Name:	Dataton Watchout IP
Version:	6.7.2
Available for:	Manager V7 and Manager V6 (Lite & Pro), Showmaster (Mini, ST, Pro, LE, XS & iPro)
Limitation In:
Device Brand:	Dataton
Positrack Compatible:	Yes
Resources type:	TCP/IP Network

Overview

Watchout is a scalable system for presentations based on digital media. It is software that allows you to create BIG shows while maintaining unprecedented image fidelity.

Images can span several video projectors or monitors, if desired. Watchout automatically applies smooth edge blending to overlapping projection areas, resulting in a seamless image. While doing so, it also maintains the combined resolution of all projectors/monitors in the system, avoiding the pixelization effects often associated with video walls and other large format video and graphics systems. You can apply transitions to images or image elements, as well as animate them across screen areas. Video can be integrated and used in the same way. You can imports a wide variety of video and image formats, making it compatible with virtually any production software you may already have. You can use it whenever you need to display or project high quality digital media. While it can be used for single screen applications, it is primarily designed for multiscreen use.

Remark: Positrack could be lost when using “Goto Control Cue” command as well as using Control Cues inside the Watchout timeline. Some other commands like setRate or timecodeMode can also causes the MXM to lost the positrack if they are used. If you want to use positrack feature, use only “Play”, “Stop”, “Locate” commands from the MXM.

Note: When using players in a Display Cluster, it may occurs that some players switch to windowed mode which causes the player to stop playing back and to do not accept any other command. This occurs if some other application in the player try to get the focus (visible in foreground).

MxM Installation

No special installation required.

Device Setup

Device creation window:

IP Address (or name): IP address or name of the target watchout computer.

Auto re-connection: Enables to automatically try to reconnect the watchout computer after a disconnection.

Watchout device: Type of watchout device to control. It can be a Production Watchout or a Display Cluster (master of a serie of watchout players).

Note that some feedback information like Timecode are only available with Display Clusters.

Device Commands

Load Show

Load a new show.

• Show Name: [String] Name of the show to be loaded
• Layer Conditions: [String] Defines which layer conditions must be used instead of Show project defined layer conditions (empty means keep default).

Usage: For Watchout Production, the name of the show must be the complete name of the show including the path and the file extension (Ex C:\Program..\Shows\MyShow1.watch) and for the Display Cluster the name must be the show name without the path and without the file extension (Ex MyShow1).

The name of the show must NOT contains space characters.

If Layer Conditions is empty then default show project settings are used else Layer Conditions should contains a list of activated condition, separated by a comma character (Ex 1,2,5,12). 0 means no conditions.

Stop

Stop the presentation currently in play mode.

• Mode: [Enum] Indicates if the timeline must be paused or aborted. This parameter behaves differently on the Main timeline, the Main timeline is always paused but Abort locates its time position at 00:00:00/00
  • “Paused” The timeline is paused in its current time position
  • “Aborted” The timeline is aborted (paused for Main timeline) and its time position is reset to 0
• Timeline Name: [String] Name of the timeline. If this parameter is empty the command is considered for the Main timeline

Play

Play the presentation currently in stop mode.

• Timeline Name: [String] Name of the timeline. If this parameter is empty the command is considered for the Main timeline

Locate

Set the presentation time position to the specified position.

• TimeCode: [Time] Time position to go to in 1/100s
• Timeline Name: [String] Name of the timeline. If this parameter is empty the command is considered for the Main timeline

Goto Control Cue

Set the presentation time position to the specified cue name position.

• Cue Name: [String] Name of the cue to be located
• Reverse Only: [Enum] Indicate if the Control Cue must be search only in reverse direction
  • “Off” The search is forward and backward
  • “On” The search is only backward
• Timeline Name:[String] Name of the timeline. If this parameter is empty the command is considered for the Main timeline

Standby

Set the device in standby mode.

• Status: [Enum] Status of the standby
  • “Off” The playback output is normal
  • “On” The playblack output is black
• Duration: [Time] Time to goto standby mode (fade in/out)

Set Logo String

Display the given string next to the WATCHOUT logo, when shown on screen.

• String:[String] Text to be displayed

Change Layer Conditions

Change the layer condition dynamically. This layer condition could have been set during Load Show command.

