Facility Control

Looking for help setting up DashBoard panels to playback clips on BlackStorm servers. Would like to create buttons in a panel to trigger playback, as well as the usual transport commands. Not sure how to get this going.

Would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks,

Shane

Hi Shane,

I'm assuming that you already have the regular plugins for BlackStorm in DashBoard running and that you are looking at making a custom panel that has some Buttons to control them.

Adding BlackStorm commands is pretty easy.

After you have added a button to a Custom panel, you need to add a 'Task' to it.

When you open the Task window you will see one of the options is for VDCP, those VDCP commands are the ones that will control BlackStorm.

If you are having trouble finding this take a look at the videos at DashBoardU that show how to add tasks to buttons:

http://www.rossvideo.com/control-systems/dashboard/dashboard-u/index.html

Most everything is pretty straightforward, querying BlackStorm for it's video clips and displaying those is a bit trickier but we do have an example panel posted on the website here:

http://www.rossvideo.com/control-systems/dashboard/dashboard-u/video-tutorial-108.html

Let us know if this doesn't answer your questions.

Troy

#DashBoard

Thanks, Troy, for the reply. Perhaps I'm missing plugins. I'll take a look on the site to try to download those. I can set up panels, add buttons, add the VDCP tasks, and I can ping the BlackStorm server itself. I'm not sure what value to use for port number. Are there default ports? Or do I need to configure this? And, is this an arbitrary number, or is there some science to it?

Thank you,

Shane

#DashBoard

Hello Shane,

You will need to install the black storms plugin, which can be found in under the "help" -> install new software. If the plugin doesn't automatically appear after a few seconds, the URL is: http://ipaddress:8080/Plugin/Blackstorm (might be PLUGINS).

Feel free to contact me: Peterp@rossvideo.com

Cheers,

Peter

#DashBoard

The default port is 50103 for BlackStorm.

Note 1: "Enable VDCP over Ethernet" must be selected under the "Remote Control" tab in the BlackStorm Configuration Client. It may also require a restart of the BlackStorm services.

Note 2: If a switcher is already connecting to the BlackStorm for control over VDCP over Ethernet, you will not be able to send VDCP commands to BlackStorm through DashBoard

#DashBoard

Thanks for the help. Still not sure my blackstorm is set to receive commands from dashboard over the right port number. How can i be certain of this? I have downloaded and tried the sample VDCP grid from DashBoard U, but cannot ever get a cliplist. I'm assuming I haven't properly connected to the BlackStorm.

Any ideas?

#DashBoard

Ross tech support suggested I set up a VDCP command using the Clip ID to trigger with a button. Can anyone tell me how to locate the "Clip ID"? The only info I can see is the clip name. Where do I find the Clip ID?

Thanks,

Shane

#DashBoard

The Clip ID is generally the name of the file (without the `.mov` extension).

Have you had any luck verifying that you are able to communicate with the BlackStorm form DashBoard via VDCP?

#DashBoard

Thanks, James. No further progress, except I did confirm that none of the server ports are "turned off". (Closed system here). I did confirm that "Allow VDCP over Ethernet" is activated, and I can ping the Blackstorm machine from another device. I'm wondering now if I am setting up my custom panel correctly in DashBoard. I've tried the one from the DashBoard U that has the VDCP examples, but it will never give me a clip list. I've been through the code for that part, and the only variables I see are IP and server port, which I assume it is grabbing from the fields above that I am typing my info into. Do you know the steps if I want to just create a custom panel with one button that plays one video from Blackstorm? Should I make a Blank Canvas, Blank Self-Contained Data Source Panel, Blank XML Data Source Panel, or something else? (Those are some of the choices I see when making a new custom Panel File). I'm not sure what I'm missing - this seems like it should be easy, and an everyday function of DashBoard/Blackstorm server.

sf

#DashBoard

Just saw this in the debug console when I clicked the "Load Clips" button from the VDCP example grid from the DashBoard U example: List Clips exception: java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused.

I am using the IP of the Blackstorm machine and the default port of 50103. Seems that it doesn't like something about this info.

Any ideas?

#DashBoard

Have you tried remote desktop into the BlackStorm, right-clicked on the BlackStorm taskbar item (it's a little green "Play" icon), select "Stop All" and then select "Start All"?

#DashBoard

Ok, I did finally get correct connection/port numbers. I can now connect using the example grid from DashBoard U, but I still am not sure how to create my own panels, just to play certain clips, without doing a clip list query. I want to build a very simple panel that plays very specific clips, loaded up for certain shows. I'm still unclear on how to make my buttons map to a single, specific clip on the Blackstorm.

#DashBoard

If you want a button to load and play the same clip on the same BlackStorm, the code can be as simple as this:

`

vdcp.cueClip('BLACKSTORM-HOST-NAME-HERE', 50103, 1, 'MyClip1');

vdcp.play('BLACKSTORM-HOST-NAME-HERE', 50103, 1);

`

If you need it to be more dynamic than that, it will require a bit more ogScript.

#DashBoard

Thanks for that. So, is 'BLACKSTORM-HOST-NAME-HERE' the IP of the BlackStorm server itself? Or something else?

I gave it a try with the IP and a real clip name, and got no results.

sf

#DashBoard

The host name would either be the network name of the BlackStorm computer or its IP Address (either one *should* work).

So the panel from DashBoard U is able to preform the actions you're attempting to do but making your own version doesn't work? If that's the case, then there must be a difference between the command you're sending VS what the DashBoard U Panel is sending. The DashBoard U version should have the ability to query for a clip list - the clip IDs that appear in the list are the clip IDs you should be sending.

#DashBoard