DMXW PE v5.x

Digital Media Appliance Version v5.x Personal Edition for Microsoft Windows (DMX-W-PE)

User Manual - English

Introduction

The DMX5-W-PE Appliance Digital Media Software is the next generation of WEB based content management play-out software for Digital Signage applications.

DMX5-W-PE software edition allows you to build a Digital Signage Appliance from any PC running Microsoft Windows XP, XP embedded, Vista and 7 32/64bit.

Download

The latest DMX5-W can be downloaded here: http://85.214.157.130/software/DMX-5.3.1/Install.zip

Installation

Please unpack the Install.zip and double click on the setup.exe.

Press Next to see the component overview.

Click on Install to start the server-part installation.

When pressing Next you will see the License Agreement dialog.

Click on Next when you accept the Agreement. Then you can select the folder for installation.

Select an entry in the Start Menu.

Select additional Tasks

Press Next to see the Port-configuration dialog.

In many cases the default port 80 is already used by some other applications on PCs/Servers. In this case you can select any other free port. By clicking on Get port the suggested port number 1054 will be used. Also you can verify your selected port.

Please don't forget to add this port number when connecting the server (via Web-Interface or DMP) - otherwise the player can not connect or you can not see the login screen of the DMS!

The next Screen shows the installation settings overview. Pressing Install will start the installation.

After installation has finished you have to license the Server.

On the next Screen you can choose between 30-Days Trial or full version.

If you select full version you have to enter the username and key for the license.

If you have a proper license you can start using the application.

Now Press Finish to start the Server.

There should be a round tray-icon which color inidicates the status of the server:

• Red: Server stopped
  
• Yellow: Server starting/stopping
  
• Green: Server running

The next step is to install the player-part called DMP.

Click on Next to begin installation.

Accept the Agreement and click on Next.

Then you can select the folder for installation.

Select an entry in the Start Menu.

Select additional Tasks.

Let the Check Dependencies option checked to install required 3rd party packages as Adobe FlashPlayer, Microsoft .NET Framework, Microsoft Visual C++ Libraries, Microsoft DirectX, Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer and Codec-Packages.

Also recommended for remote support is the installation of TeamViewer client.

By pressing Next you will get an overview which packages will be installed.

Press Next to install the required packages.

Following dialog lets you start the DMP-W.

Before the DMP can start we have to configure it.

The Optimize settings now option is recommended. There the user will be asked some question about Player usage and sets automatically the best options.

Except the Cancel option you will end up on the configuration screen shown above. Here you can manually change some settings if needed or just click the OK Button to save and close the window.

Important note!
Don't forget to setup the right DMS Address and login-data. Following entries should be set:

• Address: localhost:port e.g. localhost:1054
  
• User: admin
  
• Password: 123

Press Finish to complete the installation.

Congratulations - you have installed successfully the DMX.

In case there are updates available you will see a notification window showing current revision and new revision of the update.

Please wait until you see the following window that indicates that the update has been completed successfully.

Configuration

To configure the DMP you have to right-click ont the DMP (Play)-Icon. Detailed description how to configure the DMP you can get here.

To configure the DMX you have to click with the right mouse button on the green LED icon in your task bar.

The following menu will appear with the following options:

- Start:	Starts the DMX Service
- Stop:	Stops the DMX Service
- Open in browser:	Open the Web-Interface in the default Browser
- Configuration:	Here you can configure the DMX
- Update:	Checks if there is a new DMX update available
- Info:	Displays the current DMX Version
- License:	Shows the actual license information and allows to Activate the license
- Exit:	Exits the DMX

When you click on configuration you will see following dialog:

The options are:

- Auto start:	Sets if DMX schould start automatically with Windows
- Port:	Sets the Port number of DMX-Service
- Disable watcher:	Disable Watchdog
- Restart if unable to restore:	Enable to restart PC if an error occurs
- Auto update:	Checks automatically for updates
- Update confirmation box:	If update available it shows a confirmation box
- Update Server Address:	Server to check for new updates

DMX5-W Interface

DMX5-W Login

To connect to the DMX web-interface via browser you need to put the URL including Port-No. e.g. http://192.168.0.1:1054 or http://localhost:1054 on the local machine.

