RBeddig

The only moment where you need a higher bandwidth is when you transfer your media to the display computers. During playback the data rate is very low. The cluster master sends a heartbeat which is timing critical but does not really produce data traffic and the cluster members send a short string every few moments to show their existance in the network (that's what you see when opening the network window). I don't have data rates but it is very low. The only moment when the data rate is higher is when you push content to the display computers or when you use NDI, Artnet or streaming sources. The moment when you establish the cluster is also slightly more critical since the master has some timeout and if the players do not report back in the given time the cluster might not work as expected. This is usually only critical in very big installations with many display computers.

WIFI could be possible BUT do not expect frame accurate sync between devices on a wifi network due to the data packet overhead and uncontrollable data rates in wifi networks. Also you'd need to take into account that only three 2.4GHz networks can live together without interfering each other. I assume that there are many people using wifi in such an environment and in the end they all share the bandwidth. There are wifi access points with high power and beam transmission which you would use for longer bridges (two ap talking to each other) between networks. They are very strong and focused but not legal in every country.

Haven't seen this for 10 years or so. Back then it could happen if too many control cues would sit at the same time in a timeline. What is controlling your cluster? Have you tried to loop back to a named cue instead of jumping to a time? It's my preferred way to loop sonce you can easily adjust it by just moving the "target" cue.

In our market, a media server is commonly referred to as a playout computer for a mulit display presentation software, like WATCHOUT. While a server in IT terms is usually a central computer holding the data for a wider network of workstations or personal computers, we (and other manufacturers) call our display computers "media servers". Here the content is actually sitting on one or more media servers which are connected to physical displays, like projectors, led screens etc. Click on the discover button on the website www.dataton.com to understand the WATCHOUT structure. We're also currently working on an introduction video which should give you some more ideas of how WATCHOUT can be used. Keep an eye on the website or the forum where you'll probably see a note once the video is ready.

Hi Mahesh, domeprojection has a couple of tutorial videos on their website. They show you how to use the calibration software itself. https://www.domeprojection.com/support/tutorials/ Once the calibration is done, the export to WATCHOUT is very simple. You just select the exporter and import the file from WATCHOUT. WATCHOUT will then create the correct screen rectangles and shading files (soft-edge). If you have access to a small webcam, like the Logitech C930e, and some projectors, you can try their demo software which you can find here: https://www.domeprojection.com/support/tutorials/ It does not include the export to WATCHOUT but this is the least complicated thing in the whole process. We actually plan to make a small video of how to use the demo version of the software but can't yet say when this will be ready. BTW, the latest version of the ProjectionTools PRO AV also supports calibratiion for 3D projection mapping. Hope this helps.

You can use audio interfaces which are supported by Windows natively. This should be the case with most USB audio interfaces with two outputs. If you connect an audio interface to a normal Windows 7 computer and it does not ask for drivers, it should also work with a WATCHPAX 4. You should also be able to use the Audinate AVIO USB I/O adapter for Dante. It appears as a stereo WASAPI interface on our WATCHPAX 40 and doesn't need drivers on this machine. Since the C drive of all WATCHPAX servers is write protected, you can't install any extra drivers on such a server.

Looks like a good choice, but make sure to uninstall all unneccessary bloatware from DELL since those might influence the stability and perfomance of a computer. Depending on the number of outputs and codecs used in your show, the videos might still stutter a bit in your stage preview. This is normal since the stage window also acts as a "display computer" and needs to read all videos from your SSD, push the pixels through CPU and GPU , scale it down and render it. So in a larger show, which maybe uses 4 servers with 4 outputs, your production computer tries to simulate the load and performance of those 4 big servers. You can turn the video preview off and set it to thumbnails once your timing is correct.

Hi Orf, I did some research on it on my production computers and I agree that this seems to be a bug. The thing is that WATCHOUT does not use UTC but the actual difference to UTC depending on the timezone x2. I.e., if you're in Arizona, which is UTC -7:00, the offset is -14 hours. If you're in Abu Dhabi, which is UTC +4:00, the WATCHOUT time says +8 hours.

If you're using a virtual screen mapped onto your 3D object, you can play any sort of media with full timeline control. You just need to make sure to keep your content in the correct UV mesh area.

Very sorry to hear. My thoughts are with his family and friends. Rest in Peace

Are you sure that the display server is set to the correct time zone? Are the messages sent from the display server or from your production computer. I've noticed very often that the time set in BIOS is different from the time used by Windows and WATCHOUT uses the Windows time.

