BRIGHTSIGN QUICK START GUIDE FOR HD110, HD210, HD410, HD810, HD1010 BrightSign, LLC. 16795 Lark Ave., Suite 200 Los Gatos, CA 95032 | 408-852-9263 | www.brightsign.
TABLE OF CONTENTS What’s in the box? 1 Connecting speakers 7 What is BrightSign? 2 Setting up BrightSign Players 8 Benefits 2 Creating presentations 11 Capabilities 2 Creating a full-screen presentation 11 Models 3 Creating a multiple zone presentation 13 Getting Started 4 Creating an interactive presentation 19 Connecting a display 5 Publishing Presentations 23 Using a VGA cable 5 Next steps 26 Using an HDMI cable 6
What’s in the box? BrightSign Player Rubber feet Power Adapter Cable Mount SD slot cover International prongs Cable tie Tip: Use the cable mount and ties to keep the cables securely attached to your BrightSign player. Note: An SD card is not included in the package, but it is required for the player to function. Note: The BrightSign TD1012 package includes only the tabletop display and power adapter. The solid-state media player and battery are built into the display.
What is BrightSign? A BrightSign player is a standalone digital sign or kiosk controller. Because BrightSign players are non-PC devices with no moving parts, they are durable and designed specifically for digital signs, making them an ideal solution for information kiosks, retail displays, museum exhibits, and more.
• Play live video using a USB video dongle accessory. Note: Currently, only the HD1010w supports the Live Video module. This can be purchased from the BrightSign Store. • Schedule content to play at specific times (hour, day, month, year). • Create looping displays. • Display RSS feeds and other network information. • Display HTML5 content (available on the XD230, XD1030, and XD1230 only).
Getting Started 1. Download the QuickStart.zip file from the following URL: www.brightsign.biz/quickstart. 2. Unzip the file to a location on your PC. 3. Double-click the Setup.exe file and follow the on-screen instructions to install the BrightAuthor software.
Connecting a display Using a VGA cable Note: The connectors on BrightSign players vary by model. Your BrightSign player may have different connectors from those displayed above.
Using an HDMI cable Note: The connectors on BrightSign players vary by model. Your BrightSign player may have different connectors from those displayed above.
Connecting speakers If your presentations include audio, you can route the audio through an HDMI display that you connect to your BrightSign player, or you can connect powered speakers to your BrightSign player.
Setting up BrightSign Players Before you can create and publish presentations, you must first set up the BrightSign players. To set up a player, you need to create setup files in BrightAuthor and add those files to a storage device (SD card or USB flash drive). Afterward, insert the storage (usually an SD card) into the BrightSign player. Remember that if you are using an SD card, it must be formatted using FAT32 for the player to receive network updates and generate logs.
• BrightSign Network: Assign the unit to a group. The player will receive presentations assigned to this group. Set a Network Connection Frequency and an Update Health Frequency. • Simple File Networking: In the URL for web folder text field, set the location from which the unit will download presentations. Set a Network Connection Frequency.
6. Under Logging, set your logging preferences. 7. Click Create Setup Files. 8. Select an SD card or USB flash drive (HD810, HD1010, HD1010w, and HD1020 only) to store the setup files. Click OK. Note: You must format your SD storage using FAT32 for the player to receive network updates and generate logs. You should only format the storage using NTFS if you need to play media files that are 4GB or larger in size. 9. Turn off your BrightSign player by unplugging the power adapter.
Creating presentations This guide describes how to create three types of presentations: a full-screen presentation, a multi-zone presentation, and an interactive presentation. Creating a full-screen presentation When you need to create presentations with more than one media file, you can use playlists to play multiple files in a loop. This section shows you how to create a playlist using BrightAuthor and the sample files provided in the Quick Start kit. 1. Create a new BrightSign project: a.
5. Drag one or more files to the playlist area. 6. You can set the order in which files play by dragging them to the playlist area in the desired order. You can change the order of files already in the playlist by clicking a file and dragging it to a new position. 7. To edit how long each file plays in the presentation, right-click a file and click Edit. Change the Time on Screen field and click OK. 8. On the Menu bar, click File > Save… to store your presentation.
