StageXI Screen Server: NDI and OSC

Enterprise

What it is

StageXI Screen Server is software for a small Linux computer that stays in your rack, in the same network as your video mixer, cameras and desks. It works for your account with a Show Control access key, and does three things the cloud cannot do from outside your building:

• NDI out. Virtual screens: a screen with no display, whose picture goes to the network as an NDI source.
• NDI in. A camera or another NDI source, passed on to your screens.
• Cameras in web players. The cameras of the Cameras app and the box's NDI sources also play in a player that is a plain web browser.
• OSC. Lighting desks, QLab and other controllers move your screens, and your screens' changes fire cues.

Connect the box to your account

1. In the panel, open Apps → Show Control → Bitfocus Companion and make a New access key for the box. Copy it at once: it is shown only once.
2. Open the box's page from a computer in the same network: http://<address of the box>:8080. On the first visit you choose the page's password.
3. Under Account, paste the access key and press Save. The page shows Connected.

The page is in the same six languages as the panel.

Virtual screens (NDI out)

1. On the box's page, press Add a virtual screen, give the NDI source a name, choose its size and frame rate, and Save.
2. The small picture on the page shows a pairing code. In the panel, open Screens → Pair screen and enter it, like for any screen.
3. Give the screen a playlist or a layout. In vMix, OBS, Resolume or your video mixer, the screen appears as an NDI source with the name you chose.

Tick Transparent background for content that should be laid over another picture, such as surtitles over the stage camera: whatever has no background of its own stays transparent in the mixer.

A virtual screen counts as a screen of your subscription.

Cameras and sources (NDI in)

Screens do not play NDI. The box turns a source into a stream every player plays, inside your network.

1. On the box's page, press Look for NDI sources and Add the camera, then Save.
2. Copy the Link for the Live stream app.
3. In the panel, open Apps → Live stream, add a stream and paste the link. The panel shows In your network: only the screens of that building can play it.
4. Put the Live stream widget on the screens.

Cameras in web players

A browser cannot open a camera stream by itself. With a box connected to your account, the cameras of the Cameras app play in every player, a plain web browser included: the box opens the camera and sends the picture straight to the player, inside your network. There is nothing to set: add the cameras in the panel as usual and put the Cameras widget on the screens.

• The player and the box must reach each other in the network (port 8555 on the box).
• The picture never leaves your building; only the short messages that set the connection up pass through StageXI.
• A camera that sends H.265 is converted by the box, which takes processing power. Set the camera's second stream to H.264 if you can.
• Without a box, a web player shows a note instead of the cameras; the apps for Windows and Android TV keep opening cameras by themselves.

OSC

The box listens on UDP port 8000 (you can change it). A desk or QLab sends:

The numbers of screens, groups and playlists are the ones in their addresses in the panel. A button that sends 1 when pressed and 0 when let go acts once.

Modules add their own addresses: see the article of each module.

Out. Under Who is told about every change add the address and port of a desk or a show computer. Under Your own cues write the OSC message the box sends when something happens, for example a QLab cue when the interval starts. Send it now tries a cue without waiting for the moment.

After a restart the box only remembers the state it finds: it never fires cues again.

Good to know

• The box needs the internet to reach your account. Without it, OSC actions fail and virtual screens keep showing what they last had.
• Each virtual screen and each camera takes processing power. Add them one by one and watch the page.
• NDI® is a registered trademark of Vizrt NDI AB.