The initial administration login of DMX5-W is:

- Login (User):	admin
- Password:	123

After login you should see a screen like the following. Normally you are in the Playlist Management after login. You can change the default page inside the Change user information dialog.

On top you see following mainmenu:

	Content Manager
	Playlist Management
	Calendar in weekly / monthly view
	Player Management
	Group Management
	Reports
	User Management
	FTP
	Change user information
	Resolution Management
	About
	Current user
	Used / Maximum Disk Space
	Free / Total Space
	Actions menu
	Logout from DMX

Content Manager

Before you can start creating Playlists you should upload some content which you want to show inside the playlists onto the DMX. You can do this inside the builtin Content Manager which can be opened by clicking on the Content Manager icon in the mainmenu.

Now you see the Mainscreen of the Content Manager. Here you can watch your already uploaded content, manage directories and upload media files e.g. pictures, videos and flash.

You can create, rename and delete folders with the appropriate buttons. Also you can filter the output by using the Filter by Combobox. By moving the mouse over a media-file you will get further information about that file, e.g. resolution, filesize or duration.

For uploading new content select the folder which should be filled and click on the Upload content button.

On the appearing popup-window select Browse to open the local file browser where you can choose which content shall be uploaded. You can upload multiple files simultaneously.

Click on Upload to start the upload.

Playlist Management

A playlist is a collection of various content elements and events assembled for a looped playback in the Digital Media Player Software (DMP).

Multiple playlists can be aggregated in a queue that can be scheduled or played instantly.

Playlists can be exported in playlist containers (zip format) containing all layouts, playlist XML and content elements that belong to this playlist. Exported playlists can be imported in other DMS or DMX systems. There are three different types of playlists:

1. Fullscreen playlists (red)
2. Composer playlists (blue)
3. Zone playlists (red)

Beside of these there can be two more types of icons on the interface:

1. Queued playlists (green)
2. Playlist folders (yellow)

Dependent on the type of signage application required, Fullscreen, Composer or Zone playlists are better suited. The characteristics of each type of playlists are described in the following:

Fullscreen Playlist

With a Fullscreen playlist you can create very simple Playlists. You only have to drag and drop your media files like pictures and videos into the timeslide in the Fullscreen Editor and set their durations. On playback the content will be played in fullscreen one after another in loop.

A detailed description of creating a fullscreen playlist you can find here.

Composer Playlist

The WEB Composer Editor is an easy to use signage content creation tool. A composer based playlist is a composed selection of content elements using our WYSIWYG WEB Composer for full screen usage. The content formats that can be used in this type of playlists are: Text incl. RSS Ticker, Images, Videos, Audio, Flash. The Composer supports pages and content containers. The WEB Composer features are described in more detail in the WEB Composer chapter. The following formats are not supported within a Composer based playlist: HTML page, Shell Event, PPT.

Zone Playlist

A zone playlist is more complex than a Composer playlist supporting all available content formats. The zone builder is an easy tool to define your screen layout with a number of zones (frames). Every zone can have one or many sequential content elements or other events. The content elements and events can be managed with our Event Manager. All elements inside a zone are for independent looped playback. The following formats are supported: Pictures, Video, Video Stream (multicast), TV tuner, RSS Ticker, Composer (including all Composer object elements support), HTML page (remote or local), Flash, Shell Event, Audio, PowerPoint ppt. Further information about Zone Playlists you can get here.

Calendar

In the calendar you have an overview over the Playlist Timetable. Here you see which playlist is playing to a specific time. There is a weekly and a monthly calendarv view.

Also you can change the schedules of each playlist.

Additional information about scheduling in chapter 7.

Player Management

A hardware device running the Digital Media Player software is auto-registering at the DMS account to which it is configured to. It appears in the Player Management menu with its MAC address as the unique identifier. Additional to this a name, location and some notes can be assigned to each player. For information it shows the group name it belongs to, last update time, up time, last status, what is now playing, the sync status, the sync time, the update time window and the online status. If a new player is pointed to a DMS account without any or non existing group name, it will be assigned to the default group called unassigned. For player error notification there is a control field on the main menu showing how many players are online, offline and with an error state. If a player is known as temporarily offline (e. g. on service) it is marked as offline.

