Summary of Contents for Hiperwall NEC Hiperwall
- Page 1 Hiperwall User’s Guide For software version 2.0 HIPERWALL, INC. WWW.HIPERWALL.COM INFO@HIPERWALL.COM 888-520-1760...
- Page 2 H I P E R W A L L U S E R ’ S G U I D E 2011 Hiperwall Inc. All rights reserved No part of this documentation shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Hiperwall, Inc.
-
Page 3: Table Of Contents
H I P E R W A L L U S E R ’ S G U I D E Contents Overview ................... 1 Terms to know ..................... 2 Installing and Configuring the Hardware ........4 Setting up the Hardware ................4 Network connections ....................... - Page 4 H I P E R W A L L U S E R ’ S G U I D E Using Content on the Hiperwall ..........23 Importing Stored Content ................25 Showing Content ..................26 Showing a Single Content Object ................. 26 Showing Multiple Copies of an Object ................
- Page 5 H I P E R W A L L U S E R ’ S G U I D E Index ......................61...
-
Page 6: Overview
Chapter Overview Welcome to Hiperwall! Hiperwall lets organizations of any size show large amounts of information in a single glance, resulting in more informed decision making, improved image analysis, and enriched audience experience. With Hiperwall systems, users can manipulate imagery, including extremely high resolution images, show and control conventional PC applications on the display wall, and stream HD movies and video feeds to a unified display surface built from multiple commercial monitors. -
Page 7: Terms To Know
Display nodes Control node Gigabit switch Sender node Sender node Streamer node Streamer node Terms to know Before you start using Hiperwall, you should know some important terms. These terms include: Content object A piece of content you want to show on your wall. Content objects can be graphics, computer applications, video, and more. - Page 8 Environment A saved arrangement of multiple content objects so you do not have to recreate it every time you want to show it. An environment can contain a combination of images, big images, videos, screen senders, streaming content and slideshows. Secondary This product provides powerful control capabilities to display and Controller...
-
Page 9: Installing And Configuring The Hardware
Chapter Installing and Configuring the Hardware Installing and configuring your system includes the following steps: Hardware Setup – Set up the computers, monitors and network that will form your Hiperwall system Software Installation – Install software as needed on the computers that are part of your Hiperwall network ... - Page 10 Control Node – You must have exactly one Control Node for each Hiperwall installation. The Control Node software runs on a standard personal computer with the following minimum configuration (If your content involves lots of movie playing, the Control Node should be a very powerful (quad core or better) machine).
-
Page 11: Network Connections
Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, or 7 Gigabit Ethernet Dual Core processor, 2GHz or faster. (Quad core or more recommended) 4 GB RAM (more preferred) Network connections Gigabit Switch – Hiperwall uses unicast, multicast and broadcast protocols to communicate between the control, display, streamer, and screen sender nodes. In some cases, this may interfere with other communications on the network. -
Page 12: Configuring Your Network
Configuring your Network If your monitors include embedded PCs, then each monitor only requires an Ethernet cable and a power cable. Connect each Ethernet cable to the Gigabit switch. In this case, each monitor is referred to as a Display node. If your monitors do not have embedded computers, then each monitor requires a power cord and VGA, DVI or HDMI cable. -
Page 13: Configuring The Wall
Connect the Control node, Display nodes, Sender nodes and Streamer nodes to the Gigabit switch. The Control node, Display nodes, Streamer nodes and most Sender nodes must be on the same subnet. As described later, some Sender nodes may be on separate or remote subnets. Static IP addresses for the Display nodes, Control node, and any long-running Sender or Streamer nodes are strongly recommended. -
Page 14: Installing And Configuring The Software
Chapter Installing and Configuring the Software Installing the Hiperwall software includes six programs, at least one each installed on nodes in the Hiperwall network. The following list shows the order in which you should install and which node gets which software. -
Page 15: Upgrading From A Previous Version
Note: Before you start, you need a USB thumb drive to insert into a USB port on the Control node. This USB thumb drive contains the custom license your authorized Hiperwall reseller created for you. RDP warning: Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol, which is commonly used for screen sharing, interferes with most high-performance graphical applications. -
Page 16: Installing And Configuring The Control Node
If you decide to install the above software, disable automatic updates to prevent update messages from appearing. The Hiperwall Display Node Installer automatically handles this if Google Earth and QuickTime are installed first. To install the Hiperwall Display Node software on each Display Node 1. -
Page 17: Configuring The Control Node
To install the Control Node software 8. Run the Hiperwall Control Node Installer on the computer that you are using as the Control Node. 9. The InstallShield wizard guides you through the installation. 10. When you’re done, you’re ready to configure the Control node. Configuring the Control Node The first time you run the Control Node software, you specify the system settings. - Page 18 Select the “contents” Specify where content is stored on the control node. directory for all display The default is to store it in a new folder called content “contents” in “C:\ProgramData\Hiperwall” on the Control node. Enter the “contents” Use this to control where all content is stored on the directory to be used on display nodes.
