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Home > Video Wall > Artistic Video Wall
Artistic Video Wall
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May 23, 2023

Overview

An Artistic Video Wall is defined as a video wall made up of multiple displays of different sizes and orientations, in which one or more displays is rotated at an angle other than landscape and portrait. An Artistic Video Wall requires the use of at least one Warp Engine Transmitter to produce rotated video at any angle from 0-359.9 degrees!

The Warp Engine Transmitter accepts any video input from the Just Add Power system, rotates and scales the video, and outputs the processed video to any Receiver in the system. Combined with the ability of a Receiver to rotate video in 90-degree increments, a single Warp Engine Transmitter can produce an Artistic Video Wall like those seen above.

There are three types of video walls that can be made by Just Add Power:

  1. Standard Video Wall = all displays are the same size and orientation, aligned in a grid, and display 100% of the content area.
  2. Mosaic Video Wall = displays can be different size and orientation, but all displays are either landscape or portrait orientation.
  3. Artistic Video Wall = displays can be different size and orientation, and can also be at any angle from 0 to 359.9 degrees.

Requirements

  1. A length measuring device - aka tape measure
  2. An angle measuring device - aka protractor
  3. 3G Receiver - any model - behind each display
  4. Warp Engine Transmitter - 737POE - most likely mounted in the rack.
  5. justOS firmware B2.0.2 or later

Download Spreadsheet Assistant

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The button below downloads an Excel spreadsheet that will assist with programming the displays in the Artistic Video Wall.
Take measurements, enter them in the spreadsheet, and the spreadsheet will provide the command to be sent to each Receiver.

Key Concepts

  1. Measure the overall wall size - the Canvas - as if the displays were not rotated. This involves selecting a flat edge to be the "top" of the Canvas.
  2. For each display in the wall, measure the size of the viewable area and the position in the Canvas.
  3. For each Receiver, apply measurements so the Receiver zooms into the portion of the Canvas it is designed to display.
  4. Set the rotation and scaling value on the Warp Engine Transmitter.
  5. A Warp Engine Transmitter generates a video at a single rotated angle, and Receivers can rotate in 90-degree increments. For example, one Warp Engine Transmitter set to 14 degrees can feed screens rotated at 14, 104, 194, and 284 degrees.
  6. Each display in an Artistic Video Wall acts as a "window" looking at a larger picture. Some of the original video will be missing and custom content should be authored to take these missing video segments into account.

Preparation

The Warp Engine Transmitter has two network ports that must each be connected directly to the network switch. Those ports consist of:

  • 1x Receiver network port and
  • 1x Transmitter network port

Treat the Warp Receiver network port like any standard Receiver and connect it to a switch port configured for a Receiver.

Treat the Warp Transmitter network port like any standard Transmitter and connect it to a switch port configured for a Transmitter.

The Implementation instructions assume that all Just Add Power devices have a static IP address. These instructions also assume the Installer has configured a Static Route on the system and understands how to telnet into Just Add Power devices on a configured network.

Implementation

Mount Displays

Mount the displays before taking any measurements, as any inconsistencies in mounting will need to be accurately measured.

Align Canvas Area

Choose one edge of one display and use that as the "top" edge. The Artistic Video Wall is rotated with respect to the ground, but the edges of the screens are parallel to one another.

Measure Canvas & Displays

Any unit of measurement may be used. Only measure the visible pixel area of the displays; measure as if the frames do not exist.

  1. Measure the Canvas Width (CW) and Canvas Height (CH)
    • Canvas Width begins at the left-most viewable pixel of the left-most display and ends with the right-most viewable pixel on the right-most display. The frame of the display plays no part.
    • Canvas Height begins at the top-most viewable pixel of the top-most display and ends with the bottom-most viewable pixel on the bottom-most display. The frame of the display plays no part.

  1. Measure the Viewable Width (VW) and Viewable Height (VH) of each display. Ignore the frame.
    • Viewable Width is the left-right distance from the first viewable pixel to the last viewable pixel, regardless of display rotation
    • Viewable Height is the top-bottom distance from the first viewable pixel to the last viewable pixel, regardless of display rotation

  1. Measure the Left Offset (LO) of each display: the distance from the left edge of the Canvas to the left-most pixel of the display.
  2. Measure the Top Offset (TO) of each display: the distance from the top edge of the Canvas to the top-most pixel of the display.

  1. Record the clockwise Rotation angle (ROT) relative to the aligned Canvas for each display: 0, 90, 180, 270.

Program Receivers

  1. Telnet to the IP address of the first Receiver
  2. Send the command to configure the Receiver, entering the measurements taken for that Receiver and the Canvas.

Example code with the measurements:

  • CW: 500
  • CH: 300
  • VW: 160
  • VH: 90
  • LO: 10
  • TO: 100
  • ROT: 180

vw mosaic -c w:500,h:300 -v w:160,h:90 -o l:10,t:100 -r 180

  1. Repeat Steps 1-2 for each Receiver
  2. At this point you should have an Artistic Video Wall that looks correct except for the Warp Engine's rotation. Play video on the screens to confirm.
  3. If the video does not transition properly between screens, one or more things outside of Just Add Power is causing the issue:
    • The display is zooming in on the image. Remove any zoom or scaling functions through the display's menu. The display must show 100% of the video.
    • The source is outputting interlaced video - 1080i for example. Only progressive video formats are compatible with video wall - 720p, 1080p, 2160p.
    • Measurements are imprecise. Re-measure or adjust the displays.

Program Warp Transmitter

  1. Telnet to the IP address of the Transmitter in the Warp Engine. (Reminder that there is a Transmitter and a Receiver in the Warp Engine and they have different IPs.)
  2. Send the rotation command for the angle that the Artistic Video Wall is rotated. Positive rotation values are counter-clockwise, negative rotation values are clockwise.

warp rotate 45

  1. Send the scaling command. This may take some fine-tuning to find a zoom level that matches the desired result. Recommend starting with fill or fit. Scale values go from 0.30 to 3.00 with increments of 0.01.

warp scale fill

warp scale fit

warp scale 1.2

Done!

Troubleshooting

If the Video Wall looks odd after following the setup procedure, go here.

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