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BrightAuthor 2.3.0.xx (Beta)

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GeeKay
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Hi, i did not find a sub-board or thread for this topic, so i thought, i'd start one ... I have done some evaluation of BS 3.7.44 with BA 2.3.0.57 over the weekend and found some very useful functions which i did not expect - for example the possibility of turning the serial debugging on and off or of changing the network update rate remotely. But as always i have comments, requests, questions ... First of all: My BA will not upload any video file, when i publish to a "local network" location ... If i publish locally to SD-Card once and just fiddle around with other aspects, like zone positions, interactivity, etc. that'll do fine - until it comes to uploading a new video clip ... Is that a "beta-restiction", or standard? And: On publishing to "local network" location i had a couple of "cannot publish to (correct IPaddress)": Refreshing did not solve that, also going to "manage" page did not change it, only going to "edit" and then returning to "publish" made it possible. (Haven't recorded some minor "handling issues" ... i'll extend the thread when they come up again.) My top "wish list" entries are: - Background image (to place transparent PNGs and Tickers in front) PLUS a video zone (and i am sure, there's a lot of folks who would really appreciate that!) - configuration of BA "for end-users": I'd like to be able to enable or disable each control and menu item (by passord?), so i can generate a "user-safe" BA for some users who have to change contents but no layouts, player parameters, etc ... just want to leave them the items they will really need to modify. - Tickers with "rotation" parameter in smaller raster - e.g. 5 Degrees - Rotation of raster images and video clips for portrait-mode displays. (ideally by the BrightSign itself, but if BA did that part as a "preProcessing" it would also help a lot. Btw.: I am working under Win7 (64-Bit), HD1010 is configured to DHCP.
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  • 0
    Avatar
    GeeKay


    Oh, and, since the manual is not yet updated and the Release Notes only enumerate, but do not explain them:
    - What exactly are these new "... list" thingies doing / how do they work?
    - What's "live text"? As far as i see, i can enter text directly in BA... ?
    - ("interactive menu" sounds pretty self-explanatory ... <!-- s;-) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=";-)" title="Wink" /><!-- s;-) -->)


    And i forgot another one on the "nice to have" list: A subroutine for "audio fade":
    I do have applications where i must play a background music in a loop, which shall be temporarily replaced by another file (av clip or announcement, triggered by button, UDP, USB, etc.)
    Now it would be great, if i could call a "mute" or "unmute", respectively a "set volume to xxx" with a ramp parameter, instead of just cutting it off ...
    I already did that before by "manual" scripting in one case and it's not crucial, but i thought, it'd be worth asking ... <!-- s;-) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=";-)" title="Wink" /><!-- s;-) -->
  • 0
    Avatar
    RokuLyndon


    "GeeKay" wrote:

    Hi,
    First of all:
    My BA will not upload any video file, when i publish to a "local network" location ...
    If i publish locally to SD-Card once and just fiddle around with other aspects, like zone positions, interactivity, etc. that'll do fine - until it comes to uploading a new video clip ...
    Is that a "beta-restiction", or standard?

    And: On publishing to "local network" location i had a couple of "cannot publish to (correct IPaddress)": Refreshing did not solve that, also going to "manage" page did not change it, only going to "edit" and then returning to "publish" made it possible.


    My top "wish list" entries are:
    - Background image (to place transparent PNGs and Tickers in front) PLUS a video zone (and i am sure, there's a lot of folks who would really appreciate that!)
    - configuration of BA "for end-users": I'd like to be able to enable or disable each control and menu item (by passord?), so i can generate a "user-safe" BA for some users who have to change contents but no layouts, player parameters, etc ... just want to leave them the items they will really need to modify.
    - Tickers with "rotation" parameter in smaller raster - e.g. 5 Degrees
    - Rotation of raster images and video clips for portrait-mode displays. (ideally by the BrightSign itself, but if BA did that part as a "preProcessing" it would also help a lot.



    1. I don't quite understand the first issue. You can't publish videos using local networking? But, you can publish images fine? Any errors when you try to publish? This is not normal. I've published videos with local networking.

