We have several Android (DSCS9) players deployed at various off site locations. They are all using (the customer’s) WiFi for internet access. We have access granted through our firewall to our CMS.
The current problem is that the Android players stop working. By that I mean that the display screen goes to black, in the CMS Display view the Last Accessed timestamp stops advancing, and the Logged In field changes from a check to an X.
We can power cycle the player and it starts working again, playing the assigned layout and checking in (Last Accessed advances), but this only lasts for about two hours then it stops again.
We have one DSCS9 sitting on my desk that has been running for a couple of months without a problem. It is using WiFi that is routing from outside the firewall, so its communication path is (nearly) the same as the ones in the trade.
The content played consists of a static .jpg background, text price menu on one side, plus two videos (.mp4) on the other side. Layout runtime is 55 seconds. Background is 500k, videos are 31 and 36 MB.
CMS 1.8.0 on Ubuntu 16
Android client 1.8-104
Where can I look to start figuring out what is happening?
I connected two players via a cellular hotspot instead of our internal wireless network, thereby simulating as close to the exact same scenario as possible to what is in the trade. It took five hours instead of two, but the end result was both devices dropped off at the same time. The portion of the screen with static content remained while the portion with video went black. In the trade the entire screen is going black, but at least we have something to work with.
The Logged In status went to X and the Last Accessed was at the time of failure.
I updated the player version to 1.8-108 on one and left the other one as is for a control. We will see how they act.
After over 14 hours of operation these two players had no problems on my bench. I’ve sent a guy to swap them into place in the trade, hopefully they won’t have the same problem as the two they will be replacing. I am out on Fridays so I’m hoping to see good news Monday morning.
These two players have now been in the trade for 5 days and are still operational. I have not yet upgraded the CMS (still hoping to get that done soon).
Either way, it appears that we have a functional solution. Now for the labor time of visiting each of the other locations and slapping the players around a little to get them to start working again.