-
Page 19: Installing And Configuring The Sender Nodes
Enter monitor size and Specify the overall size of each Display node monitor active area size in and the size of its active area. Measure the overall consistent units height and width of the complete monitor and the height and width of the active area of the display panel. - Page 20 After you install the Sender node software, it might be helpful to rename each Sender node computer to help you find it in the Control Panel. For example, the Sender node showing the system status might be named SystemStatus. Sender windows can also be renamed from within the Sender software.
- Page 21 4. The Sender Windows pane shows how many frames per second each sender window is sending and how many are being dropped by the Display Nodes. The Multi-Sender window is resizable by dragging the edges to the entire status line can be viewed. Note: It is possible that the Sender node might send screen updates faster than the Display nodes can show them.
-
Page 22: Installing Streamer Nodes
7. To accommodate a Sender node that is connected by a limited bandwidth network, like a wireless link, select the Enable Proxy check box. You should also select this option for Senders that are coming from other subnets or other locations. 8. - Page 23 Prior to installing the Streamer software, please make sure your graphics drivers are fully up to date by downloading them from the GPU vendor’s website and installing them. The drivers provided by Microsoft or through Microsoft update are not acceptable and may prevent proper streamer functionality and performance.
- Page 24 To stream the contents of the PC’s display (only available with NVIDIA graphics cards), choose a display device from the Display Devices menu. The streaming content becomes available in the Control Panel on the Control node. 4. You can flip the horizontal or vertical display of the content object on the Streamer node by selecting or clearing the check boxes.
- Page 25 The first two options (Performance Configuration and Video Flip) take effect for newly created streams only, while the third (Audio Delay) option affects open streams as well. Performance Configuration – If the Streamer machine has a recent (CUDA-capable) NVIDIA graphics card, the Streamer can use GPU-based hardware assist (HW Assist) to significantly reduce the required network bandwidth and enable higher resolution streaming.
-
Page 26: Installing Secondary Control Nodes
Audio Delay – because capturing a video stream, sending it over the network, and displaying it on the wall are not instantaneous, the audio from the stream will be heard before the matching frame is displayed. You can set the Streamer to delay playback of the audio by several frame times to match it with the appearance on the display wall. -
Page 27: Installing Share Nodes
3. Also in the Action->Settings panel, there is an option to enlarge the fonts used in menus. This makes using the Secondary Control node easier on touchscreen computers by making items selectable by finger touches. Installing Share Nodes To install the Secondary Control Node software 1. -
Page 28: Using Content On The Hiperwall
Chapter Using Content on the Hiperwall After the hardware is setup and the software is installed, you are ready to start using the Hiperwall to show content. You can arrange and show multiple types of content objects on your display wall. You can also mix and match the content objects shown simultaneously on your wall to best suit your needs. - Page 29 Images – Digital images in jpeg, png, bmp and tiff formats. This is useful, for example, if you want to show images such as your company logo. Big Images – Extremely high resolution images in standard graphic formats, up to 1 gigabyte or larger in size.
-
Page 30: Importing Stored Content
You can see the content objects, Sender nodes, and more in the Control Panel. The Control Panel shows the available content objects in a folder structure. Content objects currently shown on the wall are listed in red. Importing Stored Content Before you can use stored content objects, you must import them into Hiperwall. -
Page 31: Showing Content
available for editing. Names generally follow Windows filename restrictions, but avoid using punctuation. Some objects, like the startup.jpg image and special folders cannot be renamed. 5. To move an object, just click it and drag it to its destination. You will see visual feedback if the move is legal. -
Page 32: Showing Multiple Copies Of An Object
To place a single content object 1. In the Control Panel, navigate to the Available Content list. Thumbnail views of most available objects are shown in the lower right of the Control Panel. To see an object’s thumbnail representation, simply click on the object. 2. -
Page 33: Showing Mixed Content On The Wall
Each copy of a content object can have different attributes. You can add interesting visual effects by changing the size, rotation, transparency and shading of individual copies of a content object. For more information about setting these options, see Positioning and Sizing Content Objects on page 35. -
Page 34: Creating And Showing Text Objects
Image Image Sender object High resolution image Streaming video After you select the content objects, you can arrange them to where you want them on the wall. For more information about arranging content objects, see Positioning and Sizing Content Objects on page 35. Note: For best results, do not show two or more different senders, streamers, or movies on the same Display Node monitor. - Page 35 The Text Object Size selector allows the user to choose the size of the object. Small objects are made to act as a label for other objects on the wall, while Normal and Large objects can be used for text blocks or paragraphs. The Huge size is only intended for large walls with very high resolution (20 or more monitors, for example, otherwise the full resolution of the object will not be usable.
