Xibo User Guide

What is Xibo Xibo (pronounced eX-E-bO) is an open source, multi-display, multi-zone, fully scheduled digital

signage solution controlled from a centrally managed web interface.

“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.

Xibo Concepts

Xibo operates using several concepts to display its information.

Stock images, video, PowerPoint slides, etc can be stored in the Xibo Library. The library in addition

to text, web pages, RSS feeds and more are used to design layouts, which can be a single screen or

multiple screens with various display areas. The layouts are then scheduled using the Xibo scheduler

to appear on displays (which are individual display PC’s). Xibo can support up to 200 displays and

Layout (Media,

Text, Web

Pages, Feeds,

etc)

ScheduleMedia (Images,

Video,

PowerPoint,

etc)

Display

each display can be running different layouts on different schedules. These concepts will be covered

in more detail later in this document.

Login into Xibo

The University Xibo server is accessed via your web browser using the URL:

http://xibo.nottingham.ac.uk/xibo/

Which will present you with a login page like that seen in

Figure 1..

To login enter your user name and password, as

provided by your I.T. Support Representative, and click

Log In.

Please note that the username and password is case

sensitive.

Once you are logged into Xibo, you will be presented

with the Dashboard screen.

The Dashboard The Dashboard is the first page you will see when you log into Xibo. The number of options on this

screen will vary depending on the user rights you have been assigned. For example an administrative

user will see a screen like Figure 2.

Figure 2 - Dashboard

However, a general user is much more likely to have a subset of these options, such as those shown

in Figure 3.

Figure 1 - Login Screen

Figure 3 – Limited Dashboard

The Icons on these screens are as follows:

• Schedule - Access the schedule for each display, and schedule new or existing layouts to

displays.

• Layouts - Create, edit or delete layouts

• Library - Create, replace or delete media items

• Templates - View the templates that are offered to users when they create new layouts.

• Users - Allows administration of users on the system (Admins Only)

• Settings - Xibo configuration settings (Admins Only)

• License - Information about the licenses Xibo is released under.

• Manual - Access the online manual

Users and Groups and Permissions Users in Xibo are also assigned to groups. Groups are collections of like individuals that need

permission to access the same items such as different members of the same department or school.

All items in Xibo, including media and layouts have permissions on who can view and change them;

these permissions are set by either user or group, or can be set to public for all users. Therefore,

when you log in to Xibo you will only see those items to which you have permission, and you can feel

safe knowing that only people in your group and administrators will be able to access your content.

Note: Currently all displays on the system are visible to all users (although not editable). In the next

version of Xibo server displays will be groupable, ensuring that users will only see the displays they

are entitled to see.

The Library The library in Xibo is where all the media you upload to Xibo is stored. Note: There is a limit on the

size of media that can be uploaded, and this is currently 128Mb per media item. Larger files such as

videos can always be accessed via the Internet. Figure 4 below shows a sample of the Library screen

with a couple of media items in it.

Figure 4 – Library Screen

The screen shows the name of the item, the type of item (e.g. image, flash, etc...), the default

duration, the permissions on the item, the owner and what actions can be carried out on the item

(e.g. Edit, Delete).

Please note that we are trying to operate a naming convention in the Universities implementation of

Xibo. For media this convention is:

School/Department – Media Type – Description

Where School/Department should be the name of the school or department which owns the content

(e.g. Geography or Finance), for the general Labstats user this should simply be Labstats.

Media type is as follows:

Background – This is an image which is used for a layout background.

Image – All other images (Image formats supported are jpg, jpeg, png and gif).

Video – Video files (supported format are wmv, mpeg and mpg).

Flash – Flash animations, applets and videos (swf files).

PowerPoint – PowerPoint presentations (These are in PowerPoint 2003 format and not

2007, e.g. ppt, pps) and there are a number of steps needed to make a PowerPoint

presentation compatible with Xibo (more about this below).

