard Shortcuts Frequently Asked Questions Trouble Shooting Editor Trouble Shooting Player 54 59 ale 05 05 05 59 56 og 08 62 62 63 63 64 64 65 66 6 6 68 69 4 5 TI 8 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Introduction Planning a Project Before you start we recommend taking some time to think about your project Deciding upon aims and objectives will help determine the structure of your project and the content for each page For example content on a digital screen located in a fast food restaurant may require menu changes and updates throughout the day whereas a touch screen kiosk may have a larger emphasis on taking the customer through a process such as registration or the completion of a customer feedback questionnaire Project Structure Using the Acquire Editor content can be structured into pages and playlists to create a complete project Pages Pages are used to layout content and can playback most media file types including videos animations graphics and text The size of a page can be pre defined and is normally set to the size of the screen that the project will be played on Page Templates A page can be saved as a page template so that it can be re used by another user at a later date This way smaller changes c
46. f you do not wish to choose an existing layout use this button and an empty page will be shown TIP If you wish to make different but similar projects Such as one client who has two separate brand names you can make two separate projects with the same folders for media playlists and apps This way only the content used in each project will be deployed to each player in their respective project and the management will be easier Although you cannot copy pages between projects the ability to share templates between projects can allow you to recreate the Same content with different media quickly and easily Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Page Design Editor Window The Page Editor Design Window Is where you effectively build your project Like a magazine or book projects are made up from Individual pages which can contain just one piece of media or hundreds of them The tools here let you control what media will display where on the page and how it they will operate Ex Side Show Advanced TIRT Pr ees EF oS fer oj rail Psi gt s no 200 300 400 ar 3 1 4 d 4 ol a E 3 4 a EI 4 4 ape 3 Slide Show 4 4 a E is E EI 3 3 4 3 3 E E a E a d id 3 i la 8 Key l Design Area The solid blank area is the screen size defined in the Project settings Anything positioned within this area will be shown on the player full screen Here the
47. folder 4 C System Folders d Program Files R D 12 05 201415 06 File folder J Desktop Program Files x86 R D 12 05 2014 15 04 File folder Documents _ ProgramData H D 04 06 2014 12 29 File folder Program Files Reco HS D 13 01 201414 56 File folder IC an aie hei a HS D 05 11 201400 27 File folder Now close the File z di Temporary Files dJi Users R D 12 05 2014 15 18 File folder Transtar WI ndow and re Windows J Windows D 19 05 2014 11 29 File folder i C md 100KB A 13 01 2014 15 35 RND Fie open the Interact With 4 9 Acquire Digital Reception hiberfil sys 2 86GB HS A 03 11 201421 20 System file i S CA _ IFRToolLog txt 2 59KB A 30 10 2014 17 47 Text Document Screen window Open the a oo pagefile sys 3 82GB HS A 03 11 2014 21 20 System file Watchdog again and go to a dJ Program Files x86 HH d Windows Recycle Bin System Volume Infor d Documents and Setti Connecting to Acquire Digital Reception Please Wait Connected end em information 15 items Remote Connection Image Now you need to navigate A List to the temp folder where fre erfLogs E Program Files you stored your new i Recovery bitmap file and select it as your new graphic Now when you remotely access your remote units your users or viewers will See your new Image on the screen leaving you to diagnose any Issues Tuesday 04 November 1
48. for a project in the Page List Each page contains one or more media Items and by selecting a page you are able to design the layout of the media on the page If you have no pages at this stage use the New button to start making some s Page Selector for Project New Project Om SS SSS SSS ss Page List Ss All Pages Search Page Categories a fa New Page Page Name Page ID Notes Run Time Signed Off Date lt gt Preview M Flowchart Import Media New Edt Delete New Page M Edit Page Cop M Delete io a O OOOO BOO he Page Listing Window This is where you can see all of the pages you have created in this project Use the View Type option to change between the different ways of viewing the pages in this window You can use the normal windows Multi select features to highlight multiple pages for copying and deleting Most standard Windows control features are available including the ability to sort the list in detailed view by any of the columns just by clicking on the column heading when in detail view 2 New This creates a new blank page in the project and shows the Page Editor Design Window 7 Edit After selecting an existing page in the Page Listing Press this button to show the Design Window to edit it You can also double click the page or type in scan its barcode to edit it if it has one 4 Copy After selecting a page or number of pages in t
49. ger Exceptions amp Resolutions Editor As you can see from the screen Acquire Site Manager All Projects 5 E shot shown below the Editor Acquire Site Ma g Exceptions and Resolutions Editor EE Ss allows you to configure change Units O OOO O Exceptions and Resolutions Editor Ss and add exceptions and a ots e resolutions ms CE a Trigger when v Any v error s below occur 1 E time s within 1 hours of each other a i You can change the Name of an o Ae o res IE existing exception or add an oS te poate exception of your own and 3 Swat ce fete Ue remember to set the Trigger 3 ps ier settings Then you can set the a een a ame i i I i Unit is Working Again Messages Priority level to be anything from user Enor Codes Codes very low to Critical The Critical setting carries the extra alert function of SMS texts remember that credits for SMS alerts need to i an JE be pre purchased from Working e res a TEPEN Solutions mm I I I IUII Overview Deployment Status Machine Status After you have setup your exceptions you can change the Type from exception to resolutions and select the type of action that resolves the exception Then click OK to store the settings 50 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Screen Snapshots Clicking on the Screen Snapsh
50. ghts for each user Typically you may have the following types of user although these tasks may be done by the same person Content Manager Their job is to develop the content pages then schedule them onto the respective players Network Manager Their job is to monitor the players on the network and ensure that they are operating correctly these users may also use the Kiosk Monitor system As part of their role they will decommission players which have failed and need to be replaced see later AA Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Engineer This user typically visits sites to install player units As part of their role these users will use the Activ8 program to commission players onto the client s account Client Manager This user is typically responsible to an end user client and will use the tools to monitor and report the status of the network note that a separate Site Manager program is also available for this user or the end user client themselves to use As the PLUS Network intelligently manages the editor player communications everything starts with the player unit Once the Acquire Player software has been Installed on the Player PC unit the Engineer should then connect the player PC to the internet this does NOT have to be at the final installation site and then run the Activ8 program on the player After the user enters their user name and password they will be able to enter details of the player nam
51. he Page Listing press this button to make a duplicate copy Note that the duplicate page will have the same Page ID as the original with the words Copy of in front and may need to be changed before you can use it As well as this you can copy pages between projects Select the drop down arrow on the copy button then click on the Page from the project option A window will then appear with a list of all your projects Select a project and the select a page This page will then be copied Into the project that you are working on and the media in the page will be copied into your media folder 5 Delete After selecting a page or pages in the Page Listing press this button to delete the selected page Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 10 11 Preview After selecting a specific page in the Page Listing window you may then press the Preview button to view the page In the player software by clicking this The page will not link to other pages in this mode If you wish to preview the project as a whole based upon the project settings click the arrow on the right of this button and choose project During previews a control panel is shown which allows you to change certain settings and also view what is happening to pages variables etc Flowchart Creates a flowchart of the flow of your pages and how these link together Import Media By choosing this option you are able to select files from elsewhere on y
52. here is no slippage on the PC s clock Follow your Windows XP instructions to understand how to do that 3 Display on Monitor If you are using more than one monitor and have extended your desktop onto these monitor s you can select which monitor you would like Acquire to be displayed on 4 Master Volume Left Use this slider to select the volume level of the left channel on Master Volume Right Use this slider to select the volume level of the right channel TIP Acquire has separate Left and Right channels to allow you to split the content to different screens from the same player if required 6 Protect Config Screen with Password Adds an extra level of password protection to the existing Sentinel password ra Performance Optimisations Allows setting of cache size for apps 8 Disable Windows Vista Aero Aero uses processor power that could be better allocated to your project 9 Check for Removable Media Updates Now This checks for updates that are either on USB key hard drive CD DVD etc 34 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Player Settings tab Acquire Settings a Acquire V4 0 0 77 S Papere cing Master Slave Screen Location NOT SET Edit Yariables External Trigger None on COM 1 Block for 3000 ms Database Server weversion Password Username Image Resize Mode Higher Quality fast Recom Use Low Quality for Transparent GIF Flash Movie Quality Auto High Recornmen
