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Find answers to frequently asked questions about Databeat products.
Find answers to frequently asked questions about Databeat products.
Please take a look at our frequently asked questions below to see if they can help you. If you can't find the answer you're looking for, you can submit a ticket or check out our Help Centre for more information.
When logged into DatabeatOMNI, choose the ‘Media’ tab on the left side of the screen. To create a new channel, click on the plus sign. Follow the steps below to create a new channel:
Note: When you are in ‘Simplified View’, you will need to choose Media -> Channels -> Plus Sign.
Name of the channel: Give your channel a name. This is the name that will display in the channels overview under the ‘Media’ tab.
Channel description: (Optional): Give your channel description, such as ‘Lounge Area’.
Channel type: Choose if your channel will be used for media or radio.
Orientation: Set the orientation of your channel (landscape or portrait).
Touch function (Optional): For screens that support touch.
Resolution: Set the desired resolution for your channel. You can choose from either Full HD or 4K.
Template: For channels that will be used as templates and backgrounds for Doorsign.
Password protection (Optional): Set a password on channels for an extra layer of security.
Content Group (Optional): Define a group for the content in your channel.
Logo (Optional): Add an image or graphic for your channel to give it a more polished look in the channel overview.
When all settings have been defined, click save to create the channel. Once you have done this, the channel will appear on the left side of the channel overview.
To publish content to a screen, you need a channel. All new DatabeatOMNI accounts will contain a channel by default, and you can create as many channels as you like. The interface for publishing content will vary depending on which license model you have, however the logic remains the same.
Choose video, image or webpage -> Schedule playtime -> Publish
Note: In ‘Simplified View’, you will need to click on ‘Plan’ once you have chosen the files you want to publish.
Follow the steps below to publish an image, video, or webpage:
Title: Set a title for the media file.
Description (Optional): A short description of the media file.
Duration: Set how long you wish the media file to show on the screen.
Release: Set the date from when the media file should be active and display on your screen.
Expire: Set your expiry date (when the file should stop displaying on your screen).
Product ID (Optional): To show prices from a database. Needs integration.
Link to (Optional): To show prices from a database. Needs integration.
Volume: Choose if your media file should have volume or not. Only available for videos.
Playblocks: Uncheck the playblock box if you wish to set a limit on when the media file should display based on hours or weekdays, or set the time to 24/7. You can also set playtime to be weather dependent, i.e. to show specific content when it's sunny or raining.
When all settings have been set, click ‘Publish’ to publish the media file or webpage. Give the file a couple of seconds to upload to the server before continuing. The ‘Status’ row will indicate if the media file has been uploaded successfully.
There are several reasons why your content might not be displaying on your screen. Here is a checklist of potential causes.
Quick tip: The error message shown on the screen will give you an initial indication into what the problem might be.
1. Verify that the screen or external media player is connected to a network, wired, or Wi-Fi. Usually, this is the leading cause that content is not showing on the screen. If the device is not connected to a network, it will also not be connected with DatabeatOMNI and the files that are in the given channel. If you have published new content on the channel, and only content that is published previously is showing, this is an indication that the screen or external device has lost its connection to the network.
2. Verify that there is active content in the channel and that it’s connected to an OMNIplayer.
3. Check if the file type and resolution are in the correct formats. Here is a list of the types of media and resolutions that are supported in DatabeatOMNI.
4. Check the settings for duration, release, and expiry date. Also check the internal clock on the screen or device.
• Verify the source on the screen. For external media, players will often be on the HDMI source. For internal media players, OMNIplay can also be activated with HOME->URL Launcher. In certain cases, it will show Databeat SSP before you have clicked on HOME.
5. Check if the issue is with the license key (incorrect or deleted).
To create new users in DatabeatOMNI, you must be a ‘Superuser’. If you are a superuser, you will have the ability to see the tab for ‘Users’ on the left side of the interface, right next to ‘Media’ and ‘Location’. Click on the plus sign to create a new user. Fill in the required information and choose which role the user will have in your account.
Email: The email of the user.
Password: Set the desired password for the user. The user can also change this later on.
