|
"We will not leave you floating"
- DISE Support Team |
Knowledge Base
|
"We will not leave you floating"
- DISE Support Team |
Knowledge Base
To make the signage installation go as smoothly as possible it is essential to "pave the way" - at an early stage remove obstacles that interfere and prolong the installation process.
We can't stress enough how important it is to document the work put into preparation, installation, and maintenance. Beforehand, please create a document or use some other system. The document should be a spreadsheet of all the PCs in the system, with the installed hardware, driver versions, IP addresses, hostnames/MAC addresses, usernames/passwords, and leave place for DISE information such as software version, license keys and special settings.
Create a standardized procedure for support or installation work. If you will be installing a DISE Pro system, work out a method for acquiring software updates, for testing and distributing these updates - it is possible to do remote updates.
For advice, please contact support.
What player hardware to choose? It is a question with many aspects. Parameters to take into consideration are, among other: signage purpose, viewing times, viewer distance, content quality and amount, geographical location, integration with existing systems, hardware control, screen location and size, environment, physical limitations (for mounting etc), warranties, redundancy/backup.
Please take a look at the system requirements and also find hardware test certification documents on our website. The important things to look at are often the graphics card, where you want a capable, preferably not integrated, graphics device. You can benefit from the hardware acceleration it offers. Ideally, a level is chosen for the hardware that allows for growing somewhat (aiming a bit higher than required). It is also important to remember that even though the hardware is capable, the quality (bitrate, resolution) of the content, or amount of content may be set to a too high level. When this happens the way forward is to look at reducing the amount or quality of content until an acceptable level is reached.
DISE players and managers are Windows (or in the case of DISE Cloud, also Android) software. A cloud user is able to administer the network using a web browser, from any OS.
Read more: Windows version support
In larger networks, you may want to perform an installation and subsequently clone (ghost/image) the installed media to be able to roll it out quickly to a large number of players. Most settings – automatic login and automatic program start, where content is to be downloaded from, to where, etc. – can then be preconfigured in Windows and DISE.
Read more: DISE settings files
Read more: Windows settings
Player-specific settings need to be handled after cloning: host name, IP address (if static), Windows and DISE Pro licences (which are linked to hardware) and what individual content is to be played. In Cloud, the DISE Kickstart feature is aimed precisely at this.
Depending on what the DISE system is supposed to do there may be a need for external software running, for instance to provide remote access, monitoring or hardware control.
"Who will be responsible for new content on the screens?" - there are several ways to deal with this:
Read more: Good content practices
DISE Pro with a requires a storage location for content. The managers need to be able to upload (write) to this storage location, and the players need to be able to download (read) from it. There are two options:
The required information is:
On the player side, DISE needs to run with a Windows account which has the correct permissions to allow writing to the download folder ("C:\DISEContent\Destinations\Default" by default).
Read more: Network and file access
In a multi-user DISE Pro system, a storage location is required for files and settings (this is in addition to the storage location needed for content distribution). The DISE programs will then use the same files and settings, and users will be unable to overwrite one another's changes. The simplest way to proceed will be to make it clear from the outset how many people are to use the system as a share can be set up during installation.
Main article: Sharing content
The essential and central part of a DISE Cloud system is DISE Server. We recommend running DISE Server on a Windows Server 2008+. With a Server solution, it is necessary to clarify whether this is to be run as a hosted service, or whether the customer will have a separate Server in his network. DISE Server may thus be offered as a subscription service.
Read more: System requirements for DISE Server
As with any web server, it is important to consider the things involved in operation and maintenance of a server.
Naturally, in a Server solution, all elements (manager, players and web users) have to have access to the server. DISE Server comes with its own web server software.
Server is capable of managing a number of different customers, each customer in turn having their own networks. Server allows different roles to be defined in the web interface, e.g. "Sales" or setting rights for each user. This means that a user in a role can only view the elements relevant to that role. Or that users can only see "their own" players.
The administration of networks and their licenses is done in the DISE Server Control Panel.
Read more: System requirements
Read more: DISE Premium installation
In larger networks, it may be necessary to roll out a large number of players without too much manual intervention. The installation procedure has been implemented especially for this type of installation - enabling DISE Server to create a special installation pack which contains all the information needed to create a player.
During installation, the player will automatically register into "its" DISE Server. Typically, the player is given some ID before installation, in order to distinguish it from other players. When a player is installed, please document which player has which ID.
Further configuration can take place before or after rollout, once the players have been registered.
Consequently, to rollout a larger number of players you may prepare an image with for example Windows Embedded and also apply the steps described in the DISE Kickstart article. Then clone this image onto as many players as you need.
Please note that if players are setup with Windows Embedded, they might be endowed with an active write filter called EWF or "Enhanced Write Filter" (Enhanced Write Filter - wikipedia.org). This is an overlay over a read-only partition which causes any uncommitted changes to a disk to be lost on reboot. For a DISE player this is not optimal since it means that it would have to download everything again each reboot. DISE will try to detect if the drive has active EWF during installation.
Players are able to control and get information from its connected screen(s). For the screen communication to work, 2 things are required:
Read more: Screen control
A manager is optional in a DISE Cloud solution - however it is required if you want to be able to have DISE Movie and template support from the web interface. Managers can be setup to send content to DISE Server. This uploaded content will subsequently be available from the web interface - to add to playing content. Managers are setup as regular DISE Pro managers.
1. 
2. 
3. 
Content creation in DISE Server can be based on the use of templates via web interface. Everyone that should be able to create and edit content must be provided with an account on the server. A content provider may need a manager to create templates.