Setting up your BrightSign 5 series device

This article outlines the information required in relation to the Brightsign XC and XD client release.

It is recommended to use at least the 9.0.59 firmware release when testing, however the currently supported firmware is 9.0.101 for XC5, XD5, HD5 and LS5.

This article will be updated as required when new firmwares have been released and features or bug fixes have been validated.

How do I install Signagelive on my Brightsign device?

1. Click here to download the Brightsign 5 series client.
2. Extract the contents of the client to an SD card.
3. (Optional) Navigate to the Brightsign Config Tool and setup your custom screen configuration

• You can still setup and activate the client without this step as the only change will be the added in screen configuration parameters. By default an XC and XD device will be shipped with the HDMI-1 display enabled and the resolution set to “auto”.
• Insert the SD card into your Brightsign device and turn on the unit.
• Once the unit boots up it will start the initial Signagelive process and you will then be able to activate it when a 6-digit activation code appears on-screen.

How do I configure multiple outputs? (XC only)

Brightsign Config Tool

1. Go to the Brightsign Configuration Tool
2. Under Is Multiple Output Device? choose Yes from the drop-down menu
3. Under Select Device, if you have an XC4055 then choose “XC4055”, otherwise the default choice is the XC2055, which supports up to 2 outputs.
   • Enabled state
   • Screen rotation
   • Screen resolution
   • Screen X
   • Screen Y

• For the listed options you can configure each screen separately
• Once you have made your changes from the available configuration options click Generate, you will then receive a custom settings.json file.
• Add this settings.json file to the Data subfolder on your BrightSign device and turn on the device.

Signagelive Settings/Setup Menu

1. To go to the setup menu connect a keyboard to your Brightsign device and use the keyboard shortcut of CTRL+S, this will then load the custom configuration options for the player.
2. For each available screen you will see list a configuration options available -

• Enabled state
• Screen rotation
• Screen resolution
• Screen X
• Screen Y
• Once you have made your changes from the available configuration options you can then “Save” the configuration. This will attempt to apply the configuration and reboot the device. Once the reboot is complete the player will continue its last scheduled content playback with the updated settings applied.

• If there is an error trying to apply the configuration then it will revert back to the previous valid configuration. You can check what the applied configuration is by connecting to the Brightsign device over IP address, by checking the data/settings.json file for the screen config object or by seeing the options pre-selected on the Brightsign settings setup menu.

When you have multiple screens connected you also have the ability to easily identify each one by using the “Identify Displays” option on the Settings Menu. This will temporarily show an overlay on screen with the output name.

Click here to see some examples of video content scaled to the native resolution of the device.

Recommendations and known limitations when configuring multiple outputs:

• It is not recommended to use the “auto” resolution/video mode setting if you are enabling more than a single display. This is because the canvas screen positioning (ScreenX/ScreenY) are fixed and they may not scale correctly.
• Screen X and Y coordinates cannot overlap with another screen configuration.
• Video Mode support (e.g. in regards to bit depth, colour space and frequency) will depend on the screen attached. No colour space and colour depth options are available on the screen setup page if the resolution is set to “auto” as when set the device will automatically determine what the resolution and other settings should be.
• H265 codec is mandatory for the higher resolution testing otherwise video performance is affected, this tends to be noticeable through choppy playback and it will log to the console (debug over IP) that the resolution of the video is unsupported; in certain instances the player will crash either when it tries to play the video or when it tries to transition to the next video asset.
• Removing or plugging in the HDMI leads to the screen will not change if the output is enabled or disabled; it will still span based on its last set screen configuration settings.

Unsupported features

• B-Deploy is not currently available.
• There are further improvements required for video playback and performance stability.
• More device specific issues can be found on our Known issues on BrightSign Players article