Video Wall

Video wall configuration in Macula is very flexible and it allows you to set up video output in virtually any physical display combination. Templates for video walls are set up via Macula Console and then they become available in Macula Monitor, depending on the permissions of the connected user. Using the dedicated Video Wall tab, you can easily control the contents of all available video walls.

Note that this functionality is only supported for the Macula Global software edition. Connection to a Macula Enterprise server is required for the video wall functionality to become available. If some of your video walls are hosted on Macula Recording Server machines, you still need to connect to the Macula Enterprise server from Macula Monitor: if the connection to the central management servers is lost, your client application will automatically reconnect via mirror (if available) or to the recording server(s) directly. There is no need to enter any of the Macula Recording Server addresses manually.

Video Wall Setup

The idea of the video walls in Macula is that you create a layout in Macula Console and then assign Macula Monitor application windows to video wall screens in the layout. Afterwards, the whole video wall can be easily managed from any location.

In this section, we will review the settings for the Macula Monitor application windows and see, which ones are required for the video wall setup.

Advanced Window Settings

To access window setup in Macula Monitor, open the Live section, click the multidisplay setup button in the upper-right-hand corner - just under the main menu - and then click the Advanced button to bring up the configuration dialog box.

The advanced window settings dialog box offers the following possibilities:

  • create windows for the available displays and manage their properties

  • assign default layouts and sequences to windows (local displays only)

  • bind windows to video wall displays

In the upper part of the configuration dialog box you will see the available window list. Already there by default is the main Macula Monitor window (marked as Primary), which cannot be deleted or renamed. More windows can be added, their number being limited to the number of displays physically connected to the workstation. For each window, the following items are displayed in the summary list:

  • display number

  • primary or not

  • startup layout, if set

  • channel/map pop-ups allowed or not

  • layout pop-ups allowed or not

  • start fullscreen or not

  • video wall screen number, if set

To add a new window, click the + Add window button in the upper-left-hand corner (when the window amount has reached connected display amount, the buttons becomes greyed out). You can also create additional local windows by clicking the display thumbnails in the Multidisplay setup menu (before opening Advanced settings).

Select the parameters of the new window and click Save for the changes to take effect.

All these parameters can be set for each window (including default primary window) in the dialog box section below the window list. The following settings are available:

General settings:

  • Window name: set window title to be displayed in the application title bar of each window

  • Startup display: select a display to start the target window on (click to highlight with a yellow frame)

  • Startup layout or sequence: pick an item to be displayed on window startup; select (Default) to auto fill a 2x2 layout at Macula Monitor startup

  • Start full screen: enable the target window to start in full screen mode; if this is disabled, the window will start up simply maximized

  • Allow channel and map pop-ups*: enable video/map popup on the target window as a result of event/action rule execution

  • Allow layout pop-ups*: enable layout pop-ups on the target window as a result of event/action rule execution

Video wall section:

  • Video wall screen: select to make the target window a part of the video wall configuration; choose the video wall from the drop-down list below

  • Video wall visual element: choose (click to highlight with a yellow frame) a video wall screen to serve as the target window output

  • Tiled display: enable to split the target video wall screen into several physical displays

  • Tiles: select the grid size and click a tile to assign the current window to it

*Pop-up options can be selected one at a time: enabling object pop-ups disables layout pop-ups and vice versa.

In order to delete a window, select it in the list and click the recycle bin icon in the upper-right-hand corner; you will be prompted to confirm the action. Note that all the window settings will also be removed; once you have removed a window and clicked Save in the Advanced settings dialog box, the deleted window will also be closed. You can remove any window, apart from the primary one.

Assign Video Wall Screens

Briefly: for each application window, enable the Video wall screen setting in the lower section > select the video wall from the drop-down list > click the desired video wall screen > save. Window settings are explained in more details above.

For the video wall to be available here, the video wall template should be pre-defined via Macula Console, and the current user account must have the Manage video wall permission granted. If you have enabled the video wall setting but there are none in the drop-down list, make sure you have your Macula Global server connected and check its configuration in Macula Console.

If you wish to combine several physical displays into one virtual video wall screen (tiling), enable the Tiled display option on the right, then choose which screen side each display belongs to. Tiled walls are explained fully below.

Tiled Displays

Sometimes, flat panel displays with no bezel are combined physically into one ultra-high-resolution surface. Macula Monitor supports such configurations and allows splitting each video wall display into several tiles, and further assigning of individual tiles to different physical displays. These displays can be driven either by the same or different workstations: the resulting tiled wall will look the same. Thus, a set (group) of physical monitors (tiles) form a single video wall screen, which is then used as the contents' destination. The tiles are set up once, and this configuration layer is then completely transparent for the video wall management: you will simply address video wall screens later on, no matter if each screen consists of one or more windows.

To enable tiling, first assign all displays to the same video wall screen, then choose different regions (tiles) for each physical display using the visual elements.

