Digital Signage Template

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 Tripleplay, Appspace, and Carousel, as well as Google Slides and YouTube feeds, are supported. Solstice digital signage also supports custom static welcome screens at a web URL.

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. Solstice version 5.5.2 and later will cache up to 2 GB of content. (Solstice versions 4.4 to 5.5.1 cache up to 1 GB of content.)

Requirements

  • Solstice Pods with Enterprise Edition Licenses
  • Solstice version 4.0 or later, with Solstice 5.5.2 strongly recommended
  • Source URL content must be compatible with Android’s Chromium-based WebView (Chromium version 94.0.4606.71).
    • 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

Solstice digital signage provides three layout modes: Full Screen, Footer Only, and Footer + Overlay. Footer Only and Footer + Overlay modes will render the source content in an HTML iFrame. Many content sources will work in all modes without an issue. However, an embedded URL must be generated for use in an iFrame to use sources such as Google Slides and YouTube for digital signage in Footer Only and Footer + Overlay modes.

Try Full Screen mode if you are having issues in Footer Only and Footer + Overlay modes. See how to set digital signage configuration options in Solstice Cloud and Solstice Dashboard.

How to find the embedded URL that will display successfully in an iFrame for Solstice digital signage in footer/overlay modes from common sources:

  • Google Slides - When publishing the Google Slides presentation to the web, select the Embed option. This creates HTML code with the presentation URL within an iFrame. Copy the URL from this code to enter in the Solstice digital signage configuration.
  • YouTube - View the Embed code for a video from sharing options. Copy the embed URL from the "src" attribute to enter in the Solstice digital signage configuration. Add URL parameters as needed. Turning on autoplay and loop options and turning off controls is recommended for digital signage. Find more parameters details in Google documentation.

    The following URL shows an embed link with the parameters noted above, as well as an optional playlist parameter to play more than one YouTube video:

    https://www.youtube.com/embed/<VIDEO_ID>?playlist=<VIDEO_ID>,<Additional_VIDEO_IDs>&loop=1&autoplay=1&controls=0

The Solstice screen measures 1920x1080 pixels at 1080p and 3840x2160 at 4K. Refer to the pixel maps if you are using the Solstice footer and/or sidebar overlay to ensure Solstice elements do not overlap important aspects of custom background images (.png or .jpg) or digital signage.

See Solstice 1080p screen pixel mapClosed

See Solstice 4K screen pixel mapClosed

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

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