Digital Signage User Guide

Copyright © 2014 Elisa Videra Oy. All rights reserved.

Digital Signage User Guide

Videra DS support: tel. +358 10 3226 300 or [email protected]

Use of the service:

Depending on which server your Digital Signage service is located at, browse with your Internet browser to

https://server02.viderads.com or https://server05.viderads.com and log in with your account details.

When logged in you see the next page:

Playlist page:

A: General functions of the portal

B: Common Playlists and media screens which you can control

C: Playlist content (media spots)

D: Directories for created- or uploaded content

E: Content that you can play on media screens

F: Making new playlist and playlist activation

A

B C

D

E

F

mailto:[email protected]

https://server02.viderads.com/

https://server05.viderads.com/


A – The general functions of the portal

1: Help: This function is not in use. To get support contact Videra DS support: tel. +358 10 3226 300 or

[email protected] if you need support!

2. Reload data: Refreshes the portal. If you have problems with the portal, click this button to reload it.

3. Password: Change the password of your account.

4. Logoff: Log off from the portal.

5. Show the account which you are signed in.

B – Media screens Here you can see media screens that you can

control. Status lights for media screen:

Green = Screen is working and ready

to download data.

Red = Screen is offline at the moment.

Color might be red for a while, but if

this situation remains for a long time,

please contact our support service.

mailto:[email protected]


C – Content on a media screen playlist

1. List: Open playlist content in List –view.

2. Actions: You can shuffle the playlist, delete old spots, delete playlist, make Excel –document about spots

on the playlist or make one big video from all the content in the playlist.

3. All: Select all spots from the playlist.

4. None: Deselect the spots you have selected.

5. Copy: You can copy a premade playlist and you copy contents to another playlist.

6. Replace: Pastes the content you have copied earlier to “memory” into a chosen playlist and replaces

existing material from list.

7. Preview: Preview the chosen playlist. NOTE: Preview works only some of the spot formats.

8. Log: You can check if there have been changes in the playlist.

9. On this area you see scheduling of the spots which are displayed on a media screen. Order of the

presentation will be from left to right. You can change the order of the media spots by dragging and

dropping them to a desired location.

D – Content groups

Here are the folders containing all available

material that has been uploaded or created to be

used in screens. From here you can move spots

to playlists to be displayed in media players or

drag & drop material from one folder to another.

You can control all the folders from the buttons

presented below.

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E – Content / Spots

1. Uploaded- and created spot you can move into playlists.

2. New content: If you want to create a new content, you click this button to open up the Composer tool.

3. Upload content: Premade content can be uploaded into the portal from your own computer by clicking

this button.

4. Copy: Copy the spot (this button is only visible with spots that are created with Composer –tool).

5. Edit: Edit the spot (this button is only visible with spots that are created with Composer –tool).

6. Properties: Here you can see the properties of a spot

* General – Here you can see name, description, keywords, length, and check boxes for

template and public spot. If you tap “Public spot” everyone in that portal can see that spot.

*Change log – You can see e.g. when the spot has been created.

7. Delete: Delete the spot.

F – Activate the playlist

With “New” –button you can create a playlist and activate it.

You can also set the playlist to end on selected day and time.

You have to create at least one playlist to get material to the

screen!

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Functions of the buttons for media spots:

You will see all the buttons when you move your mouse cursor on a chosen media spot.

Edit content: Opens composer tool to edit selected content.

Preview: A possible preview for a media spot. Note that the preview might not be ready

immediately after an upload of a file and the preview is not available for all kinds of media

(for example .ppt –files).

Content properties: You can edit content properties (name, description, etc.).

Delete content: Delete the chosen media spot.

Include in multiselection: You can check several spots and move them all together into a

playlist.


Adding content into playlist

Choose the content file you want to use from ”Selectable content list”. Drag and drop the chosen file from

content list into “Playlist content” area. Media player downloads it from the server and after this you can

see the chosen file running on the media screen.

It might take a while to update playlists (from 1 up to 30 minutes). This always depends on the quality of

the used Internet connection and when the media player has communicated with the server last time.

That’s why new content will not be displayed immediately on the media screen when you move it into

playlist.

Deleting content from playlist

Move your mouse cursor on the media spot you want to remove. You will see X-button appearing, now

click it. Media spot will be removed from the playlist and after a while it will be also removed from the

media screen.

It might take a while to remove media spots from media screens (from 1 up to 30 minutes). This always

depends on the quality of the Internet connection used and when has the media player communicated last

time with the server.


Uploading your own content: From playlist page, click ”Upload content” -button from down-right corner. A new window appears:

Click button 2. ”Add file” and browse file(s) from your computer that you want to upload. Chosen files can

be seen listed on field 1. Maximum size for a file which you can upload is 400MB. Button 3. “Remove file”

program deletes the selected file from the list.

When you are ready and all the files are listed, click button 4. “Upload files”. File(s) will transfer into chosen

directory. Now you can see all the files on the portal and you can set them to be displayed on media screen.

After this you can close the window from button 5.

