Activating the R-Box Pearl Software (Quick Start Instructions)

To get your R-Box Pearl software up and playing music quickly, follow these steps below.

Prerequisites

The following are the prerequisites for this article: 

• Active RadioSparx Account - You must have an active account at the RadioSparx website to play music on the R-Box Pearl software.  Your account must be activated either as Free Trial account (which happens by default when you first sign-up), or with a paid subscription. You can sign-up on the website homepage, or talk to a sales associate for assistance.

Install and Run the Software

The software installs and runs differently depending on which operating system platform you are trying to use.  Here are the basic instructions for each supported platform below.

Microsoft Windows

To run the R-Box software on Windows, do the following: 

• Install or Upgrade Java - Your Windows-based computer must have Java installed in order to run the R-Box software.  Please follow the instructions at this website to download and install the latest version of Java on your PC:  https://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp
• Download the R-Box Pearl Software - If you have not already download the R-Box Pearl software, you can download latest version from here: R-Box Peal Download.  Store the zip file in a folder on your computer's hard drive and unzip it to extract the files inside.
• From the folder where you unzipped the software file contents, run the jarfix.exe file by double-clicking it.  This will resolve a potential misconfiguration that exists with many Windows systems that prevent a .jar file from being run via a double-click.
• Double-click the rbox.jar file to run the application.  The application should launch and display a screen wherein you can configure the authentication Device ID and Security Token parameters.  Then continue to the "Configure Authentication Settings" section further below.

Android

To run the R-Box Pearl software on Android, do the following: 

• Download the Software - Surf in a browser on your Android device to https://www.radiosparx.com/rbox.htm.  Click on the first link there to download the latest R-Box Pearl software to your Android device.  Your device should present an option to you to install the rbox.apk file, accept this, and the software should fully install itself.  Accept the various prompts to allow miscellansou system access by the software, so that it will function properly.
• After installation completes, then run the app.  In the upper-right corner of the app interface, click on the three dots and then go into the Settings option. Then continue to the "Configure Player Settings" section further below.

Linux

To run the R-Box software on Linux, do the following: 

• Install or Upgrade Java - Your Linux computer must have Java installed in order to run the R-Box software.  Please follow the instructions at this website to download and install the latest version of Java on your Linux system:
  
       For 32-bit versions - https://java.com/en/download/help/linux_install.xml
       For 64-bit versions - https://java.com/en/download/help/linux_x64_install.xml
• Copy the rbox.jar file to a known folder on your Linux system that you will use as the app's working directory.  Then open a console window, change into the working directory, and run this command to launch the R-Box Pearl application:
  
       java-jar rbox.jar
  
  This will cause the application to launch, and then proceed into the Settings option to configure your authentication settings.

Configure Player Settings

You must configure the player settings for the software to be able to connect to your RadioSparx account, automatically log in, and commence playing the music.  For the  R-Box Pearl software, to access the player settings menu, do the following:

• Windows, Linux, and Macintosh - Right-click on the R-Box icon in your system tray (lower-right corner of your screen) and then select the Settings option.
• Android -  Click on the three dots in the upper-right corner of the software app's user interface.

At the RadioSparx website, click on the Account option at the top right.  Go into the Player Settings option. Or, if this is for a user under a multi-user account, go into Account, then Users, and then into Player Settings for the affected user.  Then perform these steps:

• Step 1 -  Player Type - Change the Player Type field to "R-Box Pearl (Hardware or Software)".  Don't forget to save this setting after performing the two steps below.
• Step 2 -  Device ID - Enter the Device ID from the Player Settings screen into the corresponding field in the R-Box Pearl settings option and save it.
• Step 3 -  Security Token - Enter the Security Token from the Player Settings screen into the corresponding settings field in the R-Box Pearl and save it.

On the RadioSparx website, make sure to save the Player Settings screen changes by clicking the "Save Changes" button in the upper right corner.


Update Software

After configuring the authentication info in the previous step, return to the main screen of the R-Box Pearl software.  Then go into the R-Box Pearl's Settings screen again (i.e. click three dots in the upper-right corner one more time) and click on the Update option.  This will cause the software to download and upgrade itself to the latest available version of the software.  Then going forward, the software will automatically update itself any time a new version of the software is released.


Test Playback

After the software updates, click on the PLAY button from the main screen of the R-Box software and the Pop Vocal station should commence playing immediately in streaming mode.

Schedule Your Music

Configure the desired music to play via the Custom Schedule feature.  By default, the R-Box Pearl plays in streaming mode, but by accessing the "Advanced Settings" section of your Custom Schedule settings screen, you can change the operational mode to use Store-and-Forward (Caching mode) instead. 

Note: In the upcoming new version of the RadioSparx website, the Streaming versus Caching control has been moved from the Custom Schedule Settings screen to the Player Settings screen.

Automatic Play

The R-Box Pearl software is engineered to be a non-stop music player, so when you reboot the device, it will automatically begin playing after the reboot.  It tries to always play music as much as possible to require minimal human intervention.  

To make it stop playing at night time, simply configure a "Stop Event" for your Custom Schedule to take effect at a particular time of night, and when that time arrives and the last song finishes, the R-Box will go into sleep mode and begin a countdown of the hours and minutes until the next configured music event for the following morning arrives, and then it will automatically resume playback.


Player Monitoring

 By default, in both streaming and store-and-forward modes, the R-Box periodically sends a signal to the web server to inform that it is active and playing.  The required upstream traffic for this is negligible and provides the capability for you to monitor all of your R-Box players via the monitoring system of RadioSparx.  

In store-and-forward mode, if your Internet service happens to go down for some time period, the R-Box will not be able to connect to the server to report its status, and hence a "down player" alert may occur on the monitoring system.  However, since in store-and-forward mode the R-Box plays music from the files that are stored locally on the R-Box, there will be no music interruption and nobody in the store / restaurant / service location will even realize the Internet is down.  For a business environment, this is ideal, hence it is highly recommended that you utilize the store-and-forward mode at all times.

Custom Ads

For clients utilizing our PRO Plan, if desired you can also upload and configure Custom Ads -- they work fine in both streaming and caching modes.   

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