Players (Resource)

Player resources in Broadsign Control Administrator represent PCs running Broadsign Control Player.

Note: Edge servers and players are unique resources in Broadsign Control in that they are both products (Broadsign Control Player and Broadsign Control Edge Server) and resources (player and edge server). As a convention, once you register one of these products, we no longer refer to it by product name, but by resource name.

Players communicate with Broadsign Server to receive their scheduling information and display proper content. Also, through Broadsign Control Administrator, you can manage a player's interaction with other resources. For example, you can assign a player to a display unit.

Adding a new player to the network requires a new registration. Since each player is uniquely identified by their MAC Address, each registration needs to use a different MAC Address. Duplicate entries will be rejected.

Note: To correct time differences on the Player PC compared to the Server it is possible to enable the Fix Time Skew parameter in the configurations. See Settings Section - The Core Tab.

If you select Players from the resource tabs on the left, then right-click anywhere in the work area, you will see this menu:

  • Edit Player – Opens the Player Properties dialogue box. See Edit Player Properties.
  • Remove Player from Display Unit – Removes selected player from its associated display unit. If the player is unattached to any display unit, this option will be greyed out. See Display Units.
  • Export Player Package – Opens file explorer to begin player package export process. See Export a Player Package.

  • Poll Now (Live Add-on) – Remotely request a single player or multiple players to poll the server immediately and apply changes.

    Note: You can only access this feature if you have enabled Broadsign Control Live on your domain. For more information, contact your Sales representative or Broadsign Services.

  • Add Player Folder – Opens the Add Folder Wizard dialogue box.
  • Edit Folder – Opens the Player Folder Properties dialogue box.
  • Download Report – Generates the Download report. See Download Report.
  • Bandwidth Report – Generates the Bandwidth report. See Bandwidth Report.
  • Incident Report – Generates the Incident report. See Incident Report.
  • Network Health Report – Generates the Network Health report. See Network Health Report.
  • Network Status Report – Generates the Network Status report. See Network Status Report.
  • Service Panel – Opens the service panel for the selected edge server. See Service Panel.
  • Loop Snapshot Report – Generates the Loop Snapshot report. See Loop Snapshot Report.

For general information about adding, editing and deactivating resources, see Overview - Resources.

As with edge servers, you need to register players before you can use them as resources in your network. See Registrations.

Use "export package" and "checksum" when you need to push content and scheduling changes to a player that is without network connectivity.

Note: Network connectivity is required at least once for player registration. For more information, see Register a Player.

To export a player package:

To export a player package, use one of the following methods:

  • Go to the Operations ribbon, and then select the Export Player Package icon.

  • From the resource tabs on the left, select Players. Then, right-click anywhere in the work area. From the contextual menu, select Export Player Package.

Note: To export several players at once, select the player root or a player folder.

By default, your file explorer will open. Broadsign will prompt you to select a driver or folder in which to save the export package. We recommend the root of the drive of a connected USB key, for example g:. Broadsign Control Administrator will retrieve all the scheduling and configuration details, and content, and copy it to a folder named bs_export. You can export multiple players to the same USB key.

To ensure that the export is uncorrupted, Broadsign will export a checksum for each file -- bs_checksum.txt -- to the root of the export folder (bs_export). If successful, you will receive the following message:

The file will have the following format:

96446a196be13dc6da4f094f179ce573 1234567/bsp.db

37CF047BC8B786316BBC0826746F1983 1234567/poll_snapshot

417cc33a8ab373ee326daa755e36b699 content/999999.mov

Note: In the event that the checksum appears entirely as zeros, the error protection will prevent this file from being downloaded. We recommend that you repeat the export procedure.

Broadsign Control Player will automatically check for mounted USB keys. Insert the USB key and wait 30 seconds. If it detects a bs_export folder in the root of the drive, it will see if there is a package that matches its unique identifiers. If so, it will initiate the copy process, backing up the existing player’s bsp.db and poll_snapshot and copying over the content. The player will then restart and show the new content and/or schedules.

The bsp.db file is for backward compatibility only. The scheduling information is in the poll_snapshot file.

If the USB key is already inserted when the player starts, it will not load from the USB key. It must only be inserted after the player has started. Seeing as the restore process ends with a player restart and the USB key will likely still be inserted at that point, this avoids an infinite cycle of the player re-loading itself over and over again.

On Linux, please make sure your USB drive is set to automount. Otherwise, the USB key will never be detected.

Restoring via USB can only be performed for registered and licensed players.

Scanned Folders

On Windows, the player will scan for export packages in d:, e:, f:, etc, all the way to z: every 30 seconds.

On Linux, the player will scan for export packages in /media/sdb1, /media/sdb2, etc, all the way to /media/sdz1 every 30 seconds.

Note: Ensure that your operating system is configured to automatically mount the USB key on a proper scanned path; otherwise, the export package won’t be found.

If the USB key is already inserted when the player starts, it will not load from the USB key. It must only be inserted after the player has started. Seeing as the restore process ends with a player restart and the USB key will likely still be inserted at that point, this avoids an infinite cycle of the player re-loading itself over and over again.

On Linux, please make sure your USB drive is set to automount. Otherwise, the USB key will never be detected.

Restoring via USB can only be performed for registered and licensed players.

To edit a player, use one of the following methods:

  • From the list panel, select a player. Then, from the view bar, select Edit.

  • From the list panel, double-click on a player.

Player properties contain the following sections:

The General tab contains a Retire button which will permanently deactivate the player.

The Number of Monitors Tab

The number of monitors connected to a playback PC can be specified in the Number of Monitors tab of the Player Properties dialog.