With the Show Player Logs button you can get additional information for selected box.

You can send special commands to each box by clicking on Shell Commands.

Group Management

A Group can consist of one or many Players, in the PE version it solely serves the purpose of helping you control the Player. The initial Group is called Unassigned. The Player will synchronize with all content and Playlists that are scheduled for this Group. In the List View you can send Shell Comands, Assign Profiles, and Update all the Group settings.

Reports

In the reports section you can get every report for every time. Just click on the Add Button, select the whished report and time period. The report will be created in a few minutes. When the report is ready you can export it as pipe-separated (|) .csv file by clicking on the Export Report Button.

Account Management

In the Accountmanagement you can see and change the rights for the admin account.

FTP

The ftp-feature is used for different things.

First you can use ftp as alternative to upload media files. If you don't want to upload files via Content Manager because of filesize limitation of 1GB or other causes you can use ftp. In the FTP users management window click on Add and create a new ftp user there. As server folder you have to select Manual Upload.

After the ftp-user is marked as active you can connect with any ftp-client and upload your media-files. When all your files are uploaded you have to press the Add Uploaded Files Button to import them into the DMS-System. In the Content Manager the new files are stored in the Upload Folder.

Second option is to use ftp for AutoPicture and AutoVideo Events. For these you have to add a new ftp-user like for manual upload but with Auto Picture Upload or Auto Video Upload as Server folder.
The AutoPicture and AutoVideo Events are described in detail in chapter 9.

You can also set up Management ftp-users for AutoPicture and AutoVideo Events. Just create new users with AP/AV-Management as Server folder.

Change user information

When clickling on Change user information following dialog window will open

Here you can change all information about the current user like password, name, address, language and many default settings for the interface and behaviour.

Resolution Management

The resolution management allows you creating any resolution for any display size, landscape and portrait mode operation. Each resolution has a name, horizontal (X) and vertical (Y) pixel size assigned to it. The resolution will be used when creating playlists to determin the workspace pixel size and aspect ratio. In case the play-out will be done on a different screen resolution with same aspect ratio, the content will be scaled accordingly.

About

The About-Section gives you Information about the Version of the Product and let you see the Release Notes. Also there is a link to the Stinova Online Help

Add Playlists

Add Fullscreen Playlist

To add a new Fullscreen Playlist you have to click on the Add playlist Button in the Playlist Management and select Fullscreen Playlist.

In the dialog type in a playlistname and an optional Note and click on the Add Button. With Color you can select the color of this playlist inside the Calendar.

After pressing the Add button you will see the Fullscreen Editor.
Here you can drag and drop your uploaded media content into the eventqueue. Also you can set the duration in seconds of each Event by clicking on the Edit Button on the bottom left of the Thumbnail or by clicking directly into the duration number. When finished press Save.

As soon you have saved your playlist you will see a thumbnail of the first screen in playlist. When moving the mouse over the thumbnail you will see a live preview of the full playlist.

For instant playing this playlist you have to publish it by clicking on the Publish Button and then by on the red Button or Play Symbol. If there is more than one group you have to select the proper group for playback.

Add Zone Playlist

This chapter describes the zone playlists. In zone playlists you can create a screen layout with multiple zones (frames) that can be filled with various content such as

• Ticker
• Images
• Video
• HTML Page
• Audio
• Composer Event
• Multicast Stream
• TV Tuner
• Shell Event (e.g. RS232 commads)
• JavaScript Event
• Volume Event
• Auto Picture / Auto Video Event

To add a zone playlist click on the Add Playlist button in the Playlist Management and choose Zone Playlist.

It opens a menu where you can add:

• playlist name
• the color how it is shown in the calendar
• any comment
• select if this is a just a template or fully working playlist

After pressing the Add button you will see the Zone playlist Editor.

