Signage is an Advantage feature that allows you to display text, images, and/or video on screens throughout your location.
Display uses include, but are not limited to, menu boards, capacity area data, birthday announcements, advertisements, or safety information. You can upload your own media and pull data directly from your database to show on the screen.

Signage involves several components including hardware, a Manager Console module, and a separate Signage Editor application. Before you can enable the module, you must have this tool installed. The hardware and module portions usually only have to be done at setup, while most of the customization and changes to the displays happen within the Signage Editor.

Enable the Digital Signage Module

To use Signage, you must enable it in Manager Console. This only works if the Signage Editor is already installed.

1. From Manager Console, click�Maintenance�
2. Double-click�System Settings.�
3. Double-click�Modules.�
   
4. From the General tab, select Digital Signage.
   
   
5. Click OK.

Signage Editor

Signage Editor is a separate application from the rest of the Advantage suite that lets you define what guests see on your signage monitors. The end result of this is essentially a sophisticated series of slideshow presentations that run automatically depending on how you configure them. It is divided in a way to make it easier to build these various components within each other with four folders on the side: Devices, Sequences, Screens, and� Media. These folders store and let you access each instance of these components individually.

• Media is any image or video that can bee added to a screen.
• A Screen is analogous to a slide, on which you will add media and information.
• A Sequence is analogous to an entire slideshow presentation, which will run through each screen in the order and for a duration you specify.
• A Device is the hardware that displays your Sequence.

Once you have added Media and other content to a series of Screens, and have arranged those screens into Sequences; you can then configure each physical signage Device.

Adding Media

Media refers to the images or videos you want to include in the final product. For example, if you wanted a series of food images to display on a menu screen, you would import all the images to the Media folder.

1. From the Signage Editor, right-click the Media folder.
2. Click Load Media.
   
3. Enter a title that will help you identify the media file, such as "Hamburger Photo."
4. Click Load File...
5. Find and open the file you want to import.
   • The File Type and File Size fields fill in automatically.
6. Click the Save icon or press Ctrl + S.
   
   
   
   • The file name will appear in the list of Media you have added. You can double-click any items from the menu on the left to view them.
     

7. Load all the media you will need for your Signage display in the same way.

   You can always go back and load more if you need additional files.

Adding/Editing Screens

Screens are equivalent to the slides in a slideshow presentation in your Signage display. An example of a Screen might be an image of a trampoline in the background, and a list of current capacity usage, with a rotating set of pictures and/or a menu of inventory items.

1. Right-click the Screens folder.
2. Click New Screen.
   
3. Enter a Screen Name that will help you identify what is on the screen, such as "Lunch Menu".
4. Click Ok.
   
   The center of the editor window is the Canvas where you can visually lay out the screen. Below it is the XAML Code Box that corresponds with what you see on the canvas. You can collapse the code box if you don't need it.
   • To configure a screen you'll use the Toolbox, which is a list of Objects you can add to your screen. One of the most common objects is the DBImage object, which creates an area you can fill with an image.
5. Drag whatever item from the Toolbox you want to add to the screen onto the Canvas.
   • This example shows a DBImage object.
     
6. Resize the image placeholder by dragging its corners, or editing the XAML.
   
7. Open the Properties tab near the bottom of the toolbox, if it is not already visible on the screen.
   

   • The Properties menu is different depending on what Object is selected.

     Before making adjustments to anything in the Properties tab, verify you have selected the object you want to be editing.�You can check the currently selected object by looking at the upper part of the tab.

     

8. Adjust the Properties as necessary depending on what type of object it is.
   
   • In this example, we would select our media image from the Media Key field. We would also adjust the Stretch to determine how the image will fit in the DBImage box.
     None will keep the original image size and aspect ratio.  If the box is too small for the image, it will be cut off.
     Fill stretches the image to fill the DBImage box, which could alter the aspect ratio and make the image appear elongated or flattened.
     Uniform resizes the image at its original aspect ratio, so that all of it fits within the box.  This may leave a blank space towards the top or bottom or sides of the box depending on its size.
     Uniform To Fill will keep the image aspect ratio, but will shrink the image so that it fits the shortest length or width of the image. The rest of the image will be cut off if the box is not the same size as the image.
9. Click the save icon to save your Screen.
   

Creating a Sequence

Once you have created all the Screens you want to use, you will create a Sequence to put them all together into a presentation.

1. From  Signage Editor, right-click the Sequence folder.
2. Click Add New Sequence.
3. Enter a Sequence Name.
4. At the bottom left, click  Add Sequence.
5. Select the Screen to add to the Sequence from the pull-down.
6. Enter the Duration you would like this Screen to run before it transitions to the next screen.
   • Each second is equal to 1000.
7. Select the Transition between this screen and the next, such as Fade or Slide Up.
8. Repeat this process for all the Screens you want to include in this Sequence.
   
   
   Manage what Order these display in relation to each other by adjust the number in the Order field accordingly.

Add Sequences to a Device

Once you have created Sequences, you can add them to a device and specify when they display.

1. From Signage Editor, expand the Devices folder by clicking the [+] to the left of it.
   • The Devices that are set up will appear.
2. Double-click the Device you want to add the Sequence to.
3. At the bottom left, click  Add Sequence.
   1. Select the Day of the Week this Sequence will apply to.
   2. Select the Start Time for this Sequence.
   3. Select which Sequence to run.
      
4. Repeat this for any other Sequences you want to use.
   
   • Sequences will display on repeat until the next one is scheduled to come on.