garageCube

Hi everyone.

For an installation i need to map and plays 4 videos.
I have 4 videos. 4 computers with Modul8/MadMapper. 4 projectors.
Theses 10 minute videos needs to start and be synched during play.
I want to know if there's some tools or techniques to synch the playing via network.

As a silent reader of this forum, it's my first post in here.
And i want let you to know that these technical readings are great inspiration to me.
So thank you for your input.

Paul

You can sync the start of a video and resync each, but even if it's the same computer/projector/resolution etc. It's just impossible to have a perfect sync over time…

The Network module can help you to use one modul8 as a master controlling the others.
Then you'll have to find or build a module to keep your videos starting at the same time each loop so if one goes too fast it will have to wait for the master to loop (and if it's going slower the end would be cut…)

If you want perfect sync between machines, you'll have to try watchout but it clearly not the same price range

So after some testing and infidelities to Modul8, i finally found a solution.
With good help from a friend, i built a processing midi sender based on computer's clock.
this little piece of code send a midi signal each 20 minutes mapped on the "reset" button from "Play-stop Layers (GUI)" module.

This way, and with ram loading enabled, i can be sure that the video is playing without tragic delays.

I can bought the code if any of you are interested.

I didn't found any demo of watchout.
Witch is pretty bad because i would definitely like to test some reliable apps with network abilities.

Thanks for the tips.

watchout is way different than Modul8. First, you must have one machine for each display/projector. And one licence each (2249$). Sooo… if you want to try, you better find a video renting company and rent one and ask for a demo, it might be cheaper

Hey Paul,
yes i would like to see the code and some detailed information

Well, frame-accurate sync can in fact be achieved in M8, it just requires some scripting and some workaround.
Let‘s assume we want to play four movie clips in sync (for now on the same machine):
since the periodical stuff is done between two frames, there will always be a little time-shift between the `master-layer´ and the `slaves`, therefore we duplicate the first layer which will now serve as our `master` while the rest will be the `slaves`(and in sync).
Make shure that on all slaves the speed is set to zero:
(ctrl_layer_movie_speedFactor == 0.0)
Only the master is actually playing:
(ctrl_layer_movie_speedFactor > 0.0)
And make shure the master is invisible:
(ctrl_layer_alpha == 0.0)

The work is done in a periodical script:



voila, four layers playing perfectly in sync!

You can now send `syncPos`over the network via OSC and can have your clips sitting on different machines (on the same network of course)
Keep in mind that the slaves don`t play any sound, because they are actually not playing (they are just set to a new position every frame!)
Hope that helps.
Lutz

Hey Lutz,

thank you very much, that looks very interesting. I gonna test this on the weekend.

Greets

how did this work out for you?

poetics.

Hey lutz thank you very much for that hint. I managed to sync three machines perfectly. I used the global osc plugin and modified it, so that i can enter the ip adresses of all slaves in the network and sync them.

Hello cogitator, could you please share how you modified the global OSC plugin to send the 'SyncPos' to others machine ???

Thanks in Advance. Martin

Hi all,

concerning the sync script that Lutz posted : when I (manually) set the alpha of layer 1 (= master layer) to 0, it seems that the movie doesn't play anymore, as if it was paused. So the slave layers don't play either...

any idea?

ps : and also, if I reduce the alpha of the master layer, it reduces accordingly its sound level. is there a workaround ?

Forget it, guys, I understood : I had the "transparency and crossfader link" checkbox activated...

everything's working fine now

Where are you entering this code to make the layers sync?