Statistics / Proof of play
In some scenarios it is considered important to know if, where, when and how often media has been played on screens. Using Smartsign's integrated statistics function it's possible to view basic data in Publisher and download detailed data for offline analysis.
Basic concept
- Statistics are activated per media and player.
- Players that have statistics enabled will gather playback statistics for any media that also has statistics enabled.
- Data is collected locally in the player and then sent to the server once an hour
Advanced options
We recommend using statistics as per the basic concept above, but it is possible to tweak the functions cater for more specific needs.
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The time between reports to the server can be adjust with the player setting "Statistics report interval". As noted, the default is 60 minutes. Please note that from Smartsign 10.7 the statistics are stored locally in the player which means they are not lost if there is a network outage or the player restarts.
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It's possible to get statistics without enabling statistics per media. This is controlled per player using the setting "Statistics require tag". Please note that disabling this setting means statistics will be collected for any and all media that's played, even clock and weather widgets for example.
How to enable statistics on a player
Important change, from Smartsign 10.7 it's longer possible to activate statistics by loading a module. Instead the new player setting should be used. Players with the statistics module configured will automatically have it removed, and the setting enabled when the server is upgraded.
- Navigate to MANAGEMENT --> PLAYERS
- Select a player and click VIEW in the action bar
- Navigate to the SETTINGS tab and activate the setting "Enable statistics"
- Click SAVE in the action bar to save the player setting
- Done
How to enable statistics on a media item
- Navigate to MEDIA and proceed to open the media folder that contains media for which you want to gather statistics
- Select a media item and click VIEW in the action bar
- Select the tab STATISTIC and enable the Collect statistic setting.
- Click SAVE in the action bar to save the setting
- Repeat for any additional media items
- Done
Viewing or exporting statistics for a media item
- Navigate to MEDIA and find a media item that you have enabled statistics on
- Select the media item and click VIEW in the action bar
- Select the tab STATISTIC
- If statistics have been gathered, a graph will show the number of times the media item has been played over a period of time
- For more detailed analysis the raw data can be exported as CSV by clicking the Export statistic button. The file can then be opened in for example Excel for reporting and detailed analysis.
Exporting statistics for all players and media
Smartsign 10.7 adds the possibility to export statistics in bulk. The report is exported as an Excel file.
- Navigate to Management => System => Reports
- Select the Media statistics report
- Select the date range that you are interested in
- Click the Export report button
Report contents
The statistics report consists of an Excel file containing the following columns.
Column | Description |
---|---|
Date | The date and hour of day that the report was sent by the player (UTC Time zone) |
Local Screen Date | The date and hour of day that the report was sent by the player (Individual Player time zone) |
Screen name | The name of the screen reporting |
Media name | The name of the media item |
Play count | The number of times that the media item has been played |
Play time | The amount of time, in seconds, that the media item has been played |