Aura Digital Signage Systems - See the difference

Version v1.0

• By: auraSoft
• Contact: info@auradigitalsignage.com
• Demo: auradigitalsignage.com/demo

Aura Digital Signage Systems is a digital signage solution that gives your guests an unparalleled experience on your property. Aura Digital Signage Systems provides your guests with real-time access to all of their flight times, delays and travel times right from your lobby or directly to guests room.

With Aura Digital Signage Systems you can display hotel events occurring in a particular room at any given time, with instant updates that reflect changes made by the event organiser. Our solution also provides on the glance news, weather, and intuitive information for your guests and visitors.

All display screens are made up of 3 sections which are shown within the red boxes in the image below. These sections are the top section, left section, right section, and the bottom section. Each section is used to display different content on the display screen. This is grouped in what is called zones. Each zone is labeled with the yellow lettering in the image below.

• Zone A: Logo
• Zone B: Time and Date
• Zone C: Weather Forecast
• Zone D: Live News Channel
• Zone E: Exchange Rates
• Zone F: Main Content Area(can display events, flight data, communications etc..)
• Zone G: News Ticker

Thank you for purchasing the Aura Digital Signage solution. Match the items on the list below with the items the items received at time of purchase:

1. MEDIA CUBE - ASUS CHROMEBOX-M101U (W/ CHROME OS)
2. AC POWER ADAPTER
3. HDMI CABLE - INLAND 6 FT PREMIUM HIGH SPEED HDMI CABLE – BLACK
4. WIRELESS KEYBOARD AND MOUSE - ZAIDTEK WRLS MULTIMEDIA COMBO
5. HDMI TO VGA CONVERTER - (optional)

1. Connect the AC power cord to the ASUS CHROMEBOX Player and then to a 120V-240V power outlet.
2. Connect the player’s video connection (VGA, DVI, or HDMI depending on model) to the display’s connection port
3. Connect an Internet connection to your player.
4. Turn on the player and the monitor
5. If you are connecting the player to a wired network, connect a CAT5 Ethernet cable from your network switch or router to the Ethernet port on the back of your media player.
6. If you are connecting the player to a wireless network, your player is equipped with a wireless network card, attach a keyboard and mouse to the player’s USB ports and configure the wireless connection.

FRONT VIEW Chromebox Features Front View Power Button. The power button allows you to turn the Chromebox on or off. USB 3.0 ports These USB (Universal Serial Bus) 3.0 ports provide a transfer rate of up to 5 Gbit/s and are backward compatible with USB 2.	LEFT SIDE VIEW Kensington security slot The Kensington security slot allows you to secure your Chromebox using Kensington® security products Memory card slot The built-in memory card reader enables your Chromebox to read and write data to and from MMC/SD card.

REAR VIEW Air vents The air vents allow cooler air to enter your Chromebox chassis. Power input The supplied power adapter converts AC power to DC power for use with this jack. LAN port The 8-pin RJ-45 LAN port supports a standard Ethernet cable for connection to a local network. USB 3.0 ports These USB (Universal Serial Bus) 3.0 ports provide a transfer rate of up to 5 Gbit/s and are backward compatible with USB 2.0. HDMI port The HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) port supports a Full-HD device such as an LCD TV or monitor to allow viewing on a larger external displays. DisplayPort The DisplayPort sends high-performance digital output from your Chromebox to a display device such as an LCD TV or HD monitor. Headphone/Audio Out jack The stereo headphone jack is used to connect the system’s audio out signal to amplified speakers or headphone.

CONNECTION TO POWER SUPPLY

HDMI CONNECTION TO DISPLAY SCREEN/PANEL	CONNECTION TO WIRELESS KEYBOARD AND MOUSE

CONNECTION TO SCREEN & POWER ON

If you are using your own player(s), you will need to install the DIGITAL SIGNAGE KIOSK APP on your player(s) to operate your digital signage. This can be downloaded from the chrome webstore by searching AURA DIGITAL SIGNAGE.

For hosted signage networks, go to the AURA DIGITAL SIGNAGE SYSTEM portal at: http://auradigitalsignage.com/display/

1. Dashboard: The dashboard is an area on the AURA DIGITAL SIGNAGE SYSTEM CMS that provides the user an overview of the activities happening on the digital signage player. The dashboard is divided into two sides:
   A. The left-hand side: which contains general information such as business name, business location, serial key, account status etc.
   B. The right-hand side: which contains information of the events and slides that are showing at that particular day.

2. Profile: The profile module is an area on the AURA DIGITAL SIGNAGE SYSTEM CMS that is used to define general information about the client’s business. Its divided into three main areas which are:
   A. Top section (Edit profile Section): This is the area that the user enters information such as business name, account email address, business telephone number, and business location (country, city and address).
   B. Middle section (Map section): This section displays a map that shows the clients location, this is generate automatically when the address has been entered.
   C. Lower section (Images section): This section is used to upload the logo image and background images. Both images are displayed on the signage display. The logo image is displayed at the top left corner of the signage display while the background image seats on the background of the signage display content.
   Dimensions and format:
   i. Logo: 249px × 68px | .png (preferably in white color)
   ii. Background image: 1400px × 800px | .png or .jpeg


3. Display settings: The display settings module is an area on the AURA DIGITAL SIGNAGE SYSTEM CMS that is used to define 5 key areas of the digital signage system:
   • The user can define airport name, and flight schedule hour intervals for both arrivals and departures).
   • Enter the rss feed links that is displayed on the news ticker at the bottom of the screen.
   • Screen intervals (this is how often should different screens rotate between each other).
   • Slide show time intervals (this is used to define how frequent the slide show should appear. The slide show interval times is in minutes).
   • With the news channel the user can select what live news channels they want their audience to see. Currently there are about 3 free live tv channels to choose from, these are:
   i. Sky News
   ii. Al-Jazeera English
   iii. France 24
   SOME OF THESE CHANNELS MIGHT NOT WORK IN CERTAIN LOCATIONS DUE TO RESTRICTIONS.

