Products - Watchout Assistant - Detailed overview
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Introduction
Watchout Assistant was developed to aide in the creation and deployment of
Dataton Watchout™ installations and shows. Dataton Watchout™ is a fully digital,
multi-screen display system which can utilise numerous projectors – seamlessly
blended together to form a large seamless panoramic image composed of multiple
layers of high resolution digital imagery. Due to the enormous flexibility available in
the system, this assistant was created in order to aide in the creation of the content
and the deployment of projectors used by the system.
The Basics
Watchout operates by utilizing multiple projectors and blending them together
to form a single large image. Typically the projected images are overlapped by
between 15% and 45%. Less than 15% and you don’t have enough pixels to get a
smooth blend, more than 45% and with more than two projectors you start getting an
area where you have 3 projectors hitting the same narrow band.
Typically in a watchout show, the content and show is built around a predetermined
screen size and projector type. The projector type will define the number
of pixels each projector can display and its aspect ratio. The size of the screen will
determine the overall aspect ratio of the screen. With these two figures we can
calculate the overlaps required, stage positions and projector spacings.
DIAGRAM 1
The following outlines the definition of the various program fields and options.
Projector panel size (Pixels[1024:768]) –
Select The Projector Panel Resolution Here or manually enter your panel resolutions
LCD/DLP Projectors have a native resolution, the size of the internal panel which
determines the maximum resolution the projector can display without requiring any
scaling of the image. For the purposes of Watchout it is normally preferable to use this
native resolution to ensure the sharpest possible reproduction of the content.
However due to the variation in panel sizes between various projectors we need to
define the resolution to be used.
Projection Screen Dimensions (Various[40x15]) –
Enter your Screen Dimensions Here
These are the dimensions of the projection surface that you need to fill, these are
used to calculate the required overlaps.
Screen Count (Units[3]) –
Select from the dropdown menu, the number of projectors being used in this blend
Lens Ratio (Ratio:1[2.1:1]) –
Enter the Zoom ratio of the lens being used as a decimal number eg 2, or 1.8, or 2.77
etc.
Zoom ratio of the lens’s in the projectors.
Stage Positions Offset (Pixels[1000]) –
Enter the desired Pixel Offset in Pixels or select the preset 0 or 1000 (1k)
Offsets the calculated Stage Pixel positions, used when setting up the Watchout
display positions in the Watchout Production Software , Presets are available for 0 or
1000 or user definable by entering a value in directly.
Pixel Calc-
Calculates projection information based on the width of the screen and the
pixel dimensions of pre-existing content.
Unit Conversion
Screen Units and Output Units –
Watchout Assistant will convert the Projection Screen Dimensions from the entered
units to the output units. In this manner the screen dimensions can be entered for,
example, in feet and have the output returned in meters or vice versa.
Options Menu
Lens Ratio Calc – Horizontal or Vertical
By default lens ratios are applied based on the horizontal(typically long side)
size of the image. This option gives the option to change this to the vertical (short
side).
Projector Auto Calc – Check Menu
When activated, this feature will automatically calculate the minimum number
of projectors required in order to fulfil the required overlap, after the screed width has
been entered.
Output Options
Design Mode – Checkbox
Selecting the Design Mode Checkbox adds After effects Crop point information to the
Results box
By utilising products such as Adobe After Effects, large format digital movies can be
pre split prior to playback to lower the system resources required for playback. Design
mode provides the crop points for each display output to assist in this procedure.
Overshoot – Checkbox
Selecting the Overshoot Checkbox, enables the auto overshoot calculation box to be
opened, if the calculated overlap is less than the defined percentage amount.
If the requested overlap is not obtained with the specified number of projectors and
screen size then, there is an ability to overshoot the screen to enable sufficient
overlap. This option will provide the minimum vertical screen size in order to achieve
the required overlap percentage.
Output Interpretation
Once the Projector Panel Size, Projection Screen Dimensions, Screen Count have
been entered the Calculate button will calculate a number of results.
The following refers to diagram 1.
“2 x 1024:768, on 10.5x 4” this is repeating the information already provided. The
show is a 2 x 1024x768 projector blend on a 10.5 x 4 screen.
“Overlap (o) : 3.1%” the calculated overlap for this show is 3.1%
“Stage Positions” indicates the locations of the horizontal stages in the Watchout
Production Software. The position for Display 1 is not Shown as it’s assumed that it’s at
0 (+ the Stage Positions offset)
“Total Pixel Size” refers to the total image size of the show. This would be the size of
image required to completely fill the watchout background.
“Blended Pixels (o)” indicates the number of pixels which fall into the blend area
“Proj 1 Offset (P1)” refers to the distance from the left hand side of the screen to the
centre of the lens on the first projector.
“Proj n Offset (Pn)”distance between each of the other projectors, lens center to lens
center.
“Single Proj Width” width of the projected image from a single projector
“Lens Throw” specifies the distance the projector should be from the screen for the
specified lens (also displayed (n.n:1) By default this is based on the Horizontal Size of
the Image. To change the calculation to the vertical Size of the image select “Lens
Ratio Calc” from the Options drop down menu.
Overshooting
In the introduction it was mentioned that the ideal watchout show is between
15% and 45% overlap. Occasionally there may be a case where it is not possible to
get enough displays (either computers or projectors) into the area for a show, This
may be due to budgetary constraints or even load ratings or points in the venue. In
these cases it may be necessary to overshoot.
Overshooting a screen occurs when the projector is placed further back (or
zoomed further out) than typically required for a screen of that size and moved
closer together to increase the amount of overlap produced by the system. This
occurs with the consequence of the loss of vertical resolution.
When the overshoot function is enabled and a calculation is performed using
values that do not return an overlap over the defined limit and an additional line
appears at the bottom of the main output box indicating that overshooting will be
required to make the required overlap. An additional frame also appears on the right
hand side of the screen, returning the values required to achieve the necessary
overlap. This is done by increasing the height of the projected image until the
projectors overlap by the required amount. To use the automatically supplied
numbers, press the transfer button (indicated by a left arrow “<-“. This will transfer the
new screen height into the necessary text box and recalculate the overlap
automatically.
Saving/Printing
The Watchout Assistant also provides the ability to Save the current show to a
text file, output to the system printer and save commonly used settings.
Once a show has been generated, pressing <ctrl-s> or selecting File|Export to
txt… from the menu bar will cause a File Save dialog box to be presented. From this a
file name can be chosen. The contents of the output window will then be exported,
in plain text form, to the select file.
To print a copy of the show to the default printer, select wether to print the
display diagram by Pressing the Show/Hide Map button in the options window. Then
select File|Print from the menu bar or press <ctrl-p>. Before the item is printed a
dialog will be presented to enter a show name and/or a brief description, which will
be printed at the top of the page, along with the current user and computer name if
available at the time.
For inclusion in emails and documentation, it is also possible to copy the output
results to the system clipboard. This can then be pasted into applications such as a
word processor or email client, For further editing. If nothing in the results window is
selected then the entire results widow is copied into the clipboard. Individual lines (or
multiple lines) can also be selected if required, and only those will be copied.
Saving a preset is done by selecting save preset from the function menu. This
will then make the show available from the drop down list in the bottom right hand
corner of the screen. Screen dimensions and projector count is saved in this preset.
When Function|Remember Show is selected, or the show is printed – and a
name provided. The show will be saved to the recent jobs list. This list contains the last
5 jobs to be printed or remembered for easy retrieval.
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