[Thomas Leong]

Here are some possibilities for the Mac –

Isadora

Multiscreener

Max/MSP/Jitter

[Thomas Leong]

errata –

“In WP3, create a Screen of 153600×1080 (not 15360×1080)…”

But in checking my Screen creation in my Wings, the limit shown is 100,000 pixels wide. However, I count 80 Screen Fields/Displays shown in my Preview Window/Work Area. Could be a bug in the specs “shown” because each of the 80 displays is shown at 1920×1080.

Thomas

[Thomas Leong]

Hi,

I’m not familiar with C-Nario, but it is a digital signage system and should be able to link/sync all the monitors. One problem solved. Unfortunately, After Effects seems to be able to create a comp that is max 30,000pixels in width.
In which case, have a look at eyeonline’s Digital Fusion. Not sure if it can handle more pixels per comp than AE.

Only possible solution I am familiar with is AvStumpfl’s Wings Platinum 3 – the Multidisplay version, and in your case, without the additional Show Control Module. You only need 1 licence (USB dongle) since you are not outputting live to the various Slave nodes in your comp (each node needs a licence, i.e. 40 Slave nodes + Master = 41 licences and 41 suitable PCs plus a hefty Ethernet!!!). Instead you are only creating in the Master node, and need only to (render) output to individual files for each of the 40 screens (or Screen Fields/Display as Wings Platinum calls them). A demo with 1-minute output limit and an overlay is available. Dataton’s Watchout 4 also has a fully working demo free or download. Wings can output to MPEG-1, -2, WMV, AVI. The supplied MPEG/DVD codec is from Mainconcept. Dataton’s codec is from Elecard but I’m not 100% sure if, in Watchout 4, you can select the individual Slave Display/Screen Fields to output to a file each, whereas you can in Wings.

The big limitation is that both Wings Platinum 3 and Watchout are not an effects creator like AE, Combustion and Digital Fusion. The former composite in layers and can overlay/move/rotate/re-size with DVE-looking effects an object across all the Displays/Screen Fields.

So your workflow would be to create a sequence in, say, AE that is, say 1920×1080, and output with alpha channel (WP3 takes only .avi…so with alpha that would be uncompressed avi or Canopus’ lossless, etc. Watchout accepts Quicktime files without much problems)

In WP3, create a Screen of say 15360×1080 pixels (80 monitors of 1920×1080). For me, with my 2×17″ monitors, the resultant Screen preview window is almost one thin line… too line to see and work. You will need a big monitor/plasma to work with this). In Watchout, create a Stage comprising multiple 1920×1080 Displays positioned accordingly.

Drag your avi into your SCREEN 1 in WP3/Watchout, and position it in, say, the first Displays/Screen Field. Then drag the movement across to the 41st Display (which is a copy of/identical to your 1st Display), and the start and end keyframes will be auto created when you are in ‘Edit Objects in Timeline and Screen (S for shortcut key)’ mode. Viola! You now have an object that travels 360 degrees back to its original position. When outputting to files, you skip the render to the 41st Display.

Note the trick above to get a cascading sequence 360 degrees back to original position using a virtual monitor/display/screen field identical to the first (or last as the case may be). A similar trick across the gaps between the groups of 8 would be to create virtual monitors that fill up the gaps. The programming of the sequence uses these virtual monitors, but when you output the files, the virtual monitors are ignored, and since they are not physically ‘connected’ and therefore not seen, no harm is done but this usually takes care of the timing of the sequence between. Maybe your C-Nario can do the same.

Hope that solves your problem somewhat,
Thomas Leong
Owner/Moderator of https://multidisplays.freeforums.org

[Thomas Leong]

Software-wise, I would guess that the people staging this are using either Dataton’s Watchout or AvStumpfl’s Wings Platinum.

In any case, I surmise that your comp can be created in After Effects. It just depends on how the 40 HD screens are arranged: 40 columns in a single row? or 10 columns x 4 rows? or ???

For example, at 10×4, the comp is only 19200×4320 pixels which AE can handle…but you will probably have to view the comp at a reduced resolution else your computer would choke.

