Overview of External Content Integration in Cisco StadiumVision Director
First Published: May 5, 2015
Revised: May 16, 2016
This module includes the following topics:
Introduction
Figure 1 shows a high-level overview of the content support in the External Content Integration feature in Cisco StadiumVision Director.
Figure 1 External Content Integration High-Level Overview
Release 4.0 Enhancements
Beginning in Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 4.0, the following enhancements were introduced:
Data Integration Enhancements
Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 4.0 and later supports the following updates for Data Integration:
– Support for PostgreSQL
– Ability to deploy more than one database in the system for new data sources created in Release 4.0 and later.
Support for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) data format has been added for Generic Data Sources. More and more external data providers are moving to JSON format instead of XML format due primarily to the compactness of the format. This feature increases the flexibility of our generic data source integration to support upload of content with this format.
Note The JSON is internally converted to XML for use by Cisco StadiumVision Director.
This new data source type is introduced to add IP addresses to the Data Integration feature to support implementation of custom suite welcome messages.
The primary use case for this feature is to support creation of custom welcome messages. For more information on a configuration example for custom welcome messages and the table lookup feature, see the “Custom Welcome Messages Configuration Example” section.
This feature allows users to create multiple mapping tables, each having multiple key-value mappings. User can upload tables from a TSV file or can create tables and mappings from the UI. Once tables are created, you can use the Table Lookup options or a custom XPath function can be defined, to look up values from these tables for specified keys for output field mapping.
Widgets Tool Enhancements
Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 4.0 introduces the following Widgets tool enhancements:
- Default canvas background color is changed from white to gray.
- Default alignment for the List component is changed from horizontal to vertical.
- Multiple fonts are supported.
Overview of the External Content Integration Interface
The External Content Integration feature is implemented using two basic areas of the Control Panel:
- Control Panel > Setup > Data Integration
The Data Sources configuration consists of two tabs:
– Configuration—Use to specify the network-related and data parameters for the selected data source.
– Field mapping—Use to select and map statistics for output display.
The Widgets tool is used to add graphics and design the layout for the data that you want to display from the External Content Integration feature.
The remainder of the tasks associated with publishing external content to a TV display use the existing Cisco StadiumVision Director playlist and script creation interfaces.
Supported External Content Sources
Cisco StadiumVision Director predefines the data structures to support the following external content sources:
- Atom Feed
- Daktronics All Sport 5000 Scoreboard Controller (basketball and hockey only)
- National Football League (NFL) Game Statistics and Information System (GSIS) Cumulative Statistics
- NFL GSIS Game Clock
- OES ISC9000 Intelligent Scoreboard Controller (basketball and hockey only)
- POS data sources:
– Generic PoS
– Internal Database PoS
– Menu Theme
In addition to these predefined data sources, Cisco StadiumVision Director also can support Generic Data Sources in JSON or XML format from the following source types:
- Database—Supports automatic translation of MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLServer database formats to XML data in Cisco StadiumVision Director.
- FTP
- HTTP
- TCP
- UDP
Restrictions for External Content Integration
Before you configure External Content Integration, consider the following restrictions:
- The External Content Integration feature is not venue aware. This means that any configuration applies to all venues and cannot be made venue-specific.
- The frequency of the scoreboard clock updates is no more than once per second and a delay of up to 2 seconds can occur.
- Only basketball and hockey scoreboard statistics are currently supported.
- RSS feed approvals must be done pre-ingestion of the content into Cisco StadiumVision Director.
- Up to 5 images can be supported from a data source using the PicToScreen widget. For more information on the Widgets tool, see the “Designing the Layout of External Content Using the Widgets Tool” module.
- Data from a generic data source is not cached in Cisco StadiumVision Director. This means that DMPs must be able to reach any externally referenced source data (for example, referenced images) on the network. If the DMPs do not have access to the external data source, then you need to set up an intermediary server to cache external data internally to the Cisco StadiumVision Director network.
- The total data source data pushed for a single event script cannot exceed 16 KB in size when using External Content Integration due to a limitation in the multicast packet size for pushing data to the DMP.
