WatchOut with web app

[EddyOng]

Hi,

I'm new to WO. So, just to check it's it possible for me to create a web app where it will hold all the animated video. Only when the user select one of the video than it will stream and map out the video to the surface using WO.

Is there any method/function in WO that able to do this?

Any help will be appreciate, thank you.

[Mike Fahl]

There's nothing built into WATCHOUT (WO) do do this. In most typical cases, WO plays video that has been pre-loaded using the WO production software. It sounds, from your request, that videos will be provided in a more "dynamic" manner – not using the WO production software. E.g. you want to upload them through a web page, and then have them appear through WO. WO could then pull such a video using a URL Video Proxy, pointing to the server holding the video file. However, such videos would need to have the same aspect ratio (and preferrably same resolution), since WO won't adapt dynamically to the actual resolution of each video. You would also need an external control system to manage such uploading of video content, as well as possibly to control WO to then play the video. PIXILAB Blocks could provide such control system capabilities, allowing you to upload video as well as controlling WO for playback.

Mike

 

[EddyOng]

Thank you Mike for your reply. Yes, that's my original idea to it but don't know if is possible. 

With PIXILAB Blocks do I still need WatchNet?

I have spend sometime reading up on the WatchNet user guide. Is it possible to pre load all the video into the production computer and using the WatchNet script with panel on a devices like iPad to control which video will be loaded into the display computer? or using PIXILAB Block will be a simpler solution to achieve what I want to do?

Sorry if my question sound fun as I'm totally new to this. 

Thank you,

Eddy Ong

[wiesemann]

7 hours ago, EddyOng said:

Thank you Mike for your reply. Yes, that's my original idea to it but don't know if is possible. 

With PIXILAB Blocks do I still need WatchNet?

I have spend sometime reading up on the WatchNet user guide. Is it possible to pre load all the video into the production computer and using the WatchNet script with panel on a devices like iPad to control which video will be loaded into the display computer? or using PIXILAB Block will be a simpler solution to achieve what I want to do?

Sorry if my question sound fun as I'm totally new to this. 

Thank you,

Eddy Ong

Maybe tell us, what your general plan is. Unless it is a secrec business idea, of course.

Like… what device(s) do you want the videos to be shown on? What made you think of Watchout, which has its special powers in distributing video across multiple screens.. on cue. (very much simplified).

You could have all your videos loaded into watchout and have some touch-panel for selecting the clips to play. They would all have their indiviual timelines or. (I know there are different ways to do this)

No need for a webpage in that case. .

 

[Mike Fahl]

On 12/31/2021 at 4:59 PM, wiesemann said:

With PIXILAB Blocks do I still need WatchNet?

No. Besides, WATCHNET is no longer available as far as I can tell.

Mike

[EddyOng]

On 12/31/2021 at 11:59 PM, wiesemann said:

Maybe tell us, what your general plan is. Unless it is a secrec business idea, of course.

Like… what device(s) do you want the videos to be shown on? What made you think of Watchout, which has its special powers in distributing video across multiple screens.. on cue. (very much simplified).

You could have all your videos loaded into watchout and have some touch-panel for selecting the clips to play. They would all have their indiviual timelines or. (I know there are different ways to do this)

No need for a webpage in that case. .

 

Hi wiesemann, Thank you for your reply.

I have been given this project where there will be multiple animated video of different content, the user can choose which video they want to watch through a devices like iPad and it will display the video through 3 projector on a long screen. So I need WO for the video mapping to the surface and video stitching. 

Also the video content may need to update once a few month.

[EddyOng]

4 hours ago, Mike Fahl said:

No. Besides, WATCHNET is no longer available as far as I can tell.

Mike

oh, I see. Thanks for letting me know.

So, using PIXILAB Blocks with WO is a better case now.

[Eddy Yanto]

Hi Eddy,

What Mike and Wiesemen had suggested will work based on your listed requirement.

I'd also like to point out that WATCHOUT has a very straightforward control protocol to interface with. You can use PIXILAB Blocks, WATCHNET ( WATCHNET is no longer in active development for a few years already since it's a mature product. You can still run it if you can get hold of a version 5 dongle license, in fact I deployed WATCHNET a while back) or you can use any other control systems in the market eg: Extron, Crestron, AMX and others. Since it's basically TCP/UDP ASCII based commands.

To call preloaded videos is actually really simple, say those videos need to be independently started/pause — in most of my setup, I'd put them into auxiliary timelines. You can have another video/image as the background sitting in the main timeline. Once the aux timelines are uploaded and cached in the Display computer, you can just call them like:
 

Quote

run auxTimelineName<CR>
halt auxTimelineName<CR>
kill auxTimelineName<CR>

In fact, WATCHOUT also have protocol for you to subscribe to the timeline status (both main and aux timeline) so that you can sync your user interface in the control system to the realtime status of the timeline. You can see the video below for better illustration.

