No Internet Required in Local Mode
Your Ad Server can be used without an Internet connection in version 15 and higher of the Ad Server software and this includes videos too. Press the “h” key while your system is running to see the version information at the bottom of your screen.
I added this update because there are many situations where you might want to run a digital signage system where no internet is available or the internet is spotty like in a Taxi, Bus, Train, or at a trade show.
You won’t be able to manage the ads remotely like when using the internet, but in these situations, you don’t need to or might not want to anyway.
Make sure you set up your system to run with the internet first before using setting up the USB drive. This includes setting up the custom screen sizing since this data needs to be saved to the cloud from the start. Allow it to run through a few ad displays before you use it in a non-internet or local setting.
Now that a system works 100% while connected to the internet, let’s make it work offline.
To set up your AD Server to be able to run locally you will need to add an external hard drive, or USB flash drive, create a partition on the ad server itself, or even use an SDCard and name it “D”. The extra drive needs to show up in windows as Drive D or it will be ignored.
Note: Some of the Stick PCs have a micro-SD slot and it’s already set up as a D drive when you add a micro-SD card.
An alternative method added in version 16.0.1 will look in the c:\billboards folder for a text file named “internet.txt” for how you want to use the ad server. Using the method will allow you to select if the internet will be used and which drive letter to use if going no internet will be used.
This is what the “internet.txt” would have inside if you are using the local mode with NO Internet.
The false means no internet and the D means use the D drive for ads
This is what the “internet.txt” would have inside if you are using the normal mode WITH an internet connection.
The “true” means you will have internet and D here is ignored
Follow these steps to set up the external ads drive so it can be used for your ads no matter what letter is used:
Step 1: First off you will need to get your Ad Server PC set up using the internet at home before you can go local without the internet. Basically, you want to have it running correctly, the screen size setup, and your branding text saved at least once using the Desktop Control Panel. All this meta setup data will then be saved to the Ad Server and can now go local after following the next 3 steps.
This example will use D as the external drive, but you can use whatever letter you want or require. Some systems might already have a D drive for the restore files that Windows needs.
Step 2: Create a folder on the D drive named “ads“. This includes using a micro-SD card, USB Flash Drive, or USB thumb drive.
Step 3: Add a text file to the “D:\ads\” folder with anything or nothing in it named “readme.txt” and you can do this with Notepad that’s built-in to Windows. Download this file for a sample setup ads
Step 4: Now copy your ads to the “D:\ads\” folder that you want to display on your ad server when going local and with no internet connection. You can copy the jpg, gif, mp4, and mov files all into the same “ads” folder. The system will sort them out on its own. None of the special video tag images will work in this move because that requires the internet to function.
Restart DAM Live software and that’s it. As long as that D drive is present it will display the ads from there. If you remove it the system will go back to looking at the internet for ads.