53. his when clicking on Media Items to select Deselect the items Preview the page Delete the currently selected items Undo the last thing done Move the selected Media Items around the screen one pixel at a time Use in case any of the settings made cause Acquire not to start correctly e g choosing to display on a monitor which is no longer present This will just load Acquire and show the Settings window for you to remedy the problem setting Whenever Acquire Player starts a Splash Screen is displayed confirming connections to the database engine any apps and the controllers whilst playing an audio file to allow you to confirm the volume for playback If you do not wish this to be displayed use Silentstart 1 4 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Frequently Asked Questions Q have a number of machines on a closed WAN Wide Area Network but there is no connection to the Internet So we cannot use the PLUS Network to deploy Is there another way A Acquire Is very flexible with its deployment capabilities but we have to ensure that the network technology is secure to prevent hackers from infiltrating your systems Therefore you have the following options Use Acquire s PLUS Network to deploy to your projects with your own ADSL or similar connection Often If you have an existing network e g in a retail store chain this is in place to operate core functionality such as EPOS Transferring multimedia acro
54. hosen line item Move Up Down Moves the playlist item higher or lower in your playlist 30 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 You can also edit the day week and time pages or playlists play time within a project by double clicking the page playlist duration box This will open the playlist editor mr Playlist Line Editor Display Page New Page H Select the Schedule button and here l you can manipulate the settings to sult Line Enabled t Line Locked your proj ects needs Show Page withID EEE Display Time From Page oo w 120 seconds Display Limit No Limit fel times Feset Key 1 Page ID Select what Page or playlist you s Pibylist Line Editor Display Page New Page E want to schedule o_ Line Enabled Line Locked 2 Display Time If you want to override the Stew Bape hp v New Pose E O time the page is shown for use this Display Tine aceite i seconds option to do so Use the box on the right 3 Deeply nk Bland th sires to enter the number of seconds to show 17 for Note that as this is a playlist you are Display Start Display End on eS _ Enable _ Enable B not able to select infinite pae umes Date 21 10 20 Time 10 19 Date 28 10 20 Time 10 19 s Rd Display Limit If you want to only show the Day of the Week tain Number of times ou can Only display on the following days of the week All None ORAE k P
55. ion of updates so that the network remains as fast as possible normally removing the need for broadcast updating such as via satellite although for time critical updates Acquire can also be made to use this technology If required For more information about the PLUS Network and how it can help you manage your network please visit www acquiredigital com or contact your local reseller TIP The PLUS Network can also integrate with Acquire Digital remote maintenance and management system known as Site Manager to allow teams of dedicated engineers to pro actively monitor the players and remotely repair them if necessary This saves time and money over traditional servicing options and means that the players are typically operating 99 of the time when in the field USI NETWORK Stats amp Play out Logs Head Office 43 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Introduction to the PLUS Network Integrated within Acquire Is the simple to operate connection to our PLUS Network This provides you with fire and forget assurance when deploying your content The PLUS Network allows you to deploy content to multiple units simultaneously It then lets you track the status of deployment until it is live Among the key advantages of the PLUS Network are e Significantly more efficient file delivery than FTP faster transfer using less bandwidth e Guaranteed Single or Multiple pass delivery of files e Works very well over co
56. it in the Playlist Window Delete Playlist This option is used to delete playlists first you must select the playlist s that you wish to delete in the Playlist Window 26 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 6 Preview To view the chosen playlist in the player choose this option Note that Page jumps and Similar actions will operate and you are able to jump to specific dates and times or to skip through the pages tn the playlist T Snapshot At any time you are able to create a snapshot of all the playlist in the project as a backup in case you wish to make changes or check historically back to earlier playlists All the files are compressed and stored as a ZIP format file in the chosen Playlists folder named with today s date 8 Advanced If these options have been purchased then the user has the option of using one of three Playlist tools These are Playlist Merger where two Playlists can be mixed together to form a separate Playlist Playlist Viewer where a list of pages in order of playing or a Gantt chart can be generated and Playlist Randomiser where the lines in a playlist are mixed up and a new Playlist is generated 9 Edit Edit your selected playlist 2i Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Playlist Settings The Playlist Editor allows you to build a sequence of pages to show This sequence can be simple or complex and can even contain line items which are other playlists With a new playlist your first
57. ity will be disabled Instead viewers or users will see a default PLUS Network logo informing them that the unit is being serviced If you wish to use your own graphic then it must be a bitmap file bmp and can either be installed on the unit when It is commissioned or added o 16 0 24 May 13 at 06 51 Next Scheduled Contact 24 May 11 at 07 18 Unit ID 30272 24 05 2011 06 51 38 727 EventLog E 24 05 2011 05 51 38 727 Erro Ml Windows Background 3 Erro M Virtual Memory Paging file 22 ACQUIREPRE Tuesday 04 November Fy 10 C see the full project here http t co U12CkHXgqT acquiresigna 65 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Remotely Changing the Default Graphic To do this assuming the graphic is not already resident on your remote unit you will need to use the File Transfer option to transfer the bitmap bmp image to your remote unit from your Site Manager PC Sr File Management with Acquire Digital Reception z You Can SE that WE have i New Folder ful View y Properties Rename vg Delete Restart dragged a couple of bmp Sal E E files from our Site Manager 4 Favourites _ Recyde Bin HS D 12 05 2014 15 16 File folder desktop into a temp file on E di Acquire Logs _ Documents and Settings HS D 14 07 2009 05 08 File folder i Acquire J Intel D 13 01 2014 15 20 File folder the remote unit J Perflogs D 14 07 200903 20 File
58. kip page button and the ability to change the date and time to test your playlist is playing as you expect before deploying It Schedule Viewer This is available as a paid for extra It allows you to graphically view each piece of media that is playing at a chosen site over a selected time period Deploy Once you have made the changes you require press Deploy to send the changes you have made and the updates to the network for onward transmission to the players Instead of updating all of the players simultaneously you may wish to send files to a few players for testing just select or multi select a number of grouped players and choose Deploy to Group If however you have changed any playlists for players or activated a new player it will be showing as a blue unit use Deploy to out of date to just deploy to these units Integrity Checker Before deploying your project you may want to check that the project has no problems such as missing media and you may also wish to remove any out of date media This button runs the Integrity Checker Group Manager Opens the Groups Manager window to let you configure your players and groups 48 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 10 11 12 Save and Refresh Once you have logged onto Acquire the icons and status bar will show the current status of each player However this information is only live when collected To update the information press this button TIP You
59. l IP wee 5 i a aay i ye Beci external 1P AA a 3 XR gt EON _ TCP Ports edd j _ Sequence Number Royal lt A Cunit D Leamington Spa o _ MAC Address nm N N Ar Haverhill BaNhury 7 V Cis Woodb ric contain Ns ching ae ii ih my Bletchley g st Bicester Braintree Cole pe S wy pissi ant H E x cl Disconnect Ox j Chelmsford Bil ouit bi dl High gt C ingdon gt g z oe Ta combe f stfora OENMapdata 2014 Google Terms of Use Report a map error 1 unit consisting of 1 player 1 watchdog selected overview B cmp Prompt 3EReboot BiwakeonLAN MM Task Manager Once you have created your sites you just need to drag the various units on the right into the relevant sites on the left Working With Your Units We will now take a look at the ways In which you can view and interact with your kiosks or digital Signage players in the field This is the section in which Site Manager controls the units via the PLUS Network General Information tab This can be accessed either by double clicking on the unit or clicking on the Unit Info shown by a question mark in the bottom left corner It brings up the window shown below Sri Unit Information Unit Information une Unit Type Player Player Watchdog Client Client 02 October 2014 14 49 53 Behind Meda server At Site Site List Not Available bd Name
