xibo introduction and basic operation

Open Source Digital Signage

Introduction and Basic Operation

Alex Harrington

This work is licensed under Creative Commons Licence Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

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Table of ContentsIntroduction............................................................................................................................3

What is Digital Signage?....................................................................................................3What kinds of content can I put on a Digital Sign?............................................................3Think about your target audience......................................................................................3

Xibo Quickstart Guide............................................................................................................3Logging On........................................................................................................................3The Dashboard..................................................................................................................5Creating a new Layout.......................................................................................................5Scheduling.......................................................................................................................12Making changes to an existing layout..............................................................................13Making changes to an existing schedule.........................................................................15Library..............................................................................................................................16Notes on Powerpoint Media Items...................................................................................18


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Introduction

What is Digital Signage?

“Digital signage is a form of electronic display that shows information, advertising and other messages. Digital signs (such as LCD, LED, plasma displays, or projected images) can be found in public and private environments, such as retail stores and corporate buildings” - Wikipedia.org

The main advantage of a digital sign is that it is very easy to update content regularly to keep it fresh and interesting.

What kinds of content can I put on a Digital Sign?

The Xibo system is very flexible and will let you show all kinds of media on the digital sign. Most commonly used types include:

• Text

• Images

• Videos

• Powerpoint Files

Think about your target audience...

Digital signs are there to service a need for information. People will only look at a digital sign if there is some information being shown that they need, or are interested in. It's important then to ensure a good mix of information and targeted advertising (if desired) to meet the business's goals.

For example, combine a list of upcoming events with a list of sports results, a news feed or bus times to draw attention.

Xibo can schedule different items to be shown at different times of the day. Be sure to target content to the times when your target audience are in the building (eg advertise events for young children when parents are arriving to drop of or collect children for an existing event).

People need to be able to read what is on the sign. Be sure to take a look at your completed work and make sure it's possible to read it in the time that it appears on the screen, and that the font size is large enough etc.

Xibo Quickstart Guide

Logging On

Access to Xibo is via your web browser. Like most web services, Xibo requires that you log on to the system before it will let you begin. Your Xibo administrator will have given you the correct URL, username and password that you should use. Enter the URL in to your web browser. You should get a screen that looks like this:


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Enter the username and password given to you by your Xibo Administrator and click the “Log in” button. If you get the username or password wrong, a message will appear in red asking you to try again. Assuming you have valid credentials, you'll see the following screen.


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The Dashboard

When you log in to Xibo, this is the screen you will be presented with. There are three main icons of interest. Schedule takes you to a list of all the digital signs in the system and shows you what is scheduled to be shown on them over the coming days. Layouts is where you can design and edit “layouts” which are then scheduled to be shown. Library is where you can upload or edit media items (photos, videos etc) that are added to layouts. Each will be covered in more detail later. A fourth button “Manual” takes you to the online version of the Xibo manual.

Creating a new Layout

A layout is made up of a background picture or colour. On top of that, one or more transparent boxes are drawn - “regions” - which can contain one or more media items (pictures, videos etc). Lets look at a finished layout as shown on the digital sign, and then work out how it was constructed.


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Here you can see a screen that you might find in a hotel conference centre. It's showing the itinerary for two conference suites and a news feed from the BBC. Let's take a look at how it has been constructed:

This is the designer view for Xibo. You can see the background image, and on top of it is drawn six regions (each identified by the dashed lines). The regions contain images, text and an RSS Ticker. Now that we understand the basic makeup of a Xibo layout, we can


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make a new one.

From the Dashboard, click on “Layouts”.

From the Layout chooser, click on “Add Layout”

Fill in at least the boxes that have * marks as these are required. Name is a short name that will identify the layout. You can reuse layouts putting different content in them at a later date, so you may want to choose a generic name such as “Conference Suite Welcome” rather than “Hughes and Smith Conference welcome”.

Optionally you can add a description and one or more tags. Tags will be used at a later date to dynamically select content from the Xibo system, but can be ignored for now.

The “shared” option controls who should have access to view this layout in the Xibo interface. Private limits it to “just you”. Group limits it to people in the same group as you (ask your Xibo administrator about who that might be). Public makes it visible to all Xibo users. This is most useful for media items such as logos.

The template box lets you choose a predefined layout on which to base your new layout. For now, lets choose “Full Screen 16:9” as this is most suitable for an “average” digital sign (ie a large LCD TV).

Click “Save”.

Congratulations, you've created your first layout! Next we need to edit it to make it show something.

After clicking “Save” in the above instructions, you should be taken to a screen that looks like this:


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Here we can see the new layout we've created. Since we based it on the “Full Screen 16:9” template, you can see it's a wide screen aspect ratio and has one region that fills the entire screen.

To resize the region, click and drag the green handles on the left and bottom edges of the region. As you make the region smaller, you'll see the black background behind. Right click on the background and choose “Add Region”.


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You'll see a new region appear. You can move it around or resize it in the same way as you did before.

You can change the background colour or choose a background image if you wish. Click the “Background” button.


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The first box lets you change the background colour. The second lets you choose a background image that has been uploaded previously (see the Library section). The third box controls the size and shape of the layout.

Try choosing a new background colour and click “Save”.

Next we want to put something in the two regions we have. To edit a region, double click on it. This will open the timeline for that region:

The first button is the Library. This takes you through to a list of media items that have already been uploaded – either in the “Library” section or in a previous layout.

Add Image lets you upload a new Image.

Add Video lets you upload a new Video.

