Network Digital Signage Player

NP200
User’s Guide

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I. NP200 Hardware Installation

Hardware connection:

1. Connect power adapter to DC 5V connector

2. Connect HDMI or VGA cable to HDMI/VGA port of your display device
3. Connect LAN cable to the LAN port first. Or you can use wifi, screw antenna to the WIFI port.

Note: NP200 has internal flash memory (4.5GB free space), no need external memory device. If you
need more space, you can put USB or Micro SD card and select storage device from Setup screen.

II. Quick Installation to login to icat server

1. Once NP200 powers up, you will see Android screen initially, then NP200 screen will be loaded.

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2. Press “Main Menu” key on the remote control to Setup menu. If screen is playing,
press “Stop” key first to main screen then press “Main Menu” key.

3. Move down arrow key to Network Settings and then server address. Press Enter key to next
page

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4. To connect to icat5 server, default must be “Domain Name Mode”, www.icat5.icatsign.com and
“Port 80”. Please use arrow cursor keys to select on-screen-keyboard for the address. Press
“back” to return to left menu.

5. Go to Device Control page to enter right icat ID. Icat ID is 10 digits only. This ID is created from
icat5 software. Please go to Player page to “Add Player” then copy ID to enter here.

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6. If you prefer to use wifi connection, just go to Device Controls page again. Select wifi. If screen
pops up “Reboot” message, click YES to restart. If you don’t see “Reboot” message then do a
manual power cycle after exit Setup.

7. Go to Network Settings page to WIFI Setup to choose your SSID then enter passcode. Once you
see your SSID shows “connected” then it’s done.

8. Next, go to “Time Setting” for your local time. Most important is “Time Zone”.

- Choose your local time zone. GMT +/- number

- Set Start Sync Time Setting=ON
- If your region has Daylight Saving, set to ON, otherwise set to OFF.

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 - You can click “Sync Time Now” to update player time with server time.

9. Exit Setup screen, and do a manual power cycle. If player connects to router and icat server
successfully. Both icat server and LAN will show green “CHECK” mark on the network status. If
red X then please check local network connection and above #4 and #5 settings if correct?

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III. NP200 Setup Screen Settings:
There are two ways to enter to NP200 setup screen.
1. Use any USB mouse and connect to USB port. Mouse arrow will appear on screen. Move to left
top corner OSD (picture). Click on Setup icon

2. Press “Main Menu” key of NP200’s remote control (sold separately)

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3. NP200 Setup has left tab and right options. You can use USB mouse or arrow keys of remote
control to operate the movement and execution.
4. Device Settings: All the device related settings will be on this tab. Options are as follows:

a. Display Language: For Setup screen language, but only English is available. (Can be
customized to other language with engineering development fee)
b. Screen Orientation Mode: For TV screen’s orientation position. Options are 0/90/180/270
degree rotation. Landscape mode is 0 or 180 degree. Portrait mode is 90 or 270 degree.
c. Screen Resolution: default is set to 1920x1080 60Hz. If 50Hz is required, contact admin for
software configuration file.
d. On Screen Clock: There are 4 corners position to display real time clock. Default is OFF.
e. Playback Log: Player will save playback log data if enable. Default is OFF.
f. USB: Control if enable or disable 2 USB ports on the front panel. If disable, even plug in USB
drive is no function. Default is ON. OFF is to avoid someone plug in USB to make change.
g. Scrolling Text Display: Control if enable or disable scroll text bar. If disabled, even playlist
has scrolling text, it will not display. Default is OFF.
h. On Screen Commands: Control if appear or disappear the command OSD on the top left
corner. It has Setup, Play, Hide and Exit. Hide is to hide this OSD command set. Exit is to quit
NP200 app back to android main screen. Play is to playback playlist from local storage.
i. Sync-Play Settings: To control multiple NP200 to playback at the same time. Only one can
be set to “Master” player, and rest must be “Slave” player.
j. Restore to Factory Settings: Restore settings to factory default values.
k. Auto Start: If enable, player will start to playback after power up. Default is ON.

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Sync-Play Application:
There are two applications to see the sync-play effect if you put multiple TV screen side by
side or nearby.
1). All players play same content at the same time, the effect is very obvious to see all
screens playback same content in sync. (All players are under same group with same
playlist)

2). All TV screens together like a big combined screen to play a big content (use video editing
tool to make a huge video file. For example, if 2 TV screen then make 3840x1080 resolution
file under landscape mode or 2160x1920 resolution under portrait mode and cut into two
1920x1080 files or two 1080x1920 files. All players can be in different groups and different
playlist with different filename, as long as the video length is the same. Master player will
inform other slave players to start playback and jump to next file together. (See pictures)

Note: All players must be in the same LAN. Playlist can’t be 1 JPG file only (you can duplicate
same file twice). 1 video file is okay. If not sync after power up, just wait. Or stop master
then start playback again.
Note: It’s better to use wired connection for better response time. Wireless wifi may cause
some delay and not in sync sometimes.