60. less advised to change this leave it in the default setting Database User Username for access to the Acquire Database engine Unless advised to change this leave it in the default setting Default Database Pass Default Password for access to the Acquire Database engine Unless advised to change this leave this In its default setting External Trigger If you are using a trigger device to control the pages Acquire displays select the connection here note USB devices use an app if they are incapable of simulating Serial or Keyboard Wedge access Editor Grid Size Let s you select the size in pixels of the Page Designer page grid Default Page Size When you create a new project its page size is selected here However before changing any pages you can select an alternative screen size in the Project settings Note that although the Acquire player will automatically scale the content to fill the screen there will always be a small variation when scaling between screen formats and the player will have to work harder on each page change We recommend choosing the native screen resolution for the remote players for each project Editor Border Colour If you are using a higher resolution than your selected screen size the un editable area is highlighted in this colour Grid Selection Colour Here you can set the colour of the grid that is displayed in the page editor Guide Colour Here you can set the colour of the guides tha
61. lour on Name Eg New Group oe e Name a Media Server Progress Deployment Progress Notes Last C i i CE genso 9 O j Dano Room Projector Swe CSC the Screen of the icon shows Sas 3 Large Triple Screen Di 100 Large Triple Screen Displa 2 oecon E e the deployment status and an oes overlaid symbol shows the eee physical status of the player following fields i FZ unit Neme Unlike some networks Acquire _ Unit Description Cle allows you to transfer content to Otte each player in advance of when To Ports it is required either in a Sequence Number i i Dune scheduled playlist or by using a _ MAC Address i este Jump to event on a page This ae not only means that you can store content on the players in TE P advance but you can also hold EOE AEE E ERER content on the players storage mms S OCE permitting and only e remove it if you are certain that it will not be required again see Housekeeping on page 56 In addition the players have local intelligence and do not require a live link at all times to operate It Is perfectly acceptable to have a player which plays 24 7 but is only connected to the Internet in the evenings Acquire provides you with a feature to control how often the player will collect the content and you can even restrict deployments to specific timeslots such as in the evenings only when the local internet link is quieter
62. luding missing images etc Once the deployment is completed you will be shown Step 4 where you can choose how and where to transfer your deployment to Manual Deployment Wizard Manual Deployment Wizard Update Generated Step 3 of 3 An update has been generated Please select where you would like to deploy it to Removable Media Floppy Disk Pen Drive Memory Card etc T he drive will be erased and will auto deploy when inserted while the player is running Folder on your hard disk for burning on to a CD DYD Blu ray Folder yments MO1N38KD TJFG4V60G2N50S456 2 a4cquire 4cquireDeplo E ben The above folder will be erased created and content copied in Deployment can be started by running the deploy exe program inside that folder Tip Any sequential updates performed after you close this box will only contain changes since this update lt lt Back Next gt gt Key 1 Select Drive Here you can select a drive floppy disk pen drive ZIP disk etc for the deployment files to go 2 Folder Here you can select a folder for the deployment files to go by typing the path of the folder This can be on either a local or a networked drive You can then burn the folder to CD DVD TIP Once you close this window the deployment Is discarded and the database is reset so that subsequent updates only include the changes made Make sure you write your deployment before closing the window 3
63. media to the value in pixels that you set Crop Bottom Crops the bottom of your media to the value in pixels that you set Apply to Mask Applies selected media item to mask Crop Editor You can also crop your media visually by selecting this option This will open the Crop Editor Window Layers tab The Layers tab displays the order of which the items on your pages are arranged To change the order click and drag a layer above or below the other layers in the tab to your desired position Toolbox 654 190 100 L ESO Key l The list of layers 2 Alignment tools Ai Unnamed 1 2 22 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Layouts tab Once you have composed your page you may choose to save the layout so that subsequent pages with the Same layout can be created quickly and accurately by saving the positions and page settings as a template Key l Z 3 4 Background Page Add a background page to your project Toolbox 1000 100 100 DES Save Cancel Foreground Page Add a foreground page to your project Load Layout from Template Load a layout from a template Save Layout as Template Save your layout as a template Place other non editable page layouts above and below this one Background Page Foreground Page Note The foreground page will be seamless and its background colour will be transparent Load and save layouts as Templates to re use with other pro
64. n Users and Sites Finally you can setup your Exceptions and Resolutions From here you can control the way in which the System Watchdog installed on your units monitors and reports on software and hardware activity Managing Account Settings Acquire Site Manager AIl Projects oe Acquire Site Manager Ss Clicking on the Managing Account Settings option will bring up the window shown Name E New Site J we Name Media Server Progress Deploy oyment Progress Notes p SO Account Settings EE below From here you can toed sem Error Reporting System Response Times 100 x select whether or not to use the UPRTE meee 2 optional support ticketing nae Exceptions default Hose History mme A f are ee eer a horned an No notifications are sent 100 History 2 system The default setting will or d not cause a ticket to be raised Sapana cause tins Tobe aested and resotons cn avtomatealyresove aom ory It will just cause the unit to be neta pea ma apada n Te Suntan ie cach oe marked with an error cee oO and ge tickets ise are about ti har gle they The Response Times tab helps ee you manage the support tickets against the times you may be aos o e contracted to adhere to in a E fay ea eae ees client s SLA Service Level unit info Decomission gt Connectivity View Screen J Interact with Screen File Transfer B cmo Prompt Reboot Biwake o
65. n edit it at the same time Ignore Page Errors Ignores any errors on page Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Apps tab An app is a mini software application that loads and runs when a page is loaded All apps that are available for use licensed are shown in red and unavailable apps are grey You can license apps at any time through the software To use apps that aren t available to you get in contact with the Acquire team enquiries acquiredigital com To add an app to your page select the app from the menu and draw a box on screen In your desired position Individual app manuals can be found by clicking on an app to highlight and pressing the more button Toolbox 971 17 100 5 0 9 a uy a cu am iT Slide Show Slide Show Advanced Text 4nimate Text Box 00000 Ad Manager Pack GPS Trial Power Manager Trial 8 Screen Sleep Trial Audience Detect Pack Q Background Respond T rial Audio ideo Power Pack Hauppauge Win TY Trial Samsung Control Trial Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Settings tab The settings for individual apps can be found under the settings tab Manipulate these to suit your purpose Each app includes a manual which you can refer to Toolbox 1005 107 100 B 2 De vets mam f D External Source A Mask Media From Image File untitled prg 5 Transparency Automatic TIP The image above refer
66. nLAN Bi Task Manager Agreement Stat Ns Overview Deployment Status Machine Status This screen shot demonstrates that you can setup Site Manager to alert you if you do not pick up a ticket in a specific time shown here as 1 day And also to alert you if you do not mark the ticket as closed 03 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Acquire Site Manager AIl Projects 5l EA Acquire Site Manager S Account Y ea E A Name La New Site T pe Name a Media Server Progress Deployment Progress Notes Last C ri F 100 History AA Account Settings 100 aeeee History 3 100 a Account Settings Ss Hetory x 1100 History X 100 X When using tickets the PLUS Network can help you meet the service level agreement with your l dients by alerting you as you run over agreed times All times are calculated from when the ticket 100 Large Triple Screen Displa 2 was created 100 History 2 100 History X P s OO Sos History X Maximum SLA Ticket Pickup Response Time days 0 hours 8 minutes 100 History x 1100 History X Maximum SLA Fix Closure Resolution Time 0 i days o i hours 8 minutes SS x MOOS History X 100 a Bil ouit v v lt ie No selection 1 unit consisting of 1 player 1 watchdog selected unit
