Constantia BrightSign Wall

Monitoring & control desk for the museum's BrightSign video players — live screenshots, one-click reboot, Q-SYS-driven synchronised playback, remote script management, and self-updating.

1. What it is

The Wall is a Windows app that runs on the AV laptop on the museum LAN. It connects to every BrightSign player, shows a live thumbnail of each screen, and lets you reboot players and drive synchronised audio/video from the Q-SYS Core — all from one window. It also keeps a public status/history page and updates itself.

2. Install & first run

1. Download the latest ConstantiaBSWall-Setup-<version>-x64.exe from the project's download page.
2. Run it. It detects any previous version, offers to back up settings, and adds the Windows Firewall rule for the bridge (TCP 5000). Allow the elevation prompt if it appears.
3. Launch from the Start menu / desktop shortcut. The embedded bridge starts automatically on 127.0.0.1:5000 — the header shows Bridge: running on :5000 (green).

3. Dashboard

One tile per player: a live screenshot, an online/offline dot, IP, and the bridge ID. Controls in the header:

4. Adding players

Manually

+ Add player → enter IP, DWS port (usually 80), and the DWS username/password (default admin + the unit's serial number).

Bulk import

⭳ Import configs reads one .txt per player from the configured folder (label/value pairs: friendly name, IP, port, username, password). Use this to load all players at once. The ⧉ Q-SYS IDs button shows a Name / IP / Bridge ID table to copy into Q-SYS.

5. Q-SYS setup

Open the Q-SYS Setup tab. It generates the Lua scripts to paste into Q-SYS Designer, pre-filled for this laptop's bridge URL.

1. Bridge URL — pick the laptop IP on the Core's subnet (port 5000).
2. Per-player Lua — paste into each player's Text Controller; set its PlayerIP. Used for manual single-player control.
3. Master Lua — paste into one "Master" Text Controller; it owns the fleet (reboot + audio).
4. Wiring — follow the diagram (see §6).
5. Test / Live log — confirm the Core actually reaches the bridge; every request is logged.

6. Synchronised playback (Q-SYS)

One Play / Stop button drives the whole experience. On Play, the master controller:

1. Pre-flight — waits until all players are reachable, so none is stranded.
2. Synced reboot — reboots all players at once (restarts video from the start).
3. Wait for ready — polls until every player is back online.
4. Audio — starts the audio zones from position 0, aligned with the fresh video.

Projectors power on (PJLink) in parallel while the players boot. The master is the single reboot authority — per-player controllers are for manual control only and stay off the global Play wiring.

The same show can be started three ways, all hitting the one Play / Stop toggle (the "big blue button"): the physical Q-SYS button, the web dashboard Play/Stop (see §10), and the schedule (auto on/off at set times). All three flip the same toggle, so the projectors and the show state always stay in sync.

7. Player Scripts (remote BrightScript)

The Player Scripts tab backs up and updates a player's on-device script over the network — no SD-card swap, no site visit.

1. Back up — pull the player's scripts to a local dated folder.
2. Inject — push a new .brs (disabled until a backup exists).
3. Reboot — apply it.

8. Boot profile & history

⏱ Boot profile shows a side-by-side table — model, firmware, uptime, network mode, content size — so a slow player stands out. Save .txt writes a timestamped copy to the BootProfiles folder.

Every fleet reboot is also recorded to the public status page (back-online time per player). The page additionally shows current online/uptime and the last Q-SYS Core activity.

If one player is slow to boot

• Mismatched firmware → match all units to the same version.
• Same firmware but slow → SD card health/speed; reimage onto a fast card.
• The ~60 s network-diagnostics screen → disable it when imaging the card.

9. Updates

The Wall checks for a newer version on launch and every few hours. When one is found it downloads in the background and shows Restart & install — one click, no manual download.

• Later hides the prompt for that version (a newer one re-shows it).
• ⤓ Check for updates re-checks on demand.

10. Online dashboard (phone / browser)

A web dashboard at constantia-updates.pages.dev lets authorised staff monitor and control the show from anywhere — no need to be at the laptop. It works while the on-site app (the Wall) is running.

Signing in

1. Open the link, enter your email, tap Continue.
2. If you're on the access list, a 6-digit code is emailed — enter it (the email also has a one-tap link back to the code screen). Sessions last 24 h.
3. Not on the list? You'll get an email with the app download + demo, and the team is notified to approve you.

Tabs

Scheduling the show (June 2026 — Q-SYS countdown timers)

The daily start/stop now runs on two countdown timers on the Q-SYS Core (set up by the AV team): a Startup timer counts down to the start time (e.g. 09:55) and a Shutdown timer to the end (e.g. 16:40). The times are typed into fields on those Q-SYS components, so changing the schedule is done there, not on this dashboard. The Core keeps its clock aligned to the on-site PC automatically, so the show fires at the real wall-clock time, and it survives an internet drop. The dashboard PLAY / STOP still work for a manual override any time.

11. Troubleshooting

12. Wall header buttons (v0.10.73+)

13. Player Scripts tab — per-player buttons

14. Q-SYS master Lua — silent-test knob (v2.20.2+)

The master Lua drives audio via TWO independent paths on Play/Stop:

1. Output Trigger pins (AudioStart / AudioStop) — fire only if you wired them to Audio Player components on the schematic.
2. Component.New direct drive — sets play.state = true / false on every Audio Player listed in AUDIO_PLAYERS. Independent of schematic wiring.

To silence audio for a test run, change the knob at the top of bridge_controller_master.lua:

local DRIVE_AUDIO_DIRECT = false   -- true = default, drive Component.New
                                   -- false = pin-wire only (silent if unwired)

F5 (Save to Core & Run). The boot log will show [BOOT] v2.20.x loaded ... DRIVE_AUDIO_DIRECT= false.

15. Recovery from a reboot loop

If a Deploy goes wrong and the player won't stop rebooting:

1. Try Wall's 🆘 Divert next boot on the looping tile. Wait 60s. If it lands, you'll see "DIVERT LANDED on attempt #N". Then reboot the player — it'll come up in idle.
2. Once idle, 🔧 Deploy BA bundle or 📁 Load local zip… to push a clean bundle. Deploy auto-clears the divert flag on success.
3. If divert doesn't land (DWS window too narrow → "socket hang up" errors): pull SD, reflash on a host with a card reader. Same files at player-autorun/Master_BrightSign/ in the repo. Eject properly (don't pull mid-write).

16. Schedule didn't fire?

The Lua schedule fires only at the exact minute boundary, no catch-up. If the Q-SYS Core was rebooted / F5'd after the on-time, the schedule misses that day. Watch the console for the per-tick log line (v2.20.3+):

[SCHED] tick 2026-05-28 09:54 dow=3 enabled=true on=09:55(595) off=16:45(1005) dayOK=true lastOn= lastOff=

If enabled=false → the Wall hasn't pushed a schedule yet (Ops tab → Schedule → Save). If dayOK=false → today isn't in the configured days. If lastOn is already today → schedule fired earlier and the dedupe guard is preventing a re-fire (expected).

17. Support

For help, contact the UWC Immersive Zone.