V2.0 introduces Project Server integration, Datalinq Integration, and UI configuration dialogs.
Project Server Integration
XAG can communicate with XPression Project Server to automatically deploy new revisions to XPression engines. The latest revisions of projects are automatically loaded and used when new scenes are requested.Once an older revision project is no longer used on air it is automatically unloaded and deleted from the XPression engine,
Configuration
The gateway configuration dialog allows Project Server integration to be configured.
- Server Name: hostname or IP address of Project Server system
- Username/Password: credentials for login to Project Server
- Sync Interval: How often Project Server is polled for new revisions
- Show: Name of show on Project Server to be synchronised. Only a single chow can be synchronised.
- Categories: Categories to sync. Multiple categories can be specified by separating them with commas
- Styles: Styles to sync. Multiple styles can be specified by separating them with commas
- Destination: Folder where projects from the server will be deployed to. Ensure filesystem has sufficient space for all required revisions here
Workflow
Project Server integration is intended to operate in conjunction with systems loading scenes using automation gateway (Oxtel) protocol.
The Gateway maintains its own table of deployed show revisions. This is recreated when the gateway starts, and used in later stages
Every N seconds,the gateway performs the following tasks
Stage 1 : Project Deployment
The Project server is queried, and the newest show revision with the specified show, category and style will be downloaded if not already present,
Revisions are downloaded into a folder constructed from the show and revision names : <destination folder>/<show>/<revision number>
Stage 2 : Project Load
The latest revision of the show is loaded into the XPression Project Manager if it’s not already present.
Stage 3 : Project Unload and Purge
If any earlier revisions of the show are loaded in XPression – and none of their scenes are currently loaded into keyer layers – then they are unloaded from XPression. (this only affects project revisions that have been loaded by the gateway. If the project has been loaded manually, the gateway will not unload it)
Stage 3 : Project Purge
Finally, any old revisions which are not loaded in XPression are deleted from disk.
Interactions with Scene Load commands
Previous gateway versions only supported a single project loaded. Now when a scene is requested the highest revision available is used first. This means that scenes from older revisions will be automatically replaced on air with newer revisions once automation reloads the scene. This in turn means that older project revisions have no active scenes, and can then be unloaded and purged automatically by the gateway.
If the scene cannot be located in the newest revision, all other loaded projects are scanned for the scene, including any manually loaded projects.
Datalinq Integration
XAG V2 supports Datalinq integration, where a request by automation to load a scene with a particular name format is mapped into a set of Datalinq keys to use with the scene. One of various separator characters can be chosen depending on the automation system capabilities. The following examples use the ‘pipe’ character “|” as the separator.
Example 1. No Datalinq
Automation loads logo TEST : Gateway will load the scene TEST.
Example 2. Single Datalinq Key
Automation loads logo TEST|ABC : Gateway will load the scene TEST, and set the Datalinq key GATEWAY1 to contain ABC
Example 2. Multiple Datalinq Keys
Automation loads logo TEST|ABC|666|MONDAY : Gateway will load the scene TEST, and set the following Datalinq keys
- GATEWAY1 to contain ABC
- GATEWAY2 to contain 666
- GATEWAY3 to contain MONDAY
UI Configuration
The gateway now allows configuration settings to be changed directly from the UI, rather thasn manual editing of the .INI file. Use the “Edit/Configuration” menu to see the settings. Most settings are self-explanatory and relate to settings made in the .INI file in previous versions.
Restarting the Gateway
Previously, the entire gateway application had to be stopped and restarted following any configuration changes. This can now be done within the application. All client connections will be shut down and restarted.
INI file changes
As V2 introduces some new configuration setttings the .INI file has been extended. A sample of the new INI file is shown below. Older configurations are imported correctly.
[MAIN] Maximized=0 Left=644 Top=122 Width=707 Height=596 [ScreenSetup] TopSplit=123 [TCP] AutomationPort=5006 OxSoxPort=5001< [XPression] FrameBuffer=0 [Serial] BaudRate=38400 Parity=NONE [Debug] Level=3 [UpstreamDelay] TimecodeFile= MilliSeconds=0 [ServerSync] Server=localhost Username=admin Password=admin Interval=600 Destination=C:\XPression Gateway\ Keywords=