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BrightAuthor:Connected Mac Issue

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Bryan Jeffcoat
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Hello,

     I have a client with 3 BrightSign HD224 units who up until now have been using Windows PCs to communicate with the devices. They are set up in BrightAuthor 4.7 and everything is working just fine. Normally, when I install BrightAuthor on a new computer, I simply have to go to the Publish screen and add the devices into the software, and they are then able to see and publish to the devices.

     For Mac, I have found that I have to use BrightAuthor:Connected as there is no BrightAuthor Mac installer (that I have seen at least). I see two sections for adding a network device. Despite going through the complete process in each section several times, none of the devices are saved in BrightAuthor:Connected. I'm wondering what I might be missing that is preventing the devices from saving.

     Of note, they did not have a BSN account before now, as BrightAuthor does not require one. We had to create one during the process of trying to add the devices. Also, please bet aware that the devices have been previously configured and are functioning perfectly via BrightAuthor 4.7 that is installed on the Windows computers. It is strictly adding the devices (not setting them up from scratch) in BrightAuthor:Connected where I am having issues.

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    Brandon Official comment

    BrigthAuthor and BrightAuthor:connected are different applications and not interchangeable.
    Also BrightSign Network (BSN) and BSN.cloud are different systems as well.

    You can only use whichever one was used to initially configure and set up the player.

    A BSN.cloud account is not required to use BrightAuthor:connected, but you can only use Standalone, Local Network (Local File Networking), and Web Folder (Simple File Networking) publishing and will not have the features from the Network section, nor can you use the optional BSN.cloud Content Cloud CMS and predefined Partner CMS setup options.

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    Bryan Jeffcoat

    So let me make sure I understand the situation. In order for them to use the Macs, they need to use BA Connected as there is no BA Mac version. However, since the devices were initially set up with BA, I would basically have to reset the devices and then configure them using BA Connected. After all that is done, none of the BA-created content can be used with BA Connected, so it would all have to be redone.

    I'm guessing also that there is no third-party app that can communicate with the BrightSign devices on both Mac and PC. All the BrightSign software is proprietary.

    Please confirm so I can let the user know where we stand. Thanks again for your help.

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    Brandon

    BrightAuthor presentations can be imported into BrightAuthor:connected unless they make use of currently-unsupported features.

    Of course all users would need to switch over to using BrightAuthor:connected after the players are reconfigured, but if you have a BSN.cloud account you do get some nice feature additions in BrightAuthor:connected, like Remote Diagnostic Web Server (remote DWS) access from BrightAuthor:connected.

    However, if you're not Internet/cloud-connected, you lose the local monitoring that was in classic BrightAuthor's Manage tab since BrightAuthor:connected's Network section is all through BSN.cloud.

    You can use classic BrightAuthor on macOS through VMware Fusion, or Parallels Desktop, and some users have reported success with WINE, though that's not an officially supported method.

    _________________________________________________________________________
    Friendly reminder, the community forum is intended for user-to-user discussion.  It is not regularly monitored. For troubleshooting problems and to ensure a timely answer from a BrightSign representative, please submit a support ticket

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