Disaster recovery (DR) for digital signage ensures screens continue operating — or recover quickly — after hardware failures, network outages, power events, building damage, and cyber incidents. SpinetiX's autonomous architecture provides inherent resilience: each player caches content locally and operates independently of the CMS, network, and other players. Proper DR planning adds spare hardware, backup procedures, and documented recovery workflows on top of this built-in resilience.
Disaster Scenarios and Recovery
Scenario 1: Single Player Failure
Impact: One screen goes dark. All other screens unaffected.
Recovery: Mount a pre-configured spare player. Power on, publish content.
Total recovery time: 15–30 minutes with spare hardware on-site.
Scenario 2: Network Outage
Impact: Players can't fetch live data or receive updates. Playback continues
from local cache.
Recovery: Resolve network issue. Players auto-resume data fetching and content
sync. No manual player-side intervention needed. Data-driven content shows cached values
during outage.
Scenario 3: CMS Failure
Impact: Can't create or publish new content. Existing content continues
playing on all players (SpinetiX uses autonomous architecture).
Recovery: Restore Elementi from backup (project files + software). Or
re-connect to Arya (cloud — SpinetiX manages availability). Content on players is unaffected.
Scenario 4: Power Outage
Impact: Players and displays shut down. On UPS: continued operation.
Recovery: SpinetiX players auto-boot when power returns (under 30 seconds)
and resume playing cached content. No manual restart needed. Display CEC commands can
auto-power the screen.
Scenario 5: Building Damage
Impact: Physical destruction of players and displays at one site.
Recovery: Hardware replacement from spare inventory. Content republish from
backup Elementi project files or Arya cloud. Other sites are completely unaffected.
DR Planning Checklist
| Item | Action | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Elementi project backup | Copy project folder to network storage/cloud | After every significant change |
| Player config export | Export settings from player web interface | After initial setup + changes |
| Spare hardware | Maintain 5–10% spare players | Replenish after each use |
| Recovery procedure | Document step-by-step recovery per scenario | Review annually |
| DR test | Simulate failure and execute recovery | Annually |
| Contact list | Vendor, IT, facilities contacts | Update quarterly |
Key Parameters
| Metric | SpinetiX Value | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| RTO (Recovery Time) | 15–30 min (single player) | Fast recovery with spare hardware |
| RPO (Recovery Point) | Last published content | No data loss — content on CMS + player |
| Auto-recovery | Power-on auto-boot | No manual intervention after power events |
| Data resilience | Content cached on player | CMS/network failure doesn't affect playback |
| Spare ratio | 5–10% recommended | Immediate replacement availability |
Common Mistakes
- No spare hardware. When a player fails at 6 PM Friday and you have no spares, that screen stays dark all weekend. Maintain 5–10% spare inventory, pre-configured and ready to deploy.
- No content backups. If your only copy of the Elementi project is on a designer's laptop that gets stolen, all content is lost. Back up project files to network storage and/or cloud storage after every significant update.
- Untested recovery procedures. A DR plan that exists only on paper is untested faith. Simulate failures annually: unplug a player, shut down the network, kill the CMS — verify recovery works as documented.
- Server-dependent architecture. If all content and scheduling depends on a central server, that server is a single point of failure. SpinetiX's autonomous architecture avoids this — but verify your specific deployment doesn't introduce hidden server dependencies (proxies, authentication services, custom middleware).