Supported file formats you can show directly as spots on media screens are:

• Videos (MPEG2, MPEG4, MOV, AVI, WMV, FLV, VOB) • Animations (Flash, animated GIF) • Pictures (JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF) • PDF –documents (When the spot is on the playlist and you are modifying time for it remember this. The time is for one page not for the whole document). • PowerPoint presentations (PPT) (PowerPoint must be created with specific instructions. Otherwise it cannot be played on the media screen. See attachment 1.) THIS IS NOT RECOMMENDED FILE FORMAT TO USE!

More specific information about supported file formats can be found from the attachment ”GF v7 Quick media sheet.pdf”

NOTE! Spots must always have proper name and duration. Allowed characters in the name are:

alphabets from a to z and å, ä and ö (also capitals) and numbers 0 - 9 and underscore _


Creating new content with Composer tool

From the start page choose “New content” from right-lower corner, click it and you get a new window:

Choose the template directory from point 1.

Choose the template you want to use from point 2.

Click in section 3. Continue and you’ll get a new window:

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3


Fill in a new name for your spot into a field 1.

You can fill in description or keywords into fields 2 and 3. Empty fields are also acceptable.

Check box 4. “Template” is for making new template that other users can use also.

Check box 5. “Public spot” is that if you make a new spot and you want other users to have rights to use it

on their playlist.

Pressing button 6 you can start to create content.


Above in “Choose your content template” –picture there is also a button “Create spot without template”. If

you press it you will see this kind of a window:

You can continue to composer by pressing Open Composer -button.


Composer tool opens:

To edit a template you can double-click on fields in window 5. You can also choose objects to be modified

one by one from window 3.

From area 2. you can add new text- or media elements by clicking the button and then paint a chosen area

in window 5. With text element -tool you can create text content and with media element you can add

pictures, widgets and animations. Supported file formats are:

Supported file formats for Composer tool: • Pictures (JPEG, PNG, BMP) • Videos (FLV) • Flash elements created with Composer (widgets, animations, etc.) Field 1. includes buttons Undo-, Redo, and Help –buttons.

Field 4. includes functions for a chosen object. Animations, font size, different editing functions, etc.

Field 6. is made for moving the chosen objects and for zooming on window 5.

From field 7. you can edit the name of the spot, background picture and –color, and also the time durations

of the presentation.

By clicking button 8. you can preview your presentation if it includes different animations.

Always remember to save up your work and the changes made by clicking button 9 “Save”.

When you are ready and you have saved up your work, click button 10. to close the Composer tool.

Note: If modified presentation is already on a playlist, created changes doesn’t automatically transfer to

media screen. We recommend that you put that spot again to playlist.

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Editing the settings of the content at playlist

Move your mouse cursor on the spot you want to edit. Click the edit button.

You will get a new window:

a. Time range: With this you can choose media spot to be run always or at different times.

b. Days: Chosen days for media spot to be displayed running on media screen.

c. Daily playback time: You can edit the daily running times of a media spot.

d. Loops: You can choose in which loop the content to be displayed should be shown.

e. Copy: You can copy properties of a selected spot.

f. Paste: You can paste copied spot properties to a selected spot.

g. Save: Save selected settings.

h. Cancel: Cancel this operation.

Categories: Here you can define spot to be played in only specified categories

Extras: Here you can set the time duration for a spot and mute it optionally.


Media Management

”Media management” page is a media library for content created with Composer tool.

On this page you can upload materials which you can use to create your own content. You can also delete

the old files from this page.

Supported file formats for Composer tool: • Pictures (JPEG, PNG, BMP) • Videos (FLV) • Flash elements created with Composer (widgets, animations, etc.) You can also save media into media library while using Composer tool, so uploading of the media beforehand from Media management page is not mandatory. Downloaded material in Media management cannot be used directly to play on the playlist and shown on

the media screen. If you want to upload content without editing it and you want to show it on the media

screen, you have to upload content to “Playlist” page.


Attachment 1 – PowerPoint presentation for a DS portal

PowerPoint presentations are created with PowerPoint program. After you have created a new

presentation, you upload it into DS portal. You cannot preview the presentation made by PowerPoint when

you have uploaded it into portal. The only way to preview the presentation is to edit the file on your own

computer and then upload an updated version of it into DS portal.

PowerPoint presentations are uploaded into Playlist page to be shown as a media spots. From here you can

move the presentations you have made normally into playlists by using drag and drop.

PowerPoint presentation must be made with your own computer and it has to be saved as a .ppt –file.

When creating new content you should choose a right aspect ratio for it. If you use 9:16 media screen your

aspect ratio must be 9:16 for the content. This is how you do not get black corners while you are displaying

the presentations.

Note these things when creating a new presentation:

In each page of the presentation you have to define time duration for each single page when the picture

will change that the presentation will not show only one picture and the presentation will be shown

continuously.

These settings must be set for a presentation:

The presentation must be in full screen -mode (Full screen).

You cannot have a loop function enabled for a presentation that only closes when user press “Esc” button.

You have to use user-defined time durations for your presentations. This function must be enabled always.

Note: In PowerPoint 2010 and higher version you can save documents to .wmv format and in this case you

don’t have to give spots duration time in playlist.

Documents

Digital Signage User Guide