Polycom PDS 2000 User Manual

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Polycom® Digital Signage™

™

(PDS

) 2000

Administrator Guide

1.0 | August 2010 | 3725-78600-004A2

Trademark Information

Polycom®, the Triangles logo, ReadiManager®, SoundPoint®, SoundStation®, ViaVideo®, VoiceStation®, Vortex®, and VSX® are registered trademarks of Polycom, Inc. Convene™ , Global Management System™, iPower™, MGC™, People+Content™, People On Content™, Polycom Conference Suite™, Polycom Converged Management Application™ (CMA™), Polycom Distributed Media Application™ (DMA™), Polycom HD Voice™, Polycom PathNavigator™, Polycom VideoPlus™, Polycom VoicePlus™, PVX™, RAS™, ReadiConvene™, RMX 2000™, RSS™, V2iU™, VBP™, VS4000™, and VTX™ are trademarks of Polycom, Inc.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Patent Information

The accompanying product is protected by one or more U.S. and foreign patents and/or pending patent applications held by Polycom, Inc.

Polycom, Inc. 4750 Willow Road Pleasanton, CA 94588-2708 USA

No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of Polycom, Inc. Under the law, reproducing includes translating into another language or format.

As between the parties, Polycom, Inc., retains title to and ownership of all proprietary rights with respect to the software contained within its products. The software is protected by United States copyright laws and international treaty provision. Therefore, you must treat the software like any other copyrighted material (e.g., a book or sound recording).

Every effort has been made to ensure that the information in this manual is accurate. Polycom, Inc., is not responsible for printing or clerical errors. Information in this document is subject to change without notice.

Contents

About this Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Customer Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Polycom Global Services Telephone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Polycom Digital Signage Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Polycom Digital Signage Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Polycom Digital Signage Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Polycom Digital Signage Remote Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Polycom Digital Signage Web Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Polycom Digital Signage Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Architecture Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1 Configuring the PDS Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

About the PDS Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Accessing the Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Configuring the Player Directly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Configuring PDS Player Video Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Output Windows Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Capture Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Startup Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Startup Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Startup Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Configuring PDS Player Advanced Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Renderer Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

File Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Playout Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

2 Using the PDS Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Loading a Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Loading a Playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

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The PDS Player Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Scheduling Events with the PDS Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Controlling the VertigoCG Renderer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

3 Using the Remote Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Main Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Networks and Groups Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Events Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Current Incidents Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Status Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Tool Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Connect/Disconnect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Auto-Refresh Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Refresh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Publish Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Remove Old Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Execute Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Publish Software Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Network and Groups Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Network and Player Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Network Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Player Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Current Playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Default Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Default Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Control Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Playlist Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Message Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Current Output Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Using VertigoCG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Publish New Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Manage Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Manage Players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Delete Offline Players . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Create New Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Delete Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Manage Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Download Agent Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Broadcast Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Manager List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

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Screenshots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

System Info . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Network Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Remote Player Management Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Tools Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Tool Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Start Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

File Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Reboot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Set License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Monitoring Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Edit Config . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Restart Polycom Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Status Detail Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Player Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Running Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Windows Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

File Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

4 Using the Web Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

About the PDS Web Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Installing the Web Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Pre-Installation Procedures on Windows Vista and Windows 7 . 62

Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Opening the Web Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Licensing the Web Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Web Controller Interface Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Main Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Player Monitor Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Events Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Changing the Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Control Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Player Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Selection Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Editing the Announcement and Emergency Crawls . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Playlist Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Adding Content through the Playlist Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Content Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Default Playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

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Crawling Ticker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Slide Show Tickers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Video Slide Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Message Board/Webcast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

5 Using Template Maker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

About Polycom Template Maker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Installing Template Maker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Licensing Template Maker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Navigating the Template Maker Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Template Maker Output Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Video Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Advanced Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Reviewing Template Maker Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Adding and Working with Slides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Adding and Editing Text, Images, and Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

General Object Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Working with Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Working with Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Working with Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Working with Flipbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Style Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Customization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

The Template Maker Companion Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Style Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Renderer Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

File Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Playout Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Modifying General Slide Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Modifying Background Slide Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Modifying Actions on a Slide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Adding Audio to a Slide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Applying a Text Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Modifying Text Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Inserting Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Modifying Image Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Inserting Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Modifying Media Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

The Video Properties Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Inserting Flipbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

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Modifying Flipbook Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Adding and Editing a Crawl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Basic Crawl Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Creating a Manual Crawl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Creating a Data-Driven Crawl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Crawl Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Setting the Position of a Crawl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Adding Clocks and Tickers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Adding a Clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Adding a Ticker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Working with Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Inserting Objects on a Slide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Working with Object Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Working with Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Animating Objects on a Slide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Types of Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Saving a Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

6 Using the Data Parser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

About the PDS Data Parser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Creating a Data Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Licensing Data Parser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Using a Data Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

7 Non-Standard Installations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

The PDS Server Configuration Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Renaming the Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Port Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Downloading and Installing the Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Changing Agent Settings on a Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

A Appendix A: Player Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Standard Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Player-Specific Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

B Appendix B: Data Parser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Data Source Definition File Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

The General Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

The ParsingRule Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

The DataItem Element . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Data Source Tutorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

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Parsing Rule Reference Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

General Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

GetImage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

GetTag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

GetUrl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

InitCaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Lcase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

LeftTrim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Mid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

ParseDelimited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

ReadTextFile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Replace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

ReplaceCharacterCodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

ReplaceTag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

RightTrim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

SetValue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

StrCat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Trim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

TrimFromEnd, TrimFromStart, TrimToEnd and TromToStart . 200

Ucase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

C Appendix C: Configuration Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Changing Output Settings with the XPT.ini Configuration File . . . . . . . 201

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About this Guide

This introduction provides a brief overview of the Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide, describes the conventions used in this manual, and

explains how to get additional information or support.

Purpose

Documentation

The Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide describes how to configure and use the Polycom Digital Signage Player and Remote Manager for a complete digital signage solution.

The Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide is part of the Polycom Digital Signage documentation set, which includes:

• Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide - This document.

• Polycom Digital Signage Server Getting Started Guide - Describes set-up and

installation of the Polycom Digital Signage Server.

• Polycom Digital Signage Player Getting Started Guide - Describes set-up and

installation of the Polycom Digital Signage Player.

• Polycom Digital Signage Content Management Guide - Describes publication

of content via the Polycom Digital Signage Web Controller. This document is intended for Polycom Digital Signage Content Managers.

• Polycom Digital Signage Release Notes - Describes the product release. This

document also identifies known problems and their workarounds, information not covered in the manuals or that has been modified since publication, as well as problems that have been fixed since previous releases.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Customer Support

Audience

This guide is primarily for:

• Polycom Digital Signage Administrators - Responsible for configuring

and managing the Polycom appliance. You should have a working knowledge of media publication, peripheral ports, network protocols, and media streaming and editing. You should also be familiar with Web fundamentals, such as URLs and HTML.

Customer Support

Recognizing that technology alone cannot solve today’s complex challenges, Polycom Global Services provides the industry’s best technical support staff and programs to let you concentrate on the task at hand. Polycom users can select from a variety of support solutions to obtain the level of support that best meets their needs.

Before contacting your Polycom Global Services representative for technical assistance, gather as much information as possible about your situation. Any information you can provide helps us assess the problem and develop an appropriate solution.

Polycom Global Services Telephone

If you have comments or questions about Polycom or if you need technical assistance, contact:

• Polycom Global Services in U.S.A. 888-248-4143

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About Polycom Digital Signage

This chapter explains the Polycom Digital Signage architecture. This chapter includes the following sections:

• Polycom Digital Signage Solution

• Architecture Overview

Polycom Digital Signage Solution

The Polycom Digital Signage solution is a combination of powerful applications, including the following components:

Polycom Digital Signage Player

The Polycom Digital Signage Player is a powerful broadcast rendering engine that delivers the highest quality output with the highest level of reliability. Unlike simple video playback devices, the Polycom Digital Signage Player dynamically arranges and composes signage elements, objects or zones in real time to generate the final video output. This means individual content elements can be changed at any time, without requiring entire video segments to be re-rendered whenever a change is needed.

Polycom Digital Signage Server

The Polycom Digital Signage Server automatically distributes new content to remote locations and receives continuous status updates from all Polycom Digital Signage Players.

Polycom Digital Signage Remote Manager

The Polycom Digital Signage Remote Manager application works with the Polycom Digital Signage Server to enable administration of networks of players.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Architecture Overview

Polycom Digital Signage Web Controller

The Polycom Digital Signage Web Controller software lets users easily update and manage content on the Players in a Polycom Digital Signage network, with point-and-click simplicity.

Polycom Digital Signage Agent

The Polycom Digital Signage Agent software is the link between Players and the Server, enabling network status and health monitoring.