If total data sources for a given script exceed 16 KB and you do not need to synchronize data across many DMPs, then you can configure the new Data Pull component with your other configured components in the widgets tool. The Data Pull component causes the DMP to pull data from Cisco StadiumVision Director rather than have data be pushed by StadiumVision Director over multicast, which overcomes the 16 KB maximum multicast packet size.
Information About NFL GSIS Integration in Cisco StadiumVision Director
This section includes the following topics:
Network Considerations for NFL GSIS Integration
The NFL GSIS statistics supported by the External Content Integration feature are transferred from data stored on an NFL Stats-in-a-Box (SIAB) server installed at the venue using an FTP connection to the Cisco StadiumVision Director server. The NFL SIAB server is a local server that connects to the central NFL GSIS database external to the venue and managed by the NFL.
Figure 2 shows a sample network architecture for NFL GSIS integration with Cisco StadiumVision Director.
Note The actual network configuration with the NFL network is site-dependent and could vary at your venue.
Figure 2 Network Architecture for NFL GSIS Integration
It is important to note that the network where the SIAB server is installed is not necessarily (and likely not) on the same network where the Cisco StadiumVision Director server is installed. Therefore, depending on your specific network configuration, you might have some network configuration to do to ensure that the SIAB server is reachable by the Cisco StadiumVision Director server.
To configure the network connectivity to the NFL SIAB server you must specify the IP address, port, data path, username, and password for the NFL SIAB server on the Cisco StadiumVision Director server.
Supported NFL GSIS Data
Cisco StadiumVision Director supports the NFL GSIS Game Clock and all of the statistics in the Cumulative Statistics XML file (CumulativeStatisticsFile). For more information and documentation for these statistics, go to:
http://www.nflgsis.com/gsis/
From the NFL GSIS Home page, click Documentation. Click the corresponding documentation links for the Cumulative Statistics Report and the Real-time Game Information (Game Clock).
Information About Scoreboard Integration in Cisco StadiumVision Director
This section includes the following topics:
Overview of Scoreboard Integration Support
Cisco StadiumVision Director scoreboard integration allows you to display real-time information (such as period, score, and clock) on Cisco StadiumVision Director TV displays.
Figure 3 shows a high-level overview of the scoreboard integration support. Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 3.0 and later supports the following devices and sports:
- Daktronics All Sport 5000 Scoreboard Controller ( NBA basketball and hockey only)
- OES ISC9000 Intelligent Scoreboard Controller (basketball and hockey only)
Note Beginning in Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 3.1.0-787 (SP1), support for Daktronics scoreboard integration requires the addition of the Lantronix UDS1100-PoE box. This device must be configured to allow connectivity to the Cisco StadiumVision Director server.
Figure 3 Scoreboard Integration High-Level Overview
Network Considerations for Scoreboard Integration
Cisco StadiumVision Director communicates with the supported scoreboard controllers through a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) port connection. Both the corresponding controller interface and the Cisco StadiumVision Director server must be configured to establish the network connectivity between these devices.
Information About Generic Data Sources in Cisco StadiumVision Director
Beginning in Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 3.1, support for external content integration with generic data sources in Cisco StadiumVision Director is introduced. Generic data sources can be used for other forms of XML sources that you want to ingest into Cisco StadiumVision Director whose format does not conform to some of the standard out-of-the-box data source types such as RSS 2.0.
Note If your data feed does not strictly conform to the standard format of the predefined data source types in the External Content Integration feature, then the Generic Data Source type is recommended for best results.
This section includes the following topics:
Generic Data Source Message Types
The generic data source can be configured as one of the following message types:
- Database—Supports automatic translation of MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLServer database formats to XML data in Cisco StadiumVision Director.
- FTP
- HTTP (including HTTPS)
- TCP
- UDP
Generic Data Source Data Formats
Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 4.0 and later releases support JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) data format for generic data sources, in addition to XML. More and more external data providers are moving to JSON format instead of XML format due primarily to the compactness of the format.
Data Views
Data views can be configured to support ingestion of multiple feeds as an advanced data configuration option. Data views allow you to merge data from multiple feeds and use an expression editor to select certain data elements from those feeds to be put into a single combined data source for presentation. The data source can be laid out for presentation using the PicToScreen or TextToScreen components of the Widgets tool.
