Player Connectivity & Network Recovery
The player keeps playing stored content and follows its schedule without a network connection. Images, videos and templates are stored on the screen. The network is needed to receive changes, to report status, and for web pages and live feeds. After a network problem, the player normally recovers by itself without anyone touching the screen.
ZetaDisplay Player software |
How the Player Communicates with ZetaDisplay
All connections to ZetaDisplay are started by the player. The two main connections are the status and content check and the IoT Hub connection. Media downloads and uploads of logs and screenshots use separate connections.
Status and Content Check
About every 10 minutes, the player asks ZetaDisplay for new content, schedules and settings. Changes are downloaded and applied automatically.
Some settings changes restart the player application, and a change of screen orientation restarts the screen or PC. Player software updates for Samsung and LG screens are also delivered this way.
Report | Frequency |
Status and content check | About every 10 minutes |
Device details | Checked every 10 minutes |
Health report | Every 4 hours |
Logs | Log files of completed hours and days are sent within 10 minutes. The log of the current hour is only sent when requested remotely, for example by ZetaDisplay support |
Proof of play, not detailed | Once an hour For all completed hours not yet sent |
Proof of play, detailed | Right after each day |
Screenshot | About once an hour |
Media download | When content changes |
IoT Hub and Remote Control
Once the player is registered, it opens a connection to Microsoft Azure IoT Hub when it starts and keeps it open.
Connection and Keepalive
When the connection is idle, the player sends a keepalive signal every 2 minutes. If there is no answer within 2 more minutes, the connection counts as lost. A closed connection is noticed at once.
Remote Commands
The connection is used for instant remote commands, including restart, screenshot, sending logs, live view, and refreshing content and settings.
Content Playback and Updates
Content and schedules do not depend on IoT Hub. If IoT Hub is unreachable, the screen keeps playing and updates still arrive through the status check.
Connection After Restart
After a restart, the player waits for its first IoT Hub connection attempt before it starts playing. If IoT Hub traffic is blocked without any answer, this can delay the start by up to about 4 minutes.
Access and Legacy Connections
Each player has its own access key issued by ZetaDisplay. The player renews it when it connects and the key has expired.
Players that have not yet switched to IoT Hub use the ZetaDisplay signal service for the same purpose. They switch to IoT Hub automatically after their first successful IoT Hub connection, with one application restart at the next status check.
Online and Offline Status
How Player Status Is Determined
The player does not decide its own status. The portal marks a player as online each time its status check reaches ZetaDisplay.
A player is shown as offline when ZetaDisplay has received no status check for more than 30 minutes, which is about 3 missed checks in a row. It is shown as online again with the first status check after the network returns, within 10 minutes.
The IoT Hub connection does not affect this status.
What “Offline” Means
Offline in the portal means ZetaDisplay has not received a status check. This can be a network problem, a screen that is switched off, or player software that is not running. It does not mean the screen has stopped playing.
Recovery Process for Network Issues
This section already has a nice four-stage structure, so I’d lean into that rather than treating it as one large, numbered paragraph.
Detection
The player notices a problem when a request to ZetaDisplay fails or gets no answer within 10 seconds, or when IoT Hub does not answer the keepalive within about 4 minutes.
During the Outage
The screen keeps playing stored content and follows its schedule using its own clock, with no time limit.
Proof of play is stored on the screen until it is sent. Daily log files are kept on the screen for 7 days, and hourly log files for 24 hours.
Web pages need the network. Live feeds show their last saved copy until it expires and are fetched again each time they are shown. The player keeps retrying as shown below.
When the Network Returns
No restart is needed.
Within 10 minutes, the status check fetches new content, schedules and settings, and the portal shows the player as online. Missing media is then downloaded. IoT Hub reconnects at its next retry.
Stored proof of play and log files are automatically sent according to their respective schedules.
Safety Net and Automatic Recovery
Samsung and LG screens restart once a day at a random time in the 02:00 hour of the screen clock by default. A different hour can be arranged with ZetaDisplay support.
On Windows, the player is closed if it stops responding for 1 to 2 minutes. In rare cases, ZetaDisplay support may need to restart a player remotely.
Function | Retry schedule | Longest wait after network returns |
Status and content check | Every 10 minutes No limit | 10 minutes |
IoT Hub | Waits 2 sec (5 tries), 10 sec (5 tries), 30 sec (5 tries), 60 sec (5 tries), then 10 minutes | About 10 minutes Up to 14 minutes if an attempt was still running |
Signal service | Every 4 hours | About 8 minutes |
Media download | Within about 1 minute, then after 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, then every 4 hours Each counted from the previous attempt, no limit. A content change or a restart retries at once | 4 hours Only for a file that failed 5 times in a row |
Proof of play, not detailed | Every hour | 1 hour for completed hours Up to 2 hours for the hour in progress |
Proof of play, detailed | New plays right away Stored plays every hour | 1 hour |
Logs | Every 10 minutes | 10 minutes For completed hours |
Network Requirements
Connections to ZetaDisplay
All connections to ZetaDisplay are started by the player. No inbound port needs to be opened for ZetaDisplay.
Connections to ZetaDisplay use port 443 (HTTPS and secure WebSocket). The only exception is LG screens, which download player software updates on port 80.
Web Pages and Feeds
Web pages and feeds added to content use the address entered for them.
Local Network Communication
On the local network, LG screens listen on port 8125, the Windows player adds a Windows Firewall rule for itself, and LG and Windows screens in a video wall talk to each other.
None of this is needed to reach ZetaDisplay.
Network and Proxy Settings
Samsung and LG players use the network settings of the screen.
Windows players use the Windows proxy settings, except for log uploads. Proxies that require a username and password are not supported