In some digital signage networks the number of players deployed in the field make it a pain to update the player software when we release a new version. Many IT departments take care of this with their enterprise software deployment tools. But for many of us that software is overkill. I have found a simpler application that does what we need at a fraction of the cost (both money and setup time). Of course there are many of these tools available, for this example I used Remote Software Install Utility (RSI) by Install Solutions.

Note: This is provided as a sample solution for remote deployment. Tightrope support can not help you install or use this tool (RSI). Please make use you have authorization on your network to perform such tasks.

I have downloaded and installed RSI onto my computer. I have also downloaded the latest Carousel Player software from the Tightrope Updates website.

After running RSI, we will select the software that we want to deploy. In our case it will be ‘Carousel Player 5.3.0 Build 122.exe’. We also MUST supply the ‘/s’ argument in the options text field. This will make the installer run silently without the need for the user to click through any install wizards.

Next we will enter the list of machines to update. You can manually enter them or import a list from a text file. Install Solutions also has some other cool Active Directory features that can create the deployment lists.

Now we can pass the appropriate credentials to target machines to run the installer. You will need to run under a user context that has permissions to install the software.

We will want to make sure our Carousel Player machines restart after the installation. This is important so we can be assure that the software is installed properly and the Carousel DisplayEngine is re-launched.

Now we can run the deployment and see which are successful or failed.

After we have deployed, it is a good idea to check your player registration screen in Carousel to make sure all the players came back online had are running the correct version.

As you can see, automating the updates to the player can save a ton of time.