This value is used for repetition calculation and reporting in Broadsign Control. For instance, if a playback PC was connected to four different screens through a video distribution system, all displaying the same content, assigning it a monitor count of four would cause it to report four repetitions for every time an ad copy is loaded up and displayed.

You can also set a player to have no monitors at all. Note that this does not affect playback in any way and the player can still have actual monitors connected. Setting a player to no monitors is useful when a testing system needs to be inserted into a campaign for auditing purposes. With the no monitors setting, the testing player will not affect the estimated or achieved repetitions of the campaign.

The Display Unit Tab

The Display Unit tab of the Player Properties dialog shows the name of the display unit to which the player is assigned.

Any content scheduled to that display unit will be displayed by the player system associated with the current player resource. Associating a player to a display unit is done by:

When a player is associated with a display unit, the player will not perceive the change until it has polled the server. After a new resource is created or an existing resource is modified using Broadsign Control Administrator, the player may experience a delay of up to 30 seconds in receiving this new parameter setting. This is due to the method in which Broadsign Server caches information for scalability reasons. Pushing a poll immediately after the change may not invoke the new setting. However, as the player proceeds with its automatic polling, it will receive the new configuration and apply it.

The Hardware Address Tab

The hardware MAC address of a system is used to identify a playback PC on the network and associate it with a corresponding player resource. It is gathered automatically by Broadsign Server when a new playback PC first makes contact with it and listed in the Hardware Address tab of the Player Properties dialog.

The Credentials Tab

You can add a public key fingerprint to your player. This options helps when troubleshooting a problem with duplicate MAC addresses. See Duplicate MAC Addresses.

The Contacts Tab

Player contacts receive email notifications about their corresponding player system's activities. Contacts assigned to a player can be viewed in the Contacts tab of the Player Properties dialog. Extra contacts can be added or removed in this tab.

For more information, see Create a Contact or Contacts.

The Monitoring Tab

The Monitoring tab in the Player Properties dialog allows you to associate incident thresholds with your players, which will assist you in dealing quickly with any issues that may arise. Keep in mind that any incident thresholds set at the player level will override any applicable domain level incident thresholds.

You can associate an incident threshold to your player by clicking Add in the Monitoring tab. This will open the Add Incident Threshold wizard, which will allow you to select the incident type using the drop-down list and set the threshold's escalation options. The incident thresholds that can be set on this resource are Display – Not Full Screen, MIA, and Unexpected Shutdown.

For more information, see Monitoring.

The Configuration Tab

A player can have its player service and parameter settings, such as its poll rate or expected downloads behavior, edited through Broadsign Control Administrator by assigning a player configuration profile to it. A player configuration profile is a template of preset service and parameter values provided by Broadsign Control.

To assign a player configuration profile to a player system, the profile must be associated with the player. This is done in the Configuration tab in the Settings group of the Player Properties dialog, which can be accessed by selecting the Edit Player option from the player contextual menu.

In the Configuration tab, click the Select button and select the desired profile. When the corresponding Player next polls the Server, it will apply the new configuration settings.

While a remote configuration profile is assigned to a player, it no longer obeys its local configuration settings. However, when a setting cannot be found in the remote configuration, the player falls back to its local configuration settings. To use the local profile settings again, the remote configuration profile must be unlinked from the player by using the Clear option in the Configuration tab.

The Volume Tab

You can remotely specify the system’s volume level in this tab. Changing the volume directly on the player allows you to control the system’s absolute – or baseline – volume level for all ad copies. To remotely control the volume of individual ad copies on a relative basis, see Ad Copy Volume.

The Variables Tab

The Variables tab allows you to define content variables that will be injected into HTML5 files as they play. For more information, see Content Variables.

The Reboot Tab

You can use the Reboot tab to reboot the player on the next poll by clicking the Request a reboot button.

The Last reboot request field indicates the date/time, in UTC time, when the player was last requested to reboot.

In the list panel of explorer view, each resource has a column selector menu. With this menu, you can configure the list panel to display information you want.

To access a resource's column selector menu:

  1. From the view bar, select Explorer view.
  2. In the list panel, hover your pointer over the panel header.
  3. Right-click, and the column selector menu will appear.

  4. Select as many column options as you want.

  • Id – Indicates the unique ID number of the resource. See Overview - Resources.
  • Active – Indicates whether the resource is in an "active" or "inactive" state. See Overview - Resources.
  • Folder Id – Indicates the unique ID number of the resource folder.
  • Domain Id – Indicates the unique ID number of the domain. See The General Section.
  • Primary MAC Address – The player's primary MAC address.
  • Secondary MAC Address – The player's secondary MAC address.
  • Licensed – Indicates whether or not Broadsign has licensed the player.
  • License End Date – The date by which the player's current license will expire.
  • Configuration Id – The numeric ID # of the configuration profile associated with this player.
  • Public Key Fingerprint – A unique alphanumeric code that Broadsign assigns to the player, upon registration.
  • Remote Reboot – Indicates the date/time, in UTC time, that Broadsign last requested the player to reboot. See The Reboot Tab.
  • Remote Clear Database – Indicates the date/time, in UTC time, that Broadsign last requested the player to clear its database.
  • Display Unit Id – The numeric ID # of the display unit associated with this player. See Display Units.
  • Number of Screens – The number of screens associated with this player.
  • Volume – Indicates the volume of the player, from 0-100%, depending on your operating system (Windows, Linux or Android).
  • Latitude/Longitude Coordinates – The latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates of this player.
  • Version – The version # of the player (for example, v13.0).
  • Private IP – The IP address of the player.

The Network Status Report contains a global network view of the status of all players.

After you have added a player to your network, you can then move on to other basic steps: