Remote control

This page has been marked as deprecated because it is no longer relevant, but has been retained for historical reference, and the Interactivity page should be used instead.

What can be used for?

The HMP has powerful remote control capabilities that allow for:

• Remote control of content - meaning switching between different media sources.
• Remote control of playback - meaning pausing / resuming the playing of animations, video or audio.
• Remote triggers - meaning displaying text messages or contextual animations (like images or videos) on an external event.

The process

To remote control an HMP using another device, the process involved is always the same, regardless of the external device:

1. The external device sends a message to the HMP via TCP/IP, RS232 or USB.
2. The HMP translate this message into an action: a shared variable update or firing an event (keydown, mousedown, mousemove etc.).
   • For RS232 messages, a dedicated FSM protocol file is needed to help translating the message.
3. The project from the HMP contains the logic (JavaScript / jSignage / Elementi Interactivity widget / HMD Interactivity templates) to execute this action.

How?

Step #1 - Decide what kind of trigger you are going to use.

From the connectivity point of view, there are three means to remote control the HMP:

1. The network connection
   • The remote control may come from a PC (a browser, SPX Messenger, telnet etc.), a web page, a smart phone application (like Bolt - HTTP Commander) or another HMP.
   • More details on the "Remote Control of HMP" Technical Documentation (section "Triggering a content switch over network") and on Interactivity via Ethernet page.
   • Sample projects: Project:Instant messaging.
2. The serial connection
   • The remote control may come from any device that is able to communicate via RS232 with the HMP - like Control Systems (AMX, Crestron, Extron etc.), Queue Management Systems (Q-Matic etc.), GPS devices and many others.
   • A dedicated FSM protocol file must be written to translate RS232 command to an action to be performed by the HMP.
     • Use <onInput> transition to match the command sent from the external device and inside it (or in a state, specified by "goto" attribute), use an <update> action to update the shared variable value or a or <fire> action to fire an event.
   • More details on the "Remote Control of HMP" Technical Documentation (section "Switching content with the serial port") and on the "Serial Port Technical Guide" documentation (<onInput>, <set>, <update> and <fire> sections) and on Interactivity via RS232 page.
   • Sample projects: GPS Test Project.
3. The USB connection
   • The remote control may come from any Human Interface Devices (HID), such as keyboards, mouses, remote pointers, touchescreens, Barcode & RFID readers etc.
   • More details on the "Remote Control of HMP" Technical Documentation (section "Switching content with a USB HID device") and on the Interactivity via USB page.
   • Sample projects: Project:RFID. See also the "Add/remove a video in a multi-screen project" example using jSignage and shared variables.

Step #2 - Create your interactive content

All the above have as result a shared variable update, which, in turn, will need to trigger a content change. To create the logic that executes this action, you can use Elementi interactivity widgets (or HMD Interactivity templates ) or write some custom JavaScript / jSignage code.

• For more details about how to implement a response from the player upon a shared variable update, see how to create interactive content and the Shared Variables JavaScript API.