SmartLink

The SmartLink module allows you to send lighting control commands to the SmartLink system, allowing you to have default lighting schedules for faces, as well as lighting control schedules for campaigns.

Initial Setup

Options

Go to Tools-Options-SmartLink.

In the Connection section, provide the information that allows you to connect to the SmartLink system. Enter your license key provided by OutdoorLink, along with the specified User id and password. You can test your connection by clicking the Test button to ensure the information has been successfully entered.

In the Default Light Schedule section, define your most commonly used light schedule that you wish to apply to faces in Ad Manager. This default light schedule will take effect if you have specified the SmartLink details for the Face, but have not supplied a specific light schedule for the Face.

In the Expired Posting Policy section, if the checkbox is ticked then Ad Manager will turn off the lights if the active posting at the face is expired.

Once you have entered the appropriate information, click OK to save the options.

Enable SmartLink Publishing for Faces

In addition to the SmartLink connection credential, you must also provide SmartLink information for each AdManager face. Each OutdoorLink light control is uniquely identified by its Plant, Structure, and Panel and this information must be added to the corresponding AdManager face. Open the detail view for the face and click on the SmartLink tab. Tick the checkbox labelled SmartLink controlled, enter the Plant, Structure, and Panel information, and save your changes. The Light schedule combo box is used to assign a schedule to the face as discussed below.

Please note that if the OutdoorLink information is not entered correctly, Ad Manager will not be able to send the lighting schedule command to the lighting controller.

Creating Light Schedules

In the main AdManager window, open the SmartLink Folder in the Tree View and select All LightSchedules. In the List view, right click and choose New.

In the Light Schedule - Details view, specify details for the schedule. Give the schedule a meaningful name and code. Use the Schedule type combo box to choose whether the schedule has no lights (Always Off), one period or two periods of lighting. Specify the on and off times for the period(s) of lighting or choose to use sunset/sunrise as configured in SmartLink. Finally, click Save to create the schedule.

Assigning Light Schedules to Faces

When assigning a light schedule to a Face, you can either do this one face at a time, or multiple faces at a time.

Single Face

To update a single face with a lighting schedule, open the Face detail view and go to the SmartLink tab. The face must be SmartLink controlled as described above in Initial Setup. Choose the desired lightschedule for the face from the Light schedule combo box. If you leave the Light schedule blank, the Default schedule defined in Tools-Options will be used.

Multiple Faces at a Time

If you wish to update multiple faces at a time, in a list of faces highlight a selection of faces, right click and choose Update Light Schedule. Tick the check box beside Light Schedule to enable the combo box where you can choose the light schedule for the faces. Click OK to update the faces. If you leave the combo box blank, the Default schedule defined in Tools-Options will be used for the faces.

Assigning Light Schedules to Subcontracts

Ad Manager allows you to specify a specific light schedule to use for a campaign, if desired.

If you wish to use this feature, open the Subcontract and click on the SmartLink tab. Select the light schedule to be applied to all SmartLink controlled faces on this Subcontract. This lighting schedule will override the default schedule. If a light schedule is not applied to a Subcontract, the default schedule for each Face will be used. Click Save after you have selected the desired schedule.

If you wish to update multiple Subcontracts with the same lighting schedule, highlight the Subcontracts in a List View, right click and select Update Light Schedule. Click the check box, choose the desired light schedule, then click OK.

Publishing Light Schedules to SmartLink

When publishing light schedules to SmartLink using Ad Manager, you have 2 options available from a dialog before publishing:

"Turn off lights if the posting end date has passed". Ad Manager will send an OFF lightschedule if the EndsOn date of the active posting is today or earlier.

"Force - send all lightschedule(s) even if they have not changed". Ad Manager keeps track of the last lightschedule that has been published for the face and will only publish to SmartLink when there is a change in the lightschedule. Check this box to force-publish the schedule. It is useful if you believe changes have been made directly through the SmartLink website and you need to re-sync Ad Manager's cache.

Select desired options and click Ok to proceed. A progress dialog opens showing publishing details for each face and on completion, a summary of the results. Additionally, the results of all SmartLink publishing are output to a log file. Check your AppData folder for Dot2Dot\SmartLink Add-in\Logs\SmartLinkPublisher-yyyy-mm-dd.log file.

Manual Publishing

Full Schedule: If you wish to send all lighting schedules to SmartLink immediately, go to Tools-SmartLink-Publish Schedules to SmartLink.

Face(s): You can publish the lightschedule for a single face or a selection of faces. While viewing the details of the Face, choose Tools-Publish Schedule to SmartLink. If viewing a list of faces, select one or more faces and choose Publish Schedule to SmartLink from the Tools menu or from the right-click context menu.

Subcontract: You can publish the lightschedule for the contracted faces of a subcontract. While viewing the details of the Subcontract, choose Tools-Publish Schedule to SmartLink. If viewing a list of subcontracts, select one and choose Publish Schedule to SmartLink from the Tools menu or from the right-click context menu.

Scheduled Publishing

A scheduled task can be configured to run daily to update light schedules after your day's postings have been entered into Ad Manager as completed. A configuration xml file is used to specify publishing options.