The properties button on the top right side will allow you to:

• select the resolution of the playlist
• change the name of the playlist
• set the background colour of the main playlist frame

To add a new zone (frame) press the add button. To select the size and position of the zone click on the zone so it will be red and press the edit button. You can now resize with the handles on the zone border and drag it to where you want to have it positioned. For pixel precise positioning and zone size you can just add the X, Y position and the W (width) and H (height) in pixels from this point.

To add content into the zone just double click on the zone name on the left menu or on directly on the zone to open the Event Manager.

Now you can drop content or other events into the zone by dragging the content into the timeline of the event manager. You can drag the content in the timeline for another position in there, change the duration of each element and change some properties of each element or delete it.

The special feature of a zone playlist is that it allows you also to integrate additional content formats such as HTML pages, video streams, local TV tuner, etc...

If you have multiple zone layeres on top of each other you can choost the layer position of each frame by dragging the layer name in the list on the right side to the layer poistion your desire. The most bottom layer has the bottom position in the screen and the most top one has the top position on the screen.

If you finish with your playlist editing just press the save button on the bottom right. If you do not want to save your changes press the Exit button.

As soon you have saved your playlist you will see a thumbnail of your first screen of your frame playlist. A live preview of the full playlist is only available in the composer or fullscreen playlist.

Add Composer Playlist

A Composer based playlist is using our WYSIWY WEB Composer to easily create playlists in a full screen mode. The composer is page based allowing to place different objects in each page such as:

• Text (Ticker)
• Image
• Video
• Flash
• Audio
• Container

The container object is a special object that can be inserted only on the first page because the contents of this container (videos, images, multicast, tuner) are looped independently of the pages at this container position.

To add a new playlist just select the Add Playlist button in the Playlist Management and choose the Composer Playlist item.

As a minimum you need to assign a name and choose a resolution to create your composer playlist. The following options can be entered here:

• Name -> Name of the Playlist
• Color -> how it appears in the calendar
• Resolution -> the playlist resolution of the Composer workspace
• Note -> add any note here
• Is draft -> select weather it is a draft playlist or a full playlist
• Duration for queued -> this determines the play time if the composer playlist is added to a playlist queue

After you press the Add button the composer will be started in your browser with an empty workspace.

To save the composer event press the Save button on the bottom right. To exit the composer without saving press the exit button on the bottom right and you see a window where you can choose to exit without saving, to save or to cancel and go back to the open composer event. Please note: there must be at least one object added to the composer event otherwise no composer playlist will be created.

After a new composer based playlist is saved it will create the following object in the playlist manager.

Please note: dependent on your internet connection it the preview might not show all content immediately in its first loop until all elements are cached in local browser.

Workspace Options

There are several helpful features for the composer workspace that will be listed in the following.

• Page dismensions displays the target width and height in pixels of the composer workspace
• Workspace zoom in with the workspace scale slider on the top right - displays the percentage of zoom out factor
• Language selector let the user select the language of the composer interface
• Show mouse checkbox selects if the mouse pointer is shown in the composer player when mouse over
• Show grid checkbox selects if a grid on the workspace is shown
• Show guideline checkbox selects if the guidelines are shown. If this checkbox is selected there are guideline bars on the left and top of the workspace from where you can drag new guidelines with the mouse or remove the guidelines by dragging back to the bars.
• Guideline offset sets and shows the offset in pixel of the guideline relative to the left (for vertical guidelines) or top (for horizontal guidelines). To set the offset for a guideline click on the desired guideline so it is red colored, type the offset value in pixels and press the checkbox.
• The checkbox Lock guide can lock or unlock the guideline so it can not be moved if checked

Page Options

The composer tool is based on one or multiple pages where objects can be placed. There is a minimum of 1 page required. The following page operations are available:

• Add page -> inserts a new empty page after the current page position
• Copy page -> copies the current page and inserts it after the curren page position
• Delete page -> opens a page selector window that lets you delete one or man pages with the from - to selection
• Page transition selector selects the transition between all pages. The following transition options are available: CrossFading, KenBurns, Fade in/out, Random, none
• The Page duration sets and shows the current page duration in seconds
• The total duration shows the length of all pages and determins the length of the loop
• Page selector can step forward or backwards thru the existing pages and shows the number of existing pages and the actual page position
• The Page color selector sets the background color of the page
• The Delete b/g button deletes a background image that is set for the page
• The Transparent b/g checkbox alows to set the composer with transparet background if no background color or background image is set. This option is only available if composer player is embedded in a web browser and is not supported for DMP-W.
• The Preview button shows you a preview of the composer event. Please note the quality of the video is reduced in a browser preview.

