★Carried & Installed
BrightSign players · Kansas City.
IntegrateIT carries and installs BrightSign across the Kansas City metro — the small purpose-built players behind menu boards, lobby screens and signage networks, which boot straight into content and do nothing else. One precision first: BrightSign is a line we carry and install under distribution, not one we hold our own dealer agreement on, so we do not call ourselves an authorized BrightSign dealer. What we are is the people who pick the tier from what the screen actually has to do, put it on its own network lane, and train the person who will publish to it — which is what decides whether a signage network is alive in year two. Phone: (913) 804-7575 or office@integrateit.tech.
What we carry and install from BrightSign
BrightSign sells by generation. Series 6 is the current one and is where most new work lands; Series 5 and Series 4 are still listed and still specified where a room only needs what they do. We specify and install to order, and we would rather put you on the cheaper tier that covers the job than sell headroom nobody will use.
- BrightSign HD6 (Series 6). Published as the entry-level 4K player with 10-bit HDR support, expanded peripheral capabilities and external device controls. The usual answer for a menu board or a lobby screen on our digital signage work.
- BrightSign XD6 (Series 6). Published for 4K or dual 4K video with 10-bit HDR and 4K IP streaming. The tier for screens with real motion, two outputs, or an interactive touch layer.
- BrightSign XS6, under BrightSign Built-In (Series 6). Their system-on-chip, embedded by qualified screen manufacturers into their own commercial displays rather than sold as a separate box — the route when the display is chosen first and mount depth is the constraint.
- BrightSign XT5 (Series 5). The top of the range, published with single 8K60p and dual 4K60p decoding, 8K HDR10 video, 4K IP streaming and an HDMI input for live video. Where a lobby carries live television alongside scheduled content, this is the box.
- BrightSign LS5 (Series 5). Published for Full HD or 4K playback and streaming with core motion graphics and essential touchscreen or USB engagement. Right for a single screen with a straightforward loop, and honest value there.
- BrightSign AU5 (Series 5). The audio-only player, published with ARC and eARC, Dolby Atmos and Dolby Audio support, 24-bit lossless audio and synchronized playback across multiple BrightSign players. It is how a space gets scheduled, zoned sound without a laptop behind the bar — the loudspeaker side of that is on our restaurant audio page.
- BrightSign XT4 and XT4-T (Series 4). Still listed by the manufacturer and still the sensible answer on an existing estate that already runs them, where matching the fleet is worth more than a generation.
- BrightSignOS and the BrightSign software. The player operating system, plus BrightSign Control and Control Plus for provisioning and fleet updates, and BrightSign Author and Author Plus for building and scheduling content. BrightSign states the OS integrates with hundreds of third-party content management platforms, which is what lets us put you on the platform that suits your team rather than the one that came in the box.
How the player gets designed in
The hardware is the easy half. What we design is the rest of the chain: a cable path and a power outlet behind the panel that were planned rather than found; a dedicated network lane for the screens, with addressing and ports handed to your IT group in writing; remote monitoring and a scheduled overnight restart, so a stuck player fixes itself and tells us about it; and a content workflow with templates, a publishing owner and training in the room. Where a room also carries conference or lobby AV, the whole chain is one scope on our commercial AV page, and the network under it is the same engineered network we would build anyway.
One decision worth making early: a player and a video wall are not the same product. A grid of separate displays showing one composition is a player job, and BrightSign publishes synchronized playback across multiple screens for exactly that. A true direct-view LED wall maps the picture across its cabinets in its own processor, and the player becomes one source feeding it. Settling that at design decides what you buy.
Where it sits beside the alternatives we also carry
- Against a display’s built-in player. Fewer boxes, less depth, and a content platform locked to that panel generation. Right on simple, low-churn screens.
- Against an AV-over-IP decoder. If every screen has to show a live source from a rack rather than its own scheduled content, that is distribution rather than signage — we carry and install AVPro Edge and Blustream for that, and plenty of spaces need both.
- Against one large canvas. Where the brief is one impressive picture rather than twelve messages, it is an LED wall — the Media Resources indoor platforms are what we build those from commercially.
Common questions
Who installs BrightSign players in Kansas City?
IntegrateIT (Overland Park, KS) carries and installs BrightSign across the Kansas City metro — we specify the player tier from what the screen actually has to do, build the network lane and the cable path it lives on, set up the content workflow, and train the person who will publish to it. To be precise about the relationship: BrightSign is a line we carry and install under distribution, not one we hold our own dealer agreement on, so we do not call ourselves an authorized BrightSign dealer. The brands we do hold dealer agreements on are listed on our site and include Control4, Crestron, Lutron HomeWorks and Sonance. Control4 Platinum Dealer, Crestron Elite Partner, Lutron Certified Installer and CEDIA member. Phone: (913) 804-7575 or office@integrateit.tech.
Why an external player instead of the display’s built-in one?
Because the two choices trade off cleanly and the trade is about time, not about picture. A small external player behind the display will run any platform you later change your mind about, plays heavier content without stuttering, and when it dies you swap a device rather than a display — at the cost of one more thing on the network and one more power supply behind the panel. The display’s built-in player removes the box and is elegant in a thin mount, at the cost of tying your content platform to that panel generation for the life of the screen. Our default is external players on menu boards and anything with motion or frequent changes, and built-in players on simple, low-churn screens where mount depth is the constraint.
Which BrightSign player do I need?
Start from what the screen does, not from the catalog. For a single screen running a straightforward loop, the Series 5 LS5 is published for Full HD or 4K playback and streaming with core motion graphics, and it is enough. For most current deployments the Series 6 players are where we land: HD6 is published as an entry-level 4K player with 10-bit HDR and expanded peripheral control, and XD6 is published for 4K or dual 4K with 10-bit HDR and 4K IP streaming — the one for a wall with real motion or two outputs. XT5 sits above both for the most demanding work, published with single 8K60p and dual 4K60p decoding and an HDMI input for live video. AU5 is the audio-only player, published with ARC and eARC, Dolby Atmos and Dolby Audio support and synchronized playback across multiple players. Where the screen is chosen first, XS6 is BrightSign’s system-on-chip, built into commercial displays by the screen manufacturers BrightSign qualifies under its BrightSign Built-In programme.
How do you keep a signage player from going dark?
Three habits, and none of them is the player’s doing. The player gets its own network lane with the addressing and ports given to your IT group in writing, because a signage player quietly blocked by a firewall change is one of the most common outages we see and it never looks like a firewall problem. It gets remote monitoring and a scheduled overnight power cycle, so a stuck player restarts itself and we hear about it before your customers do. And it runs a purpose-built player rather than a general-purpose computer, so nothing on the screen is ever a desktop, an update prompt or a login box. The rest is content governance, which is a people problem and gets solved at design.
Can BrightSign drive a video wall?
For the right kind of wall, yes. BrightSign publishes synchronized playback across multiple screens, which is what you need when several displays in a grid or a scattered arrangement have to show one composition in step. Where the canvas is a true direct-view LED wall built from tiles, the picture is usually mapped across the cabinets by the wall’s own processor and the player becomes one source feeding it — a distinction worth getting right at design, because it changes what you buy. Our video walls page covers the wall itself, and the distribution that gets a source to it runs over structured cable or over the network on the hardware we carry.
Tell us the screens and who updates them.
Or read about how we run a signage network · the wider commercial scope it usually sits in · one canvas instead of many screens
Written by Daniel Alon, founder of IntegrateIT LLC, with twenty years in IT and AV integration — Control4 Platinum Dealer, Crestron Elite Partner, Lutron Certified Installer, CEDIA member. Overland Park, KS.