67. ngested networks with high latency e Advanced bandwidth controls amount of bandwidth by job e Highly effective automated content compression e Scheduled delivery e Encrypted Data delivery e Instant visibility of your deployment status e Automatic error handling e Forward error correction e Support for large files up to 100GB e Ability to group receivers in multiple combinations e Automated interaction with existing applications via our robust API e Optional Combination satellite and terrestrial transports mixed networks allows for multicast sending with terrestrial back channel The PLUS Network provides many features to enable you to manage a network of players each one operating with individual content or the same content Although each player operates Independently details of the status of the deployment and the operability of each player in the estate is always visible to the content manager Before you can use the scheduler you will need to understand a few principles of how Acquire operates with the PLUS Network Each PLUS Network client has their own secure account Although the network is used by different clients rather like the telephone network all of the content and network data is protected by encryption and specific user accounts Each user has a unique account on the network with specific access rights When you signed up for the PLUS Network account you will have provided user details and access ri
68. no missing page errors If you want to jump to a specific page just type the page ID using the keyboard and press enter Remember the pages will appear as you configured in the Editor A common mistake Is to set a page display time too short or forever Another common mistake is to configure active areas to Jump to Incorrect pages By testing the complete project in this way these errors can be discovered and rectified before deployment Once you are happy that the project works correctly close the preview option You now need to transfer this content to your players You have a choice of three methods using a memory device such as a pen drive or using Point2Point our peer to peer based solution or using Acquire s integrated remote distribution technology the PLUS Network Visit the PLUS Network section for more information 39 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Acquire Deployment To get the project that you have created on to other machines you will need to Deploy it This checks all the files you have created or changed combines these files with all of the detail of how you want your project to operate then wraps this all up in a compressed format which will automatically extract and update on the remote player To make a deployment either right click your project and select deploy or select from the project menu deploy Acquire Deployment Acquire Deployment F you have not alre
69. o have infinite page lengths such as Flash content or pages using an app such as the Video ACQ you should not use this option 3 Playlist Notes Use this space to keep Information pertinent to this playlist 4 Allow infinite page times Set this to allow your pages to have Infinite run time capacity s Infinite Page Time Handling When creating your pages you have the ability to specify how long the page is shown for If you accidentally leave a page length set to infinity and include it in the playlist the playlist will not progress past this page Using this setting allows you to override any page times Set to Infinity to only be shown for the number of settings you choose here 6 Page Length Restrictions Similar to the Infinite Page Time option this setting allows you to override the page display times if they are too long This may be the case If you have created a page which lasts for 300 minutes but in the playlist only want to show pages up to a maximum of 5 minutes T Play Playlist sequentially in order When checked this is set as default the playlist will play out sequentially e the order it appears in the playlist entries 8 Play Number of lines from playlist per loop When selected and a number is set this will play only the selected number of lines from this playlist every time that it is used This is particularly useful when the playlist is being called by another playlist 9 Play Number of random lines from playli
70. oaded and running On certain PCs these have not completed initialisation by the time Acquire is called from the Startup folder Use this to make Acquire wait for lt x gt seconds before attempting to start Use in case any of the settings made cause Acquire not to start correctly e g choosing to display on a monitor which is no longer present This will just load Acquire and show the Settings window for you to remedy the problem setting Whenever Acquire Player starts a Splash Screen is displayed confirming connections to the database engine any apps and the controllers whilst playing an audio file to allow you to confirm the volume for playback If you do not wish this to be displayed use Silentstart 1 fas Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Keyboard Shortcuts Within the page editor there are a few shortcuts to help you build your pages more quickly Key CTRL F12 Delete Cursor Keys Also there are a number of settings which can be added to the command line used to run Acquire Player SAFEMODE SILENTSTART Action Use this when clicking on Media Items to select multiple items ALSO Use this in combination with the Cursor Keys to resize the selected Media Items one pixel at a time ALSO Use this when resizing a media item to maintain it s aspect ratio Use this to resize the currently selected media to it s default size similar to OK and autosize from the media selector Use t
71. of Order page for lt x gt seconds If Acquire has to shut down due to Maxmem or Ooorestart setting Norestart to 1 causes Acquire just to shut down and not restart As we have no control over any third party technologies and applications e g apps Codecs etc there is the possibility that the overall memory used by Acquire may constantly increase If this is the case the PC would typically run out of memory after a period of time Choose a memory level in Megabytes for Acquire to check it has not exceeded If it has it will restart itself releasing all memory used note if Norestart 1 is set Acquire will just shut down Whenever Acquire Player starts a Splash Screen is displayed confirming connections to the database engine any apps and the controllers whilst playing an audio file to allow you to confirm the volume for playback If you do not wish this to be displayed use Silentstart 1 Normally Acquire allows you to just press the ESC key to show the settings window for ease of servicing If you are providing a keyboard for the public to use you may wish to disable the settings window Use Noescape 1 to do so Normally Acquire does not show a mouse pointer unless the right mouse button is clicked When using Acquire in a Web Browser format you may want to always enable the pointer Use the command Showcursor 1 to do so Before Acquire and it s database engine can operate there must be a number of normal Windows services l
72. on Add the players location into this field Try and make the description of the location as detailed as possible 4 Notes This field is for your own notes on the player Add whatever notes you feel are fit 5 Contact Frequency Using this drop down menu you can select the frequency the player contacts the PLUS Network 6 Media Server for Acquire If the player is sitting behind a media server you can select which media server it sits behind here PLUS Activ8 V4 0 0 2 O es l eee PLUUSI NETWORK Unit Location Pd Contact Frequency Every quarter of an hour ka Q Media Server for Acquire None connect and download directly Ho Server w IF behind a firewall router please forward these port s Desktop Viewing Pot F203 H Audio Video Steaming Port 7202 l File Tranter Port 7201 Remote Control TCP Por 7209 S Unit Information Please enter details about this computer g4 Back Mest gt gt 7 Firewall router forwarding If the player is behind a firewall router you can forward it to a remote control TCP port here 5 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Acquire Site Manager The functionality of the Acquire Site Manager has been dramatically expanded over the years so that it now exists as a product in its own right Early in 2011 it replaced the Remote Services Manager product as the remote management product for both Signage Monitor www
73. on an existing project to edit it or add a new project Creating a new project To create a project click Project gt Add gt and fill out the details of your project as seen in the screen below Project Editor New Project Project Settings Screens and Pages Name New Project Size Limit Enabled Max Size 0 E Megabytes Current Size NA Re Check Default Page Time 00h 02m 00s H Transition Time Slow l I l I I I l Fad Default Screen Size 1920 x 10600 Notes Project created on 03 November 2014 at 10 26 51 Integrity Checker 0 Fage Link Checker Here you can define your project Settings Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Setting Up Acquire The first time you use Acquire you may wish to set up your editor Acquire Editor Settings Editor Settings S Database Server localhost Warn about issues with pages on save PE P Teneo ink Sabet erat ee art rt External Trigger Port COM 1 G C_ Use WMR for DirectShow Videos Show the Welcome Screen on startup Editor Grid Size x Default Page Size x Editor Border Colour E Grid Selection Colour E Guide Colour ME w Check for updates on startup New Pages Default to Locked State New Script Entries Default to Locked State When App added to page Return to Select Mode Show Settings tab Database Server Access point for access to the Acquire Database engine Un
74. or Check that the USB dongle is installed correctly Check that the USB dongle is for the appropriate version of Acquire you are running see the label on the dongle Check the Logs folder where you installed Acquire to see what the most recently created log says happened and contact your reseller Check that the PC Is not running any other programs Check that the PC is fast enough to display the media When a new page is selected Acquire pre loads all of the media forms the masks and creates the pages The more complex the pages more media and masks the longer it takes to create the page Try using a more powerful machine or using less complex pages Ensure your media is already at the correct pixel size and try turning off Smooth Fonts and reducing the Wipe time on slower machines Load the page in the editor check that the page display time is not set to 0 Check that the page display time is not set to 1 and the video media cannot be found Check the Display time in settings is set to something other than 0 Check the Media folder for the project This will be a long directory name of seemingly random characters If there are files missing that were included in the original project you have used the Sequential Update option when deploying but had not already installed a Complete Update on this machine Re deploy the project using Complete Update Check you have installed the correct playback codec on the player PC
