How To Series
Roland DisplayStudio
Managing Multiple Media Players
August 18, 2014
DisplayStudio allows you to control the content and playlists on multiple media players residing on the same network via
one media player‘s IP address. The method to configure this feature is very simple and it offers several benefits to
managing content for installations with more than one DisplayStudio media player. A DisplayStudio media player
configured to be a “client” is set to refer to the network IP address of another DisplayStudio media player acting as a
“server” to receive content and setting information.
There are two ways to use this server/client configuration. The first one we will discuss is using just the IP address of the
server to manage different content on multiple players configured as clients. The second method allows multiple players
with the same playlist to have their playlist content synchronized.
Initial Setup
In order to control more than one DisplayStudio player at a time
the players must reside on the same network. This can be
comprised of a mixture of wired and wireless players as long as
they are able to communicate with each other over the network.
EachDisplayStudio player is set to be its own server by default.
Navigate to the internal Resources page of a media player on the
network by entering its network IP address (e.g. 192.168.1.10) into
the address bar of your web browser. You will be prompted to log
in so enter the User ID and Password.
You will be on the ‘Resources’ page and the first column on the
left is ‘System information’. On all DisplayStudio players residing
on the network, make sure the ‘Media Player Name’ is unique for
each player. The ‘Server Hostname’ is set to ‘127.0.0.1’ by
default. This indicates that the player identifies itself as the server. For the player you want to act as a server, please do
not change this field.
Navigate to the internal webpage of the second player by entering its IP address (e.g. 192.168.1.12) into the address bar
of your web browser and logging in. Change the ‘Server Hostname’ to the network IP address of the server we
mentioned above, 192.168.1.10, and click on ‘Save’. You will want to follow this same procedure for each DisplayStudio
media player on your network that you want behaving as a client to this server. See the example table below.
Media Player Name
Server Hostname
Network IP address
Lobby_N (server)
127.0.0.1
192.168.1.2
Lobby_E (client)
192.168.1.2
192.168.1.4
Café_1 (client)
192.168.1.2
192.168.1.8
Roland DGA Corporation | 15363 Barranca Parkway | Irvine, CA. 92618-2216 | 800.542.2307 | 949.727.2100 | www.rolanddga.com
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Roland DisplayStudio –
Managing Multiple Media Players
How To Series
Multiple Players, Multiple Playlists
Open DisplayStudio and enter the IP address of the player you have left configured as the server. Go to the ‘Settings’
button toward the top right of DisplayStudio then click on ‘Screens’ to see which players are identifying themselves to this
server as its clients.
Click on the ‘Groups’ button and configure the screens into one or more groups depending on how you want to push out
the content (For information on creating and configuring Groups, please refer to the DisplayStudio User Manual). For
example, if you have five media players and you want three to play ‘Playlist A’ and the remaining two to play ‘Playlist B’
then create groups accordingly. This is also where having each player with a unique ‘Media Player Name’ is necessary.
Once you have ‘Playlist A’ created and saved, click on the ‘Target’ list next to the ‘Send’ button. If you click on the top
tab you will see this player and all the players controlled as clients by this server. You can select one, some or all to
send ‘Playlist A’. Or, if you click on the bottom tab it will show you a list of the existing groups. You can select one or
more to send ‘Playlist A’ to. Once you create ‘Playlist B’ follow the same steps to push content to those players.
Roland DGA Corporation | 15363 Barranca Parkway | Irvine, CA. 92618-2216 | 800.542.2307 | 949.727.2100 | www.rolanddga.com
Certified ISO 9001:2008
Roland DisplayStudio –
Managing Multiple Media Players
How To Series
Note1: When a media player is configured as a ‘client’ you will not be able to connect to its IP address via the
DisplayStudio software. If you need to manage that player go to its IP address via the web browser to manage it or
change its ‘Server Hostname’ back to ‘127.0.0.1’ so it becomes its own sever again allowing direct access via the
DisplayStudio software using the players IP address.
Multiple Players, One Synchronized Playlists
With this configuration, modifications to the playlist content and settings on the server sets the client players to
automatically pull the changes over without having to send the content or settings directly. Follow the same steps as
above to configure your players as clients but create one group including all the players. Open DisplayStudio and enter
the IP address of the server. After creating your playlist, click on the ‘Target’ list next to the ‘Send’ button, click on the
bottom tab and select the group you created. Click on ‘Send’ and the playlist will be sent to all players in that group.
Note2: It may take several minutes for the updated content and settings to be transferred to the client players and the
playback content will be synchronized but it is not guaranteed to be synchronized with time.
Roland DGA Corporation | 15363 Barranca Parkway | Irvine, CA. 92618-2216 | 800.542.2307 | 949.727.2100 | www.rolanddga.com
Certified ISO 9001:2008