• String: [String] Defines which layer conditions must be used. This command overwrite Show project defined layer conditions as well as Load Show defined layer conditions

Timecode Mode

Enable or disable the internal timecode reader. When enabled, the show chase the incomming timecode.

• Mode: [Enum] Timecode reader status and mode
  • “Receiver Off” The playback is freerunning, timecode readed is off
  • “Auto-Detect” Timecode reader is on and timecode format is auto-detected
  • “EBU 25 fps” Timecode reader is on and timecode format is set to EBU 25 fps
  • “SMPTE 29.97 fps NDF” Timecode reader is on and timecode format is set to SMPTE 29.97 fps non drop frame
  • “SMPTE 29.97 fps DF” Timecode reader is on and timecode format is set to SMPTE 29.97 fps drop frame
  • “SMPTE 30 fps” Timecode reader is on and timecode format is set to SMPTE 30 fps (Black & White)
• Timecode Offset:[Time] Defines the offset to apply to the incomming timecode. This parameters has no meaning when Mode is Receiver Off

Set Rate

Change the speed rate of the playback. This command might have an effect on the audio rendering and is preferably used when the content is only image material.

• Rate:[Real] Defines the playback speed rate (vari-speed value). This value is in range 0.8 - 1.2

Power Down

Power down all players within the cluster.

Usage: This command ought to be used when a show is currently loaded and not playing, because the players within the cluster are defined by the show itself. If multiple shows are used, involving a different number of players, then a dedicated show (i.e ‘PowerDownShow’) can be created to include all the players in the installation in order to powerdown all of them.

The player whereby the MXM is connected, will be powered down at the lastest.

Register AuxTimeline

Dynamically defines variables to monitor the status and the time position of an auxilary timeline (Watchout V4.1.0 or greater).

• Timeline Name:[String] Name of the auxilary timeline
• Status Variable:[Enum] Variable to monitor the timeline status. If this parameter doesn’t reference a variable, the current monitoring is stopped. The variable type should be an Enum variable with 3 states Stop(0), Paused(1) and Playing(2).
• Time Position Variable:[Time] Variable to monitor the timeline time position. If this parameter doesn’t reference a variable, the current monitoring is stopped. The variable type should be a Time variable at 100fps

Note: All registered variables are unregistered when a show is loaded.

Reset

Reset the show to its initial state. All timelines are stopped.

Get Show List

Retrieves the list of available shows in the cluster.

• Show List: [String] Variable which returns the list of shows

Get Control Cue List

Retrieves the list of control cues in the given timeline.

• Timeline Name: [String] Name of the timeline. If this parameter is empty the command is considered for the Main timeline
• Control Cue List: [String] Variable which returns the list of control cues

Set Input

Set the value of a Watchout input.

• Input Name: [String] Name of the Watchout input to set.
• Value: [Real] Value of the input to set. Depending of the Mode parameter, this value is either absolute (default) or relative. If the Mode is Absolute, the value is always considered as a positive value. If the Mode is Relative, the value is added/subtracted to the current Input value according to its sign.
• Mode: [Enum] Mode of the value. The Mode can be either Absolute (default) or Relative.
• Duration [Time] Transition time to set the Input to the given value. If this value is set to 0 (default), no transition time is used.

Register Input

Dynamically defines variables to monitor the status of an input (Watchout V5.2.1 or greater).

• Input Name:[String] Name of the input
• Status Variable:[Real] Variable to monitor the input status. If this parameter doesn’t reference a variable, the current monitoring is stopped. The variable type should be a Real variable.

Note: All registered variables are unregistered when a show is loaded. Note: Unlike auxilary timeline, input variables are managed internal in the MXM. The initial status is updated once when the Watchout show is loaded.

Device Variables

Status

[Enum] Current general status of Watchout.

• “Unconnected”: Watchout not connected
• “Connecting”: A connection to watchout is in progress
• “No Show Loaded”: Watchout is online but there is no show currently loaded
• “Ready”: Watchout is ready to play (show is loaded)
• “Busy”: Watchout is performing a blocking operation like downloading files
• “Stopped”: Current show is stopped (only provided from Display Cluster 2.0.1 if a show is loaded)
• “Playing”: Current show is playing (only provided from Display Cluster 2.0.1 if a show is loaded)
• “Authentification Failed”: The authentification needed for Display Cluster has failed
• “Play Failed”: The play command has failed, this may occurs if player are in windowed mode

Standby

[Enum] Standby status.