75. ots button reveals a screen grab of the content playing on your kiosk or digital sign This will refresh as often as the setting you selected in the Refresh tab In the example shown below you can see our three example units showing screenshots The blue screen indicates that something is obviously amiss and needs Investigation The blank screen indicates that this machine probably never displayed any content so again needs checking The screen showing content is no guarantee that It Is playing live content because the screenshot information is stored on the PLUS Servers Acquire Site Manager AIl Projects oO E Acquire Site Manager Account Refresh v EB View v Extras v Location Unit ID External IP Internal IP Screen Shot Bandwidth Demo Room 31697 62 254 101 154 192 168 7 245 Demo Room 31664 62 254 101 154 192 168 7 89 ge Garage 43025 62 254 101 154 192 168 2 33 No selection 1 unit consisting of 1 player 1 watchdog selected unit Info Decomission gt Connectivity View Screen Interact with Screen File Transfer B CMD Prompt 3Reboot Blwake on LAN fl Task Manager eM ee Overview Deployment Status Machine Status However the Screen Snapshot function does give you a quick visual check should you have a lot of units in your network Creating amp Editing Sites It is very Important that you know where your units a
76. our PC or network and copy them to the folder you chose as the project s media folder TIP If you want to move them to specific subfolders use the Import Media function on the file requester when you are using the Page Editor New Create a new category to arrange your pages In Edit Edit the category Delete Delete the category Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Template Chooser If you have already saved a template and you choose to add a new page you will be presented with the Template Chooser This allows you to rapidly create a series of identical pages by first saving the layout then using this layout for all the pages S Select a template to start from Select a template to start from Please select a layoutrtemplate to apply Curent Project Templates ll Templates L Delete Selected Page Size Start Blank A 2 Key l Current Project Templates All Templates Tabs Use the tabs to display either templates for the project that you re working on or templates for all your projects The templates will then be displayed in the Template Window 2 2 Template Window This lists all the layouts which have been previously saved 3 Delete Selected Select any one of the templates and press this button to remove it from the list This will then be permanently removed 4 Custom Size Allows you set a custom page size of a page This can be different from page to page i Start Blank I
77. project settings in each of the tabs Name Name your project Icon Give your project an icon to make It easily identifiable Size Limit Set a size limit for your project Default Page Time Set the default page time This can be changed for each page Default Screen Size Set a default screen size This can be changed at a later date Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 e Notes Include notes about your project 8 Integrity Checker Click here to open the Integrity Checker Acquire s project tidying maintenance system Project Folders tab Use this tab to change the locations of where your assets are stored Project Editor A Sample Project Project Settings Poe ones Media Folder C ProgramData cquire 6l46025VB05T4GEIAP7P30AI64 medie Explore Explore Explore Project Apps Folder C ProgramD ataA cquire 6l46025V605T 4GEIA Pr Pa0A4lEshelpe Playlists Folder C ProgramD ata Acquire 6l 460254 BOST 4GEIAP r Pa0 441 6 ecript Integrity Checker Page Link Checker Key l Media Folder Choose the folder where the media files are stored on your computer 2 Project apps Folder Choose the folder where any apps for this project will be stored 3 Playlists Folder Choose the folder where you wish to store your playlists for this project IMPORTANT NOTE The folder names for the Media apps and Playlists Folders can be anywhere on your hard drive or network However please ensure that th
78. re are any memory leaks the bandwidth usage of the unit i e how much data has been transferred over the PLUS Network and the wireless strength amp Unit Information o Unit Information Statistics Retrieve Unit Statistics OK and Save Status Resurrect Unit 60 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Logs tab o ae aW All of the information measured and monitored on the kiosks or digital signs Unit Information is recorded and stored locally on the Bandwidth Usage History Assets Geographical tocaton ynjts as log files These log files are then uploaded to the PLUS Network servers each time the unit connects You are able to search between specific dates and download these logs to the PC on which you are running Site Manager Download Queue 0 items queued for download 0 files downloaded Resurrect Unit OK and Save Status Bandwidth Usage tab Unit Information a a Unit Information S Here you can see the details of the amount of data that has been transmitted to and from your units over the PLUS Network General information Unit Status Connectivity Volume Statistics Logs Bandwidth Usage History History tab Finally the history tab shows you a Snapshot of your unit s activity Resurrect Unit OK and Save Status Cancel 6 Acquire
79. re in the field especially if they cover a large geographical area Site Manager allows you to create a site and allocate account managers or engineers to that site There are four tabs shown in the screenshot below You can input General Information Site Contact Details and Site Notes These are all self explanatory But what you can see below is the Geographical Location tab This uses Google Maps to display a map and show the latitude and longitude taken from the country and postal code information If that is not quite 100 accurate then you can simply drag the pin and move it to the exact location of your unit or Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Acquire Site Manager AIl Projects Acquire Site Manager Account Refresh v B View v Sites Expand Expand Y Toggle Site Error Icons E Worksop Name s la New Site Retford Edit Site oP Delete Site wl Add To Site Del From Site ee Norfolk Coast Area x 5 L of Outstanding o Display units where the l Ar aa i elton gt gf i King s Lynn y3 o A i x s Pm j D ha j a Unit Name l Stichfie nice amford lt A Wish eci shee o eat _ Unit Description Kea a TN s j Swaffham S p No selection Status unit Info Decomission gt Connectivity View Screen J Interact with Screen File Transfer x 9 i O r q i s y Se uneato Ve ai 5 b Market a ae ga A _ Interna
80. re often better quality and require less processor work than MPEG1 MPEG2 and Quicktime format files If Flash movies are running slowly or jerkily check the frame rate and the image scaling within the Flash Note that Flash uses a high amount of CPU power to animate because it renders on the fly Try avoiding full screen changes such as full screen wipes or fades or animations which cover the whole screen Try using a faster or higher speed player PC For example more RAM faster seeking hard drives or SCSI hard drives faster processor etc Q Can make a page react when someone walks by the machine or presses a button A Yes by default Acquire provides the ability to jump to a Page ID just by scanning that number by a Barcode Scanner connected to either the keyboard or a Serial port decide on the settings window However the device connected does not have to be a barcode scanner As long as there is Serial data being sent and each message is terminated with a CR character Acquire will still jump to the page ID given For example we have created a Button Controller which plugs into the serial port and allows up to 9 push buttons to be attached We have used this with a PIR sensor like the ones found in house alarms and used it so that when someone walks past the kiosk Acquire displays the page entitled BUTTON1 which includes a welcome video and a silly sound Q How can make a page display for the same l
81. red to allow incomming connections To make a connection possible the unit is asked to hold an active session with the PLUS Network once this feature has been requested Once this has happened your computer will receive notification of this and these services will become available to you There are some important restrictions to be aware of as follows L Tie ainikien Stour pessoas ron oe z Connection Test Acquire Site Manager If you have opted for Internal or After you confirm acceptance of the licence your reverse access connection will be queued until the unit in question next connects to the PLUS Network servers e g this may take 15 minutes if that is the time refresh that you have selected Site Manager will notify you when the reverse connection has been made live Acquire Site Manager AIl Projects External IP Address connectivity then you will be presented with the Connection Test Connection Test Photobooth 87 194 175 41 following window All of the inbound ports have been configured correctly so you should have no problem connecting to the unit If you are having problems on one or more of the ports like we see In the screenshot you can use the Ping Port test is the most stringent of the tests without actually logging on It actually makes a connection to the remo pega epee scrunch OE eaa one s or Trace route tab functions to