    2. THe current players are unlikely to support a background image behind the video zone. You can place transparent tickers and pngs over a video zone currently.
    3. I'll add a request for locking out parts of brightauthor. This has not been a common request. I believe this is the second, possibly 3rd time, that I've been asked about this.
    4. I'll add a request for the smaller rotation options.
    5. It's unlikely that we will rotate videos or images with the current platform. The current hardware can't handle the video rotation, and given that this is not a common request I don't know how likely we would add image and video processing functionality to the brightauthor application. But' I'll add both requests.
  • 0
    Avatar
    RokuLyndon


    "GeeKay" wrote:

    Oh, and, since the manual is not yet updated and the Release Notes only enumerate, but do not explain them:
    - What exactly are these new "... list" thingies doing / how do they work?
    - What's "live text"? As far as i see, i can enter text directly in BA... ?
    - ("interactive menu" sounds pretty self-explanatory ... <!-- s;-) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=";-)" title="Wink" /><!-- s;-) -->)



    1. Media lists

    With an interactive playlist, your states are normally files or media rss feeds. A media list allows you to have a state that's a bucket of files. A list of videos or images or audio files. And, when you jump to that state, one of those files will play before returning to previous states. You also have the option of advancing from one element in the list to another using a trigger like a button press. It's not a playlist, so the unit won't play every file in the list. But, if you wanted to play from a shuffled list each time a button was pressed, then this gives you that option.


    2. Live Text

    The live text mode is a state, like an image or media rss feed. But it's not for the text zone. The idea is you can create a state, with one or more text fields, and any time you publish something from brightauthor, you can edit one or more of those fields directly in brightauthor and then the fields on the brightsign will be updated.

    For example, you can create an image zone at the bottom of the screen. Drag a livetext object onto it. Enter a welcome message, for example. If you want to change the mesasge, you edit it in brightauthor, and publish again, and that field updates.

    Eventually, there will be other ways to update the fields, maybe via udp commands or rss or twitter. That hasn't been decided yet.

    You can also do twitter feeds now using rss fields.
  • 0
    Avatar
    GeeKay


    Hi Lyndon,
    i know, i am famous for my strange ideas ... <!-- s;-) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=";-)" title="Wink" /><!-- s;-) -->


    1.1) Publishing:
    Yes, i am in the "Publish" tab's "Local Network" area, not in "Local storage" nor "Simple File Network".
    That error window appears anytime the publishing process (showing that progress bar window) comes to transfer a video file (even if i use the aq.ts from your demo).
    All other files are transmitted correctly, be it *.TXTs, *.PNGs or the typical control files - it looks like the transmission does not stop, but just skips the video and reports about it!

    1.2) Transparencies:
    Too sad - but i feared you'd answer that!

    1.3 & 4) BA GUI Modification; smaller rotation steps:
    Thanks, i appreciate that. And i am sure, customers will!

    1.5) Image rotation:
    I know this has been asked for before, and i am sure that everybody has - like me - read the answers and might be discouraged to keep on nagging ...  <!-- s:wink: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=":wink:" title="Wink" /><!-- s:wink: -->
    But since i know that portrait mode is a common expectation for digital signage / digital posters, i take the opportunity to re-ask for it: Constant dripping wears away the stone ...  <!-- s:mrgreen: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_mrgreen.gif" alt=":mrgreen:" title="Mr. Green" /><!-- s:mrgreen: -->
    Thanks for adding it, anyway.

    2.1) Media Lists:
    O.K., that "random" aspect was not too obvious to me ... thanks.

    2.2) Live Text:
    When i played with it, i had the idea, that "Live" might mean "while editing the presentation" ... as you now acknowledged.
    I just thought, i might have missed some "presentation runtime voodoo" functionality   <!-- s:) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s:) -->


    Oh, and thanks a lot for your prompt answers once more!
  • 0
    Avatar
    Alfonso Descalzo


    ,,, now is my turn...

    I have some questions i´d like to be answered..

    -Firstable, I´m trying to get into the manage tab once i´m at the local network but it asks me for a password for the BrightSign Network... Anyway I can upload projects via the local network, but the Bonjour wizard doesn´t recognize any unit...

    -I´m trying to run SignChannel into an image zone, but it only works in a video&image zone, even when it has no video slides..

    -When I use a text with a transparency with a video zone it works fine, but when i do it with an image zone, there´s no transparency..

    -The back button at the Interactive Menu takes around 10 seconds to do its function. The video goes black, but the audio still playing for some seconds..

    Is anything of the above a normal behaviour of the BS?

    Txs
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