-
Page 36: Creating And Using Slideshows
A text object needs a name, so that is entered into the Object Name field though the field is not changeable when editing a text object (use the Content Manager to rename or move text objects). When the Commit button is pressed, the object is created in the top level of the content folder with a file extension of “.hwtxt.png”... - Page 37 4. Specify the settings you want for each object in the slideshow. Select the time period you want each content object to appear on the wall. Each object can have its own timing. Specify if all content objects should use their original aspect ratio or should stretch to fit to the area by checking or unchecking the “Fill Bounds”...
- Page 38 Several transition types are available. The transition setting for an object specifies how it will be made visible (and hence, how the previous object will be removed). The “crossfade” transition fades the previous object out while fading the new one in. The “fly”...
-
Page 39: Layers
Overlay Objects in Slideshows Slideshows support designating one or more objects as “overlay” objects. These objects will be shown on top of the current slideshow object. This capability can be used to frame slideshow content or add a logo. For best results, use PNG images with transparency for overlay objects. To set an object as an overlay object, choose ‘Overlay”... -
Page 40: Positioning And Sizing Content Objects
Creating Environments Before you start, make sure all the content objects you want to place on the wall are available in the Control Panel. To create an environment 1. To use the current arrangement, go to Step 2. To start with a blank wall, do the following: ... - Page 41 To… Do this: Change the transparency of a content Select a content object. At the top of the Control Panel, object move the Transparency slider to the level of transparency you want. You can also specify an exact percentage of transparency. Enlarge the content object to one or Select a content object and place the object in one or more predefined boundaries...
-
Page 42: Keyboard And Mouse Commands
To… Do this: Place a content object on the wall In the Control Panel, locate the content object to place. Click the Show Selected button. Remove a content object from the Click a content object. In the Control Panel, click the wall Close Selected button. -
Page 43: Scheduling Environments And Actions
Modifier Description Object Creation and Deletion Insert Duplicate (show again) the currently selected object Delete Close the selected object from the control screen Movement Arrow keys Move the selected object up, down, left, or right by about 5% of width or height of the object Arrow keys ctrl Nudge the selected object up, down, left, or right by a pixel... - Page 44 3. Create a new schedule with the “Create Schedule” button or edit an existing schedule by selecting it from the list and choosing “Edit Selected.” Schedules can be enabled and disabled by checking or un-checking the “Enable” box next to each. 4.
- Page 45 a. Use “Add Selected Environment” to add an environment to the “Scheduled events” list. b. Use “Delete Event” to remove an environment from the list. c. Changing an event’s time re-sorts the list according to start time. d. Click “Preview” to quickly step through the environments on the display wall in timing order.
-
Page 46: Settings And Preferences
Settings and Preferences The Settings and Preferences window is accessed through the “Settings…” button at the bottom of the Control Panel and consists of three panes: Display Preferences, Control Node Preferences, and System Setup. Display Preferences The Display Preferences panel controls preferences for the Display Nodes. Changes to these preferences take effect immediately and remain in effect even if the user cancels out of the Settings window. -
Page 47: Control Node Preferences
Control Node Preferences The Control Node Preferences panel controls preferences for the Control Node. Changes to these preferences take effect immediately and remain in effect even if the user cancels out of the Settings window. If the settings are saved with the Save Settings button, they will be used next time the Hiperwall system is started. -
Page 48: System Setup
External Interface: The Control Node software provides a very simple web-based interface to allow remote users to display and close content on the display wall. This is also intended for use by remote control systems. This preference enables or disables the external interface. In addition, external controls, like the web-based interface and the Secondary Control Node can be allowed or forbidden to perform System Actions, such as restarting or sleeping the display wall. - Page 49 Update Viewer – updates the HiperwallViewer application on the Display nodes. Brings up a file selection box to find the updated .exe file. Be sure to only select an update HiperwallViewer.exe application. The viewer version number is shown on the bottom right of the startup image “startup.jpg”...
-
Page 50: Quitting Hiperwall Software
Synchronize Display Contents – Make sure all Display Nodes have the contents that have been imported into the Control Node. Only objects that are do not already exist on the Display Nodes are sent. Quitting Hiperwall Software When the “Exit” button in the Control Panel is pressed (or the close box in the upper right of the Control Panel is used), several options are presented, as shown below. -
Page 51: Compensating For Display Node Bezels
To control the remote Sender node computer 1. If the Sender node appears on the wall, go to step 2. If the Sender node is not currently on the wall, do the following: a. In the Control Panel, navigate to the Sender node you want to control. b. - Page 52 Full View . None of your content appears under the bezel but this creates “jumps” in the content where edges may not match exactly as you look from one Display node to the next. Full view is appropriate for content objects that need all data visible on the wall. To change the bezel settings 1.
