JeremyCleek's dashboard

It's possible that the display settings on the Carousel Player are set to a higher resolution than intended.

To make the swf scale to any size and fit the dimensions, add this actionscript to your project and re-publish:

stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.EXACT_FIT

Toby,

There are two solutions: 1 - Tightrope Creative design services. 2 - DIY template creation.

The first of the two offers design services of templates as well as creating a unique look for your channel. We also offer pre-made channels with all new templates, and we have a branding service that incorporates your logo and corporate colors into the design. More info here: http://store.trms.com/

For the second option, I'll refer you to a forum post on saving dynamic bulletins: http://gsfn.us/t/2vdn This will walk you through the process of storing weather, RSS, EDS, Clock, and CableDisplay in the system.

I hope this helps.

I'm guessing you are editing the existing bulletin, which is using the 16x9 Video template found in the Community zone of the channel. You are expecting to copy that bulletin and insert something else in place of the video block, when that's not the intent of that specific template. Go back to the main menu and create a new standard bulletin -- you will see the 16x9 Video template in the list. Select a more appropriate template for the type of bulletin you wish to create.

.png if you want transparency

You are correct to set the channel's output display resolution to 768x1366 (or any appropriate resolution with a 9x16 aspect ratio).

You will be able to navigate to your zones and create bulletins, just like with any other channel, right side up.

It sounds like you just need to change the way Carousel Player handles the output. You will need to tell the Player (or Solo) that it should be displaying in portrait mode. Here's how:

Right click on the desktop of your Carousel Player/Solo (the unit that runs the Display Engine) and select "Graphics Properties".



This will launch a settings panel. Select "Display Settings" and click "Enable Rotation". Rotate the output +/- 90 degrees (in which ever direction your monitor is tilted). Hit "Apply" and your display will adjust. When configured properly, your desktop will appear right side up. Launch the Display Engine and your channel will look great!

The reason for that because, since you're specifying the size of a zone, you then have to add the proper sized media.

I would do what John said and simply copy the templates and backgrounds from a similar sized zone, specifically a zone that shares the same aspect ratio, to another.

Hi Cory,

The following settings apply to 16x9 video you want to play from our SX servers:

From Final Cut Pro: go to Export > Using Quicktime Conversion.



Then, in the Quicktime settings, choose your compressor (I chose H.264), and click on the "Size..." button.



From the "Dimensions" pulldown list: select NTSC 720x486 4x3. Check the box that says "Preserve aspect ratio using:" and select "Letterbox".



This will output a proper 4x3 size video and add a letterbox automatically.

I have a Droplet that can be used with Compressor 2 or higher, if you have it. That way, you can drop multiple files onto it and Compressor will batch encode your existing 16x9 files. If you want to try it out, let me know.

I hope this helps.

In the default weather template you will find lots of information. Getting rid of this information is as easy as it seems.



In this case, you want to get rid of everything except the temp value. Delete each block from the block list.



Just leave the information you're interested in.



You're left with a barely legible temperature. Increase the size and reposition. You also might want to turn the outline or shadow off. That's it.



Here's a quick guide to the block names:

Caption = the caption text entered in the bulletin (At TRMS)
Currently = the word "Currently"
Current value = the current condition (windy, raining, etc.)
Temp = the word "Temperature"
Temp value = the current temperature
Humidity = the word "Humidity"
Humidity value = the current humidity
Wind = the word "Wind"
Wind value = the current wind conditions (northwest at 20 mph)
Outlook = a summary of the weather conditions

A couple examples of custom weather bulletins:

In Carousel 5.2.1 and higher, you can now edit dynamic bulletins like RSS and weather -- and then save them as a default template so you won't have to re-edit them.

Now, please take note that saving a dynamic template is zone-specific. Meaning, you will have to repeat this process for each zone. The system defaults will remain in tact, as they are restored each time you update the software.

This procedure requires access to both the web UI and the server.

PLEASE READ THROUGH FIRST. IF YOU'RE UNCOMFORTABLE PERFORMING THE PROCEDURES, JUST DON'T DO IT.

The first step is to create a dynamic bulletin. We'll use RSS in the following example. Locate the RSS bulletin in your active bulletins and place cursor over its preview icon. Jot down the bulletin's GUID from the status bar at the bottom of your browser. This is a unique ID and will be composed of letters, numbers, and dashes that follow "Page&ID=" and you usually only need the characters before the first dash. (ie: 0e10d273)



Head back to the main menu and click on "Extras". Jot down the zone ID number.



