Ugrading CM Players across your digital signage network.

This feature has been available since CampaignManager version 2.1. however I have recently had a number of customers enquire about this and thought it would be useful to post the instructions here.  

The automatic CM Player upgrade is carried out via a command in CampaignManager. 

Here are the steps to help you do this:

1. Download the latest CM Player only executable file from http://service.ryarc.com/wiki

2. Save this executable on your CampaignManager PC.

3. Create a new command in CampaignManager.  

      File > New > Command

4. In the command tab select "Run Executable on CM Player".

5. Browse to the executable you have saved previously.

6. In the commandline parameter the name of the file will automatically be added, add '/s' for a silent install.

7. Schedule & target as you would with a normal command.

As always if you have further questions on this, please feel free to post your comments in this article or contact our support team support@ryarc.com.

We have recently tested the Lanner LEC-7900 unit with CampaignManager.  Using our standarised testing we have given the unit an overall score of 9.1 out of 10

Unit Specification

Processor: 2.26 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Celeron M

Memory: 1.75Gb RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA Nvidia MCP79 Chipset

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Performance wise the Unit scored very well (87 out of a possible 90). Flash files, High-definition clearly in both landscape and portrait mode. Multiple zones playing flash and video combined played with no visible issues.

The Ticker ran smoothly in landscape mode. In Portrait mode the ticker was a little jumpy, however the performance was greatly improved by slowing the scroll speed by 20%.

Running the player continuously over 4 days showed no obvious degradation in the performance.

The unit is compact and appears very hard wearing. There are ample video outputs, USB and serial ports. The unit will fit neatly behind a digital screen, however it did heat up quite a bit after running for 4 days.

For full details on the testing refer to this document: Lanner LEC-7900 Playback Performance.pdf (49.68 KB)

For details on the scoring refer to this document: Scoring Definitions.docx (11.46 KB)

Please feel free to comment here on any questions you may have regarding the testing.

Regards

Ryarc Support Team

Post your technical enquiries on our forum http://www.ryarc.com/forum

In the Ryarc Technical Support department, we are often asked what the different types and colours of Icons represent, particularly by new users. 

This information is also available in our Help Library ( http://www.ryarc.com/support/help-library/ ) but I thought it would be useful to add it here as a quick reference guide.

Blue means changes have been made but are not yet published, Green is current up-to-date campaigns, Orange is scheduled for the future and Grey is Expired.

Here is a list of all the types of icons you will see in the CampaignManager workspace.

	Campaign is scheduled for now or the future but has not been approved or published
	Campaign is scheduled for now or the future and has been approved but not published
	This campaign has been published and is live right now
	This campaign has been published and is scheduled for some point in the future
	This campaign would be playing live now, but it has been pulled
	This published campaign has expired and been pulled
	This published campaign has expired
	This campaign has been approved but its schedule has expired
	This campaign has expired but has not been approved or published
	Tickers are represented by a wavy horizontal red bar towards the bottom of the icon.  The other conventions described above in relation to pulled, expired, live, approved etc. apply to tickers in exactly the same way.
	Remote commands are represented by a power switch symbol in the icon.  The other conventions described above in relation to pulled, expired, live, approved etc. apply to remote commands in exactly the same way.

Post your technical enquiries on our forum http://www.ryarc.com/forum

The set-up of a digital signage network using CampaignManager requires an understanding of webservers.  In the majority of cases this will be Windows IIS.

The Technical Support Team are often asked for their help in a number of areas relating to IIS. 

I have put together a list of resources which provide help and training on the areas of IIS relevant to CampaignManager.

   IIS Site Set-up

   Using Virtual Directories

   Domain Name Resolution

   Working with MIME types

   Changing Default Website Settings

   Restarting IIS

   Security in IIS

   Troubleshooting in IIS

Regards

Ryarc Support Team

Post your technical enquiries on our forum http://www.ryarc.com/forum

Hardware Review - Aopen WT 19P-TA

We have recently tested the Aopen Warm Touch (All-in-one) unit with CampaignManager.  Its a Touch Screen, with a built in PC and includes a DVD Player.

Using our standardised testing we have given the Aopen WT 19P-TA a score of 9.4 / 10.