Architecture Overview

The image above presents an overview of the Polycom Digital Signage solution, depicting the overarching architecture for the various components of the solution. Content, in the form of templates, assets, and playlists, is created, assembled and managed using the Polycom Digital Signage Web Controller. Users can easily update content using the Web Controller’s point-and-click interface.

The content is automatically distributed to Polycom Digital Signage Players via the Polycom Digital Signage Server, which acts as the central hub for the Polycom Digital Signage system.

The Polycom Digital Signage Player renders content in real time for display to a monitor, with the Polycom Digital Signage Agent linking Players to the Server. The Polycom Digital Signage Agent also monitors the status of the

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Architecture Overview About Polycom Digital Signage

Polycom Digital Signage Player, and sends regular heartbeat and status messages to the Polycom Digital Signage Server. The Agent can also take steps to "heal" the Player if it detects a problem.

Administrators monitor and manage the system using the Polycom Digital Signage Remote Manager application. This software displays the status and details of all the Players connected to the system.

Administrators can also use the Polycom Digital Signage Remote Manager to distribute and manage content packages, as well as issue commands to individual players or groups of players, although content updates and distribution are typically handled via the Polycom Digital Signage Web Controller.

The Web Controller is used for day-to-day updates to content appearing on the monitors in a given Polycom Digital Signage network.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Architecture Overview

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Configuring the PDS Player

This chapter explains the basic configuration processes for the Polycom Digital Signage Player. This chapter includes the following sections:

• About the PDS Player

• Accessing the Player

• Configuring the Player Directly

• Configuring PDS Player Video Settings

• Startup Settings

• Options

• Configuring PDS Player Advanced Settings

About the PDS Player

The PDS Player is a powerful real-time broadcast rendering engine that delivers the highest quality output with the highest level of reliability. It offers reliable playback for 24x7 operation.

Unlike simple video playback devices, the PDS Player dynamically arranges slide elements in real time to generate the final video output. This means individual elements of the content can be changed at any time, without requiring that entire video segments be re-rendered whenever a change is required.

Accessing the Player

After installation, the PDS Player can be configured directly or through Windows Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Configuring the Player Directly

If using RDP to access a Player, you will not be prompted to enter login credentials. Please note, however, that to reboot a PDS Player using RDP you will need to enter A you must select Restart.

NOTE: Accessing the Player via RDP locks the Player output. As a result, RDP is not a recommended tool for routine player management. If you wish to make content and configuration changes while the Player is running, use the Polycom Remote Manager and Polycom Web Controller.

LT + F4. This will launch a shut down dialog, from which

Configuring the Player Directly

After a Player has been set up, connected to an output, and connected to the network via the Polycom Digital Signage Agent, administrators can configure the Player for their particular implementation. The following sections outline the various configuration possibilities. Please note that the following process applies for all configuration changes:

1 Launch the PDS Player from the desktop, if it is not already running.

2 Stop Player output by hitting A

3 Navigate to Tools > Settings. The Settings window will appear.

4 Choose which tab in the Settings window you wish to edit. The specifics

of each tab are detailed below.

5 When configuration has been completed, click Apply and then OK.

6 Reload the Playlist in the Player.

LT + ESC, if necessary.

Configuring PDS Player Video Settings

PDS Player Video Settings is divided into two sections: Output Window and Capture Settings.

Settings defined in Output Window let you configure the properties of the PDS Player output window on the Player output display.

Settings defined in Capture Settings let you configure how the PDS Player communicates with 3rd-party capture devices.

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Configuring PDS Player Video Settings Configuring the PDS Player

Output Windows Settings

The Output Window section of Video Settings includes the following configuration options:

• Standard: Specifies the dimensions of the video output window. Choose

from a list of standard resolutions: 640x480, 720x480 (DV-NTSC), 720x486 (NTSC SMPTE), 720x576 (PAL), 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x720, 1280x1024, 1600x1200, and 1920x1080.

•Custom: Specifies the dimensions of the video output window according

to the specified Width (W) and Height (H).

• Orientation: Specifies whether the video output window should be

displayed in either Landscape or Portrait format, in conjunction with the Standard or Custom output window dimensions.

• Auto size output to match slide dims: When selected, the resolution of the

video output window will scale to match the slide template dimensions.

• Auto size slide to match output: When selected, the resolution of the slide

template is automatically scaled to match the resolution of the video output window.

• Dual monitor mode: When selected, configures the PDS Player display

output to appear on a second monitor. This mode can also be used for cloning the display. This supports multiuple monitors from one Player. See the Polycom Digital Signage Player Getting Started Guide for more details.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Startup Settings

• Full screen: When selected, the PDS Player output will be displayed in full

screen mode (either on the primary or secondary display). When unselected, the PDS Player output will be displayed in a separate window.

• Output Window Zoom: Select to resize the CG Rendering window to

100% (full size) or 50% half size when the Full screen mode is disabled.

•Wait on VSync: Depending on the features and the performance of your

system's graphics card adapter, select one of the following options:

—True: Significant loss of system performance with a high-quality

graphics output result.

—Hybrid: Improved system performance with some loss in the quality

of the graphics output result.

— False: Best possible performance with a low-quality graphics output

result.

Capture Settings

Capture Settings determine how video and audio are interpreted for input to the PDS Player.

NOTE: Only custom implementations support changes to capture settings.

• Video Capture Filter: Select the device for inputting video to the PDS

Player. This list depends on the video devices connected to the workstation.

• Video Crossbar Setting: Select the port for the video input to the

workstation, for example SVideo In or Composite In.

• Audio Capture Filter: Select the device for inputting audio. This list

depends on the audio card and audio devices connected to the workstation, for example SoundMAX Digital Audio.

• Audio Crossbar Setting: Select the port for the audio input to the

workstation.

• TV Tuner Channel: Select the channel to tune to when capturing from a

TV Tuner card. Select channel 0 if no TV Tuner card is present.

Startup Settings

The PDS Player Startup Settings tab is divided into two sections: Startup Properties and Startup Options.

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Startup Settings Configuring the PDS Player

Settings defined in Startup Properties let you specify templates or scripts that may load when PDS Player initially launches, as well as application functions that may occur when PDS Player initially launches.

Startup Properties

The Startup Properties settings of Startup Settings are described as follows:

• Default Background Template: Specifies a template to load by default in

the background layer of the CG output when the PDS Player first launches.

• Default Foreground Template: Specifies a template to load by default in

the foreground layer of the CG output when the PDS Player first launches.

• Startup Image Filename: Specifies an image to load in the CG output

when PDS Player first launches.

• Startup Script Filename: Specifies a script to execute when the PDS Player

first launches.

Startup Options

The Startup Options settings of Startup Settings are described as follows:

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Options

• Load previously loaded playlist on startup: When enabled, loads the

previously loaded playlist when the PDS Player launches. When disabled, the PDS Player launches remaining in a ready state with no content displayed on the CG output.

TIP: Enable Load previously loaded playlist on startup to automatically resume playback of your content on-air and recover from system anomalies or power failures

• Minimize on startup: When enabled, hides the PDS Player interface from

the system desktop.

• Auto launch renderer on startup: When enabled, automatically launches

the CG rendering engine.

Options

The PDS Player Options tab is divided into three sections: General, Messages, and Audio Settings. Settings defined in General let you specify options available to the PDS Player. Settings defined in Messages let you specify options related to the Messages window. Settings defined in Audio Settings let you specify options related audio output from the PDS Player.

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Options Configuring the PDS Player

General

The General Settings panel allows administrators to dictate certain general configuration settings for the CG Rendering engine that is launched by default from the PDS Player. The settings are described as follows:

• Show renderer control panel: When enabled, displays the CG rendering

engine control panel.

• Enable auto screenshot: When enabled, takes screenshots of the content

being displayed by the PDS Player. These screenshots are then displayed in the “Current Output Window” section of the PDS Player.

• Close renderer on exit: When enabled, closes the CG rendering engine

when the PDS Player quits.

• Prerender next slide in presentation: When enabled, stores the next event

in system memory while the current event is displayed on the output.

• Restrict cursor to primary display: When enabled, prevents the system

mouse cursor from appearing on the secondary output of the the PDS Player.

Messages

The Messages Settings panel is described as follows:

• Show Messages Box: The Messages dialog in the PDS Player interface

provides moment-by-moment details regarding functioning of the PDS Player. The frequency of messages can be determined in the Show Messages Box. Select one of the following options:

—On Error: Displays messages in the Messages dialog only when an

error has occurred.

— Always: Displays all messages-errors, information, status-in the

Messages dialog.

