ACTi MDS-100 User manual

Media Display Station

User Manual

MDS-100

2018/11/30

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Hardware Manual

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Table of Contents

Precautions ........................................................... 4

Safety Instructions ................................................................................. 6

Introduction ........................................................... 7

Package Contents ................................................................................... 7

Prerequisites ........................................................................................... 7

Physical Description .............................................................................. 7

Setting Up the Player ............................................ 8

Connect the Player ................................................................................. 8

Create an Account .................................................................................. 9

Register the Player on Your Account .................................................... 9

Create the Content ................................................................................ 10

ACTi Media Management Application ............... 11

Overview of the Application Portal ...................................................... 11

Main Menu ......................................................................................... 11

Main Area ........................................................................................... 11

Settings Menu .................................................................................... 12

Upload Progress & Help Icons ........................................................... 12

Pushing Changes to Monitors ............................................................ 12

The Dashboard ...................................................................................... 13

Monitor Status (A) .............................................................................. 13

Monitor Locations (B) ......................................................................... 13

Remember the Basics (C) .................................................................. 13

Media ..................................................................................................... 14

Images ............................................................................................... 14

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Videos ................................................................................................ 19

Documents ......................................................................................... 24

Web Pages ........................................................................................ 30

Widgets .................................................................................................. 33

Managing Widgets ............................................................................. 33

Standard Widgets .............................................................................. 34

Custom Widgets ................................................................................. 37

Playlists ................................................................................................. 38

Managing Playlists ............................................................................. 38

Managing Playlists with Folder View .................................................. 40

Playlist within Playlist ......................................................................... 42

Tag Based Playlist .............................................................................. 43

Shows (Layouts) ................................................................................... 45

Managing Shows ............................................................................... 45

Turned Off Show (Turn Your TV On and Off) ..................................... 48

Schedules .............................................................................................. 50

Managing Schedules.......................................................................... 50

Monitors................................................................................................. 54

Adding a Monitor ................................................................................ 54

User Settings ......................................................................................... 61

My User Profile .................................................................................. 61

Account Settings .................................................................................. 63

Users .................................................................................................. 63

Workspaces ....................................................................................... 65

Playback Reports ............................................................................... 69

User - Custom Roles and Permissions .............................................. 72

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Precautions

Read these instructions

You should read all the safety and operating instructions before using this product.

Heed all warnings

You must adhere to all the warnings on the product and in the instruction manual. Failure to

follow the safety instruction given may directly endanger people, cause damage to the system

or to other equipment.

Servicing

Do not attempt to service this video device yourself as opening or removing covers may

expose you to dangerous voltage or other hazards. Refer all servicing to qualified service

personnel.

Trademarks

All names used in this manual are probably registered trademarks of respective companies.

Liability

Every reasonable care has been taken during the writing of this manual. Please inform your

local office if you find any inaccuracies or omissions. We cannot be held responsible for any

typographical or technical errors and reserve the right to make changes to the product and

manuals without prior notice.

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Federal Communications Commission Statement

This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a

class B digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are

designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a

residential installation. This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency

energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful

interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not

occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or

television reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is

encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:

 Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.

 Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.

 Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the

receiver is connected.

 Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.

Warning: Changes or modifications to the equipment that are not expressly approved by the

responsible party for compliance could void the user’s authority to operate the equipment.

European Community Compliance Statement

This product has been tested and found to comply with the limits for Class B

Information Technology Equipment according to European Standard EN 55022

and EN 55024. In a domestic environment, this product may cause radio interference in which

cause the user may be required to take adequate measures.

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Safety Instructions

Cleaning

Disconnect this video product from the power supply before cleaning.

Attachments

Do not use attachments not recommended by the video product manufacturer as they may

cause hazards.

Do not use accessories not recommended by the manufacturer

Install the device, power supply and other accessories in a dry place protected from weather.

Servicing

Do not attempt to service this video product yourself. Refer all servicing to qualified service

personnel.

Damage Requiring service

Disconnect this video product from the power supply immediately and refer servicing to

qualified service personnel under the following conditions.

1) When the power-supply cord or plug is damaged

2) If liquid has been spilled, or objects have fallen into the video product.

3) If the inner parts of video product have been directly exposed to rain or water.

