I have three TV monitors running Windows 10 with Windows Xibo Player (R404.1) on our shop floor. I recently updated CMS to version 4.2.0 (Docker [Windows 10]) because of the emergency alerts feature. I love this option because we are in a metal building and don’t have cell service for emergency alerts.
I have configured the National Weather Service Connector using the following: https://api.weather.gov/alerts/active (followed by lat, long coordinates)
Everything seems to be updating in CMS with the correct information, however; to update the players I have to manually:
open the layout for the appropriate alert. “Checkout” then “Publish”
refresh the schedule
“Collect Now” on each display TV
It doesn’t seem to want to update automatically
My current setup:
-One full time layout that shows a vacation calendar, logo, announcements and a playlist that cycles through a few pictures.
-An overlay layout showing National Weather Service emergency alerts filter by “Moderate” (to display a small popup window with yellow background). I have a schedule that overlays this when Criteria=“Emergency Alerts>Status>Equal to> Actual Event”
-Another set severity to “Severe” (to display a small popup window with a red background)
-Another set severity to “Extreme” (take over screen, display event information, display text “take cover etc…”
-NWS alert update interval: 1 min.
-Collect interval for displays: 5 min.
All computers are connected to fast/reliable internet (for the most part) and are on the same network
I believe I fixed my issue by updating the XMR Public Address. Changed from the example address to tcp://(my ip address):9505. Seems to be updating fine now.
Thanks for following up with the answer - you’re right that the Emergency Alerts connector uses XMR to PUSH the alert triggers down to the player, so it won’t work if (XMR) push messaging isn’t working.
Hi Dan,
I thought I had this worked out, but I am still having issues (hard to test without actual alerts). Yesterday afternoon we had a tornado watch that turned into a severe thunderstorm warning (with watch still activiated). The tornado watch appeared fine under the schedule “non-critical” but when the severe thunderstorm warning was activated, the non-critical schedule disappeared, and the “Severe” schedule never appeared. I believe I have this setup to prioritize severe events over non severe events. Could someone take a look at my schedules below to see if this is how Xibo emergency alerts are set up, or if the three overlays are fighting each other? Unfortunately, this feature is so new, I can’t find any documentation. Thanks!
Hi @jkissel, If you’re using Xibo’s Windows Player, unfortunately, it doesn’t support the Schedule Criteria feature.
Your emergency alert setup is correct, but due to this limitation, even if the CMS pushes a new criteria via XMR, the Windows players won’t be able to evaluate and trigger layouts based on the updated criteria. This means the layouts won’t switch dynamically as expected.
Currently, the players that support Schedule Criteria are Android, Tizen, and WebOS.
Hi @jkissel, just to clarify, the NWS Emergency Alerts is already implemented in the CMS. But since it relies on the Schedule Criteria feature, and that’s not yet supported by the Windows Player, the layouts won’t switch dynamically on that platform.
This is not really an issue or a bug. It’s just a current limitation specific to the Windows Player. Support for this is expected to be included in a future update as the player continues to receive improvements.