Creating a multiple zone presentation Using BrightSign zones, you can divide your signage screen into windows and play different types of content in each window, including video, audio, images, ticker feeds (RSS or text), or date and time. You can also control transitions between media files, background color, background image, font, text color, text alignment, and text orientation.
• Zone 2 is an image zone. You can add images to this type of zone, and you can add as many image zones as you like to a presentation. Note: Next, we’re going to resize Zones 1 and 2 and then add and populate a new zone.
5. Resize the existing zones: a. Click Layout on the upper-left side of the screen under Edit. b. Select and drag the bottom of the Video Or Images zone to make the zone shorter. c. Select and drag the bottom of the Images zone to make both zones the same height.
Note: Alternatively, you can also make the height and width of each zone exact using the W and H fields on the left. 6. Add a new zone: a. Click Add Zone, select Ticker, and then click OK. b. Drag the Ticker zone to the lower left corner. c. Select and drag a corner of the Ticker zone and resize it to fit below the other two zones.
Note: Zone 3 is a Ticker zone. You can add RSS feeds and Text files to this type of zone. You can mix both RSS and Text files, and use multiple RSS and Text files in the same Ticker zone. 7. Populate the Ticker zone: a. Click Playlist on the left side of the taskbar next to Layout.
b. Under Zone, click Zone 3: This is the Ticker zone. c. Under Media Library, click the Text tab. d. Click Browse, locate the QuickStartKit\Content folder, and then click OK. e. Drag the BrightSign_Text_feed.txt file into the Zone 3 playlist area. 8. To add an RSS feed instead of a text file, follow the steps above, but replace steps 7c –7e with the following: Note: Internet connection and a networked player are required to use RSS feeds. c. Under Media Library, click the RSS tab. d.
Creating an interactive presentation All models except the HD110 support various types of interactivity. For a complete list of features and details for each BrightSign model, see the BrightSign Product Comparison Matrix. This section of the guide will teach you how to create an interactive presentation with a GPIO device attached to your BrightSign player.
a. Double-click the Menu_3option.jpg thumbnail. b. In the Media Properties window, click the Set as initial state box. If the box is already checked, the file is currently the Home Screen. c. Click OK. 10. Link the Menu image to the Attract video (Attract.mpg) with the interactive event Button 0. Once the event is defined and the Menu image is playing, pressing Button 0 will cause the presentation to transition to the Attract video file. To define the interactive event, follow these steps: a.
11. Link the Menu image to the Interact (Interact.mpg) and Zones (ZONES.mpg) videos with the interactive events Button 1 and Button 2, respectively.
Once the events are defined and the Menu image is playing, pressing Button 1 will cause the presentation to transition to the Interact video. Pressing Button 2 will transition to the Zones video. To define the interactive events, follow these steps: a. Click Button 1 on the event bar. b. Click and hold the bottom of the Menu_3option.jpg thumbnail (the pointer changes to a hand). c. Drag the hand pointer to the Interact.mpg thumbnail. d. Click Button 2 on the event bar. e.
Publishing Presentations After creating a presentation, you can publish the content to your BrightSign player using one of four methods: Local Storage, Local Networking, Simple File Networking, or the BrightSign Network. This guide will teach you how to publish your presentations to an SD card and update your BrightSign player manually. For details on the other publishing methods, see the BrightAuthor User Guide.
In the screen shot above, the presentation is set to “Active all day, every day” 7. Under Publish to, click Browse, select the drive where your SD card is located, and then click OK. 8. Click Publish. When the Publish Complete window opens, click OK.
9. Turn off your BrightSign player by unplugging the power adapter. 10. Insert the SD card used in the above steps into the BrightSign player. 11. Turn on the BrightSign player by reconnecting the power adapter. 12. Leave the SD card in the player. A local storage device (SD card or USB flash drive) must always remain inserted in the BrightSign player, regardless of which publishing method you are using.
Next steps Visit these areas of our webpage to get the most from your BrightSign player: • Documentation: Get the latest user guides, release notes, scripting references, hardware reference manuals, and regulatory guides. • • Demos: Get an overview of what BrightSign players are capable of by downloading the demos. Tutorials: Get step-by-step instructions on how to use BrightAuthor to create presentations, publish presentations, and more.