82. s specifically to the Media app and each settings window is different for each app TIP Ideally use clean graphics such as Bitmap or PNG images rather than JPEG images as these give better results The more complex the image the longer it will take Acquire to display the page 20 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Info tab Each item has properties that can be changed and manipulated in the item menu Key oe oS eh 00 10 Toolbox 1348 24 100 2 3 ltem Locked Acquirezga 8 10 Name Name your page Item here Width Here you can set the width in pixels of the page item Height Here you can set the height in pixels of the page item X Here you can select the X position of the page item Y Here you can select the Y position of the page item Item locked Lock the position of your page Item Acquire2Go Select this option and It will set your page Item as a template in Acquire2Go that can be edited Full Screen Select this to make your page Item fill the entire screen Original Size Select this to make your page Item Its original size Actions Add an action to your item 2 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Cropping tab Acquire can now crop media within the Page Editor Crop Left Crops the left of your media to the value in pixels that you set Crop Top Crops the top of your media to the value in pixels that you set Crop Right Crops the right of your
83. s to look for pages with missing media Delete Selected You can delete a page by highlighting the page you wish to delete in the Pages with missing media window then pressing the delete button Import Media From this window you can import re import the media that is missing NOTE The media will need to be placed in the same folder that it was in before to keep the directory structure intact 69 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 6 Select All If you wish to delete all the pages that have missing media you can use the Select All but to select all the pages then press the Delete button T Select None When more than one file is selected you can use the Select None button to de select The Integrity Checker will also display all the media that is in you media directory that is not being used Although Acquire only transfers files which have been used in pages in the past or currently if you no longer use the media in a page it will keep the files on the remote players unless you delete them from the media folder It is therefore recommended to remove these files if they are not being used as they increase the size of your project Media no Longer used tab Acquire Integrity Checker O S Integrity Checker Media no longer used Playlists with missing entries These files are not curently used by any pages in your project and can be safely removed or deleted Note that this does not mean that the files are notin use by an
84. screen size on the editing machine is larger so the Design Area does not fill the screen e g 1280x1024 editor designing a 1024x768 page 2 Off Screen Area The area around the Design Area shown as a block of colour you chose in the Settings button on the main menu will not be shown when the page Is displayed and similarly any media here will also not be displayed It is being shown because your editor PC Is set to a higher resolution than the one you have chosen that the players will display in in the Project Settings window TIP If you have been supplied media which has an unwanted border such as a video file which still contains Over scan content position it so the unwanted area is off the top left of the screen and in the off screen area appropriately as It will not be shown in the player d Toolbox This contains a number of tools to allow you to design the page see below for more information The toolbox provides you with the tools and settings to design and layout the content on your pages It can be moved anywhere on the desktop Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Toolbox 5 ws ES ES ES Es Toolbox P 71 14 100 bit fom Sita Lae Save Cancel Page info f Gettings Lpyers Layouts Crbpping Apps ie gaS IE Key l Select Move Select this tool then click and hold on a media item to move it or click and highlight a number of media items to select more than on
85. signagemonitor com and Kiosk Monitor www kioskmonitor com Its basic functionality is covered in this section but for details on the extent of Its Tull power please consult the separate Site Manager User Manual which can be found in the downloads section of our web site Alternatively contact your account manager to get a copy emailed to you In order to use Site Manager either as a module in the Acquire Editor Suite you will first need a PLUS Network account SSS SS Se aaa Acquire Site Manager Connection Experience Acquire Site Manager Proxy configuration The Site Manager Is linked to the Group Manager that you may have already used before you accessed the Acquire Scheduler in order to deploy content over the PLUS Network Therefore any groups that you set up in the Group Manager will be shown in the Groups Window in Site Manager Basic Settings If you have not yet commissioned any kiosks or digital signs then you will see a screen like the one shown below Click on the View tab at the top right of the screen and select Show All Units Acquire Site Manager AIl Projects Acquire Site Manager Name Lab New SE cco oss Name a Media Server Progress DeploymentProgress Notes aj n History Edit Site m 4Sceenpc iii a Acquire Digital Recepti History ce Demo Room Landscap _ 100
86. sray mondy Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Sauurday choose this here Note that when the a ae ae r Er T content is re deployed the count of how many times it IS displayed IS reset Cin dapley aie following times of the day All None 4 Display Start If you want the playlist entry to start showing only from a certain n date or time enable this option and choose Sat the appropriate date and time use the Only display on the following weeks of the year All None calendar option if required 5 Day of the Week Like a time clock which turns on and off this option allows you to i ar choose the days when this entry can be shown 6 Time of the Day Similar to the Day of Week setting this allows you to specify what time of day the entry is able to be shown Note that the playlist plays the lines in the sequence chosen and this time setting allows you to specify If the page is due to be played T Week of Year Similar to the Day of Week Week of Year setting this allows you to specify certain weeks to show the content A week is defined as starting on a Sunday and finishing on a Saturday this may mean that there may be more or less than 52 weeks in your specific year so hover your mouse pointer over a specific week to Identify which week you are choosing 8 Line Enabled This tick box is used to temporarily turn the playlist entry on off rather than deleting the line 3 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0
87. ss this network may mean the network will slow down and stop the core systems from working Also many IT personnel may prefer you to keep a separate network because of company security policy If the deployments are not too often create CD or DVD updates and send them to the sites All the site owner has to do Is to insert the disk and wait for the deployment to take place Share the local hard drives of the machines create a deployment folder using Create Update then transfer the update files to the remote players and run the Deploy exe program remotely using desktop sharing RunOnce or similar For large rollouts it would be possible for the network owner to operate their own Acquire PLUS Network servers on their WAN However due to the costs and security requirements involved this would not be Suitable for less than 1 000 players Contact Working Solutions for more information Q Is there a way of making the usage reports as pictures instead of text A Currently there is no graphing functionality within Acquire Instead we have provided the ability to write the report out to a text file in a CSV Comma Separated Values format This can easily be loaded into Microsoft Excel and graphs and charts created from this If we get enough requests on the Forums www acquiredigital com to include this functionality within future versions of Acquire we will add it Q There are other statistic reports would like to generate o
88. st per loop When selected and a number is set this will play the selected number of random lines from this playlist every time that it is used This is particularly useful when the playlist is being called by another playlist 10 Skip this playlist every Number of loops When selected and number set this will skip this playlist and move onto the next line until It is due to play again 11 Maintain Playlist Position Prevents the Playlist from losing Its position when part of a number of Playlists that are playing randomly e g if it is the 3 playlist in a sequence it will always retain that position 29 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Playlist Editor The Playlist Editor screen lets you build your playlist from a sequence of pages You can quickly view a visual representation of how your pages will play at any time or date and can preview any of the playlists before deploying them to the remote players Key Editor New Project Editor Default o EN Project Media Pages Playlist Editor Features III Playlists Playlist Settings Usage Length Rules isplay From 03 11 2014 v 0000 S Today 7 va Nov 2014at00 00 Nov 2014at01 00 Nov 2014at02 00 Nov 2014at03 00 Nov 2014at04 00 Nov 2014at0S 00 Nov 2014at06 00 Nov 2014at07 00 Nov 2014at03 00 Nov 2014at09 00 Nov 2014at 10 00 Nov 2W14at 11 00 Nov 2014at 12 00 Nov 2014at 13 00 Nov ee E E 0 15 30 45 0 1 1 4 1 1 R R 4 0 1 o B s New Page 00 02 00
