How to use Monitors AnyWhere in a Command center or a Control room
Monitors AnyWhere allow you to easily set up a video wall for command and control rooms. Start by setting up the video wall layout with the Displays Configuration tool within Monitors AnyWhere Connect or the USB Wall and then start adding sources to your screens.
In this guide, we will instruct you how to:
– Create a simple video wall layout.
– Install and set up the OBS Studio application.
– Add any type of source to the screen.
– Control it from Monitors AnyWhere Connect or the MAWi dashboard on a PC, tablet or smartphone.
Any type of content
Websites and Dashboards
RTSP live streaming
Capture card with multiple HDMI inputs
Local applications
The first step is to create a video wall layout, as shown in the following guide.
In this demo, we’ve created a 3×2 video wall layout (3 screens wide by two screens high). The overall resolution is set to 5760 x 2160 as shown in the clip.
Next, install the OBS Studio application.
OBS Studio is open-source software that specializes in broadcasting, streaming and recording multiple types of sources from different inputs.
Download OBS Studio
Run the installer and go through the default installation process.
Once finished, launch the OBS Studio application.
When the OBS studio starts for the first time it will launch the Auto-Configuration Wizard. Set it to“Optimize just for recording…”
You can easily get back to this wizard if skipped:
Tools > Auto-Configuration Wizard
Press Next.
In the next page, set the Base (Canvas) Resolution as your video wall’s resolution. In our case – 5760 x 2160.
Press Next and in the last page press Apply Settings.
Go to File > Settings > General > Projectors – tick all checkboxes.
Go to File > Settings > Video –
Set both Base and Output with your video wall’s resolution.
Again, in our case, the video wall’s resolution was set to 5760 x 2160.
Click OK and go back to the main dashboard.
Right-click on the Canvas > Select the Full-Screen Projector to your video wall’s screen. In our case: Display 2: 5760 x 2160
Start adding sources on your Canvas by pressing the ‘+’ button in the sources area.
You can select any source from the list and allocate it to your canvas as required.
For websites add the Browser plugin
For live streaming use the VLC source
For external HDMI sources use the Video capture device source
For local applications use the Window capture source
Add Scenes with different sources and layouts.
You can either switch between the Scenes manually by selecting them from the Scenes list, or use our guide below for automatic or controlled switching.
Here we present two options of switching between the different Scenes you’ve created in OBS Studio:
1. Using the Advanced Scene Switcher plugin –
Mainly used when using the OBS Studio’s user interface for managing the content shown on the control room video wall.
2. Using the Command-line plugin plugin –
Mainly used when using the product from within Monitors AnyWhere Connect or MAWi for managing the content shown on the control room video wall.
Using the Advanced Scene Switcher plugin
Download the Advance Scene Switcher:
Unzip the file and copy the DLL file to your corresponding OBS Studio’s plugins folder.
If you’ve installed the 64bit version of OBS Studio – C:\Program Files\obs-studio\obs-plugins\64bit\
If you’ve installed the 32bit version of OBS Studio – C:\Program Files (x86)\obs-studio\obs-plugins\32bit\
Re-open the OBS Studio app and go to Tools > Advanced Scene Switcher
Go to Scene Sequence tab and create the required sequence of scenes.
You can set up the time and transition effect between the different scenes.
Add your sequence by pressing the ‘+’ button
To apply the settings and start the Advanced Scene Switcher, go to the General tab and press Start.
Your scenes will start to circulate according to the sequence you’ve configured in the Advanced Scene Switcher.
Using the Command line plugin
Download the Command line plugin:
Unzip the file and run the setup obs-websocket-Windows-Installer.exe
Make sure OBS Studio is closed during the installation.
Once installed, copy the folder OBSCommand to OBS Studio’s plugins folder.
Re-open OBS Studio and go to Tools > WinSockets Server Settings > Untick the ‘Enable system tray alerts’
In Monitors AnyWhere Connect
Open Monitors AnyWhere Connect, select the Main screen and click New for a new playlist item.
In the application field place the location of the OBSCommand.exe – C:\Program Files\obs-studio\obs-plugins\64bit\OBSCommand\OBSCommand.exe
In the parameters field input: /scene=<scene name>
Click on ‘Save and Send’ and the scene will be switched.
In MAWi
First, you’ll need to create a Local Launcher for OBSCommand.
Click on the Dashboard menu > Admin Panel > Manage Launchers
Select the Local Launcher’s tab.
Select the name of the machine on which you’ve installed the OBS Studio.
Enter the name of the new launcher and its path:
C:\Program Files\obs-studio\obs-plugins\64bit\OBSCommand\OBSCommand.exe
Click the Disk button and then Save.
Go back to MAWi’s main dashboard, Create a new playlist and set the location name to the specific machine you’ve installed OBS Studio on.
Click Add new item
Select Other tab, give the playlist item a short description (optional), select the OBS Command and in the Parameters field enter:
/scene=<scene name>
Save the item
You can add multiple items in one playlist and once done click on Finish.
Start playing!
Drag and drop the playlist to the machine’s screen where OBS Studio is running, right-click and select Play.