— On Request Only: Displays messages only upon request when you

click the Show Messages button in the PDS Player.

— Log All Messages: Writes all PDS Player events to the log file.

• Message Filter Box: Select one of the following options:

— Show Critical Messages Only: Displays messages in the Messages

dialog only when an error has occurred.

— Show All Messages: Displays messages only when you click the

Show Messages button in the Settings dialog. Messages displayed include content updates, configuration changes, output changes, and updates to data-driven templates, as well as error messages displayed in red text.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Configuring PDS Player Advanced Settings

Audio

The Audio Settings of the Options window are described as follows:

• Adjust volume on slide load: When enabled, increases or decreases the

audio output level based on the number configured in the Player Default Volume.

• Use Default Volume From Box: Select one of the following options:

— System Volume: the PDS Player will output audio based on the

volume of the system's mixer settings

— PDS Setting: the PDS Player will output audio based on the default

volume specified.

•PDS Default Volume: Audio level (from 0 - 100) to use for audio output.

Configuring PDS Player Advanced Settings

The PDS Player Advanced Settings tab allows users to change system defaults. These settings should not be changed without consulting Polycom Support.

The PDS Player Advanced tab is divided into three sections: Renderer Settings, File Locations, and Playout Settings.

NOTE: Please avoid modifying these values unless instructed to do so by Polycom support.

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Configuring PDS Player Advanced Settings Configuring the PDS Player

Renderer Settings

The Renderer Settings options of Advanced Program Settings are described as follows:

• Renderer IP Address: Displays the IP address of the rendering engine.

• Renderer Executable Filename: Displays the executable filename that

corresponds to the PDS rendering engine.

• Connection Delay: Displays the delay, in seconds, from the time you click

the Render button until the scene is submitted CG rendering engine.

File Locations

The File Locations configuration in Advanced Program Settings allow users to dictate which directories the PDS Player uses:

•Output folder: Displays the folder to which the CG Renderer sends

rendered output that is displayed in the output monitor.

• Cache folder: Displays the folder to which the CG Renderer caches

information while rendering the output.

• Template folder: Displays the default folder to which the PDS Player

saves exported templates.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Configuring PDS Player Advanced Settings

• Command folder: Displays the folder to which the commands are stored

on the system for use with other PDS applications such as Remote Manager, or Web Screens.

Playout Settings

The Playout Settings of the Advanced Program Settings are as follows:

• Player Mode box:

— Standard: Configures the PDS Player to function as an authoring

station.

— Interactive: Configures the PDS Player to function as an

interactive/kiosk station.

NOTE: Interactive mode is not supported in most implementations. Please do not select this option without input from Polycom support.

• Interactive Window: When in Interactive Player Mode, defines the

topmost and leftmost location (XPos/YPos) and size (Width/Height), in pixels, of the interactive window.

• URL Loader Window: When displaying an internet browser window,

defines the topmost and leftmost location (XPos/YPos) in pixels, of the Loader window.

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Using the PDS Player

This chapter outlines local control of the Polycom Digital Signage Player. In a typical implementation, however, all configuration and content management will be performed through the PDS Remote Manager and PDS Web Controller. Please note that these tools are described in subsequent chapters.

This chapter includes the following sections:

• Getting Started

Getting Started

• The PDS Player Interface

• Scheduling Events with the PDS Player

• Controlling the VertigoCG Renderer

When the PDS Player application is opened, it will immediately begin displaying the default playlist.

Loading a Template

1 To load a PDS Template, in the PDS Player choose File > Load

Template…

2 Locate a PDS Template (.xtmpl) on your computer and choose Open.

The template plays in the PDS Player output.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Getting Started

3 If you have elected not to use full-screen mode, the content will be

displayed on the CG Rendering Window. To disable the CG Rendering Window, open Tools > VertigoCG and select Stop. Alternatively, press

LT + ESC.

Further controls for the CG Renderer are detailed below.

Loading a Playlist

1 To load a PDS Playlist, in the PDS Player choose File > Load Playlist…

2 Browse to a PDS Playlist (.xplst) on your computer and choose Open.

The playlist plays in the CG Rendering window.

3 To playback a PowerPoint slide in the PDS Player, with a PowerPoint

presentation loaded, select a slide and choose Tools > Render

PowerPoint Slide.

The slide plays in the CG Rendering window.

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The PDS Player Interface Using the PDS Player

The PDS Player Interface

The PDS Player is designed to facilitate the task of playing out either individual templates, playlists, or creating schedules of events.

Current Playlist

Displays the directory path and name of the currently active playlist.

NOTE: Previously loaded playlists can be quickly loaded by clicking on the Current Playlist filename bar and choosing a playlist from the drop-down list that appears.

Default Layer

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide The PDS Player Interface

Specifies the rendering layer in which a template loads. Options available are Background and Foreground.

Default Transition

Specifies the default transition effect to be used in between templates loaded in a playlist. Transitions from which you can select include Cut, Fade, Crossfade, Push Right, Push Left, and Random.

Events

• Last Event: The time of the last event loaded or executed in the Player.

• Next Event: The time of the next planned event to occur in the Player.

• Time to Next Event: Countdown timer of the next planned event to occur

in the Player.

Control Buttons

•Load: Opens a dialog box to load templates or playlist files.

• Clear: Removes the contents of a previously loaded playlist from the

Player.

•Reset All: Clears the output of the CG rendering window.

Playlist Controls

The PDS playlist controls are described as follows:

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The PDS Player Interface Using the PDS Player

Button Function

Pauses the playback of the currently loaded playlist.

When paused, resumes playback of the currently loaded playlist.

Plays the previous event in the currently loaded playlist.

Plays the next event in the currently loaded playlist.

Jumps to the first event in the currently loaded playlist.

Jumps to the last event in the currently loaded playlist.

Message Control

• When Show Messages is enabled, displays messages from the PDS Player. The Clear button clears the contents of the Messages window.

Current Output Window

• When Enable Auto Screenshot is enabled, displays a preview of the current output of the PDS Player.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Scheduling Events with the PDS Player

Scheduling Events with the PDS Player

With the PDS Scheduler, you can create playout schedules for several different playlists, or assign PDS commands to occur at specific times throughout the day.

Schedules can also include control events, such as starting a crawling ticker on the output screen. This allows users in the central location to schedule any kind of control event by assigning the appropriate event in the schedule.

To activate PDS Scheduler:

1 In the PDS Player, choose Tools > Schedule…. The PDS Scheduler

window appears.

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Scheduling Events with the PDS Player Using the PDS Player

2 If the Schedule is presented by Month rather than Day, go to the View

Mode box and select Day.

3 In the Day view, right-click on the date and time at which to start playing

the slideshow. From the Scheduler menu that appears, select Add Event…. The Add Schedule Event dialog appears.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Scheduling Events with the PDS Player

4 In the Event box, select Load Presentation.

You can also select any of the following and schedule its playout:

Load Presentation: Schedules playout of a complete presentation.

Load Slide: Schedules playout of an individual slide. You must select

the presentation and specific slide.

Load Playlist: Schedules playout of a playlist. Browse to select a playlist (.xplst) file.

Execute Script: Schedules when to execute a script (.xsc) file that controls a slideshow presentation for broadcast.

Run Program: Schedules when to launch an executable program.

Unload All Presentations: Removes any loaded presentations or

slides that have been loaded into the PDS Player.

Reset All: Clears the output of the CG renderer.

Unload and Reset All: Removes any loaded presentations or slides

that have been loaded into the PDS Player and clears the output of the CG renderer.

5 In the Filename field, click Browse and select a presentation.

6 If you want to change the time, in the Event Time box, set the time at

which to start playing the presentation.

7 In the Preroll box, set the number of seconds.

8 Set the start date in the Event Date box.

9 If you want to repeat the presentation playout, enable Recurring Event.

The Recurrence Pattern options appear.

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Scheduling Events with the PDS Player Using the PDS Player

10 From the Recurrent Pattern options, set the frequency of recurrence.

Choosing Daily, Weekly, and Monthly will appear.

11 From the Range of Recurrence options, set start and end dates.

12 Click OK.

13 The scheduled presentation and any recurrences you specified appear in

the PDS Scheduler calendar.

To delete a scheduled event:

1 In the PDS Scheduler, select the event you want to delete and right-click.

2 In the menu that appears, select Delete Event.

To delete a scheduled recurrence:

1 In the PDS Scheduler, select any one event from a recurrence you want to

delete and right-click.

2 In the menu that appears, select Delete Recurrence.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Scheduling Events with the PDS Player

To edit a scheduled event:

1 In the PDS Scheduler, select the event you want to edit and right-click.

2 In the menu that appears, select Edit Event… The Add Schedule Event

dialog appears.