89. t are displayed in the page editor Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 10 11 12 i 14 led LG I7 Configure Player This opens the Player not Editor configuration settings window Proxy Configuration Allows your Editor to deploy via a proxy server Users Here you can set up user accounts for the Acquire Editor User accounts allow separate access rights between users Use VMR Control for DirectShow Videos XP or Better Uses an alternative method of displaying videos This is not compatible with all hardware Show Welcome screen on start up Enables or disables the welcome screen when the Acquire Editor starts Check for updates Checks for Acquire program and app updates etc New Pages Default to Locked State Marks page as locked New Script playlists Entries Default to Locked State Marks playlist as locked Project Settings Project Settings allows you to define how a specific project will operate Project Options tab Key D n ef amp N Project Editor New Project Project Settings S Project Options ame New Project Icon Size Limit _ Enabled Max Size 0 Megabytes Current Size N A Re Check Default Page Time 00h 02m 00s gt Transition Time J Default Screen Size 1920 x 1080 4 Notes Project created on 21 October 2014 at 10 19 08 Slow Fast Integrity Checker Page Link Checker Ok Cancel Tabs There are different
90. tain the media used in the project as this will mean long delays whilst Acquire checks the directory tree and may mean unwanted content being deployed Also if you restore a project by Deploying to your editing machine any other files within this directory will be deleted To assist you in managing your projects Acquire has a facility which will check all of your media playlists and folders to ensure you are making optimum use of your systems and have no missing Items To do this use the Integrity Check button in the Project Settings control or in the scheduler Acquire typically manages the content you create for you according to the following process However It is up to you to ensure that the content in that folder is not larger than the storage on the remote players otherwise some content In the deployment may not be able to be deployed When you set up your project you are able to choose the maximum folder size This does not restrict you to this size but Acquire will warn you If you exceed this setting Remember to leave some space for Windows and other functions on the remote players i e if the player PC has a 20GB drive set your project settings to 15GB Also if you are no longer using any content delete the page s you are no longer using and remove the content from the project s Media folder 68 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Integrity Checker The Integrity Checker is a feature in Acquire that helps you man
91. th problems or double click a playlist to edit it i gt Ky Sunday Playlist 10 70 2074 Sunday Playlist ags gt Ky Master 10 10 2017 4 Master ags Ss 3 4 Key l Playlists with missing entries This is where playlists that have missing entries are shown im Edit You can edit the playlist by going direct to the playlist editor from this window by using Edit button Recheck Rechecks to look for playlists have missing entries 4 Delete This deletes a selected playlist Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Flash Commands To enhance the communications and control between Flash movies and Acquire Acquire supports a number of Externallnterface call commands from the flash movies In normal use Flash movies are Just like any other media Item and can be positioned and scaled anywhere on the page and will play as per the movie s parameters FS Command Action Jump Jumps to page ID args pageid Event Logs and event occur code 981 Page Logs a flash page change code 982 Finish Time out the page Quit Time out the page and go directly to the On Startup page playlist skipping the are you still there page Clear Resets the current page timeout Log Log a message to Acquires log args Code Message Set Sets a variable in Acquire from Flash Get Flash gets a variable from Acquire TIP You can also pass flash movie timings so if you have a scene with multiple movi
92. that says Display units where the following fields Tick the relevant box and view units according to the different fields This is useful when you have a large number of units 02 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Connecting to the Servers The Refresh tab allows you to select how often the Site Manager connects to the PLUS Network servers Your kiosks or digital signs can connect to the servers as often as every 15 minutes if that is how you have set them up IMPORTANT NOTE If you accidentally set the server contact to a long period of time unless you send a High Priority message to the players you will have to wait this time before the players will check for updates again and reset it to another value TIP Although it may be tempting to set the call home frequency at a low level this may ultimately cost more per month as each call home uses a little bandwidth on that connection The best option is to choose the most appropriate time scale for the content you are delivering Account Settings By clicking on the Account Settings tab you can configure the error reporting style and response times for the support ticketing program option You may already have your own solution for this so you have the option to not use It From here you can also setup user accounts and assign users to specific sites or vice versa In order to add units to sites you will need to refer to the section in this manual o
93. the control screens used within your project and dictate how they operate For instance an interactive system may start with a menu screen on start up and use an Are you still there page when the user leaves the unit unattended However if the system is to run a passive sequence of screens then Acquire can be configured to show a playlist of pages at start up and will not need an Are you still there graphic Project Editor New Project Project Settings Screens and Pages On Broken Link Playlist Time 5 SECS On Timeout Time 10 SECS On Error Show C ProgramD ata Acquiregis oo0 jpg Scan Page Change SFX C ProgramD ata acquire gfe scan way Always Play Scan Page Change SFe i Integrity Checker Fage Link Checker Key 1 Pa Choose the different setting and features available for this project by clicking the respective tab Z On Start up Here you select either a playlist a page ID or a graphic to play when the project starts up in the Acquire Player Choose an appropriate file page or playlist to play in the box to the right 3 On Broken Link Playlist Set a page or graphic in your project in the event of a broken link or playlist 4 On Timeout Set a page or graphic in the event our your project timing out D On Error Set a page or graphic in your project in the event of an error 6 On Scan Page Change SFX Set an audio file to play when the screen is changed or a prod
94. ther than the ones included with Acquire currently Is there a way of doing this A Not at present Future versions of Acquire may include this as Acquire runs under its own SQL database However if you have a specific report you would like to run let us know via the Forum www acquiredigital com and we may be able to include it for you fo Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Q How many Media Items can be shown on the same page A Acquire can accommodate a maximum of 1024 media items per page However remember that the more media per page the more work the player PC has to do between pages and on slower machines processor and hard drive large quantities of media may slow down the display and page changes a little Q How can speed up the Acquire playback A Acquire forms new pages before displaying them and it is usually here that delays are obvious Try the following Acquire 3 has anumber of player settings which allow you to change the way content Is rendered To avoid having to have lots of different playlists and types of content when you have different types and capabilities of player PCs use these settings to change the way the content is shown on lower quality PCs Try running Acquire in a lower screen resolution this will reduce the workload on the Graphics card and CPU for slower machines If videos are running slowly or jerkily check the format and re encode them If necessary tip MPEG4 Divx movies a
95. tus of all of the players on the network In one place Although all of the players have individual icons showing their status you can see an overview using this bar You can also see the deployment status and the status of your machines by selecting the appropriate tab Player Window Shows all of the players you have had at any time Some of these may be inactive but will still show in this window After setting up your groups close the Group Manager and you will be taken to the Scheduler 4 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Scheduler Using PLUS Network l lt Acquire PLUS Network Scheduler V4 0 0 79 Project Sample Project Christian Church Pex Acquire Stheduler lt Add gt Piview Schedule Edt a MhveUp w Move Down HD Tester 1 I renee id 0 Rows Estimated Playtime 00 00 00 Diag Hante To Soen II 010 Hone To Se O Save and Relresh Save and Close om i Add A schedule is effectively similar to a playlist A playlist dictates when the pages will to play within a project A schedule dictates when the project will play and on which players Therefore you must add a Line here in order to make your projects play on your players You can also add playlists pages and media using this function Preview After choosing an individual player you can preview the specific playlist for that player by using this feature This is similar to other page or playlist previews and includes a s
96. uct is scanned a Integrity Checker Click here to open the Integrity Checker Acquire s project tidying maintenance system Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Project Apps tab Acquire Project Apps are programs that run in the background allowing extra functionality to be included They can also allow interaction with external programs data sources Project Editor New Project Project Settings Ss 9o Project Apps RSS Feed ere Downloads RSS Atom Feeds and File e Add View Manual Purchase Apps More Apps O Page Link Checker l l l Tabs Choose the different setting and features available for this project by clicking the respective tab Key 2 App List All Apps displayed for your project 3 Add Click to add a new app A browse window will open where you can select an app to add 4 Integrity Checker Click here to open the Integrity Checker Acquires project tidying maintenance system Remove Click to remove an existing app by highlighting it in the list then clicking Remove 6 Settings Each app has Its own settings You can access these settings by clicking here This will open a configuration window Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Page List The Page Designer gives you an overview of the content used within Acquire When you choose Pages from the main menu and choose the project you wish to edit you will be shown the list of pages available
