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CoolSign Manager User Guide

1. Use the move buttons to move the selected columns between the available and shown lists Lists all the columns that are visible Lists all the available col IR das gridi umns that haven t been Available columns Show these columns added to the data grid Date Created Eil Format Date Modified Name ForcePlaybackOnLegacy Duration Modified By Resolution Owner Total File Size Preserve AspectRatio Schedule Summary Scale Mode Activation Date Scale To Fit Expiration Date Status Version Thumbnail location Transition Transition Color Transition Duration Volume Gain Click to show the internal hidden columns In most cases you will not find these Use these buttons to move a columns useful selected column up or down in the list E Show hidden columns Move up l Move down Best FitAll 7 Color every other row Click this button to force all Click this checkbox to shade columns to resize to best fit every even row with a light the visible data gray color for easier viewing 2 Select one or more columns in the Available Columns list 3 Click the right arrow button to move the columns into the Show These Columns list 4 Click Close To remove columns from a data grid e Right click on the column header and choose Remove this column 46 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Using CoolSign Manager Reordering columns
2. j Player 3 Site Default umpua 4 0 2 Sl Sort Ascending z Sort Descending Group By This Column 3 Site Mt Hood q Clear Grouping umpua 4 0 Toggle Group By Box Best Fit Lock Column Width amp Print Grid fel Save Grid Data to File 2 In the Export to File settings dialog select the File format you would like to export to and set any available options 3 Click OK To print the play history logs Right click on the column header of the Play History grid and choose Print Grid Using the Attributes tab You can define your own custom attributes for content if you want to track specific information with each content item For example you may want to add a Client field so you can track the name of the client within a media advertising network Attribute fields can be displayed within your views in the Content Manager and used within searches or QuickSearches Note Attributes can only be used to help organize and manage content within CoolSign Manager You cannot access the user fields as dynamic data or to display within content playback CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 69 Viewing information about content To add an Attribute field to content Juniors Tops Landscape Content content juniorstops landscape General DvnamicDats Assets Schedule Info Play History Attributes Quicksets Security Attributes Property Name Va
3. 234 20 Managing Triggers Types of trigd rs nirien in iiaia ia alone 235 About payloads ss nn a ARa 235 W rking With trigge Sansuna r RNS 235 CREE TING STS coos fas caceseetctivt sesvan doe aut clasxedtaxostseastonss beh ensehacen e ia aiii 236 Manually firing TIQUE nent 238 Cl aring triggers ennuis nation 238 Scheduling triggered items sense 239 21 About Security Using Windows Domain security to connect to CoolSign 241 Managing users and JrOUPS mens 244 FDOUTMISCES RER a NS SU ne st 244 ADOUE GFOUDS saninin nnn bunialetio hui 246 Linking CoolSign groups to Active Directory groups 247 About special JroUPSi esisiini nees i S oies 247 CapabilitiE Sannen E iE EE E E a TA Ei es 247 Initial ac ecuntand pass Words nn rain 248 Password management 249 Linking CoolSign accounts to a domain user account 249 14 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Setting object permissions ss an a Sc er ne 249 About the Security tabs nie less 250 Security strategie Sonsierra aE EE TE EREE SEO EEE 251 Scenario 1 All users have all permissions and capabilitieS 251 Scenario 2 Managing only capabilities by user 251 Scenario 3 Managing only capabilities through groups 251 Scenario 4 Managing capabilities and permissions by groups 251 Content SOCUIILY sde 252 22 About Troubleshooting Troubleshooting alerts sen A SR etant 253 Troubleshooting player errors rennes
4. Adding items to a channel 2 In the Scheduled Item Properties dialog select Merged from the Scheduled Type box Scheduled Type Merged hd Schedule Item Properties Merged playlists will append all child schedule items to the parent schedule Note Merged is only available as an option when you are adding a playlist to the channel You cannot set the Merged scheduled type for content or audio 3 Set any advanced properties for the scheduled item For more information see Setting advanced schedule item properties on page 92 4 Click OK to add the scheduled item to the channel Setting advanced schedule item properties You can set advanced properties for scheduled items from the Scheduled Item Properties dialog Advanced Properties Activates Now At Expires O Never At Friday Mar 24 2006 v 11 59 59 PM Enabling Expression WeatherFeed Weather equals Raining x CO Disable this schedule item from playing Setting scheduled item activation and expiration dates If you want a scheduled item to start or stop playing at some future date and time you can set the activation date and expiration date for the item Items will not become active until their activation date and will be indicated with a Pending status Items set with an expiration date will immediately stop playing at their expiration date and time Note Activation and expiration dates are evaluated based on the local time zone of the player
5. Assigning a PlaVer toa Sit sn NS RS 132 Editing site properties sense 133 Setting the hours for a site ss cunsnnnnnmmenaimnnnnncs 133 Add Attributes to a Site NU Nine nas 134 D letinqa site nest 135 12 Configuring Players amp Devices About the Configure Player dialog nn 137 Fo CONGUE able ES Shen ts a aan ne ere 137 Configuring display controls nets NME ntm one 137 About the CoolSign null display nn 141 Setting display CONF O Es nn eects ch cevendonancescadoctenncvsideeastvecstoncanrenipeccs 141 Scheduling display control nn 142 Adding Multiple displays sis sans inner 143 Play logging ordis ss se ns ee 143 About multi region DlAvets ses sn aman einai 143 Configuring multi region players rennes 144 Configuring video OUTPUTS nee 144 Managing player regions ss sntennenenesesl 145 Working WIth FeGiGNS siscsisicasanaussuniinesimaimndniaomancmunnbnraaies 147 La y ring r gions 147 SAVIN LAY QUIS etant interne retient ile 147 Understanding orientation and format 148 Configuring a MINICOM device 149 Managing a Minicom device 150 Configuring Conduit devices nee 151 13 Conduit Device Control KOTAO KE EEE E A E E ne nn 157 Ndi cator A dan nina anche 159 Scanning TOF conduit devices una sansozendces qobettansnanssbcndeasehwoteonuatenacons 159 CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 9 Display Driver Templ t ssssssontiennnimana oie 160 14 About Dynamic Data About data tables san ck ile Une Re e
6. Default umpua 4 0 2 50 Total Plays at Default 50 E Site Mt Hood Conference Room umpua 4 0 27 Total Plays at Mt Hood Conference Room 27 NEED NEW SCREEN ABOVE ATTRIBUTES To retrieve the play history for content 1 From the Play History tab of the Content Properties dialog select the View Range for which you wish to retrieve the content s play history Alternatively you can manually enter the From and To dates using the date and time editors 2 Set one or more of the following options To include daily play summaries check Include day by day breakdown To only show plays that occurred while the site was open check Only show logs from during site business hours This option can also significantly increase the amount of time required to retrieve the logs Tip For more information on sites and defining site business hours see Setting the hours for a site on page 133 To show all the players on your network including those on which the content didn t even play check Show 0 play Players 3 Click the Retrieve Logs button Note Retrieving playlogs for view ranges of over a week or for large networks can sometimes take a few minutes to complete 68 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Content To export the play history logs to a file 1 Right click on the column header of the Play History grid and choose Save Grid Data to File
7. In CoolSign 4 site hours can only be used for tracking information about a site and when retrieving playlogs for a player Players within a site will continue to play their schedules even if a site is scheduled to be closed at a certain time If you want to schedule a player to start and stop playing at specific times you can use the player s display control schedule Setting site hours is useful if you need to strictly track the number of plays for a piece of content and need to only count the hours which a site is actually open This feature allows you to schedule the display control to turn the signs on before the site is actually open and after it is closed but not include that time in the playlogs For more information on retrieving playlogs see Retrieving play history for content on page 68 To set the open hours for a site 1 From the Site Properties dialog click the Site Hours tab General Site Hours Attributes Site hours 12am lam 2am 3am 4am Sam 6am 7am Sam Jam 102m ilam L2pm ipm 2pm 3pm 4pm Spm Spm 7pm Spm Jpm 10pm 1ipm 12am snae E vosy A E de a tC etre TPP PPI ttt E me II eI 1 CC OR EE mar D a DEC D D ON D ON th 4 Base Schedule P Overtide Options 0 set v CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide Q 133 Working with players and sites 2 Using the site hours scheduling grid set the schedule for which the site is open For more information on usi
8. Only play if Parameter 1 hess Weather Condition Equals Parameter 2 Source value Select the Condition Schedule Properties Dynamic Data Enabling Expression Field Value Condition X Rain Equals 94 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide Rain appears in the Value box 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Channels A more complex enabling expression can be setup as follows In this case a Player attribute Language is compared to a Content attribute Language The intent is for an English player to play its content each time these two attributes match Schedule Properties Dynamic Data Enabling Expression Player Attribute Language Only play if Parameter 1 a Source Player Attributes Field yee Condition Equals 7 Parameter 2 Select the Condition Source Content Attributes 7 Field Language Equals Content Attribute Lan guage A simplier enabling expression for Language can also be setup In this case a Player attribute Language can be setup Schedule Properties Dynamic Data Enabling Expression Player Attribute Language Only play if Parameter 1 Source Player Attributes Field Language X Condition Equals Parameter 2
9. Wait for all items to transfer before playing or when there are additional files required for the content to play for example data tables with imported media files that have not yet completed transfer During the transfer the Player Properties dialog shows the progress of the entire transfer required for the player Total Transfer 534 48 MB of 544 76 MB Viewing the status of scheduled items on a player Once all the necessary files required to play back content have been transferred to the player the content will be loaded and should start playing back as scheduled There are a number of reasons why content that has been scheduled and transferred to a player might not be actively playing Once a content item has been transferred to the player and loaded you can review its current status in the status column of the Player Properties dialog The status of each loaded item can be any of the following eok Ok The content is loaded and should be playing back as scheduled Ok Pending Ok Pending The content is loaded but is pending a future activation date either set in the schedule item or the content Ok Expired OK Expired The content is loaded but has expired due to a past expiration date set in the schedule item or content Expired items are automatically deleted from a channel after 24 hours Inactive Inactive The schedule item has been disabled from the Schedule Item Properties dialog Error Error
10. synchronized channel criteria Items must have the same Activation Expiration time items must have the same day part Channels must have the same total duration Note If the timeline contains two adjacent rectangles in the same color one of the following conditions may be present There is a schedule item of duration 0 between the two rectangles There is a disabled schedule item between the two rectangles One or both of the rectangles represents a playlist item CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 105 Synchronizing channels Channels must have the same total duration total duration refers to the total length of all in rotation non disabled schedule item of a synchronized channel If necessary edit the duration of one or more synchronized channels as described below To edit the duration of content 1 Double click on a rectangle in the timeline or on the name of a schedule item Alternatively right click on the item 2 From the popup menu select Edit Content Properties 3 Change the duration in the Content Properties dialog page 61 Note Alternatively you can edit the duration in the Synchronization Status dialog To do so place the cursor on the right edge of a rectangle then drag the edge horizontally This sets the duration of the selected content to the nearest whole second which is not nearly as precise as using the Content Properties dialog While dragging a schedule item on the ti
11. 7 Click OK to add the scheduled item to the channel Adding a triggered scheduled item Triggered scheduled items are played whenever the assigned trigger is fired via an external application or manually from the Manage Triggers dialog You can select a trigger for the schedule item along with specific times and days of the week when the item is active 90 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Channels To add a triggered scheduled item Follow the steps on page 83 to add a new scheduled item to the channel N In the Scheduled Item Properties dialog select Triggered from the Scheduled Type box Scheduled Item Scheduled Type Triggered Disable this schedule item from playing Schedule Item Properties Trigger Trigger 1 X Create New Trigger Interrupt playing content 3 Select a trigger in the Trigger combobox or click Create New Trigger For more information on triggers see Chapter 20 Managing Triggers on page 235 4 If you want the scheduled item to play immediately when it is triggered even if that would require interrupting content that is currently playing check Interrupt playing content Non interrupting scheduled items will be queued to play immediately after the currently playing content 5 Define the times and days for which the scheduled item can be triggered The blue cells of the schedule grid indicate that the item is active and the white
12. A problem occurred while the content was playing back The status includes additional information about the type of error and the version of the content which is playing For more information on content errors see Troubleshooting display errors on page 257 Tip If the status column is not wide enough to see the entire error status message you can hover the mouse over the column to see a tooltip which displays the full contents of the field offline Offline The entire player is currently offline CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 121 Modifying channels Viewing channel synchronization status As described in Chapter 8 Managing Channels you can use synchronize two or more channels in independent regions or outputs on a single Player Node so that the timelines of the content pieces play at the same rate The Schedule Synchronization Status dialog shows all synchronized channels assigned to the selectetd player node along with the names of the in rotation schedule items on each channel In this dialog you can view the schedule items within the timeline and adjust the duration of content items To view the Schedule Synchronization Status dialog click View synchronization from the Player Properties dialog page 119 Modifying channels While you will usually create and edit channels from the Channels page the Player Properties dialog provides some shortcuts to help you manage the available channels Creating
13. From and To date 2 Click Retrieve Logs Printing and exporting logs Once you have retrieved playlogs for a player you can print or export the logs to a file To print playlogs e Right click on any column header and choose Print Grid CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 123 Controlling player volume To export playlogs e Right click on any column header and choose Save Grid Data to File Tip For more information on working with grids see About the data grid on page 43 Controlling player volume You can use the Sound Control tab of the Player Properties dialog to directly set or schedule the overall volume of a player The player volume settings are applied globally to all content that plays If you want to adjust an individual content item s volume relative to other content being played see Using the Content Properties dialog on page 61 WARNING You can only control the volume of SWF files that are version 8 or older With SWF version 9 files it is not possible to control the player volume To directly set the volume of a player 1 Click the Set Volume radio button 2 Enter a volume for the player from 0 to 100 with 0 being no audio and 100 being the maxi mum volume Note Setting the volume on a player volume is equivalent to setting the Master Volume in the Windows Mixer The Wave Volume in the Windows Mixer will always be set to the maximum To schedule volume on a player 1 Click the Se
14. Playlist Properties dialog on page 112 3 Click OK or Apply Changes Any channels using this playlist will automatically update to reflect the changes To delete a playlist Select the playlist and choose Edit gt Delete About the Playlist Properties dialog You can use the Playlist Properties dialog to set or modify the properties of a playlist add scheduled items to the playlist and review which channels currently use the playlist The Playlist Properties dialog is very similar to the Channel Properties dialog p On The News Today Landscape Playlist PlayLists playlist on the news today landscayj General Advanced Channels QuickSets Security Name on The News Today Landscape Playlist Format Landscape Y In rotation items 2 items Playback order lt September 05 2010 B 2ptemb Optiors Name Time Index Starts Stops su Mo Tu W Th Fr Sa su Mo Tu w Th Fr Sa E Born on this date L 10 Play ist Now Never E Entertanment headlines L 07 Play 2nd Now Never Play one item Play alliterns Add in ratation item Edit item a Delete item 4 el disk size 320 KB I Apply Changes Cancel 112 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Playlists Adding items to a playlist The process for adding items to a playlist is identical to adding items to a channel except that you can only add I
15. Software Holdings LLC Managing Channels 4 The Schedule Synchronization Status dialog is displayed BB View Schedule Synchronization Status Status Synchronization Error View Simple View X D Name Duration 4s as 125 16s 20s 24s 28s 32s 36s 405 445 485 S2s S s GOs G4s 69s 725 76s Os 84s 89s 92s 6s 100s oA Synch Test Landscape Left 1 30 00 E Synch Test Landscape Right 1 30 00 Apply Changes Cancel This dialog shows each synchronized channel along with the names of its in rotation schedule items In the timeline each rectangle represents a schedule item the different colors simply serve to separate adjacent items The length of a rectangle represents the duration of the item which is also displayed to the left of the timeline Note You can also synchronize channels whose in rotation items include playlists For details see Viewing synchronized playlists on page 106 In addition to the information displayed here you can use the View pull down menu to select Detailed View which displays the name of the content item in each rectangle At the top left of the dialog a status icon and label indicate the synchronization status of each channel OK all rules are met or Error When the status is Error you can double click on the status label or right click on the channel to display a list of violated rules Coolsign The In Rotationscheduleitems dontmeet thefollowing
16. Source Value Value X Use advanced editor Note that in this case the Picklist values have been automatically populated Two things to remember when setting up Player attributes and Content attributes Player attributes defined at the player node level will always override Site level attributes when used in enabling expressions Ifa Player Attribute is undefined at the Player Node level it inherits values defined at the Site level You can also setup an enabling expression for a conduit device much the same way For example if the conduit outside temperature value is lt 50 degress than put sweaters into the player rotation Or if a conduit audience measurement shows more women than men play the womens advertisements For more details about conduit devices see section 12 Conduit Device Control CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 95 Determining when a channel can start playing If desired check Use advanced editor if you want to review the actual javascript used for the enabling expression or if you want to hand edit the expression to add additional logic to the expression For more information on accessing dynamic data through JavaScript expressions see the Content Scripting technical documentation provided with your software Schedule Properties Dynamic Data Enabling Expression Only play if vis GetValue function GetYalue