To immediately execute a scheduled event:

1 In the PDS Scheduler, select the event you want to execute and

right-click.

2 In the menu that appears, select Run Event Now.

To save and activate a schedule:

1 In the PDS Scheduler, click Save As….

2 In the Save As dialog box, provide a name for the schedule and choose

Save.

3 The name of the schedule appears at the bottom of the PDS Player next to

Active Schedule.

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Controlling the VertigoCG Renderer Using the PDS Player

Controlling the VertigoCG Renderer

The PDS Player lets you gain access to the CG rendering engine directly. This lets you start and stop the CG as desired.

To start and stop the VertigoCG, do the following:

1 In the PDS Player, choose Tools > VertigoCG > Start.

2 The CG rendering window appears.

3 When ready to stop the CG rendering engine, choose Tools > VertigoCG

> Stop.

4 The CG rendering window disappears.

Using VertigoCG

The VertigoCG renderer allows direct configuration via a control interface, if enabled in the PDS Player Renderer Settings. When the VertigoCG rendering engine launches, a small interface launches.

1 The Load feature allows you to directly load .xml files in the CG

Renderer.

2 Click Disconnect to disconnect the renderer from the Player.

3 Click Exit to close the Renderer.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Controlling the VertigoCG Renderer

4 Click Control Panel to launch the VertigoCG Control Panel.

Hardware Settings allow users to choose a video card device for output,

select video and audio capture devices, whether to display the Renderer in full screen or in a moveable window, the TV output format (NTSC, PAL, etc.), and whether to display FPS along with the output.

Under Output, users can choose to view the output in Monitor or Windows Media 9 formats, if possible.

Under Video, users can choose whether to display Video on top and how many Video Buffers are present.

NOTE: The default PDS Player does not support changes in the hardware settings of the VertigoCG Renderer. Please contact Polycom Support before making any changes.

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Controlling the VertigoCG Renderer Using the PDS Player

5 The Software Settings tab provides another set of configuration options.

Users can change the scene directory, dictate a log file, change the TCPIP Port for the CG Renderer, change the Cel Cache Size, and enable MipMapping, a faster but more memory-intensive form of rendering. If MipMapping is enabled, users can adjust the negative level of detail bias.

NOTE: The default PDS Player does not support changes in the software settings of the VertigoCG Renderer. Please contact Polycom Support before making any changes.

6 When configuration has been completed, click OK. Click exit on the

VertigoCG interface and reopen it.

NOTE: Changes made in the VertigoCG settings do not apply across PDS Player sessions and will be lost if the PDS Player application is closed and reopened.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Controlling the VertigoCG Renderer

28 Polycom, Inc.

Using the Remote Manager

This chapter explains the interface and use cases for the Polycom Digital Signage Remote Manager. The installation of the Remote Manager is detailed in the Polycom Digital Signage Server Getting Started Guide.

This chapter contains the following sections:

• Main Window

Main Window

• Tool Bar

• Network and Groups Pane

• Remote Player Management Console

The PDS Remote Manager interface consists of the toolbars and four panes, as shown in the image below:

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Main Window

The toolbars provide the buttons used for a number of high-level operations within PDS Remote Manager. Most other operations are available through dialog boxes that will be displayed (e.g., on a Player name or thumbnail image).

Networks and Groups Pane

The Networks & Groups pane shows a tree view of the hierarchy of networks and groups you can manage that are running on the PDS Server. Each network contains one or more groups (which may in turn have sub-groups).

The Network pane shows the Players defined within the network or group that is currently selected in the Networks & Groups pane. All the Players that are defined in the network or group will be shown, whether they are currently online or offline.

The Network pane has five tabs, allowing you to manage different aspects of these Players' operations:

• The Connections tab shows you the Players that are currently connected to the PDS Server (online) as well as those offline Players that have been connected recently. The Player list is tabular, and you can select the sorting order for the list by clicking a field heading.

Events Pane

— In the lower portion of the pane, the Connections tab will show you

the list of users currently connected to the PDS Server.

• The Player Status tab relates information on Player connectivity.

• The Screenshots tab shows thumbnail views of the screenshots from the

Players in the selected network or group. These thumbnails are refreshed regularly and will show the output from the Player as taken from the computer's graphics card. (The thumbnail refresh interval is set by the Auto-Refresh menu in the toolbar.)

• The System Info tab provides some basic system information, such as software and operating system versions, for each Player.

• The Packages tab shows the file download packages that have been defined for the selected network.

The Events pane shows a table of recent system events on the Players in the selected network, much like a shared log file. The most recent events will appear at the top of the table.

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Tool Bar Using the Remote Manager

Current Incidents Pane

The Current Incidents pane shows the actual log messages from PDS Server and the PDS Remote Manager. The events shown here are all major and minor log messages from the Polycom PDS Server and the PDS Remote Manager, including the events shown in the Events pane.

Status Bar

Finally, the status bar (at the very bottom of the PDS Remote Manager window) shows you the current status of PDS Remote Manager, indicating:

— the name of the PDS Server;

— the number of Players and managers currently connected to the PDS

Server; and

— the name of your currently selected network.

In addition to the PDS Remote Manager main window shown here, PDS Remote Manager will bring up smaller windows for specific tasks, such as managing a Player or creating a file package. The PDS Remote Manager main window will still be available while the task windows are open.

Tool Bar

Connect/Disconnect

The Connect…/Disconnect button allows you to connect PDS Remote Manager to a PDS Server and to disconnect from the Server. Clicking Connect brings up the following dialog:

The default User Name/Password credentials are Administrator / Polycom123.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Tool Bar

Auto-Refresh Menu

The Auto-Refresh menu allows you to select the interval at which the status information in Remote Manager is refreshed. This includes refreshing the screenshots as well as all other system information displayed in the different tabs in the Network pane.

NOTE: Please remember that each refresh requires data, including a screenshot image, to be sent from the Player system to the PDS Server and then from the PDS Server to your PDS Remote Manager. When managing a medium-sized or large network of Players, you can create a high level of network traffic and risk overloading your network simply by making your refresh interval too short.

Refresh

Click Refresh to refresh the network information and screenshots manually. This button is particularly useful when the Auto-Refresh interval is set to Off.

Publish Content

The PDS Remote Manager includes a Publish Content dialogue. This tool is used to move content packages to PDS Player systems. Please note that, in most implementations, content updates will be performed through the PDS Web Controller rather than the Remote Manager.

The Remote Manager communicates directly with remote Players through the PDS Server. The publication process performs an inventory check against contents stored on remote Players. If content is missing, the Remote Manager creates a package to transfer to the Players. A package is a compressed archive containing all assets missing from the remote Player as well as all content added through the Publish Content tool.

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Tool Bar Using the Remote Manager

Publish New Content

Click Publish Content to bring up the Publish Content dialog. The dialog has a Package Name field at the top (enter the name of your content package here) and three tabs in the main section:

To publish content:

1 Click Add Files… to select files from your computer to be added to the

package. You may select multiple files in the file browser by holding down Shift and clicking the file icons.

In the Assets view, you may also drag and drop the files you wish to publish.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Tool Bar

a The Assets tab and the Detail File List tab allow you to select from two

different views of the list of files in the package.

2 Click Remove All to remove all of the assets from the package. (Select an

asset and press the Delete key to remove only one asset from the package.)

3 Click Reset Target Paths to reset the destination paths for all assets back

to their default values.

4 To set individual destination paths, use the Assets view. The Assets view

shows a small thumbnail image and size/resolution information. Right-click on an asset to bring up a context menu. Select Change Target Path… to bring up the Set Remote Destination Path dialog box:

5 In the dialog box, enter the destination directory for the selected asset.

You may then click Cancel, click OK to apply the change only to the selected asset, or click Apply to All Assets In This Package to apply the change to all the assets in the package.

6 The Detail File List view shows more details, similar to the Details view

in the Windows Explorer; click a column heading to sort by that column.

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Tool Bar Using the Remote Manager

Remove Old Content

If there is old content to be removed from the Players receiving the package, you can specify the file names for the old content in the Remove Old Content tab.

Click "Add Files" to add files to the removal list and bring up the deletion dialog:

Execute Actions

After you have selected your assets and made any required changes to the destination paths, click Next to bring up the Package Properties dialog:

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Tool Bar

Publish Software Update

Polycom Digital Signage Remote Manager can be used to publish routine software maintenance updates to the network of Players.