Hi Orf, It is not in the documentation. You'll need to send this to each server in your cluster individually and it only works as long as WATCHPOINT is still active on that server. authenticate 1 powerDown as Quim stated above.

Yes

Yes, it is possible to get some sort of timecode from WATCHOUT though it is not a permanent stream. Normally you would subscribe to a getStatus command. It will send you the current timcode positioin of a timeline in ms in certain intervals. See attached PNG for more details.

No, but running WATCHOUT on WIndows 10 Pro takes the risk of updates. Normally Windows updates are a good thing if we talk about security in office or private use cases. WATCHOUT servers are not so much under threat since we don't usually store private data and important documents on WATCHOUT servers. On the other hand, we have seen several updates which caused a Windows server to stop working at all. The update forced the system to go into an indefenite boot loop or deleted all user data and software from a computer. We also had clients who prepared a show on site for days on their Windows 10 Pro notebooks and when the CEO entered the stage for the big opening of the event, the notebook showed the message that Windows thought it would be an ideal time to shut down the computer to install all updates. If you run WATCHOUT on servers in a fixed installation and the client calls you one morning to tell you that nothing is working anymore it can also be a bit uncomfortable for you. Yes, you can delay updates on a Windows 10 Pro system but we also know that sometimes updates lead to performance and stability issues and then you don't have too many options to repair your system on the long run. Windows 10 Enterprise or IoT (used on all WATCHMAX and WATCHPAX servers) can be installed in a way that it NEVER updates anything keeping the system in a tested and stable state. It's up to you whether you love the thrill of update surprises or be more conservative, staying with a tested system on the long run.

You can record one universe at a time. You can also program DMX cues inside WATCHOUT but usually it is more convenient to use a software or hardware meant to control lighting equipment. As stated above, you can send DMX into 256 universes with the limitations described above. Usually you would use WATCHOUT to program a couple of lamps or lighting circuits while you'd use different hardware and software and probably a separated network for more complex projects.

In theory 256 universes, BUT DMX is constantly sending quite a bit of data, not only for those channels which change. It constantly updates the status of all channels and when using 256 universes with 512ch. each you can easiyl see that this would bring your network to a stand still.

Hi, I created a link to the driver version 2017Q4 I use with Windows 7 servers. You'll need a pw to connect to this. Contact me in a private message for this. The link is valid for three days only!! https://msb95.myqnapcloud.com:4433/share.cgi?ssid=0HJzite

To control a cluster, you have to send authenticate 1<CR> <CR> = Carriage return, fromWATCHOUT usually $0D. See page 177 of the manual! when you open the connection. The command "online" is only valid if you control the production software. WATCHPOINT does not know this command and does not need it. See page 181 of the manual!

Do you have more than one network connection open on your production computer? It is recommended to use only one NIC!. In today's Academy training I have used a DMX input to trigger timelines without any issues (WO 6.5). Maybe you could share some pictures of your settings in the preferences and your inputs.

Have you checked the universe settings in the preferences - control page? WATCHOUT can use Artnet on any network. If you're sender can't use standard networks like 192.168.xxx.xxxx, you'd need to set WATCHOUT to the Artnet network. Be aware that some Artnet software starts counting universes at 0 while other start at 1. Also important!!! WATCHMAKER will only see Artnet when it is online.

You normally don't have to set anything on the advanced tab. The input number on the basic tab has to be the same as the one set in WATCHPOINT on your display computer. Blackmagic drivers are a real mess and their support is even worse. That's why we stopped using their cards for quite a while. They are cheaper but you compensate this by spending a lot of time to make them work. Have you tried to set the input to 1080 p 30 or p 29.97? This often helped us when we still used BM cards.

We have seen bad playback performance with HAP codecs with all driver versions newer than 2017 Q4. AMD introduced some energy saving mechanism which seems to throttle the performance of the graphic card. Secondly you could try to use chunks when encoding the media. Without chunks, a HAP file will use only one core. I'd try with two chunks here.

Usually, if one out of 4 servers shows a problem like this, it points to the installation or other server related problems. I would try to re-image the server or at least re-install WATCHOUT.

I've seen something like this before and my solution was to change the colour space. Otherwise, are you on the same switch or is the signal going through various switches in a network? Have you tried to "catch" the signal on a second computer running the NDI monitor, preferably on the same switch as the WATCHOUT display computer?