Opti Base

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Using the Optibase MPEG cardScala® InfoChannel® software products support use of the Optibase® Videoplex™ MPEG card.

It is possible to use the Optibase Videoplex MPEG card with the stan-dard Scala MPEG EX, according to the instructions in the Mpeg.txt readme file. However, this is not recommended. For best performance, ease of setup, and to allow you to take advantage of all the Videoplex card’s features, Scala provides an EX especially for this hardware.

To use the Videoplex card with the Optibase EX, any system with the card must be configured with several items present:

• the Optibase EX

• the Videoplex driver

• the Optibase dynamic link libraries (.dll files)

These items are included with this release of InfoChannel and should be automatically installed in the correct places by the Scala InfoChan-nel installer program.

However, to ensure the best MPEG results, you should check the Readme.txt file that accompanies this InfoChannel release or update for Optibase-related information. In particular, a specific set of .dll files may need to be installed depending on your Videoplex card revi-sion. The Readme file explains this in detail.

You can also visit the Optibase Web site at http://www.optibase.com for the latest information on Optibase products and driver software.

You do not need the MPEG EX to use the Optibase card.

Configuring the Optibase EXWhen the Optibase EX and the other components mentioned above are installed, you need to configure the EX for use. The first time you run InfoChannel after the EX has been installed but not configured,

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Using the Optibase MPEG cardConfiguring the Optibase EX

you are prompted to enter the Optibase EX configuration dialog. If you do not see this prompt, or you wish to re-configure the EX at any time, you can do so manually, as with any other configurable EX.

To configure the Optibase EX manually, run InfoChannel, and on the Main menu click the Tools pop-up and choose Options. You see the InfoChannel Options menu.

In the EX list on the right, scroll down until you see the Optibase EX listed. Click the right-hand end of the button to turn it on (✓). Now click the Optibase EX button itself. You see the Optibase Options dia-log.

Display ModeThe Display Mode: selector controls the video standard produced by the Videoplex card’s video output. This must be set correctly to match the other video equipment in your system. There are four possible choices:

• NTSC_M

• NTSC_443

• PAL_M

• PAL_B_G443

NTSC_M is the default, producing NTSC type M as used in North America and Japan. NTSC_443 is the NTSC variant that uses the 4.43 MHz color burst signal, which may be called for in some locales.

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For PAL output, PAL_B_G443 represents the PAL type used in Brit-ain, Germany, and most other places where PAL is the standard. PAL_M is for use in Brazil and some other countries where the type M variant is used.

Stream TypeThe Stream Type: selector controls the mix of information packets that make up the MPEG stream that is output by the card. The selector must be set to the type of MPEG files that you will be playing on your system. The four possibilities are:

• System

• Transport

• Audio

• Video

System streamsThe default stream type is a System stream. A System stream is a stan-dard MPEG stream, consisting of a video and an audio track.

Transport streamsA Transport stream is a customizable stream type that allows for special video and audio features. For example, instead of a System stream’s single audio track, a Transport stream might include several alternate audio tracks, in various languages. The developer encoding the MPEG file can define custom stream configurations, consisting of whatever audio and video features supported by the MPEG standard are needed. If you do use a Transport stream, it is likely you will also have to adjust the Video PID and Audio PID settings from their defaults (see the “Packet identification” section, which follows).

Audio streamsAn Audio stream is an MPEG stream that contains only audio, and no video.

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Video streamsA Video stream is an MPEG stream that contains only video, and no audio.

Packet identificationMPEG streams are made up of data packets of different types. There are video packets and audio packets. Each type must have its own unique ID number to identify itself to the MPEG decoder. There are default values for these ID numbers, and in most cases these values, initially shown in the Video PID and Audio PID value controls, can remain unchanged. However, customers with special needs, such as those specifying custom Transport streams, might need to adjust these values for their particular setup. If your setup uses different PID values for video or audio packets, use the appropriate value control to specify a hexadecimal value of up to three digits for the ID.

Genlocking the Videoplex signalThe Videoplex card can accept an external video sync signal so that it can genlock to other devices. Whenever there are other video devices being used in conjunction with the Videoplex, they should ideally all be genlocked to the same sync signal, to enable seamless overlays and prevent tearing during transitions between different sources.

The Genlock Enabled? button controls whether the card accepts an external video signal that may be present at its sync input port. When the button is on (✓), external sync is accepted and the Videoplex uses this to synchronize its own output. When the button is off, any exter-nal sync signal, if present, is ignored.

You should not turn this option on if no external sync signal is present. If Genlock Enabled? is on but no external sync is available, the Video-plex card will not produce output.

Synchronization-related display problemsThe MPEG encoding process embeds presentation time stamp (PTS) information in the MPEG file that an MPEG decoder uses to regulate playback such that the audio and video portions remain synchronized.

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Using the Optibase MPEG cardUsing and saving settings

If these time stamps are not present or are improperly specified in the encoding process, playback can become unstable, with jittering or jerky motion in the video.

A way to eliminate playback instability that results from bad or miss-ing PTS information is to tell the decoder to ignore the time stamps. Scala’s Optibase driver provides this capability, should you need to make use of MPEG files that have not been encoded with good time stamp information. Turn on (✓) the Disable PTS Synchronization? button to solve playback problems that are the result of bad time stamps.

The drawback to turning this option on is that without the synchroni-zation information, the video and audio portions of longer MPEG segments can drift out of sync with each other.