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Unit Specifications:   Processor - Intel Atom 330 1.6 Ghz CPU

                               Memory - 1 Gb

                               Graphics Card - On board - Intel 82945GL Chipset

The Player scored 84 out of a possible 90 for playback performance.  

Points were lost when testing in Portrait mode, the directx ticker did not run as smoothly as in Landscape mode.

When transitioning between HD video there was a visible black screen between clips. This would have been 0.25 - 0.5 of a second but visible all the same.

The Player scored 17 out of a possible 18 for phsyical properties.  

The fact that it combines a touch screen, PC, DVD player, Webcam, flash memory slot, card reader and more in this compact unit is the reason for this great score.

The one point was lost here was the lack of either DVI or HDMI output.

The full testing details are included in the following document:  Aopen WT19P-TA Playback Performance.pdf (51.09 KB)

The scoring is defined in this document:  Scoring Definitions.pdf (35.82 KB)

The full unit specifications are included in this document: Aopen WT19P-TA.pdf (361.44 KB)

Post your technical enquiries on our forum http://www.ryarc.com/forum

One of the really useful features in CampaignManager is the publishable Commands.  In earlier versions, this allowed administrators to change basic settings such as call interval, logging options and RS232 interfaces.  However, there were still a lot of options one could not change without being front and center on the machine itself, thereby incuring time and money in making changes.  Since version 2009, CampaignManager has included the option of attaching an executable to run utility tasks on remote players.  This is an awesome feature provided that you were in a position to write your own code to do whatever it was you needed to do on the player. 

Despite the fact that you can now run any executable code (Windows PowerShell, Batch files, EXEs etc.) remotely according to schedule, we realise that a lot of users don't have the time or access to the skills to create such scripts.  So, we've created a little app that you can use in conjuntion with CampaignManager Commands to help make changes on remote Digital Signage players that much easier.  The tool, (imaginatively) named the "Player Settings Console Utility" is a windows executable that takes a number of switches, allowing you to make complex changes to the player remotely.  When you run the app without any switches, you see the following help window which describes the functionality and syntax in detail:

So, for example If you were swapping over to a new server and needed to change the remote IPs, you could run the command

RyarcSettingsUtil /SA:192.168.100.100

The application will change the setting in the registry and restart the player which will from that moment, point to your New Server.  Needless to say, it makes sense to test your syntax out locally first!  You can also run several changes simultaneously like this:

The app will also helpfuly hightlight what it was able to do and not do.  (In this case the NodeServer URL was provided without the http:// at the front and the .asmx file at the end).  Once you're ready to publish, create the command with the appropriate switches like this:

This utility is still not 'officially' released but a version with possible bugs is attached here RyarcSettingsUtil.zip (15.84 KB) if you want to check it out.  Feedback most welcome!

Setting up a video streaming session through CampaignManager is a pretty straight forward. However if it is something you have not tried before, I hope that this article will save you some time:

There are 3 main steps to getting video streaming to display in Campaign.

1. Set up the streaming session in Windows Media Encoder.

•    Click file and New session
•    Select Broadcast a live event
•    Select the video device to be used
•    Select Pull from the encoder

• select a free port on which to broadcast e.g 8080 above.
• Click Next and then Finish to start Encoding. (for more detailed information on this setup, see the Windows Media Encoder help files).

2. Create an asx file in notepad with the IP and port details as configured above. For example: 

3. Add the file to CampaignManager

• In CampaignManager ScreenDesigner, click on Add, then file
• Change the files of type to all files and select the asx file you have just created

Hardware Review – Aopen DE 965-HG

We have recently tested an Aopen mini PC  ( DE965-HG ) with the CampaignManager software.

Using our standardized testing we gave the Aopen unit a score of 9.6 / 10

Unit specifications:         Processor – Core Duo CPU T5800 2GHZ

                                         Memory – 1 Gb

                                         Graphics Card – On-board - Intel 965 Express chipset

The player scored the maximum possible for playback performance.

It is a compact player which will easily fit behind a Digital signage screen. 

The full testing details have been included in the following document:    Aopen DE965hg- Playback Performance.pdf (42.39 KB)

The scoring is defined in this document:    Scoring Definitions.docx (11.46 KB)