17. WARNING Reassigning a player s site does not change the physical topology of your network You cannot point a player to a different transfer server just by changing its site Sites are virtual organiza tions only To reassign a player to a different site Select the player and drag drop it onto a site in the site treelist The player is reassigned to the new site 132 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Sites Note You can only drop a player onto a site icon You can t drag onto the country state or city nodes in the site tree You can also reassign a player s site from the Node Properties dialog on the Network page For more information see Editing node properties on page 210 Editing site properties Sites that are created automatically for new players do not contain any information other than the site s name You can edit the site to set geographic information define the hours that the site is open and add any custom user fields you desire To edit a site s properties e Right click on the site s node in the site treelist and choose Edit Site Setting the hours for a site If your site represents a business or other commercial location you can define the hours for which the site is open You can use the site hours to restrict the range for which you retrieve playlogs to ensure that your play counts are only against the times when the site was actually open Note
18. a new channel You can create a new blank channel directly from the Player Properties dialog and tune the player to it in one step To create a new channel 1 Click New Channel to open a new Channel Properties dialog 2 Enter a name for the new channel and add schedule items as desired For more information on working with channels see About Scheduling on page 79 3 Click OK Editing the currently tuned channel If you want to make changes to the currently tuned channel you can do so directly from the Player Properties dialog without having to close the dialog and navigate to the Channels page Note Changes you make to a channel will be applied to every player that is tuned to that channel If you want to make changes to a channel for the current player only refer to Overriding channels on page 125 To edit the current channel 1 Click Edit Channel to open a Channel Properties dialog for the currently tuned channel 2 Make any desired changes to the channel 3 Click OK Any changes made to the channel will automatically start transferring to the player 122 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Players Viewing play logs You can retrieve the play history for a specific piece of content from the Content Properties dialog see Retrieving play history for content on page 68 but if you want to review all of the content that played on a player you can use the PlayLog
19. a site up to all the players in a specific city state or country Clicking a site node in the sites panel also displays a site info panel above the data grid with specific information about the site including its address hours of operation and any other Attributes you have defined and set to display under the Site Hours Site Bill Site Hours 12 00 AM to 12 00 AM Beaverton Oregon United States UserProperties FullName Format Channel Now Playing Region amp Display Opti 745 with 1650 Outpu O Portrait Synch Test Portrait Left DSE_ SplitSCreen_Left 01 amp Ok Opti 745 with 1650 Outpu o Portrait Synch Test Portrait Right DSE_SplitSCreen_Right_01 Ok Opti 745 with 1650 Outpu Landscape Bills Test Channel Planar Branding UnderSeaChall Ok Changing the sites panel view By default the sites panel shows a geographic tree view of your sites with levels for the country state and city You can also choose to view your sites in a flat view without the geographic hierarchy To change the sites panel view 1 Click the Options button at the bottom of the sites panel 2 Select Geo View for the default geographic tree view or Flat View to display just the site nodes Creating a new site When installing CoolSign software to a new PC you have the option to set the default site name for that player When the player first connects to a CoolSign network it adds itself toa site if it already exis
20. are managed from the Playlists page of CoolSign Manager 80 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Channels 8 Managing Channels Channels are the primary tool for scheduling how content will play back on your players Channels allow you to centrally manage all the schedules for a player from one convenient page Rather than scheduling content directly onto a player you use channels to program how content should play and then tune a player to the channel Multiple players can all be tuned to the same channel If at any point you modify a channel by adding editing or removing scheduled items any players that are tuned to that channel will automatically be updated with the changes For more information on tuning players to channels see Tuning a player to a channel on page 120 Working with channels You can use the Channels page of CoolSign Manager to create new channels edit or delete existing channels and to program content or playlists within channel To navigate to the Channels page e Click the Channels icon in the navigation bar To create a new channel 1 From the Channels page do one of the following Choose Actions gt New Channel e Right click on the Channels Manager grid and choose New Channel The Channel Properties dialog appears 2 Enter aname for your new channel in the Name field 3 Choose a format for your new channel from the Format combobox Only cont
21. cells indicate that the item will not play For more information see Chapter 19 Using Schedule Grids on page 231 6 Set any advanced properties for the scheduled item For more information see Setting advanced schedule item properties on page 92 7 If you have selected dynamic content and want to override the data bindings for this sched uled item only click the Dynamic Data tab For more information see Overriding dynamic data settings on page 127 8 Click OK to add the scheduled item to the channel Adding a merged scheduled item Merged scheduled items are a special type of scheduled item that can only be used with playlists A merged playlist schedule item treats the items in a playlist as if they had been added directly to the channel For example you could create a National playlist and schedule it as merged within all of your channels The items in the National playlist would play back as if scheduled directly within each channel except that you could update items centrally from within the playlist without having to edit each channel For more information on playlists and scheduling strategies see Chapter 9 Managing Playlists on page 111 To add a merged scheduled item 1 Follow the steps on page 83 to add a new scheduled item to the channel remembering to select from the Playlists tab rather than the default Content tab of the Content Chooser CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide Q 91
22. choose Copy Item s Schedule Properties To apply copied schedule properties to a scheduled item e Right click on a scheduled item and choose Paste Into Item s Schedule Properties Overriding playlist scheduled items You can override the properties of the items within a playlist scheduled within a channel Playlist overrides are applied only for the channel in which you create the override and not anywhere else the playlist is used For more information on overriding scheduled items see Overriding channels on page 125 Reviewing where a channel is used You can quickly view which players have been tuned to a channel from the Players tab of the Channel Properties dialog For details see Tuning a player to a channel on page 120 102 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Channels Synchronizing channels You use synchronize two or more channels in independent regions or outputs on a single Player Node so that the timelines of the content pieces play at the same rate For example you might want to play two or more pieces of video simultaneously on separate screens Only In Rotation items in a channel can be synchronized To create synchronized channels 1 Ensure that each channel adheres to the following rules Items must have the same activation and expiration time Items must have the same day part Items cannot use enabling expressions For playlist items if the
23. current and pending content imports Importing retailbanking_creditcards land The following items are queued for import r 7 Thumbnail Name Status Disk Space pa retailbanking_creditcards Transferring 37 49 MB Transferring retailbanking_branding_land mpg Cancel If content already exists with the same name as the content you are importing an alert dialog will ask you if you want to replace or rename the imported content Tip You can continue working with CoolSign Manager while the import occurs in the background or you can queue up additional imports by repeating these steps CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 59 Working with content Tip You can also import content folders by dragging and dropping them from the Windows desktop directly into the Content Manager data grid or onto the Content Manager icon You can drag multiple folders at once or drag new folders one at a time Updating content Once imported the assets within your content are locked down and can no longer be modified from within the system If you modify either the content script or the assets within your content you must reimport to update the existing content If the content you are updating has been scheduled CoolSign will automatically update the content on those players where it has been scheduled including transferring any required files Exporting content You can export content that has been imported into CoolSign Manager if
24. data tables to the player CoolSign checks to see which files need to be transferred and immediately starts sending them across your network to each player Depending on the settings of the channel items in the channel can start playing as soon as they are available or the player can wait for all the items in the channel to be available before switching to the channel If at any point you modify a channel by adding new scheduled items editing existing scheduled items or removing items those changes are automatically distributed to any players tuned to that channel If a player happens to be offline when the changes are made CoolSign will distribute the changes as soon as the player reconnects to the network Note While each player can only be tuned to a single channel at a time any number of players can be tuned to the same channel This enables you to just update the channel and automatically have changes applied to all the players tuned to that channel automatically For more information on working with channels see Managing Channels on page 81 CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 117 Player Lifecycle Management Player Lifecycle Management During its life cycle a CoolSign player can operate in three possible modes active staging andretired Each mode has its own set of possible actions and constraints This section describes each of the three modes In addition this section describes several related actions
25. from a single standalone player to a large network of players located across the entire country or around the world When you begin to deploy CoolSign players to multiple locations it becomes useful to start thinking in terms of the sites where your players are installed especially when each site may have multiple players and possibly a transfer server To help you organize the way you view your players and nodes CoolSign Manager lets you define virtual sites that represent the physical locations where your players are deployed Using CoolSign Manager you can easily create new sites assign metadata to a site and organize your players and nodes into sites that are viewable in a geographic tree hierarchy or flat view sites Show All Items E Default Site Undefined country 23 Undefined state dih Undefined city B BillsDesk Mt Hood Conference Room Planar Test United States 5 4 OR th Beaverton Mt Hood Conference Room 23 Oregon th Beaverton of Brian Clayton Joseph Lab quicksets About sites Sites are a tool to help you represent the geographic organization of the players in your network A site does not represent an actual CoolSign player or transfer server but rather the location where one or more nodes are deployed While it may be tempting to think of a transfer server as an equivalent to a site since in most common network topologies a single transfer server is located
26. is created in the QuickSet panel If you like this search you can save it as a QuickSearch so that it is always available and so that other users can access it To convert a temporary search to a QuickSearch 1 Right click on the temporary search item and choose Save as QuickSearch 2 Enter a name for your new QuickSearch 3 Click OK 50 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Using CoolSign Manager To edit the filter expression on a QuickSearch 1 Right click on the QuickSearch and choose Edit QuickSearch BB Search 1 Content General Name Search 1 Filter Duration Is greater than The QuickSearch Properties dialog appears 2 Click the Edit button to modify the search criteria 3 In the Search dialog define the search criteria then click Find see Searching for items on page 48 4 Click OK To delete a QuickSearch Right click on the QuickSearch and choose Delete QuickSearch Organizing QuickSets and QuickSearches Folders allow you to better organize your QuickSets and QuickSearches You can create folders and then drag QuickSets and QuickSearches into the folder Clicking on a folder will display all the items in every QuickSet in the folder Note You can use folders to help organize your QuickSearches but folders do not aggregate the results of the QuickSearches stored in the folder To create a new folder 1 Right click anywhere in the Quic
27. item To select multiple items Do one of the following Hold the Shift key down and click an unselected item to select all the items between the currently selected item and the clicked item Hold the Ctrl key down and click an unselected item to add that item to the set of currently selected items To deselect an item Do one of the following Hold the Shift key down and click a selected item to unselect all the items between the last clicked item and the clicked item Hold the Ctrl key down and click a selected item to remove that item from the set of currently selected items Performing context sensitive actions on an item Once you have selected an item in the data grid you can perform context sensitive actions on it The type of item determines the actions you can perform The following chapters describe specific actions you can perform in each manager page CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 43 Changing the data grid layout To perform an action on an item Do one of the following Choose an action from the Actions menu e Right click the item or selected items and choose an action from the Actions popup menu Changing the data grid layout CoolSign provides a number of predefined views for each manager page Each view defines which columns are displayed how the grid is sorted and any groupings that are applied to the grid For more information on managing views and adding new views see Man
28. new QuickSet 1 Right click anywhere in the QuickSet panel and choose New QuickSet 2 In the QuickSet Properties dialog enter a name for the new QuickSet 3 Click OK CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 49 Using the QuickBar To add an item to a QuickSet Select one or more items in the data grid and drag them onto the QuickSet To remove an item from a QuickSet e Right click the item in the data grid and choose Remove From QuickSet To clear all the items from a QuickSet Inthe QuickSet panel right click the QuickSet and choose Clear QuickSet To edit the properties of a QuickSet e Right click the QuickSet and choose Edit QuickSet You can change the QuickSet name or modify security settings To delete a QuickSet e Right click the QuickSet and choose Delete QuickSet Note Deleting a QuickSet does not delete the items in the QuickSet just the QuickSet itself Using QuickSearches QuickSearches are searches on your items that you can save persistently When you click ona QuickSearch in the QuickSet panel the data grid displays all the items that pass the filter expression of that QuickSearch QuickSearches are live if an item changes the QuickSearch can automatically update to include the modified item Before you can create a QuickSearch you must perform a search on the data grid See Searching for items on page 48 After you define a search a temporary search item named Search in italics
29. of content that should be played across all the sites as well You can use playlists to optimize your schedules so you can manage a large number of channels across a large number of players but still easily add content to the entire set or a subset of channels 114 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Playlists For example if you are using CoolSign for a national advertising network you may have national content that needs to play across your entire network regional content that only plays on the West Coast and specific content that plays at each site By using merged playlists you can build up channels for each player or site that can contain both the player specific content items as well as a National and or Regional merged playlist you have defined By scheduling the National playlist into every channel used by every player you can now quickly add or remove scheduled items from every player by just editing the National Playlist once Sample localized channels using merged playlists San Francisco Channel Los Angeles Channel New York Channel National Playlist merged West Coast Playlist merged East Coast Playlist merged SF only Content 1 LA only Content 1 NY only Content 1 SF only Content 2 LA only Content 2 etc etc etc Synchronizing channels You use synchronize two or more channels in independent regions or outputs on a single Player Node so that the timelines of
30. playback order type is Play One all items in the playlist must have the same duration e Ifan item contains dynamic content the dynamic content must be bound to a non empty data source 2 In the Channel Properties dialog page 83 select the Advanced tab 24 Synch Channel L Channels channel synch channel General Advanced Players QuickSets Security Advanced Playback Settings Wait for all items to transfer before playing this channel 3 Set the synchronization type Frame Based Apply frame based synchronization to video content See page 107 Schedule Based Do not apply frame based synchronization to video content Select this type if your machine cannot support the speed required for frame based synchronization Note For synchronized channels that were defined with CoolSign Manager v4 0 you must explicitly specify frame based synchronization in the Channel Properties dialog Otherwise players will by default apply schedule based synchronization to the video content on those channels CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 103 Synchronizing channels To compare synchronized channels 1 Create at least two synchronized channels as described above 2 Right click on a synchronized channel then select Compare Synchronized Channels from the popup menu File Edit Views Tools Actions Help Name Channeli L C Landscape 50 Weighted Channel Back to Bac
31. player directly from the Content Properties dialog To preview content In the Content Properties dialog click the Preview Content button CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 65 Viewing information about content Note When you first preview a content item the asset files required for that content are transferred from the CoolSign Network Controller and cached in a temporary folder in your CoolSign Manager installation directory WARNING Content preview is only supported on PCs that meet the minimum requirements for a CoolSign player Older PCs or unsupported video cards may not be capable of content previewing Setting the thumbnail image for content You can set the thumbnail image displayed in the Content Manager grid and in the Content Properties dialog when you are previewing the content To set the thumbnail for content 1 In the Content Properties dialog click the Preview Content button 2 Use the preview content transport controls to pause the preview on the frame you want to use for your thumbnail You can use the frame advance and rewind buttons to fine tune the frame to use 3 Click the Set Thumbnail to Current Frame button Adding comments to content You can add comments to any content item if you want to track additional information about the content When you add a comment the user who entered the comment and a timestamp will be automatically added To add a comment Click the Add button benea
32. return GetAttribute Language GetContentAttribute Language Site Properties is another source that can be evaluated and can be setup much the same way as the Player attribute Language expression previously mentioned Schedule Properties Dynamic Data Enabling Expression Only play if Parameter 1 Source Site Properties Field ZipCode Name Addressi Address2 City State Source Value Value der Country Note that in this case the Picklist values have been automatically populated Condition Equals in Parameter 2 To clear an enabling expression Click the Clear Expression on the Enabling Expression tab Determining when a channel can start playing When you tune a player to a new channel CoolSign automatically starts transferring the content required by the channel down to the player Depending on the speed of your network and the number and size of the content files required for the channel this can take anywhere from a few seconds to hours For each channel you can decide if you want the player to start playing items in the channel as soon as they are available or if you want the player to continue playing the current channel or black if there is no channel until all the items have transferred To mark a channel to wait for all items before playing On the Channel Properties dialog page 83 check Wait for all items before play
33. tables __ DataWatcher Manager Optional You can install the Data Watcher to provide a FI bridge between a data source and a CoolSign network The Data Watcher can read data from various types of data sources parse that data and then import it into a CoolSign data table Channel Manager Channels are the master schedules that you tune your players to You can use the Channel Manager to create new channels and schedule content or playlists into channels Once a channel is created you can then use the Player Manager to tune players to your channel so they start playing the scheduled content Playlist Manager Playlists are specialized sub schedules that you can insert into channels Playlists provide extensive flexibility in how you create your schedules You can use the Playlist Manager to create edit or delete playlists and to schedule content within the playlists Player Manager Players are the nodes in your network that play back content ona WO display device The Player Manager provides functionality to manage your players including the ability to remotely configure players divide a player into multiple regions tune a player to a channel and review the play history for a player CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 41 Network Manager Lets you see every node of your network and manage technical M properties like software versions bandwidth control and configuration Primarily intended for technica