To publish a software update:

1 Click Publish Software Update.

2 The Open Executable File dialog will appear. Choose a file and click

Open.

3 The Package Properties dialog will appear.

If you wish to designate a specific timeframe in which to extract the package after publishing, do so in the Package Processing Schedule area.

The Command line should not be altered from the default.

4 Click OK. The Package will be compressed and published.

5 Consult the Events tab to ensure that the package has published and run.

6 Upon installing a software update, the PDS Player application will not

automatically relaunch. Access the PDS Player via RDP and relaunch the Player application manually, or enter RESTART in the command space in Remote Manager and direct it to the Player.

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Network and Groups Pane Using the Remote Manager

Network and Groups Pane

The Networks & Groups pane shows a tree view of the hierarchy of networks and groups of Players managed by the PDS Server. The network or group you select here will select the Players shown in the Network pane and the operations performed on those Players.

If you select a network or group which contains sub-networks or subgroups, then the Network pane will show the Players in the selected group as well as the Players in all its sub-networks and subgroups.

The title of the Network pane will change to show the name of the selected network and the selected group (if any).

Network and Player Management

The Network and Groups Pane is the main interface for network and player management. Right-clicking a network, group, or server in the Network and Groups pane will call up the following context menu:

The following sections will explain each function within this context menu.

Manage Groups

The Polycom Digital Signage solution offers two forms of hierarchical organization for players: networks and groups. Each player is associated with only one network or subnetwork. User permissions are determined by network: networks can have unique administrators, agents, and content

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Network and Groups Pane

managers. One potential use case for multiple networks is for an organization with multiple geographic locations and unique content managers for each location.

Groups can incorporate players across multiple networks. Players can also be associated with multiple groups. Groups could be useful for an organization with multiple player roles -- internal, customer-facing, marketing-driven, and news-driven players could be grouped across networks and receive massede content updates.

1 Right click on a Server, Network, or subnetwork in the Networks and

Groups Pane. Select Manage Groups from the context menu.

2 The Manage Groups window will appear.

3 Click Create Group. Name the group and click OK.

4 Drag and drop the PDS Players you wish to include in the group.

5 If you wish to delete or rename a group, right-click on the group.

6 Click Apply and OK. The groups you have created (and any changes you

have made to the groups) should appear in the Networks and Groups pane.

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Network and Groups Pane Using the Remote Manager

Manage Players

The Networks and Groups Pane allows direct configuration changes to the Players on a Server.

1 Right click on a Server, Network, or subnetwork in the Networks and

Groups Pane. Select Manage Players from the context menu.

2 The Edit Properties of Players menu will appear.

3 Click within the Player Name region to edit the name of a given PDS

Player.

4 The Notes section automatically records recent network changes for each

player; this section can be user-edited.

5 Click Save.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Network and Groups Pane

Delete Offline Players

Offline Players can be deleted individually by right-clicking on the Player in the Connections tab of the Network pane. Alternatively, selecting Delete Offline Players will delete all offline Players in a network. Please note that online Players cannot be deleted.

1 Selecting the Delete Offline Players dialogue will launch the Offline

Players menu.

2 All Players not currently connected to the PDS Server, or Players that

have been removed from a given Network or subnetwork, will appear in the Offline Players dialogue.

3 Select the Players you wish to delete and click Delete Selected to remove

them from the Remote Manager interface. Please note that when reconnected these Players will reappear in the Remote Manager.

4 Click Close when completed.

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Network and Groups Pane Using the Remote Manager

Create New Network

New Networks can be created by right-clicking on a Server in the Remote Manager. Subnetworks can be created by right-clicking on a Network.

1 Right click on a Server, Network, or subnetwork in the Networks and

Groups Pane. Select Create Network from the context menu. The Create New Network window will appear.

2 Provide a Name and optional Network Description.

3 If you wish to designate a unique administrator for the Network, check

Create user account for network administrator.

Provide login credentials and a default email for this administrator.

4 Click OK to complete.

5 To associate players with a network, drag them from the Connections tab

of the Network pane into the given network or subnetwork.

6 A warning will appear; click OK.

Delete Network

To delete a Network, right-click on the Network and select Delete Network. Click Yes on the warning that appears.

NOTE: The following cannot be deleted through the Remote Manager:

• The PDS Server

• Networks with subnetworks

• Networks with players associated (including greyed-out moved or disconnected

players)

Delete subnetworks and move or delete all players before deleting a network.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Network and Groups Pane

Manage Users

1 Right click on a Server, Network, or subnetwork in the Networks and

Groups Pane. Select Manage Users from the context menu.

2 The Manage Accounts window will appear.

3 To delete an account, right-click on the username and select Delete

Account.

4 Click Add Account to create a new account, or double-click on an existing

account to edit the properties.

NOTE: The properties of the default Agent for each network cannot be changed, although they can be viewed. A new Agent can be created if you wish to change the Agent properties.

5 The Create New Account window will appear.

6 Choose whether the account will be a Player Agent, Network

Administrator, or a Content Manager.

— The Player Agent is the link between Players and the Server. It enables

network status and health monitoring.

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Network and Groups Pane Using the Remote Manager

— The Network Administrator oversees all configuration on a given

network via the Remote Manager, as well as all content oversight abilities.

— The Content Manager has content update privileges on a given

network via the Web Controller; the Content Manager can log into but make no changes in the Remote Manager.

7 Provide an email address and login credentials.

8 Click OK.

Download Agent Setup

Select Download Agent Setup if you wish to download the Agent for a particular network. Agent downloads should not be necessary in the default configuration of the PDS Server. Please consult Non-Standard Installations on page 159.

Broadcast Message

Administrators can broadcast a message to all Remote Manager users. To directly communicate with one user, see Manager List below.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Network Pane

Network Pane

The Network pane shows different properties of the Players that are in the network or group selected in the Networks & Groups pane.

Manager List

A list of managers appears below the Player list in the Network Pane. Details about managers currently online are visible here.

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Network Pane Using the Remote Manager

Double-clicking a manager’s username launches a chat pop-up:

Connections

The Connections tab shows a table with one row for each Player. The table columns show the following information for each Player:

— Name

— Online status

— IP address

— Network

— Date and time it came online

— System ID

— Number of dropped connections

— Player (agent) version number

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Network Pane

— Date and time the Player was last online (for offline Players)

Note:

— The name in the network column indicates the network to which the

Player belongs, which is useful when you have selected a network or group that contains sub-networks or subgroups.

— Players that are currently offline will be shown as dimmed, i.e., the

text of their table row will be a light gray color, and you will not be able to perform most operations on them.

— You can sort the table entries by clicking any of the column headings.

PDS Remote Manager will initially sort the table by Player name.

To bring up the PDS Remote Player Management Console, double-click the Player's row in the table.

Player Status

Like the Connections tab, the Player Status tab presents a table of the Players in the selected network, but with different columns of data to show status information for the PDS Player software and the computer.

The columns in the table show the following information for each Player:

— Name

— PDS Player status

— Self-healing setting

— Currently running playlist

— Current event number within the current playlist

— Windows page file size

— Virtual memory used by the CG (Player graphics application)

— Virtual memory used by the PDS Player application

— Total disk usage on the system

— Master volume level for the audio output

— Time stamp (in Player local time) of the last status information sent to

PDS Server

— Time stamp (in Player local time) of the last Player "heartbeat" seen by

the agent

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Network Pane Using the Remote Manager

— Time stamp (in Player local time) of the last screenshot sent to PDS

Server

— The full Windows file path of the currently running playlist

Please note that:

— Players that are currently offline will be shown as dimmed, i.e., the

text of their table row will be a light gray color, and you will not be able to perform most operations on them.

— You can sort the table entries by clicking any of the column headings.

PDS Remote Manager will initially sort the table by Player name.

To bring up the Remote Player Management Console, double-click the Player's row in the table.

Screenshots

The Screenshots tab displays still images of each Player's output as rendered by the graphics card on the system. The screenshots are updated at a regular interval (based on the Auto-Refresh setting in the toolbar), so watching the images in the screenshots provides a quick and effective way to check the output from the Players in the network.

Each screenshot is captioned, with the name of the Player and network shown immediately above the screenshot image.

You can adjust the size of the screenshot images shown in this view using the zoom slider immediately below the screenshot viewing area.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Network Pane

You can select the monitor whose image is used for the screenshots by selecting from the pop-up menu immediately below the screenshot viewing area. You can select PDS Output Screen (this is the default option), System Primary Screen, or System Secondary Screen. (Note that if you select System Secondary Screen, Remote Manager will show a blank blue screen for all Players that have a single-monitor configuration.)

