Carousel Cloud gives you the ability to configure a wide variety of media playback devices as either Dedicated Players or Express Players. This article explains the differences between the two player types and when to use them.
Dedicated Players
Express Players
Full-featured Performance:
Designed for screens used primarily for digital signage
Leverages full device capabilities for performance, resiliency, and advanced playback features
Flexibility & Scale:
Lightweight and economical for broadcasting common content to unlimited endpoints, including multi-use devices, websites, and screensavers
When to Use:
Dedicated signage screens (e.g., lobbies, hallways, menu boards)
Need for advanced features such as video, interactivity, emergency notifications, offline playback, device control/monitoring, etc.
Priority on resiliency and performance over device flexibility
When to Use:
For Multi-purpose or shared devices (e.g., classroom & meeting room screens, browsers, screensavers)
Embedding content in websites
Large-scale or distributed deployments with cost efficiency in mind
Achieving a broad reach of common content is more important than advanced playback features or unique content per screen
Licensing Type:
Per screen
Licensing Type:
Per feed of common content
Each feed can power unlimited devices
Express Player Behavior
Express players unlock your ability to include large numbers of devices in your Carousel Cloud ecosystem, and due to functional differences compared to dedicated players, they have more limited capabilities, as shown below.
Please Note: Express players activated in Carousel Cloud can have both Full Screen and Zone Alerts delayed up to approximately 1 minute. For that reason, we do not recommend express players as your only tool for emergency alert communication.
Supported Express Player Bulletins
Unsupported Express Player Features/Bulletins
Canva Bulletins (Snapshot only)
Clocks - Analog, Digital
Countdown Timers
Event Display
GeckoBoard Bulletins (Snapshot only)
Google Docs (Snapshot only)
Google Sheets (Snapshot only)
Google Slides (Snapshot only)
Image Files
Microsoft Excel (Snapshot only)
Microsoft PowerPoint (Snapshot only)
Microsoft Word (Snapshot only)
Power BI (Snapshot only)
RSS Feeds
Templated Bulletins
Weather Bulletins
Web Bulletins (Snapshot only)
Features
Power Save
Bulletins
Audio clips attached to bulletins
Interactive Bulletins
Live Video Bulletins (HLS Video Streaming)
Uploaded Videos (including templated video blocks)
