Player Accounts

A player in CS Play is the account of one playback device: its name, resolution, frames, geo-metadata, license slot, pairing credentials, online status and device information. Players are managed on the Players page in the left menu.

Do not confuse the player account with two related things:

  • the player application — the software installed on the device (see the CityScreen Player documentation);

  • the screen — the logical broadcast surface built on top of player frames (see Adding Screens).

Players, frames and screens

Each player has one or more frames — rectangular content zones within its resolution. Screens are assembled from frames:

  • a simple screen is exactly one frame of one player;

  • a composite screen (video wall) combines frames of several players.

One multi-frame player can therefore serve several screens at the same time, and one composite screen can span several players. See Frames & Zones and Video Walls.

Player licenses

Every active player consumes one player license from your organization’s pool:

  • Creating or unarchiving a player takes a free license. If none are left, the operation fails with "You have run out of licenses".

  • Archiving a player returns its license to the pool.

Current usage is shown in Settings > Subscription as "Used X of Y, available Z". To extend the pool, contact your CS Play provider.

Players list

The Players page lists your players in two views: Tiles or Table.

Status per player:

Status Meaning

On

The device is online (connected to the platform).

Off

The device is offline.

Inactive

The player is blocked by the platform administrator.

Available filters: player name, targeting criteria, activity (active/archived), player type (fixed/mobile), online status.

In table view you can configure visible columns, including coordinates, resolution, last ad play time, content synchronization status, criteria, metadata fields, IP address and installed software versions (player, QT player, library). The Export player list button downloads the table as CSV (table view only).

A clock icon next to a player warns that the device time is out of sync. While the player’s clock is behind the server’s, its programmatic requests get no ad. Fix the time on the device.

The camera icon on an online player requests an on-demand screenshot rendered by the player software. It is shown once and is not stored — unlike CamGrabber photo reports.

Creating players

Players are created manually — pairing a device never creates an account (see Connecting a Device).

  1. On the Players page click Player creation wizard.

  2. Choose Duplicate an existing player to copy its parameters, or Add new player manually.

  3. Define the parameters:

Parameter Description

Visible resolution

The content area in pixels (width x height). Determines which media resolutions are compatible.

Physical resolution

The hardware pixel count of the panel, if it differs from the visible resolution (internally scaling LED panels). Usually the same as visible.

Player type

Fixed — stationary installation. Mobile — GPS-equipped player on a moving vehicle.

GPS location

For fixed players: pin the position on the map or enter coordinates manually.

Number of players

How many players with identical parameters to create. Cannot exceed the available licenses — the wizard shows how many remain.

Choose Mobile for a player mounted on a vehicle: its location is then kept as a route area instead of a fixed point, the player is told it is mobile, and its actual position comes from its GPS receiver.

  1. Enter a name. When creating multiple players, each receives an index number (e.g. Player 1, Player 2).

  2. Click Create players.

Duplicating a player copies its parameters and frame layout, but not criteria tags or metadata — assign those separately after creation.

Each created player consumes one license and gets a full-size default frame. By default a simple screen is created for that frame automatically, so the player is immediately usable in campaign targeting.

See also