SignageTube Video Tutorials

Here's how to put your first content on a TV with SignageTube. After you start your trial, you'll get an email to set your password. Then sign in, and you land on My Screen. Choose your hardware, and install the player. It can be an Android TV or Google TV device, or a Windows PC. Click Start pairing to get a one time code. Enter the server address and the code on the player. Now give the screen something to show. Build a playlist, then send it to your screen. The player card shows a live picture of your TV, so you can check it without walking over to it. And See it live on a wall shows your content in a real space, right in your browser. To change it, open the playlist, add what you like, and click Update Playlist. The screen picks up the change on its next sync. No USB stick, and no trip to the TV. That's your first screen. Start your free trial at signagetube.com.

Here's how to connect a screen to your SignageTube account. On the device behind your TV, install the player app. On Android TV and Google TV, it's on Google Play. In your browser, open Players, and click Add Player. Generate a pairing code. It works for fifteen minutes. Open the player app, and enter this server address and code. Your screen shows up under Players, online and ready for content.

Licensing shows your subscription and how many players you have. Here's your status, and your edition. Organization player allocation is how many players this organization can use. When you add a player, the dialog shows how many licenses are in use, and how many remain.

A playlist is what your screen shows, in order. Here's how to make one. Open Playlists, and click New Playlist. Give it a name you'll find again. Now add your files. Pictures, videos, PDFs and PowerPoint all go in the same list. Image Duration sets how long each picture stays on screen. You can add a web page too. Type the address, and choose how long it shows. Click Create Playlist, and it's ready. It doesn't play anywhere until you send it to a screen, and that's the next step.

An overlay is a layer that sits on top of your playlist, like a logo in the corner, or artwork along the bottom. Click New Overlay, and give it a name. Pick a ready made logo for the top left or top right, or upload your own transparent PNG. You can also add text, and change the appearance and spacing. Click Create Overlay. Then assign it to your screens, the same way you assign a playlist.

A ticker is a line of text that scrolls across your screen. Click Add Ticker, give it a name, and type your text. The content can be fixed text, variables, a news feed, or JSON or XML data. The live preview shows how it looks. Appearance and Behavior let you change the style and the movement. Click Create Ticker, and it's ready to assign to your screens.

Don't have anything to put on your screen yet? Start with a Live Page. Open Live Pages, and click New Live Page. Search for what you need, like a menu. Pick one, give it a name, and add your entries. The preview shows you how it looks. Save it. Then add it to any playlist, with its own duration. Weather, clocks and news pages update on their own.

Data Pages put your own data on a screen, and keep it up to date. It works in three steps. Connections feed Data Tables, and Data Tables feed Data Pages. Start with a connection. It can be a database, a web feed, an Excel or CSV file, or data you type in. We'll upload a CSV file with some sample numbers, and save it. Next, make a data table. Pick the connection and the source, and you'll see the real rows. Then make a data page. Pick the table, choose a layout, and check the live preview. Save it, and add it to a playlist like any other item. When your data changes, the page follows.

Synced folders keep files up to date on your Windows players. They're for dynamically driven content in native PowerPoint presentations, not presentations converted into movies. Click New folder. Give it a name, and a dedicated folder on the player. Upload your files, then choose the folder on the player's Synced folders tab. Files are copied once a day.

Here's how to put a playlist, an overlay or a ticker on a screen. Click New Schedule. Under Content Type, choose Playlist, Overlay or Ticker. Then pick the player or the group that should show it. Set the dates and the hours, and click Create Schedule. Directory shows what's assigned to each player, so you can check it at a glance.

There are two ways to put content on a screen: Send now, and Schedule. The send icon plays content on that display, starting from its next sync. Be careful: Clear current and future schedules is ticked by default. Untick it if you want to keep them. Tick Interrupt current playlist if it should play right away. Schedule is for content with dates and hours. Use it when something should start and stop by itself.

Control Room changes what plays, automatically, based on your data. It uses the same connections as Data Pages. Here's a sample web feed. Under Rules, click Add Rule. Name it, choose your data connection, and load the data. Set when it activates, based on how many records match. Then pick the playlist to assign, and the player or group it goes to. Set how often it runs, and whether it's enabled. Then click Create Rule.

Every screen has its own settings. Open a player card, and click the settings icon. Status shows the last heartbeat, the operating system and the player version. Display lets you rotate the picture to match how the screen is mounted. Time sets the hours the display should be active. Playback lets you choose a fallback playlist, shown when no scheduled playlist is active. And Control lets you identify the screen, restart the software or reboot the computer.

Here's how SignageTube knows your screens are working. Each player regularly checks in with the server. That's called a heartbeat. Last seen tells you when it last did. The player also uploads a screenshot, so the card shows what the screen is really playing. In Player Logs, you can read each heartbeat, with CPU, memory and disk, and each screenshot upload. If a screen looks wrong, this is the first place to check.

Directory shows your players, and what's assigned to each one. Open a player to see its playlists, overlays and tickers. You can also start from the content. Playlists, Overlays and Tickers show which screens use them. Use tags to narrow it down when you have a lot of screens.

When you have more screens, sites and groups keep them organized. A site is a location or a division. Click New Site, and give it a name. A group is a set of players you manage together. Click New Group, and name it. Tick the players that belong in it. Click Create Group. Now you can schedule content to the whole group.

RS232 lets SignageTube control external devices over a serial port, like displays, switchers and projectors. Click Create Command. Name it, and enter the raw command string for your device. Create it, and it's in your list. Triggers run a command automatically: on boot, on a schedule, or when a playlist starts. Set the port on the player's RS232 tab, with the COM port, baud rate and parity.

SignageTube keeps four kinds of records. Here's what each one is for. Proof of Play shows what played, how many times, and for how long. Player Logs show what each player reported, like heartbeats and errors. User Activity is a read only record of what people did, kept for ninety days. And System Logs cover the server side, like rendering and scheduling.

Deleted something by mistake? Check Trash. Deleted items are kept for fifteen days. Click Restore to get an item back as an inactive draft. Old assignments aren't restored, so review it, and return it to the library on purpose.

If your screen is offline or empty, check these four things. First, look at the status on the player card. Online means it's talking to the server. If it's offline, check the device behind the TV. Is it on, and connected to the internet? A company firewall can block it too. Second, is the screen online but empty? It may have nothing assigned. Send it a playlist. Third, check the schedule. A playlist only plays inside its dates and hours. Fourth, look at the live picture on the card. It shows you what the screen is really playing. Still stuck? Email info@signagetube.com with a screenshot, and we'll take a look.