OptiSigns – Player Troubleshooting  (Owners, Admins & IT Staff)

This guide is intended for OptiSigns digital signage player owners, administrators, and IT staff to use as a reference when troubleshooting digital signage OptiSigns players.

 

Regions Not Showing or Are Out-Of-Date

Date, Time or Weather Regions Not Formatted Correctly

Performance/Stability Issues and Best Practices for Stick Players

Updating Players and Security

Additional Information

 

Regions Not Showing Or Are Out-Of-Date

1. Refresh the OptiSigns App: Amazon Firestick and Android Sticks

https://support.optisigns.com/hc/en-us/articles/360056090593-OptiSigns-Side-Menu-Options

2. Check the Wi-Fi setting (if applicable)

• Using the remote control that came with the stick, select the home button
• Go to the gear icon at the top right using the arrow keys on the remote control
• Network & Internet should be at the top of the list showing a connected network.
  1. If it’s not showing, then you can select Wi-Fi & Internet and select Duke Open from the list.
• If devices continue to drop from Wi-Fi, and you have a ethernet port available, you may want to purchase a ethernet adapter (link).
  1. Note: All wired ethernet connected players MUST be on a private network and not public (152) due to security issues with IoT devices.

3. Clearing cache
   • A general measure that can be taken is clearing the local Application data from the device, which might help alleviate some issues.
   • Android Stick - How to clean application data  
   • Amazon Firestick - https://www.androidauthority.com/clear-cache-fire-tv-stick-3129003/

 

Date, Time  and Weather Regions Not Formatted Correctly

OptiSigns Android:

• Resolution
  1. The display setting needs to be changed on the Android stick using the remote control that came with it, not the TV display settings. You need to exit out of the OptiSigns app using the remote and select the gear icon at the top right corner. You’ll then need to select each option from below.
     • Go to Setting->Android Setting->Extra Setting->Display->Display Size

• • • Reference images of each step filenames are named in order
    • https://duke.box.com/s/3ymo1ifkp5e5v4y7b12pvd2vx73z3u3x
    • Once you change it to the smallest in the Display Size, 160dpi, you can go back to the home screen and open the OptiSigns App  

 

Performance/Stability Issues for Stick Players

• The stick players usually have a RAM of 1-2GB and aren’t powerful devices to play heavy content in more than three regions for extended periods of time, which will result in performance and stability issues.
• For example, to make the Android TV devices run more stable and smoother, OptiSigns recommends following the suggested best practice below. 

• 1. Using the power adapter supplied with the device instead of the TV USB port. This will ensure that the device can draw enough power to play the heavy contents.
  2. Limit the number of Split Screen zones used on the Android TV devices, for best performance and stability, we recommend not go beyond more than 3 zones. If you are using designer app, be aware that each widget will be count as a separate zone.  
  3. Keep your devices powered on and running no more than 16 hours/day. OptiSigns allows you to use operational schedule to control the device running time. 
  4. Avoid putting heavy content in more than one zone, such as videos, YouTube, etc. For example, if you have a video playlist assigned to one region, and in another region, there are dashboards or YouTube videos, it will be more likely to cause stability/performance issue. 
  5. Make sure that your devices have enough local storage to cache the contents from your playlist. 

• 1. OptiSigns article with additional details,

• • • https://support.optisigns.com/hc/en-us/articles/28427819992979-Performance-Stability-issues-on-Android-devices-and-Best-Practices
• Android and Firestick devices are not rated as commercial grade hardware and are normally not very powerful. If your use cases require 3+ more zones, multiple heavy content at a time, or keep your digital signage contents running 24x7. Please consider using professional grade devices, such as the OptiSigns Pro Player or other devices like the Windows Lenovo Desktop TC M70q Gen 3_Intel Q670_Tiny_ES (part#11T4S8VN00) that’s been tested and available at Buy@Duke.  This is also a good option for instances where there's no wired connection and Wi-Fi signal strength isn't stable. ($326) This device can be managed by your local IT staff or by CDSS for a monthly fee. These players are more powerful and industrial/commercial grade rated. These devices are more robust hardware which are built to handle heavy content and can be played continuously for longer duration.

 

Updating Players and Security

• Amazon regularly releases security fixes/patches and is automatically pushed to the device. To manually check
  1. Amazon Firestickà Select Settingsà My Fire TVàCheck for System Update
  2. Reboot the OptiSigns App nightly
• OptiSigns Android
  1. Auto-updates is on by default and updates are applied when the device starts
  2. To check, Android Setting->Extra Settings->System->Developer Options
  3. Reboot the OptiSigns App nightly
• All wired ethernet connected players MUST be on a private network and not public (152) due to security issues with IoT devices.

 

Additional Information

Individual users are responsible for supporting their players. For hardware and/or software issues, you can open a ticket with,

• OptiSigns Support - support@optisigns.com
• OIT Media Technologies (General account and DukeFlyer questions or issues)
  • https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3xV97IIzYmGdXls
• If you are using a device other that the Amazon Firestick 4K Max or OptiSigns Android stick, refer to OptiSigns for install instructions.
  • https://support.optisigns.com/hc/en-us/sections/360005149974-Installation-Set-Up

If you are using a Windows OS, ensure the display resolution is 1920x1080 to ensure custom regions in templates function as expected.