Thomas Leong

[Thomas Leong]

Per Bill Davis’ earlier post, Kramer Electronics has the VP-211DS Standby Switcher. It is for computer video rather than traditional ‘video signals’. Check that your client’s LCD monitor has an RGB input for VGA/XGA.

The only thing I’m not sure of is what they mean exactly by ‘…upon loss of primary input’ because from my viewpoint, as long as a signal is detected (even a signal with a blank/black image), it is a signal and the auto switching will probably not occur. I think there has to be a real loss of signal (as in ‘switched/powered off’ or ‘unit goes into rewind mode’…but then again as a digital unit, there is no rewind is there?) for the unit to activate the secondary input. A possible solution is to put a timer on one of the units to switch it on/off at pre-determined intervals…and autoplay when on. Might be too complicated on second thoughts.

Alternative is to look at a cheap digital signage solution such as that from Digital Recall. The low res version is free, but it seems quite cheap to upgrade to higher res and other add-ons. You can then schedule when your respective computer videos will play, and loop them as necessary.

Thomas Leong

[Thomas Leong]

Try https://fulldomeplugin.multimeios.pt/index.htm

hope it works!
Thomas Leong

[Thomas Leong]

For Windows, freeware procedure is to use TMPGEnc v2.525 Free Version (MPEG-2 Encoding has 30 days usage limit owing to licencing – good enough for this project) available at TMPGEnc.net.

Open the program, and negotiate to Files > MPEG Tools > Simple Multiplex.
Select MPEG-2 Program (VBR) as the file type for output
Browse to the elementary streams .mpv for video and .mp2 for audio inputs
Name your output
Run

If your current audio is in .wav form, then use another program eg. Super from eRightSoft, to convert the .wav to .mp2 audio format.

Thomas Leong

[Thomas Leong]

Since you have the icon already associated with AE, the program should be used/recognised as the one required to open .aep files. Wierd.

Just to double-check, look at –
My Computer > Tools > Folder Options > File Types

and scroll down to –
AEP Adobe After Effects Project

highlight AEP, and click on Advanced > Edit
it should show under –

Action:
Adobe After Effects Project

Application used to perform action:
“C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CS3 (or your relevant version)\Support Files\AfterFX.exe””%1″ [Note: all the ” and spaces shown here are relevant]

Use DDE
[is enabled]

DDE Message:
[is blank]

Application:
AfterFX

DDE Application Not Running:
[is blank]

Topic:
System

If the above is all in order, and you still have the problem, it has got me stumped!…and I’m afraid I can’t help further. Sorry.

Thomas Leong

[Thomas Leong]

Something is amiss. Suggest you do an anti-virus scan of your system first…with an updated database. Then try the file association procedure of ‘Open With’ again.

Thomas Leong

[Thomas Leong]

“Wings Platinum from AVStumpfl is a product similar to Watchout, but I don’t use it and I’m not sure on pricing. It would still require one computer per display, so it may not result in big savings.”

I use Wings, and with today’s Core 2 Duo’s, SATA drives, and dual-head graphics cards, Wings has a feature that can effectively half the number of licences and displays required, compared to Watchout. Wings can output 2 discrete screens/displays per licence/PC. If need be, the Wings Production Master can also be used as a Display PC. Not advisable as the control timeline will then no longer be visible for monitoring, etc. Alternative in a dual monitor setup for the Master is to use one monitor for the timeline, and the other as a Display output, thereby squeezing one more screen/monitor for the whole setup.

In a 24-display setup For example, one could use only 12 Wings licences/PCs + 1 more for the Master = 13 licences and PCs in all.

Licence costs between Wings and Watchout are almost similar, with perhaps Wings being slightly lower.

AvStumpfl has hardware products based on CF cards playback which can be controlled by Wings, or, after programming, can contain the timeline transferred from Wings (i.e. playback does not require the Wings Master PC to be present). Perhaps some combination of hardware and software from Avstumpfl will solve your problem. Suggest you contact a Avstumpfl dealer to discuss your varied requirements without obligation to see if they have a solution for you.

Thomas Leong