Content Formats

Bitrate, which is also known as data rate, governs a video's file size and its visual quality. It has a direct impact on performance, and you should tune it to your player's hardware capabilities.

In the table below, find the quality of your video (for example, 720p or 1080p). Then, if you are able, set the bit rate within the corresponding range.

When selecting a bitrate, there is a trade-off between performance considerations (that is, hardware capabilities) and visual quality.

• If you want excellent visual quality, set a higher bitrate. However, if you have limited hardware capabilities, performance may suffer (that is you will notice dropped frames and stuttering content).
• If you want to ensure strong performance, set a lower bitrate. However, the visual quality may suffer (for example pixelation).

Container: MP4

Codec: H.264

Broadsign Control Player supports internet audio streams using either the M3U format or the PLS format.

To schedule an audio stream:

1. Download the proper file from the internet radio station with either the .m3u or .pls extension.
2. Upload the text file (in .m3u or .pls format) as a standard ad copy.
3. Schedule the content to a bundle or a campaign.

Note: While Broadsign Control Player supports audio streaming, the AV Player itself is unable to. Use only HTTP streaming sources; local file URLS are unsupported.

Note: The audio streaming playback component will introduce a one second fade-in when the stream is fully buffered and ready to play. When the stream stops, or another frame interrupts it, the playback component initiates a one second fadeout.

M3U

An .m3u file is in plain text and contains the locations of any media files that the player should play. Each location has its own line, formatted as a URL. In the case of streaming audio, the location should be a URL that serves the desired content. The file can also include comments, prefaced by "#".

Here's a sample file: http://scfire-nyk-aa02.stream.aol.com:80/stream/1071

PLS

A .pls file stores multimedia playlists that are more expressive than M3Us. A .pls can store information about song title and length.

The format is as follows:

Here's a sample .pls file:

#The header section
[[playlist]]numberofentries=2

#The track entry section
File1=http://scfire-nyk-aa02.stream.aol.com:80/stream/1071
Title1=(#1 - 225/500) -=[:: HOT 108 JAMZ ::]=-
Length1=-1
File2=http://scfire-dll-aa03.stream.aol.com:80/stream/1071
Title2=(#2 - 227/500) -=[:: HOT 108 JAMZ ::]=-
Length2=-1

#The footer section
Version=2

Broadsign Control Player supports multiple video formats through Broadsign AV Player (for example, audio and video codecs).

Warning: Adobe has announced that it will stop distributing and updating Flash Player after December 31, 2020. For more information, see the Adobe Flash Player End of Life announcement.

The Flash product displays Macromedia Flash clips in Broadsign Control Player's canvas area. Flash clips have “.swf” extensions. The Flash product on the Microsoft Windows platform uses the ActiveX Flash Player plug-in that is installed on the system. The Linux platform provides support for Flash 7 using an embedded Flash player, but can also use the system’s installed plugins.

As of this writing, the Adobe Flash EULA indicates that Flash 8, 9 and 10 cannot be used for commercial digital signage. The embedded Flash 7 player on Linux is already licensed. However, if you wish to use newer versions of the Flash web plug-in on Windows and Linux, an Enterprise Flash license must be purchased. Please contact your sales representative for more details.

Flash can be an expressive and efficient means of deploying dynamic digital signage content. However, Flash is a medium designed for the Web, and, as such, there are some limitations to how it can be used in digital signage.

Flash Limitations

The first of these limitations is a security feature included in Flash which makes it impossible to load data directly from a remote source whose DNS domain is different than the player’s. Since Broadsign Control Player plays Flash content locally, this means the current domain is localhost and all remote data sources cannot be accessed.

There is a workaround to this which involves placing a specifically formatted file on the remote server to indicate that it is a trusted data source which is documented in Adobe in an article titled "Security Changes in Macromedia Flash Player 7" which is located in the Flash Developer Center on Adobe's website.

