This article provides an overview of the integration between Signagelive and NEC ALP. This is to provide a clear understanding of how the integration works, how it is configured (from a Signagelive point of view) and the interaction points which may require support assistance.

Brightsign, Chrome OS and Electron (PC Appliance) players support the NEC ALP Integration.

NEC ALP is deployed into an environment (such as a retail store), when deploying it, this consists of an Edge device, effectively a PC, being installed in the location, this then communicates with NEC ALP and the local Signagelive Players.

The NEC ALP configuration interface is a cloud based solution, in the same way that Signagelive is.

The integration with Signagelive, allows NEC to upload content (Widgets) to Signagelive, add it to a Playlist, which is then published to players. Once published, the ALP solution is notified that the players have the content, which means that it can then be triggered from ALP using local triggers, based on data defined within ALP.

This can be split into 4 sections of integration.

When users sign up to NEC ALP, they will be configured within the NEC ALP cloud solution, they will also purchase a number of Signagelive licences, which are activated against players within a Signagelive network.

Within ALP the user will need to authorise ALP to have access to their Signagelive network, as you would other services, such as authorising Google or Facebook applications.

By doing this, the User gives ALP permissions to synchronise the activated players (this is a continuous background process, so new players are automatically added to ALP).

ALP will then configure an RTE, named NEC ALP on the Signagelive Network, this will have a Tenant ID specific to the ALP tenant ID, much like the Signagelive Network ID. This RTE is used by the players and is detailed in a later section of this document.

A new playlist is created, which will contain the content to be triggered by ALP, and this is published as an Interrupt to all players, with the trigger key press, set to NEC ALP.

Default content and scheduled content will be published as normal to the players, the published trigger playlist will only be played as part of the ALP triggering process, described later in this document.

Content to be triggered by ALP is curated within ALP, this is then uploaded to Signagelive via the API. This content can be any standard content, but will in most cases be Widgets.

We have provided a new upload mechanism, which is used by ALP, where they send us a request via the Network API, with the URL of a piece of media to add, we then queue this upload request, and when processing it, we download the file from the URL and then upload it to the Signagelive network. As part of this process, we provide feedback to ALP using a web hook URL included in the request.

As part of the request, ALP includes the RTE which should be added to the asset, so that it will be used on any player it is published to.

ALP monitors these web hook updates, and updates the status of the asset upload in ALP, so that it can be used in the next step.

When ALP receives the notification from Signagelive to say that new media has been uploaded successfully, then ALP makes a request to Signagelive to add this new media to the Trigger playlist.

As there is the potential for many assets to be added at the same time, we have provided a new endpoint to NEC, where they send requests to add media to a playlist, we then process sequentially in order of request per playlist, so we don’t override other asset additions.

As part of the request to add the media to the playlist, it is possible to configure all properties you can within the User Interface, ALP will generally set validity dates on content.

The playlist is then saved after each request is processed, and the playlist is handled as any normal playlist refinement, and players are updated.

Once a request is processed, we send an update to the defined NEC ALP webhook.

ALP sets validity dates on media added to a playlist, and when the content expires, they require to be notified the player has removed the content. To achieve this, we have added a background process, which HAS to be enabled on a Signagelive Network, to rewrite player configurations automatically, once a day, when content expires.

For example, if a player has content published to it, with an expiry date of 15/3/2020, at midnight on the 16/3/2020 this players configuration will be rewritten and any expired content will be removed. This will mean that the player will delete the file.

As detailed above, as part of the configuration of a Network for ALP, an RTE is configured, and then added to Assets as they are uploaded. This contains RTE configuration for Download Complete, Asset Playback Start, Asset Playback Complete, Asset Removed from Player.

When a player downloads a new Asset added from ALP, an RTE event is sent to the Edge device in the location, to tell ALP that the player has the content. This then means that it can be triggered from ALP. The playback start and complete events are used for Proof of Play, to show that the assets are triggered. The asset removed RTE is sent when the asset is removed from the trigger playlist, this is handled via validity dates as detailed in the previous section.

The IP address of the Edge server, where these RTE’s are sent, is configured within the NEC ALP RTE on the Signagelive network.

The Signagelive Network MUST have HTTP RTE’s enabled on it, for this to work.

To allow ALP to trigger content based on the analytical data it gathers, and the configuration, we have added a local triggering mechanism, specifically for use with ALP, it only handles content within the NEC ALP trigger playlist, therefore as a prerequisite you will need to publish the playlist as an interrupt using Key NEC ALP and wait for the playlist to publish and be downloaded onto the player.

You will also need to make a note of the IP Address of your player.

The triggers for NEC ALP are known as Soft-Triggers, as they will not immediately trigger the content, when the trigger is sent. To trigger the content the player must receive the trigger within the last 2 seconds of the current media it is playing.

There are 2 endpoints the Edge device uses:

The inventory end point allows the edge device to ask the player which content it has, and this provides the specific ID’s required to trigger content. The URL for this endpoint is:

The URL for this endpoint is:

The body of this request should include the following JSON:

We have a dedicated Support Team that are ready to assist you with any questions you may have, so please contact us for any help you require.