Ventmedia

We had a load of sound issues recently on a tour - intermittent pops, crackles and dropout. This was with a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 (3rd Gen) on a watchpax 40. Somedays it seemed fine then it would just start again. We tried a second sound card, new cables etc, which was the same, so we ended up stripping the audio out of the watchpax, putting it into QLab which also then sent timecode to watchout. Bit of a headache mid tour The sound quality using the same sound cards have been fine via QLab, they were also fine on a Pc running WO display. Personally I think the inability to add sound card drivers to a watchpax is a mistake.

Interesting response..... Unfortunately relying on the generally limited projectors capabilities isn't the solution for this gig it's too complex. Neither is the question based on a budgetary issues or concerns, but I appreciate the heads up. Obviously Watchout wasn't built for this type of setup in mind,

HI, Could you let me know - Is it actually possible at all to do geometry correction and blending within Watchout for four separate 1920x1080 in one display(3840x2160) output via a FX4? Thanks

MIDI show control works well and easy to set up

I’ve been batching out a lot HapQ content from After effects, Premiere and Media encoder over the last year using Aftercodecs plugin and it’s been really solid. The only issue I’ve seen is if I attempt to replace the video files from within watchout using the browse option, it create a nasty yellowing. Bringing in video files freshly then replacing them on the timeline sorts this out.

Hi, Due to the restrictions over the last few months I've had a set-up where I am predominantly working on a show remotely via VNC giving we access to the Production and Display Machine. I've a camera on stage and this is generally working out OK and as planned. The only frustrating element is due to the elements of the set on stage I am unable to see the updating status bar on the onstage outputs when I am updating/transferring new content. It's leaving me clueless to any sense of how long is left for the transfer. Is there a way of knowing the status of data/file transfers from the production computer. The outputs are all 3D Mapping projectors (I know a status bar can be seen with a 2d projector). thanks Barret

Of course! That’s for the reply, it’s really appreciated

Hi, Is there a way to fade a 3D objects opacity making it transparent as opposed to fading to black then snapping out at 1%?

Very Helpful - Many thanks for this👍

I'm in the process of bringing an old show into WO. The footage is all rendered in ProRes. After finally getting it to run on the display software it was noticable that the blacks were not full black, I checked the original footage in After effects which is all good - black is black. Subsequantly I've done a test transcoding and comparing the footage to HAP which fixes the problem within WO. It reminds me of the old issues with gamma shifts with ProRes with Quicktime as can be found on a multitude of forums for editers and content creators - is it the same quicktime issues causing this within WO? I've added a screenshot of the footage of the two test clips within Watchout which I've then looked at in Photoshop, there is 16% RGB shift in the blacks with the ProRes compared to 0% in the Hap footage. I'm guessing there's a whole gamma shift but I've not tested it properly - I realise ProRes is not the recommended codec but the simple conclusion it seems is that ProRes isn't an option.

It would be great to have the same output options and tweaks for a virtual display as you do for a standard display output, i.e the masking and geometry correction. It would open a plethora of creative combinations and compositions

Sure, as was the method with After Effects tens years ago as well as embeding the mapping and distortion into the artwork, it's nice to think we've moved on from there a little though.

OK, I've done further tests on this and striped down the set-up to do it. It seems the screen print/capture works when a single display is attached but two or more and I'm unable to do it - I get the WO screens. Is this the same as other folk? Is this a bug?

I thought that would be the case - I've got the images displayed with the mask but when I print the screen I get the following

Again RBeddig thanks for the reply. Unfortunately the export video method seems impossible as the production computer is running on an HD monitor and the outputs of the display are 4k -I can't make the displays fully visible on the stage window to capture them - it's a shame this would be a good workaround. The capture card method I'll tinker with but I feel it's adding significantly more kit and workflow to the process which I feel should be relatively straight forward. Has anybody got a screenshot method of working with Watchout? A third party app that''l do the job? I don't know enough about what's happening with Watchout to allow for the Watchout icon window to be captured and not the output display itself

Hi, It seems like a newbie question to follow all this but I can't get a screen shot of the display computer whatever I try - I keep getting just a white screen or Watchout in a window, not what's being displayed - is there a knack to this?

I will give this method a test, I can see it working. My only reluctance is loosing the ability to quickly tweak the blends if required between shows. One thing I haven't mentioned is that the projectors we are discussing are also on the floor. On the tour the only variable I can't control is the floor, sometimes sprung sometimes solid etc. It means these projectors need to be checked and tweaked generally between every show. I'll try this out though. Many thanks

Again, thanks for the reply. There isn't a moment between the sections to have a pause unfortunately. I think my final way to sort this is to convince the sound designer to move the audio into Watchout thus eliminating the timecode problem. It does make me nervous running both audio and video of one machine but I'm willing to try it.

It's a seamless show, no breaks, no cues, fully automated from timecode. The audience are in the same space as the performer, a mix of installation and dance. The truth is it's been running on Catalyst for about 6 years, I'm hoping to bring it up to date. The images show examples of the different states I've mentioned but there are more

Many thanks for the replies. The whole show is actually timecode dependant, but i can see that making a screenshot of the blends and using this as a controllable layer is a workaround method with possible control of the conditional layers. Unfortunately I won't be able to get the powers that be to add another computer and switcher. Again thanks

I have a show/installation in which during the first part it has two projectors mapped onto the walls of the interior space. These require an edge blend between the two with the content mapped with virtual displays. Later these same projectors are used in a compleatly different way, through haze. The different effect is with the content on more virtual displays mapped seperately which don't require a blend/mask. I've seen that an auxilary timeline can be placed above the edgeblend, which would be perfect except that this second sequence needs to follow timecode and lasts for about 30 minutes. As timecode syncing an auxilary timeline is possible, is there a way to achieve switching the masks off as part of the programming of the show, i.e a script I can send that switches the mask off and on? Or some other method I'm overlooking maybe, or layer specific masking? many thanks

Hi Nikolai, I realise this topic is a little old but I’d be interested in knowing how you got on with this setup (3D objects moving on a set together with the accuracy of the 3D mapping within watchout). I’ve got something similar in the near future and I’m still not sure if watchout is best for the job or not

The ability to snap the position of the corner points of a virtual display outputs to other corner points of other virtual displays, and the ability to select more than one corner point at one time, both of the same virtual display and of another so it stays in a relative position - not unlike Madmapper and Resolume

I'd have to second this for a very helpful addition to Watchout - 3d mapping projectors being able to route through to a virtual display which then could be composed onto a more complex composition - a fx4 layout etc. I have a relatively old 4x projector show that tours quite a lot, that we try to keep the touring kit to a minimum- we hope to update it onto Watchout for the future. Only one output requires, or would benefit, from a 3d mapping output. The show has run via a datapath programmed on Avolites Ai in the past and before that Catalyst, I'm struggling to work out the best way to make this work at the moment with Watchout

I'm also going to add the request to integrate Notch blocks directly. Making content in Notch is simply revolutionary after years of rendering. Having the ability to make use of Notch's realtime parameters directly within the media server is the way forward of content creation for live performance.