34. the channel 88 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Channels 2 In the Scheduled Item Properties dialog select Recurring from the Scheduled Type box Schedule Properties Dynamic Data Enabling Expression Scheduled Item Scheduled Type Recurring X F Disable this schedule item From playing Schedule Item Properties Repeat every 0 hours 10 i minutes and 0 seconds Interrupt playing content 12am lam 2am 3am 4am Sam 6am 7am Sam Jam 10am 11am 12pm ipm 2pm 3pm 4pm Spm Spm 7pm Som 9pm 10pm11pm 12am Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday th Base Schedule p Ovenide Options 0 se 3 Define how often you want the scheduled item to repeat by setting the hours and minutes values Note A recurring item will play after each repeat interval starting at midnight If you want to offset when the recurring item plays use the schedule grid to change the time when the item becomes active For example if you want an item to play every hour on the half hour you would set the repeat interval to 1 hour and modify the schedule so that the item becomes active at 12 30am 4 If you want the scheduled item to play exactly at the defined recurring interval even if that would require interrupting content that is currently playing check Interrupt play
35. the playlists and content pieces play at the same rate For details see Synchronizing channels on page 103 CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 115 Synchronizing channels 116 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Players 10 Managing Players The Players page of CoolSign Manager lets you view all the CoolSign players connected to your network You can do any of the following on the Players page e Tune a player to a channel Review both detailed and rollup play history for a player Set a schedule for the volume level of a player Remotely configure the player including defining multiple regions and display control View the current status of both the player and any displays connected to the player View the current content that is now playing on the player Organize the players by geographic distribution using the Sites panel Create QuickSets and QuickSearches to filter which players are visible in the grid Force content to play immediately on the player About players and channels CoolSign uses a channel metaphor for scheduling content to play back on your players You create channels and then program content and playlists within each channel Once your channels are designed you can then tune players to that channel Once you tune a player to a channel CoolSign automatically takes care of everything required to distribute the content playlists and
36. type is FadeToBG Cut or CrossFade the color property is ignored Note If you are using frame based synchronization page 107 you cannot cross fade content Instead choose the Fade or FadeToBG transition type Transition Length Use to set the number of seconds in which the transition will occur Setting Content Resize settings In the Content Properties dialog you use the Content Resize settings to define how the content should be displayed on players The options are as follows Scale content to fit Scales content to fit the resolution of the player the content is scheduled on If the aspect ratio of the player does not match the content s aspect ratio the content is stretched non linearly to fill the player unless Preserve Aspect Ratio is checked Preserve aspect ratio Forces scaled content to preserve its original aspect ratio when played on players with different resolutions and aspect ratios than that of the content The behavior of this checkbox is further defined by the following radio buttons Crop edges of content When scaling to fit the content is scaled linearly until the smaller of the content s width or height matches the smaller of the player s width or height This may result in pixels being cropped off the edge of the player Letterbox content When scaling to fit the content is scaled linearly until the larger of the content s width or height fits into the player s width or height The empty area th
37. with the schedule grid The scheduling grid provides a powerful interface that can be easily used for most common scheduling while also providing advanced features that allow you to build very complex schedules quickly All scheduling grids share the same interface save for a context sensitive popup menu that allows you to schedule the specific values available to the property you are scheduling 12am jam 2am 3am 4am Sam 6am Fam Bam Jam 10am ilam i2pm ipm 2pm 3pm 4pm Spm Spm 7pm Spm Spm 10pm Lipm Lam Every Sun sea L Every Mon CEE i j at Every Tue ess oe ye 1 Every Wed aS 5 PESSE Volume 100 Every Thu wg 3 a ee mnt Every Fri Faaa Every Sat PTT d 3 EE ME nies sa Depending on what you are scheduling the colors of cells indicate different values for the property For properties like volume and bandwidth limiting each cell visually displays the percentage level of a value as shown above By default clicking a cell or dragging across cells toggles the cell value between the minimum or off value and the maximum or on value Right clicking on a cell or right click dragging across cells displays a context sensitive popup menu to enable you to set any additional value available to that property Setting a cell value in the grid Eac
38. you how many items display a context sensitive coolsign_duck_dynamic 640x480 Landscape other useful information DIOS MSAGA Landscape 3 The data grid shows the avail the item l you have selected in the data grid plus A popup menu of actions for network able items for each specific man ager 4 m d P coolsign duck everybody pi 640x480 CI Landscape 1 of 64 selected Total selected content uses 825 KB 42 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Using CoolSign Manager About the data grid The most important element in each manager is the data grid The data grid displays the items available in your network in a grid like table of rows and columns The data grid is a powerful tool that can be used to organize and customize what information you see about each of the objects in your network Working with items in the data grid Each manager page s data grid lists all the available items of the specific type managed by that page You can use the data grid to select one or more items and then perform context sensitive actions on them Selecting items in the data grid Before you can perform an action on an item you must select it in the data grid The selected items in a data grid are highlighted in blue To select an item Do one of the following e Click the item in the data grid Use the up and down arrow keys to change the current selected
39. 254 Understanding Region Status 255 Understanding display status 256 Troubleshooting display errors nes 257 Reviewing audit history for an iteM sscssessescssececssscssecseecsscessecseecscesseeseecneeeseessees 257 CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 15 16 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC UBC DIGITAL SIGNAGE ACCESS and AUTHENTICATION FOR ADMINISTRATORS Digital signage administrators will have access to schedule and manage content for display During the installation and configuration phase for units i e Faculty Departments Schools Clubs etc designated administrator will have the required client application software installed and configured installed on their PCs Currently the Digital Signage service is based on the CoolSign software The following two steps are required in order to access the digital signage service for administrators e Establishing proper network connectivity e Logging into the CoolSign Network Manager Application CNM NETWORK CONNECTIVITY e Start the Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client Enter the following credentials Connect to myvpn ubc ca Username CWL ID esignage prod Password your CWL password LOGGING INTO COOLSIGN Administrators can choose to either log in by providing an ID and password each time or to have the CNM application use the Windows EAD authentication token provided when the user logged into the Windows EAD domain and auto
40. 7 Searching for items Resetting and restoring default views CoolSign provides predefined default views for each of the manager pages If you modify or delete these views you can reset or restore them back to their default settings using the Manage Views dialog To reset a view back to its default settings 1 From the Manage Views dialog select the view to reset 2 Click Reset View Note You can only reset predefined default views created by CoolSign User created views cannot be reset To restore deleted default views From the Manage Views dialog click Restore Default Views Searching for items You can filter which items are displayed in a data grid by using the Search dialog E Search F Show Advanced Search Define search criteria Field Condition Name Like F Show Internal Fields Cancel To search for items 1 To display the search dialog do one of the following Choose Tools gt Search e Right click in the QuickBar and choose New Search Type Ctrl F 2 Define the search criteria using the Field Condition and Value controls 3 To create a search expression that contains multiple criteria check the Show Advanced Search box 4 Click Find The results of your search are displayed in the data grid and a temporary Search item is created in the QuickSets panel 48 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Using CoolSign Manager Note Tem
41. CoolSign Manager User Guide COOLSIGN Copyright Copyright 2006 2010 All rights reserved Contents of this publication may not be reproduced in any form without permission of CS Software Holdings LLC If this guide is distributed with software that includes an end user agreement this guide as well as the software described in it is furnished under license and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such license Except as permitted by any such license no part of this guide may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of CS Software Holdings LLC Please note that the content in this guide is protected under copyright law even if it is not distributed with software that includes an end user license agreement Disclaimer The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice CS Software Holdings LLC makes no warranty of any kind with regard to this material While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this manual CS Software Holdings LLC shall not be liable for errors or omissions contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing performance or use of this material Please remember that existing artwork or images or video that you may want to play back on your network may be protected under copyright law T
42. ET T ESES Nee E TO ETEEN 48 Using the OHICKBARE ER se A E EAEE AA E tonic 49 About the QuickSet panel 49 Using OUICRSERS Rs ne aE a AERAN 49 Using QuickSear hesss ua anneau 50 Organizing QuickSets and QuickSearches ss 51 Printing and exporting data sise 52 4 About Content Whatis CoolSign Content aan dancin ramentenipumiaie 53 4 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Cheating CoolSign COntent essssssessseesessssssseeseeessessssssesstessessnsssesstecseeosossssssosseeesresssssesse 53 CoolSign Content Wizard ssssssssesseeesssssssssossceeseesssssssseocseessssssssseeseersresssssseseeesees 53 Supportedifile formats 54 Using digital video in COOISIQN rene 55 MPEG ne mas 55 MPEG sn nn na ne en nent O aE E REN 55 Windows Media 9 28 ni mnnennn nee 56 Using Flash in Cool Sign nn ae 56 Using bitmaps in CoolSignssssssenssmtan nantais 56 Using PowerPoint in COOISIGN nee 57 5 Managing Content Working with contents ihadas 59 Updating CON T L RANGER AN ANR ur ne 60 EXPOTtING CONTEN RS Mn Rennes nn 60 Deleting CON ENTER tenta 60 Using the Content Properties dialogue 61 Editing content properties nine 61 Setting Content RESIZE settings 63 Setting content activation and expiration sssssssseseseessssssssseesceessesssssseseeesees 64 Pr iewingEbntentssssnn es rennes 65 Setting the thumbnail image for content 66 Adding comments to CONTENT nn 66 Viewing information
43. For this reason expired scheduled items are not automatically deleted from a channel until 24 hours after the expiration date to ensure that the content continues to play in all timezones until the local expiration date is passed Tip Activation and expiration dates for scheduled items are applied to the current channel only If you want to globally activate or expire content everywhere that it is scheduled you can set Content Activation and Expiration dates from the Content Properties dialog To set the activation date of a scheduled item 1 Click the Activates At radio button 2 Click the Activation Date Editor drop down to edit the activation date at which the item can start playing To set a scheduled item to be active now e Click the Activates Now radio button 92 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Channels To set the expiration date of a scheduled item 1 Click the Expires At radio button 2 Click the Expiration Date Editor drop down to edit the expiration date at which the item should stop playing To set a scheduled item to never expire e Click the Expires Never radio button Using enabling expressions Enabling expressions can be used to dynamically control when a player s content plays and under what conditions it plays With this release you can now use enabling expressions to tie into dynamic Data Tables Player Attributes formerly Node Attributes Content Attribut
44. O 7 Player Lifecycle Management sante 118 Active MO en Re se caine chee els 118 Stadin Mod esanetan e e a e 118 Retired Mode sen nn Sr n a A ARa 118 Virtual Pla Vers e ae Ee E AAE 118 Replicating Players sun ea nine 119 Migrating a Player s Identity sn 119 About the Player Properties dialog nn 119 Tuning a player to a channel ass msn 120 Reviewing a channel before tuning 120 Viewing transfer status of items to a player 120 Viewing the status of scheduled items on a player 121 Viewing channel synchronization status 122 Modifying HAnT lSssR SR soe neon nie ectaadaneasenes 122 Creating a new Channel nee 122 Editing the currently tuned channel sn 122 Viewing play 0 10 ER ONU SE 123 Viewing play summaries for a player 123 Viewing detailed play logs for a player 123 Printing and exporting 10g5 nn 123 Controlling player dVolimMes s san nent 124 Overriding channels ananas 125 Overriding dynamic data settings csscssscsscssccssecssecseccssecseesseceseeeseesseesseese 127 Playing content on demand Play Content NOW 127 11 Managing Sites ADOUL SR SNA ee En Sn ct E An NN nn 129 Working with players and Sites cssssssssscssecseccssecssecssccseessecsucceseeseecsecesseeseecneceseeseees 130 Viewing all the players within a site 131 Changing the sites panel view 131 Creating a NeW SITS Leman nn nine 131 8 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC
45. Sign Manager 3 Using CoolSign Manager CoolSign Manager is designed to provide easy yet customizable access to all the information and data you need to manage a digital signage network With CoolSign Manager you can import content create channels and playlists tune players and monitor network transfers and status CoolSign Manager is organized into different screens that allow you to view and manage different areas of your network _ Home Manager Provides a high level dashboard where you can quickly get a picture of the overall status and health of your network Important alerts that may require your attention or management are displayed in the Alerts grid on the Home Manager along with a log of all major actions that have been performed with CoolSign Manager Content Manager Lets you view the entire repository of content available on your Aa CoolSign network You can import new content modify numerous content properties that affect how the content is played back retrieve the play history for content and more Audio Manager Similar to the Content Manager but specialized for managing audio FA content only You can import MP3 files directly into the Audio Manager without needing to run them through Content Wizard DataTable Manager CoolSign uses data tables to provide dynamic data to content Es and scheduling expressions With the DataTable Manager you can manually create new data tables or input data into existing data
46. Sign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Content Resolution Displays the pixel height and width at which the content was authored Size Displays the total size of the content including all its assets Duration Use this property to adjust the length of time for which the content plays If the content includes video or flash assets setting the duration to less than the video duration will cut off the video playing Setting the duration to longer than a video asset s duration will cause the video to hold on the last frame for the remainder of the content play Volume Gain Use volume gain to modify the overall volume level of all video flash or sound assets used in the content The value can be between 100 and 100 with 0 being the normal unmodified volume level of the assets Note You can adjust the overall volume of player from the Player Properties dialog You only need to adjust the volume gain if you want to normalize the volume of a content item relative to the other content WARNING You can only control the volume of SWF files that are version 8 or older With SWF version 9 files it is not possible to control the player volume from CoolSign Transition Allows you to set the effect that is used to transition from the previously playing content into the selected content In general transitions first change to the transition color and then into the next content item If the transition
47. Using CoolSign Manager To toggle the group box e Right click on any column header and choose Toggle Group By Box To clear all groupings e Right click on any column header and choose Clear Groupings Resizing columns You can resize the visible columns to better fit the data displayed in the column You can also lock the width of a column so that it doesn t resize when you resize the entire CoolSign window Tip Column widths are saved with a view s state To resize a column Do one of the following e Click and drag on the column border to manually resize the column e Right click on the column header and choose Best Fit The column will be resized to best fit the data visible in the column Tip To tell the grid to resize all the visible columns to best fit the data hold down the Ctrl key while choosing Best Fit To lock a column width Right click on the column header and choose Lock Column Width The column will no longer resize automatically when the window is resized Changing which columns are visible You can add or remove columns from the data grid if you want to include different pieces of information in your view Tip Visible columns are saved with a view s state CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 45 Changing the data grid layout To add columns to a data grid 1 Right click on any column header and choose Choose Columns to show the Choose Col umns toolbox Choose Columns
48. You can change the order in which the visible columns are displayed to better organize your data Tip Column ordering is saved with a view s state To reorder a column Click on the column header and drag the column left or right to reposition it Managing views In addition to the predefined views that CoolSign Manager provides for each manager page you can add additional views to further customize how you work with items The Manage Views dialog allows you to create new views edit and delete existing views import or export views and reset views to their default state To add a new view 1 Choose Views gt Manage Views to display the Manage Views dialog 2 Click New 3 Enter a name for the view 4 Choose columns for your view See Changing which columns are visible on page 45 To rename a view 1 From the Manage Views dialog click Rename 2 Enter a new name for the view 3 Click OK To delete a view From the Manage Views dialog click Delete Importing and exporting views You can export views to a special CoolSign View File format cvw so that you can transfer them between different CoolSign networks To export a view to a CoolSign View file From the Manage Views dialog click Export and enter a name to save your view To import a CoolSign View file From the Manage Views dialog click Import and choose a view file using the open file dialog CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 4
49. a tab For more information see Overriding dynamic data settings on page 127 7 Click OK to add the scheduled item to the channel Setting the in rotation playback order To determine the order in which in rotation scheduled items should play back within a channel you can choose one of the following playback algorithms In Order The default picker used for a new channel Any active in rotation items are played back in the order they appear in the Channel grid Note You can reorder scheduled items in the channel grid by clicking and dragging the item to a new position CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 87 Adding items to a channel Shuffled Randomly shuffles all the in rotation scheduled items and plays them back in the random order All the items will play back before the list is shuffled again This algorithm ensures that the same scheduled item never plays back to back Weighted Frequency Uses a frequency value assigned to each scheduled item to determine which item should play next Items with higher frequency will play more often than items with a lower frequency The frequency value for a scheduled item represents its relative frequency when compared with other items in the channel Tip Due to the randomness inherent in the weighted frequency picker it is impossible to predict exactly how often an item will play but you can view an approximate estimate on the Scheduled Items Properties dialog Note W