4) If the video product does not operate normally by following the operating Instructions in

this manual. Adjust only those controls that are covered by the instruction manual, as an

improper adjustment of other controls may result in damage, and will often require

extensive work by a qualified technician to restore the video product to its normal

operation.

Safety Check

Upon completion of any service or repairs to this video product, ask the service technician to

perform safety checks to determine if the video product is in proper operating condition.

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Introduction

Package Contents

Check the package and make sure all items are present.

 Media Display Station (MDS) or herein referred to as the “Player”

 MicroSD card

 HDMI cable

 Power adapter

 Power plug converter

Prerequisites

Aside from the items that came with the package, the items below might also be needed:

 HDMI screen (TV or PC monitor)

 Ethernet cable

 Internet access

Physical Description

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Setting Up the Player

Connect the Player

Follow the sequence of steps below to connect peripheral devices to the MDS.

1. Connect MDS-100 to the network via Ethernet cable.

2. Connect the monitor to the MDS via HDMI cable, then power up the monitor.

NOTE: Make sure to follow this step before powering up MDS to ensure the media

display station adapts the monitor resolution.

3. Connect the device to the power source.

4. The devices will boot up. After the system initializes, a

registration number will appear on the monitor. Write down

this number.

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Create an Account

1. Open a web browser and type

https://app.acti.com on the URL bar.

2. Click I want to register.

3. Input the First Name, Last Name, Email and

Password.

4. Click I accept the Terms & Conditions, and

click Register.

Register the Player on Your Account

After creating an account, the ACTi Media Management Application automatically logs you in

and takes you to its Dashboard.

Click Add one now!  Add Monitor, then enter the registration number.

NOTE: Monitor quota is a paid monthly service. Contact your sales agents for more information.

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Create the Content

Access the ACTi Media Management Application (https://app.acti.com) interface to create your

digital signage content.

1. Add Media like videos, images, documents, etc.

2. Create a Playlist. Add the media files you want to

display into one playlist.

3. Create a Show. A show determines the layout or

how your contents will be displayed on the

monitor. It can include playlist, individual media

files and widgets (news, RSS feeds, etc.).

4. Create a Schedule. Set the schedule to play the show.

5. After creating any contents, click

Push to Players?.

The contents are pushed to the MDS

and the monitor will display the

contents based on the set schedule.

For detailed information on how to manage your contents, refer to the next section.

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ACTi Media Management Application

This section describes what ACTi Media Management Application can do and how you can

customize your contents.

Overview of the Application Portal

The Application Portal allows you to manage your content and Players. On the left side

of the Portal, there is a main menu which provides all the navigation you need during the

day-by-day usage of the MDS.

Main Menu

This main menu includes the following sections:

 Media: Upload your Media files to be used by the Players

 Playlists: Setup Playlist, sequences of Media and Widgets, that are shown one

after the other in a timely manner

 Widgets: Use Widgets, which are small applications design to show information,

like RSS tickers, clocks, texts, and more

 Shows: Create layouts, arranging Playlists, Media or Widgets on a virtual screen

 Schedules: Create a date/time-based Schedule for overriding which Show should

be displayed

 Monitors: Setup your Players and assign them with a Default Show to use and,

optionally, a Schedule for time-based overrides

These are the sections you will be using in order to manage your content and your

Players.

Main Area

In the middle area of the Application Portal, you see the respective parts of the Portal

when you will be on them. These include listings (lists of Media, Playlists and other entities

you have created) as well as other configuration forms that you may use throughout the

Portal.

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Settings Menu

In the top-right corner, there is a drop-down configuration menu. This contains all the stuff that

you rarely access:

 My User Profile: Settings that have to do with you, as a User of your Account (your

own timezone, your name and email, etc)

 Account Settings

 Users

 Logout

Upload Progress & Help Icons

Right next to the Settings Menu, you will see a dropdown icon. This icon provides you with a

progress indicator for Media uploads (an encoding, if applicable).

Pushing Changes to Monitors

It is very important that every time you make changes to any items within your account,

you have to click on the red flashing button "Push to Players" on the left side on top of

the Main Menu in order for these changes to take place in the affected players.

Above the Main Menu, you will find a button that will be either:

Grey button, saying "Changes pushed!"

Flashing red button, saying "Push to Players?"

