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Web App (PWA) Player for Carousel Cloud

  • Updated

The following steps will allow playback of Carousel Channels with a PWA (Progressive Web Application).

Supported Devices

The following web browsers are currently supported.

  • Chrome (Version 45+)

  • Edge (Version 79+)

Hardware Requirements

A device meeting the requirements listed below will perform well under most circumstances, but the content you display directly impacts the performance of the device. For Example, heavy use of resource-intensive web content will require more resources than simply displaying images and video.

  • Storage: 30GB free (after OS install)

  • CPU: 2GHz dual-core processor

  • RAM: 4GB

  • Graphic chip: Should support your intended display resolution, including video playback at that resolution (i.e. 1080 or 4k).

Player Setup Instructions

The following steps will allow playback of Carousel from your web browser.

PLEASE NOTE - You should clear the browser cache on the PWA Player device before registering it in Carousel Cloud.

  1. Log into Carousel Cloud, navigate to Configure > Players > Player Setup.

  2. Select Web Application from the media player list and copy the link for the player URL.

  1. Paste the link into your browser.

  2. Click the Install Application and your Player will be launched in a new browser window. Then you may follow the on-screen instructions to register your player. For large deployments, follow the steps in this article to batch register multiple players, simultaneously. Once registered, it will begin to display either your initial channel or the channel specified during batch registration.

    Note: If there is no prompt to install the application, click on the Tools menu button in the top-right corner (three dots or lines), then manually select the “Install Carousel Player” option.

  1. To disable the toolbar and enter full-screen, select view in the toolbar and ensure that the option always to show toolbar in full screen is not enabled, and then Enter Full-Screen Mode.

Running PWA Installed Player

Once your player has been registered, you may have to turn off or restart the device it is running on. When you need to relaunch the player, you can follow the following steps.

  1. You can find the app to relaunch from Chrome itself by going to chrome://apps and clicking on the Carousel Player.

  2. You can also find your Carousel Player where your Applications are installed in the Chrome Apps folder.

Uninstalling Player

Follow the following steps to uninstall your PWA from Chrome

  1. Visit chrome://apps

  2. Right-click on the Carousel App and select Remove from Chrome…


Advanced notes for Windows/Chrome Users:

The following steps allow you to alter the launch settings of the Chrome PWA-based Carousel Cloud player installed on Windows. Steps 6-7 are optional if you want the app to launch automatically on startup or after a reboot.

  1. Open Chrome on the media player and enter chrome://apps/ into the address bar.

  2. Right-click on the Carousel Player app and choose create shortcuts.

  3. In the pop-up window, make sure Desktop is checked and click Create.

  4. Right-click on the newly created desktop shortcut for the Carousel Player and choose Properties.

  5. Under the Shortcut tab, find the Target field, add the following text to the end of the field (keeping what’s already there), and click OK. **Please note the intentional space before the two dashes**

    1. To only launch the PWA in fullscreen, type: --start-fullscreen

    2. To launch the PWA in kiosk mode, type: --kiosk

    3. To launch the PWA with video autoplay (without user input), type --autoplay-policy=no-user-gesture-required

  6. Use the Windows key + R to open the Run dialogue and type shell:common startup and hit Enter or click OK.

  7. Once the Startup folder opens, click and drag the Carousel Player desktop shortcut while holding down the Control key to copy and paste your shortcut into the startup folder.

Advanced notes for Windows Edge users:

The following steps allow you to alter the launch settings of the Edge PWA-based Carousel Cloud player installed on Windows. Steps 6-7 are optional if you want the app to launch automatically on startup or after a reboot.

  1. Open Edge on the media player and enter edge://apps/ into the address bar.

  2. Click on the three dots by the Carousel Player app and choose Create Desktop Shortcut.

  3. Right-click on the newly created desktop shortcut for the Carousel Player and choose Properties.

  4. Under the Shortcut tab, find the Target field, add the following text to the end of the field (keeping what’s already there), and click OK. **Please note the intentional space before the two dashes**

    1. To only launch the PWA in fullscreen, type: --start-fullscreen

    2. To launch the PWA in kiosk mode, type: --kiosk

  5. Use the Windows key + R to open the Run dialogue and type shell:common startup and hit Enter or click OK.

  6. Once the Startup folder opens, click and drag the Carousel Player desktop shortcut while holding down the Control key to copy and paste your shortcut into the startup folder.

  7. Edge has a separate setting to launch the PWA with video autoplay (without user input). To enable autoplay:

    1. Open Edge, and enter edge://settings/content/mediaAutoplay into the address bar.

      • Under Allow, add your site URL (YOURSITENAME.carouselsignage.net).

      • At the top, select Allow from the dropdown under Control if auto and video play automatically on sites.

Chrome Audio

Sometimes Chrome will block audio for websites, which can prevent autoplay.

  1. Open Chrome

  2. At the top right, click the three dots and then Settings.

  3. Click Privacy and security and then Site Settings, and then Sound (Sounds might be under 'Content', or 'Additional Content Settings'

  4. Add your Carousel Cloud site URL to the sites under 'Allowed to play sound'

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