This is one of a series of posts describing the new features in Carousel 5.2 which will be entering Beta testing very soon. Be sure to check out the other posts in this series so far:

• Bulletin Impression Tracking
• DisplayEngine Network Diagnostics
• Web-based Channel Preview

For larger Carousel installations, managing several dozen Carousel Players can get a bit tricky. It’s hard to know which channel they’re displaying or even if they’re running at all unless you’re standing in front of the display. That’s why we’re introducing Player Status Monitoring in Carousel 5.2.

There are two ways to keep tabs on your Carousel Players. Have a look:

First, we’ll take a look at what’s behind the Player Status section:

Here you can see all four of my players that are registered with Carousel, including their hostname, IP address, and the Carousel channel that each player is “tuned” to. Additionally, you can see the version of the DisplayEngine software, and the last time that the DisplayEngine checked in with the server. (Under normal circumstances, the DisplayEngine will check in with the server around once a minute.)

As you can see, my system is having some trouble. My “Main Lobby” player hasn’t checked in since 2 AM this morning, my “Conference Room” player is running an old version of the software, and although my “Hallway” player has checked in recently, it taking a little longer than usual for the next checkin to occur. Thankfully my “Back Office” player is running smoothly. Looks like I should investigate.

After plugging the network cable back into “Main Lobby” (an overnight maintenance person accidentally unplugged it), and installing the latest software on the “Conference Room” player, things are up and running once again. Looks like there was just a network glitch with the “Hallway” player, because it’s checked in okay again without me doing anything.

Cool. So I can keep pretty close track on my players. But what if I’m not at my desk and a player gets its power cord kicked out? Wouldn’t it be great if Carousel would notify me that there was a problem?

Of course it would! So, new in 5.2, you can tell Carousel to send you an email (or even a text message to you cell phone!) whenever a player goes AWOL. Head over to the Alert Settings section:

Here you can adjust the amount of “downtime” before Carousel decides there’s a problem with a player. This is the same setting used to determine if there should be a “red X” in the Player Status screen. Once this period of time elapses without a checkin from a player, Carousel will send an alert email to the list of email addresses you’ve specified. And if you know the SMS email address for your cell phone, you can enter that address here as well and be alerted anywhere, anytime, without needing to be next to a computer.

Now you’ll always know what your Carousel Players are up to.