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5. Device Controls: All the device control related are under this page. Options are as follows:

a. Network Mode: Important item to choose your connection to icat5 server. Options are
OFF(Standalone, no network), LAN(Ethernet port), WIFI (plug wifi antenna), 3G (plug
optional 3G data module, sold separately)
b. Content Storage: User can choose which storage device (Internal Disk, Micro SD or USB) to
use for content storage. Internal flash has about 4.5GB free space. Once selected, the other
2 will be no function even plugged. Default is Internal Disk.
c. Device icat ID: This is player ID to login icat server. 10 digits only. Demo ID is 0010010013.
d. Device ID: Factory defined device ID, not changeable.
e. Device Name: Factory defined device name, not changeable.

6. Network Settings: to define server address and player network connection method.

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a. Server configuration: server data must be correct, otherwise player can’t login to server
successfully. Default is icat5 server address. www.icat5.icatsign.com
• Server connection mode: it has “Domain Name Mode” or “IP Mode”

• If Domain Name Mode is chosen, then server address will be text for domain name
entry (left). If IP is chosen, then server address will become IP numbers (right). Use on-
screen virtual keyboard to enter text or number. Then move cursor to [Back) to previous
page.

• Server port: Default is 80. But it depends on which port is defined if different server.

b. IP Type: IP type is for player if it’s DHCP or Static IP when connecting to router. This
selection will appear only when “LAN” is chosen on the “Network Mode”

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 c. WIFI Setup: This selection will appear only when “WIFI” is chosen on the “Network Mode.
Select your SSID name then enter passcode on the virtual keyboard, then click “Connect”
If success, it will show “Connected”. If not, just try again with right data.

d. Network Status Display: This is to show server address and local IP on the main menu. If set
to OFF, it will show “XXX” only.
e. TCP Port: this item is not changeable. Default is 4701.
f. UDP Port: this item is not changeable. Default is 4702.
g. MAC Address: this item is not changeable. Factory will assign an unique Mac address for
each player.

7. Time Settings: All time related items are in this page.

a. Startup Sync Time Setting: Player will sync current time with server when powers up.
Default is ON.
b. Daylight Saving Time: If your region has such daylight saving, turn it ON to adjust to right
time.
c. Time Zone: Each region has its time zone. Please select correct one where player is located.
d. Sync Time: Allow you to sync time with server immediately when network is connected.

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8. Timer Controls: This page allows you to control player On/Off time.

a. Setting Mode: it has Daily or Weekly options.

• Daily: can choose 1 of the 4 options from control mode, and every day is same option.
• Weekly: allows to select each day and then choose 1 of the 4 options from control
mode
b. Control Mode: it has 4 options. Timer / Always On / Always Off / Manual
• Timer: can have 5 timer setup. Each one can set from HH:MM to HH:MM.
• Always On: player will stay on all the time.
• Always Off: player will stay off. If player is powered on, it will shut off in 2 minutes if
there is no other operation. This is chance to set it back to ON or timer options.
• Manual: you can use remote control’s power key to control player’s On/Off manually.

9. Format Disk: will format content storage device depending on which one is selected (Internal
Disk/ Micro SD / USB).
• Click Yes if you are sure to clean up entire disk. All the data will be erased.
• Click No, then it will cancel the format operation.

10. Exit: back to NP200 main menu

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IV. icat-5 Cloud Software
iCAT5 is a Cloud-based Digital Signage Content Management software that enables media download,
playlist management and scheduling of signage content. It supports customized zoning template, player
monitoring, player screen capture, player configuration, timer control, and many more features. All can be
controlled remotely via an internet browser.

Web address: www.icat5.icatsign.com

Enter your User ID and password on this page

Home page will appear after login successfully

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Step 1: Create Group name

Click on the +New icon, a New Group window will appear below. Enter your group name and
also select Player Type “NP200_Android” for NP200 player. If player is NP100 then select NP100.

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Step 2: Add Player

Click on the icon, a new player window will appear below. Enter player name and point to
Group’s pull down menu to select your group name. Once selected, player will be under this group for
its operation. Player can be re-assigned to different group later. Just click on the Edit icon.

Timer Setup and City Code are optional, can leave for blank, then click “Save”

Once saved, a new player ID is created. First 3 digits is company number, rest 7 digits is unique number
for each player.

