osx multi-display control

[Nicholas Rivero]

Check out ProVideo Player over at http://www.renewedvision.com. It’s a great product, really affordable that does the basic aspects of what you’re wings/watchout would do.

//nick

[Maxim Moisseev]

I use PVP HD, it’s reaaly very good and affordable but far from Wings. I also gave a try to HighEnd Systems Catalyst, but it seemed to me not very stable and friendly.

[Bob Bonniol]

I need to protest… Only as a point of honor for some friends: Catalyst has been a leading media server for going on 8 or so years now. In terms of stability I haven’t even heard of a crash since v2, and that’s over 3 years ago. There’s a reason Catalyst has been used on many of the biggest gigs worldwide: It’s utterly reliable.

Speaking however, to ‘friendly’: Catalyst was primarily created to be controlled by a DMX lighting controller. It also works with MIDI controllers, and in it’s latest version I believe it has a timeline control option on board. So it can be a little daunting if you don’t have experience in the world of lighting controllers.

My suggestion (apart from those already made, and predicated on your need for a tight budget) is to use VJ software like Livid Union, Resolume, or Arkaos in conjunction with a dual or triple head to go adapter. Any of those apps is going to be cheaper than anything mentioned here, and they are all surprisingly powerful. Powerful enough that all of those folks making media serving solutions that cost 100 times as much are watching very nervously… Come to think of it I may need to write an article for the magazine about this…

Best,
Bob Bonniol

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Maxim Moisseev]

Thanks, Bob.
I did’t mention anything about my budget.
I also use Arkaos, it’s good for VJing, but I’m sure it’s not suitable for 5-screen performance.

So I’ll take a closer look on Catalyst. Do you know a good manual on this soft? I haven’t found any on their site.

[Bob Bonniol]

Well hang on: Catalyst is also not ideal for a 5 screen gig. IF I were going to list proper platforms created for multiscreen control/playback they would be:

Barco Encore
Vista SPyder
Hippotizer
Pandoras Box
Watchout
Wings

Then, maybe Catalyst.

One of your criteria seems to be making it work on Mac, yes ? Why are you looking for solutions besides Watchout if budget is not a problem ? It’s powerful, easy to use, and totally appropriate. If you are trying to run 5 screens off ONE mac, I’d have to say that’s not ideal at all… It can be done with a couple of Matrox Triple Head adapters, and I have used Arkaos and Livid to do this in events, but it was difficult and not something I’d want to do if precision and intra screen sync is key. Perhaps you should explain a bit more about what you are trying to do.

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Maxim Moisseev]

Thanx for the list, Bob.

I tried Watchout a couple of times, the most embarasing thing for me is that’s a PC soft. Windows is’t very stable.

I’m looking for a flexible application for OSX, that could work together with light console through dmx and with a timeline feature.

We’re composing a light program within Wysiwyg off-stage. I prefer to do a little bit the same manner with video, and to have a possibility to sync ’em on stage.

[Bob Bonniol]

Well, odd as it may sound… Mac may not be the way here. Don’t get me wrong… I own more than a dozen Mac machines that I use to create content. But in terms of playback, odd as it sounds, the most reliable and popular systems are windows based.

I’m not a big fan of the windows OS, particularly Vista. But very reliable and powerful DMX controllable media servers like Hippotizer or Pandoras Box are using Windows based platforms very effectively. Much of this has to do with the trend in the media server industry to use gaming graphics technologies and Direct-X in particular to leverage superior performance. All of the millions of dollars spent in PC gaming research and development enable these windows boxes to render effects and multiple layers in real time. My personal favorite are the Hippotizers. I’ve used them this year on Journey, Nickelback, Nine Inch Nails, as well as multiple big corporate and theatrical events, and they have yet to let me down. Multiple outputs, convenient remote interface control over standard gigabit ethernet, a robust timeline, DMX control (of course), as well as the ability to blend unlimited outputs into big panoramic images.

If you are absolutely not going to move from Mac, then your options for DMX controllable media servers that will be able to handle multiple outputs are limited to Catalyst, and PRG’s M-Box.

On the topic of previsualizing, I’m not sure what capability WYSWYG now has (I last used it a couple of years ago), but I can tell you that I use ESP Vision all the time to visualize lighting programming, and ESP has the capability to take video inputs and playback content ‘on screen’ right within your lighting previs. It even has correcty modeled photo-metrics and optical simulations for most of the leading brands of projectors… Very useful.

In any case good luck.

MODE Studios
http://www.modestudios.com
Contributing Editor, Entertainment Design Magazine
Art of the Edit Forum Leader
Live & Stage Event Forum Leader
HD Forum Leader

[Maxim Moisseev]

I VERY APPRESIATE YOUR HELP!
What hardware do you recommend to use with Hippotizers?

[Thomas Leong]

Here are some possibilities for the Mac –

Isadora

Multiscreener

Max/MSP/Jitter

[Nicholas Rivero]

if you want a crazy idea, mac alternative, I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the Apple developer software called Quartz Composer. In short, somebody built a multiscreen-networked synced video engine that is open-source. If you’re interested you can modify it to receive MIDI and now with some further toying, can get it to receive Artnet and then DMX via a DMX to arnet box. If you’re at all interested you can find details here: https://anselan.blogspot.com/2008/09/ygbox-goes-open-source.html

//nick