FM1602-051316 © 2016 GuruDM

Version 4.6.0a

GuruDM Centauri Guide1

Thank you for purchasing a GuruDM Electronic Message Center!

GuruDM features very robust and easy to use software that will allow you to get your message displaying within minutes. Before you get into programming your sign, there are some important decisions you need to make in order to make effective use of your sign.

First, are there any local codes that restrict what you can display on your signs? Is there a restriction on how often your message can change? Is animation allowed? Before you begin programming your sign, ensure that you know these answers so that you do not violate your local laws.

Second, decide what you want to sell more of. Some businesses will advertise low prices on specific items in order to more traffic into their business, in order to increase their customer traffic. Increase customer traffic will give you more sales. Just remember your sign is not designed to be an entertainment device; putting too much fluff on it will decrease the time your sign has to actually sell product!

Next, decide your graphics look like, and where are they coming from. Just remember that graphics that look good on TV or printed on a sheet of paper may not look as good on a digital display. If you keep your graphics simple, with high color and brightness contrasts, the result will be more effective on your sign. Professionally produced content will tremendously improve your sign’s impact. You can visit www.signprogrammers.com to obtain high quality graphics for you sign.

Spending some time considering what will make your sign more effective is necessary to achieve the increased revenue and business your sign is capable of generating for you.

Again, everyone at GuruDM wishes you the best results with your new sign and appreciates your business.

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First Time Setup

The first time you start the Centauri software, you will be prompted to choose the editing mode for your sign. The Billboard mode is a more advanced and complicated version that allows for advanced users to optimize exactly how the sign display will appear. It is recommended for all users to select the Sign option for programming, and click “do not show” to prevent this screen from appearing again. At a later time, advanced users may select Configuration from the drop down menu and select Edit Mode Configuration to change the editing mode if desired.

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This screen is the main status panel for your sign. If your sign is powered on and connected, the display will appear under the online column. If it is powered on and connected but still does not show as online, try clicking Search Now to try searching for the sign again.

Select the Create PlayList button to begin adding content to your sign.

Advanced users may select Display Control to adjust TCP/IP communication settings, adjust the display time and time zone, and brightness levels.

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Creating a Playlist

The main page of the playlist creation.

The Playlist page is where you will build your advertisements for your sign. There are several tools that you will need to familiarize yourself with in order to create your advertisement.

The Main edit window is where you click to type your text and add other content types. You can click on the black box to begin typing a message to appear on the sign.

There are other types of content you can place on the sign in addition to simple text

Text

Graphics

Analog Clock

Digital Clock

Timer

Not U

sed

Weather

Information

Zoom In

Zoom

Level

Zoom O

ut

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The Frame Manager.

The Frame Manager allows you to add more frames to your play list. The software will play the frames on the sign in the same sequence they appear on the sign.

Add Fram

e

Copy Fram

e

Paste Fram

e

Delete Fram

e

Clear Fam

e

Move

Frame U

p

Move

Frame

down

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Schedule Editor

Click the blue text to open the Schedule Editor. Each frame will have its own schedule that can be set. If no schedule is set, the frame will play continuously.

The frame can be scheduled to run between specific dates. If you click the plus symbol, additional date ranges can be added.

The frame can run during specific times. When you click a time block, it will turn blue indicating that the frame will play during that period.

The frame can be scheduled only for specific days of the week. Deselect the days you do not want the schedule to play on.

You can also set how many times the frame will repeat before moving to the next scheduled frame.

When setting up a schedule do not forget that you have to set a schedule for each frame! To save time, if you know you will have several frames with the same schedule, you can use the frame manager tools to copy one frame with a completed schedule. You can then paste to another and then add new content; the pasted frame will have the schedule from the frame you copied.

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Properties Bar

The properties bar is always located on the right side of your screen. The exact components the content bar will display will vary depending on the content type you have selected. The bar shown below is the type shown when text mode is selected.

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Text Mode

The Font panel allows you to choose any of the fonts available on your computer, in addition to many text and background colors. Keep in mind that many fonts will not look good on signage. The best fonts typically are thick, bold fonts.

The text Alignment allows you to position your text in the frame. The top row of buttons aligns the text towards the top, middle, or bottom. The bottom row aligns the text to the right, left, or middle.

The Play Effect panel will control how a new frame appears onto your sign.

The Play Duration controls how long the frame will remain on your sign before changing to the next frame.

The Background panel allows you to change the entire background color of a frame.

The Spacing panel allows you to widen the gap between letters to allow for them to be more easily read.

Text Effect allows for text to be either outlined or shadowed to enhance readability.