50. about content 66 Viewing the assets used within content 66 Viewing where content is scheduled 67 Viewing the status of scheduled content ss 67 Retrieving play history for content 68 Using the Attributes tab 69 Working with dynamic content 71 About the Dynamic Data tab nine 71 CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 5 Binding dynamic content to a data table 72 Setting static bindings sion a ian 73 Enabling data slot logging sise 73 6 Managing Audio Creating AUTH Gi contents dam nn Ra ME 75 Editing audio content properties nn 76 Viewing information about audio content 77 Scheduling and playing audio content sense 77 7 About Scheduling POUT CARINE S asierea RS nr 79 POUT Lay SUS SES Mt men tente 80 8 Managing Channels Working with channels nee 81 About the Channel Properties dialog ss 83 Adding items to a channel sssssesssssseesssssccssssscssecseessscscsssssscssecsucsusssecsuceaceascsscesseseeens 83 About scheduledit ems ssussnennunennnsnnenans 85 Adding anin rotation scheduled item 86 Setting the in rotation playback order 87 Adding a recurring scheduled item ss 88 Adding a timed scheduled item 89 Adding a triggered scheduled item 90 Adding a Merged scheduled item 91 Setting advanced schedule item properties 92 Setting scheduled item activation and expiration dates esecseeceeeees 92 Using enabling expressions 93 Determining when a channel can st
51. aging views on page 47 To change the data grid view Use the view combobox to select the view you wish to use Sorting columns You can sort the items visible in the data grid by one or more columns You can add additional columns to the current sort by holding down the shift key while sorting Tip The currently sorted columns are saved with the view s state To sort a column To toggle between ascending and descending sort order click on the header of the column you want to sort by Grouping columns You can group the items visible in the data grid by one or more columns This content grid is Name Durat Resolution TotalFile Schedule Summary Activation Date Expir Version location grouped by the for 7 Format CI Landscape mat column Stock Ticker 5 2px 01 00 1280x70 158 KB Now Never 2 Stock Ticker 4 01 00 1280x70 191 KB Now Never 13 sanya_trackandfield_jpeg FFDSHOW 0 30 1920x1080 244 03 MB 1 untuned channel Now Never 2 capture_composite_30secs_102 768 0 30 1024x768 2 KB 1 untuned channel Now Never 7 Case 5613 v2 0 05 1024x768 23 KB Now Never 3 Tip The currently grouped columns and the group by box toggle state are saved with a view s state To group by a column Do one of the following e Right click on the column header and choose Group By This Column Drag a column into the Group By Box 44 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC
52. amp Content that has been disabled by checking the Disable this scheduled item from playing on the Scheduled Item Properties dialog s Indicates a scheduled item for which an enabling expression has been set Setting activation and expiration dates from the channel grid You can set the activation and expiration date for a scheduled item without opening its Scheduled Item Properties dialog To do so the date directly in the grid To edit a scheduled item s activation or expiration date 1 Click the activation or expiration date in the Channels grid 2 Select a new date and time to use for activation or expiration or click Activates Now or Expires Never to remove the activation or expiration date Note If the scheduled content has an activation or expiration date set from the Content Properties dialog the activation and expiration dates will appear in red A content item s activation and expiration dates always take precedent over a scheduled item s You cannot set the scheduled item s activation or expiration date outside the range defined by the content but you can set it later or earlier Editing content properties You can open the Content Properties dialog for any content scheduled in your channel if you want to quickly view or edit settings for the content To edit content properties for a scheduled content item e Right click on the scheduled item and choose Edit Content Properties Showing content thumbnails You can
53. any other use Additional information including that relating to promotional internal and commercial uses and licensing may be obtained from MPEG LA LLC See http www mpegla com Software Release This documentation applies to release 4 5 of the CoolSign software Later software releases are intended to be backward compatible but may introduce new functionality not addressed in this document Other CoolSign documentation may describe functionality not addressed in this document that will become available with later software releases Please consult with CS Software Holdings LLC or its authorized representatives to ensure compatibility Revision Date September 2010 2 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Contents 1 Introduction Player Lifecycle MA ag mMment sssniassenis dansante 17 Multi Language SUPPOSE Ra Se 18 M lti Tena N ennnen eeii eieaa nd en UT 18 Conduit Device Control SUpport nee 18 Redesigned Enabling Expressions Feature sn 18 Peripherally Changed Items rennes 19 Support for Digital Frames and Embedded Players 19 Application Programming Interface API ins 19 Billboard Planet INtEQraliON rcsisestnundauncesannmarsnsnatinnmearerumanmnacniiens 19 Custom Branding of the GUI Experience nine 20 Audience Measurement With Tru Medi ia uu ssssssssescseecsnseesseccnseessecenseesnscesseecnneesseeene 20 New Operating SYSTEMS inside nent 20 PICK IISES uen unes unanime runs 20 2 Gett
54. art playing seesssessescssecssesseccseecsecsuecsseeseecses 96 Working with the channel grid ss 97 6 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Using scheduled item collapsible areas 97 Understanding the channel grid 98 Setting activation and expiration dates from the channel grid 98 Editing content properties nine 98 Showing content thumbnails ss 98 Working with the timeline view 99 Understanding the timeline ss 99 Selecting the displayed weeks nn 99 Viewing the loop duration 101 Cutting copying and pasting scheduled items cessssccsessecsseecseesecssceneeeseecees 102 Overriding playlist scheduled items nn 102 Reviewing where a channel is Used nn 102 Synchronizing channe Siisera nent 103 Viewing synchronized playlists 106 Using the right click popup menu 107 Frame based synchronization nee 107 Multi player frame based synchronization s sssesseseeseeseessessessessessessessesses 108 9 Managing Playlists Working with playlists seins ne ean eaves 111 About the Playlist Properties dialog sn 112 Adding items to a playlist saisine 113 Scheduling a playlist in a channel nes 113 Determining how a playlist plays 113 Aboutmerded playlists nn terne 114 Localizing Sch dulesss ss ne 114 SneRron Ang hassan nent 115 10 Managing Players About players and channels rennes 117 CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide
55. at remains will be black CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 63 Using the Content Properties dialog The following images show how a 320x240 MPEG 1 displayed on a 848x480 plasma screen would appear with the different available content resize settings Content Resize Settings When aspect ratio does not match display Content Resize Settings Scale content to fit display Preserve aspectratio whenscaling When aspect ratio does not match display Content Resize Settings J Scale content to fit display J Preserve aspectratio whenscaling When aspect ratio does not match display Crop edges of content P Letterbox content Content Resize Settings Scale content to fit display J Preserve aspectratio whenscaling When aspect ratio does not match display s of content Tip As a general rule you should turn on Scale content to fit display and turn off Preserve aspect ratio This ensures that the content always fills the screen regardless of the resolution and aspect ratio of the display device you are using Setting content activation and expiration You can use the content activation and expiration properties to globally control when content is enabled to play across all of your channels and players 64 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Content Content Activation You can use content activation to set a date and time when the content should be enab
56. at each site this is not always the case For example if your site only has a single player deployed at a site it wouldn t be necessary to also have a transfer server but you would still want to represent the site for that player Furthermore transfer servers are often used to improve scalability in the NOC or regional locations and therefore don t always represent a physical site CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 129 Working with players and sites Sites are actually very similar to QuickSets with the following differences Sites are only available for players and network nodes Each node in a network can only belong to a single site You can assign metadata to a site so that you can track business related information Sites can be viewed in a special geographic tree view Working with players and sites Sites are available to help you organize how you view the players in your CoolSign network You can organize your players into different sites and then use the site s quickbar to quickly view all the players within a site or geographic region To view the sites quickbar for players 1 Open the Players page by clicking the Players icon in the navigation bar 2 By default the sites quickbar should be visible to the left of the players grid If the quickbar is not visible choose Views gt Quickbar to make it visible If the sites panel is not visible click the sites button in the quickbar 28 Coolsign Ne
57. cMasterlP CoolSign uses an internal election algorithm to determine which computer serves as master for purposes of time synchronization Of course all computers in the systems must be running content that is compatible so that channels can be synchronized properly If you want to manually configure the system to ensure that a particular computer is master set the TimeSyncMasterlP value on the master computer to its own IP address On all other computers set this value to the IP address of the time synchronization master TimeSyncPort If you want to run multiple synchronization groups in a single room you can specify a unique UDP time synchronization port for each group This allows you to prevent anomalies that might result from incompatible channels attempting to synchronize For example you might have one group of players that are synchronizing channels A and B and a second group that is synchronizing channels C and D To synchronize these groups independently you can set the TimeSyncPort value for all computers in the two groups to 14877 and 14879 respectively To avoid potential conflicts with other settings we recommend that you select a TimeSyncPort value of 10000 or greater TimeSyncSingleBox lf you want to explicitly remove a machine from multi player frame synchronization you can set TimeSyncSingleBox to True the default For example you might do this for a single computer that has frame based synchronization channel
58. chedule volume control To edit the properties of a player Do one of the following Double click on the player in the grid Select one or more players and choose Actions gt Edit Player Properties or right click and choose Edit Player Properties Player 1 Players opti745 Channel Play Logs QuickSets Sound Control Format CI Landscape Status Ok Tune to Channel Channels Static Pixel DynamicData lk New Channel i m Edit Channel Y In rotation items 2 items Playback order Name Time Index Starts Stops Status an PlayList of 3 sec Static Content 103 Play 1st Now Never Ok High End Houses 6 PlayList of Dynamic Data using P 10 Play 2nd Now Never Ok State of the Art Flat ae ms gt Recurring items 0 items Timed items 0 items gt Triggered items 0 items before playing this chaning Total channel disk size 8 04 MB Now Playing High End House Listings l Apply Changes 1 OK Cancel 1 CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 119 Tuning a player to a channel Tuning a player to a channel You can use the Player Properties dialog to tune a player to the channel it should use to play back content The Player Properties dialog displays the currently tuned channel using the same grid as appears on the Channel Properties dialog For more information on working with channels and the channel schedule grid see About S
59. cheduling on page 79 To tune a player to a channel 1 Select a new channel from the Tune to Channel combobox The channel grid is updated to reflect the new channel 2 Click OK or Apply Changes Any needed files will immediately begin transferring to the player Note To tune multiple players to the same channel at the same time select multiple players before opening the Player Properties dialog Reviewing a channel before tuning Before you commit to tuning a player to a channel you can see what the channel contains as well as which content items in the channel will need to be transferred to the player before they can play The status of each item in the proposed schedule can be either of the following available Available The content item is already available on the local player hard disk and will not require any transfer to play Transfer required 345KB Transfer required The content must be transferred to the player before this item can be played If the channel is marked as Wait for all items before playing the player will not switch to the new channel until all needed content has been transferred to the player Note All content in a tuned channel will be transferred to a player regardless whether it is currently active or pending activation due to the setting of a future activation date on the content or schedule item This feature allows you to stage content on the player at the time you tune it s
60. cted in all displayed instances of the content within the Synchronization Status dialog Frame based synchronization CoolSign applies frame based synchronization to video content In this way you can combine multiple displays to create video walls that hand off content cleanly from one display to the next Note Frame based synchronization is only available for video content You cannot apply this to audio or to other frame based assets such as Flash If any of your content elements are Flash they won t be synchronized frame by frame CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 107 Synchronizing channels Note the following limitations You can only apply frame based synchronization to videos that are playing on the same machine Video cards are limited to four heads With frame based synchronization you cannot cross fade content You must select an alternate transition type page 63 If you synchronize a schedule CoolSign Manager will frame synchronize the video Multi player frame based synchronization In order for multi player frame synchronization to work successfully all machines must be able to communicate through UDP broadcast The master time server sends UDP pulses to other machines You can override default settings to control multi player synchronization explicitly In the Configure Advanced Properties dialog page 222 select the Software Configuration tab and open the AdPlayer settings TimeSyn
61. d and back Ee Clear All Overrides ye ees week selector buttons to Jump to Override Base Schedule navigate Enabling Expression 3 Reset Schedule Week of Mar 23 2008 Use the week selector to jump toa week Use the Override menu to clear over rides or jump to an existing overridden week To select a week to override 1 Click the week selector box to display the datetime editor A Week of 3 19 2006 Y Overtide Options 0 set w 4 March 2006 L 26 27 28 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 2 22 23 24 26 27 28 29 30 31 3 4 5 6 7 Show Base Schedule 2 Use the month arrows to change the displayed month 3 Click Today to jump to the current date 4 Click Show Base Schedule to return to the base recurring schedule 5 Click a day to select a week to override To navigate through weeks e Click the Forward or Back week selector buttons to move one week forward or back from the current week To override the schedule for a week 1 Edit the schedule for an overridden week using the same tools available for editing the recurring week as described above CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 233 Overriding the recurring schedule 2 The overridden week is labeled as Overridden Week Iam Jam 2am 3am 4am Sam 6am 7am 8am Jam 10am 11am 12pm ipm 2pm 3p
62. d on these days The following colors and patterns are used to indicate the active state of an item Solid blue lndicates that the schedule item is active during the displayed days for the entire day White Indicates that the item is not active on this day due to an activation or expiration date on the item Blue gray pattern Represents the daypart schedule for an item Checkerboard Indicates that a content item is not active on this day because activation or expiration dates were set on the item itself Yellow Weeks for which a scheduled item s daypart schedule has been overridden Selecting the displayed weeks By default the timeline view displays the current week along with the number of future weeks set in the View options menu You can select other weeks to view the timeline CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide Q 99 Working with the timeline view To change the visible week 1 Right click the week label to open the Week Selector Calendar lt d Week of Feb 24 2008 P LA March D 4 2008 gt SM TW TF S 9 24 25 26 27 28 29 1 2 3 4 5 67 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 2 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 BE 24 25 26 27 28 29 1 30 31 1 2 3 4 5 Today Clear 2 Select a day in the week you want to display in the timeline To navigate to the next or previous week e Click the left or right arrows to navigate to the previous or next week To change
63. defining virtual player nodes replicating the profile of an existing player to one or more additional players and migrating a player s identity to replace another player s existing profile For details see section The life cycle of a CoolSign player on page 178 of the Coolsign Manager User Guide Active Mode By default all CoolSign players are in active mode You can use CoolSign Manager to reassign a player to either staging or retired mode Staging Mode During pre production you can place a player node into staging mode to ensure that it is properly configured before you put it into service In staging mode the node s functionality is similar to that of an active node but with several differences a staging mode does not contribute to network status calculations generate alerts or generate event logs in the Node Properties dialog or play logs in the Player Properties dialog Retired Mode If you need to decommission a player that is put it offline permanently you can place the player into retired mode In retired mode you can retrieve play logs or add comments but you can no longer use the player to display CoolSign content modify the logs or perform other actions You cannot retire a node that is online you must first take it offline and only then can you retire the node Retiring a player is permanent Once you place a player into retired mode you cannot subsequently activate it again Virtual Player
64. dio only content If you plan to use CoolSign to drive an audio only player or create a special audio region on a player you can use the Audio page to import and manage audio content The Audio page lets you organize your audio content using the more intuitive categories of Artist Title and Album instead of a single content name Creating audio content Unlike standard visual content you can create the audio content by importing supported audio files directly into the CoolSign Manager Audio page without needing to run them through the CoolSign Content Wizard or other tools When importing an audio file CoolSign Manager reads the MP3 ID3 tags embedded in the file and uses them to create the audio content in CoolSign Note The Audio manager currently only supports MP3 files with ID3v1 tags Certain applications notably iTunes only apply IDv2 tags requiring you to use a third party application to set the ID3v1 on the file 8 Coolsign ork CoolSign Manager 4 5 File Edit Views Tools Actions Help Ay Type here to search home F quicksets Artist Title Album Release Year Duration Total File Size Name comen 3 Alanis Morissette Uninvited MTY Unplugged 1999 00 04 37 6 34 MB 00 uninvited Alanis Morissette You Learn MTY Unplugged 1999 00 04 22 5 99 MB 00 you learn Alanis Morissette You Oughta Know MTY Unplugged 1999 00 05 01 6 90 MB 00 you ough Sal Elissa Bastannak Bastannak 00 03 57 5 43 MB 01 bastanna a 3 Doors Down Ri
65. e 85 6 Click OK 84 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Channels About scheduled items You can use the Scheduled Item Properties dialog to define how an item will be played back in a channel set advanced properties including activation expiration date and enabling expression and to override dynamic data bindings for that scheduled instance 82 Add items to Default Channel born on this date Schedule Properties Dynamic Data Enabling Expression Scheduled Item Born on this date L Scheduled Type 8 InRotation Disable this schedule item from playing Schedule Item Properties Frequency Ss This item will play approximately 10 times per hour 12am Lam 2am 3am 4am Sam 6am 7am Sam Yam 10am 11am 12pm ipm 2pm 3pm 4pm Spm Spm 7pm Spm Spm 10pm 1ipm 12am Sunday Monday EEE Tuesday ae Wednesday Thursday ET HAEE Friday Saturday HE dl Ease Schedule il Ovenide Options 0 se Advanced Properties Activates Now at Expires O Never At There are five ways that scheduled items can be played within a channel In rotation page 86 This is the most common way to schedule content or playlists in a channel A channel repeatedly plays its in rotation items unless one of the specialized schedule items described below takes precedence You can choose the order in which in ro
