Information Technology

​​ The BrightAuthor software is available through the Software Center.

Tip: before you begin working in BrightAuthor, take a few minutes to collect your BrightSign Assets (the images, video clips, etc) that you intend to use in the presentation. Save them all into one folder so that you can easily access what you need as you work.

Note: Each time you open BrightAuthor you will receive a prompt regarding using Local File Networking. Click OK to this prompt.

The first time you open BrightAuthor a New project window automatically opens. Note: We use the term "presentation" throughout our documentation as it's a more familiar term. A BrightAuthor Project is the unpublished file which is comprised of the project space, your media ("assets"), settings including the published presentation schedule etc.

Give your new presentation project a name then Browse to save it to a folder dedicated to your BrightSign work. 

Enter the settings provided by your Campus​ Support Team or IT Support person, and click Create.

Once you create your new project, you are asked to select a Template. We strongly recommend that for your first presentation you select the Full screen template. This will give you experience with adding media to BrightAuthor and is the template that you would use to display PowerPoint slides exported as images.  You can always add or modify zones at a later date.

Click Choose to begin working in your new presentation.

Here are the most important areas to get you started designing your BrightSign presentation.

1. By default, your new presentation opens in Edit view with your Playlist open.

2. Your Playlist screen is where most of your work will take place. Here you add content (images, videos and BrightAuthor widgets) to your presentation zones and modify settings for things such as the timing of how long each image will display, and transitions.

3. To access the images and videos you have collected for your BrightAuthor presentation, click the folder to the right of your Media Library's files tab, then browse to and select the folder containing the items you want to add.  

4. Images and videos in the selected folder display in the Media Library frame below.
   

5. Drag images and video clips from your Media Library to the right and drop on the Playlist for the selected zone.

6. Select Layout to add/remove different types of zones as well rearrange and resize existing zones.

7. Preview can be found to the far right on the Edit ribbon.
   

8. Publish packages your BrightAuthor project with copies of all added media files and settings then sends it over the network as a presentation to play through your BrightSign unit on your digital signage. When you are ready to publish you can also set a schedule for when your presentation displays. Different presentations can be scheduled for different times and easily republished when updates are made.​

If you have walked through the "orienting to BrightAuthor" steps above you should now have an empty Full screen presentation to work in.  If you have created a Full screen presentation, you will have one zone, Zone 1, that supports image and video files.

With your Media Library files tab selected, click the folder to the right.  Browse to and select the folder containing your images and videos.

Assets in a selected folder (such as your images and videos) display in the Media Library pane below.  Drag an image or video from the Media Library pane to the right onto the Zone 1 playlist.

If you receive a "File size too large" prompt, click OK to have BrightAuthor resize the copy of the image that is stored in the presentation.

Drag additional images and video clips needed onto the zone playlist.

Reorder playlist assets: Click and drag to reorder items in the zone's playlist.

Remove playlist assets: To remove an asset you previously added to a zone's playlist, select and press your keyboard's Delete.

Image Parameters

Unlike videos that have a duration, images require information regarding how long they should display. You can also set transitions when moving from one image to another.

These settings are called Image Parameters.

Right-click an image in the zone's playlist and select Edit to change the defaults.

To change the parameters for multiple images at once, select the first image, press and hold Ctrl as you click additional images in the playlist. Right-click one of the selected images and select Edit.

Note: It is recommended to keep image transition time at 1 second or less and keep transitions simple and consistent.

To test your presentation, click Preview (Full) at the upper-right of the BrightAuthor screen. To close Preview, press Esc on your keyboard.

Once you are satisfied with your image timings and overall presentation, click the Publish tab at the top of the screen.​

BrightSign presentations can be scheduled to run 24 hours a day, or you can create and schedule multiple presentations for different times and events.

To schedule a presentation, select the Publish tab at the upper-left.

The presentation you were working on will display at the left, along with any other presentations in the same folder. 

To schedule a presentation, drag it from the list at the left and drop it on the calendar at the right. You can continue to add as many presentations as you need to schedule. If an added presentation overlaps you will receive a pop up box giving you options to resolve this overlap.

To add a presentation from a different folder, click Browse and select the new folder, then add the a presentation from the updated list.

Double-click a presentation on the schedule to modify the dates and times when it plays.

When you double-click a presentation, a Schedule Presentation box opens.

Select Active all day, every day to play a presentation 24/7.

Select Recurring Event to set the options such as start and end times and recurrence patterns.

When you have finished creating your presentation schedule, click Schedule on the BrightAuthor menu and select Save As.

Give your schedule a descriptive name and save into the same folder as your presentation so that you can easily find it.  The schedule will save as an xml file.