Description is free text to describe the content.

Adding Media into the Library

From the Library screen you can add media to Xibo, this is not strictly necessary as it is possible to

add media when designing layouts, which will be added to the library as part of the process, but if

you have media you wish to add and use regularly you may wish to upload this before layout design.

Clicking the Add Media option at the top of the

Library screen will open a popup box which

offers you the choice of uploading Images,

Video, Flash or PowerPoint (Figure 5).

Clicking any of these options will open a window asking for the image file, a name (see naming

Figure 5 – Add Media options

convention above), duration (in seconds) and

what Sharing permissions you want to up on

the item (Figure 6).

There will also be some notes on the file

types and size limits in place for each media

type.

To add the item click the Browse button, and

navigate to where the file you wish to upload

is stored. Clicking this will add it to the Image

File field. Enter the name of the item, and the

default duration (in seconds) you want for this item. Clicking the Sharing drop down menu will

present you with three options Private, Group and Public. Select the appropriate option and then

click Save.

All popup windows in Xibo have and X in the upper right hand corner of the window which allows

you close the popup, much like that used in Microsoft Windows.

Viewing the Library

When you want to check the contents of the library, it may hold many pages of media which will

make finding the items you require harder. On the top of the Library screen you will notice a Filter

option. Clicking this opens

up a filter form which will

allow you to limit the

items on the Library

screen (Figure 7).

There are several ways to use this filter to maximum effect.

The Type dropdown menu allows you to select the type of media (such as Image, Video, etc). Use of

the Owner dropdown allows selection of the user who owns the media, and the Shared dropdown

limits the selection to either Private, Group, Public or All permissions.

It is worth noting the Retired option, when removing content from Xibo, if it is in use anywhere in

the system it is not possible to delete the item, and it must then be retired. Retiring an item in the

Library will remove it from the view, but not from the system.

Finally, the Name option on the filter is very powerful and it will become apparent why we are using

the naming convention we have chosen. The system will only return matches for the text entered

into the Name field, so for example if we only wanted to see Background items we could enter

Background into this box and the list would change to only show background items. This is a

Figure 6 – Add New Image Screen

Figure 7 – Filter Options

powerful tool when you have a lot of content in the system, and you should experiment with how it

is used.

Updating Media

From the Library screen you can also update media; you may wish to change the duration, replace

the media with a new version or delete/retire the media.

To change a media item

click the Edit button next

the item. A screen which is

similar to the add media

option will then appear

(Figure 8).

In this screen you can

change the default duration

of the item, the name or

the permissions.

To replace the version of the media with a new version, use the Browse button, select the media and

upload. 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.

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.

PowerPoint Media Items

PowerPoint and Xibo have a special relationship and there are a number of requirements and

options you need to be aware of before using PowerPoint slides.

• Most importantly, Xibo is not currently compatible with PowerPoint 2007 or 2010, slides

must be saved in PowerPoint 2003 format (e.g. ppt & pps).

• Make sure your presentation is the right shape. PowerPoint slides are 4:3 ratio by default.

Use “Design Ribbon � Page Layout” to change the width to 31.8cm for a 16:9 ratio slide.

Figure 8 - Edit Image

• 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 Ribbon � Rehearse Timings”.

• Turn off scrollbars. Go to “Slideshow Ribbon � Setup Show” and choose “Browsed by an

individual (windowed)” and ensure

“Show scrollbar” is NOT ticked.

Once you have these settings, you can save

your presentation ready to upload to Xibo.

Note: It is worth considering splitting you slideshow up if there are regular changes and additions to

the content, as each smaller slide can be separate layouts letting Xibo manage the display of each

one.

Layouts 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). Let’s

look at a finished layout as shown on the digital sign, and then work out how it was constructed

(Figure 10).