66. e Holdings LLC Managing Channels About the Channel Properties dialog You can use the Channel Properties dialog to modify the properties of a channel and to manage the scheduled items programmed to play when a player is tuned to that channel The Channel Properties dialog contains a collapsible schedule grid that lets you organize how your scheduled item will play and visualize the schedule Channel2 Entertainment Feed otatic Content channel L channel channel2 entertainment feed static con General Advanced Players QuickSets Security Name Channel2 Entertainment Feed Static Content Scheduled Items In rotation items 2 items Playback order In Order Week of September 05 2010 gt Week of September 12 2010 Options Y Name Time Index Starts Stops su Mo w We Th Fr Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa eo On The News Today Landscape 08 Play 1st Now Never E Born on this date L 10 Play 1st Never E Entertanment headlines L 07 Play 2nd Never Brons of 3 sec Static Content 03 Play 2nd Never mi 03 shuffled Never 03 Shuffled Never E 2 03 Shuffled Never Recurring items 0 items Timed items 0 items Triggered items 0 items y Add in rotation item ill Edit item il Delete item Total channel disk size 468 KB Apply Changes i Adding items to a channel When you add content or playlists
67. e between 100 and 100 with 0 being the normal unmodified volume level of the assets Note You can adjust the overall volume of the player from the player properties dialog You only need to adjust the volume gain if you want to normalize the volume of a content item relative to the other content WARNING You can only control the volume of SWF files that are version 8 or older With SWF version 9 files it is not possible to control the player volume from CoolSign Activation Expiration Date You can use the activation and expiration date to set when your audio content is able to play back in any channels or playlists For more information see Setting content activation and expiration on page 64 3 Click OK or Apply Changes Viewing information about audio content You can use the QuickSets Schedule Info and Play History tabs to view or retrieve additional information about how your audio content is organized scheduled and how often it has played The use of these tabs is identical to the Content Properties dialog For more information on managing QuickSets see Using QuickSets on page 49 For more information on viewing content schedule info see Viewing where content is scheduled on page 67 For more information on retrieving content play history see To retrieve the play history for content on page 68 Scheduling and playing audio content CoolSign doesn t treat audio content any differ
68. e item Disable the item from playing Note You cannot change the base scheduled type of an item or change the activation or expiration dates 3 Click OK 126 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Players To clear an override e Right click the overridden item and choose Clear Override Overriding dynamic data settings Normally when you schedule dynamic content into a channel the content will play back using whatever data table bindings set during import of the content or from the Content Properties dialog If you want to change which dynamic data table a content item uses for a specific player or channel without needing to duplicate the entire content item you can override the bindings from the Scheduled Item Properties dialog To override data bindings at schedule time 1 Do one of the following e Right click on the scheduled item and choose Override Item Double click on the scheduled item 2 From the Scheduled Item Properties dialog click to display the Dynamic Data tab 3 If you want to override a binding select a new data table to use for this scheduled item only 4 The dynamic data tab allows you to edit the data in a data table directly from the dialog You can add or delete rows and edit data as needed Note Edits to a data table are applied globally to the data table everywhere that it is used You cannot override the values in a data table for a scheduled item yo
69. els QuickSets Security Name PlayList of Dynamic Data using Pixel Datatable Format Y In rotation items 2 items Playback order In Order September 05 2010 b gt September Optiors Y Name Time Index Starts Stops Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa E High End House Listings 10 Play 1st Now Never EAMAN un une i E Pixel House listings New L 10 Play 4th Now Never E EMA Play one item Play all itens Add in rotation item Edit item a Delete item annel disk size 7 89 MB Apply Changes Cancel Playlists are similar to channels except that they are limited to in rotation items and players cannot be tuned directly to them You can use playlists within channels to provide more flexible scheduling than you could otherwise accomplish with just a flat schedule For example you can use playlists to ensure that multiple content items always play back to back or to cycle through a set of content one at a time You can also use playlists to help manage regional or local schedules across large numbers of players and sites For example you might decide to create a National playlist and schedule it in all your channels across your CoolSign network You can then update the National playlist once and all players in your network would be updated automatically as well Playlists can be nested within other playlists for even more scheduling flexibility Playlists
70. ens 201 Adding fields to a data table 201 Editing fields in a data table 202 Changing the ordering of fields ss 203 Deleting fields from a data table 203 Editing data in a data table 204 Using the Edit Data dialog sn emule 204 Setting the order of rows in the data table ssssesssssseeessssssssssseeeseessssssssseose 205 Setting the activation expiration date Of rows 206 Importing and exporting data ss 206 Printing dat sn n A EE AE E ES 207 17 Managing Nodes FOU O DES ne ne a N ten is 209 Using the Network Topology panel 209 Creating and deleting NOdessscsanciuicauhanusanial eave aannoasns 210 Editing node properties nn dites 210 Viewing general node properties nn 211 Viewing transfers to a node 212 The life cycle of a CoolSign player nn 212 Creating virtual players nanas 213 Replicating Dla Vers ESS RS ne Mn nue 214 Migrating a player s identity 215 Managing software nana Ratio 216 Viewing installed software components 217 Importing software packages nn 217 Deleting software packages 218 Applying a software package to a node nn 218 About software inheritance rene 219 Restarting software COMPONENTS ner 219 Rebooting a COOISIGN node nr 219 12 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC About AtTTIDUTCS vo a A n A ARAARA 220 Defining attribute Sn 2 4 a A ER 220 Setting attribute values ssssssssssssceeseesssssssscosseessossssssosceesrse
71. ent 1 Content C Content 2 Content A Play one item Playlist 1 Content B Content C Content 3 Content 1 etc CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 113 About merged playlists Play All Items When a playlist is set to Play All Items it will play all of its scheduled items before returning control to the parent channel or playlist Sample playback order for channel with playlist set to play all items Content 1 Content 2 PLAYLIST Play all i Playlist 1 Content A Content B Content C Content 3 Content 1 Content 2 etc About merged playlists In addition to the four standard types of scheduled items you can also schedule a playlist as merged within a channel When a playlist is merged with a channel the items within the playlist are treated just as if they were added directly to the parent channel The parent channel selects scheduled items to play using both the scheduled item added directly to the channel and the items within the merged playlist This feature allows you to manage sub sections of a channel separately and share them across multiple channels Note The playback order settings for a playlist are ignored when the playlist is scheduled as merged Localizing schedules If your network contains a large number of sites or players you may find that while each player or site has some unique content playing on it there is also a large amount
72. ent is scheduled from the Schedule Info tab of the Content Properties dialog Site Player iJ Channel Clayton Landscape 1 3 tuned players Clayton FahrenNP DuelOut 0326 Output 2 gt Region4 Clayton FahrenNP DuelOut 0326 Output 1 gt Region2 Clayton Clayton s Test Player gt Region 1 Channel CoolControl Ticker 0 tuned players Viewing the status of scheduled content To view the status of a piece of content on all players where it is scheduled select the Schedule Info tab of the Content Properties dialog Site Player Status South City Mall Downstairs Screen Ok South City Mall Front Lobby 01 ok Burlingame Office Player 1 gt Main ok CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 67 Viewing information about content Retrieving play history for content You can retrieve the play history of one or more selected content items from the Play History tab of the Content Properties dialog Play history provides a summary of the number of times a piece of content has played on each player it is scheduled over a period of time _ General Assets Schedule Info iso Userrields Quicksets Security View Log Entries from View Range Custom Range From Tuesday Feb 52008 _ 12 00 00aM Retrieve Logs To Sunday Feb 17 2008 11 59 59PM F Indude day by day breakdown F Only showlogs from during site business hours F Show 0 play Players Player Plays O Site
73. ent with the same format can be scheduled into the channel and only players with the same format can tune to the channel For example you can only schedule portrait content into a portrait channel and only portrait players can be tuned to portrait channels Note Once you add items to a channel you will no longer be able to modify its format If you need to change the format of a channel delete any scheduled items first 4 Add content items and or playlists to the channel See Adding items to a channel on page 83 5 Click OK CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 81 Working with channels To edit an existing channel 1 From the Channels page do one of the following e Select the channel and choose Actions gt Edit Channel Properties e Right click the channel and choose Edit Channel Properties Double click on the channel 2 Change any available properties or add edit or remove scheduled items in the channel See Adding items to a channel on page 83 3 Click OK or Apply Changes Any players tuned to this channel will automatically update to reflect changes made to the channel To delete a channel 1 From the Channels page do one of the following Select the channel and choose Edit gt Delete e Right click the channel and choose Delete You will be warned before attempting to delete any channels that are currently in use by a player 82 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Softwar
74. ently than standard content in how it can be scheduled transferred or played back other than the fact that audio content does not display anything visually when played All audio content is automatically created with the Audio format You cannot modify the format of audio content You can only schedule audio content into channels created with the Audio format and can only play back on players or regions set to the Audio format CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 77 Scheduling and playing audio content 78 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC About Scheduling 7 About Scheduling CoolSign Manager provides great flexibility in how you can schedule your content to appear on your CoolSign players By using CoolSign channels and playlists you can easily create schedules ranging from simple in order playback to complicated nested schedules with weighted frequency and dynamic enabling expressions About channels amp Che er General Advanced Players QuickSets Security Name Channel2 Entertainment Feed Static Content Format dsc Scheduled Items Y In rotation items 2 items Playback order In Order q Week of September 05 2010 gt Week of September 12 2010 Name Time Index Starts Stops Su Mo Ti We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th GO On The News Today Landscape 08 Play ist Now Never memes E Born on this date L 10 Play 1st Now N
75. es and Site Properties to create complex behaviors not only from a player node level but also from a site level The following sources and data tables can be used to create these behaviors Player Attributes formerly called Node Attributes Can be displayed within your views in the Content Manager and used within searches or QuickSearches For more details see About attributes on page 175 of the Coolsign Manager User Guide Content Attributes Users create their own content attributes in user fields such as language company regions store departments etc These attributes are tied to a player s content at the site level and can be used to track additional data about each site that is relevant to your business Site Properties Contains geographic information locations addresses etc For more details see Creating a new site on page 103 of the Coolsign Manager User Guide Data Tables Mini databases with a structure that is flexible enough to allow you to store anything from a single piece of information to a complex table with dozens of fields and hundreds of records For more details see About data tables on page 123 of the Coolsign Manager User Guide Only play if Parameter 1 Source Attributes are x Source Choose a source Field Choose a field enclosed with _ an Player Attributes Content Attributes Site Properties Weather Parameter mn Condition Source
76. ever i E Entertanment headlines L 07 Play 2nd Now Never see eo PlayList of 3 sec Static Content 03 Play 2nd Now Never Enns v Recurring items 0 items v Timed items 0 items Y Triggered items 0 items Add in rotation item Edit tem lp Delete item Total chan Channels are the primary tool for scheduling how content will play back on your players Channels are programmed with schedule items that define when and how content will be played back You can schedule individual content items to play in your channel or for more complicated scheduling you can add playlists which are sub schedules of content Once your channel is programmed you can tune as many players as desired to the channel and all the necessary content will automatically be downloaded to the player before the channel starts playing A great advantage of channels is that if you need to change what is playing on your players you can just edit the channel once and all players tuned to that channel will automatically be updated There is no limit to the number of channels that you can create Channels are managed from the Channels page of CoolSign Manager For details see Managing Channels on page 81 CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 79 About playlists About playlists 28 PlayList of Dynamic Data using Pixel Datatable PlayLists playlist playlist of dynamic data ust General Advanced Chann
77. ght Where I Belong Seventeen Days 200 00 02 35 4 14 MB 01 right whe 3 Doors Down Its Not Me Seventeen Days 200 00 03 14 5 19 MB 02 it s not m ne Bob Dylan Train of Love Kindred Spirits A 200 00 03 24 4 66 MB 03 train of lo dynamic data The B525 Love Shack Cosmic Thing 1989 00 05 22 6 15 MB 04 love shack Bruce Springsteen Erie Canal We Shall Overco 00 04 03 9 29 MB erie canal mp Sister Hazel Its All For You 00 03 41 2 95 MB mp3 2 mp3 data tables Mr Bungle Super Mario Brothers T 00 03 20 3 05 MB mr bungle st schedules Bruce Springsteen Old Dan Tucker We Shall Overco 00 02 31 5 77 MB old dan tucker Pink Floyd Shine On You Crazy Di Wish You Were 00 13 40 12 52 MB pink floyd sh Queen Radio Ga Ga Greatest Hits Yol 2019 00 05 47 5 30 MB queen radio channels To create audio content 1 Choose Actions gt Import Audio 2 Select an MP3 file using the file browser dialog 3 Click OK to import the MP3 and create audio content CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 75 Editing audio content properties Tip You can also directly import MP3 files by dragging and dropping them from the desktop into the Audio page grid Editing audio content properties You can edit the properties of audio content on the Audio Properties dialog fal Beirut A Sunday Smile mp3 Audio audio beirut a sunday Sf General TES Schedule Info Play History Filename Beirut A Sunday Smile mp3 Artist Be
78. h cell in the grid has a color that indicates the value of the property at that time The possible values of a schedule grid and the corresponding colors are different for each type of scheduling grid and are discussed in detail in the documentation for the associated property dialog CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 231 Working with the schedule grid You can quickly toggle the value of a cell or range of cells between the off and on settings The off and on values of a property differ for each type of scheduling grid For example the on setting for the volume schedule grid indicates a volume of 100 while the on setting for the display control schedule grid indicates that the display s input is set to CoolSign In addition to the off and on settings some scheduling grids allow you to set additional values For example the volume scheduling grid lets you set a volume level from 0 to 100 and the display control scheduling grid lets you set the display to any labeled input To toggle cells between off and on e Left click a cell or left click and drag across one or more cells All selected cells are toggled based on the first selected cell To set the value of a cell 1 Right click a cell or right click and drag across a range of cells 2 Select or set the value using the Value popup menu Click anywhere off the popup menu to close it Zooming into the scheduling grid Each cell in the grid represents a block of time duri
79. he playlist and then click Show Error If a playlist is set to Play All Items the timeline includes all of the playlist s items Using the right click popup menu If you right click on a channel or playlist in the Synchronization Status dialog you can select the following actions from the popup menu Edit Channel Playlist Properties Choose this option to edit the properties of the selected channel or playlist Remove Enabling Expression You cannot use an enabling expression on synchronized content items To remove an item s enabling expression select the item then right click and choose this popup menu option Use Same Activation and Expiration Time Apply the selected schedule item s activation and expiration times to all other items of all channels displayed in the dialog Note Be careful to choose the one item in the Synchronization Status dialog that has the activation expiration dates that you want to apply to all other items Use Same Schedule Apply the selected schedule item s schedule to all other items of all channels displayed in the dialog You can select this item to repair synchronization errors Note Be careful to choose the one item in the Synchronization Status dialog that has the schedule that you want to apply to all other items If the same content is included in multiple synchronized channels any change to the content in one channel also affects the other channel s That is changes are refle
80. he unauthorized playback of such material on your network could be a violation of the rights of the copyright owner Please be sure to obtain any permission required from the copyright owner Trademarks CoolSign is a registered trademark licensed to CS Software Holdings LLC Adobe Systems Flash Adobe Flash Adobe Flash Lite and Shockwave are trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Inc in the United States and other countries All other products names and services may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies Patents CoolSign is covered by U S Patent Number 7 136 906 System for Electronically Distributing Displaying and Controlling the Play Scheduling of Advertising and Other Communicative Media and Patent Number 7 228 341 Method and System for Electronically Distributing Displaying and Controlling Advertising and Other Communicative Media CoolSign may also be covered by one or more pending United States patent applications Licenses This product is licensed under the MPEG 4 visual patent portfolio license for the personal and non commercial use of a consumer for i encoding video in compliance with the MPEG 4 visual standard MPEG 4 video and or ii decoding MPEG 4 video that was encoded by a consumer engaged in a personal and non commercial activity and or was obtained from a video provider licensed by MPEG LA to provide MPEG 4 video No license is granted or shall be implied for
81. hen fewer than seven items are scheduled using the Weighted Frequency picker the picker allows items with higher frequencies to play back to back to preserve the relative frequency ratios If you want to ensure that weighted items never play back to back you should use the Weighted Frequency 2 0 style picker Weighted Frequency 2 0 style Included for backwards compatibility with previous versions of CoolSign The 2 0 Weighted Frequency picker is identical to the Weighted Frequency picker except that it will never let the same scheduled item play back to back This can result in unexpected ordering when there are fewer than seven scheduled items because it can be impossible to preserve the relative frequencies without playing an item back to back For example a channel where two items have a frequency of 1 and one item has a frequency of 10 would need to play the frequency 10 item back to back multiple times to preserve to 10X frequency rating To select the in rotation playback order Select the playback order type in the In Rotation Items area of the Channel Properties dialog page 83 Adding a recurring scheduled item Recurring scheduled items can be set to play back content on a repeating interval You can set properties related to the recurring interval as well as a schedule of the times and days of the week for which the item is active To add a recurring scheduled item 1 Follow the steps on page 83 to add an new scheduled item to
