NDI Woes - 6.5

[BasVT]

Hi there, hope someone could help.

 

We have a site which runs 2 watchout systems. Each system is identical, and is made up of 3 display servers feeding 9 projectors.

We are pulling in an NDI stream (from a Newtek connect spark) into both systems (separate connect spark for each system). The NDI feed is outputting on all projectors (5 feeds) and being picked up by all 3 servers in each system.

 

One system is working absolute fine, no issues.

 

In the other system, the 2nd server (feeding projectors 4,5 and 6) sometimes drops the NDI stream, and just shows black. It doesn’t happen every time, and a relaunch of watchout display software doesn’t fix the problem. It seems totally random, and can sometimes be fine for a day, for it only to drop again part way through the next day.

The only way to get the NDI stream back is to either:

1. Go online / offline with the production software (which doesn’t work all the time)

2. Restart that particular display server

3. Change the IP address of that server.

All other content in the show (video content stored on the servers) work find with no problems.

Ive looked for IP conflicts, re-installed watchout and checked the tweaking guide countless times with no luck. The servers (all 6 in the 2 systems) are identical hardware wise (all running windows 10 enterprise). Both systems are actually identical in their content and watchout files too (albeit separate watchout files named differently).

 

Both myself and the client are at our wits end trying to figure out why this one server keeps loosing the NDI stream. If I dial into it via TCP, I can see the messages coming back from the server to say it’s switching to the alternative stream? So it sounds as if it’s just not finding it.

Everything on the network has a static IP.

 

Not sure what else to try? If we can’t get it reliably working, we’re going to have to remove the sparks and go down the HDMI capture card route.

 

if anyone has any suggestions it would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks

[RBeddig]

Can you try  naming  the computers instead of using fixed IP addresses?

[BasVT]

Hi there,

 

Thanks for your reply. What do you mean using the names instead of IP addresses?

 

 

Thanks,

 

Bas

[RBeddig]

You can use cluster name and display name instead of ip addresses. See the manual on page 43 for more details.

 

ADDRESSING BY IP NUMBER OR BY NAME
Display computers may be addressed either by name or by IP number (see “Computer”). In most
cases, addressing by name is preferable, since it allows IP numbers to be dynamically assigned,
thereby reducing the need for manual configuration.

[BasVT]

Thansk for this. I applied this to the working system and everything worked fine.

 

However, When I changed from IP to names on the 3 display servers in the second system, it couldn't find the display machines when I pressed 'Test connection'. works fine when I put in the IP addresses though. All 6 servers (3 in each system) have unique computer names (and within their own clusters). Everything runs on the same network and IP range though.

Could this point to something not quite right on the network?

 

 

Thanks,

 

Bas

[RBeddig]

The display servers send out strings every now and then into the network on UDP. If the physical network of all servers is in the same ip set they should all appear in the network window inside WATCHMAKER.