• “Off”: Standby is off, the playback output is normal
• “On”: Standby is on, the playblack output is black

TimeCode

[Time] current time position of the presentation.

Note When the device type is a Production Watchout this value is updated as long as “Goto Control Cue” command is not used. If “Goto Control Cue” command is used the timecode value is reset to 00:00:00/00 until a Locate or Load Show command is issued.

If the device type is a Cluster, this value is always updated.

Error

[Enum] Current error status.

• “No Error”: There is no error
• “Target OS Error”: Indicates a generic operating system error from the host OS. This error can also be generated when a show cannot be loaded on Watchout Production
• “Quick Time Rendering Error”: Similar to the Operating System Error, but originating from QuickTime
• “Win32 Rendering Error”: Error occurred specifically related to rendering (typically DirectX)
• “Network Error”: Error occurred specifically related to network communication
• “File Server Error”: Error occurred when attempting to get a file from the designated file server (if any)
• “Command Error”: This indicating that the command being sent has failed
• “General Runtime Error”: Other errors, not covered by any of the above cases
• “Authentification Error”: Indicate that the level for authentification does not match on the target device. (This value is only used with Display Cluster devices)
• “Cannot Load Show”: The requested show cannot be loaded
• “Show Not Loaded”: The requested command cannot be performed because there is show loaded

Message

[String] Display messages that are sent back by the Cluster.

Usage: To enable Watchout Cluster to send back text messages to the MXM, just create a Control Cue (in WO timeline) and type in the name field a text beginning with ‘:’ (ex: “:My Message”).

ShowName

[String] Display the name of the show currently loaded.

Note: This variable stays empty with Watchout Production.

AuxTimelines

[String] Gives the list of auxilary timelines present in the current loaded show (Watchout V4.1.0 or greater).

TimelineRate

[Real] Gives The current timeline rate. The actual value is updated when a Show is loaded and the timeline is running.

Inputs

[String] Gives the list of inputs present in the current loaded show (Watchout V5.2.1 or greater).

Revisions

V 1.0.1

• Added: Support for Showmaster

V 1.0.2

• Added: Support for Showmaster Pro

V 1.1.0

• Added: Support for Aux Timelines (Register AuxTimeline command and AuxTimelines variable)
• Added: Wizard for Show, Aux Timeline and Control Cue parameters
• Added: TimelineRate variable
• Added: ‘Reset’, ‘Get Show List’ and ‘Get Control Cue List’ Commands

V 6.0.0

• Modified: Support of Manager V6/Showmaster V2.

V 6.0.1

• Fixed: Setup dialog doesn’t open on the correct screen on a multi-screen configuration

V 6.0.2

• Fixed: Device variables are not reset after a project load (Requires Manager 6.0.3+).

V 6.1.0

• Added: Support for Showmaster LE & Showmaster XS platforms.

V 6.1.1

• Fixed: List of shows is not properly returned if shows are not in the ‘original’ Shows folder.

V 6.1.2

• Fixed: The Setup dialog box is not always fully visible at the device creation time.

V 6.2.0

• Fixed: RegisterAuxTimeline command causes Manager/Showmaster to crash when one of the variable is not set.
• Fixed: AuxTimeline registration was not reset if the same show is reloaded.
• Added: Command ‘SetInput’

V 6.2.1

• Fixed: Some Manager V5 and Showmaster V1 projects cannot be loaded (requires Manager 6.2.1+/Showmaster Editor 2.2.0+).

V 6.3.0

• Added: Register Input command and Inputs variable.
• Added: Wizard in SetInput command to select the desired input

V 6.3.1

• Fixed: MXM Commands may sometimes hang Manager/Showmaster while the command being executed.

V 6.3.2

• Internal Changes.

V 6.4.0

• Added: Compatibility for Overture CS.

V 6.4.1

• Fixed: ‘Power Down’ command for a Watchout version 6 device crashes Manager.

V 6.7.0

• Improved: Support for High DPI displays (require Manager 6.7.0+ or Showmaster Editor 2.7.0+)
• Changed: Compatibility for Manager 6.7.0 and Showmaster Editor 2.7.0