82. ideo elementary stream video only at data rates up to 15 Mbit sec MPEG 1 While CoolSign fully supports MPEG 1 digital video we recommend that MPEG 2 be used for its superior resolution and quality In most cases MPEG 1 can be encoded in the same way as MPEG 2 CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 55 Using Flash in CoolSign Windows Media 9 Microsoft Windows Media technology has recently become a viable alternative to MPEG 2 for full screen digital video playback Windows Media has certain advantages more authoring tools natively support encoding to WMV and in many cases the file size of Windows Media is significantly smaller than MPEG 2 The following are some applications that can be used to encode Windows Media 9 Adobe After Effects 6 0 Adobe Premiere Pro www adobe com Discreet Cleaner XL www discreet com e Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 9 www microsoft com Using Flash in CoolSign CoolSign supports Shockwave Flash SWF vector animation format created in applications like Adobe Flash Adobe LiveMotion and Adobe After Effects SWF files exported as Versions 4 9 are supported WARNING You can only control the volume of SWF files that are version 8 or older With SWF version 9 files it is not possible to control the player volume from CoolSign SWF files for use with CoolSign should be authored at a playback speed of 30 frames per second Lower frame rates can be used but playback will appear chop
83. ing 96 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Channels Tip You can review the transfer status of the items in a channel to a player from the Player Properties dialog or the Transfers tab of the Node Properties dialog for the player node Working with the channel grid The channel grid on the Channel Properties dialog displays all of the items scheduled in the content For organization purposes each type of scheduled item is listed in its own collapsible area so you can easily view all types of items or just focus on the items you are interested in The channel grid displays the most common properties of each scheduled item as well as a graphical timeline of the item s schedule Scheduled Items Y In rotation items 3 items 4 Week of Feb 24 2008 D Week of Mar 02 2008 Options Name Time Index Starts Stops Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa E 00_C_Services_Imgs_1 29 Play ist Now Never Planar_ThisEasy_L 15 Play 2nd Now Never S L MyPlaylist1 Play all in order 56 Play 3rd Now Never Playback order in Order Recurring items 0 items Y Triggered items 1 item Name Time Event Starts Stops Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa E retailbanking_savings_land 15 Triggered Events Wed 2 27 Never fre Timed items 0 items Add item Edit item Delete item F Wait for all tems to transfer befo
84. ing Started Connecting to a CoolSign NetWork 21 Managing your available networks nn 23 Auto discovering available CoolSign networks 23 Manually managing available CoolSign networks ssssssssesceeesecsseeseecses 24 ABOUT PEO CE kys en aan lentes latest 25 Keying your Network Controller 26 Finding the NIC address for a node ns 26 Importing product Keys nan diabetes 27 PrOdUELLIC NSES nn Rs Ge hse eee US A a ns 27 CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 3 MU be Bad a pS SR SR ec ee eve ne eT eer 30 Initial account and password rennes 30 POUT CCITT AIINS se de ne een une 30 Users ANC GrOUDS nn ne nn anions 36 Coolsign GONTIQUIATON ES nee en nn ate 39 3 Using CoolSign Manager Aboutimanager pages sus a s 42 Working with items in the data grid 43 Selecting items in the data grid 43 Performing context sensitive actions ON an item 43 Changing the data grid aout tn ns nn ns 44 SOMITE COUM S siicsnissiensissrennionseernonneanaman inca nl anmanuadraniienn 44 Grouping COLIS nn A re nt ne 44 Resizing COU UWS oeiras AE a E EEE ER 45 Changing which columns are visible 45 Reordering ColUMNS eseessssssssseseeesssssssssessteeseessnsssssseereessessnsssesseeesressnsssssseeeeesressss 47 Managing VIEWS EUR NE E ERR A e 47 Importing and exporting VIEWS ssssssssseeeseessssssssseereesssssssssosscersrrsssssssssecesessessss 47 Resetting and restoring default views 48 Searching OP ITEMS Sn en i e E
85. ing con tent Non interrupting scheduled items will be queued to play immediately after the cur rently playing content 5 Define the times and days for which the scheduled item should be played The blue cells of the schedule grid indicate that the item is active and the white cells indicate that the item will not play For more information see Chapter 19 Using Schedule Grids on page 231 6 Set any advanced properties for the scheduled item For more information see Setting advanced schedule item properties on page 92 7 If you have selected dynamic content and want to override the data bindings for this sched uled item only click the Dynamic Data tab For more information see Overriding dynamic data settings on page 127 8 Click OK to add the scheduled item to the channel Adding a timed scheduled item Timed scheduled items play back once at each timed interval You can set timed items to play back every day or on specific days at a defined time or once on a certain date and time Because timed scheduled items inherently define when they play you cannot set a daypart schedule for them CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 89 Adding items to a channel To add a timed scheduled item 1 Follow the steps on page 83 to add an new scheduled item to the channel 2 In the Scheduled Item Properties dialog select Timed from the Scheduled Type box clarity_sea_demo_ SX Schedule Pro
86. irut Title A Sunday Smile Album Flying Club Cup The Year 2007 a Duration 00 03 35 00 File Size 3 29 MB Volume Gain 0 Audio Activation Expiration Activates Now at Expires O Never At Apply Changes To edit the properties of audio content 1 To display the Audio Properties dialog do one of the following Select the Audio content in the Audio page and choose Actions gt Edit Audio Properties Double click the Audio content in the Audio grid e Right click the Audio content and choose Edit Audio Properties 2 Review or change any of the following properties Filename Displays the original audio filename imported into CoolSign Manager You cannot modify the filename 76 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Audio Artist Title Album Year These properties are read from the ID3v1 tags embedded into the MP3 file at import You can modify these properties as desired Duration The amount of time that the audio content plays for Entering a duration that is less than the actual length of the imported MP3 will truncate playback Extending the duration beyond the length of the MP3 will play silence File Size The disk space used by the imported MP3 file Volume Gain Use volume gain to modify the overall volume level of all video flash or sound assets used in the content The value can b
87. k True C3 Landscape bug 8635 C Landscape CW PowerPoint Channel C Landscape Enabling Expression Channel C Landscape T Mobile Channel C Landscape Enabling Expression Channel2 C Landscape seed amp EditChannel Properties me New Channel data tables PPT Channel Duplicate Channel Adplayer Patch Chann Flash Channel X Dole Flash extensions nat l Import Channel Channel2 L Export Channel PlayNow with a Chal ws ea Campare Synchronized Channeli p Dynamic Data Channel Remove hom QuickSet Channel Channeli Channeli Channeli Channel CI Landscape Channel3 Static Pixel DynamicData Content C Landscape Small Channeli C Landscape Multicast Channel C Landscape Channel2 Entertainment Feed Static Content CI Landscape Small Channel2 C Landscape bug 7995 Adplayer shuts down every hour C Landscape Channeli 4 Audio Default Channel Yr any ticker Channel2 C Landscape Flash Path Channel C Landscape 3 The Channel Selector dialog opens and displays a list of all other synchronized channels Select one or more channels that you wish to compare then click OK Channel selector Select one or more channels to view synchronization status Synch Channel R Note Alternatively if you select multiple synchronized channels and then right click selecting Compare Synchronized Channels from the popup menu opens the Synchronization Status dialog directly 104 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS
88. kSet panel and choose New Folder 2 Enter a name for the new folder 3 Click OK To add QuickSets or QuickSearches to a folder Drag and drop the QuickSet or QuickSearch onto the folder You can also nest folders within folders by dragging a folder onto another folder CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 51 Printing and exporting data To remove a QuickSet or QuickSearch from a folder Drag the QuickSet or QuickSearch out of the folder into the lower blank area of the QuickSet panel To rename a folder e Right click the folder and choose Rename Folder To delete a folder e Right click the folder and choose Delete Folder You will be asked whether to delete the folder and its contents or just the folder Printing and exporting data You can print or export the items displayed in any data grid You can export data to Microsoft Excel or to a delimited text file To print the items displayed in a data grid e Right click in any column header and choose Print Grid To export items to a file 1 Right click in any column header and choose Save Grid Data to File 2 Choose the file format that will be used to save the data e Excel xls Saves the data in Microsoft Excel format There are no additional options for this format e Text txt Saves the data as a delimited text file You can use the Text export properties to set the delimiter character whether fields should be quoted and whether to pad data wi
89. l users the Network Manager enables you to troubleshoot network issues and take corrective action when necessary To navigate to a manager screen Do one of the following Click the manager s icon in the navigation bar on the left side of the screen Choose Views gt Go To gt About manager pages With the exception of the Home Manager each of the manager screens share similar layouts and functionality While the type of item that each screen manages differs each manager provides the ability to customize how your data is displayed and to organize the data in ways that make sense to your specific use of the digital media network 22 Coolsign Network CoclSign Manager 4 5 6 File Edit Views Tools Actions Help content Format quicksets Duration Resolution Format Thumbnail Activatio Show Al Items FES a Change the view ofthe data an 500x375 Landscape grid from this combobox Expired Content The quickbar gives you tools FE FD Content to quickly filter or view sets of Scheduled Content i r 2 amp ah items in the data grid audio Unscheduled Content dynamic data Edit Content Properties data tables scheduks Import Content Export Content snapcount 20 00 03 550x350 Landscape p Duplicate Content channels Remove from QuickSet l 2mm Delete ET playlists nodes You can right click an item to players The status bar tells
90. led to start playing Tip You can use content activation if you want to schedule some content immediately so it is transferred to your players but you don t want it to start playing until a specific date and time Content activation allows you to control the activation date globally across all channels and playlists instead of within each individual schedule To set the activation date of content 1 Click the Activates At radio button 2 Click the Activation Date Editor to edit the activation date at which the content can start playing To set content to be active now e Click the Activates Now radio button Content Expiration You can use content expiration to set a global date and time for your content to stop playing everywhere regardless of its scheduling properties When content expires it is automatically removed from all channels and playlists across your network To set the expiration date of content 1 Click the Expires At radio button 2 Click the Expiration Date Editor to edit the expiration date at which the content should stop playing To set content to never expire e Click the Expires Never radio button WARNING In CoolSign 4 expired content is not automatically deleted but is displayed in the Content Manager in red to indicate that it is expired If you want to remove the expired content you must man ually delete it Previewing content You can preview your content as it will play back in a CoolSign
91. lick and choose Delete Press the Delete key on your keyboard Using the Content Properties dialog The Content Properties dialog allows you to modify certain properties of selected content and to view useful information about how your content is scheduled and how many times it has played To display the Content Properties dialog Do one of the following e Select the content item in the Content screen and choose Actions gt Edit Content Properties e Double click the content item e Right click on the content item and choose Edit Content Properties Editing content properties After importing you may find it necessary to modify one or more properties of your content Rather than having to change the content externally and reimport you can adjust many of the content s properties directly from the Content Properties dialog Note You can only modify properties of the content item itself You cannot edit or change the individual assets used within the content If you want to modify an asset for example change a bitmap or edit an MPEG 2 video you must reimport the entire content item to replace the existing item in CoolSign To edit the properties of a content item 1 From the Content Properties dialog change one or more of the content properties 2 Click OK or Apply Changes Changes are immediately applied to the selected content and on any players where the content is scheduled CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User G
92. lue Language rea Ez Define Attributes Name Default Value Language English rea Attribute properties General Define attributes Name Default Value PickList Values Client DIRECT DDB BBDO FCB VER F Use picklist DIRECT fe Add he Edit og p Delete i Apply Changes F Allow user to enter custom values 1 From the Attributes tab on any Content Properties dialog click the Define Attributes button 2 In the subsequent Attributes dialog click the Add button to open a blank Attribute Proper ties dialog 3 Type a name for the new Attribute 4 Set one or more of the following options e If you want to restrict the options available for input click the Use picklist checkbox Enter one or more lines of text into the PickList box Each line of text will appear as an option in the picklist when editing a user field 5 If you want to let users enter their own data in addition to being able to choose from the options in your picklist click the Allow user to enter custom values checkbox Click OK The new Attribute will be added to all existing and new content 70 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Audio 6 Managing Audio In addition to the Content page CoolSign Manager includes a specialized manager page for working with au
93. m dom Spm 6pm 7pm Spm Jpm 10pm Lipm 12am Sun 3 23 Mon 3 24 e Tue 3 25 es hehe ES TT Thu 3 27 Fri 3 28 Sat 3 29 es SE 24 of 3123 2008 Overide Options 0 Selecting overridden weeks You can quickly jump to any currently overridden weeks to review or modify the overrides The Override Options menu indicates the number of weeks that are currently overridden To jump to an overridden week 1 Click Override Options to display the Override popup menu 2 Choose Jump to Override to display a submenu of any overridden weeks 3 Choose the overridden week to jump to To jump to the next or previous overridden week Hold down the Ctrl key while clicking the Forward or Back week selector buttons If an overridden week is set the schedule grid will jump to that week Clearing overridden weeks You can remove all the overrides applied to a schedule or just the override for a specific week To clear all overridden weeks Click Override Options and choose Clear All Overrides To clear the override from the currently selected week Click Override Options and choose Clear Override For Current Week 234 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC 268 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC
94. matically log into CoolSign i e effect EAD single sign on which requires that the administrator has been previously EAD enabled During installation and configuration administrators must choose one of the login processes but not both LOGGING IN WITH AN COOLSIGN ID A CoolSign username will be created that matches the administrator s CWL ID The administrator will set the password for this ID note the CoolSign ID password is not automatically synchronized with the CWL repository e Start the CNM application e Enter your CoolSign ID and password EAD SINGLE SIGN ON INTO COOLSIGN e Log into your PC using your EAD domain ID and password e Start the CNM application Connecting to a CoolSign network Note If you hold down the left CTRL key while CoolSign is starting up the login window appears even if you are using domain security 28 CoolSign Login NETWORK MANAGER Edit Networks To connect to a CoolSign network 1 Enter your username 2 Enter your password Note Passwords are case sensitive Make sure you don t accidentally have the CapsLock key depressed when entering your password 3 Select a network to connect to 4 Click the Login button WARNING By default the username for a CoolSign network is admin and the password is password The login dialog automatically enters these default values for you 22 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Using Cool
95. me and save out CoolSign content all in a few quick steps For more information see the CoolSign Network Installation Guide CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 53 Supported file formats Set Options Fiamh pieiet Noei Wied wakana to tha Canimig Corte Woes Seip D mm pa pas mg By shpa mn ro Name Format Duration Dy ram am aus Transition Resolution Content Resize Settings V Scale content to fit display V Preserve aspect ratio when scaling When aspect ratio does not match display Crop edges of content Options Content Activation Expiration Activates Expires Volume Gain CNTNT_WZRD_1 C Landscape v V Set duration to asset duration None X in 0 seconds Asset Properties 512x414 Now Di Never Pre rotation No rotation os D At Letterbox content at Supported file formats Assets for CoolSign content can be authored using numerous industry standard production tools available from companies like Adobe Avid and others The remainder of this chapter discusses requirements for developing assets for CoolSign 54 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC About Content Using digital video in CoolSign Digital video is the most popular format for authoring CoolSign content Digital video can be created in any number of production tools includi
96. meline all items containing the same piece of content will be changed 4 To save the edited duration click Apply Changes or OK If all synchronized channels now have the same duration and all other rules are met the dialog displays the status Ok BB View Schedule Synchronization Status Status Synchronization Ok View Simple View X Name Duration 4s 9s 12s 16s 20s 24s 28s 325 3s ds 44s 485 S25 S s 6s 64s 68s Apply Changes Viewing synchronized playlists You can switch between content view and playlist view in the Synchronization Status dialog e To display the playlist as a single shaded rectangle right click on a piece of content inside a playlist on the timeline then choose Show Playlist To display the playlist s elements separately right click on the playlist then choose Show Content You cannot edit a playlist s duration which is calculated automatically If the duration is too short you can only display the playlist not the individual content elements 106 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Channels If a playlist is set to Play One Item page 113 the timeline only displays the playlist as a single item The displayed duration is the average duration of all schedule items in the playlist When a playlist contains items that don t all have the same duration it is displayed in red To display information about the error condition right click on t
97. n Rotation scheduled items For more information on adding items to a channel see Adding items to a channel on page 83 Scheduling a playlist in a channel Playlists can be scheduled into a channel or other playlists with all the same properties as a piece of content You can schedule a playlist as In rotation Recurring Timed or Triggered Playlists can have daypart schedules activation expiration dates and enabling expressions just like content However when it comes time for a playlist to play the channel lets the playlist pick which content or playlist should play based on the items scheduled within the playlist and its own playback order settings Determining how a playlist plays Just as with a channel you can set the playback order for a playlist using the Playback order combobox For more information on setting playback order see Setting the in rotation playback order on page 87 Additionally you can define whether the playlist should just play one item or all the items each time it is picked to play by its parent channel Play One Item When a playlist is set to Play One Item it will play one item picked from its scheduled items After playing the one item it will return control to the parent channel or playlist Sample playback order for channel with playlist set to play one item Content 1 Content 2 PLAYLIST Content A Play one item Playlist 1 Content 3 Content B Cont
98. n items are indicated in blue italic type in the channel grid WARNING Channel overriding should be used sparingly as it can cause confusion in troubleshooting player issues and unexpected results when editing a channel that has been overridden in one or more players In most cases you should be able to achieve your scheduling goals using other mechanisms available like playlists or enabling expressions CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 125 Controlling player volume To override the properties of a scheduled item 1 On the Channel tab do one of the following e Right click on the scheduled item and choose Override Item Double click on the scheduled item Schedule Item Properties Scheduled Item SI PlayList of Dynamic Data using Pixel Scheduled Type Disable this schedule item from playing m Schedule Item Properties Item will play in rotation 12am lam 2am 3am 4am Sam 6am 7am 8am 3am 10am 11am 12pm ipm 2pm 3pm 4pm Spm Spm 7pm Spm Ipm 10pm 1ipm 12am Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Ban gt dbase sche p rende ones m Advanced Properties Activates Now Kt Wednesday Jan 1 1800 12 00 00 AM Expires Never At Wednesday Jan 1 3000 12 00 00 AM 2 On the Override Schedule Item Properties dialog override any changes to the base schedule item You can override the following The daypart schedule for the item The enabling expression for th
