Introduction: Diy Digital Signage With Xibo
Hi, in this instructables we are going to create our own digital signage system with Xibo.
Our Scenario is as follows; We have a small business and we want to broadcast some ads on two seperate screens. For this setup, we are going to use a free and open source digital signage software, “ xibo.”.
So why Xibo? Simply because it is open-source, freeware and rather practical by means of timing, design and display management. XIBO is a server-client based digital signage software. The system works with a PHP based CMS installed on a server and sending data to the clients connected to the server. You don’t necesarrily need a high power proccessor for the server because it only sends data to the clients.
Step 1: Prepare the Server and Install Xibo Cms
As you see, our server and clients are running on the same network. If you wish, you can use the server in the cloud-based system, but that would be the subject of another article.
Windows is not a MUST for the server, you can use linux as well. But for the client machines to broadcast the data on the screens, we have to use windows. Altough the XIBO is an open-source freeware, the player software on the android platform is a paid application. Only the windows player software is free. That’s why we need to use Windows on the client screens. These machines shoud have an HDMI output to broadcast the content on the screens.( we’d like to get high quality image and sound, right? “content is the king!”) The client machine should be able to play HD videos easily, it needs , at least, i3 processor, 4GB Ram and an entry level graphic card.
To do list for the server;
- Download Xibo CMS ve Xammp,
- Install apache+mysql (Xammp)
- change the mysql settings (give the root user a password, create a new user and a database for xibo)
- Install XIBO CMS on the Server
XAMPP is totally free, easy to load, an Apache distribution and contains MySQL, PHP and PERL. Now, install XAMPP, nothing more to do, just click next,next,next..
Run the apache and mysql from the control panel and check on your browser.
On the adrress bar of your browser, write localhost or 127.0.0.1 and go.
Now before installing the xibo, we should assign a password for the root user on mysql, create a new user and a database.
Note down the passwords, database and the user names during installation.
After installation Xampp, unzip the xibo cms files you downloaded before and copy them into the htdocs directory in the main xammp directory and then rename it for easier use.
Now we begin to install the xibo. On your browser, write 127.0.0.1/xibo and go.
The first phase of the xibo installation there are some problems, we will continue after fixing the problems.
First of all, we need to activate the PHP FileInfo support. To do so, I open the xammp console, run the CONFIG and PHP.ini option from the apache tab. The opening file is the one where we do the PHP module setting. If you delete a wrong line, php may not work properly so you need to be careful. Let’s find the related line. Here is the correct line to change. When we remove the semi colon at the beginning of the line, the module will be activated.
Well, we solve the first problem, now let’s move on the other : large file uploads. Probably we will use video files in large size with XIBO. PHP file size setting is small by default. It will be useful to increase the file size setting. For example we can set it to 512 mb. We will do it on the PHP.ini file.
Finally, the last problem. Now we will activate the international support. To do so, we need to activate the php_int.dll module from the php.ini file.
So, we have solved all the problems, let’s continue with the installation.
In this phase, we will use the database and the user name we created before.
During installation the Xibo CMS, we will define the necessary user name and password for xibo cms.
We need to set the path for files like images, texts, and videos. I set it to a new directory on D drive.
Server key is very important, we should note it down.
Let’s sign in xibo cms with the username and the password we created for xibo before.
That’s all for the server. On the next episode, we are going to install the player software.
Step 2: Install Xibo Windows Player
The client is very simple to set up . Now, install Xibo windows player, nothing more to do, just click next,next,next.
Important point is client setting. We are writing to previously saved information about the field. CMS adress is server ip address on the localhost.
We need to get a license from the server to the client computer screen .
Step 3: Easily Broadcast Ads With Xibo Digital Signage
The most important part is the contents of the digital signage. Because content is the king! People will pay attention to the content, not how you have set up high-tech system.
In this step we will broadcast same ads easily on Xibo CMS. We talked about how to set up the server and client in our previous steps. We continue to use the open source digital signage software of Xibo as a continuation of our previous step. We can use for the content of the photo is very important to have high resolution. We have prepared our case content in 1280×720 resolution. Because our example, the client supports 1280×720 resolution screen. if you use a higher resolution you can get even more impressive images.
For more detail; My Blog Page.