The Border will allow you to add an animated border to your sign, making your sign more noticeable.

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Clicking More will bring up additional options. You can then change the speed, direction, border type, as well as colors used on some of the border animations.

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Graphics Mode

The Centauri program supports the following graphic and animated formats:

avi wmv asf asx rmvb rm mpg mpeg mpe mov vob vcd ts mp4 flv bmp jpeg jpe png static gif

It is best to resize the any content you insert to match the size of your sign, in pixels. In addition, you should ensure that there is a large amount of color contrast in the images, as well as brightness contrast. High contrast will allow for your images to be clear. Most photos from a regular digital camera will not be visually acceptable for use on your sign. Stock photos, or specifically designed signage photos are highly recommended in order for your advertising message to appear professional.

The content bar for the Graphics mode has a few differences from that of the Text Mode.

The Display scale will change how the picture is displayed on the sign. To fill the entire screen up, the Fill option is used. However, using Fill may stretch out the image and make it appear distorted.

The Overlay text option is perfect for placing text captions on top of photos or animations.

When you click the Edit Text box, the text edit tools will appear. You can adjust the positioning of the text by using the alignment tools, and by adding additional spaces to your text to adjust its position.

Text before using alignment tools

Text after using alignment tools

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Analog Clock

The Analog Clock is a round face style clock. It is designed for signs that have a large amount of pixels. The minimum size sign to use the Analog clock setting is 64 pixels in height, and 64 pixels in width.

The content bar for the Analog Clock will allow you to change the colors used in the clock face.

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Digital Clock

The Digital Clock is the preferred method for displaying the time and date information. The time information should be used sparingly, as each time frame used is less time for you to advertise for your business.

The content bar allows you to choose what type of date and time information is displayed, by checking off the items you would like to display.

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Timer

The timer allows your sign to count up from a day, or count down to a future event. Some popular things to count are how many days since the last accident at a factory, or how many days until New Years.

To set the timer, select the event you want to count to or from, such as New Years 2017 as shown in the picture above. If you are counting to a future event, select Count Down. If you are counting from an event in the past, such as the number of days since the last accident, you would use the Count Up option.

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Weather Information

The weather information will allow your sign to display weather information pulled from the internet. In order for this feature to work, your sign must have internet access.

To use the weather information, select the State, and City you are in. If your city is not available, call GuruDM technical support and request that a technician add your city to your computer. You can select the different weather aspects you would like to display, such as temperature, forecasted temperature, wind, and humidity.

Please note, after sending your playlist to your sign, it will take ten minutes for the weather information to be acquired and display on your sign.

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Frame Divider

The frame divider will split a frame into multiple parts. This is best used for when multiple content types are desired on the same frame. As an example, you can set the divider to allow your sign to display both the current weather information, and text. To use this tool, click on the drop down menu and select a divided frame. To select a different division, click the section in the editing window. You can also use the Arrows to adjust the size of the divided areas.

Drop Down Menu

Arrows to adjust area

Currently selected area in blue

Coordinate location and size, in pixels, of selected area

In addition, the frame divider can be used to “Layer” multiple content types on top of another. Layering will allow you to use a photo or video as a background, and you can add Weather Information, Countdown Timers, or Animated text to a frame.

First, click the drop down menu and select Transparency 1.

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A pink square will appear. This pink square is the transparent layer. Text, weather information, count down timers, and time should be placed in this box. This will allow for text to be used on top of any graphical content. To go to the background, double click on the area outside of the transparent layer. When the background is selected, you can add an image or animation by clicking the Graphics Mode icon.

To adjust the borders of the box, double click on the pink area. The white squares are “handles” that will allow you to drag and adjust the border of the transparent layer.

The frame divider window will also show the coordinates of the top left corner of the layer, as well as the width and height of the layer.

Layer Selection

Add, Delete, Save Custom Layout

Top left corner X coordinate

Top left corner Y coordinate

Width of Transparent Layer

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By using the transparent layer, you can create very effective graphical frames easily. Be sure to use the preview window to see how the sign will appear with the transparent layer.

Height of transparent layer

By using the transparent layer, you can create very effective graphical frames easily. Be sure to use the preview window to see how the sign will appear with the transparent layer.

Height of transparent layer

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Publishing your playlist

Clicking the Publish button will automatically save the playlist you are currently working on, and open the Online Send window. Most users should use the default settings. When you send the playlist, it will automatically overwrite the playlist currently loaded on the sign.

After the playlist is sent successfully, click Finish. Your new content will now be playing on your sign.

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© 2016 GuruDM