99. ng Adobe After Effects Avid MediaComposer Apple FinalCut Pro and Adobe Premiere The preferred formats for encoding and playback of digital video in CoolSign are MPEG 2 or Windows Media 9 Both formats are capable of high quality video playback at both SD and HD resolutions The following digital video formats are supported by CoolSign MPEG 4 mpg e MPEG 2 mpg e MPEG 1 mpg e Windows Media Video 9 wmv e Windows AVI avi CoolSign Encrypted Video evf MPEG 2 MPEG 2 is designed for broadcast quality digitally encoded audio and video It offers good image quality and is the standard for DVD video Most authoring applications do not encode directly to MPEG 2 and require a 3rd party encoding tool or plug in Note MPEG 2 defines different standards for resolution and bit rate called profiles and levels In order to encode MPEG 2 at greater resolution than NTSC 720x480 you will need an encoder that supports High Profile and High 1440 Level Most hardware MPEG 2 encoders do not support the higher profiles and levels The following are some applications that can be used to encode MPEG 2 e Adobe After Effects 6 5 www adobe com e Adobe Premiere Pro www adobe com MainConcept MPEG Encoder www mainconcept com TMPGEnc Plus 2 5 www pegasys inc com Discreet Cleaner XL www discreet com Cleaner only supports encoding at 720x480 CoolSign supports MPEG 2 program streams multiplexed video audio or v
100. ng a day of the week By default each block represents a full hour during the day You can use the zoom controls to zoom in and out of the scheduling grid to decrease the block of time that a cell represents so you can schedule at finer resolutions than on the hour To zoom in e Click to zoom into the grid You can zoom to the following time resolutions 1 hour 30 minutes 15 minutes 5 minutes or 1 minute To zoom out Click to zoom out of the grid 232 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Using Schedule Grids Overriding the recurring schedule By default when you are using the schedule grid you are creating a recurring schedule that will repeat every week If you want to modify the schedule for a specific week you can use the override week features For example you may want to schedule displays to be on for extended hours during the week before Christmas at a department store or you may want to disable a schedule item from playing on a certain Tuesday in November for some reason With the scheduling grid override functionality you can schedule any overrides to the base recurring schedule for any future week saz EE PU PEUR he TD Ajik of 3 23 2008 Click Override Options to display the Override menu Clear Override For Current Week dvanced Properties Use the forwar
101. ng playlists and program content within your playlists To navigate to the Playlists page Click the Playlists icon in the navigation bar To create a new playlist 1 From the Playlists page do one of the following Choose Actions gt Create New PlayList e Right click on the PlayList Manager grid and choose Create New PlayList The Playlist Properties dialog appears 2 In the Name field enter a name for your new playlist 3 Choose a format for your new playlist from the Format combobox Only content with the same format can be scheduled into the playlist and only channels with the same format can schedule the playlist Note Once you add items to a playlist you can no longer modify its format If you need to change the format of a playlist delete any scheduled items first 4 Add content items and or other playlists to the playlist See About the Playlist Properties dia log on page 112 5 Click OK CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 111 About the Playlist Properties dialog To edit an existing Playlist 1 From the PlayList page do one of the following to display the PlayList Properties dialog Select the channel and choose Actions gt Edit PlayList Properties e Right click the channel and choose Edit PlayList Properties Double click on the playlist 2 In the Playlist Properties dialog change any available properties or add edit or remove scheduled items in the channel See About the
102. ng scheduling grids see Chapter 19 Using Schedule Grids on page 231 Add Attributes to a site With the Attributes tab you can add your own custom user fields to a site if you d like to track additional data about each site that is relevant to your business Note Attributes are only available to display in the site info panel or on the Site Properties dialog You cannot use Attributes as dynamic data in your content or enabling expressions To add a custom user field to a site 1 From the Site Properties dialog click the Attributes tab 29 North West Players site north west General Site Hours Attributes Attributes property Name S Click directly into the value column of a Language R Lo user field to edit HT_storeNum StorelD Type Site xyz Define attributes Apply Changes OK fs Cancel 2 Click Define Attributes to open the Site Attributes dialog 134 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC 3 Click Add to open a new Attribute Properties dialog 29 Attribute properties General Managing Sites Name Enter the name ofthe new Attribute here Default Value Use picklist PickList Yalues Click the Use picklist check box to show a combobox with the values entered in the picklist area Check this box to let the user enter custom values i
103. nsparency to show through from one region to the one below Be sure to delete unwanted alpha channels before importing bitmap content as there is no mechanism for turning off an alpha channel once converted into content Using PowerPoint in Coolsign With this 4 5 release PowerPoint slides and shows can now be imported through the Content Wizard With PowerPoint versions 2003 2007 slides must be in jog format With the Office 2010 version you can now import wmv movie presentations as well as jpg still images CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 57 Using PowerPoint in Coolsign 58 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Content 5 Managing Content CoolSign Manager provides a rich set of features to help you organize and manage the content in your CoolSign network You can use CoolSign Manager to import or update content modify content properties like duration transitions scaling and volume review play history and scheduling statistics and even preview the content as it will appear on your CoolSign players Working with content Content in CoolSign must be imported into the system before it can be scheduled or played on the CoolSign players connected to your network To import content into your CoolSign network From the Content Manager choose Actions gt Import Content and select the content folder you wish to import The Content Import dialog shows the progress of any
104. nto the combobox 4 Enter a name for the site Attribute 5 Click OK Deleting a site Cancel If you have an empty site you can delete it so that it no longer appears in the sites panel You can only delete sites that no longer contain any player nodes transfer servers or the network controller When you delete the only remaining site for a city state or country the site treelist will refresh to remove any geographic nodes that no longer contain any sites Note If transfer servers or the network controller are assigned to the site you are trying to delete you must use the Networks page to reassign those nodes to another site first To delete a site e Right click on the site node in the site treelist and choose Delete Site CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 135 Working with players and sites 136 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Using Schedule Grids 19 Using Schedule Grids You can use the scheduling grid to schedule a number of different properties of your CoolSign network including any of the following Dayparting a schedule item within a channel Schedule Item Properties dialog Volume level of a player Player Properties dialog Display control for a display connected to a player Configure Players dialog The hours that a site is open Site Properties dialog e Bandwidth limiting for a node Network Properties dialog Working
105. o that you can be assured that the content is available when it comes time for it to play Viewing transfer status of items to a player When you tune a player to a channel all of the content playlists data tables and files required to play that channel will automatically start transferring to the player If at any point you modify either the channel or any content or playlists included in the channel any changes will also be automatically transferred to the player for you The status of each transferring item can be any of the following 120 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Players Checking Checking A transfer has not yet started and the system is checking to see if it is necessary to transfer content to the player am The transfer bar displays the current progress of a transfer to a player The yellow portion of the bar indicates that data is still being transferred The green portion indicates that all the files required for this content have been transferred The transfer bar takes into account each hop that data must travel to reach a player i e Network Controller gt Transfer Server gt Player and displays a white vertical line for each hop es An all green transfer bar indicates that all necessary files for the content have been transferred to the player but that the content has not been loaded yet You may see this status temporarily when the channel is marked to
106. of synchronized in rotation content the player may display a black pause before the scheduled content resumes play Triggered page 90 Content that is scheduled using the triggered type will only play when triggered via the CoolSign Manager trigger manager or an external data source Merged Playlists only page 91 Merged playlists treat the scheduled items of a playlist as if they were directly added to the channel This allows you to take advantage of the organizational advantages of using playlists while retaining full flexibility for scheduling The Merged schedule type does not appear in the Scheduled Type drop down list of the Scheduled Item Properties dialog unless Playlist content is added Note The Add In Rotation button is used to initiate the addition of all schedule types noted above Adding an in rotation scheduled item In rotation scheduled items are the most common way to add items to a channel You can set a daypart schedule for in rotation items as well as a frequency setting if the channel is using the Weighted Frequency picker See Setting the in rotation playback order on page 87 To add an in rotation scheduled item 1 Follow the steps on page 83 to add a new scheduled item to the channel 86 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Channels 2 In the Scheduled Item Properties dialog select InRotation from the Scheduled Type box Schedule Prope
107. perties Dynamic Data Enabling Expression Scheduled Item Scheduled Type E Timed gt Schedule Item Properties Play at Play at 9 00 00am Use lod Play at ads cit y Interrupt playin Play once at Disable this schedule item from playing Select when you would like this timed schedule item to play every V Sunday V Monday V Tuesday V Wednesday V Thursday V Saturday V Friday Advanced Properties Brow Oat Activates lp Cancel 3 Click Add to define a time when the timed item should play You can specify days of the week when the timed item should play or set an exact date and time when the timed item should play one time only Note To add multiple times for a schedule item click the Add button again 4 If you want the scheduled item to play exactly at the defined time s even if that would require interrupting content that is currently playing check Interrupt playing content Non interrupting scheduled items will be queued to play immediately after the currently playing content 5 Set any advanced properties for the scheduled item For more information see Setting advanced schedule item properties on page 92 6 If you have selected dynamic content and want to override the data bindings for this sched uled item only click the Dynamic Data tab For more information see Overriding dynamic data settings on page 127
108. pier than movies created at full 30 fps Take care to avoid animating complicated vector shapes large bitmaps and numerous objects simultaneously as this can result in poor playback performance In these cases it is recommended that you export into AVI or QuickTime format and then encode to MPEG 2 or WMV formats using a standalone encoding application Using bitmaps in CoolSign If you don t require animation in your content CoolSign supports displaying static bitmap assets Bitmap assets can be authored in any software that supports the following formats Photoshop psd Photoshop version 3 0 or higher supported Layered files will be flattened Only RGB mode is supported Only the first alpha channel will be used Windows Bitmap bmp Windows Bitmap can be saved as either 24 bit or 32 bit JPEG jpg JPEGs should be saved with maximum quality settings to minimize compression artifacts Portable Network Graphics png Graphics Interchange Format gif GIF animation is not supported Assets should be saved at 16 bit 24 bit or 32 bit color depth 1 bit and 8 bit images are not supported 56 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC About Content Note CoolSign fully supports 32 bit images If you are displaying 32 bit bitmap with an alpha channel the transparent regions will be transparent to the black background If you are using overlapping regions you can use alpha channel tra
109. porary search items are no longer available after you restart CoolSign Manager To make the results of your search available to subsequent sessions you can save your temporary search as a QuickSearch See Using QuickSearches on page 50 Using the QuickBar Each manager page except for the Home page has a quickbar that contains tools to help you organize and filter the items that appear in the data grid While each manager page can have page specific quickbar features all the quickbar panels contain the QuickSet panel About the QuickSet panel The QuickSet panel is available for every manager page except for the Home page and lets you create QuickSets QuickSearches and Folders to help you organize your data quicksets Show All Items CoolControl Debug lt This is a QuickSet This is a QuickSearch gt D Dynamic Content Expired Content FHD Content Landscape Content C3 Old Content lt This is a Folder RE es Portait Content Scheduled Content This is a temporary i E Synch Test Content Unscheduled Content Using QuickSets QuickSets are user defined categories that you create and add items to When you click ona QuickSet in the QuickBar panel the data grid immediately displays only the items that you have added to that QuickSet QuickSets are not exclusive so you can add an item to more than one QuickSet To create a
110. re playing this channel Total channel disk size 187 47 MB Using scheduled item collapsible areas Each type of scheduled item has its own collapsible area in the channel grid You can expand or collapse each area to view or hide the scheduled items When you first open a Channel Properties dialog only the collapsible areas with one or more scheduled items are expanded The other areas are collapsed To expand a collapsed scheduled item type area e Click to expand a collapse area Tip To automatically collapse any other open areas hold down the Ctrl key while expanding an area To resize an open area 1 Move the mouse to the area between the two areas you want to resize 2 When the cursor changes to click and drag vertically to resize the areas CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 97 Working with the channel grid Understanding the channel grid To help you quickly identify the properties of scheduled items the channel grid provides visual feedback in the form of icons colors and the graphical timeline Depending on the properties of your scheduled items you may see any of the following icons amp Active content items scheduled in the channel Active playlists scheduled in the channel amp Content that will become active in the future due to a scheduled item or content activation date being set amp Content that has expired due to a scheduled item or content expiration date being set
111. rties Dynamic Data Enabling Expression Scheduled Item Born on this date L Scheduled Type 2 InRotation Disable this schedule item from playing Schedule Item Properties Frequency 5 z This item will play approximately 10 times per hour 12am iam 2am 3am 4am Sam 6am 7am 8am Jam 10am ilam L2pm ipm 2pm 3pm 4pm Spm Spm 7pm pm Jpm 10pm 1ipm 12am Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1h dBase Schedule lOvemide Options 0 se Advanced Properties Activates D Now At Expires Never At 3 If the channel is set to use the Weighted Frequency picker you can set the relative frequency of the in rotation item from 1 to 10 For more information on pickers see Setting the in rotation playback order on page 87 4 Define the times and days for which the scheduled item should be played The blue cells of the schedule grid indicate that the item will be played in rotation with any other active scheduled items The white cells indicate that the item will not play For more information see Chapter 19 Using Schedule Grids on page 231 5 Set any advanced properties for the scheduled item For more information see Setting advanced schedule item properties on page 92 6 If you have selected dynamic content and want to override the data bindings for this sched uled item only click the Dynamic Dat
112. s To simplify the process of installing players on your CoolSign network you can create one or more virtual players before actually deploying the physical player node When the corresponding physical player node is subsequently deployed it automatically inherits the settings that you have established for the virtual player You can then use CoolSign Manager to continue configuring the player Virtual players do not contribute to network status calculations or generate event logs in the Node Properties dialog or play logs in the Player Properties dialog 118 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Players Replicating Players Alternatively you can replicate the configuration of an existing player node to one or more virtual players When you subsequently deploy the physical player nodes they automatically inherit their properties from the previously existing player node rather than assuming default properties Migrating a Player s Identity If a player node on your CoolSign network becomes disabled you can install a new player node and then migrate the disabled player s properties its identity to the new node During migration the new player assumes the existing player s database records security settings schedules play logs and other historical data About the Player Properties dialog You can use the Player Properties dialog to tune a player to a channel review play history and s
113. s assigned with multiple outputs When this value is True the machine will not take part in CoolSign network communications it will not listen for UDP time packets nor will it send packets In order for the computer to take part in multi player frame synchronization this value must be False 108 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Channels TimeSyncTTL This setting determines the number of router hops that a network packet is allowed to make We recommend that you accept the default 1 CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 109 Synchronizing channels 110 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Playlists 9 Managing Playlists Playlists add additional flexibility when programming your channels by providing the capability to create sub schedules within the channels schedule You can also use playlists to help in localizing your schedules across multiple sites and players Playlists are similar to channels with the following differences You can only add In Rotation scheduled items to a playlist You can t tune a player to a playlist You must schedule a playlist within a channel Playlists can be scheduled within other playlists Working with playlists You can manage the playlists in your network from the Playlists manager page of CoolSign Manager From the Playlists page you can create new playlists edit or delete existi
114. s tab of the Player Properties dialog Viewing play summaries for a player You can retrieve rolled up summaries of all the content that has played on a player or set of players across any time range Each content item that has played during the defined view range will be displayed with the total number of times it has played and the percentage of total plays of all played content To view the playlog summary 1 In the PlayLogs tab select the View Range for which you would like to retrieve playlogs or manually enter a From and To date 2 To only include plays that occurred while the site this player is in was scheduled to be open check Only show logs from during site open hours WARNING Showing logs from during open hours can take a significantly longer time to load You can decrease the time required to retrieve the logs by setting a shorter view range 3 Click Retrieve Logs Viewing detailed play logs for a player In certain situations you may want to retrieve the detailed logs for each player to review the exact time and reason that each piece of content played If the content is enabled to log data slots you can even view the state of any dynamic data fields at each time the content played For more information on enabling content to log dynamic data see Enabling data slot logging on page 73 To view the detailed playlogs 1 Select the View Range for which you want to retrieve detailed playlogs or manually enter a
