Display 4K content on HMP350 with a multiscreen project

Introduction

This tutorial explains how to create a 2x2 multiscreen project in Elementi for displaying 4K-resolution media content over a video wall driven with four HMP350 players. The project includes a playlist with three images and one video.

Step-by-step instructions about how to create the multiscreen project are provided below, as well as a video tutorial. Otherwise, a sample project can be downloaded from the link below.

Video

For full screen, see this video on Vimeo.

Tutorial

HMP350 Multiscreen sample project

Version 1.0 (2017-02-20)

Difficulty: Easy.
Total duration: 15 - 20 minutes.
Requirements:
- Elementi 2015 or later.
- 4K media content.
- Four HMP350 devices using the latest firmware.

Create a multiscreen project

Create the multiscreen project

The first step is to create a multiscreen project in Elementi - for that, follow these steps:

Go to "Projects" tab within the Browse panel.
Right-click inside the Browse panel.
Select the "New Project..." option. The "New Project" dialog opens.
Enter a name for the project (like "Multiscreen" or "Multiscreen Project").
Select HMP350 as model.
Select "Multiscreen Array" as format.
Click "OK" button to create it

After the project is created, double-click on its icon to open it. Note that:

The rightmost tab in the Browse panel takes the name of the project.
Inside the project there is a single file called "index.svg" - this is the project's master layout and is automatically opened in the Preview panel.

Create a media playlist

Create the master playlist

The next step is to create a playlist for displaying the content in a loop - for that, follow these steps:

Right-click inside the Browse panel.
Select "New Playlist..." option. The "New Playlist" dialog opens.
Enter a name for the playlist (for instance, "Media").
Select a playlist transition, if necessary.
- Make sure to avoid the random ones because the randomization is done by each player with different results.
Make sure that "Shuffle" is disabled.
Enter a default media duration (for instance, 0:00:05) for the playlist items.
Select "Create a master playlist" option to create a playlist folder.
Click "OK" button to create the playlist. "A playlist folder is created"
Open the playlist folder.
Double-click on "playlist.svg" file icon to open it for editing.

Add media content

Import Video

Oversize Video Import dialog

Next, let's add some high definition media content into the playlist - for this tutorial, three images and one 4K video were used.

Drag and drop the high definition images from Windows Explorer into the Browse panel.
- Elementi automatically creates multiscreen images for them in order to keep the resolution and quality of the original images.
Drag and drop the 4K high definition video from Windows Explorer into the Browse panel.
1. Elementi automatically detects that the video file is too large to be imported and played in one piece and asks if the video should be split for optimal display in a multiscreen project. Click "Yes".
2. Select "All Screens" as target and click "OK".
3. Wait for the original video to be processed (import, cut, transcode, resize etc.) and the multiscreen video to be generated.
  - This process might take a long time depending on the size of video file and the processing power of your PC.
Select the three multiscreen images and the multiscreen video in the Browse panel.
Drag & drop them into the Edit panel to add them to the playlist.
If needed, change the order in which the playlist items are to be played by moving them up or down in the list.
- See more details about editing playlist items in the Edit panel.
Click the "Save" button on the toolbar. The playlist icon is updated.

Add playlist into the project

The final step of the content creation part is to make sure that the imported images and the imported video are used by the playlist and displayed on the screen.

To make sure the playlist is displayed on your multiscreen:

Go back to the root of your project.
Double-click on "index.svg".
Drag and drop your media folder in the layer part.
- to fit the screen: right-click on the preview screen where the sample is and select "Fit screen".
If the images or video do not exactly match the aspect ratio of your multiscreen project, you can use the "Slice" media fit option on the playlist.

Clock widget (optional)

Additional widgets can be added to your playlist. For instance, a clock can be added in overlay.

Lock the playlist layer using the lock icon to prevent inadvertently modifying it in the future.
Click on the "Widget" tab within the Browse panel.
Drag and drop the 7_Segments widget from the Clock widgets folder.
Edit the size and position of the clock using the Preview panel.
To edit the widget properties, double-click on its layer within the edit panel.
- The edit panel is modified and shows a "Properties" tab containing the widget configurable properties.
- The preview panel is also modified and only the widget layer is fully opaque, the rest of the viewing area being covered with a semi-transparent overlay.
- to change the color used, click on the color bar to open the Color Picker dialog, from where you can enter / select another color.

Publish on screens

Drop player on preview screen

This step requires some HMP devices.

To display our project on the screen, we need to Associate players to screens from Elementi and publish it to one or more HMP devices, as described on "Publishing from Elementi".

Click on the "Devices" tab within the Browse panel.
Drag & drop the HMP devices onto the content areas (screens) within the Preview panel.
Once done, go back to the multiscreen project by clicking on the project tab in Browse panel.
Press the Publish button

Note:

The players displaying the multiscreen content must be time-synchronized to the same NTP source(s) having a good accuracy (as in few milliseconds).