ShadowSonic's dashboard

ShadowSonic shared an idea in Tightrope Media Systems on November 26, 2008 22:37:

Show how long a bulletin goes in the Manage Bulletins section

I see Owner, Active, Type, and Transition for each bulletin but it'd be really nice if it also displayed how long that bulletin plays for.

ShadowSonic reported a problem in Tightrope Media Systems on November 26, 2008 22:35:

Possible bug with ordering bulletins?

I was first in the My Bulletins tab and I went to do some reordering and I dragged one of my bulletins up to the top and realized I can't do this in the My Bulletins tab so I just grouped it near the one wear I wanted it. Then I went to the All Bulletins tab. Then ungrouped those 2 bulletins and geez-la-weez, it just scrambled all my bulletins in a random order!

This a bug or did I do something wrong?

ShadowSonic asked a question in Tightrope Media Systems on November 26, 2008 19:36:

Is there a step by step tutorial for Carousel?

Is there any step by step tutorials for Carousel? As in, for example, a tutorial that walks you through how to set up a simple channel, going through all the bulletins and zone work. Is there any out there? My boss suggested that if we get more people to work with Carousel, that I should write a tutorial to give them the basics of how Carousel works. And once they've done the tutorial, they can hopefully apply the knowledge that they've learned into creating their own channels and whatnot. I guess it would basically be some kind of basic training I suppose.

So is there any guides, walkthroughs, tutorials out there? I know there are training videos but what if there's no internet? =P

ShadowSonic replied on November 25, 2008 04:31 to the problem "Bulletin Packages are bugged!!!" in Tightrope Media Systems:

Well the cloning issue has been solved, and I see no need to use the Bulletin Packages at the moment, but the topic about the Bulletin Packages still needs to be looked at. I was told by a TRMS Support person in the chat room that saving my bulletins in a package will also save the schedule dates and transitions. Which obviously turned out false. Now either he might not been 100% sure or my memory is a bit fuzzy. Either way, shouldn't putting bulletins in a package keep all that stuff? Or atleast keep it in the same order =/

ShadowSonic replied on November 24, 2008 22:44 to the problem "Bulletin Packages are bugged!!!" in Tightrope Media Systems:

Actually yeah, I was importing it from a thumb drive. But this time around I dragged the clone file onto the desktop for some reason then imported it.

I don't know if its just a general rule to not run anything from a thumb drive is it? Or if there is some kind of Tips section on the TRMS site somewhere that could mention this kind of advice? Or if there's even a topic about this?

ShadowSonic replied on November 22, 2008 16:21 to the problem "Bulletin Packages are bugged!!!" in Tightrope Media Systems:

For some crazy reason, the clone tool is actually working properly now. Weird eh? Also, the import time only took like 1-2 min.

ShadowSonic replied to "Bulletin Packages are bugged!!!", but it was removed. see the change log

ShadowSonic reported a problem in Tightrope Media Systems on November 22, 2008 03:20:

Bulletin Packages are bugged!!!

Ok, since the clone tool isn't probably getting a fix soon (as I'm told it's going to be part of the 5.2.2 patch), I now have to copy each of my zones using the bulletin package method. Ok, not that bad of a detour I thought. Well I couldn't be more WRONG. So I went to group my 40 bulletins because I couldn't find the 'copy all of these bulletins into a bulletin package without grouping them' button). So after grouping them, I made a package.

*gets in car*
*drives to mall*
*uploads bulletin package into my first solo-220's out of four*

BAM! Like a punch in my face. The bulletin's AREN'T even in order the way I had them!! Not that big of a deal I thought, just gonna take a little longer but I'm sure it's faster then trying to import my 400+ MB clone file (keep in mind these 40 bulletin's are only picture bulletins and the pictures are a pretty small file size themselves, less then a MB each). Anyway as I was reorganizing them, I noticed something...my scheduled dates and transition choices we're NOT, yeah, NOT on the slides I did.

Wow right? Waste of time *sigh*

Some good news though. My boss gave me a DVD about InfoChannel (powered by Scala) earlier today, which is also a software program for Digital Signage. And man, that DVD sure had some impressive videos that showed me what it could do that Carousel couldn't. Someone give me some reasons to continue working with this bugged up Carousel product and not start using Scala? Lol, maybe it's like comparing Windows Movie Maker to Sony Vegas 7, am I right?

ShadowSonic replied on November 17, 2008 21:29 to the problem "HUUUUUGE clone file!" in Tightrope Media Systems:

Here's what I'm using.

4 background images
2 templates
2 pictures
40 advertising pictures (or possibly just a powerpoint, we keep changing)

no videos or anything. We're really looking at what is the fastest way of doing something and don't want to spend 20-30 minutes importing a clone file.

