Synchronize players

Synchronize your players to simultaneously play spots on multiple screens. This can be useful, for example, if you want to create a video wall that displays synchronized content across all screens.

Synchronized players can operate in the following ways:

System requirements and limitations

Ensure that you meet the following system requirements for player synchronization:

Note

You can't synchronize Linux and Windows Player version 11.13 with later versions.

Limitations

Synchronization works with different spot types and IXM Platform features. However, the following limitations apply:

Synchronize players

You must synchronize the lead player with the followers. You can have any number of followers.

For a seamless playback, we recommend that all synchronized spots have the same length. If not, the synchronized spot playback works in the following ways:

• If a spot on a follower is completed before the lead player has started a new spot, the screen on the follower stays black, displays the playlist background color, or the last frame until there's a new lead spot.

• If a spot on the lead player is completed before a follower has finished playing it, the follower spot is interrupted and the next lead spot starts playing.

How to synchronize

There are different ways to configure the synchronized start of spots: complete synchronization, sync tags, or synchronized spot transition.

Configure players

You must configure the synchronization settings in the IXM Platform player configuration. The settings are similar across Windows and Linux, Android, and Tizen players, but some players have more settings depending on their capabilities.

To configure your players, perform the following steps:

1. In the IXM Platform, go to the player configuration or the configuration group:

   • For an individual player, go to Channels > Location. Double-click on your player and select Edit next to Configuration in the Edit player window.

   • For a configuration group, go to Administration > Player > Configuration groups and double-click on the configuration group.

2. In the Edit configuration group window, select Display extended modules.

3. Under Modules, select Player > Sync.

   Setting	Description
   define a screen of this player as sync master	Specify the number of the screen that acts as lead. The first screen has number 1. Default value: -1 (deactivated) This setting is not available on Tizen Players.
   define a split of this player as sync master	Specify the number of the split that acts as lead: If the screen layout contains only one split, enter 0. You can find the split number in the screen layout. Default value: -1 (deactivated)
   enable synced spot switch	Select to enable synchronized spot transition. This setting is not required if you only want to synchronize spots with sync tags. This setting is currently not available on Tizen Players.
   enable synced preload for spots with synctags	Select to enable synchronized preload and transition of spots with sync tags. This setting is only available on Android Players.
   sync group	Specify a number of your choice to assign the player to a sync group. All follower players must have the same number. Default value: -1 (deactivated)
   multicast ip for sync communication	Specify a multicast IP address that the lead player uses to communicate with its followers. In general, you can leave the default value.
   udp port for sync communication	Specify a UDP port that the lead player uses to communicate with its followers. You can leave the default value if you only have one group of screens in your LAN.
   disable sync while playing events	Select to disable synchronization while the lead player plays an event playlist. In this case, the followers switch to regular playback. After the event playlist has finished, the lead player sends a sync command to the followers, who return to synchronization mode.
   skip spots with sync tags while sync is inactive	Select to not play spots with sync tags on the follower player when there is no sync command. The follower ignores all sync commands from the lead player while playing an event playlist. The setting specifies which spots will play after the event playlist is complete. The follower switches back to sync mode when it receives another sync command.
   heartbeat interval for sync communication	Specify in which interval the lead player sends heartbeats, it only affects the lead player. The heartbeat is a signal that the lead player continuously sends to all follower players. In general, you can leave the default value.
   heartbeat timeout for sync communication	Specify a timeout after which the synchronization is temporarily disabled if there’s no heartbeat. In this case, the follower player leaves sync mode and acts as a non-synchronized player. The heartbeat is a signal that the lead player continuously sends to all follower players. Use at least a value three-times as big as the heartbeat interval. In general, you can leave the default value.
   sync master priority	Specify a number that determines the probability of this player to be lead player. Default value: 5 This setting is not available on Tizen Players.
   set sync master election algorithm	Select one of the following algorithms: ID-ELECTION: automatically assigns a lead player after reboot. You can influence the selection by setting a sync master priority. Note that all players that you want to synchronize must be set to ID-Election and that this works only in stable networks. MANUAL: synchronized players elect a lead player based on sync split and sync screen settings. We recommend MANUAL for the general use case. This setting is not available on Tizen Players.
   distribute livetags	Select to distribute live tags from the lead player to its followers. This setting is currently not supported on Tizen Players.
   allow synchronising all spots / enable exact spot sync using spot objects	Select to allow synchronizing all spots in a playlist using the spot instance ID instead of sync tags. Sync tags are completely ignored. Note that all players must use the same program scheme.
   use spot objects to synchronise	Select to use spot objects to synchronize all spots instead of the spot instance ID to include spots that aren’t in the current playlist of the followers, such as spots in an event playlist. Note that this must be set on all players. We strongly recommend to use this setting if you want to synchronize all spots. This setting is the default on Tizen Players and cannot be changed.

4. Click Save to save your changes.

5. Repeat the configuration steps for all players that you want to synchronize.