Add Powerpoint lets you upload a Powerpoint file.

Add Text lets you type in some text and format it.

Flash, webpage and ticker are similar but more specialised and won't be covered in this guide.

Lets add an image first. Click the “Add Image” button.


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Click the “Browse” button and choose an image file from your PC. Xibo supports JPG/JPEG, GIF and PNG file formats. Click OK to upload the file. While the file uploads, fill in a name for the image. Fill in a duration. The duration is the number of seconds this image should be shown for before it finishes playing. (Note that this is the minimum number of seconds that it will be shown for. Under some circumstances, it may be shown for longer). Finally choose a privacy option from the Sharing list. Click “Save”.

The image has now been added to the region. You'll see it listed in the region timeline. You can now repeat the process to add more images, or click the small cross in the top corner of the timeline to return to the layout designer.

Back on the layout designer, click the blue arrows on the region you added it to to see the image in position.

Repeat as required to put media in the second region.


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So we've created a layout. Now we need to assign it to a screen...

Scheduling

First return to the Dashboard using the “Dashboard” link in the top left corner of the screen. Click on the “Schedule” button.

You'll see an icon above the calendar for each digital sign (display) on the system. Clicking on any of those screens will show you the current schedule for the month for that display.

Xibo supports “clash scheduling” - ie scheduling more than one thing to run at a time. Where multiple layouts are scheduled to be shown at once, they are shown in sequence one after the next until the clash finishes.

Lets schedule the test layout we made earlier.

First, click on the display that you want the layout to appear on. That will load the schedule for that display for this month in to view. Notice that today is hi lighted in light-yellow.

Now click on the day you want to schedule the layout to appear on. NB you must click the day numbers at the top of the block ie (1,2,17,18 etc).


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Fill in Start Time and End Time. You can click on the little calendar between the date and time boxes to get a calendar popup to choose a date rather than typing it.

Below the End Time box, choose the layout you want to schedule.

To the right is a list of displays. Notice the display we were looking at the schedule for is already selected for us. If you want to show the same thing on more than one display, you can hold down the “Ctrl” key and click on additional displays to select them.

Finally click “Save”.

The layout is then scheduled. You'll see a new entry in the schedule view for it.

Making changes to an existing layout

Editing an existing layout is very similar to creating a new one.

Note however that if you edit a layout that is scheduled to be shown while you are editing it, any changes you make will be picked up and shown as you make them.

From the Dashboard, click on “Layouts”. Find the layout you want to modify and click the “Design” button.


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The layout will then open in the design view – exactly as it was when you created it:


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Modifications you make to the layout take effect immediately. There is no need to “Save” your changes.

Making changes to an existing schedule

Xibo will only allow you to modify things you've scheduled yourself, or by someone in your group.

From the main schedule view, you'll see the item you scheduled earlier. Note that it appears as a blue clickable link. If you didn't have permission to edit that item, then it would appear as a black non-clickable link.

In this example, I can edit the scheduling for the layout called “1” but not for the layout called “Demo Layout”.

Clicking on the blue link will take us to the schedule edit screen. This is very similar to the original schedule screen we've seen before.

Note that we now have the option to cancel this schedule by clicking the “Delete” button. We can also make changes to the times and dates and click save. Note also that if you have put this layout on more that one display when initially scheduling it, you can make the


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new changes apply to just this display, or to all the displays by choosing the appropriate option above the Save and Delete buttons.

Library

The library stores and catalogues all the media you upload in to the Xibo system.

The main reasons for visiting the library are to:

• Edit a duration

• Replace media with a new version

• Upload Background Images

• Delete/retire media

Clicking the “Edit” button next to a media item brings up this dialogue:


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If you want to replace this version of the media with a new version, then use the Browse button to locate and upload the new version. See the “Note:” at the bottom though. As this media could have been used in several existing layouts, replacing it with a new version will not automatically cause all the layouts that use it to start using the new version. You must manually remove/add the media from those layouts to get the newest version.

Editing the duration is as simple as typing a new duration in seconds in to the box.

Sharing controls which groups have access to view/use this media.

Click “Save” when you've finished.

Adding new media via the library is very similar to the method used while editing a region. Click the “Add Media” link.

You'll see a familiar list of media types. Click the appropriate one and the usual file upload dialogue will appear.


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Deleting media is more complex. Because media can be reused multiple times, and sometimes by many different users on different displays, the system won't let you delete media unless it has never been used in a layout (or it has been removed from all layouts in which it has been used). Xibo instead offers to retire media. That means that it will continue to be available in layouts that are pre-existing, but will not be offered for use in any new layout.

Clicking the Delete button next to a media item will show you what is possible. If you're happy to proceed, you can click OK to take that action.

Notes on Powerpoint Media Items

Powerpoint files need special treatment before you upload them in to Xibo to ensure that they play as you expect.

• Make sure your presentation is the right shape. Powerpoint slides are 4:3 ratio by default. Use “File → Page Setup” to change the width to 31.8cm for a 16:9 ratio slide.

• Make sure your presentation has slide timings. If you run the slide show on your PC and the slides and animations advance without your interaction, then you've done it right. To setup automatic advance on the slides, go to “Slideshow → Rehearse Timings”.

• Turn off scrollbars. Go to “Slide Show → Setup Show” and choose “Browsed by an individual (windowed)” and ensure “Show scrollbar” is NOT ticked.

• Save your presentation ready to upload in to Xibo.


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xibo introduction and basic operation

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