Licensing Commercial Xibo Players

Licensing Commercial Xibo Players

Customers on a Plan

The use of Xibo for Android and optionally Xibo for webOS and Xibo for Tizen are included in Plans and have no separate licensing requirement. The CMS is set up for you with the correct licensing details so that Players license automatically.

Plans require very minimal management of Players with users encouraged to delete any Players that have been replaced or no longer in use from the Licensed Devices list on the Plan page. Licensed Devices that don’t make regular connections will be automatically removed after a period of time.

Therefore, all following information is for customers with Independent Pricing only.

Customers with Independent Pricing

Customers using Independant pricing, require a Xibo Software Licence for each device to be deployed when installing one of our commercial Players; Xibo for Android, Xibo for webOS, Xibo for Tizen and Player White Label derivatives.

Please note: Existing customers who have been moved onto Independent pricing will maintain their Player Subscriptions. Customers who opt to migrate to a plan can trade in their existing Perpetual licenses to evergreen licences included within a plan to benefit from automated Player licensing and major software version upgrades. Login to My Account to view the available options.
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Perpetual Licensing

  • A Perpetual License is required for each Display you intend to deploy, the License is yours to keep forever.

  • Upgrades to future minor software versions are included at no extra charge for the specific software license version purchased.

  • Upgrades to future major software versions are available for an additional fee for each Licence you wish to upgrade.

Each purchased licence is linked to a Licence Pool which is created and managed from My Account.
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Connecting a Device

A device will be automatically connected to your account using the Licence Pool information provided during your chosen Player Installation.

Licenses need to be verified every 30 days. If your Player has reliable Internet access this will happen automatically without any User interaction. If your Player will not have internet access and will run permanently disconnected from the internet you will be required to purchase the On-Premise Licensing Module for your CMS.
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Technical Details to note for Xibo for Android:

Please note: Recent versions of Xibo for Android use HTTPS to licence, when the device is capable to do so, and will connect to TCP port 443 instead of TCP port 80.

  • v2, v3 and v4: Licensing happens over HTTP to signlicence.co.uk on port 80 and does not need any special network considerations. If you have a filtered proxy server then adding a filtering exception for http://signlicence.co.uk, port 80 may be necessary in some circumstances.

  • Earlier than v2: Licensing happens over HTTP to licence.springsignage.com on port 80 and does not need any special network considerations. If you have a filtered proxy server then adding a filtering exception for http://licence.springsignage.com, port 80 may be necessary in some circumstances.

Technical Details to note for Xibo for webOS:

Please note: Recent versions of Xibo for webOS use HTTPS to licence, when the device is capable to do so, and will connect to TCP port 443 instead of TCP port 80.

  • Licensing happens over HTTP to http://signlicencelg.co.uk on port 80 and does not need any special network considerations. If you have a filtered proxy server then adding a filtering exception for http://signlicenelg.co.uk / 145.239.4.160, port 80 may be necessary in some circumstances.

Technical Details to note for Xibo for Tizen:

Please note: Recent versions of Xibo for Tizen use HTTPS to licence, when the device is capable to do so, and will connect to TCP port 443 instead of TCP port 80.

  • Licensing happens over HTTP to http://signlicencesssp.co.uk on port 80 and does not need any special network considerations. If you have a filtered proxy server then adding a filtering exception for http://signlicencesssp.co.uk / 145.239.4.160, port 80 may be necessary in some circumstances.

On-Premise Licensing Module

This module will act as a “pass-through” to our licensing servers, based on a file exchange. It is the responsibility of the customer to perform a one-time Licence file exchange between their account on xibosignage.com and their CMS.

Purchase using the button at the end of a Licence Pool row. Once purchased, please refer to the On-Premise Module page for activation information.

Manually checking for a licence (Xibo for Android only)

There is a manual licence check feature built into the Xibo for Android Player that can be used to immediately check for a licence. This is useful for ensuring that the licensing process has worked correctly before installing the device in a remote location.

  • This is available from the player options menu by clicking on the Check Licence menu item.

Failure to get a licence

Should a device fail to get a licence for any reason the device will automatically stop downloading new content from the Xibo CMS it is connected to but will continue to try and acquire a licence periodically. If it is able to do so, normal operation will be resumed automatically.

Upgrading your Licence to the next Major software version

With the next Major series release, which at the time of writing will be v4, you can opt to upgrade your CMS to this latest major version. As your Players will be licensed for the earlier major v3 they will no longer be compatible with the CMS and will, therefore, need to be upgraded to the v4 Player Version to take advantage of the added features and functions. Please see Upgrading Players for further information.

Player Licence Management

Perpetual Player Licences can be added and managed from My Account.

From here you can add new Pools and easily see all the important information, like the Version and how many upgrades you have, for your existing Licence Pools.

Use the buttons at the end of Pool rows to purchase additional Licences, purchase the On-Premise Licensing Module and purchase Upgrades when they become available.
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All Licensed Device details are shown in the lower table.

Licenses can be moved between Licensed Devices to give flexibility if a device fails or is no longer required to be in use.
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You may see entries in your Licensed Devices that have a Last Check date older than 30 days. Players must check in with your Licence Pool within a 30 day period to retain their licence. If they fail to check in within this period, the entry will still show but the Player will no longer be licensed and therefore no further updates will be made with regards to changes to Layouts and Player Schedules.

Manage your devices by removing any entries that have a Last Check date over 30 days, which are not using the On-Premise Module, by clicking the bin icon at the end of the row.

There is no need to remove devices which are expected to be turned off!
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Purchased Upgrades

Once purchased you need to Upgrade your Players so that they will automatically migrate between Licence Pool versions and consume upgrade licences as necessary.

NOTE: Licences are available for purchase at the ‘latest version’ and are automatically downgraded 1 previous major version if required. This results in an upgrade licence being issued which can be used for upgrading in the future. Example Scenario: A customer has a v3 CMS and some v3 Players and needs an additional licence. The customer purchases an additional licence, which currently means a v4 licence is issued. On using this licence to connect another v3 Player to the existing licence pool, it will automatically downgrade the purchased v4 licence to a v3 licence so that their device can be licensed. This situation will also issue a v3 to v4 upgrade so that the customer can upgrade in the future and use the licence on a v4 device with no additional charges.

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If you need to downgrade to an even earlier version, please open a Ticket with our help desk.

Licensing Issues

Check the following:

  • The Code has been entered correctly, as shown for the Licence Pool.
  • You have available licenses to consume.
  • Available licenses match the version you wish to use.

Mismatched Versions

Upgrading your licence to the next major software version is a paid upgrade. If your Players are licensed for an earlier version than your CMS, they will not be compatible with the features and functionality of the CMS.

NOTE: It is technically possible to run a mismatched series of CMS and Player, providing that the CMS is of a higher or equal version than the Player. So for example, a v3 Player can run in compatibility mode against a v4 CMS, using a v3 Player licence.

For the best results, we would always recommend running a Player and CMS from the same major version.

Please see Upgrading Players for further information.

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If you have upgrades but no available licences:

  • Existing connected devices: upgrade your existing players.

  • New devices: un-licence one of your existing devices, and install the new version onto the new device.

If you have a number of upgrades greater than the number of connected devices, install the new version onto your new device, the licence upgrade will happen automatically.

If you have available licences:

Firstly, ensure you know what version you want to use and what version you currently have.

  • If you want to use the new major version, you can purchase an upgrade then install the new version onto your device.
  • If you want to use the earlier version you can install the older version onto your device and it will find your available licence.
  • If you have an available licence for the new major version, you should install the new version onto your device and it will find your available licence.

The version of your licence must match the version of the installation file that you want to install onto your device.