MAWi – Release Notes
NEW MAWi v1.0.94.0
Updated: 31-October-2022
Introduction
MAWi allows users to push content onto multiple screens and video walls in the same or different sites, and control that content from a simple and easy to use browser-based dashboard.
MAWi is a holistic connectivity solution for video walls and digital signage screens, allowing you to connect and control your screens in a variety of ways, including Android-based AVoIP players, HDMI over LAN zero clients, standalone Windows-based PCs and USB to HDMI adapters.
Our new release – includes the following new features, enhancements, and fixes detailed below.
MAWi v1 offers many new improvements and features.
Here are some of the most significant improvements in MAWi’s new release:
– The Display Configuration Tool, USB wall, and Spacewall apps are now part of the MAWi management console. No extra installation is required on the Client’s PC.
– Added extensive support for controlling MAWi Players from the Display config tool: Restart the spacedesk app, Restart the Android player, Update the spacedesk APK, Assignment, and initial setup steps are streamlined.
– The installation process will now automatically install the latest spacedesk or OSBASE drivers when required.
– We have revolutionized the licensing mechanism – licensing will now be done with an advanced and efficient online system. No need to send us license requests anymore!
– A new ‘fit to Screen’ checkbox is available when displaying videos on video walls. This is especially useful when video walls of odd sizes and shapes are used, as the system will spread the content nicely on the entire video wall.
– Plus lots of smaller features, stability improvements, and bug fixes.
Important note:
After updating to a new version of MAWi, please clean your browser’s cache (You can use the key combination Shift+F5).
We would love to hear from you on new ideas to add to our product!
New features and enhancements
Integrating MAW Chrome Launcher
MAW Chrome Launcher (MCL) is our build of the Chromium browser, allowing us to have better control on the browser when it’s required to send a web-based content. The MCL was implemented in our old Monitors AnyWhere Connect and now we’ve migrated it to MAWi as well.
NEW! Play different types of content
Since version 1.081, the MAWChromeLauncher can also play the following file types:
PDF, Images (GIF,PNG,JPEG), WEBM videos.
Now you can easily load multiple items in a playlist and run them all with the MCL application, and they will all play continuously without opening different applications.
Full screen view – Remote shared view
This feature is very helpful when you would like to share a view of one of your screens or a video wall with a remote location.
Optional use cases:
– Share a video wall view with the management of a company.
– Share a screen that is showing an internal dashboard or an application to an external viewer.
Accessing the remote shared view is available only if the user was assigned permissions to view the specific screen.
Displays Configuration Tool (DCT)
USB wall and Spacewall apps are now part of the MAWi management console and are no longer necessary!
No extra installation is required on the MAWi Client PC.
In the Admin panel, you will find the new DCT menu for setting up your displays, in the same way the USB Wall and Spacewall were operating.
From now on, all the configuration is available from the same MAWi management console.
New licensing mechanism
We have revolutionized the licensing mechanism – licensing will now be done with an advanced and efficient online system. No need to send us license requests anymore!
Tags
Tags is a very helpful feature that many customers requested us to implement. It allows you to group multiple screens from different Locations in a single group, to push the same playlist on all screen in that group.
For instance, an enterprise with hundreds of screens in different locations can Tag all of the screens in the Cafeteria areas, and push the same announcements to all screens at once.
Start using the Tags:
1. Create a new Tag > Name it and select a color for it
2. Drag and Drop the tag on the screens you wish to have the same tag.
3. Press on the Toggle button to change the view according to the tags selection.
4. To remove screens from a tag, edit the tag or right-click on a specific screen.
Each screen can have an unlimited number of tags.
MAWi TC
MAWi TC is a new connectivity variant for the already very flexible and powerful MAWi platform.
MAWi TC is allowing our customers to connect Thin Clients as endpoints for their digital signage setup!.
With MAWi TC we are adding a new and very effective method of connecting and controlling remote screens by utilizing Thin Clients as endpoints. All you need is a thin client for each screen and a central Terminal Server and you will be able to show your content on local or remote screens.
Backup and Restore
We’ve added a new administrative tool to the Admin panel, to allow you to backup your system, with or without your content files, and restore to any backup point at any given time.
Please note:
1. The backup file is password protected and will be required when restoring. Please keep the password in a safe location.
2. When including the content in the backup file, it might take several minutes to finalize the process.
View options
We’ve added two new viewing options, to allow you to monitor your screens in a more efficient way. The maximum view option allows you to easily identify the displayed content on the screen and monitor the remote screens.
Hotfolder is now supported by VLC for showing videos and images
Create a folder and save all of your images and videos, and set up MAWi to show the content in that folder.
It’s now set up by default to show the images and videos for a duration of 5 seconds per item.
Share with all users
It’s now easy to share your Playlists and Tags with all users!
Instead of adding them one-by-one – use the “Share with all” checkbox.
User Interface changes: New icons in the Admin panel
The new icons in the Admin panel give it a new look and feel!
User Interface changes: Labels of thumbnails
Colors were adjusted to make the labels appear correctly when white content is shown.
Issues Fixed
v1.94 – Released on 31.10.2022
NEW – Added the option to refresh the display connection status from the main management console view.
NEW – Added the option to change a location name from the Admin panel of MAWi
NEW – Added a new feature that will automatically identify when the server’s IP address has changed and will initiate a quick fix.
NEW – Enhanced and more user-friendly option to connect to a remote DB server.
NEW – Added a new option to play RealVNC on the screens.
NEW – Active presets in the Display Config Tool are now highlighted.
