DavidPatrick

Hi Kien- We've done something similar, but only with one iPad at a time. You basically create a custom iPad app that sends the Watchout TCP / IP commands via wifi to the Display Cluster. Should allow the user to control aux timelines and even tweens (opacity, position, color, etc) by modifying input parameters. Would have to do some testing, but I think the method jfk mentions would work to allow multiple connections at the same time. Alternatively, you could funnel all the iPad command requests to some kind of middle man piece of software (on a PC or iPad) that then pushes them in order to the display cluster. In fact, if all the users pushed commands to a "control" iPad that then forwarded controls to WO, that same iPad could be used to lock out all commands, certain commands, or specific users, since it's the gatekeeper between users and Watchout. dp

Hi- I apologize in advance, as this may be more of a Flash question than a Watchout question, but it does seem to be isolated to using an SWF in the DIS. I have an SWF file that parses a JSON file (local on the machine) and displays text. It's a brute-force way of showing tweets on screen; upstream of me the JSON will be edited by a moderation system that actually accesses the web. It takes a couple of parameters to identify the JSON file and the tweet ID. When I use this SWF in a web browser via an HTML doc, it works great. As expected. When I do the same thing via the DIS, it's like it can't find the JSON files. It simply shows the generic text field data, not pulling any text from the JSON files. I've moved file locations around, adjusted the trusted settings in the Flash control panel, etc. Nothing seems to get it going. So my question is, are there any limitations / caveats / peculiarities to the way the DIS would handle a SWF looking for / reading a local file vs how a web browser (Firefox on this PC) would handle ti? Thanks! dp p.s. I know my DIS works correctly, since I'm using the same machine to pull photos in other areas of my timeline. It does load the SWF correctly, just doesn't display the text.

For what it's worth, we do 20+ Watchout shows per year, many very large and complex with lots of outputs and multiple machines. We have VNC software installed on all our production and display machines, and have for years, and have never had a playback problem that we traced to VNC. It's especially useful for tradeshows where I can VNC over wifi into any machine around the booth, since usually the machines are crammed in a corner or closet someplace and a hardline is not practical. I can also use the VNC viewer from my Mac and iOS devices, which is super handy, since the production software is obviously PC only. We also prefer a standalone VNC option to the built-in Watchout VNC option, since it allows us to keep a connection to the display machine even if we need to close or restart Watchout on that machine. I will agree 100% that in a live show environment you should operate the production machine directly and it needs a hardline connection to the display machines. Just some practical, unofficial experience.

Hi- Looking for some clarification on an error. I'm working on a control system via iPad for a watchout display cluster. I can send commands fine and get great response (Aux timelines play, etc). I also receive feedback from Watchout as expected (Ready messages, errors, etc). However, when I try and send specific commands via string output cues, I get: Error 4 7 "Failed delivering data: play; String Output \"iPad\" of Output List" I know the 4 in the error means it's network related...anyone know what the "7" means? I think it might be a port thing. However, it's curious that Watchout sends the errors across the network with no issues, but can't send the specific string outputs. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Hi bgarrett- Your freerun cueing sounds right...the video will continue to play even when you hit the pause cue, and then when you advance it will fade out on cue, regardless of where you are in the video. However, being in freerun by its nature won't let you advance to a point in the video, especially if you shorten the clips in your timeline. If you want short clips in your main timeline for the show, but need to jump around for rehearsal, I'd suggest making a duplicate of your main timeline in an aux timeline with full length movies not in freerun. (Just select all and copy and paste to the aux timeline.) That will allow you to find the correct spot during rehearsal, but you have your more compact timeline during your show. If you have a lot of other items before and after this section in your timeline, just copy and paste your video section into the aux timeline and use that timeline for rehearsal. Hope that helps- dp

Hi- We're doing a 3-screen show with some nifty foreground and background screens. We're using some heavy screen shaping to make everything look right, and had planned to use masks to split the foreground images from the background images. (Basically build solid 1920x1080 stills and movies, then use still masks to make them hit the correct screen areas.) Each screen is an output playing one HD foreground movie and one HD background movie. However, we are getting an odd "flutter" in our masking. As video plays, occasionally we get a few "frames" (probably a tenth of a second) where the masking disappears and then comes back. We've tried masking foreground and background, used both alpha and luma masks, and used both PNG and JPG for the masks - the issue remains. Our workaround is to pre-split content and play movies with transparency, but that adds time to our workflow and we're on a show schedule as is. Any suggestions would be appreciated! dp

Thanks Mike. I poked through the Systems Manager stuff and couldn't find the JavaScript version or JS source code...seems to be all Flash (which won't help me on iOS)...is that include in the ZIP and I just missed it? If not, can you point me to the right location? What I'd really like is just a list of commands and their arguments similar to what's on page 252 of the v 5.1 manual. Does something like that exist? I assume the WO iOS app sends commands via TCP or UDP from the iOS device to WO, and I'd to have access to the same ones. Thanks! dp

Hi all- I've been working on developing a control system to operate WO via IP control. It working well, and I'm using all the commands documented in the v5 manual. However, it seems there are additional undocumented commands, since the iOS app has commands not available in the manual command listings. (for instance, polling a machine to get a listing of all the aux timelines.) Does anyone have any information about this? Perhaps a list of all the commands and what they return? Or possibly any WO remote source code i could review? Thanks! dp

Hi mouniroo- This is something the company I work for does. We're a video production company with extensive WO experience and have a good solution for a custom iPad interface for WO control without the need to develop a full blown iOS app. Shoot me an email at david@pkpictures.com and we can chat. dp