Broadsign Control Edge Server

Broadsign Control Edge Server is a content-caching software that works on any commodity PC running Windows or Linux.

It optimizes how groups of Broadsign Control Players, or other Broadsign Control Edge Servers, obtain their content from the Broadsign cloud.

Use Broadsign Control Edge Server to download your files on the local area network at a faster speed than over the Internet.

On this page, you will find the following sections:

On other pages in the Broadsign Control Edge Server section, you will find:

When a player requests content from an edge server, the edge server first checks to see if the content is already present in its document folder. If the content is present, it transmits it to the player. If not, it will request the content from Broadsign Server and then transmit it to the player.

Downloading files locally from an edge server is much quicker than downloading them over the Internet. This also reduces external bandwidth requirements which may be substantial with a large number of players.

The first time Broadsign Control Edge Server is set up, you must activate it before it will appear within your domain.

Prerequisites

Install Broadsign Control Edge Server on your system.

You must create a registration resource, in Broadsign Control Administrator, for edge servers that you would like to activate.

System registration is required to ensure that only authorized systems connect to your domain. Broadsign Control Administrator uses network card MAC addresses, as well as various other hardware properties to identify players and edge servers.

When creating a new registration, if your system has two network adapters, both MAC addresses must be entered, even if a particular network adapter is not in use or disabled. Systems with only one network adapter need enter only one MAC address.

There are two methods for creating registrations in Broadsign Control Administrator:

  • Manual registration
  • Importing a CSV file containing the necessary details

Note: You can create CSV files from most spreadsheet applications. A template file with the proper format is available in the Broadsign Client Portal for download.

You can use the player software to find your network card’s MAC address(es):

  1. Launch the player on the system to be registered.
  2. Press the Escape button to exit full screen mode.
  3. Go to Help > About. Primary and secondary MAC addresses are listed towards the bottom of the 'About' dialog.

You can also consult the operating system's listing of network adapters:

  • For a system running a Microsoft Windows operating system, in a command prompt, type ipconfig /all.
  • For a system running an Ubuntu operating system, in a shell, type /sbin/ifconfig -a.

The physical address is a series of numbers and letters (hexadecimal) such as the following:

00-D0-97-92-A3-B6

Registrations may specify a container to place the player or edge server in once the registration process has completed. Player registrations may also specify a display unit with which to associate the player with. Finally, it is possible to specify that the player or edge server being registered is intended to replace another unit. Please note that as soon as a registration is created which specifies a replacement unit, the replacement unit will immediately be retired. As this is the case, it is recommended that replacement registrations only be used to replace systems that are not deployed in a production environment.

For more information about registrations, see Registrations.

Warning: The registration process requires a unique MAC address from a physical network card, therefore MAC addresses generated by virtual machines (Virtual MACs) cannot be used to license a player.

Once a registration has been created for a system, the registration will be licensed by Broadsign during our regular business hours.

Please note that this process may require up to two hours to occur.

The activation process also requires that the player or edge server application establish a connection to Broadsign Server. Once this occurs and the registration has been licensed, the registration will be promoted to either a player (see Players (Resource)) or an edge server (see Edge Servers (Resource)) (whichever was specified when creating the registration) and will appear in the right section of Broadsign Control Administrator.

Troubleshooting

If you have completed all of these steps and are still unable to see your resource in Broadsign Control Administrator, please run through the list below to ensure that your system is able to establish a connection to Broadsign Server.

Edit your registration and check the status (see Edit Registration Properties). The status will confirm how many steps of the registration process have been completed and displays instructions detailing the next step required to activate the resource.

If the system contains multiple network cards, please ensure that you have provided all available MAC addresses from the system in your registration, and that these MAC addresses were entered correctly. If a mistake was made entering the MAC address, the registration should be canceled and a new one created.

Note: Ensure that the system, on which the player is running, can access the player through ports 10799 and 10805. For more information, see Network Access Rules.