If I create a bulletin package of my center zone (which contains 40 pictures, each has it's own bulletin so 40 bulletins) will it also copy the schedule dates, transition choice, and timing?

ShadowSonic shared an idea in Tightrope Media Systems on November 17, 2008 21:01:

There should be a Back button during bulletin options

Let's say you're going through the bulletin options and lets say you get to the part where it says what kind of transition you want to use. Let's say you wanted to use Fade but you hit something else. Then you hit the More button but then you realize the transition wasn't set to Fade. So you're at the next step but there's no back button. You can't use the Back button on the explorer window and hitting cancel just get's rid of the whole thing.

I think there should be a Back button.

ShadowSonic reported a problem in Tightrope Media Systems on November 17, 2008 20:42:

Creating bulletins one after another in a group causes timeout bugs

So I was creating a bulletin, then got to the part that asks "Would you like to add another bulletin that would appear after this bulletin in a group?" and I hit Yes then it would start the process of making another bulletin. I did this about, 6 times before I got a timeout or error kind of bug. Which means I have to create to each bulletin separately. Now there's really no difference timewise doing each one one-by-one but it does save some time if I can keep doing the "add another bulletin after this in a group" thing.

ShadowSonic replied on November 17, 2008 20:27 to the problem "HUUUUUGE clone file!" in Tightrope Media Systems:

Well here's the scoop:

I have a main solo-220 in my office which I use to build ads (in the center of my channel with side panels on the left and right of the ads, as well as a banner on the top and a blank bottom to create a frame around the center) then export a clone file to 4 other solo-220's in my mall. So we make a clone file every 1-2 weeks, depending on how things go then import those clone files into the 4 solo-220's at the mall.

As for the media, I DID delete everything that's not going to be used in the media section for all of my zones. This was, like, the first thing I did because the first couple of clone files that came out when I started this, came out around 40 MB. I saw, while it was cloning, that it was still copying the same amount of templates, etc even though I deleted all of them (except the ones I made myself) in the media section.

Hope this provided more insight on my current situation.

ShadowSonic replied on November 17, 2008 08:04 to the problem "HUUUUUGE clone file!" in Tightrope Media Systems:

Before as in, maybe a week ago before I got this 400+MB clone file, they came out as around 40 MB. I might be getting these HUGE clone files because I updated or something since I just updated like a day ago.

So if the Clone tool copies things that aren't even used, so that the channel can use those things in the future, then I highly suggest that you guys rename this tool to Backup instead of Clone seeing how it's just backing up more then what you might expect. Also, you guys should add a little *note to the "Can I copy or clone a Channel?" topic which should say:

Not only will the clone tool copy all the pictures, backgrounds, templates, etc that you're using, it will also copy all the pictures, backgrounds, templates, etc that you ARE NOT using. Which means if you have no plans on changing those things in the future, then you're just getting useless data in the exported clone file which means longer importing time.

ShadowSonic replied to "HUUUUUGE clone file!", but it was removed. see the change log

ShadowSonic reported a problem in Tightrope Media Systems on November 15, 2008 17:31:

HUUUUUGE clone file!

Ok, before when making clones, the file size would come out to around 40 MB. But now its 400+ MB!!! Why is it that when you go to clone, it copies all the useless and pointless backgrounds, pictures, templates, etc for the Channel that doesn't even use that stuff!? Cloning a Channel should ONLY clone what's being used D=

ShadowSonic replied on November 15, 2008 17:26 to the idea "Suggestion: Able to delete all bulletins in a zone" in Tightrope Media Systems:

Oh THERE we go! That DOES help :D

ShadowSonic shared an idea in Tightrope Media Systems on November 15, 2008 16:28:

Suggestion: Able to delete all bulletins in a zone

Currently, the only way to delete all my bulletins in a zone is to delete them one by one or group them one after another then delete them. Wish there was a Delete All method.

ShadowSonic shared an idea in Tightrope Media Systems on November 14, 2008 21:36:

Remove margins from text box?

I'm not sure whether or not it's because of the font but I think there is a 6 pixel margin space for the text boxes.

For example, I wanted to put a title at the top and left it at 0,0 but it wasn't touching the way top so I had to set the position to -6 top.

Or something like that sort.

ShadowSonic replied on November 14, 2008 21:29 to the idea "Able to use HTML coding in Bulletins" in Tightrope Media Systems:

Oh really? Well that's nice to know. That could sure open up some ideas now =]

ShadowSonic replied on November 14, 2008 20:03 to the problem "Updating bulletins in a large group causes timeouts or errors" in Tightrope Media Systems:

I'm actually the latest version.

Edit: I guess I'm not running the latest version anymore with 5.2.1 released. I'm running 5.2.0.