Figure 4 shows receipt of two independent RSS feed sources into Cisco StadiumVision Director with data integration of those sources into a data view that is then re-ingested into the External Content Integration feature as a single data source of the combined feeds.
Figure 4 Multiple RSS Feeds Combined into Single Data Source
The newly combined data source of the two RSS feeds can be bound to a TextToScreen component in the Widgets tool to lay out its final presentation for use in the standard script/playlist publishing methods of Cisco StadiumVision Director.
For more information about configuring data views, see the “Working with Data Views” section.
XML or JSON Schema for Generic Data Sources
If you want to use a generic data source in the External Content Integration feature, then you must be able to provide the XML or JSON schema for a single sector (that is representative of all of the sectors) in the data feed. This sample data can then be used for the configuration of your data source.
JSON feeds that have repeating elements must be encapsulated in a container element—that is, they need to have a root element.
Note The JSON is internally converted to XML for use by Cisco StadiumVision Director.
Information About Content Feeds in Cisco StadiumVision Director
Beginning in Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 3.1, enhanced support for RSS feed design using the External Content Integration feature was added. It includes support for a predefined RSS data feed, and an Atom feed.
Note The legacy Ticker feature remains available from the Control Panel in Cisco StadiumVision Director.
This section includes the following topics:
Differences Between Legacy Ticker Feature and External Content Integration for RSS Support
Table 1 provides a comparison of the differences between the legacy Ticker feature available from the Control Panel, and the new RSS feed support available from the External Content Integration feature in the Control Panel > Setup screen.
Table 1 Comparison of Ticker Feature with External Content Integration RSS Support
|
|
UI Support for Content Approvals
|
|
Ticker (Control Panel) |
No |
Yes |
Cisco DMP 4310G only |
External Content Integration RSS (Control Panel / Setup) |
Yes |
No |
All media players |
When using External Content Integration to configure your RSS feeds, approvals must be done outside of the Cisco StadiumVision Director software and prior to its ingestion by Cisco StadiumVision Director. However, the External Content Integration feature allows you to customize the layout of your RSS information on the display using the PicToScreen and TextToScreen components of the Widgets tool.
The primary advantage of the legacy Ticker feature is that you can do approvals of your content from within the user interface, but you do not have any control over the layout design.
Predefined Feed Sources
Beginning in Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 3.1, support was added for the following predefined data sources for RSS and Atom support:
Atom Feed Data Fields
Table 2 describes the data fields that are supported in Cisco StadiumVision Director for the predefined Atom feed data source.
Table 2 Data Fields for Mapping Atom Feeds
|
|
Title |
Title element in original Atom feed. |
Content |
Content element in original Atom feed. |
Id |
Id element in original Atom feed. |
Image |
First enclosure URL within a link element, if available. Otherwise, source URL of the first HTML image element within content. |
RSS Feed Data Fields
Table 3 describes the data fields that are supported in Cisco StadiumVision Director for the predefined RSS feed data source, which can be used as a generic data source for other RSS feeds.
Table 3 Data Fields for Mapping RSS Feeds (Generic)
|
|
Title |
Title element in original RSS feed. |
Description |
Description element in original RSS feed. |
Link |
Link element in original RSS feed. |
Image |
First enclosure URL, if available. Otherwise, source URL of the first HTML image element within description. |
Information About POS Data Sources in Cisco StadiumVision Director
Beginning in Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 3.2 and later releases, three new POS data sources are supported:
Allows any external POS data source that meets the XML schema requirements of the Cisco StadiumVision Director POS API to be ingested for use in the External Content Integration feature.
Allows POS data from stores that have been configured in Cisco StadiumVision Director to be made available as a data source to be used and modified in the Widgets tool.
Allows the default menu theme data from the Cisco StadiumVision Director DMB application to be made available as a data source so that this DMB theme content can be used and modified in the Widgets tool.
Differences Between the DMB Application and External Content Integration for POS Data and Menu Board Creation
The Dynamic Menu Board (DMB) application is still supported in Release 3.2 and later releases. If you have integrated with a supported POS vendor using the DMB application in Cisco StadiumVision Director, then you can continue to use that application to support your menu boards.
