Neil Stratton

Hi all-does anyone out there have any experience of using Avolites desks with Watchout to trigger via artnet? Do they require a personality and if so does anyone have one available? Much thanks Neil

Hi Bob-as is customary in most software, Watchout is backwards compatible only, meaning it can only open files of the same or earlier version. Any reason why you haven't upgraded to 5.2? Neil

Hi Rogier-comparing these stats to those of a similar video currently running on my system the only two differences I can see are: 1.This video is not progressive 2.My renders read as High@High for the format profile.Are these elementary stream? If you wish I can test on my system to see if the problem reoccurs. thanks Neil

Hi Rogier: What bit rate are the videos rendered at ? Do they loop when played through a media player, not Watchout? Can you post the video details from GSpot or MediaInfo? Neil S

Hi Sasami- i think I know what you are looking for: I regularly use a Hive Industries Micro Cue or Master Cue to advance timelines. Using a keyboard you can re-programme the buttons to any command you wish, in this case space bar. Cheers Neil S

I second that.

Stephen-I give the cues names(while you have the aux timeline open go to >Timeline>Timeline Settings and name the aux timeline).So for example names associated with the vt perhaps(Opening Vt etc) and maybe "One Data Pip 2 camera Pips" for example as a scene.Also, using the Stacking Order tab in the Timeline Settings allows you to over-ride the default stacking order.So if you have a full screen playback pip you can set it to 'Always on Top'. Otherwise the timelines will appear as per the order they are in the task window.Top tasks sit over ones below. I also put numbers in the names to make finding them easier. Hope this helps Neil

Hi Stephen- like you I primarily work in corporate events and since the advent of aux timelines I have come to rely on them more and more. So much so that the last two conferences I have done were run entirley from aux timelines, with standby layers on the main timeline if I needed them. Producers love the flexibility of them and I tend to come armed with a palette of moves and effects for bringing in pips. If you use cues to stop other aux timelines you can do intricate scene changes with one button push. But typically I have all my pips on aux timelines and also background scenes,texts and movies.When i need them I can call them quickly and easily. One word of advice if using aux timelines to play movies:place the movie maybe 200 milliseconds along the timeline.And before you hit play, hit stop first to signal Watchout you are about to use that cue. I have found occasionally that if I just hit play then one of the displays may fail to trigger.But by pressing stop first this problem goes away. There is a discussion on this elsewhere on the forum. http://dataton.com/forum/topic/47-auxiliary-timeline/page__hl__auxiliary__fromsearch__1 All the best Neil Stratton

Brian-good to hear I'm not alone in running my entire show from the aux timelines.I only have standby layers on the main timeline these days. Have fun with the capture cards! Neil

Hi Julian-two things here.First video should be encoded as progressive, not interlaced. Also do you have the videos set to reduced or even none in the video cue -advanced-preview tab? Having all those vts playing at best quality in the stage window would most likely cause the production machine to slow. Neil

Hi Brian-yes you are correct. I have the same capture cards in all my servers.This allows me to place pips anywhere on the stage.Even in blended areas. I regularly place pips centre stage in two projector blends.. And I freguently have full screen powerpoint or keynote across all servers. If you have a pip that goes across the blend area but sits within one display perimeter then you can put it past the edge blend layer and in this way only require one capture. And the new auxiliary timelines make pulling up pips as easy as pushing a button.I use a combinations of kill and run cues to change pip scenarios during shows. All the best Neil

Thanks Mike-that's exactly what I did.

Hi all-can someone advise me a trick to avoid stand by layers going through black first? Say I have an image on the timeline and the same one on a stand by layer. If I move to stand by the screen darkens momentarily before returning to the same image. I can obvioulsy drop the time to 0s for a straight cut but that isnt suitable for this project. Thanks in advance Neil

Thanks for the info Thomas!

One other thing I have noticed while researching SSD's for future purchase is the the OCZ line of series 3 disks are fraught with problems according to the reviews.Not sure what model you have but thought it worth mentioning. Also the motherboard is important when using the Datapath cards-check with them for compatibility. I'm sure there used to be a list of tested boards on the site but I cant find it now. Cheers Neil

Hi Doug-if it helps at all my spec below runs great with the E1S cards. Have had no issues with them, and certainly not any BSOD. Now running WO 5.2 and all seems fine. Only issue I ever have is the Vision software has to be reinstalled after a clone to a new machine. It does not migrate-presumably due to Vision not recognising the new card. Hope this helps. Neil

Do you have the sound card on any of the displays connected? Just connecting one can cause sync issues and if you look round the forum you will find that it is advisable to either run audio from another machine apart from the displays, or if you are using a display machine for audio, then to have all the display machine sound cards connected (though not actually being used). Its a long shot! Neil

Hey Fredrik that is just what I was saying. I cant think why they would want to be in separate show files. One show with auxiliaries as you suggest would be the way to go .Or even compositions depending on what Guy is trying to achieve.. For me they are the best new feature in Watchout.I use them all the time.

Hardware and software setup on these servers are practically the same. practically the same or exactly the same? Have you installed any Blackmagic drivers on the third machine? I would take Jonas' advice here and pre split.

Hi Densi-can we assume the movie is encoded as per Dataton suggestions and that it is pre-split? Neil

I can see this is a topic many are interested in so thought I would provide a follow up. I have tested the Osprey 230 cards many times and in their day they were a good solution. But as Jonas suggested keeping the workflow digital does help with latency.On its own the delay is fair but you have to get your frame delay as short as possible as there are typically many other devices adding their own delay to the complete system, namely vision mixers, switchers and projectors. The intensity Pro works well and is useful in having HDMI and analog interfaces.What is not easy in my environment is getting a camera to provide me with HDMI. So I have been testing the Black Magic Decklink SDI which is relatively cheap.I have to say the results are very good. It provides only one SDI input but a vision mixer in front allows for multi camera scenarios.But remember the mixer will add its own delay before it even gets to the Decklink. And of course if you get your sound engineer a coffee then they can usually be persuaded to dial in some delay to redress the balance.My way of doing this is to tap a finger on a desk with a microphone beside it.It is too difficult trying to do it with speech. But if your rig is adding too many frames then adding the required delay will unsettle the speaker/ presenters. Hope this helps Neil Stratton

Hi Dannel-I have used led screens many times with content driven from Watchout.I also use them in combination with projection.It's no different from any other display. Particularly effective in awards shows but I have also used them in conference environments too.And if you are using a very large screen then no need for projector alignment.Personally I love using them. If you get a screen with enough pixels per panel they are hard to beat. Neil Stratton

Hi Guy I can't think of a reason why you would want them in separate show files. Perhaps separate compositions. Depends entirely on what you are trying to achieve.

Hi Jonas-thanks for that.The files were PhotoJpeg. They were stock footage that I had added at the last minute on a show where I didnt have time to encode them as Mpeg 2 or H264. When I came to look at how my system handled the Decklink card I just used my old show as it was already loaded. Although they had originally played without issue, they wouldnt once the BlackMagic driver was installed. Shame about the lack of standalone driver.Tip for others who install the Desktop Video App-check your startup in msconfig as it throws 3 items in there. Once again thanks for your help Neil

Hi all-does anyone know if you can get just the driver for the BlackMagic cards and not the Desktopvideo package that you receive with the cards? i have a Decklink SDI and what is happening is this: When I install the DesktopVideo app v9.1 I am then unable to play .mov files. I get an error message : If I uninstall the app it plays fine. When I reinstall the app it works for a while but then stops. I am truly puzzled. Thanks in advance Neil Stratton