NEW – Enhanced the MAWChromeLauncher – added the option to skip items in the playlist that require an internet connection if the connection is off.
Fixed – Issues in the calibration process of a creative video wall.
Fixed – A bug would cause the Playlist to stop playing in loops after 2-3 days.
Fixed – The hostname of the server wasn’t added to the bindings after a full installation.
v1.82.2 – Released on 09.08.2022
NEW – Added new user interface enhancements for loading of displays.
NEW – Added a feature to avoid screens from disconnecting if using MAWi Players.
Fixed – Shared playlist with users that were deleted issue.
Fixed – Allow lower snapshot interval.
v1.81 – Released on 02.08.2022
NEW – MAWChrome now supports more file types: PDF,JPEG,PNG,GIF,WBEM.
NEW – Added new user interface enhancements for loading times.
NEW – Updated NodeJS to v16.15.1
NEW – Update Angular to v14
Fixed – MAWi Players will not appear in the Available Devices section in the Displays Config Tool.
v1.76.1 – Released on 28.06.2022
Fixed – Display Config Tool issues with OSBASE driver devices
Fixed – Slow loading time for the Display Config Tool
v1.75.2 – Released on 23.06.2022
Fixed – Upload files in a playlist issue – an additional issue
Fixed – Playlist UI issue
Fixed – DCT loading time fixed.
v1.73 – Released on 07.06.2022
Fixed – Upload files in a playlist issue.
Fixed – Bindings in IIS are disappearing after MAWi is upgraded.
Fixed – VLC using a local item in the playlist will cause the playlist to crash.
v1.72 – Released on 23.05.2022
NEW – Remote view – allows you to generate a link for a remote view in full screen.
NEW – Installer enhanced – separating the Agent and Server installation steps.
Fixed – Accessing the MAWi system from an internal and external network.
v1.69 – Released on 03.05.2022
NEW – MAWi Players are fully controlled by using the Display Config Tool
NEW – Added remote SQL server support
Fixed – Logic of the connectivity between the Server and the Agent improved and less bandwidth is now being consumed.
Fixed – MAWChromeLauncher – updated to the latest build from Chromium.
Fixed – Zero clients control from the Display Config Tool improvements and fixes.
Fixed – Installer issues: Allow special characters in the password and allow special domain names.
Fixed – Streaming youtube videos with VLC now runs without lags.
v1.40 – Released on 27.09.2021
NEW – MAWi Client update directly from the Management Console
Fixed – MAWi installer issues fixes
v1.37 – Released on 14.09.2021
NEW – IIS is now set for the host PC’s IP address and Hostname.
Fixed – Primary screen is not counted in the licensing pool.
Fixed – Start-up options will not start all tasks at the same time, maintaining better reliability.
Fixed – MAWi installer issues fixes
v1.30 – Released on 28.07.2021
NEW – Full support of the new OSBASE drivers that work on the latest builds of Windows10.
NEW – Grid and Creative video walls support for the latest OSBASE driver.
Fixed – Shared playlists will not run on startup.
Fixed – Enhanced startup option for Playlists.
v1.25 – Released on 13.07.2021
Fixed – Displays count issue in the new Licensing module
Fixed – Scheduled playlist issue with shared playlists
Fixed – Saved presets in the DCT console were not loading correctly.
Fixed – Installation issues in a domain environment
Fixed – Installation issues in a PC without Internet connection.
v1.19 – Released on 28.06.2021
NEW Displays config tool was added – Configure your display’s settings from MAWi management console.
NEW Enhanced IIS Express – In Windows 10, the IIS Express is no longer running as a command-line terminal window.
NEW Enhanced installer – the installation process is installing the drivers, IIS enabling process is more effective
and many additional fixes.
NEW Automatic licensing mechanism – The licenses are delivered in the purchasing stage and activated online automatically.
NEW Fit to screen for videos – A new ‘fit to Screen’ checkbox is available when displaying videos on video walls. Especially helpful
when video walls of odd sizes and shapes are used.
FIXES Many smaller features, stability improvements, and bug fixes.
v90.29 – Released on 27.01.2020
- Added two more view options.
- Changed the UI for Local playlist items.
- Fixed MAWPPT Launcher to work more reliably.
- Fixed minor UI bugs
v90.17 – Released on 07.12.2020
- Fixed an issue where Scheduling multiple MAWPPT items will not work and leave running instances.
- Fixed the Playlist logic for better performance and utilization.
- Fixed an issue with running Local Launchers.
- Fixed Identify Screens logic.
- Enhanced MAWi Client to maintain less memory and CPU usage.
- Added better support for MAWChromeLauncher, to run better when switching between URLs.
v90.12 – Released on 18.11.2020
- Fixed an issue where assigning a Local playlist to a screen will cause the dashboard to crash.
- Fixed an issue in MAWi installer, not saving the Location set in the installation process.
- Added a file type validation process when using the Backup and Restore feature.
- Fixed an issue where Tags are showing empty items when screens have been disconnected.
v90.11 – Released on 16.11.2020
- Fixed an issue MAWi Client Service – it will not run MAWi Client automatically.
- Fixed an issue with scheduling a playlist for Thursday.
- Fixed an issue when using special characters in the email field in the installation process.
- Fixed an issue where the Client won’t re-connect to the Server after login.
- Fixed an issue where the Client won’t show the assigned content if there is no connection to the Server.
- Fixed an issue when installing the Client on x32 systems.
- Fixed an issue with IIS Express, where the Indexing service of Windows would cause the C drive to fill up in a few days.