ONELAN Digital Signage Training Guide - Part 1 Introduction & Concepts

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1 OneLAN Digital Signage Training Guide Part 1 Introduction Connection & Digital Signage Concepts Reference : - CDECJW220112A P a g e 1

2 Contents See below for a list of contents within this document. Page 3 Page 4 & 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Document Overview Introduction To Hardware & Concepts Getting Started With Your NTB & Connection Guide To The Home Page & Menu System Practice Labs / Excercises P a g e 2

3 Document Overview This document is presented as a supplementary resource to a CDEC training session covering the use of and administration of a ONELAN digital signage system. Dependent on the size and structure of your digital signage solution, only parts of this document may be relevant to your particular setup and as a result your trainer may not have covered these within your session. Every establishment is completely different, as are their needs, aims and uses for the system and therefore training sessions will be different from establishment to establishment dependent on the user requirements and setup. This document forms part of a series of documents, of which this is the first part and aims to introduce the system explain the hardware, connection methods, troubleshooting tips, and introduces the homepage and web based interface of the OneLan digital signage system. We hope that we have covered everything, but should you have questions or concerns, please feel free to log calls through your individual IT management helpdesk, and these will then be escelated to us or alternatively you can call and speak to a member of our helpdesk team. P a g e 3

4 Introduction To OneLan Hardware & Concepts OneLan digital signage systems, have a wide range of hardware available, that offer different specifications, but all digital signage players are known as NTBs (Net Top Boxes). Net Top Boxes can be ordered in different flavours, pre-configured in a number of ways, but the 3 key states or roles of net top boxes are as follows: - Standalone An NTB that is setup to be a "standalone" players, would typically be in an organisation, where they simply have the need for one screen, for example a primary school who just wants a screen on reception, this box, is literally as it sounds, completely standalone. This box however would have the ability within the software to become a network publisher (or subscriber), should the network grow as OneLAN digital signage networks are completely scalable. Another user for a standalone box, would be for a user who has a number of screens, but is happy that all content will only ever be the same, and one player would be used to drive a number of screens, through a splitter or catx distribution system. Users with for example video walls, may also have a standalone player as part of their digital signage setup, this is because a video wall for example is a unique part of the system, with different resolution and setting requirements for instance. Publisher A network publisher would typically not drive a screen, and simply sit in a comms room, or maybe even connect to a screen on the desk of the establishments digital signage "champion" so that they can work on and preview live content. The publisher allows users to create a number of "channels" of content (not TV channels) so in a school analogy you may have different channels for different departments, or physical areas of the school. This content is then published and one or more subscribers can receive and display content, this works using a "send and store" methodology and is not a constant stream this is to decrease network traffic and increase resillience, so if a subscriber loses network connection it will still display the last content it received. Subscriber A network subscriber can connect to one or more screens, and simply receives content from the network publisher, the only "dynamic" changes that can occur are "local adhocs". A subscriber receives a channel of content, and more than one subscriber can receive the same channel. Each NTB has a schedule, with a number of schedule entries, those schedule entries play a layout, a layout has a number of zones, each zone has a play list with one or more media items, please see overleaf for a diagrammatical representation of some of the afore mentioned concepts. P a g e 4

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6 Getting Started With Your NTB - Connection Before you can begin using your OneLAN NTB, you need to know the IP address, note that the default IP address will always be so if you have any issues with the following steps, you can power down the unit, connect it to a laptop, and re-power it, it will then DHCP to the default address. Make sure that your NTB is connected to a monitor via the VGA port, or other display port method, during the boot process you will see a black screen, command line interface, and on newer software versions a loading bar. This will be proceeded by an IP address, which is the first IP address of the box, this can be changed later if need be, or can stay the same dependent on your preference. We would suggest setting this as a static address, if it hasn't already been set in this way. TIP Note that the box, will only ever display "No Cable", or not display an IP address for one of two reasons, the first reason is if it is not physically connected to a network switch correctly, this could mean it's not plugged in correctly, or an issue with a patch cable or actual structured cabling. The second reason could be that it is connected to a managed switch that either isn't activated for DHCP or is programmed onto a different VLAN and therefore cannot issue an address to a device that it does't recognise, you can speak to a member of your network team for help with this. Once you know your IP address completing the following steps will allow you access to the system. 1. Open up your web browser e.g. Internet Explorer 2. In the address bar type followed by the IP address e.g. and then press the return key. 3. A window will open asking for a user name and password. Enter your user name and password as provided by your network administrator. 4. If you have not been provided with a user name and password (as shown below) you can use the default user name and password. This will log you on to the NTB with full administrator rights. You can now add the IP address to your favourites list. You will now be presented with your "home page", see overleaf for a guide of the home page, what certain buttons, areas, icons etc. mean and enable you to do. P a g e 6

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8 Practice Labs / Excercises To get you used to using the system we have created a number of labs or excercises for you to be able to explore the OneLan digital signage software. Lab 1 - Log In To The Digital Signage System Lab 2 - View A Screenshot Of What The Signage System Is Currently Playing Lab 3 - View The Layout Designer Screen For The Currently Playing Layout Lab 4 - Return To The Home Page Lab 5 - Add Your Digital Signage Interface To Your Browser Favourites P a g e 8