To bring up the Remote Player Management Console, double-click the Player's screenshot image.

System Info

Like the Connections and Player Status tabs, the System Info tab presents a table of the Players in the selected network, but with different columns of data to show detailed system status information for the computer.

The columns in the table show the following information for each Player:

— Computer name (as configured in the Windows "System Properties"

control panel)

— Time zone (as configured in the Windows "Date and Time" control

panel

— Player name

— PDS Server version number

— Days remaining in the PDS Player license (for temporary licenses)

— PDS Player Product ID (for licensing)

— Data Parser version (if PDS Data Parser is installed)

— Days remaining in the Data Parser license

— Heartbeat Server version number

— Package Handler version number

— Operating system version (see note below)

— Operating system "uptime" (i.e., time since the last system reboot)

NOTE: The Windows version number is shown as reported by Windows, and the format of this version number does not correspond exactly to the marketing names for Window versions. For example, Windows Vista is reported in the table as "Microsoft Windows NT 6.0.6001 Service Pack 1."

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Network Pane Using the Remote Manager

— Players that are currently offline will be shown as dimmed, i.e., the

text of their table row will be a light gray color, and you will not be able to perform most operations on them.

— You can sort the table entries by clicking any of the column headings.

The PDS Remote Manager will initially sort the table by Player name.

Network Packages

Network packages can be observed from the Network Packages tab. To send network packages, open the Web Controller or use the Publish Content tool in the Remote Manager.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Remote Player Management Console

Remote Player Management Console

Double-clicking a Player in the Network pane (double-clicking the Player row in a tabular view, or double-clicking the Player's thumbnail image in an image view) will bring up the PDS Remote Player Management Console window. This window presents more detailed status information on the Player and provides tools for managing and controlling the Player.

The Remote Player Management Console window consists of four parts:

• the menu bar and tool bar, which include the "Tools" menu and the buttons used for Player operations;

• the performance meter pane, which includes LED-style graphs to show the current levels for page file size, CPU usage, audio level, and disk usage;

• the screenshots pane, which includes a tab and display area to show the screenshots for each of the system's display outputs; and

• the status detail pane, with tabs to show different detail elements of the systems status (this pane is discussed in more detail below).

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Remote Player Management Console Using the Remote Manager

Tools Menu

The Tools menu contains the following options:

— File Browser: Select this option to bring up a File Manager view,

browsing the Player's file system, in a separate window. The File Manager is described in detail below.

—Close: Select this option to close the Remote Player Management

Console window.

Note that you can work in the main Polycom Digital Signage Remote Manager Window and in the Remote Player Management Console at the same time, and you may also have multiple Management Console windows open at once. However, keep in mind that each open Management Console window receives a refreshed set of screenshots every five seconds, so each open window will consume additional network bandwidth.

Tool Bar

The tool bar contains a number of buttons for performing management tasks on the Player:

Start Process

The "Start Process" button allows you to start a new process on the Player. Click the button to bring up the Start Process dialog:

— In the File Name field, enter the full path (on the Player) of the

program to run.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Remote Player Management Console

— In the Arguments field, enter the command-line parameters, if any.

— In the Working Directory field, enter the full path of the directory (on

the Player) that will be the working directory for the new process.

— To cancel and return to the Remote Player Management Console, click

Cancel.

— To schedule the process on multiple Players, click Start On… You will

be brought to a new dialog with a tree view of the Player network. Select a Player to run this process by checking the check box next to that Player's name.

— To start the process on the current Player only, click Start.

File Manager

Click File Manager… to bring up a File Manager view, browsing the Player's file system, in a separate window.

The File Manager is described in detail in the section below.

Reboot

Click Reboot to reboot the Player immediately. (Note that this will reboot the entire system. This is the same as selecting Shut Down... > Restart from the Start menu in Windows.)

Set License

Click Set License to bring up a menu listing the components on the Player that can be licensed. Once you select a component, Remote Manager will display a dialog box with that component's product ID and a field for you to enter the component's license key.

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Remote Player Management Console Using the Remote Manager

Monitoring Settings

The Monitoring Settings dialog box allows you to configure different settings for the Player Agent:

• Enable Self-Healing allows the agent to take corrective action should a Player experience a problem playing out content.

• Load last played playlist… to have the PDS Player automatically load the previously running playlist any time it is started.

• In Player Startup, you can optionally enter the name of a playlist to be loaded by the Player when it starts up.

• Check Enable Audio Monitoring to allow the audio output and levels to be sent to the Server by the Player. If this is not checked, no audio information or levels will be checked or sent, and no audio alarms will be triggered, even if the Player is playing out audio.

• Use the Video Monitoring selection to choose the display output that should be monitored by the Agent-this should be the display receiving the output from the Player (usually the System Secondary Screen).

• The settings under Alarm Conditions allow you to control how quickly the Player Agent will send a notification to the Server when encountering the following potential problems:

— Missing video: This alarm condition occurs when the agent is not able

to get any video output from the Player to provide a screenshot. This usually indicates a problem with the Player.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Remote Player Management Console

— Missing audio: This alarm condition occurs when the agent is not able

to obtain any audio output from the Player. This usually indicates a problem with the Player. (Note that Enable Audio Monitoring must be checked for this condition to trigger an alarm.)

— Missing heartbeat: The Player regularly updates a timestamp file (the

"heartbeat") that is checked by the Agent. This alarm condition occurs when the heartbeat has not been updated by the Player in the specified interval. This usually indicates a problem with the Player; however, for very graphics-intensive templates or on lower-end Player systems, you may need to lengthen this interval to eliminate false alarms caused by the Player simply being overloaded.

• Click OK to apply your changes and close the dialog box.

• Click Cancel to discard your changes.

• Click Apply to apply your changes but leave the dialog box open.

• Click Apply To… to apply your changes to multiple Player systems.

Clicking Apply To… will bring up a new dialog with a tree view of the Player network. Select Players to receive these changes by checking the check box next to each Player's name.

Edit Config

This is used for advanced trouble-shooting. Please do not modify these settings without direction from Polycom Support.

Restart Polycom Player

Click this if you wish to restart Player(s) in your network. If the Player does not have Load previous playlist selected, you will have to manually load a playlist using the Playlist Load functionality found in the toolbar. Alternately you could publish a playlist to the Player(s) using the Publish Content functionality, found in the main application window.

Playlist

This feature scans available playlists on the Player hard disk and conveniently lets you select one to load.

Command

Choose one of the commands that appears in the drop-down list to perform common tasks, such as clearing the screens. Please see Appendix A: Player

Commands on page 167 for a list of commands.

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Remote Player Management Console Using the Remote Manager

Status Detail Panel

The Status Detail panel of the Remote Player Management Console provides granular and up-to-the-moment status information regarding the Player. The Status Detail panel also provides remote process management for the Player appliance.

The Status Detail panel consists of four tabs: Player Status, Running Processes, Windows Services, and File Manager.

Player Status

The Player Status panel provides a summary of the individual Players’ performance and present status.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Remote Player Management Console

Running Processes

The Running Processes tab functions as a process manager for the remote Player.

• To stop a process running on the PDS Player, right-click on the process and click Kill Process.

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Remote Player Management Console Using the Remote Manager

Windows Services

The Windows Services tab displays the Windows services on the selected PDS Player. As with the Running Processes tab, users can remotely start and stop these services when necessary.

• To stop a running Windows service, right-click on the service and click Stop.

• To start a Windows service, right-click on the service and click Start.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Remote Player Management Console

File Manager

The File Manager allows direct management of the files on the PDS Player. Using the File Manager, administrators can navigate through the files stored on the PDS Player.

• If you wish to alter or edit a folder, right-click on the folder. A pop-up appears:

— Copy Path to Clipboard: Copies the path of the folder as text.

— Rename/Move To: Allows users to rename or move the folder.

— Delete: Deletes the file.

— Create Package: Saves the folder as a PDS Package for distribution.

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Remote Player Management Console Using the Remote Manager

• Right-clicking on a file will launch the following pop-up:

— View Tail: Launches a text editor which displays the last 50 KB to 5

MB of data contained in a file.

—Edit File: Launches a text editor with which users can edit files.

— Copy Path to Clipboard: Copies the path of the folder as text.

— Compare...: Allows users to compare files across multiple Players.

This tool is useful for ensuring that packages have published correctly. After running the comparison, the following window appears:

— Download...: Allows users to download files from a Player to the

computer running Remote Manager.

— Copy To...: Allows users to copy the file to another location on the

PDS Player.

— Rename/Move To: Allows users to rename or move the file.

