Using Repeat Signage with Dropbox.com
Using
Dropbox.com gives
you a good way of distributing presentations and content files (such as
pictures) to computers playing Repeat Signage presentations anywhere in the
world.
For example, a design company in the UK may be responsible for the design
and update of presentations to be displayed in the reception areas of a
large chain of
hotels throughout the UK and Ireland. Each reception area has a large screen
with a computer attached displaying a presentation from a
Dropbox.com folder on
their hard disks.
The presentation to be played is called reception.rsp. Each of these
computers downloads and installs Dropbox and are all logged into the same
account. A Dropbox folder called
RepeatSignage is used for the reception.rsp presentation. On each computer
attached the screens, they play the presentation from their local Dropbox
folder, for example:
C:\Users\Administrator\Dropbox\RepeatTest (This is an example, not
a live link).
This folder may be different on different computers depending on the
username and also which version of Windows is used. For example, on Windows
XP the folder may be:
c:\Documents and Settings\UserName\RepeatTest (This is an example, not a
live link).
Each reception computer has Repeat Signage configures to play the
reception.rsp presentation at startup, for example:
C:\Users\Administrator\Dropbox\RepeatTest\reception.rsp (This is an
example, not a live link).
and Repeat Signage has it's settings configured so that the presentation is
monitored every 5 minutes to see if it has been updated.
You could also consider using
RepeatServer.com
in order to remotely update presentations, which is a free service to Repeat
Signage users.
Example of using two computer with Dropbox, one to change
presentations and another one playing them
NOTE - You will need two Internet connected computers to try this. The
locations of the computers doesn't matter, for example they can be in one
place, or one could be at home and one in the office. One computer
will be used to create and edit Repeat Signage presentations and the other
will play them, which simulates how to remotely update presentations.
1. Visit
Dropbox.com
and create a new account. You get 2Gb of free space which is plenty to get
up and running even with large video files.
2. Create a
Dropbox.com
folder when online called 'RepeatSignage' (or whatever you like)
3. Install the Dropbox software on two different computers and also install
the Repeat Signage trial from
www.repeatsoftware.com
4. On your first computer, which will be used to edit presentations, create
a RepeatSignage presentation with just a single
Text label control on and save it to your Dropbox folder called
'reception.rsp'.
Note, when you install the Dropbox software on a computer, a tray icon
appears near the Windows clock in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Right mouse click the Dropbox icon and click on 'Open Dropbox folder', so
you know where to save your presentation.
5. You will need to change the settings of the presentation when
editing by clicking on 'File' then 'Settings' and putting a tick in the
'Save content files' tick box. This makes sure that any
pictures, videos, etc, that a presentation needs are self-contained within
the presentation file.
6. On the second computer, the one that will play the presentation,
open Repeat Signage and click on 'File' then 'Settings'. Click on the
'Player' tab and then put a tick in the 'Monitor playing presentations' tick
box and also in the 'For local/network files - monitor file system for the
changes and update ASAP' and the click on 'OK' to save.
7. On the second computer, play the reception.rsp presentation from the
Dropbox folder. (Right mouse click the Dropbox icon and click on 'Open
Dropbox folder', so you know where to save your presentation.)
8. Now go back to the first computer. Edit the presentation my making some
changes, and save it.
What will happen now is that the Dropbox software on the first computer will
see that the presentation file within the Dropbox folder has changed.
Dropbox will then automatically
upload the changed file to your Dropbox account. This is then downloaded
automatically to the second computer which is connected to the same Dropbox
account. Repeat Signage,
because it is monitoring the playing presentation for changes, will see when
this new presentation has been downloaded. (Note - the download time will
vary depending on the
size of the presentation file, the upload speed of the Internet connection
on the first computer and the download speed of the Internet connection on
the second computer). Repeat Signage will then automatically change the
playing presentation to the new version, without anyone having to do
anything. Hence you have remotely updated the presentation. These two
computers could be at different locations anywhere in the world.
In a large organisation, there may be many screens playing presentations in
different locations. Each of these can play the same presentation or
different presentations. Using Dropbox.com gives one way to remotely
update presentations.
Remote control software for support and testing
You may also like to consider using free Internet based remote control
software from
www.logmein.com so that
you can view and test with a computer at another location.
Dropbox security - Using more that one Dropbox.com account
The problem with using the same account on all the computers is that if a
presentation a Dropbox folder on any of these is changed it gets updated on
all of them. So from a
security point of view, this may not be what you want as any person who has
access to any of the player computers could potentially change a
presentation. You can create a different Dropbox account for each machine
and then a main account for the computer that the updating of presentations
will be made from. You can then create a folder for each player computer and
share that with the player's individual Dropbox account. This is not
read-only but means that a user at a remote computer can only affect changes
on that machine. This increases workload as a new version of
presentation, that is common between several machines, will need updating
for ever Dropbox share.
Currently, you cannot allocate read-only access to a shared folder.
You could also consider other services similar to Dropbox which may allow
you to have better security on folders. Try a Google search on 'online
file sharing' and 'Dropbox alternatives'.
Updating files used with presentations
A presentation may be made up of numerous text, images, video and other
files. Most files may not change on a regular basis, such as a company
logo, so including all of these within a presentation may mean that remote
updates are slowed down as the presentation is huge. In this case it may be
best not to include all the content files within the presentation. When
editing your presentation, change the presentation settings by clicking on
'File' then 'Settings' and un-tick the 'Save content files' tick box. You
will then need to put all the pictures and files, etc in the same Dropbox
folder as the presentation. You will need to edit the presentation and use
relative rather than absolute paths. For example, a picture may be on this
computer in:
C:\Users\Administrator\Dropbox\RepeatSignage\SpecialOffer.png
(This is an example, not a live link).
with your picture also in the C:\Users\Administrator\Dropbox\RepeatSignage
folder. You can insert the file as SpecialOffer.png rather than
C:\Users\Administrator\Dropbox\RepeatSignage\SpecialOffer.png.
This means that all files will be transferred via Dropbox separately.
Relative paths are used as on other computers the Dropbox folder may be
different, because a different username or a different version of Windows is
used.
Disclaimer - Repeat Software Ltd is in no way associated with Dropbox.com
and has no responsibility over it's service.