4. Events:With the Aura Digital Signage System, users are able to display their event schedules. All this is done using the events module.
   A. Entering a new event
   To enter events to new events, click the add event button that’s located on the top of the events table. A modal will appear containing an events form. This form contains the following fields: • Group/Event: This is the event name or the name of the group hosting the event.
   • Room/Location: This is the room or location where the event will be held
   • Direction Icon: This is the icon that represents the direction of the specified room from the screen.
   • Type: This is used to define the type of event that will be held e.g. Meeting, Conference, Concert etc.
   • Start Date and End Date: is used to enter the date and time the event will start and end. Its recommended that you enter the events ahead of their start time because the calendar uses the systems clock to allocate time therefor if its past start time, you won’t be able to enter the correct time.
   • Access: this field define what kind of people can attend the event. Access can be by Invitation, members only, private or open to the public.
   • Description: is used to enter a short description defining the event.
   If you have more than one event, It’s possible to enter all of them at once. To achieve this, click the Add row button at the bottom left corner of the form and an extra form will be added
   
   
   Uploading .CSV Events File
   You can upload more than one event to the system. This done by uploading a CSV file that contains all your events listings. A CSV is a comma separated values file, which allows data to be saved in a table structured format. This file can be created as an excel file saved as a .csv. To upload the CSV file, go to the events page and locate the new “import CSV” button on the events table. Click the “import CSV” button and you will be prompted with a form. Use this form to choose the events csv file you want to upload and click the submit button.
   
   
   
   
   

   Sample event.csv file

   
   

   Icons

   Icon	Direction
   lineo-arrow 1	Up
   lineo-arrow8	Up Left
   lineo-arrow2	Up Right
   lineo-arrow5	Down
   lineo-arrow6	Down Left
   lineo-arrow4	Down Right
   lineo-arrow7	Left
   lineo-arrow3	Right
   lineo-stairs-up1	Stairs Up
   lineo-stairs-down1	Stairs Down
   lineo-elevator-up3	Elevator Up
   lineo-elevator-down3	Elevator Down
   lineo-elevator-up1	Escalator Up
   lineo-elevator-down1	Escalator Down

   
   B. Editing and deleting an event
   It is easy to edit an event. On the events page, locate the event you want to edit. Once located, under the actions column click the edit button (the sky blue button). When clicked, this will direct you to an edit page where you will be able to edit the information you wish to change. Deleting can also be archived by clicking the delete button on the actions column.them at once. To achieve this, click the Add row button at the bottom left corner of the form and an extra form will be added
   
5. Slides: Just like the most of the other modules it’s easy to upload slides to your display, this is done through the slide module. To upload a slide, click on the add slides button located on the top right of the slide page. This will launch an upload modal. Click the browse button then locate the image you wish to add to the slide. Once you have picked your click save and your image will be uploaded. By default, your every image/slide uploaded is enabled to start playing on your display. If you wish to disable the image/slide, follow the following steps
   i. On the slides page table, locate the slide you wish to disable. Once located, under the action column click the enable button. This will change the status to disabled.
   ii. To enable you slide again follow the same steps.
   To delete the slide all you need to do is click the delete button under the actions column.
   Dimensions and format:
   Slide: 1920 px × 1080px | .png or .jpeg
6. Rates: The rates module is used to add exchange rates to your display screen. By default, the display screen will show rates based on the national bank conversion. If you use different rates, you can change them using the rates module. On the rates page locate and click the add rates button. This will open up a modal with a rates form then choose the currency you want to add. You can then add your selling price and buying price as you wish.
   
   
   
   You can also modify/update your rates. To modify your rates, go to the rates page table, locate the rate you wish to change. Once located, under the action column click the edit button. This will redirect you to a rate edit page where you will be able to change the values for your rates.

We have updated our video module, previously uploading a video to display on your screen meant uploading your video content on to our servers. Some of the issues faced was that videos come in different sizes and format meaning that all videos had to be compressed in order to be saved and played. During compression, some of the video data was lost and resulted in blurry/pixelated video images for some of our clients. To address this issue, we are now using google videos instead of uploading your video directly to our servers. This means that all the video compression and playback is handled by google and hence a smooth and rich playback on your display screens. The following are the steps needed to upload and get you videos displayed on your screens.

The following video details the steps to follow in order to successfully upload your video to YouTube.


Once you have successfully uploaded your video to YouTube, go to the videos page on the Aura Digital Signage Systems CMS and follow the following steps:

• On the videos page look for the add videos button located at the top right position of the videos table.




• Once clicked, you will be presented with a form. This form contains fields that you need to fill out. These fields are described below:
  
  
  
  A. URL: this is where you will insert your YouTube video ID. The video ID is made up of all the characters after the “v=” tag.
  
  
  B. Desc: this is used to enter a short description about the video link.
  C. Days: the days filed is made up of 7 radio buttons that represent each day of the week. Pick the days you want your videos to show by selecting each individual radio button that corresponds to the day of the week.
  D. Time: There are three time inputs that represent three time schedules. Each time schedule represents the time of the day you want your video to show. You can choose to have them all filed out or choose what time slots work best for you and your audience.
  
• Once you are done click the save button and your video will be scheduled for viewing on your display screen/s .

Below is the list of links you might need.

Once again, thanks for purchasing the Aura Digital Signage System.