dCine Technical Manual Version 1.4 Version History Version Date Updated By Purpose 1.0 20110930 James Gardiner Initial Creation 1.3 20111005 James Gardiner Added more options 1.4 20120907 James Gardiner Updated ref to Settings.xml file.
Table of Contents Introduction.........................................................................................................................................................................4 Basic architecture...............................................................................................................................................................4 BootStrap.exe.......................................................................................................................
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Introduction This document covers the technical aspects of the configuration of a dCine Media Player. This includes configuration of enterprise features and integration with other systems and technologies. This document is for service engineers and custom installers. This document covers low level configuration options that only a trained engineer should use or need to use. For genral operation, please refer to the user manual. Basic architecture The dCine runs on windows based operating systems.
license making it show up on the support network under the correct IP and network access permissions. 3. It will then start two processes - (1) the interface process (GUIapp.exe), and (2) the MediaPlayer.exe process. After it has finished, it will exit and be removed from memory. Support engineers can then upgrade it remotely by replacing it with a new version. GUIapp.exe This process is used to display the control interface. When it starts, it will wait until a live control socket to the MediaPlayer.
stops many viruses. 4. Optimising the interface by: Setting the windows appearance options to basic and disabling shadow and fade effects. 5. Many more optimisations are performed by the Install process. See Install process below. Install/Upgrade process When installing or upgrading the system, place an install package into the v:\channel directory. This package will have a name similar to: cine.20110101.rar This file is a rar compressed collection of files that make up the install.
commonly used to force a re-install or to REVERT back to a previous version. For example, to revert back to a previous version, remove the newer package and leave the package of the version you want in the v:\channel directory. Run the “_force_reinstall.reg” script. Start Bootstrap, and it will install that version. Logging system The dCine creates three different types of logs (a Bootstrap, Media and Operational log).
Master control file “MediaSettings.xml” and “Settings.xml” MediaSettings.xml/Settings.xmlis the root configuration file that controls all aspects of the player. This includes how all critical aspects of the player are configured. This file is an easy to read, XML file. It is expected support engineers will setup the more complex areas of configuration directly in this file. Note: The name of the control file was changed from “MediaSettings.xml” to “Settings.xml” in versions released after Jan, 2012.
The most important issue to understand when using “Includes” is that certain portions of the Settings.xml file are controlled by the interface, such as the Network Interface configuration, the IP camera configuration and the Name and location settings. These portions of the Settings.xml file cannot be in an Included XML file. The MediaPlayer application cannot update included XML files.
This portion of the Settings.xml sets up the GUI interface. Yes 4242 Control.swf Yes 01 0 96 1024 576 10.1.1.13\\index.html 10.1.1.12\\index.html 10.1.1.19\\image.
: This option defines the area of the selected to use for the GUI control. For example, if the is a 1024x768 resolution display, we can set the GUI to only use 1024x600 at position 0,0, the top portion of the display or stretch it to the full height of the display. If the option is absent, the GUI by default will fill the full resolution of the .
This section of the configuration controls the creation of the channel. <01> Yes Channel01 NotSet 02 CentreCrop 0 0 1440 900 The channel is a section of the screen devoted to the playback of content/media.
The possible options are: 1. CentreCrop: This option ensures that the image fills the height of the displayable area. However this may result in the image going outside the display area, or the appearance of black piller boxes to each side of the image. 2. Full: The image will be made to fit the height and width of the display area. For example, if the display area is 16:9 aspect and a 4:3 image is shown, the image will be stretched to 16:9 making the image look wider. 3.
This option defines the active screens used on the system. <01> Yes 0 0 1024 768 60 <02> Yes 0 0 1440 900 60 The dCine system has two video outputs.
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These options define how the Audio devices should be used by the dCine Media Player. A configuration example follows: Yes 5.1 On 90 These options are controlled by the GUI and are usually never edited by hand. Find the GUI page at: Buttons: Admin->Audio The main Auto Devices options of interest to support engineers are the , and .
results. In general, most locations/installs have 5.1 and most content/media is 5.1 leading to a direct pass through of the audio with no change. : This option must be turned on if SPDIF is in use, or else the system may output incorrect audio. Typically installers use optical SPDIF; however, installers can also use coax SPDIF by installing a coax SPDIF header cable in the dCine. SPDIF is a domestic implementation that can carry stereo PCM or raw AC3 data streams.
This option is used to setup the internal HTTP and FTP servers built into the dCine: Yes 80 ..\ Yes 21 ..\ The dCine has a built in Web server and FTP server. These services are integral to certain functionings of the dCine. Typically, the options should always be present in the Settings.