Example: stretch one channel output to two Macula Monitor application windows, which run on two different client machines.

Configuration:

  • for both windows:

    • enable video wall in the advanced window settings, as shown above

    • choose the same video wall and the same video wall screen (e.g., video wall Matrix, screen 1)

    • enable the Tiled display option

    • enter 1x2 layout

  • for Window 1:

    • choose tile 1 (left)

  • for Window 2:

    • choose tile 2 (right)

As a result, Macula Monitor will automatically treat two displays as a single screen, and any contents sent to this video wall screen will be stretched to fill both physical surfaces.

Note that the contents of the tiled displays can be defined via video walls only, either by sending items to the video wall screens from the item menu (...), or by opening the video wall management tab. If you send items to local screens (by double-clicking or dragging and dropping them from the resources' list), only a part of the tile will be used, producing an undesirable effect.

Make sure to calibrate your tiled displays so that they have similar brightness and colour settings. These settings are usually available via operating system or utilities bundled with the graphics card drivers.

Many different displays can be subscribed to one and the same video wall screen.

Example:

  • in the office, video wall Screen 1 consists of one physical display, and in the control room the same output is sent to four displays using tiling

  • when someone manages the video wall from the corresponding tab, the Screen 1 contents is changed simultaneously in both places

Video Wall Management

Once the Macula Monitor application windows have been attached to the video wall displays, it becomes possible to send resources directly to any video wall display. You can do this in two ways: send resources directly from their menu, or enter the full-featured video wall management mode. The first option is convenient for quick edits, while the second one allows full control over the video wall contents. Both modes handle video wall screens and not individual tiles, if the tiled displays are enabled. Thus, you do not need to worry about the tiles: Macula Monitor will take care about them automatically.

Below, you will find guidelines on how to administer video wall contents in Macula Monitor.

Quick Content Output

To send any resource directly to a video wall screen, click the Expand button near resource name in the list on the left and choose Display on -> Video Wall -> pick video wall -> pick display number/name. Available resources are: layouts, layout sequences, maps and individual channels.

To send the currently displayed screen contents to the video wall display, do the same thing from the layout menu in the upper-right-hand corner (above live view).

Advanced Video Wall Management

Switch to the Video Wall tab on the upper panel to access advanced video all management. In this mode, your Macula Monitor acts as a controlling client for all the video wall members.

Here, in the left-hand panel, all available resources - both local and server-side - are listed. These are:

  • video walls: fetched from Macula Global servers, each video wall can be expanded to view its displays

  • layouts, layout templates and layout sequences: both local and shared via Macula Global servers; new sequences can be created from here by clicking the Expand button

  • channels: individual channels from all connected servers

  • maps: fetched from connected Macula Global servers

First, drag and drop your desired video wall from the resource list to the upper section of the window. You can drag and drop either the video wall name itself or any of its displays. Video wall display arrangement will appear in the upper part of the window with its corresponding display numbers and names.

Click any cell to view the current contents of the target display: it will be shown below the video wall arrangement. The title bar of the lower window part will reflect the video wall display number and name, currently displayed resource type (layout or layout sequence); in the right-hand side of the panel you will have the layout menu, which will allow you to quickly set the currently shown layout as startup layout for the target video wall display. If the current video wall display has a layout sequence on it, this menu will offer options to set the current layout sequence as startup and also to stop the sequence.

In the lower part of the window, you can manipulate the contents of the target video wall display in the exact same way as you would do in the usual live view mode. You can:

  • drag and drop layout templates, layouts and layout sequences from the Layouts section of the Resources panel on the left

  • create new layout sequences from the Layouts section

  • drag and drop individual channels from the Channels section

  • drag and drop maps from the Maps section

  • close channels and maps in the layout by using the X button in the upper-left-hand corner of the viewport

  • swap channels and maps within the layout by dragging them by their titles

  • lock channels and maps in their viewports by using the lock overlay control in the upper-left-hand corner

  • digitally zoom channels by using the digital zoom overlay control

  • digitally zoom maps by using your mouse wheel

Indication conventions:

  • currently selected video wall screen is marked dark blue

  • the information icon next to the layout/channel title shows the name of the user who has placed the corresponding layout/channel: hover your mouse cursor to see the user name

  • the information icon is highlighted yellow for five seconds after the corresponding resource has been placed

All changes to the video wall display contents are immediately applied and all other users who are managing the same display at this moment are notified by the highlighted information icon. If selected arrangements are not saved as startup layouts, they will be kept until remote Macula Monitor applications are restarted.

When your Macula Monitor is connected to the mirroring server instead of Macula Global (server color indicator changes from green to yellowish), all the changes you make to the video wall configuration are kept on the mirror server. When the Macula Global machine comes back, all changes are synchronized back to the primary central management server. All this happens automatically and transparently for the Macula Monitor users.

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