The External Content Integration feature provides a way for you to configure POS data sources that make the DMB store data available for use within the Widgets tool to create and publish your menus. Using Data Integration and the Widgets tool for your DMB store data also allows you to eliminate the need for creation of a Gadget Archive (GAR) with Adobe Shockwave Flash (SWF) files.
Summary of DMB and External Content Integration Differences for Menu Creation
Table 4 provides a summary of the key functional differences between the DMB application and the External Content Integration feature for POS data and menu creation.
Table 4 DMB Application and External Content Integration Differences for Menu Creation
|
|
External Content Integration
|
Concessionaire role support |
Yes |
No |
Dynamic menu content updates |
Yes |
Yes |
Flexible menu design |
No |
Yes |
Font control |
No |
Yes |
In-suite ordering |
Yes |
No |
Vendor-dependent integration |
Yes |
No—But vendor must meet the XML schema requirements for the Generic PoS data source. |
Widget layout tool support |
No |
Yes |
Deployment Guidelines for POS Data Integration and the Widgets Tool for Menu Creation
Table 5 provides a summary of each POS data integration method for menu creation and when to use it along with information about dependencies and other guidelines. The last row of the table describes use of a manual method of menu creation where no data integration is used.
Table 5 Deployment Guidelines and Dependencies for POS Data Integration Methods
|
|
|
|
Guidelines/Best Practices
|
Generic PoS |
- You need to support POS data from a vendor other than Quest or Micros.
- You only want to use Data Integration and the Widgets tool for your menu creation.
|
No |
- POS vendors host an API over HTTP/HTTPS for menu retrieval.
- POS data must conform to Cisco StadiumVision Director POS API XML schema.
|
If you want to categorize menu items into groups, then you should have a data source for each menu category from the POS vendor. |
Internal Database PoS |
- You have very simple menu data.
- You only need your menu data to appear in a single list.
- You already use Quest or Micros POS but want to build Menu Boards using Widgets instead of the DMB application.
|
No |
Category groupings are not supported. All menu data is ingested as one data source. |
This is similar to Generic POS method, except that you use existing Quest or Micros installation instead of a new POS vendor. |
Menu Theme |
- You already support menus in DMB using Cisco or POS stores.
- You have created menus for the stores using DMB themes.
- You want to support groups on your menu and use the Widgets tool to design the layout of your menu.
|
Yes |
Data changes, such as price updates, must be made in the DMB application. |
You can use your own background for the menu board, or use the theme background from DMB. |
None—Manual menu creation in the Widgets tool with static data. |
- You have simple menus with a limited amount of data.
- You do not have many menus to maintain.
- Your menu data does not change frequently, or, you have the resources to make manual menu updates prior to events.
- You do not want to use the DMB application.
|
No |
Any data changes must be made manually in the Widgets tool. |
This method does not use any data integration source. |
Information About the System Data Source
Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 4.0 and later releases include the System data source, which is installed by default. When used as part of your field mapping for data integration, the System data source enables retrieval of media player IP address information from Cisco StadiumVision Director for use by your widget.
In combination with the Table Lookup feature, this allows you to map IP addresses in the system with associated content for that IP address. You can use this feature to display custom suite welcome messages, or other widget content that you want to associate with a particular media player IP address location.
For an example, see the “Custom Welcome Messages Configuration Example” section.
Table Lookup Feature
The Table Lookup feature allows you to associate two elements for data integration as a key-value pair. The “key” is data within the Cisco StadiumVision Director system, and the “value” is the filename, text string, or other content to be associated with the key.
Beginning in Cisco StadiumVision Director Release 4.0, you can associate media player IP addresses with a content file or a text string. The primary use case is to support custom welcome messages in luxury suites or other locations at a venue.
There are two ways that you can create these tables of mulitple key-value pairs:
- Manual creation of the table and data.
- Upload of a TSV file that can automatically create multiple tables with corresponding data by IP address.
Once tables are created, you can use the Table Lookup options (or a custom XPath function can be defined), to look up values from these tables that correspond to the specified keys for output field mapping using data integration and the widgets tool.