The Reboot option sets up the system to reboot itself nightly: No This option is usually set up using the GUI. It is found on the screen: Buttons: Admin->System If a system is left on 24 hours a day over prolonged periods, it is recommended that you set up the nightly reboot function. A reboot will refresh the memory subsystem and ensure performance issues do not develop.
This option sets up the Network Interface on the dCine: No 10.30.100.160 255.255.255.0 10.30.100.5 No 10.11.1.2 This configuration can be modified via the GUI: Buttons: Admin->System The top right portion of the screen will show the IP configuration. Clicking on the Change button allows the user to edit the values.
The dCine logs many aspects of its operations. The Logging option allows you to configure where log files will be stored on the hard drive and how often they will be deleted. As an example: Yes ..\log\Media_ Yes 365 Yes ..
: The Dated option makes a new file per day with an extension representing that date. If not configured, the Dated option keeps adding to the named file. : MaxDayLog allows support engineers to stipulate the maximum number of days that the log history will keep. If a log file is older then MaxDayLog in days, it will be deleted automatically.
Variables are used to help configure automation scripting: COM3,9600,N,8,1 IP:10.30.100.165:14500 IP:10.30.100.14:9200 Variables are used in the XML configuration files to help set up device control. For example, in the above example, the variable name “AP20” is defined as “IP:10.30.100.165:14500”.
For a real time feed of what is going on in the cinema, we ustilise IP cameras: off VIVOTEK 1000 10.30.1.17 0 320 240 0 These options are typically configured in the GUI: Buttons: Admin->System->IPcamera config An important feature of the dCine is the ability to add a live feed of an IP or network camera to the interface.
monitoring agent is retrieving images frequently this can add significant load to the network. It is recommended that the IP camera be set to as low a quality and resolution that is acceptable. This will reduce any potential load on the network, which is especially important when monitoring the system over a WAN (Wide area network) ie a remote location. A common setting would be 320x240 resolution images at 50% quality. It is also recommended to reduce the internal camera frame rate to 1-3fps.
The dCine can talk to a ticketing system and retrieve the session schedules: Venue Start IP:192.168.0.
Prepare - Prepares the session by loading but not starting it at the scheduled time. It is expected an external device, such as an older Automation system, would trigger the start of the session. (hence the Server is a SLAVE) : The Query option enables support engineers to formulate requests for data from the Point of sale system. To retrieve such data, support engineers need to specify particular information regarding the location in their query.
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The dCine interface implements security access layer: expression? Singular? Off Off monitor 81dc9bdb52d04dc20036dbd8313ed055 operator 81dc9bdb52d04dc20036dbd8313ed055 editor 81dc9bdb52d04dc20036dbd8313ed055 admin 81dc9bdb52d04dc20036dbd
The Default MediaSetting.xml file contains an example configuration for security access. In the example above, the security settings are disabled. If turned on by modifying the or values to true, the users defined below these options will be active.
This portion of the MediaSetting.xml file is used to set up all the automation messages coming into and out of the dCine. Based on these messages, the dCine can perform as a fully featured Automation system. Configuring the IO section for automation requires a number of steps.
The Automation Control screen seen in the above diagram is split into 4 sections; Auditorium : These are external triggers that effect the theatre, such as lights, masking and doors. Audio : These are controls that effect the audio processor, such as the volume, mute and input selections. Display : These are external triggers that effect the display or projector. Theatre State : This section of the automation screen is made up of one button only. It shows the s that can be run.
You can use the List All button to search for a defined Trigger. After pressing List All you will see the “Trigger Type:” and the “Trigger Name:”. This tells you how the trigger will appear on the automation button screen. The “Args:” section describes exactly what the trigger will do.
IO-Contact-Closure devices are defined in the Devices section. An IO-Contact-Closure device is typically used to talk to traditional cinema systems such as lights, masking and doors. These cinema systems are usually controlled through an automation process that simulates buttons being pressed i.e. a contact coming together to make a circuit. The dCine uses industrial strength USB devices from Measurement Computing to perform these tasks.
Once the device has been detected by the Instacal utility, it will be allocated a device number, (usually “00”). The device type will also be displayed. (See image above) The device number and type are needed when setting up devices in the MediaSetting.xml file. It is highly recommended that support engineers perform diagnostic tests during the installation process. Note: you can use the InstaCal tool at any time to run diagnostic tests on the device.
