how is the screen turned on or off?

[mfrederickson]

I'm assuming that there is different methods to do this for the different kinds of displays, so where do you specify the actual hardware type so (bandshell?) will know how to do it?

Or will it just use some x command to do it?

[mikldt]

This is going to be the fun part. I think you're right, a separate field will probably be appropriate to let people choose the method of screen control. However, I'm not sure what that will look like yet.

@asquared probably knows the most about this, having done it on Concerto V1, but here's what I've gathered:

The two primary methods for screen control are DPMS (through X) and the use of a separate serial port. IR control is another possibility, but probably less common since it requires additional hardware. One of the big challenges we'll have to overcome (or so I've been told) is the fact that commands are supported inconsistently across screens. More research is needed here to figure out what sort of approach (some common set of commands we can fuzz with, a list of approved models, or more granular customization in the UI) is required to cover the most use cases.

Here's an old v1 mailing list thread that I just found and haven't totally digested yet. It seems to suggeste we might at least start with that binary classification, but I'd look to @asquared and @emalac for a little more guidance on the current state of things.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/concerto-digital-signage/sgGQay36qP0/nAZ6YKmnURYJ

The schedule.pl referenced is here:
https://github.com/asquared/concerto-player/blob/master/concerto-configurator/files/etc/tasks/schedule.pl