Figure 10 - Example Layout

Figure 9 - Slide Show Settings

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 (figure 11):

Figure 11 - Example Layout Construction

This is the designer view for Xibo. You can see the background image, and on top of it are drawn six

regions (each identified by the dashed lines). The regions contain images, text and an RSS Ticker.

Note for Opera Users: The Opera browser does not allow Xibo to substitute its own context menu

when right-clicking in the layout designer. It is therefore not possible to perform certain operations

in the Opera Browser. Users are advised to use Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari or Internet

Explorer instead as these browsers do not have such a limitation.

The Layout Screen

Clicking the Layout option opens the Layout screen (Figure 12). On this screen you can see all the

layouts your user has rights to see.

Figure 12 - Layout Screen

The layout screen lists the Name of the Layout, a Description, Permissions, Owner, Group and a

series of actions that can be performed on the layout (Design, Edit and Delete).

As with the Library we have designed a naming convention to try and make the display of the layouts

more manageable. This naming convention is as follows:

School/Department – Layout

or for Labstats displays

Labstats – Building - Room

Where School/Department should be the name of the school or department which owns the content

(e.g. Geography or Finance.

Layout is free text intended to describe the content.

For Labstats displays the entries are self explanatory. Example of layout names include:

Geography – News

Law – Events

Labstats – Trent – LG25

As with media, this screen

has a Filter option (Figure

13), which includes the

ability to filter by Name,

Owner, Share Permissions,

Retired and a new field

Tags.

This screen functions the

same way as the library.

The Actions listed next to each item on the list have various functions which will be covered in

greater detail later in this document.

Creating a New Layout

To create a new layout select the Layouts screen from the Dashboard and then click Add Layout.

You will be presented with a popup entitled

“Add/Edit a Layout” (Figure 14).

The Add Layout screen asks for various information,

some of which is Mandatory the rest is Optional.

The fields on the Add Layout form are described as

follows:

Figure 13 - Layout Filter

Figure 14 - Add Layout

Name (Mandatory)

A name for this layout. This is how you will refer to it later on when scheduling or editing the

layout.

Description (Optional)

An optional description for the layout.

Tags (Optional)

A space-separated list of keywords to apply to the layout. These could be used to identify

groups of layouts or sometimes have special meaning if you have specialised versions of the

Xibo client.

Shared (Mandatory)

Choose who can see this layout in Xibo. Private means only you (and Admins) can see the

layout. "Group" means people in your group can see the layout and "Public" means

everyone can see it.

Template (Mandatory)

Optionally you can choose a template to base your new layout on.

Choosing the right template

Xibo comes with a selection of default templates which we think will cater for most digital signage

applications (e.g. LCD TVs, projectors, portrait screens).

The Xibo client will make its best effort to fit whatever shape layout you choose on to the screen,

however sending a client a layout in a 4:3 aspect ratio when it's connected to a 16:9 TV wastes two

bars on either side of your content.

Try to choose an template with the closest aspect ratio to the screen you'll be showing the layout

on. Here's a list of typical displays and the template to choose:

LCD/Plasma Widescreen TV

LCD TVs tend to be either 16:9 aspect ratio. Try "Full Screen 16:9" first. If you find there are

slim black bars to the top and bottom of your full screen content, try switching to "Full

Screen 16:10".

Widescreen Projectors

Widescreen projectors can be 16:9 or 16:10 so you'll need to try both and see which fits

best.

Widescreen Computer Monitors

Widescreen Computer Monitors are usually 16:10 but there are a few 16:9 ones out there.

Try "Full Screen 16:10" first.

Computer Monitors

Non-widescreen computer monitors are usually 4:3 aspect ratio. Try "Full Screen 4:3".

CRT Televisions

Old TVs tend to be either 4:3 or 3:2 aspect ratio. Try "Full Screen 4:3" or "Full Screen 3:2"

and see which fits best.

There are also specialist versions of all the above displays that are turned on their side. Called

"Portrait" displays, they are taller than they are wide. Xibo supports all the above aspect ratios for