-
Page 53: Advanced Configuration (Defining Walls)
2. Adjust the monitor measurements in the System Setup section of the Settings and Preferences Panel as described on page 43 (this only has to be done once). 3. In the Viewing Mode area of the Display Preferences (page 41), select the option you want. -
Page 54: Secondary Control Node
keyword is reached. The example below defines 3 virtual walls, one consisting of nodes J1- J3, the next with K1-L3, and the last with M1-M3. The second and third wall definitions include an optional keyword to color those walls differently. The [RGB Color] command followed by red, green, and blue color values (0.0 to 1.0) defines the visual color that will distinguish the wall on the control screen. - Page 55 The Secondary Control Node consists of a single window that shows a representation of the Hiperwall displays and any contents being currently displayed, as shown below. Three menu items allow operations that affect both the Secondary Control Node Display and the Hiperwall display wall.
- Page 56 Restart Hiperwall – Restarts the Display Nodes. Wake Hiperwall – Awakens the Display Nodes after Shutdown, Sleep, or Standby Exit – Quits the Secondary Control Node (does not affect the Hiperwall System). The Settings panel is shown below. The Menu Size checkbox makes the fonts used in the Secondary Control Node menus larger so they are easier to use on multi-touch screen computers (more below).
-
Page 57: Hiperwall Share
The Secondary Control Node software is a Java application so it works on Windows PCs, Macs, and Linux boxes. The Windows installer provides a suitable Java environment for the application, but Mac and Linux users can simply double click the HiperwallSecondaryControlNode.jar file as long as they have a Java 1.6 Runtime Environment installed. - Page 58 The top left box lists all the connected Senders, while the bottom left box shows the destinations currently defined (green color means the destination is connected, while red means it is not currently available). Whenever a Sender connects to the Share node, it is immediately shown in the Source Senders box and it also becomes available in the Senders folder on allowed Destination Hiperwall Control Nodes (more on permissions later).
-
Page 59: External Interface
The lower right box of the main window is Destination Management. Here the user can add destinations using the Add Destination button. Just type an IP address or fully qualified domain name into the box that appears and the Share will try to connect to a Hiperwall Control Node at that destination. - Page 60 The External Interface provides the following functionality simply by appending the specified string to the root URL: Actions on Display Nodes Parameter Functionality /action/restart Reboot display nodes /action/sleep Sleep displays after a minute Standby display nodes after a minute (i.e. sleep /action/standby both displays and display nodes) /action/shutdown...
-
Page 61: Hiperwall Content Guidelines
Content Management Parameter Functionality /list Generate a list of all available objects /open Generate a list of currently open objects Show the specified object on the wall (with or /contents/<path to object> without optional parameters) /close/<path to object> Close the specified object on the wall /clearall Clear the wall Optional Combinable Parameters For Showing an Object... - Page 62 Hiperwall content guidelines Still images (photography, etc.) Hiperwall software can display many types of images, specified below. The image files must be imported to the display nodes with the Content Manager before they can be used. All image files MUST have the proper extension for import and display to work. Files of over a billion pixels are supported.
-
Page 63: Content From Computer Applications
QuickTime compatible audio formats are supported and are played on the control node and any display nodes where the movie is shown. Connecting an amplified speaker to either will allow the movie’s sound to be heard. If more than one movie is playing on a particular node, the sound from all the playing movies will be heard on the audio output of that node. - Page 64 Movie guidelines: For small or low frame rate movies, use QuickTime .MOV or H.264 .MP4 files imported to the wall. Some 720p movies work very well, while others don’t because of their encoding. For high-resolution (720p, 1080p) movies, stream them as .WMV files. ...
- Page 65 Q) What is the difference between Sender and Streamer? When would I use either? A) Streamer is intended for fast moving video content. It can stream video from movies (WMV, for example), video capture cards, like the BlackMagic Intensity Pro, and DirectShow-compliant webcams.
- Page 66 A) Any of our contents types may be made transparent or partially transparent when displayed on the wall. Certain formats of regular images (PNG and TIFF formats) support an alpha channel that defines transparency in the image. The Hiperwall software supports the alpha channel in these images.
- Page 67 Index bezel settings environments changing, 47 creating, 35 Full view, 48 definition, 3 Natural view, 47 limit to total number, 35 computers using, 36 installing, 7 External Interface, 55, 60 content object commands, 55, 60 definition, 2 Full view content objects bezel settings, 48 arranging, 36 hardware setup...
- Page 68 Streamer nodes types of content objects, 24 definition, 3 Video wall installing, 18 definition, 3 selecting content, 18 wall system requirements, 5 advanced configuration, 9 Streaming content configuring, 8 definition, 3 system setup install overview, 4...
Need help?
Do you have a question about the NEC Hiperwall and is the answer not in the manual?
Questions and answers