 

If you're based in Singapore or APAC, give me a ping. I'd be glad to help.

[EddyOng]

4 hours ago, Eddy Yanto said:

Hi Eddy,

What Mike and Wiesemen had suggested will work based on your listed requirement.

I'd also like to point out that WATCHOUT has a very straightforward control protocol to interface with. You can use PIXILAB Blocks, WATCHNET ( WATCHNET is no longer in active development for a few years already since it's a mature product. You can still run it if you can get hold of a version 5 dongle license, in fact I deployed WATCHNET a while back) or you can use any other control systems in the market eg: Extron, Crestron, AMX and others. Since it's basically TCP/UDP ASCII based commands.

To call preloaded videos is actually really simple, say those videos need to be independently started/pause — in most of my setup, I'd put them into auxiliary timelines. You can have another video/image as the background sitting in the main timeline. Once the aux timelines are uploaded and cached in the Display computer, you can just call them like:
 

In fact, WATCHOUT also have protocol for you to subscribe to the timeline status (both main and aux timeline) so that you can sync your user interface in the control system to the realtime status of the timeline. You can see the video below for better illustration.

 

If you're based in Singapore or APAC, give me a ping. I'd be glad to help.

Hi Eddy Yanto, Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I will need it to have a video/image at the background when the main video is playing and when no video is playing.

oh, that's nice I'm base in Singapore too. I may reach out to you if I need any help when the project details is finalize. Thank you for the offer.

[EddyOng]

4 hours ago, Eddy Yanto said:

Hi Eddy,

What Mike and Wiesemen had suggested will work based on your listed requirement.

I'd also like to point out that WATCHOUT has a very straightforward control protocol to interface with. You can use PIXILAB Blocks, WATCHNET ( WATCHNET is no longer in active development for a few years already since it's a mature product. You can still run it if you can get hold of a version 5 dongle license, in fact I deployed WATCHNET a while back) or you can use any other control systems in the market eg: Extron, Crestron, AMX and others. Since it's basically TCP/UDP ASCII based commands.

To call preloaded videos is actually really simple, say those videos need to be independently started/pause — in most of my setup, I'd put them into auxiliary timelines. You can have another video/image as the background sitting in the main timeline. Once the aux timelines are uploaded and cached in the Display computer, you can just call them like:
 

In fact, WATCHOUT also have protocol for you to subscribe to the timeline status (both main and aux timeline) so that you can sync your user interface in the control system to the realtime status of the timeline. You can see the video below for better illustration.

 

If you're based in Singapore or APAC, give me a ping. I'd be glad to help.

Sorry, forget to ask this on my previous reply.

The video you have shown, that panel on the tablet is make by WatchNet?

[Eddy Yanto]

1 hour ago, EddyOng said:

Hi Eddy Yanto, Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I will need it to have a video/image at the background when the main video is playing and when no video is playing.

oh, that's nice I'm base in Singapore too. I may reach out to you if I need any help when the project details is finalize. Thank you for the offer.

No problem, always happy to help!

1 hour ago, EddyOng said:

Sorry, forget to ask this on my previous reply.

The video you have shown, that panel on the tablet is make by WatchNet?

The standalone iPad app in the video was custom built for a client, I think we can repurpose it with new graphic and programming for new project.

Alas, WATCHNET is good for basic scheduling and basic control where you can bind an action of a button to an event eg: run, pause or stop a timeline. Or a slider to a range values to control an input in WATCHOUT eg: to set opacity of an image or video with value between 0 and 1.

But it doesn't support a slightly more complex subscription based protocol where WATCHOUT will periodically send updates to the subscriber. Also for the user interfaces, you're provided with a few basic controls such as button, slider, dial, joystick, text and image. It worked great and fit a lot of use cases back then.

But for a slightly more complex user interaction, I'd recommend using its control protocol as the programming logic can be more expansive.

