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🔆BrightSign digital signage player

Deploying HLD content to your BrightSign player with "brightAuthor connected"

Hololuminescent Displays include a built-in demo media player that’s useful for product demos and basic playback. However, for professional digital-signage deployments — especially where reliability, scheduling, and fleet management matter — we recommend using a dedicated signage platform.

BrightSign players are a common choice for production deployments with HLDs. They are widely used in museums, retail, corporate environments, and other always-on installations.

This guide walks through a basic Standalone deployment using brightAuthor connected and an SD card. It is intended as a practical starting point, not a comprehensive BrightSign manual. BrightSign supports multiple deployment modes (Standalone, Local Network, BSN.Cloud, etc.) and many advanced features.

For full setup instructions and alternative workflows, refer to BrightSign’s official documentation.

What this tutorial covers

  • Creating a simple BrightAuthor presentation for an HLD

  • Configuring video output settings correctly for playback

  • Publishing content to a BrightSign player via SD card (Standalone mode)

What this tutorial does not cover

  • Detailed BrightSign player provisioning

  • Networked or cloud-managed deployments

  • Advanced scheduling, interactivity, or scripting

For instructions on what this tutorial does not cover, refer to BrightSign’s official documentation.

Requirements

Before you begin, you’ll need:

  • A BrightSign player compatible with 4K60 output

  • An HLD connected to the BrightSign player

  • An SD card (inserted into your computer for Standalone deployment)

  • A BrightSign account (BSN.Cloud)

  • brightAuthor connected installed on your computer

For initial hardware setup, see BrightSign’s Quickstart Guide.

Step-by-step guide

This guide assumes you are setting up your BrightSign player in Standalone mode. If you are using another deployment method, the below steps may be inaccurate. Refer to BrightSign’s documentation for the correct setup steps.

Step 1: Setup your BrightSign player

  1. Follow BrightSign's documentation to set up your player as a Standalone device.

Step 2: Install brightAuthor connected

  1. Create or sign in to your BSN.Cloud account.

  2. Download and install brightAuthor connected from BrightSign — link here.

  3. Login to your BSN.Cloud account in the brightAuthor connected app.

  4. Connect your BrightSign player to the HLD via HDMI or DisplayPort.

Step 3: Create a new presentation

In brightAuthor connected:

  1. Create a new presentation.

  2. Select "Single Zone" → "Playlist" (this should be the default).

  3. Set the following presentation settings:

    • Orientation: Portrait – Bottom Left

    • Destination: SD Card

    • Resolution: 4K

    • Frame Rate: 60 fps

    • Connector: HDMI (unless you are explicitly using DisplayPort)

  4. Give the presentation a clear, descriptive name.

These settings ensure the video output aligns correctly with the HLD’s expected input.

Step 4: Add your content

  1. Prepare a folder containing portrait-oriented video files.

Do not process videos through our software (HLD Encoder or HLD Author) when using a BrightSign player. HLD Encoder and HLD Author both rotate videos 90 degrees counterclockwise so they play back smoothly on the included demo media player. BrightSign should receive standard (i.e. portrait-oriented) video files directly without preprocessing.

  1. In brightAuthor, add this content to Zone 1 of your presentation.

  2. Arrange the playlist as desired.

  1. Select "Publish" to go to the publish view for the presentation.

Step 5: Publish and schedule the presentation

  1. Under "Destination", make sure "Type" is set to "Standalone (Player Storage)" unless you are using an alternate deployment mode.

  2. Under "Destination", set "Local Directory" to be the location of your inserted SD card.

  3. Review the Schedule view.

    1. You can keep the default schedule to have content loop continuously, or adjust timing as needed.

  4. Press Publish again to apply the schedule.

Once complete, eject the SD card safely and insert it into the BrightSign player. When powered on, the player should automatically begin playback on the HLD.

Conclusion

And that's it! You're now ready to deploy your HLD with your BrightSign player. This is great for long-term digital signage deployments where stability and content management are paramount.

This tutorial covers only one possible deployment configuration and only scratches the surface of what you can do your BrightSign player. For further information and advanced features, refer to BrightSign’s official documentation.

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