Composer Objects

Now you can add objects in one or multiple pages. There are 6 different types of objects that can be added.

1. Text object
2. Image object
3. Video object
4. Flash object
5. Audio object
6. Container object (only on first page)

If you select the add object button for one of the above mentioned content types then only the selected content type is shown for the following content types: image, video, flash and audio.

If you check the Always visible button for the selected content object then this object will be visible thru all pages at this position independent of the page transition. This option is useful for adding a logo that should be visible at the same position whiel pages are sliding. If an object is set to always visible it will be also always on very top layer.

It is possible to overlay objects and set layer position by the layer up/down selector. Please note that videos might not support layering on the DMP player and only works in the web play and preview.

Text Object

Click the Add Object button to add a new text object to the workspace. You can now place it wher you like to have it positioned by dragging the frame border and resize it by dragging the handle on the bottom right corner. For pixel exact positioning just the X and Y coordinates and the width and height of the text object can be set.

Now just enter some text in the text object frame.

There are various text formatting options available such as:

• Font type
• Font size
• Font style (italic, bold, underline)
• Font colour
• Left aligned, centered, right aligned, block text
• Font spacing
• Line spacing
• Bullet points
• Tabs

There are various text object formatting options available such as:

• Alpha value
• Alpha colour
• Text border insets
• Rounded corners
• Reflection

A text object can be animated with some animation types triggered on page load.

A text object can be copied on the page with the text object copy button.

If you click the ticker button you can choose weather you want to have this text scrolled vertically or horizontally or you can add an RSS link to read the text from an external RSS feeder.

RSS Link

If you want to add an RSS feed copy the RSS link in the RSS link menu. There are 3 types of RSS text options available:

1. Horizontal
2. Vertical
3. Block

You also can choose weather you want to have the title or descritption displayed in the text object field.

To format the text of an RSS feed type the word style only in the text object and format the word style (font type, size, bold, color etc...) so the RSS text will be displayed with this format.

Image Object

Click the Image object button to open the media manger to select an image that can be dragged to the workspace. You can now place it where you like to have it positioned by dragging the image and resize it by dragging the handle on the bottom right corner.

For pixel exact positioning just the X and Y coordinates and the width and height of the image object can be set.

If you want to ignore the aspect ratio of the image you can uncheck the keep aspect ratio button on the top left.

If you want to add the image as a background check the Add b/g checkbox at the bottom.

If you want to replace an existing image with the same properties then

• click the image that need to be replaced
• check the replace checkbox at the bootom
• drag the image onto the workspace

There are various image object formatting options available such as:

• Crop image
• Image alpha
• Object background alpha and colour
• Rounded corners
• Reflection
• Shadow effect

To crop an image click on the image object and click the Crop Image button. With the four handles on the corner you can select the cropped area.

An image object can be animated with some animation types triggered on page load.

Video Object

Click the Image object button to open the media manger to select a video that can be dragged to the workspace. You can now place it where you like to have it positioned by dragging the video and resize it by dragging the handle on the bottom right corner.

For pixel exact positioning just set the X and Y coordinates and for the width and height of the video object set the W and H in pixels.

If you want to ignore the aspect ratio of the video you can select none. Otherwise you can select 16:9 or 4:3.

The video plays until end of page so make sure the page lengths is minimum length of video. If you want to play the video until end of video at a shorter page duration check the checkbox play til end at the top left.

Flash Object

Click the Add Flash Object button to open the media manger to select a flash that can be dragged to the workspace.

Please note - there are some limitations of .swf (flash) objects that can be embedded inside another flash player. In case you want to embed another flash with a transparent background make sure this swf has a background size determined otherwise it will be not fully shown. Place the flash object where you like by dragging it on the flash object (note: transparent flash can only be dragged by clicking on the non-transparent areas) and resize it by dragging the handle on the bottom right corner. For pixel exact positioning just set the X and Y coordinates and W and H to set width and height in pixels.

