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Appendix 5 – Interconnected media players
Figure A5-1. By sending API URL commands between the media players it becomes possible to create
spectacular customer terminals.
To interconnect media players requires that they have fixed IP addresses since the IP addresses are a
part of the web applications. However, it is quite easy to use standardized IP addresses at all locations.
Using a gateway router (NAT box) that includes a NAT (Network Address Translation) table, each of the
media players has reserved local IP addresses. You do not have to set the media player to these
addresses. In the NAT you can reserve certain IP addresses to specific media player MAC addresses.
This might seem complicated but actually it is not. The media players will report their MAC addresses to
the NAT box and it is a quite simple procedure to associate the devices with their IP addresses.
Also, the gateway router (except from being a NAT box) has a built in firewall which makes it impossible
to address the media players from outside. It is always the media players that send requests to the CMS
and other servers and not the other way around. Media players inside the local area network can
address each other but can’t be addressed from outside. From a security perspective this is very
important.