USB_ERB08 would be OOOOOOOO and the 24 port unit USB_ERB24 would be OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. The USB_SSR24 device can also have inputs. In the above example, OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOIIII, the last 4 terminals have been set up to act as Inputs. Once the IO device is configured, you can set up to listen for an input on an ‘I’ (input) terminal or set a to send a message out an ‘O’ (output) terminal.
Support engineers can configure the serial option to monitor a serial port for a string pattern. As an example; Yes COM1,9600,N,8,1 The serial port settings/attributes are also set here and must match those of the device sending the data. Note: Currently only one serial port can be monitored by the dCine, however you can send triggers out any available serial ports.
Support engineers can use the IP option to define what network socket the dCine will monitor. As an example; Yes 4241 When monitoring for incoming events, a TCP/IP network socket on the dCine must be set up to accept incoming connections. Note: Only one port can be monitored at a time. The options are; : This option allows support engineers to Enable(Yes) or Disable(No) the port monitoring.
Here we define events, giving them a name and describing what will trigger that event. As an example; Serial %7e%07%05%47%02%01%ff Socket Start Device 00 Pin:21 High Support engineers define the names of events under the option.
an event fires and the event name is the same as the macro name, this will make that macro fire. 2. Set up an event to listen for in the “Events” section of the GUI interface. In order to define an event, go to; Buttons:Events->New, Then Buttons:Edit, Then Buttons:Type Select “Input From IO” and then select the button beneath “Type” to list the configured events. From the window which pops up in this section, select the event to listen for.
Triggers are used to configure the messages that can be sent out from the dCine to external systems, such as a lighting or screen masking/curtain system. Once configured by support engineers, many of these triggers (e.g. those associated with auditorium control, audio processor control, and projector control) will appear in the automation section of the GUI. A typical example of a trigger configuration has been set out below.
automation screen indicating what state was last sent to that device . For example “DeviceNameToTrigger:State1ForDeviceName” When a DeviceNameToTrigger button is pressed, a new window showing all the possible StateXForDeviceName configured within the tag will be shown.As this Device is not defined under the or
however, the TriggerName will still be listed in the full list of triggers, meaning it can still be fired programatically, but not via the GUI. Auditorium : The Auditorium triggers are external triggers that effect the theatre, such as lights, masking and doors. These devices are children of the tag. Audio : The Audio controls effect selections on the audio processor, such as the volume, mute and audio-input.
2. Internet Socket: The dCine can talk to an unlimited number of internet sockets. In the trigger definition, you can refer to any IP:Socket address. See, for instance, the following example: IP:XX.XX.XX.XX,Port=XX,ConnectTimeout=XX URLEncodedString Timeout=XX IP:10.1.1.1,Port=80,ConnectionTimeout=500 GET+%2Fstate.xml %3FrelayState%3D2+HTTP%2F1.
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Macros are used to tie together a set of triggers. This is useful for defining a single button to represent a “Theatre State”. A scripting type language within the XML text of the Settings.xml file is used to tie together a set of triggers..A Macro can be fired in the same way a is used, .however in the case of macros, one trigger message will encapsulate all the triggers defined in the macro.
the heading “Theatrre State” a button showing the last activated Macro used. Selecting this button will list all programmed macros for selection by the dCine operator giving him maual control .The top-middle of the GUI displays “TheaterState:” and is shown at all times so the operator can see the last macro used on the GUI. This enables the operator to understand at a glance how the system is configured.
Error Handling If your Macros refer to a non existent trigger, an error message will appear in the Operation Log when the trigger attempts to fire that command.
The dCine can slave a DCI-player as part of its programming. This is done by treating the DCIplayer as a simple VTR/playback device. This allows the dCine to control a DCI player as if it was its own playback engine. This makes it possible to integrate the use of DCI payback into a dCine solution transparently. When a playlist is loaded into the dCine that contains DCI material, the dCine will control the DCIplayer, creating a show, loading it and preparing it to play.
into the dCine, if any media that is in the Playliust is not present, the dCine will look for this media on the MediaStore, and if present, tell it to ingest this content. : If a Key is required for content, this data source will be contacted to see if it is available.
The dCine can utilise external sources for media and playlists for eCinema and DCI content. The option is used to configure these data sources. When configured, the dCine can list “Local” and “dStore” lists or media and playlists. If you select content which is located on a remote location, it will be ingested into the dCine or DCI player when added to a playlist. An example of the configuration follows; ../playlist/ ..
to specify a FTP location. This includes the username and password. For example: ftp://username:password@ip_address/path Note: under we have the same , , , and options as in , however, an extra option of is also present. The option points to a file containing extra information used by the dCine to find a description of files contained in the defined storage areas.
