Command Sync command-sync

The following page describes how to use Command Sync. Command Sync allows synchronized playback across different players. The players can play different content but each asset needs to have the same duration.

IMPORTANT
This feature does not support Embedded Sequences, Dynamic Embedded Sequences, Application Channels, or Transitions.

Overview overview

Digital signage solutions need to support video walls and synchronized playback to support scenarios like New Year countdowns or large video sliced up to play across multiple screens and this is where Command Sync comes into play.

To use Command Sync, one player acts as a primary and sends command and all the other players act as clients and play when they receive the command.

The primary sends a command to all registered clients when it is about to start playback of an item. The payload of this can be the index of the item to be played and/or the outer html of the element to be played.

Implementing Command Sync using-command-sync

The following section describes how you can use Command Sync in an AEM Screens project.

NOTE
For synchronized playback, it is required that all the hardware devices have the same hardware specifications and preferably the same operating system. Synchronizing between different hardware and operating systems is not recommended.

Setting up the Project setting-up

Before you use Command Sync feature, make sure you have a project and a channel with content set up for your project.

  1. The following example showcases a demo project named CommandSyncDemo and a sequence channel ChannelLobby.

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    note note
    NOTE
    To learn how to create a channel or add content to a channel, refer to Creating and Managing Channels

    The channel contains the following content, as shown in the figure below.

    image1

  2. Create a location Lobby and subesequently a display titled as LobbyDisplay in the Locations folder, as shown in the figure below.
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  3. Assign the channel, ChannelLobby to your LobbyDisplay. You can now view the assigned channel to the display from the display dashboard.
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    note note
    NOTE
    To learn how to assign a channel to a display, refer to Creating and Managing Displays.
  4. Navigate to Devices folder and click Device Manager from the action bar to register the devices.

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    note note
    NOTE
    To learn how to register a device, refer to Device Registration
  5. For demo purposes, this example showcases a chrome device and a windows player as two separate devices. Both the devices point to the same display.
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Updating Channel Settings

  1. Navigate to ChannelLobby and click Edit from the action bar to update the channel settings.

  2. Select the entire channel as shown in the figure below.
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  3. Click the wrench icon to open the Page dialog box.
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  4. Enter the synced keyword in the Strategy field.

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Setting up a primary setting-up-primary

  1. Navigate to the display dashboard from CommandSyncDemo --> Locations --> Lobby --> LobbyDisplay and click on Dashboard from the action bar.
    You will see the two devices (chrome and windows player) in DEVICES panel, as shown in the figure below.
    image1

  2. From the DEVICES panel,select the device you want to set as primary. The following example demonstrates setting up the Chrome device as the primary. Click on Set as primary device.

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  3. Enter the IP address in Set as primary device and click on Save.

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NOTE
You can set up multiple devices as primary.

Syncing up with Primary sync-up-primary

  1. Once you have set the Chrome device as primary, you can sync the other device (in this case, the windows player) to sync with the primary.
    Select the other device (in this case, windows player) from the DEVICES panel and click on Sync to primary device, as shown in the figure below.

    image1

  2. Select the device from the list and click Save.

    [NOTE:]
    The Sync to primary device dialog will show the list of primary devices. You can select the desired one of your preference.

  3. Once the device (Windows player) is synced to the primary (Chrome player), you will see the device synced in the DEVICES panel.

    image1

De-Syncing with the Primary desync-up-primary

Once you have synced a device or devices to a primary, you can de-sync the assignment from that device.

NOTE
If you de-sync a primary device, it will also unlink all client devices associated with that primary device.

In order to remove the syncing from the primary device, follow the steps below:

  1. Navigate to the DEVICES panel and select the device.

  2. Click on Desync device(s) to de-sync the client from the primary device.

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  3. Click Confirm to de-sync the selected device from the primary.

    [NOTE:]
    If you select the primary device and use the de-sync option, then all the devices connected to the primary, will be de-synced in one step.

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