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RBeddig

Dataton Partner
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Everything posted by RBeddig

  1. I would temporarily connect the computers with an unmanaged switch still. If you then see less lagging you can ask the IT guys to look into the switch settings.
  2. Then it looks like a configuration problem somewhere. We're using small computers with Intel graphics and even there we do not see this behavior. The only other reason I can imagine could be some issues with UDP network traffic. WATCHOUT uses TCP and UDP and sends out a heartbeat signal. Have you tried the connection without a switch? Can you check a different NIC?
  3. It actually sounds a bit odd to me. Small PNG files should start immediately. If you want to make it easier for WATCHOUT to pre-load files, you set a manual pre-roll. If you then wait inside the pre-roll, WATCHOUT will load the file and just wait for you to fire it off. On the other hand, I would first try to rule out any other issue here. My test would be to run a straight and tested network cable from your control computer to the server (no switches) and then use PuTTY or PacketSender to fire off the commands. Does it also lag this way?
  4. Could depend on how much data you have to read from the disk at this moment. WATCHOUT usually pre-loads media a moment before rendering it. If you just start an aux timeline with a heavy video sitting at 0.000 in the timeline, a small hick-up can happen. A way to avoid this would be to pre-load the aux timeline and keep it at 0.000 until you actually fire it off.
  5. Elgato Streamdeck and the Companion software could also be a good option to control a sole display server (cluster). Have done this for clients to operate WATCHOUT on trade shows without access to the programming interface.
  6. Take a new empty show, create an input "x" and send your command to this new show. I'm sure that there is a typo somewhere since the command setInput (capital I) definitely works. We're doing this very often and it never failed. When in doubt I usually use PuTTY to test my commands first before using a "real" show control system.
  7. It's true, load "" won't work. But if the aim is to reload the show for whatever reason, I'd probably create a second empty show and then just toggle between both using the load command.
  8. I haven't tried it myself but you might be able to send load "" (to unload the current show, might send an error that there is no show with an empty name) and then load "yourShowName" to reload the show again. It would of course not restart WATCHPOINT but the actual show file.
  9. Those rather cryptic errors are usually seen when you add bigger files and then e.g. click into a timeline while being in LIVE mode. The reason is usually that the file is still traveling to the display computer but since you clicked somewhere, the production software wants to see the result of your action on the screen immediately. Since the display computer can't load the new file before it is fully copied to the display computer and analyzed, it will throw those strange messages which can be ignored in this case. Since the display computer might as well be really busy copying at this moment, it might feel to the production computer as if it is temporarily lost. Red X. Try to set the preview to thumbnail only to reduce the load on your production computer and maybe try to turn off the LIVE mode.
  10. Where is the command load "yourShowNameHere" ? Do you have an input defined with the name CVol ? Watchout is case sensitive!
  11. Have you tried to read the signal with a second computer running the timecode reader software which comes with WATCHOUT? This could give you some indication on the signal quality. I have seen one situation many, many years ago where a lighting console had problems to read a timecode from a file in WATCHOUT. The reason was a very small timing detection window on the receiver side which normally is a bit wider in most devices. The solution back then was to use a Rosendahl MIF3 which was able to read and re-clock the signal. Since WATCHOUT is constantly re-syncing all player instances of a WATCHOUT cluster you will probably see some tiny jittering in the timing of the timecode signal. Another option would be to check the signal shape using an oscilloscope. If it looks more or less like rectangles it should be fine. If it doesn't, it will probably fail. The reason here is often some (audio) device in the signal flow which doesn't forward a clean rectangular wave. I have seen isolation transformers destroying the rectangular signal.
  12. You can find legacy versions of WATCHNET here; https://www.dataton.com/downloads/watchnet-legacy-downloads
  13. Hi callum, domeprojection supports alignment on 3D models now as well. See this example. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zL_D-bb1C8 The exact workflow has not yet been described in writing I think but it can work with WATCHOUT. The calibration process triangulates the position of the projectors and then wraps the content around the object. You should maybe contact domeprojection.com directly for more details.
  14. Sure. Close the settings window and mark the display(s) you want to save in the stage window. Then copy and paste into a plain text file. Test the result by copying the whole text of the text file and pasting it into an empty stage.
  15. What do the log files say? Those in the folder logs inside the WATCHOUT folder and the Windows log files for applications at least?
  16. Well, creating an autostart batch file in the WATCHOUT folder already serves this purpose. Once Windows is up and WATCHOUT started it will load a file, check whether any other display servers in the same system are ready (if you use more than one display server in a system) and then runs the specified timeline.
  17. It is possible to set up a display computer or cluster to automatically start a WATCHOUT show once the computer starts. This is explained in the users guide at page 176. Some BIOS versions also allow to start a computer at a certain time. Shutting down at a certain is a bit more difficult since a computer normally doesn't have any such function. While you might find a third-party app to do such things, another way would be to start an auxiliary timeline with the length of your daily program and a powerDown command at the end of the day. You'd need to set up a string output with the address(es) of your display computer(s) and send authenticate 1$0D powerDown$0D Hope this helps.
  18. What you'd need is the actual WATCHOUT project file which was used to load the WATCHPAX. The premium partner in your region could probably help with the information of how to retrieve this file from the WATCHPAX 2 and modify it to another resolution. And yes, the only good way to store the show in 1080p would be to play it out into a capture card and record the result on another computer.
  19. The autostart.txt file, which is used to set the static IP address of a WATCHPAX, has most probably been swapped with the update as well. The easiest way to check is to connect a mouse and keyboard to your WATCHPAX 40 and the to click once into the splash screen (to get focus on it) and then press Ctrl+W. Now you should see a smaller window with a menu on top. In the first menu you will see a link to edit the autostart file. This file has plenty of descriptions inside of how to set the IP address up etc. 169.254.224.3 is a self-assigned IP address. Self-assigned addresses appear if you connect computers set to DHCP to a network which doesn't have a DHCP server.
  20. Erin, I've not seen such an error myself but if you trace the error on google and it could be connected to memory leaks, I would certainly get MEMTEST or any similar test (not necessarily the built-in memory test in Windows) and would run this on the production computer. The next point would be to contact Show Sage support.
  21. Send me a private message with your email contact and I'll see what I can find for you.
  22. To investigate this issue, I'd suggest that you first try the WATCHOUT license key on another computer, e.g. the production computer. If you connect it to the production computer you can use the built-in license manager to check whether it sees the license key. Regarding the network, the network port should indicate a proper connection if you connect it through a working and tested network cable to a network switch. This will happen even if WATCHOUT is not running or the key doesn't get detected. If the network port can connect to the switch it will indicate so. It wouldn't be the first case where a cheap network cable is malfunctioning and rendering an expensive system useless. Besides this, you should state which WATCHOUT version you're using and whether the server was built by DATATON (WATCHPAX, WATCHMAX), a premium partner or whether it is a custom server built by other companies.
  23. Probably the best way to find out whether your web presenter can work with WATCHOUT is to connect it to a production computer first. Open a new project and go to the preferences and here to the "Video IN" tab. Then try to find it in the drop-down menu under Device 1. If it appears here without the installation of a driver you can create a Live media cue and point this to device 1 and the correct resolution. Enable "Stage Video: Live Preview" and drag the cue into your timeline. You should now see the output of your streamer in the stage window. If this works fine, you can try to do the same with your display server. You'll need to assign a video input ID on the server as well. Ctrl+W will shrink WATCHPOINT and give you access to the menu to define the video inputs.
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