— Delete: Deletes the file.

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— Execute...: Executes a specific file. Please note that this function allows

users to browse for files to run, rather than using the Start Process item in the Remote Player Management Console Tool Bar.

— Load...: Directly loads PDS Playlists and Templates in the PDS Player.

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Using the Web Controller

This chapter outlines the use of the Polycom Web Controller in content managment procedures. It contains the following sections:

• About the PDS Web Controller

• Installing the Web Controller

• Opening the Web Controller

• Web Controller Interface Guide

• Control Panel

• Playlist Editor

• Crawling Ticker

• Slide Show Tickers

• Video Slide Content

• Message Board/Webcast

• Alerts

• Settings

About the PDS Web Controller

The Polycom PDS Web Controller gives administrators remote control over the content and settings of individual Polycom PDS Players. In addition to its powerful central content management interface, the Polycom PDS Web Controller provides professionally-designed and fully customizable templates, automated news and data feeds, and direct Player oversight.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Installing the Web Controller

Installing the Web Controller

Web Controller is supported on Windows XP, Windows Vista (32 bit), and Windows 7 (32 bit). Windows Vista and Windows 7 require the additional pre-installation steps outlined below.

Pre-Installation Procedures on Windows Vista and Windows 7

1 Open the Start menu. Type MSconfig in the Search field and click enter.

The System Configuration window will open.

2 Go to the Tools tab.

3 Select the option Disable UAC under the “Tool Name” column.

4 Click Launch.

5 Restart the computer.

6 Perform the installation steps detailed below.

Installation

1 Find the Polycom Digital Signage Web Controller installer in the

C:\software directory on the Polycom Digital Signage Server.

2 Distribute this file to your computer.

3 Double click on the PDS Web Controller setup .exe file. The PDS Web

Controller setup screen appears. Click Next.

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4 Designate a destination for the file. The default directory, C:\Program

Files\Polycom\PDS Web Controller

, is recommended. Click Next.

5 Choose a folder to appear in the Start Menu. Click Next.

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6 A review screen will appear. Click Install.

7 Double click on the PDS Web Controller desktop icon to begin.

Opening the Web Controller

When you first open the Polycom Digital Signage Web Controller application, you will be prompted to enter your login credentials:

The default server name is PDSSERVER. The default credentials for Content Managers are ContentAdmin/Polycom123.

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Please note that you should not need to edit the TCP Port when using the default PDS Server configuration.

Licensing the Web Controller

The Web Controller must be licensed prior to use. To license the Web Controller:

1 Navigate to File > License.

2 The License dialog will appear.

a In the dialog, click the Request a License Key button.

b Enter the PDS Serial Number. The PDS Serial Number, provided by

your sales representative in your fulfillment email, is unique per customer and comprehensive across the Polycom Digital Signage solution. Do not discard this number.

3 Click Request License Key to request the license key, which will

automatically populate the license key field in the initial dialog.

4 Click OK.

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Web Controller Interface Guide

After login and licensing, the Web Controller landing page appears.

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Main Panel

All content management and Player configuration tools reside in the Main Panel of the Web Control.

Each tab is documented individually throughout the rest of the chapter.

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Player Monitor Panel

The Player Monitor Panel of the Web Controller user interface displays screenshots of all connected Players on the given network of the Polycom Digital Signage Server. Use the Zoom tool to change the level of resolution of the display.

To change monitor settings:

1 Right-click on the chosen PDS Player. Click Full Screen Monitor....

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2 The Full Screen Monitor pop-up will appear.

3 To change the Monitor view, open the Screen drop-down on the far left.

Choose whether to view the PDS Output Screen, System Primary Screen, or System Secondary Screen.

For more information about using multiple screens with the PDS Player, please consult Configuring PDS Player Video Settings on page 6.

4 To change the monitor’s update frequency, open the Update Interval

drop-down and select a new timeframe.

Events Panel

The Events Panel provides feedback for PDS Web Controller users during the publication process. The events detailed include content updates, errors, and Player status changes. Changes made in the Web Controller may not take effect until the package has completed the download and processing of a package; this panel allows you to monitor the states of these processes.

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Changing the Layout

To change the layout of the above panels, navigate to View and choose Horizontal Layout or Vertical Layout. The Vertical Layout, selected by

default, places the Monitor Panel to the right of the Main Panel; the Horizontal Layout places it below the Main Panel.

A user can also freely change the look and feel by dragging and resizing the panes within the Web Controller.

Style

The style selection menu allows users to choose a different visual style for the Web Controller.

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Control Panel Using the Web Controller

Control Panel

The Control Panel provides a set of direct controls over the Players in the associated network. The Control Panel is the starting point for content management on Players. Greater detail is provided on the subsequent tabs in the PDS Web Controller, but the Control Panel gives immediate access to overarching controls.

Player Controls

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The Player Controls section allows immediate changes to be made to the Player. Unlike text edits or playlist changes elsewhere in the Web Controller, one click on each of these options will update Players targeted in the selection wizard:

• Clear Screen: resets the Player and clears the Player screen.

• Next Event: Advances to the next event in the playlist.

• Previous Event: Returns to the previous event in the playlist.

•First Event: Returns to the first event in the playlist.

•Restart: Shuts down the Player and restarts it. This tool can be used to

perform a full reset of the application.

•Stop: Shuts down the Player.

•Disable Video: Shuts down video card output, bringing the Player into

standby mode. Please note that the Player will cease output when this is chosen.

• Enable Video: Resumes video card output on the Player.

•Volume:

— Change the Audio Volume. 100 is the default; 0 will mute the output.

— Click Set Volume.

•Load Playlist: This option loads the playlist selected from the dropdown menu. Click Refresh to restart the playlist.

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Selection Wizard

After selecting one of the above options, the Player selection window will appear.

Offline Players will display a darkened screen; online Players will show a blue screen.

Click OK.

Note: In order for the changes made in the PDS Web Controller to take effect, all affected Players must be online and running the PDS Player application. Updates made offline will not take effect automatically.

Editing the Announcement and Emergency Crawls

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The Announcement and Emergency Crawls can be edited, started, and stopped from the Control Panel. These crawls will not change or stop the playlist in progress but will instead run at the top of the screen. To publish a crawl to a PDS Player:

1 To change an announcement, edit the crawl text field.

2 Click Start Crawl. The Player selection window will appear. Choose the

target Player or Players for your announcement. Click OK.

3 The Announcement Crawl should appear on the Player shortly.

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Please note that the Emergency Crawl will appear in red:

4 To stop the crawl, click Stop Crawl in the Web Controller. The Player

Selection screen will appear again; indicate which Player you wish to target and click OK.

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Polycom Digital Signage Administrator Guide Playlist Editor

Playlist Editor

The Playlist Editor tab in the Web Controller provides controls over playlists displayed in the PDS Player.

To create, edit, or play Playlists via the Playlist Editor:

1 Select a Playlist from the Available Playlists drop-down range.

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a To retrieve a specific Playlist from a player for editing, click Retrieve

from Player. The Player Selection window will appear; choose a player and a playlist and click OK.

b To create a new playlist, click New. The Save As dialog appears. Enter

a name and click OK.

Alternatively, click Save As at the bottom of the Editor.

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2 The Playlist will then appear.

3 To add a template to the playlist:

a Choose a template from the Available Templates drop-down menu.

b Choose the duration in seconds for which the template will run.

c Choose whether the item will run in the foreground (appropriate only

for crawling tickers) or in the background.

d Click Add Template.

4 To change the configuration of an existing template, click on a

Description, Duration, Layer, or Parameter field to launch an editor.

5 To move a template within a playlist, use the up and down arrows within

the editor. The order of the template will determine when the template plays on the playlist.

6 To load a specific template within a playlist, click the Load link.

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7 To remove a single template, click the Remove link beside the template

inside the Playlist. To remove all templates from the Playlist, click Clear All. To delete the Playlist altogether, click Delete Current Playlist.

8 When all configuration changes have been made, click Save to save the

Playlist within the Web Controller.

9 Click Distribute to send the Playlist to the selected target Players.

10 Click Load on Player(s) to load the Playlist on the selected target Players.

Adding Content through the Playlist Editor

Content Directory

Prior to making changes to PDS Player content by means of the PDS Web Controller, content managers should create a central directory for all video, text, and PowerPoint files intended for distribution to PDS Players. These directories must reside on the C: drive of the computer running the Web Controller.

For situations in which a single content manager is responsible for all content distributed on a network, Polycom recommends creating the directory C:\Content.

For implementations in which multiple content managers oversee the same network, we recommend creating the directory C:\[ContentManagerName].

