Quick Start

This unit walks you through the one-time setup of a digital signage network in CS Play — from an empty account to media content playing on screens.

Network setup

Create a player and connect the device

Every playback device is represented by a player account:

  • Create a player with the resolution of your screen and its other parameters. A simple screen for the player’s default frame is created automatically, and one license from your pool is taken.

  • Install the player application on the device that drives the screen — a PC, Android device or Smart TV panel.

  • Pair the device with the player account by entering a PIN.

After that the player is ready to receive content.

Divide the output into frames

Skip this step if the whole screen should play one stream of content.

Optionally, divide the player’s output into separate zones called frames. Each frame plays its own content — for example, advertisements in the main zone and a weather widget on the side:

A player can have as many frames as its hardware supports. Extra frames need their own screens; several players can also be combined into a video wall.

Assign criteria

Criteria are defining characteristics of players, screens and frames: indoor or outdoor venues, proximity to restaurants, tickers or anything else. With criteria, targeting thousands of screens takes as little time as targeting one.

You may skip this step if you have a small network or prefer to pick screens directly in campaigns.

Create criteria and assign them to your inventory as described in Targeting Criteria.

Your network is now set up. Let’s move on to getting media content to screens.

Getting content to a screen

Content management in CS Play is performed through advertising campaigns.

Content distribution to screens is performed through schedules.

Schedules consist of playlists. Playlists include slots for either automatically or manually controlled campaigns.

Campaigns consist of ads. Ads of automatic campaigns have their own settings, ads of manual campaigns don’t.

There are two routes to a screen, and both end with the same ad in front of the same audience. They differ in what you have to touch every time the content changes:

scheduling-modes

Automatic scheduling costs slightly more to set up and nothing to run. Manual scheduling is the other way round: it is quicker to start, but every future change goes through the playlist by hand.

Automatic scheduling

If you have many screens which play different content, it’s better to use automatic scheduling. This way you need only one playlist and one schedule to cover all the screens, and you never touch them again: to change what plays, you change the campaigns and ads, and the players pick up the changes automatically.

To create automatically updated playback:

  • Create a playlist with one automatic slot.

  • Create a schedule. You may forget about playlists and schedules at this point.

  • Create automatic campaigns.

  • Create ads in automatic campaigns, optionally define their settings.

  • Generate the media plan. When the generation is completed, the players receive the files and start broadcasting.

  • Update campaigns and ads whenever you want, without changing the playlists or schedules. The players receive the changes.

Manual scheduling

If you want your screens to play the same fixed sequence of content, use manual scheduling. In this case you build the playlist by hand, and the players loop through it. To update the playback you change the playlist.

To create manually updated playback:

  • Create manual campaigns.

  • Create ads in manual campaigns.

  • Create a playlist, drag and drop ads into it.

  • Create a schedule. The players start displaying.

  • Update campaigns and ads, then update playlists and schedules. The players receive the changes.

For more information about campaign strategies refer to Campaign Strategies.

Next steps

Now that content is playing on your screens, explore these areas: