Carousel 7 requires that:
- TCP Port 80 (or 443 for SSL configured systems) open between user workstations and the server to access the Carousel user interface over the network.
- TCP Port 80 (or 443 for SSL configured systems) and 56907 be open between the server and media players.
- Port 80/443 is used for the players to download scheduled content to be displayed.
- Port 56907 is the port which the server uses to actively notify the players of:
- Channel changes
- Content changes including Alert Bulletins
- Monitor Control
Additional Access
Your Carousel Server needs to be able to access:
- https://weather.trms.com for the built in Weather functionality.
- https://api.twitter.com for Twitter data.
- Any URL you wish to display using an Web Snapshot bulletin/block.
- Please note: Carousel can not authenticate with websites for this bulletin type.
- The URL's for any dynamic content you wish to use (iCal, RSS, Office365 etc).
Your Media players need to be able to access:
- The URL of the Carousel server.
- The URL(s) of any websites you wish to display as an interactive bulletin (port can be specified in URL).
- Please note: Carousel can not authenticate with websites for these bulletin types.
- The URL(s) of streaming network video you wish to display (port can be specified in URL). Stream must be unauthenticated.
Important Note about Brightsign Players:
- Carousel 7 for Brightsign wireless support is limited to WPA2 Personal authentication. If your organization requires WPA2 Enterprise or another type of authentication, we recommend either whitelisting your Brightsign players or using a wired connection.
- Carousel 7 for Brightsign does not support 802.1x authentication methods.
This is a basic diagram of a Carousel 7 system:
Bandwidth Utilization
Carousel does its best to keep network bandwidth utilization to a minimum. The Players download and cache all content except for streaming video and interactive bulletins. For example, if you upload a video that is 200MB in size that is going to be played by 10 signage players, the players will each download the video one time from the server, store it locally for as long as it is scheduled to be in rotation, then delete it to make room for future content once it is no longer needed.
Streaming video will use as much network bandwidth as the stream requires, per player that is showing the bulletin. Carousel players do not compress or modify video streams, they simply open a streaming video player pointed at the specified streaming address.