Top Menu Bar
If implemented, select alternative Languages; use the StackExpress Main Menu for configuration options; go to the Web Service home page and to the StackExpress System Config Settings.
Server Selection
Click the down arrow in the top-right of the Express page to select alternative connected (available) servers. For this and other Stack connectivity information, see the Delta Web Service User Guide.
Express / Server Information
This top left panel shows the settings that are made in Media Config and System Config:
Timeline Controls
In the centre is the timelines control panel:
StackExpress can operate up to 8 timelines. Each timeline can show ‘Ready’ (blue), ‘Playing’ (green), ‘Stopped’ (red) or Blank – i.e. unused (yellow).
To start playing any timeline immediately, click its start button: 
To fade the current playing timeline to transparency and then fade in the selected timeline, click the selected timeline fade button 
The fade point is immediate, end of clip or end of timeline.
When a timeline is playing, the switch controls are replaced by the play controls:
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Rewind to start of show and stop. |
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Go back to previous clip in the playlist (will play if the show is still playing, but just go to next if the show is stopped) |
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Stop playing |
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Play |
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Go to next clip in the playlist (will play if the show is still playing, but just go to next if the show is stopped) |
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Stop looping a ‘Play Until Triggered’ resource (next action is configurable). |
If the Express timeline is merged with another show, previous and next clip buttons will only go to the Express resource start points.
In Loop mode, the timeline will repeat (this is a GOTO command to the first clip) until stopped.
Preview Config
Preview now makes use of a separate DeltaPreview app, embedded in the StackExpress page. Playing Preview adds to traffic and needs not be connected continuously. Click ‘Connect’ to view what is actually playing on the target server.
Click on ‘Config’ for display options of superimposed audio bars, performance graph or playback stats. For full details on Preview functions, see under Preview in the Delta Web Service User Guide.
Note: Preview shows you what is currently playing on the Delta server being addressed. It will not show your current Express show settings until Upload Timeline is clicked after any change. |
Resource Pool
The lower part of the screen belongs to available resources (movies, images and capture sources) and populating timelines.
If new media resources are added to, or deleted from, the server being addressed, two actions are required:
1.Refresh the Delta server.
2.Resync StackExpress with the server.
The resource pool will now reflect all available media. Preset resources that have been created here or in DeltaGUI, will be displayed here, with a blue P in the corner.
Capture devices are live, not recorded, and simply play back on-screen as they are streamed. To record capture devices, use the DeltaGUI preview recording facility (refer to the Delta User Guide Recording section.
Note that audio resources are not available as separately configurable files, but codec audio and matched resources (with the same name as visual media) will be found.
Timeline (Show) Creation
Resources are dragged from the pool on the left into the Timeline area. First select which timeline you want to populate.
At first you will see a yellow exclamation icon appear. This indicates a mismatch between this Delta timeline and the equivalent StackExpress timeline. Click the green Upload Timeline button, and the icon will change to a green tick as shown above. Changes can be reset, and the timeline can be cleared.
If you see a red exclamation icon, this is a warning that the loaded config does not represent the content loaded on the Delta server. Go to Menu > Reload Default Media Config (or load a specific) config, and then Upload Timeline .
Timeline Area (Loop Mode)
When resources are dragged from the pool into the timeline area, they create headline bars that can be rearranged or deleted. Icons indicate the media type.
This timeline is only an instruction set in StackExpress, until the Upload Timeline button is pressed, to generate or update the timeline in the expressmode.xml show file of the Delta server being addressed.
Click on the resource name to expand the resource editor (see Media Properties):
Page edited [d/m/y]: 08/04/2022