Carousel Academy

Articles in this section

BrightSign Player Sync in Carousel Cloud

  • Updated

Carousel Cloud allows you to synchronize Simple Channel content playback across multiple Brightsign Players.

Whether it’s a video wall or syncing multiple screens in proximity to create a uniform look in your space, this feature gives you the ability to get multiple displays working together to display your content.

Please Note:

  • If you are using synchronization to achieve a synchronized video wall, you will need to replicate the steps for Create a Full Screen Zone and Create a Full Screen Channel for each individual display in your video wall configuration. If you are using a 2x2 video wall (4 total displays), you will need 4 full screen zones that are attached to 4 full screen channels.

  • Only simple channels can be synchronized

    • Simple channels are single zone, full screen channels

  • The following types of bulletins are supported:

    • Uploaded image bulletins

    • Uploaded video bulletins

    • Text-based template bulletins

    • Image-based template bulletins

  • The following types of bulletins are not supported:

    • Repeating bulletins

    • Videos used in any form within a template bulletin

  • Synced players must be of the same BrightSign model family

    • You can synchronize an XT244 player (XT4) with an XT1144 player (also XT), but you cannot synchronize an XT244 player with an XD234 player (XD4)

  • Players must use a wired network connection on the same subnet

    • Wireless connections added too much latency for consistent triggering

  • You must be running the latest firmware for synchronization support

  • Additional notes on synchronization behavior are posted at the end of this support article

Create a Full Screen Zone

  1. Log in to Carousel Cloud

  2. Navigate to Configure > Zones > New

  1. Set the zone type as Bulletin

    1. Full screen alert zones are not supported in synchronization

  2. Name your zone

  3. If needed, add zone tags

  4. If needed, enter a description

  5. Set your zone size to the resolution of your display

  6. Click the orange Save button in the upper right corner

Create a Full Screen Channel

  1. Navigate to Configure > Channels > New

  1. Choose Create My Own in the pop-up window

  2. Name your channel

  3. Select Simple as the channel type

  4. Set the Output Display Resolution to match your zone/display

  5. Select the zone you just created from the Select Zone drop-down menu to add it to the channel

  6. Click the orange Save button in the upper right corner

Create the Player Synchronization Group

A synchronization group consists of one leader player and follower players. Once a group has been created, the follower players will synchronize their bulletin transitions to the leader.

Please Note: After setup, changing a leader player in a sync group will require a factory reset

  1. Navigate to Configure > Players > Dedicated Players

  1. Check the box next to each BrightSign player you want to add to the synchronization group

  2. Select Synchronize Players from the Action drop-down menu above

  1. Name the synchronization group

  2. Choose one BrightSign player to be the leader

  3. For each player, assign the individual channel to align with your video wall configuration

  4. Click the orange Save button

  5. The BrightSign players will restart and then begin working as the newly created synchronization group

The example displayed in the screenshot below consists of 4 BrightSign players, assigned to 4 simple channels. You would use this configuration in a 2x2 video wall.

You can view, manage, delete, and create new synchronization groups by selecting Synchronization from the left column of the player menu

Synchronization Behavior

To help explain how synchronization will behave, let’s picture a 2 x 2 Video Wall using 4 landscape 1080p displays for a total video wall resolution of 3840x2160 (4K):

The top left player is the leader, the rest are considered followers and will follow the transitions of the leader. If you want to show a 3840x2160 (4K) video across all four displays as one ‘big’ screen, you would use a video editing program to 'slice' the 4K video into four 1920x1080 slices, then upload each one into its corresponding zone.

If each video 'slice' is the only bulletin in each of the four zones, the video will look 'whole' and transition in unison across the 4 displays.

Let's say you also took an image and sliced it up for each zone. You would upload each slice as the next bulletin in the corresponding zone, and your video wall (in sync) would play the video, then the still image, then repeat.

As long as you have the same number of bulletins in the same order in each zone, all follower players will follow the leader and transition at the same time.

Use Case - Proximity Synchronization

Let's say you have several BrightSign players displaying the same content in your lobby area, where multiple screens are in view at a glance. To synchronize all of these displays together, you would:

  1. Add all of the lobby BrightSign players to a synchronization group

  2. Apply the same simple channel to all of them

  3. The followers will transition at the same time with the leader

Additional Synchronization Behavior Notes

  • If the follower players have fewer bulletins than the leader player, they will pause on their last bulletin until the leader player starts at the beginning again

  • If the follower players have a greater number of bulletins than the leader player, they will not play through their entire bulletin list, but will start at the beginning whenever the leader does

  • Follower players will use the bulletin dwell time from the leader player

  • Since other bulletin types are not supported in synchronization groups, if bulletin types other than uploaded video and images are used, the following behavior (or similar) may occur:

    • The leader player will show the other bulletin type/s, while follower players will pause on their current bulletin

Related articles