Channels, Setup and usage of

Overview

A channel is an area of the display, which can be seen as either (or both) a layer stacked on top of others, or a bounded zone in the display.

Dise supports an endless number of different channels during playback. By default all channels in a destination will be playing at the same time (if the scheduling does not tell otherwise).

Channels have their own playlist and therefore are independent from the other channels in the playback while still using the same display - you can update one part of the display without affecting the other parts. This allows for a multitude of different scenarios, for instance:

• Splitting the screen into several smaller channels and create Dise Movie files for each channel.
• Using each channel as its own layer to be able to add tickers, logotypes, etc. on top of the other channels.

Note: Channels are being played from the top of the list in Bridge, so the first channel will be drawn first, and the next channel on top of that. All transparency will be preserved, so each channel will be transparent the the channels underneath.

• A channel on top of everything with a transparent image that adds for example some Christmas decorations.
• Using the channel scheduling you can have a certain channel play on top of everything else at for example 15:00 showing the news.
• Using scheduling to sense if a fire alarm has gone off and show a channel on top of everything showing an alert message.
• A combination of the above.

Channel synchronization

In a Dise NoBorders system, the master will send out a sync message for each channel independently, guaranteeing synchronized playback of each individual playlist in your display scheme.

Settings

The settings for a channel is done in Dise Bridge. Reach the settings by finding the channel in the channel list in the bottom left and right-click > Edit or press Ctrl+W.

General tab

Name

Specify a name for the channel, for example, "News".

Exclusive channel

Lets you specify that this channel can override other channels, by combining it with the option below. When you have more complex channel scheduling, use channel logic instead.

Do not show at the same time as an Exclusive channel

Lets you specify that this channel can be overriden by other channels, by combining it with the option above.

Limit the number of playback loops

The channel will only play its playlist a fixed number of times before stopping and becoming idle.

Ignore NoBorders sync for this channel

Lets you specify that when using Dise NoBorders slave players should not adjust this channel according to the master.

Keep all scenes loaded (uses more memory)

By default, when a channel is started the first scenes will be loaded into memory and reversely when it is stopped all content will be unloaded. This option will always keep scenes loaded - so when the channel is started there is no wait time.

Size and position

By default, this channel will use the complete screen size and play as a transparent layer over and under the other channels. If you want the channel to play on only a part of the screen you can here specify the channels position and size in display pixels.

Advanced tab

Add these variables when the channel is visible

Will create the variables specified (one per line) when the channel is started and delete them when it stops, for example to influence other scheduling.

Execute the following command(s) when channel begins

Playback commands (one per line) to perform before the channel is started, for example to send network messages.

Execute the following command(s) when channel ends

Playback commands (one per line) to perform after the channel is stopped.

Pausing and resuming channel playback

When an exclusive channel is played on top of everything else you may want to be able to pause playback of the other channels and to resume when playback returns to its "normal" state, for example advertisements that are not to be shown during a highlight reel. The solution is to execute certain commands in the beginning and end of a channel's playback. Playback commands are specified in the Advanced tab in the channel settings.

Note: For more help on how to use this feature, please contact support.

Example setups

News ticker

You would like to have a news ticker in its own channel on top of all your existing content, which is created in 1920 x 1080 resolution.

1. Create a new 1920 x 1080 Dise Movie in Dise Composer.
2. Create a ticker object on the first (and only) scene and add the news text.
3. Save the file.
4. Open Dise Bridge and open the destination where you want to add the news ticker.
5. Create a new channel called "Ticker".
6. Add the news ticker Dise Movie to this channel.
7. When you send this destination to the Player(s) it will automatically add this channel topmost and play the ticker over the already existing content.

Divide and conquer

An advanced setup is to create several channels that cover different parts of the display, and having each channel with a certain size. First we need to figure out our layout. For this example we are using an display area with the total size of the display area is 1024 x 768 and we want to have a "side border" on the left and a border at the top and the rest of the display should be 800 x 600. The top border should be 168 x 1024 pixels, left border should be 224 x 600 and the rest 800 x 600.

1. Create Dise Movie files for each of the channels with the dimensions above.
2. Open Bridge and add a new destination.
3. Enter the destination's name and go to the Advanced tab.
4. Check Specify size and set the width and height of the destination to 1024 x 768.
5. Create a new channel called "Top". Check the Size and Position box and set a width and height of 168 x 1024.
6. Create another channel called "Left". Set its width and height to 224 x 600. Also, its X position should be 0 and Y position 168.
7. Lastly, create a channel called "Main" with width and height 800 x 600, X position 224 and Y position 168.
8. Now add the Dise Movie files created earlier to each channel.
9. When you send this destination to the player(s) it will automatically start playing using this new "layout".
10. Now you can continue using this destination and only add Dise Movies to the Main channel and the other channels will play independent of each other.