If you want to ignore the aspect ratio of the flash object you can uncheck the keep aspect ratio button on the top left.

If you want to add to the flash object a background color with an alpha level (only useful for transparen flash objects) move the Object b/g alpha slider to the right to increase the alpha level and select the object background colour with the color picker.

If you want to decrease the alpha level of the flash object itself move the Alpha slider to the right.

If you want to replace an existing image with the same properties then

There are various flash object formatting options available such as:

• Flash object alpha
• Flash object background alpha and color
• Rounded corners
• Reflection
• Shadow effect

A flash object can be animated with some animation types that is triggered on and relative to page load.

Audio Object

Click the Add Audio Object button to open the media manger to select a audio file that can be added to a page. The audio icon is just a placeholder to add and remove audio elements to the page but does not appear on the player page.

The audio plays until the end of the page.

Container Object

Container objects are areas for content elements such as videos and images and for other events such as multicast and tuner events looping independently of the composer pages inside the container position. Therefore the container object can only be placed on the first page. To add a container object go to the first page and click Add Container Object button. To see where a container object is positioned, it is visible as a frame thruout all pages.

You can now place the container object where you like to have it positioned by dragging the container icon and resize it by dragging the handle on the bottom right corner. For pixel exact positioning just the X and Y coordinates and the width and height of the container object can be set.

If you want to mainly add videos you can select the aspect ratio for the container to 16:9 or 4:3. To ignore the aspect ratio of the container object you can select none in the Video ratio selector.

If you want that the video is played as flash video and not in the original format in the player, check the Embed checkbox.

To add content into the container click the Manage Video/Image button which opens the content manager.

It supports videos, images, flash and as special events such as multicast and tuner event. Drag the content element in the timeline area. To change the length of each element click on the time valune (in seconds) and type in a new value in soconds. The total duration of the container loop will be shown on the top left of the media manager. To change the sequence of the elements drag the element and move it to the left or right of the timeline.

To set options to the video playback or tuner events add the options in Video params input field. To remove an element in the container timeline press the Remove element button.

Kiosk Mode

The composer offers a simple way of creating a simple interactive menu. For running in the kiosk mode the Kiosk checkbox must be checked. This will open the composer on the first page (menu page) and let it stay there until a link area is pressed to open another page. The following objects can be defined as link areas: text, image, video, flash

The following commands are available and can be used in the Object Link input field:

• page (x) e.g. page 2 -> opens page 2 of the composer when clicked
• continue -> resets the timer and continues the loop of the composer pages
• http://www.stinova.com -> opens a new browser window with the given html link (only available for desktop signage or web signage).

If the composer pages should start to loop after time of no activity, a timer can be set by addnig a time in seconds at the Timer input field. If set 0 then the timer is deactivated. If set 10 then the slides will start to loop when no click activity after is recognised by the composer page and the set timer countdown time has been reached. The loop will be stopped and the time reset to the given time when an object link was clicked.

Playlist Scheduler

Instant Playback

The instant playback allows the immediate play-out of playlists by pressing the play button inside the playlist object window. Instant playback has the highest play-out priority and will pause any playing schedule of the selected group. If instant playback is stopped the scheduled playlist continues to play.

Schedules

In contrast to an instant playback (play now) a schedule is one or a queue of playlists that are played at a pre-defined time window. A schedule is always assigned to a group that can contain one or multiple players. All player belonging to this group automatically synchronize the content and playlist and playing it at the predefined time. A schedule can be created by clicking on the schedule icon in the playlist object window. There could be as many as needed schedules created. If there is a time window overlap for the same group a conflict warning appears, since there only can be played one playlist at the same time for a group of players. The calendar view shows the pre-scheduled playlists in a weekly or monthly overview.

Idle Playlist

An idle playlist is played in case there is nothing scheduled or no instant playback is activated for this group. Idle playlist avoids having nothing be played in case no schedule is assigned to the group or no instant playlist is activated. An idle playlist can be assigned in the group properties.