Video playback for multiple screens

[ShawnT]

My building has an atrium with an open staircase with projections on each of the 5 landings. The projectors are all connected to an SDI matrix in our amp room. Typical use up to now is either one video split out to all the screens or connecting players locally at each level and having them all run independently. We've been getting requests to use the spaces in more interconnected ways so I've been tasked with looking into a centralized playback solution. Basically I need to be able to take 5 video files, with audio, route them to independent outputs and start them all at once.

Something like Watchout seems like it would be great but the cost I think would push this project outside our current reach. I don't have a solid budget yet but I'm shooting to come I under $4000 in total, and after the hardware, including the conversion into the SDI switch I won't have a ton of cash left to spend on software.

Any help pointing me in the right direction is much appreciated.

 

[Lextech]

Look at http://alcorn.com/
They make great stuff, however, I don't know what a A/V Binloop HD costs.

 

[ShawnT]

I'll check that out, looks like it will do the job and I haven't come across it before. The fact that it does SDI out is a big bonus for me. Thanks!

 

[brin831]

their stuff is solid but also fairly rigid as far as file formats go but if you don't have quick turn around and can build a machine with either adobe or fcp you can encode whatever you need ... they also make an encode software ... again not sure its super cost effective for 4 ch you may be close to your 4k budget.

you can also check out caspercg its free and very powerful customization software, with a decent windows box or mac pro tower (older version not trashcan) you can use blackmagic decklink cards and do 4 ch playout of separate videos etc. all can be based on client server model so you can leave your server in equipment room and control over network from a remote computer somewhere else best part is its free but not really for completely faint of heart setup wise ... check out their website and forums for help ... there are other paid software versions similar to this but 4k isn't a huge budget for what you want to do.

 

[ShawnT]

Thanks for the lead, CasperCG definitely looks interesting, I'll play around with it but if the client is simple enough once the setup is locked in it might be what I need. I'm also thinking I might do some testing with more performance focused software, like Isadora or Max.

I looked into the Alcorn gear and while I could probably swing an A/V Binloop, I think it's a bit to limited ad we'd be better off with something based on a PC.

I know the budget isn't huge, we are (hopefully) about 18 months from beginning a significant infrastructure overhaul that should include a better media server solution, I'm hoping this will be enough to get us through to that.

Thanks again!

 

[MNicolai]

You may want to consider a digital signage player per projector. It's a bit fundamentally different from what you're currently doing, but you can send content to each projector as a standalone unit or switch to a "video wall" mode and stretch content across the 5 projectors. Also gives you nice scheduling abilities and more flexible content creation options than having to make everything into a movie file format first for looped playback.

Solution like this may not be all that expensive but probably isn't within your current budget. You may be looking at $1500 for content software, ~$1200/player, and any wire/install costs. Just ball parking those numbers though.