97. ve resolved the issue The Authentication field shows the last time that the unit securely authenticated with the PLUS Network servers If there is a problem with connectivity and you are sure that the unit is able to connect to out to the internet then you can press the 2 Chance button This will allow the unit to connect to the PLUS Network without a password in order to re establish its connection If this is successful then the automatic password authentication system Is re activated If your unit Is connecting to the internet wirelessly then you can view its signal strength from this screen Here you can set how often your units connect to the PLUS Network servers You can also inform the servers that the unit will be turned off between certain times so that unwanted exceptions are not sent e g your kiosks or digital signs may be switched off overnight You are also able to manually change the ports on which the Site Manager connects to your units If there are reasons why inbound ports are not accessible then you can use the Reverse Access function which Is shown later in this manual 09 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Volume tab If your units have speakers then you can set the volume using this control Statistics tab There are a number of useful charts and statistics available You are able to see a graphical representation of connectivity or up time hard disk usage page allocation showing if the
98. ve them in a BMP or PNG format If using PNG images as a mask ensure that the mask Is either ON or OFF any partial masking will be interpreted by Acquire as a pattern of pixels to simulate the transparency which may look noisy To unlock a playlist you must first highlight the playlist which you want to unlock and then hold down Shift Ctrl and Alt and click Edit Playlist tft Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Problem No media is being displayed Acquire seems to start but nothing is shown Acquire fails to work starts loading then quits Pages take a long time to display Pages display but immediately show Are you still there Are you Still There is not displayed Some pages have not been deployed Videos do not appear on screen Fonts do not appear correctly OR text gets chopped off When deploying a project the Deploy program states that there is a Database Error before deploying The Barcode Scanning seems intermittent or slow Trouble Shooting Player Solution Check the media directory setting press ESC and alter the settings is correct and contains media Check that the Display Monitor is set to the screen you are using if you have a multiple output capable graphics card If you cannot see the settings window run the Acquire player from a command line with the option safe mode to force Acquire to show the settings window only on the default monit
99. will see whatever is on the Windows desktop when you close your remote connection This default selection is deliberate because System Watchdog can be purchased as a standalone product and so field engineers need local access to Windows functions If you choose the Interact with Screen option then you will be presented with all of the options that were previously greyed out 64 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Connected To Acquire Digital Reception for 00 00 36 Remote Screen Size 1920x1080 50 View Only Bx ull Sereen 49 0 0090900 Tuesday 04 November 16 0 Ctrl Hy 10 C see the full project here http t co U1 2CkHXggT acquiresigna later using the Site Manager Switching off Auto Close Mandatory Applications On the screen shown above click on the Watchdog Icon This will bring up the Watchdog screen shown below Select Mandatory Programs and deselect the Auto Close Mandatory Apps option Then click on OK and then click on Hide You will be asked to type In your name and the reason you have accessed the unit This information will be stored in the log files Connected To Acquire Digital Reception for 00 00 36 Remote Screen Size 1920x1080 50 View Only H Note At the remote site the user of the unit will no longer be able to see your content in the case of a kiosk all touch screen functional
100. xternal IP Address Cancel swine ss Disconnect Bil ouit lt v o EN Extras v Ce y gt a No selection 1 unit consisting of 1 player 1 watchdog selected unit nfo Decomission gt Connectivity View Screen Interact with Screen File Transfer B CMD Prompt Reboot wake onLAN Ml Task Manager St OOOO Overview Deployment Status Machine Status You are presented with three options by which to connect to your remote units 1 By using Its internal IP address this can only work if you are on the Same LAN or connected via VPN 2 By external IP address you need to make sure that you have properly mapped the inbound ports to each of your units 3 By requesting Reverse Access If you are having difficulty configuring inbound ports or you have a firewall that does not permit inbound access or your units are connected to the Internet via a mobile connection e g 3G then you can use Reverse Access Reverse Access uses the unit s outbound connection to connect in In order to use this function you must confirm that you are authorised to do so by ticking the box shown in the screenshot below 62 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 Reverse Access Connection Reverse Access Connection Manager Licence Ea A reverse access connection allows you to connect to a unit where the firewall or router has not been configu
101. y other project sharing the same media folder 2 Move Selected Delete Selected e 4 Key 1 Media no longer used This displays all the media that is in your media folder that IS NOT being used in your project 2 Move Selected Use this button to move files out of your media folder to elsewhere If you wish to move all the files that are not used use the Select All button first 2 Recheck Rechecks to look for media that is no longer being used 4 Delete Selected Use this button to delete files from your projects media folder If you wish to delete all the files that are not used use the Select All button first 0 Acquire User Guide Version 4 0 The playlists with missing entries section of the Integrity Checker displays any playlists that have a page which is no longer in the project the page may have been renamed or deleted Although this will not cause a problem at the remote end although Acquire WILL go out of order if 3 pages in a row are not found we recommend that you delete the pages from the playlists Playlist with missing entries tab Acquire Integrity Checker Wee Integrity Checker Media no longer used Playlists with missing entries Below is a list of playlists that have entries that cannot be located These will be ether playlists or pages We recommend that you either disable or delete the offending teme or choose an alternative item Expand the plavlist s to see the entries wi
102. you will be presented with the Acquire Scheduler window which will display the groups that you have just created 3 Group Manager n Eg a a Group Manager Ss ae Media Server Progress Deployment Progress Notes Last C JA ii Large Triple Screen Displa 2X History a 1 group selected 4 active units Unit Info Decomission View Screen B Task Manager Overview Deployment Status Machine Status Online Knowledge Base Click view and then Knowledge Base here to be taken to our Knowledge Base where you will find lots of useful information relating to all aspects of Acquire Group Controls Create groups and sub groups edit groups and delete groups Groups Window This shows all of the players you have currently grouped Note that before you can transmit content you must first add the player to a group All of the groups and sub groups can be expanded for more details by pressing the symbol next to them Note that the current status of each machine is shown by the colour of its screen Green player is up to date Blue You have changed the playlist but not deployed it Yellow new content is being deployed Red A fault occurred whilst deploying check the site manager for details Unit Controls Display information on your player devices decommission units and view content playing on your screens Status Bar Here you can see the deployment sta
103. your acquire screens gets out of sync with the rest o Compress Media Files while Building Deployment slower 4 p Do not change Project Startup settings on target unit Only include pages that have been signed off G Force inclusion of player program in deployment increases file size Sequential Update This deploys ONLY the changes that have been made since the last deployment This is the most appropriate option in most cases and allows you to transfer projects which are larger than your transfer device Acquire automatically checks both the database and the media for any changes and only transfers these ensuring that the deployment Is as small as possible You must have done at least one complete deployment before you can use this feature HP Only the updated files are written to the Deployment so you must ensure that the remote players already have the sequence of updates until this point For instance If you have installed new machines from a master backup but not updated the backup If you are unsure it is wise to occasionally update using the Complete Update option Complete Update This deploys everything contained in your project Compress Media Files while building Deploy With this option ticked Acquire will compress all the files in your media folder This will make the deployment file size small However it will increase the length of time it takes to

Acquire User Guide 4.0_0

Contents

Download Pdf Manuals

Related Search

Related Contents