Broadsign Control Player also includes a component called the Synchronization Monitor which allows you to synchronize remote HTTP or FTP feeds locally on the hard drive. This is compatible with the security features in Flash and also has the side benefit of allowing the Flash content to load immediately.

Error Handling

We recommend that you develop Flash (SWF) content to anticipate possible failures and react to them. For example, if the data feed you are using is unavailable or is stale, you can program Flash to revert to a default animation that you develop as well. These types of scenarios should be tested against before scheduling the Flash content.

Timing

Digital Signage and the Web are two completely different environments. Unfortunately, Flash was designed to work within a Web browser, and, as such, imposes only loose timing constraints on how it delivers frames in an animation. In Digital Signage, however, timing must be exact or animation will get truncated.

To ensure that playback timing is exact, you must add a soundtrack to your Flash file and set the synchronization type of the Flash movie to Stream instead of the default, which is Event. See the illustration of this setting below. If you do not have a soundtrack, you can create a blank sound file of the desired length using Windows Sound Recorder and disable the microphone on your PC.

For information about alpha transparency, see Transparency.

Broadsign Control Player can display the following web image formats:

• GIF
• PNG
• JPEG

Note: Broadsign Control Player does not support animated GIFs.

Broadsign Control can render HTML web content (and Flash files) semi-opaque or completely transparent.

Transparency will provide effects similar to the following image:

On this screen, we can see semi-opaque content on the right that displays interactive buttons. Notice that you can partially see the video beneath it through the buttons. We call this effect "translucency" or "opacity".

In this section, we discuss:

• System Requirements
• Configuring Transparency in Broadsign Control Administrator
• HTML Content on Windows & Linux
• Flash Content

Note: Video capture content does not span dual displays. It will run in either screen but not both.

Note: Do not remove the video capture card while Broadsign Control Player is running as the OS will lock-up.

It is possible that video signals from capture cards are interlaced. Interlacing artifacts are often described as "combing".

These artifacts are due to an incompatibility between certain made-for-TV signals and the progressive nature of computer monitors. To eliminate the interlacing artifacts, some extra software and configuration of the Player are required.

Installing a de-interlacing filter requires the following steps:

• Step 1: Install a De-Interlace Filter
• Step 2: Configure the Filter (if needed)
• Step 3: Configure bsp to Use the Filter
• Step 4: Ensure There are No Errors

Note: You can use any directshow filter, but Broadsign Services do not cover them. The Player merely provides a means to load arbitrary directshow filters on demand. If support is needed when using these filters, it should be obtained directly from the filter vendor.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=53761&package_id=59355&release_id=274595 (GUID={0B390488-D80F-4A68-8408-48DC199F0E97})

>[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwarebroadsignOrganizationDefaultsbspconfigurationlocalservicesbsp.dshow_video_capturevideo_filter_guids=0B390488-D80F-4A68-8408-48DC199F0E97]

Broadsign Control includes an embedded Chromium browser. You can enable Chromium in a configuration profile for players. See The HTML Tab.

Note: As of Broadsign Control v12.1, we support Chromium version 59+.

Note: As of Broadsign Control v11.1, Chromium will not work on WinXP (though it will work on v11.0 and earlier). If you try to use Chromium on WinXP (Broadsign Control v11.1+), you will receive the following error message: "[2018-08-01T15:29:51](message) Frame [YourFrameID]. Could not play ad copy id [YourAdCopyID]. Could not find an appropriate codec."

You can display content using HTML5 packages or web redirects:

• HTML5 packages: Use these packages for static content that require little to no use of a network connection. For more information, see HTML5 Content and HTML Package Ad Copy.
• Web redirects: Use web redirects for content that requires constant network access or that comes from 3rd-party servers. For more information, see Web Redirect Ad Copy.

Tip: You can schedule single HTML files by dragging and dropping them in Broadsign Control Administrator or by using the default Add Ad Copy wizard (Add an Ad Copy).

Broadsign has developed its own RSS-capable scrolling ticker product.

To build a ticker file for the X-Ticker, see Ticker File Ad Copy.