There are various possible reasons for MPEG image instability, and there is no simple way to know whether a given file that is not playing back correctly has PTS problems, other than to try this option. This option should be otherwise left off.

Using and saving settingsOnce you have made all the settings in the Optibase dialog that are needed, you can click OK to use these settings for the current session only, for example if you want to test their effect.

When you are sure you have the settings you want, click Save to close the dialog and store the settings for use in this and future sessions.

Click Cancel to close the dialog, discarding any changes you made.

Using the Optibase menuWhen the Optibase EX has been enabled, a new column appears in the InfoChannel Main and Design List menus. The Optibase column lets you create script events that control the Videoplex card. Click in

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Using the Optibase MPEG cardUsing the Optibase menu

this column for a page or a special event to open the Optibase Digital Video menu.

Optibase commandsThe Optibase: selector lets you choose the command that this event sends to the Videoplex card. There are five possible commands:

• Play

• Stop

• Wait

• Video

• None

PlayThe Play command lets you choose an MPEG file to play through the Videoplex card MPEG decoder. Click the File: button to open the File menu, where you can choose a .MPG file to play. After you click OK on the File menu, you see the Optibase menu again, with the file name on the File: button. When the event with this command is encoun-tered in the script, the MPEG file begins to play.

The Wait? option is available for the Play command. When Wait? is on (✓), as it is by default, execution of the script pauses until playback of the specified MPEG file completes. Then the events following the Play event can proceed. If Wait? is off, script execution proceeds with the events following the Play command as soon as the MPEG file begins playing.

The Loops option is also available for the Play command. It allows you to have the MPEG file automatically start playing again immediately after it finishes, creating a video “loop”. The default is for the file to play only once (Loops = 1). You can set this value control to a number

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from 1 to 99, or the ∞ (infinite) setting, which loops continuously until the script stops or an Optibase: Stop command is received.

Important: If you use long MPEGs in your scripts, and especially if you use the Loops = ∞ setting, you need to be aware that this can affect the way you update your scripts with ScalaNet.

ScalaNet cannot update any file that is “locked” or currently in use. When an MPEG file is playing, it is locked. Thus it follows that an attempt to use the ScalaNet Send Script or Send File commands to update an MPEG video will fail if the video is currently playing. Scala-Net has an automatic retry feature, so if the video is short and is not set to infinite loop, the command is likely to eventually succeed. But if the video is long, success becomes less likely, and if it is set to infinite loop, there will never be a opportunity for the update to occur.

To ensure the success at replacing a long or continuously running MPEG, you need to make the job that sends the replacement MPEG file also stop the Player Script. This forces the MPEG to stop so that the replacement can be completed.

The simplest method to do this is to include two Send Script com-mands in the job. Both should have the Start Script? option on. The first is a short script that plays for as long as it takes the ScalaNet job to run on the Player. This can be a single page with a corporate logo, or “Please wait—Updating Presentation”. Running this script makes the Player stop the normal Player Script, forcing the MPEG to stop, thereby unlocking the file. The second Send Script command re-sends a copy of the regular Player Script, which causes the MPEG file to be replaced. Then normal playback resumes, but with the updated MPEG.

StopUse the Stop command to stop play of an MPEG event started with a preceding Play command.

WaitThe Wait command pauses script execution until an MPEG file cur-rently playing finishes. Execution then continues normally with the events following the Wait event after the MPEG playback finishes. Use

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this event when you need certain events not to start until the end of the MPEG, but the MPEG was started by a Play command with its Wait? option turned off, so that intervening events could execute dur-ing MPEG play.

VideoThe Video command exists to let you set its Passthrough? option. The Videoplex card’s video input is normally routed directly to its output (“passed through”) so that the card may be used easily in a chain of video equipment. When the Videoplex card is not playing MPEG dig-ital video, any video signal appearing at the input is passed through to the output. When MPEG playback begins, the card automatically switches its output to the MPEG video instead, then switches back to passthrough mode when the MPEG finishes. In this way, manual switching between MPEG and external video passthrough modes when working with both sources is avoided.

At times, however, you might want to block the external video input from appearing at the Videoplex output. For example, it could be use-ful when you need to ensure that there is black (no signal) before the beginning and after the end of an MPEG segment.

To control the passthrough status, use the Video command. The Passthrough? option is on (✓) by default. To defeat the passthrough, so that the only output of the card is its MPEG playback, insert a Video command event with Passthrough? turned off.

NoneUse the None command to remove a Play, Stop, Wait, or Video com-mand.

Marking an MPEG file not to be sentIn some installations, MPEG files may be updated locally on a per-Player basis, rather than through ScalaNet, making it possible for the updated MPEGs to be unintentionally overwritten by regular Scala-Net updates.

To allow you specify an MPEG file without having that file included when sending the Player Script to a Player, the Optibase EX lets you

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mark the MPEG file not to be sent with ScalaNet updates. This pre-vents an existing MPEG file on the Players from being overwritten by the normal ScalaNet updates sent to the Players.

Turn on (✓) the Don’t Send? button in the Optibase EX menu to pre-vent the file shown on the File: button from being transmitted when the script itself is sent via ScalaNet. You must make sure that the path to the desired MPEG file shown on the File: button matches the path to the actual location of the MPEG file on the Player.

Optibase is a registered trademark and Videoplex is a trademark of Optibase Incorporated

Documents

Opti Base