You can copy these 10 digit numbers and enter on the player’s icat ID (page 4 #5)

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Step 3: Upload Media Contents

3 types of content can be uploaded to server and saved in the media library for future use.

Supporting formats are as follows;

HD Video 1080p: MPEG1、MPEG2、MPEG4、H.264、WMV

File extension: (mpg/mpeg/mp4/divx/mkv/mov)

Playback Format
SD Video 480p: MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI

Images: JPEG、BMP、PNG

Click on and following upload window will appear. Browse your image files from your local
PC. All images will be uploaded one by one till finished.

Media files can be displayed in “List” or “Grid” layout. On the top row, it’s filter function that allows you
to find or sort your data.

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Video upload is similar to image upload.

RSS Upload

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated
works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. NP-100 will
display RSS ticker overlapping on the screen . You can program several RSS URL for playlist to choose.
Below are some RSS URL samples.

http://news.yahoo.com/rss/basketball

http://news.yahoo.com/rss/us

http://news.yahoo.com/rss/topstories

You can also click “New Text” and enter your data and save as a filename. This file can be selected from
playlist Text window.

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Step 4: Create Template

Click on to create a new custom template. It will pop up a name and screen mode window.
After template name is entered, select screen orientation for your content layout. Landscape mode is
1920x1080 display. And Portrait mode is 1080x1920 display. Then select Type to assign this template
for NP100 or NP200 player.

Once saved, a blank template screen will appear for you to customize any multiple zones layout or full
screen. There are 13 Icons on the top row. Each one is a zone. You can use from 1 to 13 zones.
Movie/Photo zone is primary zone (must be chosen). Rest zones are all optional.

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The Icons on top row are listed below.

- “Wallpaper” is a jpeg file that will occupy entire screen. So you can leave it empty for black
screen or choose one jpeg only for your wallpaper picture.

- “Movie/Photo zone” is one area for video file or jpeg file to playback. Minimum size is 640 x
480 and maximum is 1920 x 1080.
- “Image zone” has 4 and only for jpeg. Minimum size is 320 x 200 and maximum is 1920 x
1080.

- “HTML Zone” User can enter any valid web URL to display web page.

- “RSS/Text” is for RSS ticker or text message. This zone can be overlapped with other zones.

- “Date Zone”. It will display day and date.

- “Time Zone”.

- “Weather Zone”. It will display weather graph, city and temperature.

- “Logo Zone”. Size is only 64, 128 or 256 vertically and horizontally.

- “Bulletin Board”. User can enter any text like WordPad and display like information board

Move: Click on each zone, then use Up, Down, Left, Right
Enlarge: Click on each zone, then use Control + Up, Down, Left, Right key to increase size

Template Examples:

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Step 5: Create Playlist

Playlist is a sequence of media files that are assigned to each zone. Click on to create a new
playlist.

Define your name of the playlist, then choose template (NP100 or NP200) then save. Each zone Icon are
on the top row. Just click each one then select your video or image file. Save is to save your current data.
“Publish” is to make this playlist available for player to download. You still need to use schedule in step 6
to complete your playlist.

Playlist List:

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Step 6: Create Scheduler

Schedule is to predefine a time range for selected playlists to playback. Player will playback according to
the schedule/playlist. Click on to create a new schedule file. After enter “schedule name” and
add. Player Type is required to select your player. If NP200 then select NP200_Android. IF NP100 then
select NP100.

There are three things to enter here besides schedule name and description.

1). Add group is to choose which group and its players for this schedule.

2). Add playlist is to add pre-defined playlist

3) Define date range and time range and week days

After all these, save and publish this schedule for player.

[Note] You can make changes on playlist and scheduler later. Make sure you click on “Publish”. Once
published, the status light will become “green dot”. If just saved, not published, it will show “red light”.
Once published, the new content or new schedule will be reflect in the next communication time with
server.

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Optional Settings: Folder

Folder is to let user create folder to manage media files. Click on to create a new “Folder”.
Then enter name and save. (left picture)

Folder name can be selected from pull-down menu on top row of media library or playlist. (right picture)

Folder List:

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Administrator can assign new user for this account. Each new user can be 1) Group Manager 2) End-User

“Group Manager” user can only view and edit assigned group, not un-assigned group.

“End-user” user can only view assigned group, not un-assigned group.

There is a maximum user number of 3 that is limited by icat server admin.

Password: allow you to change your password

Just enter old password then enter new password twice.

Account: Some administration settings are grouped here.

Email: you can enter two different email address when the check box is enabled. Icat server will send
off-line notification to the email address when player status becomes off-line.

DST: If your region has daylight saving time, click the check box, server will enter pre-defined days. If
not, you can enter the right day.

Format: weather format for Fahrenheit or Celsius

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