Optimum show presentation

During the tutorials and workshops you will have found out about the high quality of playback. The next logical step is therefore direct presentation of a show from the timeline. You only need to be sure that your computer has enough capacity for proper playback and that the display data, the textures, have a sufficiently high resolution. Actually, there are only restrictions for very complex shows that contain a high number of simultaneously running videos. In such a case, output of a video file would be a feasible alternative for presentation at full quality. See Methods for video creation.

The following steps should be performed after show completion and before the presentation is actually run the first time.

Following this, you can start your show in fullscreen mode and control via function keys. The audience will not see any program windows or even the Windows Desktop on the screen.

 

Setting markers and creating triggers for key control

Note: The screenshots are based on Wings Vioso but it shouldn’t be any problem to follow and work through the workshop.

In Fullscreen Presentation Mode playback can only be controlled via keys. Therefore, the actions are by default restricted to the following:

 

But it is also possible to assign trigger actions to various function keys. The following ones are important for playback control:

Now set a few position markers in your show. They should preferably be located at the beginning of the show and at the beginning of a new topic or chapter.

  1. Right-click a marker track and select Insert position marker. If a marker track is available, right-click a track head and select Insert track Marker.

  2. Double-click the marker and click First free remote index. Enter the designation under Comment, e.g. Start and close the dialog by clicking on OK. The info line will now show the remote index R:1 and the designation.

  3. Move the position marker to the beginning of the show. Set a pause marker immediately in front of the position marker. The sense of this action will become clear to you during testing.

  4. The same way add additional keyframes at different locations, e.g. at the beginning of chapters. These position markers have remote indexes 2, 3, 4 and 5. At the end of all this, the marker track should about look like this (the distances in time have been compressed for the purpose of this illustration).

  1. Now create the triggers for starting the actual function. In the Media Pool click on category Trigger. Right-click some free area in the right Media Pool section and select Add trigger.

  2. For Category click on and select Timeline.

  3. For Action click on and select Play.

  4. Enter the corresponding designation at Name, e.g. Play show 1. At the bottom, enter 1 next to F key, which stands for the F1 key.

  5. On the right, under Parameters define remote index 1 as playback position next to Position marker and close the dialog by clicking OK.

  6. Now create four additional triggers for the other position markers. To do so, right-click the trigger you have already created and select Add trigger. The Properties Dialog will appear showing the settings of the first trigger. Now you only need to enter the Name (e.g. Play chapters 1…4, etc.), the F key (F5…F8) and the Position marker (2…5). The assignment of function keys may appear a bit strange to you, but for this tutorial we have planned to use F1 to F4 for starting shows and F5 to F8 for jumping to certain chapters. Later on you will be completely free in your choice.

  7. Once all triggers have been created, you can once again check the parameters for every individual triggers in the Media Pool. For any necessary corrections right-click the corresponding trigger and select Properties.

  1. Now you can test the functions of the keys. Start playback before the pause marker by pressing the space bar. The Locator will move to the pause marker and put Wings Vioso RX in Pause Mode. Press the corresponding function keys to jump to the corresponding location for playback. Just try it.

  2. While Wings Vioso RX is in Playback or Pause Mode, you can use the function keys for direct triggering of certain actions. When Wings Vioso RX is in Stop Mode, the function keys resume their normal functions. If you want to start the trigger action directly in Stop Mode you need to hold the Shift key while pressing the corresponding function key. Just try it out a few times. Of course all this works in fullscreen mode, too.

Organising a program in several timelines

If you need to present several shows in the course of an event, you can create also one timeline for every show and start playback of the corresponding timeline via function keys. We will show you how to do this by creating a short sequence in a second timeline.

  1. In the Media Pool click on category Timelines. Right-click some free space in the right Media Pool section and select Add timeline.

  2. When you look up column Remote Index you will see that Timeline 1 has Remote Index 1 and Timeline 2 Remote Index 2. This is important information for addressing the jumps.

Every function or every type of object, respectively has its own remote indexes. Thus it is possible that there are remote indexes with the same number for timelines, position markers, triggers, control panel fields, etc.

  1. In the Media Pool click on category Pictures, highlight a few and drag them into the empty timeline. Following this, a track is created containing a sequence of pictures.

  2. The same way, drag some music into the timeline to create a short, sound-tracked passage of about one to two minutes.

  3. Now add a marker track and create the same marker structure as for the first show. The easiest way to do this is to highlight the markers in the first timeline, copy and then paste them to the marker track in timeline 2. Now you only need to move the position markers to the desired locations.

  1. In the Media Pool click on category Trigger. Now that there is a second timeline available, you need to specify the destination for trigger Play show 1. Double-click the green trigger symbol next to Play show 1. Under Parameter and Timeline enter the remote index 1. This way the trigger does not refer to the current timeline, but always to Timeline 1.

  2. Now create a new trigger by right-clicking trigger Play show 1 and selecting Add trigger. Enter Play show 2 for Name and the figure 2 next to F key. Under Parameter you specify the destination: Timeline = 2 and Position marker = 1. Below you can see the Media Pool with all triggers and can check whether everything has been entered correctly.

  1. This configuration allows you to start both shows in timeline 1 and timeline 2 directly via the keys F1 and F2. Keys F5 to F8 for jumping to chapters are effective in both shows, depending on which of the timelines is presently active.

This way shows and complete events can be most conveniently controlled. You can draw up your individual concept for operation, which can also include other trigger actions such as To position and Continue. Triggers can not only be started via function keys but also via the Control Panel, the trigger scheduler or serial command.

Refer also to the following topics:

Executing triggers

Control Panel for direct operation

Remote control of Wings Vioso RX

Time-related conditions for triggers