If properly configured on the computer running the Web Controller, this directory will automatically be created on the target players during the Playlist publication process.

NOTE: Data files that supply information for the various Trivia, News, and Weather templates must reside in the C:\XPresenterContent\Data directory. The processes for updating these files are outlined in subsequent sections below.

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Default Playlist

The PDS Player and PDS Web Controller ship with a preconfigured default playlist:

The following templates constitute the default playlist:

• Lower Crawl: the crawl that plays throughout the playlist. Can be edited in the Crawling Ticker tab in the Web Controller. To remove the crawl from the PDS Player output, delete this template from the playlist.

• Entertainment News: a default data feed that displays entertainment news from a pre-defined feed. This feed updates regularly and populates the template with headlines, stories (usually one or two sentences), and images if possible.

•Trivia: a template that displays trivia questions and answers generated by a data file.

• Weather 3Day: displays local weather for the next three days.

• Event Calendar PowerPoint: Displays a user-designated PowerPoint.

This PowerPoint can be retrieved, edited, replaced, and distributed (as ppt or as a jpg archive) via the Slide Show Tickers tab in the Web Controller.

• Video 4x3: Displays a user-designated standard ratio video. This template is editable in the Video Slide Content tab of the Web Controller.

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• Sports Headlines: a default data feed that displays sports news from a pre-defined feed. This feed updates regularly and populates the template with headlines, stories (usually one or two sentences), and images if possible.

• Video 16x9: Displays a user-designated widescreen video. This template is editable in the Video Slide Content tab of the Web Controller.

• Product Catalog PowerPoint: Displays a user-designated PowerPoint presentation. This PowerPoint can be retrieved, edited, replaced, and distributed (as ppt or as a jpg archive) via the Slide Show Tickers tab in the Web Controller.

NOTE: The Default Playlist includes preconfigured text, video, and PowerPoint presentation content. However, these elements are intended to be user-edited. For information on adding and editing content in templates, please see below.

Templates

The PDS Web Controller includes a library of default templates that can be added to a playlist from the Available Templates drop-down. The information and possible parameter changes for each of these additional templates follows.

AddOn L Bar Streaming Video

The AddOn L Bar Streaming Video template displays a streaming video or URL, a fixed message, and a text ticker.

NOTE: Websites are not resized automatically. Some sites may be restricted on player output given the resolution.

1 Click on the Params link beside "AddOn L Bar Streaming Video."

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2 The Template Parameters screen will appear.

3 To add a live video stream or website display, enter the URL in the text

field under VideoStreamSource.

4 To add a static message:

a Click the browse (...) button under Message_Title.

b In the dialog that appears, choose the text file with the message title.

c Click Open.

d Next, click the browse (...) button under Message_Body.

e In the dialog that appears, choose the text file that contains the

message body.

5 To add a message ticker:

a Click the browse (...) button under Message_Ticker.

b Select a text file. The Message Ticker displays two lines of text at a

time; ensure that your text file is edited properly.

c Click Open.

6 Click OK when all changes have been completed.

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AddOn PowerPoint Schedule:

Displays a PowerPoint slide of your choosing; this template is intended to display a calendar or schedule created in PowerPoint. To add your own schedule template:

1 Click on the Params link beside "AddOn PPT Schedule."

2 The Template Parameters screen will appear.

3 Click on ‘...,’ the browse button. This will bring up your list of available

PowerPoint templates for selection.

Click on the PP_Ticker_Schedule.ppt file. Right-click on this file and select Open.

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4 PowerPoint will launch. You will then have the below PowerPoint slide

available for changes and population of your required data.

5 From here you can adjust the default information, including location

names, time intervals, meeting names, etc., using the PowerPoint application.

To change the style of this PowerPoint schedule:

a Click Select in the PowerPoint Editing panel in the Home tab. Select

Selection Pane from the drop-down menu that appears.

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Playlist Editor Using the Web Controller

b Scroll to the bottom of the Selection Pane. Toggle layer visibility to

match styles. The options outlined in dashed red dictate table style; the options outlined in solid blue dictate background style.

6 Once you have made your changes, save the PowerPoint slide and click

Open in the selection dialog.

7 Click OK to complete template editing.

AddOn Video Clip, PowerPoint, Message

The AddOn Video Clip, PowerPoint, Message template displays a 4x3 video file, PowerPoint ticker, and text file. To configure an AddOn Video Clip, PowerPoint, Message template:

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1 Click Params. The Template Parameters screen will appear.

2 To add a video:

a Click the browse (...) button under ClipFilename.

b Choose a video file in the dialog that appears.

c Click Open.

3 To add a PowerPoint ticker:

a Click the browse (...) button under PPT_Ticker.

b Choose a PowerPoint file in the dialog that appears.

c Click Open.

d You will be prompted to create a PowerPoint archive. Click Yes.

4 To edit the message text:

a Click the browse (...) button under Message_Text.

b Select a text file in the dialog that appears.

c Click Open.

5 Click OK.

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AddOn Video Fullscreen

Displays a full-screen video. To add a video:

1 Click on the Params link. The template dialog window will appear.

2 Click the browse (...) button. Choose a video file from your content

directory and click Open.

3 Click OK.

AddOn VideoStream

Displays a live video stream; if a non-video URL is designated, the template will display that URL. To add a video stream:

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1 Click on the Params link. The template dialog window will appear.

2 Enter in the source URL for the website you would like to reference.

Click OK. Once changes are made, save and distribute to the players.

Alert Fullscreen

Displays an alert screen. See Alerts below.

Data Ticker Fullscreen

Displays a data-driven news feed. To add:

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1 Click on the Params link. The template dialog window will appear.

a Click the Add File or ... button beside the Datasource field. Locate the

.xdsrc file on your computer and click Open.

NOTE: Please consult the “Using the Data Parser” on page 147 for more information on configuring .xdsrc files.

b Remove all pathway and file type information from the chosen file.

The Datasource field should contain only the file name of the .xdsrc file, without the file extension.

In our example, C:\PolycomContent\Data\PolycomFeed_PolycomFeed.xdsrc becomes

PolycomFeed_PolycomFeed in the Datasource field.

c Provide a title and category for the Template.

2 Click OK.

Lobby Crawl

Displays the crawling ticker. Once the ticker has been begun it will play throughout the Playlist. See Crawling Ticker below.

PowerPoint Ticker LBar

Displays a PowerPoint ticker. For more information, consult Slide Show

Tickers below.

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Message Board

Displays the Message Board. For more information, consult Message

Board/Webcast below.

Trivia

Displays a Trivia sequence. To edit the Trivia questions and answers:

1 Click on the Params link. The Template Parameters window will appear.

2 The NumQuestions field allows users to define the number of questions

displayed on this template from the source Excel spreadsheet.

The Title is the name that will be displayed on the template.

The DataFilename is the source Excel spreadsheet which will be called for this application. The syntax of the file must be "lib_Trivia.xls".

3 To customize the questions, open the C:\XPresenterContent\Data folder

on your computer. Double-click on the lib_Trivia.xls file.

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Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

About this Guide

Purpose

Documentation

Audience

Customer Support

Polycom Global Services Telephone

Polycom Digital Signage Solution

Polycom Digital Signage Player

Polycom Digital Signage Server

Polycom Digital Signage Remote Manager

Polycom Digital Signage Web Controller

Polycom Digital Signage Agent

Architecture Overview

Configuring the PDS Player

About the PDS Player

Accessing the Player

Configuring the Player Directly

Configuring PDS Player Video Settings

Output Windows Settings

Capture Settings

Startup Settings

Startup Properties

Startup Options

Options

General

Messages

Audio

Configuring PDS Player Advanced Settings

Renderer Settings

File Locations

Playout Settings

Using the PDS Player

Getting Started

Loading a Template

Loading a Playlist

The PDS Player Interface

Current Playlist

Default Layer

Default Transition

Events

Control Buttons

Playlist Controls

Message Control

Current Output Window

Scheduling Events with the PDS Player

Controlling the VertigoCG Renderer

Using VertigoCG

Using the Remote Manager

Main Window

Networks and Groups Pane

Events Pane

Current Incidents Pane

Status Bar

Tool Bar

Connect/Disconnect

Auto-Refresh Menu

Refresh

Publish Content

Publish New Content

Remove Old Content

Execute Actions

Publish Software Update

Network and Groups Pane

Network and Player Management

Manage Groups

Manage Players

Delete Offline Players

Create New Network

Delete Network

Manage Users

Download Agent Setup

Broadcast Message

Network Pane

Manager List

Connections