Side note: great to hear you're based in SG too. Feel free to reach out to me, my contact can be found on my user profile in this forum. 😉

 

[RBeddig]

The main differences between using WATCHNET or Blocks, Universe, Medialon, AMX, Crestron are probably:

1. To run WATCHNET, you'll need a license key which holds WATCHOUT versions 5 and 6. The larger silver keys can be "upgraded" to also hold version 5 for a rather small fee but you'll always need this dongle in a computer running WATCHNET. The computer though can be very basic indeed. WATCHNET is merely a special web server.
2. "Programming" WATCHNET is pretty simple and merely done by drag-and-drop actions and drop down menus. Since WATCHNET automatically retrieves all timeline names, cues etc. from your WATCHOUT project there is actually no real coding involved.
3. WATCHNET only sends data! While you could control TCP/IP or UDP based devices from WATCHNET too, you'll not be able to link any WATCHNET action to any incoming signal. No inputs at all!
4. Control systems with more sophisticated WATCHOUT drivers will also be able to retrieve some information from your WATCHOUT project. Examples for those are Blocks, Universe or Medialon. Using Crestron, AMX, etc. is usually more basic and way more coding.
5. The biggest benefit using WATCHNET might be that you could take your project onto a remote WATCHOUT production computer and do your monthly changes there (if you do not need a display computer - even without a dongle) and then save those as a WATCHNET bundle. The first bundle holds the complete show and media and will be pushed into the WATCHNET user interface. Any later bundle version of your show will only hold the new content files and new information and will usually be way smaller. As Eddy Yanto already pointed out, WATCHNET will not see any further development and therefore it can happen that the "create WATCHNET bundle" feature will be dropped in future versions of WATCHOUT as it will only be a legacy feature.
6. Not everybody may know this but if content updates are basically still images only, you could place the relevant files on a URL path and use a media proxy to link those to WATCHOUT. WATCHOUT would then always retrieve the image from there. If we're talking about videos and the videos can have the same length and physical dimensions, you could also try to copy an updated version to the project and media folder on your display computer. As long as you don't connect the system to a production computer for your daily playback, WATCHPOINT (the display part of the software) will normally not do any version checking.

Hope it helps.

Rainer

 

[EddyOng]

13 hours ago, RBeddig said:

• The biggest benefit using WATCHNET might be that you could take your project onto a remote WATCHOUT production computer and do your monthly changes there (if you do not need a display computer - even without a dongle) and then save those as a WATCHNET bundle. The first bundle holds the complete show and media and will be pushed into the WATCHNET user interface. Any later bundle version of your show will only hold the new content files and new information and will usually be way smaller. As Eddy Yanto already pointed out, WATCHNET will not see any further development and therefore it can happen that the "create WATCHNET bundle" feature will be dropped in future versions of WATCHOUT as it will only be a legacy feature.
• Not everybody may know this but if content updates are basically still images only, you could place the relevant files on a URL path and use a media proxy to link those to WATCHOUT. WATCHOUT would then always retrieve the image from there. If we're talking about videos and the videos can have the same length and physical dimensions, you could also try to copy an updated version to the project and media folder on your display computer. As long as you don't connect the system to a production computer for your daily playback, WATCHPOINT (the display part of the software) will normally not do any version checking.

Hi Rainer, Thank you for the reply and information.

By remote does it mean I can upload a new set of video to replace the current one at my own place and don't need to go on site to physically upload there?

It will be a bonus for me to be able to update changes without me going down to the place to do it.

[EddyOng]

17 hours ago, Eddy Yanto said:

No problem, always happy to help!

The standalone iPad app in the video was custom built for a client, I think we can repurpose it with new graphic and programming for new project.

Alas, WATCHNET is good for basic scheduling and basic control where you can bind an action of a button to an event eg: run, pause or stop a timeline. Or a slider to a range values to control an input in WATCHOUT eg: to set opacity of an image or video with value between 0 and 1.

But it doesn't support a slightly more complex subscription based protocol where WATCHOUT will periodically send updates to the subscriber. Also for the user interfaces, you're provided with a few basic controls such as button, slider, dial, joystick, text and image. It worked great and fit a lot of use cases back then.

But for a slightly more complex user interaction, I'd recommend using its control protocol as the programming logic can be more expansive.

Side note: great to hear you're based in SG too. Feel free to reach out to me, my contact can be found on my user profile in this forum. 😉

 

Thank you Eddy Yanto for the information.

I'm glad that someone in the local can help me. 😁

[RBeddig]

10 hours ago, EddyOng said:

Hi Rainer, Thank you for the reply and information.

By remote does it mean I can upload a new set of video to replace the current one at my own place and don't need to go on site to physically upload there?

It will be a bonus for me to be able to update changes without me going down to the place to do it.

If you have a network connection to the location, yes. You'll need to drop the WATCHNET bundle (basically a funny named ZIP) into the first page of the  WATCHNET server application. Then you can either schedule a refresh using the calendar function or maybe build a second maintenance web page with a button to trigger the update. WATCHNET will then add the new media files and any other changed data on your display server.