The next step is to publish your presentation.​

When you are satisfied with your overall presentation, click the Publish tab at the top of the screen.

You must schedule a presentation before it can be published.  See the topic, Schedule Presentations.

When you have created a schedule for your presentation(s),

1. Right-click the BrightSign unit name and select Specify User Name / Password.  Log in using the credentials given you by IT.
   

2. Click Specify Firmware Update. select the firmware update "Production Release" for your BrightSign unit model (You would have received this information from your IT support person at the time of install).

3. Click Publish.

Once you click Publish, you will see a progress bar writing your presentation to the server and from there to your BrightSign unit and display. This packages your BrightAuthor project, settings and copies of all assets, including images, videos and text files used, into the final presentation file. When this has completed BrightAuthor will display Complete on the progress bar. Click OK to close this.

Any time you update a BrightSign presentation, follow the steps above to Publish a BrightSign Presentation.  Any changes you make to your presentation, once published, will overwrite the current presentation that is playing.

You have the option of exporting all PowerPoint slides or the selected slide only.

1. In your PowerPoint, click File at the upper-left then select Export.
   

2. Select Change File Type.

3. At the right select JPG File Interchange Format.
   

4. Click Save As.
   

 

5. In Save As, select a location to save your slide images, then click Save. Tip: create a folder where you will save your BrightAuthor presentation and all of the media files you will use. Save your exported images here.
   

 

6. Select All Slides. It may take a few moments for your export to complete. Even if you only want a few slides, remember you can always delete the images you don't need.
   




Click OK to the box telling you that your slides have been exported to a new folder which has been given the name of your PowerPoint.

Your presentation Layout is comprised of different Zones.  Each zone type is color-coded and specializes in displaying a different type of content such as images and videos, YouTube videos, RSS, Twitter and custom text feeds.

A BrightSign template has one or more predefined zones.  To further customize your presentation you can resize, reposition and add additional zones.

Add a Zone to Your Presentation Layout

To access and modify your presentation's layout, select Layout on BrightAuthor's Edit tab.

On the Layout screen at the left, click Add Zone.

In the New Zone box that opens, select a zone. If you intend to add several zones, it's a good idea to give your zone a name. Then click OK.

Click a zone box to make it active. Once a zone is active a tab will appear in the middle on each side.

• Left-click a tab and drag with a double-headed arrow to resize.

• Left-click on the zone with a four-sided arrow to move.
  

Click Playlist on the Edit tab to return to your main design screen.

Zone Properties

Each zone has it's own set of properties.  To access the properties for a zone, click BrightAuthor's Edit tab and select Playlist.  Select the zone from the Zone box at the left. Then click Zone Properties.

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The steps to adding a web page to your BrightSign presentation are similar to the above steps for adding a YouTube video - except that there is no need to modify the web page URL.

To add a web page to your presentation, you will need a VideoOrImages zone. If you do not have one yet for this purpose, create one now.  See the section Presentation layout and zones for how to create a zone in BrightAuthor.

1. Click File on BrightAuthor's menu and select Presentation Properties.




2. In the Presentation Properties box that opens, click the HTML Sites tab.  At the left click the plus "+" to Add HTML Site.




3. In the HTML Site box that opens, add a descriptive name then select URL and paste your web site's URL to the right.




4. Click OK to both boxes.

5. In the Save Properties box that opens, decide whether you need your new HTML Site available to future presentations, then click OK.




To display our web page HTML Site you need a VideoOrImages zone in your presentation.  If you do not yet have one for this purpose, create one (see the topic, Presentation Layouts and Zones).

6. In the Zone box at the upper-left of your BrightAuthor Playlist, select the zone where you want to add your web page.

7. From your Media Library, select the other tab then drag the HTML5 widget to the right onto your selected zone's Playlist.




8. In the HTML5 box that opens place a check next to Enable external data and Enable native video plane playback.

9. At the upper-right, make sure that the HTML Site you created is selected.

10. Click OK.
    

Note:  Multiple HTML5 widgets can be added to a VideoOrImages playlist. You can also add them in combination with images, videos or other HTML5 widgets.

You may need to locate the IP address of a BrightSign unit when troubleshooting or installing an additional unit.

To find the IP address of your BrightSign unit,

Type Cmd in Windows Search on the Task bar.

Select Command Prompt.

To the right of your name type Ping, press the spacebar, then type the BrightSign unit name (the unit name will have been provided by IT support when the unit was installed).

Press Enter.

To close your presentation preview, press ESC on your keyboard.

If your preview still has not closed and an error message displays, press ESC multiple times to close both error boxes and the preview screen.

Some error messages display only in preview mode yet a presentation will publish and play without issue.