Whenever you make any changes within your account, the button will turn red and flash,

saying "Push to Players?". After you conclude all changes in your account, you need to

push the button to deliver the changes to the affected players. All Players affected by

your changes will download the required content and restart playback. Players not

affected by your changes will not be notified on the update.

Force Pushing

Even if the button is grey and saying "Changes pushed!", you might need to force a

"push" to all Players in your account. This might be needed as a troubleshooting tool, to

make sure everything works as expected.

By clicking the button when grey, you will notify all Players that they need to update

content, and all Players will re-check and restart Playback.

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The Dashboard

The Dashboard allows you to control the overall status and set the location of your monitors. It

provides basic guidance to create your contents.

A

B

C

Monitor Status (A)

Online Monitors: This shows how many of your monitors are online and displaying, at the

time you log into the portal.

Subscription Capacity: Depending on the plan you have selected (i.e. how many screens

you want to deploy), this indicates the number of monitors you have created in the portal.

Registered Devices: This indicates how many of your screens have been "paired" to their

players.

Monitor Locations (B)

In this section, you can set the location of each your monitors on Google Maps.

Remember the Basics (C)

This section is a guided procedure on creating a content for your Player. This serves a

"shortcut" to the same options as the main menu (i.e add a media file, create playlist,

create show), allowing you to do the same actions but faster.

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Media

This section will guide you on how to upload a variety of media files:

 Image files

 Videos

 Web pages

 PDF files

REMEMBER: After making changes in your account, you need to Push Changes to the

monitors.

Images

Your Player supports any image file type that can be used for playback on your Players. This

include JPEG, PNG and GIF (including light animations). Images are not resized automatically,

they are delivered and played back exactly as you have uploaded them. It is not recommended

to use images with higher resolution than 1920 x 1080, because they can slow down the

playback. In this case, try to resize them before uploading.

Managing Images

In the "Images" section, you can see a listing of the images currently uploaded into your

account. It provides the following columns:

 Name of the Image

 Timestamp (date and time) that the Image was uploaded

 Preview (thumbnail) of the actual image

 Actions column, with buttons for making changes

On this page, you can:

 Preview the Image by clicking on the thumbnail in the "Preview" column.

 Duplicate the Image, by creating a copy

 Change the details of an Image by clicking the blue "Edit" button. Here, you

can also substitute the actual image, and it will be changed wherever it is used.

Check out the "Adding an Image" section below for details on the fields.

 Delete a single image. The image will be removed from any Playlists or

Shows that was previously used, and it will not be available in the portal for future

use.

Delete multiple images. Click on the images you want and press on the delete

button of just one.

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 Search for specific image using the search tool.

Adding an Image

To add a single image, you click on the "+ Add a New Image" button found at the bottom

of the Images listing.

A. the Name of the image

B. an optional Description for it

C. you can add Tags to the uploaded image

D. the actual image file, where you select the image you want to upload

E. From the advanced features you can set the Play Since /Play Until. In other words,

you can set the expiration date, which means that you can choose the exact date and

time that this image will display at your playlist or show or you can set the "Always"

and "For ever" setting and the image will never expire.

Clicking "Save" will upload the image.

Adding Multiple Images

To add multiple images at once, click on the "+ Add Multiple Images" button. In the File

selection dialog that shows up, keep the Ctrl button on your keyboard pressed to select

multiple images. All selected images will be automatically uploaded.

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REMEMBER: After making changes in your Account, you need to Push Changes to your

Monitors

Images Folder View

By activating folder view, you have the potential to easily organize and manage numerous

image files.

Moving from left to right, you can see your "Media Folders" on the left, the "Folder Images"

in the middle and "Image Actions" / "Folder Actions" on the right.

1. Media Folders. In this section all the created folders can be viewed.

2. Folder Images. The content of each selected folder is displayed in this section.

You also have the ability to search for a specific image file using the search tool.

Image Actions

Adding an Image to a folder

To add a single image to a folder, you click on the "+ Add a New Image" button found on the

right side of your screen. As a next step you are requested:

 the name of the image

 an optional description for it

 a "choose" button where you actually select the image you want

Clicking "Save" will upload the image on the folder.

Adding Multiple Images to a folder

To add multiple images at once to a folder, click on the "+ ADD MULTIPLE IMAGES" button. By

keeping the Ctrl button pressed select as many images as you want and they will be

automatically uploaded.