Now, from the server: navigate to D:\TRMS\Web\Carousel\Media\Pages and locate the bulletin using the GUID. You can open any of the jpgs to make sure you have the correct bulletin. Keep this window open.

Open another window and navigate to D:\TRMS\Web\Carousel\Media\Dynamic and create a folder, naming it with the zone ID. The naming scheme must be: zone-# (ie: zone-297). Copy the folders "CableDisplayTemplates", "Clocks", "EventDisplayTemplates", "RSSTemplates", and "WeatherTemplates" into the zone-# folder. Note: we do this simply to copy the file structure into the new zone-specific folder.



From your new zone-specific folder -- go into "RSSTemplates" and delete "Template.dat" (the system-wide default template). Copy "Page.dat" (from the Pages folder) to the RSSTemplates folder and rename it to "Template.dat".



Head back to the web UI and create a test bulletin from the zone you were working with.

There are more components to most other dynamic templates. For example: you will need to copy all media for weather bulletins into the new WeatherTemplates folder and rename "Page.dat" to "WeatherTemplate.dat". Since the EDS feature can sort by room or by time, you will want to create two different templates, repositioning the text accordingly.

Use the following as a reference for saving and naming your dynamic templates:

Cable Display: Create and edit a bulletin for each Cable Display instance and copy the respective "Page.dat" into the following locations.
CableDisplayTemplates > Interrupt > Page.dat
CableDisplayTemplates > MultiSchedule > Page.dat
CableDisplayTemplates > Next > Page.dat
CableDisplayTemplates > Repeat > Page.dat
CableDisplayTemplates > SingleSchedule > Page.dat

Clock: You only need to copy a jpg of your clock background into the folder.
Clocks > TRMSClock.jpg

Event Display: Create and edit at least two EDS bulletins -- one that is grouped by time, the other grouped by room. Copy into the respective folders and rename to:
EventDisplayTemplates > GroupRoomEDSTemplate.dat
EventDisplayTemplates > GroupTimeEDSTemplate.dat
EventDisplayTemplates > UngroupedEDSTemplate.dat

RSS: Copy the "Page.dat" and rename:
RSSTemplates > Template.dat

Weather: Copy all jpgs and dat files and rename "Page.dat", to:
WeatherTemplates > WeatherTemplate.dat

Yes. The speed of the thumb drive is slow and is unable to read / write the data fast enough.

We're currently working on documentation for the Clone tool. Thanks for all your input and I'm glad the issue is resolved. – JeremyCleek, on November 24, 2008 22:55

You weren't, by any chance, importing directly from a usb thumb drive, were you? This would slow down the process immensely. If so, you should always copy the clone file to the hard drive / desktop first - then run the Clone tool.

Glad to hear its working out. – JeremyCleek, on November 24, 2008 15:28

When the Clone tool exports, it shows you the status. When it says "exporting media...pictures x/230", its really just scanning 230 pictures and copying only the ones that are linked to the channel. This is true for templates, videos, backgrounds, and any other media. So the more media you have in the system, whether its linked to the channel or not, the longer the process will take to export.

Are you still getting 400+MB Clone files? Honestly, that doesn't sound that big, especially if you're using videos. I'm guessing that when you were originally exporting and getting 40MB files - it was incomplete - or didn't have video files and now it does?

So, it sounds like you're using Clone for deployment of your bulletins to multiple locations. If the properties of the channel are not being changed each time, I would suggest exporting the bulletins as a package - and import them into the other systems. This can all be done through the web UI.





I hope this helps.

We decided to use the term "Clone" because that's what the tool is actually doing. Whether importing or exporting, it is making an exact duplicate of the channel.

By design, it is very thorough, so it grabs everything associated with the channel - including pictures and videos that live in the media section of a zone, as well as stale and saved bulletins. So, I would say if you don't use that media, then delete it.

What dictates all of the backgrounds, pictures, and templates as "not being used"? How does the system know you're not using them? I wonder if you are referring to media in other zones that aren't linked to the channel. In that case, we would have to investigate why it's copying media that doesn't belong to a channel.

What is your intent with the Clone tool? Are you looking to make backups on a regular basis? Are you archiving? Duplicating?

The Clone tool was created with two main purposes in mind. You found one of them. The other is coming...

Stay tuned.