The dCine can utilise streaming based technologies to display content on screen. This is done by the dCine connecting to a streamer device over the network and then streaming the content to the dCine for display on the projector/video output. Most streamers can provide streams to more then one dCine at a time. Ie , one streamer on to multiple screens. The type of Streamers supported are: TV: This includes typical terrestrial TV including analog and digital.
The WaterMark feature is a security feature that places data into the video stream. If the playback of the content is pirated, it is possible to analyse the recording to work out when and where the content was recorded. Following is an example of the Watermark configuration options: QRCode True 0.
: Sets the average period in seconds for when the WaterMark appears. This is an average as the option is used to randomise the period. : This options sets the maximum number of seconds +/- to add to the . For example, and Average of 600, with a Variable of 60 would produce a WaterMark every 9 to 11 minutes. : This indicates how long the WaterMark should appear on screen. Typically, 1 frame is used.
You can define an Email address(s) to be contacted when important events occur on the dCine. Example: user1@domain.com,user1@domain.com smtp.gmail.com 465 true username@gmail.com Password If an important issue occurs on a dCine, an Email can be sent to a predefined email address.
TimeZone selection and will happen automatically. NTP server Selection When selecting an NTP server, you may select the text input area and enter a custom server domain name or IP address. Select the “Select a Preset” button to display some common open NTP servers around the world. Manually Set Time If you select the “Set System Time” button, a window allowing you to enter the time will appear. After entering a time, the system will turn off the NTP server source (Selected NTP server will go blank).
Auto creation of MediaSetting.xml When installing a system for the first time, or if you have problems with the current MediaSetting.xml file and are having problems getting it to work, you can use the auto creation feature. If the dCine software starts and no MediaSetting.xml file exists, the dCine will attempt to create one using the current setting of the system. The dCine will do the following: 1. It will set up the section with the same configured setting as currently on the network interface.
Examples Following are examples of configuration filesSetting.xml Example Following is an example of a typical Settings.xml file: Astor_Cinema_Ararat Cinema1 Yes 4242 Control.swf Yes 01 http://Qube/mama http://10.30.7.
Yes 0 0 1024 768 60 <02> Yes 0 0 1920 1080 60 Yes NoSet NoSet 5.1 On 75 1.0 0.0 1.
No 10.30.7.5 Yes ..\log\Media_ Yes 365 Yes ..
Device 00 Pulse PIN:5 On 2000 NEC_Projector_Ararat_C1.xml macros_Ararat_C1.xml Qube QubeAdmin ararat 10.30.7.11 80 Off
${PioneerAMP} 04FN%0d ${PioneerAMP} 05FN%0d ${PioneerAMP} 10FN%0d ${PioneerAMP} 15FN%0d ${PioneerAMP} 16FN%0d ${PioneerAMP} 19FN%0d ${PioneerAMP} 20FN%0d <00>${PioneerAMP} <01>${PioneerAMP} <02>${PioneerAMP} <03>${PioneerAMP} 00VL%0d 01VL%0d 02VL%0d 03VL%0d <04>${PioneerAMP} <05>${PioneerAMP} <06>${PioneerAMP} <07>${PioneerAMP} <08>${PioneerAMP} <09>${PioneerAMP} 04VL%0d
<42>${PioneerAMP} <43>${PioneerAMP} <44>${PioneerAMP} <45>${PioneerAMP} 42VL%0d 43VL%0d 44VL%0d 45VL%0d <46>${PioneerAMP} <47>${PioneerAMP} <48>${PioneerAMP} <49>${PioneerAMP} <50>${PioneerAMP} <51>${PioneerAMP} 46VL%0d 47VL%0d 48VL%0d 49VL%0d 50VL%0d 51VL%0d <52>${PioneerAMP} <53>${PioneerAMP} <54>${PioneerAMP} <55>${PioneerAMP} <56>${PioneerAMP} <57>${PioneerAMP} 52VL%0d 53VL%0d 54VL%0d 55VL%0d 56VL%0d 57VL%0d <58>${Pion
<93>${PioneerAMP} 93VL%0d <94>${PioneerAMP} <95>${PioneerAMP} <96>${PioneerAMP} <97>${PioneerAMP} <98>${PioneerAMP} 93VL%0d 93VL%0d 93VL%0d 93VL%0d 93VL%0d <99>${PioneerAMP} 93VL%0d ${PioneerAMP} MO%0d ${PioneerAMP} MF%0d ${PioneerAMP} 0001SR%0d ${PioneerAMP} 0054SR%0d ${PioneerAMP} 0056SR%0d ${PioneerAMP} 0150SR%0d