Name: First and last name.
Title: The title of person.
Mobile/Telephone: A contact number for the user.
Role: Choose what type of role the user will have, e.g. superuser, editor, etc.
Image: Set an image for the user to make it even more personal.
Tag: Create a group and limit which content the user can see. A limited user cannot be a superuser.
Click on ‘Save’ when all required information has been filled and create a new user.
A playlist or a playblock is a collection of content within the channel. A channel can have several playblocks and these are used to organise and structure your content even more. Playblocks can have different settings and designs. You can also use playblocks to subscribe, share, and follow content from another channel in your DatabeatOMNI account.
A channel with many playblocks will, by default, have chosen a file from the playblocks to create a playlist per loop. When DatabeatOMNI has shown ‘File 1’ in every playblock, it will then show file 2 in the next round of the playtime.
To create a new playblock for a channel, you need to do the following. Click on the ‘General’ tab in DatabeatOMNI. In the bottom right corner, you will find a plus sign. Click on the icon to start creating a new playblock.
These are the following steps you will need to take to create a new playlist.
First, you will need to decide on the function of the playlist:
Once the playblock function has been set, you will need to choose some settings.
Name: The name of the playblock. This will show in the folders below on the interface.
Description: A short description of the playblock, such as ‘Reception’.
Files per Loop: Priority of the media file. This will set how many times the files in the playblock will play before it goes to another playblock.
Random playtime: Set the media files to show randomly.
Duration: Set the suggested duration for the playtime for the media files in the playblock.
Release and expire: Set the suggested date from when the media file will start to show and when to end in the playblock.
You can also set more specific playtime depending on the time of day, days, and weather dependency.
Click ‘Save’ when you wish to create a new playblock. All playblocks for a chosen channel are shown below in the interface.
To follow a playblock from another channel, this requires that the playblock has the settings set to ‘Shared Playblock’.
First, you will need to make sure that the playblock you want to subscribe to.
All media files that are published within the shared playblock will now be published in the playblock that it follows. We often define this playblock as ‘Master’.
We have plenty of educational content that you can use to get started with DatabeatOMNI.
In the knowledge base, we have a series of articles ranging from how to install PowerPoint Publisher to how to configure an OMNIplay3. You can use the search field to find what you are looking for based on keywords or categories.
We also have Databeat Academy, which is a series of short videos that show you how you can use the different features in DatabeatOMNI.
If you don't find any content to help you solve your issue, contact us via support@databeat.net and we will help you with what you need.
The rules and recommendations are quite easy and straightforward, unless we are talking about individual screens such as video walls and stretch-screens. These are a little more complex to handle content-wise.
IMAGE:
File format: PNG or JPEG
Resolution: 1920:1080
Aspect ratio: 16:9
VIDEO:
File format: MP4 - H264 codec
Resolution: 1920:1080
Aspect ratio: 16:9
The optimal resolution depends on the screen that you want to display the content on. Full HD is an optimal resolution. Full HD has a resolution of 1920x1080. Some displays also support UHD, which supports 3840x2160.
If the display and your channel in DatabeatOMNI are in portrait, then just change the resolution and aspect ratio. FHD for image and video in portrait will then be 1080x1920.
A rule of thumb is that your content should be in the correct orientation. The different orientations affect the viewer in different ways, so you should plan your screen orientation depending on the placement and how you wish the content to be displayed before mounting your screen.
It's easier to create content for the landscape orientation because of existing video formats, and people are more used to developing content for landscape orientations. Screens in the ‘portrait’ orientation are often used for discount and sale-related content.
All images and videos have different settings. Terms such as file formats, resolution, and aspect ratio are words that you will become familiar with when using DatabeatOMNI.
Aspect ratio is important to consider, namely the format's ratio of width to height. A typical screen in ‘Landscape’ is 16: 9, and ‘Portrait’ is 9:16.
Make sure the content matches the screen aspect ratio and format. Otherwise, the content will look like someone has ‘stretched’ the file across the screen. You may recognise Instagram's 4: 3 size, which is the same format that projectors and old TVs used to have - before widescreen 16:9.