Digital Signage Settings

Solstice’s digital signage feature gives you the ability to extend HTML-based signage to Solstice displays when they are not being used for wireless collaboration. This feature allows you to add signage feeds to your Solstice-enabled meeting rooms, huddle rooms, and transitional spaces without the additional cost or complexity of deploying dedicated signage hardware.

When enabled, Digital Signage in Solstice defaults to Mersive's Solstice Pod information feed at https://digitalsignage.mersive.com. URL-based digital signage feeds such as Appspace, Carousel, 22Miles, Screenfeed, and Google Slides + Sites, as well as custom static welcome screens available at a web URL, are also supported.

Certain individual feeds, even from supported sources, may not work with Solstice. If the URL you are attempting to run is resource intensive, stability and performance can be negatively affected. However, Solstice version 4.4 and later will cache up to 1 GB of content.

Requirements

  • Solstice Pods with Enterprise Edition Licenses
  • Solstice version 4.0 or later (both Pods and Dashboard)
  • Source URL content must be compatible with Android WebView.
    • Chrome browser and Android Webview are similar in many ways, but Android WebView will lack some advanced browser features and behaves best with less resource-intensive feeds.
    • Test your URL in Solstice and verify that it is playing well on a single display before rolling out to other Solstice Pods and/or leaving signage enabled on the Pod.

Layout Options

Some signage layout modes will render the source content in an HTML IFrame. The Solstice Platform supports three layout options: Full Screen, Footer Only, and Footer + Overlay. The digital signage source content is rendered differently depending on your layout choice.

Mode Description Notes
 Full Screen Signage content is displayed in full screen mode on the Solstice display. No Solstice connection information is shown — users must know Solstice display name in order to connect. Source URL is rendered as a full-screen web page.
Footer Only Only the Solstice welcome screen footer that displays the Pod's display name and/or IP address is shown over the signage content. Source URL is rendered within an IFrame. Generate an embedded URL for use in an IFrame from your digital signage source to integrate with Solstice.
Footer + Overlay The Solstice welcome screen footer and a sidebar overlay are shown on top of digital signage to provide users with full connection instructions and/or room calendar information. Source URL is rendered within an IFrame. Generate an embedded URL for use in an IFrame from your digital signage source to integrate with Solstice.

For example, to integrate digital signage created in Google Slides with Solstice, select the Embed option when publishing the Google Slides presentation to the web. This creates HTML with the presentation URL within an IFrame. Copy this URL to integrate the presentation as a digital signage feed with Solstice in all modes described above.

Video Content

Video content is supported if it is in one of the following formats and configured to auto-start. The maximum video quality is 1080p at 60 frames per second and up to 20 Mbps.

  • H.264 Baseline Profile Level 3
  • VP8
  • VP9

Supported Authentication Methods

Some signage systems provide mechanisms to identify the device with which it is communicating. This can be helpful to tailor content to groups of devices, to prevent unauthorized access to the feed content, and for analytics.

The Solstice digital signage playback supports the following authentication methods:

Scheme Description
Open The signage URL is not protected by an authentication scheme. The content will load in any network-connected browser for any user.
URL-Based The signage URL is protected by a URL-based parameter. In this case, the content will only load when the URL parameter is provided.
Cookie or Local Storage The signage URL will load an initial page that presents a unique identifier for the Pod. The signage administrator will record the code and enter it into the signage provider's device-management console. After this process is completed, a cookie or other browser-based persistent mechanism, like local storage, is utilized to store the identification information.
MAC Address Primarily relevant to an on-premises signage system, the administrator will configure the Pod MAC address as part of the device configuration in the management console. This process may be automated by the signage system; however, the signage server and Solstice Pod must typically be on the same VLAN.

How To

Not all signage feeds are supported by Solstice. Always validate signage playback in a test environment before making it live across your deployment.

  1. In Solstice Dashboard, select the Pod(s) you want to display digital signage on from the list of Your Solstice Instances.
  2. Go to the Digital Signage tab.
  3. Check Enable to interact with the digital signage settings.
  4. Choose a digital signage display mode from the list of options:
    • Full Screen: Signage content is displayed full screen on the Solstice display. No Solstice connection information is shown — users must know Solstice display name or IP address in order to connect.
    • Footer Only: Only the Solstice welcome screen footer is shown over the signage content. Users familiar with Solstice will be able to see the Solstice display name and/or IP address in the footer area in order to connect and share content. The source URL must be viewable within an IFrame.
    • Footer + Overlay: The Solstice welcome screen footer and sidebar overlay are shown on top of digital signage to provide users with full connection instructions and/or room calendar information. The source URL must be viewable within an IFrame.
  5. In the Source URL field, enter the URL of the digital signage feed or web content to be displayed between Solstice sessions.
  6. In the Start After menu, select the amount of time after which you want the digital signage feed to start playing.
  7. Click Apply.

Some signage providers require you to use a unique code to register your signage endpoints. Refer to your signage content provider's instructions to complete this process as needed.

Follow the links below for step-by-step directions for integrating digital signage feeds from our digital signage partners Appspace, Carousel, and 22MILES using either Solstice Cloud or Solstice Dashboard:

  1. Physically go to the location of the Solstice Pod where you enabled signage.
  2. Confirm the signage feed is visible.
  3. Connect to a Solstice Pod and Solstice Conference, then share a piece of content.
  4. Disconnect and confirm the signage feed automatically reappears, plays the entire feed, and restarts the feed from the beginning.

If you need to exit digital signage mode in order to access the Pod's local configuration panel, you can do so by plugging a USB mouse into the Pod and long-clicking with the left mouse button.

Next Topic

Room Calendar Settings