Editing an Image in a folder

You can rename the image, change its description or simply substitute it for another image file

under the same name. By doing so, the specific image will be automatically replaced by the

new one on any playlist or show that it has been already added to.

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Editing Multiple Images in a Folder (Bulk Edit)

To edit multiple images at once in a folder, check the images that you want to edit and click the

Edit button in one of them. By doing so, a new window will pop up with all the settings (Remove

Tags, Add tags, Play Since, Play Until)

Duplicate the image

By clicking this button, you can duplicate a selected image to make another copy.

Moving selected item/image from one folder to another

With this button you can move the image of your choice to another folder by clicking on the

image, then select new destination folder and click "move".

Deleting an Image/Multiple Images from a folder

Click on the "delete image" after selecting an image to be deleted. By deleting an image from a

folder, it will not be available in the portal for future use. It will be also automatically removed by

any playlist or show that contains it. You can also delete multiple images. Click on the images

you want and press on the delete button.

Folder Actions

Adding a New Folder

To add a new folder, simply click on the green relevant-action button on the right bottom side of

the screen, name your folder and click "ok". With this feature you can create either a new

folder on the Base Folder, or a sub-folder in an existing folder.

Renaming a Folder

To rename a folder click on it first, then click on the "rename current folder" button, fill in the

new name under which you want it to appear and press "ok".

Moving a Folder

Click on the "move folder" action in order to move the selected item to the Base folder (if not

already there) or to another folder as a sub-folder.

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Delete Current Folder and Contents

To delete a folder or sub-folder together with its contents/images, click on the "delete current

folder and contents" button on the right bottom side of the screen. This will permanently

remove the folder and the images included from the portal.

REMEMBER: After making changes in your Account, you need to Push Changes to your

Monitors.

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Videos

In the videos section you can upload and manage a wide variety of video formats. Videos that

you upload on your Player are automatically converted to industry-standard formats (H.264

with AAC audio).

Supported Formats

 YouTube videos are supported out-of-the-box, so they just get downloaded in the best

possible quality (up to 720p right now).

 Live Streaming Videos (YouTube, UStream, or custom HLS or RTMP/RTSP streams).

These will have to be delivered by the stream in H.264 format to make sure they will

be played back on your Players.

 PowerPoint files converted to videos on our servers, retaining all transitions and

animations.

Managing Videos

In the "Videos" section, you can see a listing of the videos currently uploaded into your account.

It provides the following columns:

 Name of the video

 Timestamp (date and time) that the video was uploaded

 Preview (thumbnail) of the actual video

 Actions column, with buttons for making changes

On this page, you can:

 Preview the video by clicking on the thumbnail in the "Preview" column.

 Change the details of a video by clicking the blue "Edit" button. Here, you

can also substitute the actual video, and it will be changed wherever it is used.

Check out the "Adding a Video" section below for details on the fields.

 Duplicate the video, by creating a copy

 Delete a single video. The video will be removed from any Playlists or Shows

that was previously used, and it will not be available in the portal for future use.

 Delete multiple video files. Click on the videos you want and press on the delete

button of just one.

 Search for specific video using the search tool.

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Adding a Video

To add a single video file, you click on the "+ Add Video/Youtube/Powerpoint" button

found on the bottom of the Videos listing. You then need to select the type of the Video

source. You can choose from:

 Video File - upload one or more Video files from your computer to your account

 YouTube Video - use a link to a YouTube video which the Player will then

download directly from YouTube and playback locally

 PPT File - upload one or more PowerPoint (PPT or PPTX) files from your computer

- they get converted to a video on your account retaining all animations and

transitions

 Video Stream - use a Live Video Stream from the Internet or a local source,

including YouTube Live, uStream, and UDP/RTP/HLS streams

 Video Wall - read instructions on how to set up a Video Wall with your Player

After you provide the Video source, you need to also provide the name of the video and an

optional description for it.

Clicking "Save" will upload (or just save) the video on your account.

NOTE: In regards to the "Video Upload" source type, there is an option to upload the

exact file for playback and not the normalized version. This option is generally

recommended for advanced users only since playback of the original video file might fail.

Enabling this option while uploading will inhibit encoding, decreasing the time required for

the video to be available, but also prevent from creating thumbnail for the video.

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ACTi MDS-100 User manual

ACTi MDS-100 User manual

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