115. ssnssesseeseressesssssseese 221 Using attributes for dynamic data localizing s sssssssessssesssesseseeseeeeeseeee 221 About bandwidth En nn i 221 Abo t event oder A a a 221 Configuring advanced properties nn 222 About software configuration 222 Editing agent configuration settings 222 Sending DOS commands to a node 223 Sending watchdog commands sn 223 Opening the remote Monitor nn 224 Cleaning UP space ON node nn 224 Viewing running processes ON NOE nee 224 18 Monitoring Your Network About the Home DA sad a nes 225 About the status SUMMAFY nn 225 LES EE AP RTE RE ER PR EN TR TRE 226 Viewing information about alerts 226 J MPIRT L O aO EE ne ee nt 226 LUI 600 ELLE SC A R maaan 226 Viewing detailed timestamps seen 226 Marking alerts as read sun 227 Clearing and deleting alerts 227 Cl anind up old al rts s sssssns is nn a 227 Creating a SR AIRE Rs RES nn 227 Setting alert preferences ner 228 TASK Us Te Re ne ne 228 Filtering TAS KE tonne 228 Reviewing the status of tasks ns 229 Setting preferences for tasks ss 229 CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 13 About application l09S sans RS le Se 229 19 Using Schedule Grids Working with the schedule grid ss 231 Setting a cell value in the grid ss 231 ZOOMING into the scheduling grid ss 232 Overriding the recurring schedule ss 233 Selecting overridden Weeks nn 234 Clearing overridden Weeks
116. t 161 Auto created data tables nn 162 Using data tables in your content ssessessssecseccnscesecssscssccesecssecssccsscssscessceseecsceseessees 162 Binding dynamic content to a data table 162 Getting data into data tables ss 164 Manually inputting data seen 164 Localizing dat s anne 165 How does localizing work nn 165 About CoolSign DataWatcher nee 165 15 Using the Data Watcher Manager What does the Data Watcher do rene 167 Installing the CoolSign Data Watchers 168 Installing the Data Watcher service 168 Installing the Data Watcher Editor 170 The Data Watcher Manager sense 173 To open the Data Watcher Editor dialog 173 Configuring a Data Watchers dansant anuntunnnlee 174 To configure a Data Watchers 174 Step 1 Define th SCOpe sn nent 175 Step 2 Set up the data SOULCE nn 176 Configuring a File data source PAATE AEE TU SE SENTE TEE RL PRE E 176 Configuring a URL data SOULCE nn 177 Configuring an FTP data source nn 177 Configuring an External Command data source 178 Configuring an SQL Server data SOUrCE nn 179 10 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Configuring an ODBC data SOUrCR nn 179 Step 3 Set up the data parser ss nee 180 Configuring the data parser general properties 180 Configuring an XML data parser sen 181 Configuring a Delimited Field data parser 182 Configuring a Fixed Length Field data parser 183 Config
117. t Volume according to Schedule radio button 2 Do one of the following e Click or drag a range of cells to toggle the volume on and off for the selected time e Right click on a cell or range of cells to set a specific volume level for the selected time Sound Volume Set volume to 96 Set volume according to schedule 12am lam 2am 3am 4am Sam 6am 7am 8am Jam 10am ilam 12pm ipm 2pm 3pm 4pm Spm 6pm 7pm Spm Ipm LOpm Lipen 12am Every Sun Every Mon SSS SS Sirs Every Tue Every Wed Every Thu Every Fri Every Sat OO h o o Base Schedule v gt Ovenide Options 0 set For more information on using schedule grids see Chapter 19 Using Schedule Grids on page 231 124 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Players Overriding channels Overriding a channel is an advanced feature that provides added flexibility when scheduling content to play back on a player Normally tuning multiple players to the same channel will result in each player playing back the channel as it was programmed in the Channel Properties dialog However in some cases you may want to make a small change to a channel on a specific player without creating an entirely new channel For this situation you can override certain properties of the scheduled items in a channel and apply them to a single player only Note Overridde
118. tation items are played back by setting the channel or playlist picker type The in rotation picker can be set to play back items in order shuffled or randomly using a weighted frequency Each in rotation item can additionally be set with a daypart schedule that enables or disables the item during specific hours or days of the week and activation expiration dates that define when the item should start and stop playing Note You can synchronize in rotation content from multiple channels For details see page 103 Recurring page 88 You can use this schedule type to schedule content to play at regular repeated intervals for example every 15 minutes or every hour A recurring item can be set to either interrupt playing content when it s time for it to play or to wait politely for the playing content to end before starting Like In rotation items you can set a daypart schedule to only enable the recurring item during specific hours of the day CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 85 Adding items to a channel Timed page 89 When you want content to play once at a specific time on a specific date or day of week you can use this schedule type Like recurring items timed items can be set to interrupt playing content at the play time if desired Note If you establish a schedule of synchronized in rotation content as described on page 103 be very careful when scheduling timed content If the timed content interrupts a schedule
119. th spaces 3 Select aname and location to save the file onto your hard drive 52 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC About Content 4 About Content What is CoolSign content Content is perhaps the most important element within a CoolSign Digital Media Network Without content your screens would be dark While CoolSign does not include tools for the authoring of digital assets like bitmaps and video it supports most of the standard digital file formats used by today s content creation applications including MPEG 2 Windows Media 9 Flash Photoshop bitmaps and with this release PowerPoint slides Creating CoolSign content The assets used within CoolSign content can be authored using any of the many available professional content authoring tools like Adobe After Effects Adobe Photoshop Adobe Flash and Apple FinalCut Pro Once you have created the digital assets for your content you can convert those assets into CoolSign content by using the CoolSign Content Wizard You can then use CoolSign Manager to import the CoolSign content saved out by these tools into a CoolSign network CoolSign Content Wizard The CoolSign Content Wizard is included with all CoolSign software and is designed to convert supported file formats into CoolSign content The Content Wizard has a simple interface that allows you to import a file set content properties like name duration and transition select a thumbnail fra
120. th the comments grid and enter your comment into the field provided To remove a comment Select the comment in the comments grid and click the Remove button Viewing information about content You can use the Content Properties dialog to view information about your content For example you can review where your content is scheduled any issues that the content may be having and retrieve play history reports for the content Viewing the assets used within content You can view the names of the asset files that are part of a content item from the Assets tab of the Content Properties dialog To view the assets used within a content item From the Content Properties dialog select the Assets tab 66 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Content To edit the control script for a content item 1 In the Assets tab of the Content Properties dialog click the Edit Control Script button 2 In the Edit Control Script dialog make any desired changes to the control script XML 3 Click OK to close the dialog 4 Click OK or Apply Changes to save your changes Note You should only attempt to edit the control script of content if you are familiar with hand editing content scripts Invalid content scripts will result in content errors and will prevent your content from being played Viewing where content is scheduled You can quickly view all the channels and players where a selected piece of cont
121. the number of displayed weeks 1 Click Options to open the View Options menu View Options Show 2 weeks T Show loop duration x 2 Set the number of visible weeks from 1 to 8 100 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Viewing the loop duration Managing Channels If you are interested in managing the total duration of the In Rotation items scheduled in a channel you can use the Loop Duration panel You can check the total duration of all content scheduled in rotation by day You can also set a minimum and maximum loop duration to receive visual indication of when the duration of your loop exceeds or is under your settings Thu 3 30 Never Thu 3 30 Never rai Y Loop duration 136 4 136 1 20 7 1 20 Click to open the Loop Yellow indicates that the total Blue indicates that the total loop menu loop length is less than the mini length is within the min and max mum set in the loop menu set in the loop menu Red indicates that the total loop length is longer than the maximum set in the loop menu To display the Loop Duration panel 1 Click Options to open the View Options menu 2 Check Show Loop Duration To set the Max Loop and Min Loop settings 1 Click Loop Duration to open the Loop menu Loop Maxloop 6000 seconds Min loop 0 seconds 2 Set the minimum d
122. to a channel you can set properties that define how the scheduled item will play back in the channel including daypart scheduling activation expiration dates and enabling expressions CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 83 Adding items to a channel To add a scheduled item to a channel 1 From the Channel Properties dialog click Add In Rotation Item The Content Chooser dialog appears elect the items to add to the schedule content Format Landscape Type here to search ak quicksets f D Format 0 03 C Landscape 0 03 C Landscape 0 03 CI Landscape 0 03 C Landscape 3D_tattoos 1 14 CI Landscape 0 03 C Landscape 0 03 C Landscape 0 03 CI Landscape 0 03 C Landscape 0 03 CI Landscape 0 03 C Landscape Show All Items Dynamic Content Expired Content HD Content Scheduled Content Unscheduled Content 2 To add content to the channel select a content item to add You can select multiple items if you want to add more than one item at once with the same scheduled item settings 3 To add a playlist to the channel click the Playlists tab and select one or more playlists to add 4 Click OK to close the Content Chooser dialog and open the Scheduled Items Properties dia log 5 Set any scheduled items properties and the daypart schedule to define how the content or playlist will play within your channel For more information see About scheduled items on pag
123. ts otherwise the player creates a new site with that name automatically You can edit the properties of the player created site to add geographic information or other metadata See Editing site properties on page 133 You can create new sites as needed to reorganize your players To create a new site 1 Right click anywhere in the site panel to display the sites popup menu CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 131 Working with players and sites 2 Choose Create Site A new Site Properties dialog appears If you right clicked on a country state or city node in the sites panel the new site is automatically set to that geographic region as Sitel Players General Site Hours Attributes Name sitet Address Address1 Address2 City State Province Region Zip Code Postal Code Country United States Comments Date Comment Add Remove al Apply Changes 3 Enter a site name 4 Enter the address information for the site into the fields provided 5 Click OK new empty site will be created in the site treelist Assigning a player to a site Players can be assigned to a site when originally configured during installation If your player was assigned during install to an incorrect site or was left to the Default site you can easily reassign the player to a different site
124. twork CoolSign Manager 4 5 6 File Edit Views Tools Actions Help players Me hereto sesh 2 LA ake Site Default Site Hours 12 00 AM to Show All Items UserProperties xyz Default Site Fullame Format Channel Now Playing Region Status Display Status content Undefined country Player 3 gt Regio 9 Audio Channeli O Retired Undefined state Virtual Player C Landscape Default Channel pending Virtual a dt Undefined city opti330 C Landscape PlayNow with a PlayList C ok audio E North West VMXP C Landscape PlayNow with a PlayList C Offline dynamic data Opti755 C Landscape PlayNow with a PlayList C 5 ok ann Player Player 1 Landscape Enabling Expression Chan ired E opti745 C Landscape Channel3 Static Pixel Dyn Pixel House listing Ok No Connectio data tables scheduks channels l z mm a playlists Options players quicksets O of 7 selected 130 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Sites Viewing all the players within a site When you click on a site node in the sites panel the data grid displays only the players located in that site or geographic location Clicking on a city state or country node shows you all of the players in all of the sites located underneath that node This makes it easy to quickly filter your view of players from anywhere from
125. u can only override which data table is used For more information on localizing data see Localizing data on page 165 5 If you want to override the master expression prescript click Edit Prescript Expression 6 Click OK For more information on dynamic data and content binding see Chapter 14 About Dynamic Data on page 161 Playing content on demand Play Content Now If necessary you can direct the CoolSign Manager to play content on demand even if that would require interrupting content that is currently playing To play content on demand 1 In the Players page select the player region where you want to run the content 2 Right click Play Content Now CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 127 Playing content on demand Play Content Now 3 In the Content dialog select the content that you want to play immediately If content is listed in black it is available to play immediately e If content is listed in red it is not currently available on the Player node and begins playing after the content has been transferred to the Player Note Clicking Download Content Play Next or Play Now causes the selected content to be transferred to the Player node 4 Click Play Now The new content begins to play immediately in the selected player region 128 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Sites 11 Managing Sites CoolSign is designed to support everything
126. uide O 61 Using the Content Properties dialog Note Content is only updated on players that are currently online If a player is offline it will automatically receive any updates to modified content as soon as it comes back online Name juniorsTops_Landscape Version 2 Format Landscape Resolution 848x480 Size 7 55 MB Duration 00 00 15 00 orange tee Volume Gain 0 Transition In Type Fade Length 1 0 seconds Color i r Content Resize Settings V Scale content to fit display V Preserve aspect ratio when scaling m When aspect ratio does not match display Crop edges of content 5 Letterbox content m Content Activationf Expiration Activates GiNow Mat 1 Preview Co pisni Expires Never at Comments Date User Comment 8 420105 13PM EE Genesee Remove i Apply Changes Cancel In the Content Properties dialog the General tab allows you to view and or modify the following properties of the selected content Name The content s name is used wherever the content is referred to including playlogs and scheduled items Version Each time the content is modified or updated the version number is incremented Format Displays the player format that this content was authored for Content can only be scheduled in regions that match their format This value cannot be modified 62 Q Cool
127. uration in seconds that you want your loop to play If your loop length is less than this value the Loop Duration panel will display a yellow warning color 3 Set the maximum duration in seconds that you want your loop to play If your loop length is greater than this value the Loop Duration panel will display a red warning color CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 101 Cutting copying and pasting scheduled items Cutting copying and pasting scheduled items You can cut copy and paste scheduled items to different channels or you can copy just the schedule properties from a scheduled item and apply it to another scheduled item When you copy and paste a scheduled item you are duplicating the entire scheduled item including the content or playlist that is scheduled When you just copy an item s schedule properties you are only copying the settings for the scheduled item and can then apply those settings to another scheduled item without changing the content or playlist that is scheduled To cut or copy a scheduled item Select the scheduled item and do one of the following Enter Ctrl C to copy or Ctrl X to cut e Right click and choose Cut or Copy To paste a scheduled item 1 Open a Channel Properties dialog 2 Click within the channel grid to give focus to the grid 3 Enter Ctrl P or right click and choose Paste To copy the schedule properties from a scheduled item e Right click on the scheduled item and
128. uring a Media List data parser 184 Configuring a Database data parser ss 184 Configuring a Regular Expression data parser 185 Step 4 Map data source fields to CoolSign data tables oc sssssescsscseessesneenes 185 Auto populating field mappings ss 187 Configuring field MappingS ss nm nu iten et 187 Setting value Mapping nant ianee 188 Step 5 Set data table properties sen 190 Setting the update frequency 190 Setting the update method nn 191 Setting row expiration sssseesssseessseessseesssseessssseeseesesesessseossseessseeessseeessseeessseeessee 191 Firing triggers automatically sesssesssssssssssssssssessssoesoosoeseossoseesesseoseeseeseeeereeeereee 192 Step 6 Test the Data Watcher configuration ss 193 Managing Data Watcher configurations ss 193 To reconfigure a Data Watcher ss 193 To delete a Data Watcher node nn 195 Editing the Data Watcher service configuration ss 195 Editing Data Watcher configurations locally with the standalone Data Watcher Editor eesssssessssssessssssessscsessseseesnseseees 196 Deleting Data Watcher configurations ss 196 Importing Media assets into data tables 197 16 Managing Data Tables Working with data tables wcuivciisatiiaddcanaana dunn i 199 To create a new empty data table oe ss 199 Editing an existing data table 200 CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide O 11 Deleting an existing data table 200 Defining a data table structure s
129. value Value Data Table CoolSign v4 5 CoolSign Manager User Guide Q 93 Adding items to a channel Note The enabling expression is evaluated each time a scheduled item is supposed to play If it evaluates to true the scheduled item plays back as scheduled otherwise the item does not play For example if you have a data table that contains the local weather for a player you could use an enabling expression to play back content for umbrellas only in case of rain Enabling expressions can only be used to enable disable an item from playing back as it is scheduled You can t use enabling expressions to force items to play To force items to play based on external data see Chapter 20 Managing Triggers on page 235 Adding or editing an enabling expression 1 Double click an item in a channel and open the Schedule Item Properties dialog 2 Click the Enabling Expression tab Schedule Properties Dynamic Data Enabling Expression Only play if Parameter 1 Source Choose a sou Condition Choose a condition Parameter 2 Source value Ty Field Value Choose a field Following is a basic enabling expression that you can set up to evaluate against Rain being in the Condition field of the data table Weather The intent is for the umbrella advertisement to play each time it rains Select Data Table Weather
130. view the thumbnails for content in your channel 98 Q CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Channels To display content thumbnails in the channel grid e Right click in any column header and choose Show Thumbnails Working with the timeline view The graphical timeline in the channel grid visually displays when a scheduled item is active across a span of weeks You can configure the timeline to show from one to eight weeks and to calculate the total loop duration of scheduled content You can also directly modify a scheduled item s activation and expiration dates by clicking and dragging within the timeline Understanding the timeline The timeline indicates the active state of the content during the current week and for two to eight weeks into the future Right click the date to directly select a Use these arrow buttons to move to the pre Click the Options menu to set week to display vious or next week additional options to configure the timeline lt Week of Mar 26 2006 DP Week of Apr 02 2006 Options v This pattern represents z Sa El the daypart schedule for the item EEHEHE You can drag the handles to change the activation expira tion dates for an item Indicates that this week has an overridden daypart schedule The checkerboard pattern indicates that the con tent is not active or has expire
131. you need to modify the content externally or transfer it to another network To export content from your CoolSign network 1 In the Content Manager data grid select one or more content items that you wish to export 2 Choose Actions gt Export Content 3 Select a destination folder from the Browse for Folder dialog 4 Click OK A content export progress dialog will appear Tip You should always backup your content externally from CoolSign in case you experience any issues that result in loss of data or corruption Deleting content If you no longer plan to use a content item you may choose to delete it from the network Deleted content is immediately removed from any channels or playlists and ceases playback on all players where it is scheduled WARNING Previous versions of CoolSign Manager provided a recycle bin from which you could recover deleted content This functionality is no longer available in CoolSign Manager Deleted content cannot be recovered Be sure that you have a backup of your content outside of the sys tem If you want to export your content from the system before deleting refer to the above sec tion on Exporting Content To delete content 1 In the Content Manager datagrid select the content you want to delete You can select mul tiple items 60 O CoolSign Manager User Guide 2006 2010 CS Software Holdings LLC Managing Content 2 Do one of the following Choose Edit gt Delete Right c

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