An Introduction to Brightsign Media Players
We stock dozens of brightsign media players which we use regularly for our CRT video wall installations. Small and reliable, they are a great solution for making all sorts of advanced things happen with video walls, though they do have a few limitations. Let’s take a look at what they can and can’t do to help make your CRT video wall look the best it can be.
SIMPLE, RELIABLE VIDEO PLAYBACK
Once programmed, these little video players will begin playing whatever they have been told to play on their memory card once they have booted up. No need to press play – This means they are great for video wall installations where there is not a technician present, such as a long term installation at a gallery. The power can be turned off at the end of the day, and back on in the morning, and they will start up just as before with 100% reliability. Automatic scheduling options are also available to auto switch on/off at different times of day, week or month, for instance automatically playing different content in the morning than the afternoon or specifically at weekends etc.
SYNCHRONISED VIDEO PLAYBACK
Linked together in a closed network, these media players can be programmed to play back their video content in sync with all the others. What this means for your content is that instead of being limited to making a spanned video wall using a video wall controller, which scales up small pieces of low-resolution video for each screen, we can render in advance each section at a very high resolution, even 4k video and as each player perfectly takes care of its own part of the video wall, there are no frustrating limits to unusual video shapes or max resolution. Enhanced synchronisation programming, means the videos will never drift out of sync ensuring the overall effect is never ruined.
FANTASTIC AUDIO OUTPUT
For video installations which require sound, the brightsign players have a 3.5mm headphone jack for outputting stereo audio. The gain is very high on these players, so it is easy to split the signal so that, for instance, 2 or more headphones can be connected for gallery use. Specific models can also handle and pass through 5’1 surround sound audio to a surround sound decoder if that is required.
UP TO 8 TRIGGERABLE VIDEOS
With some clever programming and a special trigger pad of 8 buttons, up to 8 videos can be programmed into the players, with the ability to start each one at the touch of a button. By making one of these videos just a black video, we can make it look like the video wall has been turned on from black. More than 8 videos can be available to play if the controller is set up to scroll through a playlist of videos.
LIMITATIONS AND CONSIDERATIONS
The brightsign players do have a few small drawbacks. Firstly, the video content for them needs to be carefully prepared by us if it is to loop neatly. Poorly prepared video, for instance, can cause an unexpected long pause at the end of the video or means that the players take a long time to boot up. We can accurately and precisely process your video content from years of experience – the earlier we receive your assets the better to ensure the highest playback quality and functionality.
For more advanced playback options, scripts can be detailed and complicated to write and we always test them thoroughly in advance of setting up your installation. For this reason, we ask that you send us your content at the very least 48 hours before the first installation day.
Once the video on the media players have started, they cannot be paused, sped up, or manipulated in any way other than to restart the videos from the beginning if a video trigger has been set up for use with it. This can sometimes make it unsuitable for some applications where spontaneous jumping to a specific part of a video might be required on the fly, such as for a video or photo shoot. For more advanced live playback options, it might be worth considering software playback instead.
The earlier we can understand your requirements for your content and the playback functionality you need the better so that we can programme in detail to achieve your specific results. If you can think of it – we can make it happen.