User Manual of Octopus Brother
Last updated
Last updated
Thank you for your attention and using Octopus Brother multimedia broadcast control server. Octopus Brother is a professional broadcast control server software, which is simple, easy to learn and use. It supports the playback of video, audio, image, subtitles, and other media files, supports the NDI capture, and supports the signal capture from the professional capture cards. This software also supports the web page uploading, slicing, geometric deformation, masks and a variety of special effects. Besides, Octopus Brother can program and setup the above-mentioned signal sources step by step according to its convenient window mode and program arrangement method. The program management with innovation makes the switch easier, more convenient and efficient. It supports the input control management of OSC and Default protocols, as well as supports UDP/TCP protocols. It supports the DMX512 signals acquisition and output, and the simultaneous multi-channel output, so as to meet the some projects requirements such as special-shaped splicing LED, LCD video wall, creative display, and multi-device synchronization link.
According program arrangement sequence, you can pre-set the content and material played on each screen, and display it in window mode on your demand, which is intuitive and simple.
The video played in any stage area can be intercepted and turned into a new material source for calling and use, which provides an extremely convenient way for enriching LED material and special display application.
Slices are divided into material slices and output port slices. Material slices can divide any material (and the material played on the virtual screen) into any polygon, and correct the deformation of the divided slices; output port slices are for any one The picture output by the output port is cut, and then deformed and reorganized to realize LED special splicing and creative display.
You can add the geometric figures on the layer to cover and shield the playing video area.
You can add the special effects of the filter function to the playback video source, such as: running text, Gaussian blur, up and down mirroring, left and right mirroring, splash screen, etc.
It can accept OSC and Default commands, and can also add UDP and TCP protocol output commands to control the central control, joint control and other equipment, which can realize the control of multiple types of equipment on one platform, which is more efficient and convenient.
It can realize up to 10 channels of 1920x1080 screen capture, can carry out ultra-low delay, lossless transmission of audio and video transmission through the IP network, can get rid of traditional HDMI, SDI wiring, and make project expansion more portable and efficient.
Control the connection of the screen through the screen management to realize the real-time monitoring and scheduling of screen resources.
Through the recording and playback of the DMX512 signal, it can realize the programming of the lighting console, lighting editing software and other devices supporting the DMX512 communication protocol of the performance, and the unified management of sound and light.
Octopus Brother Software can run stably on genuine 64-bit Windows 7,10. Recommended server hardware configuration:
CPU: On demand
Graphics card: NVIDIA P1000/P2000/P4000 (on demand)
Memory: 8GB/16GB/32GB/64GB
Note: This is a recommended configuration, you need to customize the configuration according to different project requirement.
To run Octopus Brother, you need to set your computer to the extended mode, which can be set via [Microsoft key+P] to set the monitor as the main monitor, screen or projection as an extension. In addition, there are two modes of software operation design, which can be divided into stand-alone mode and online mode.
Stand-alone mode, software operation interface and signal output are performed on the same server, without network data transmission, software operation and material effect editing achieve real-time preview, real-time editing, and real-time rendering output, which can easily cope with applications with fewer output channels Scenes.
The online mode is to cascade multiple servers. With the increase of servers, the number of video signal output ports also increases. This meets the market demand for more screens and increasing resolution
The position and size of each functional module window of the software can be customized according to personal usage habits, and it supports floating and automatic hiding.
Creating a new project and naming the new project. After the program is preset and saved, you can open the software next time and directly call the existing project.
The toolbar is located above the software window.
The following is the description of the corresponding function keys:
New project (re-create a new project)
Open the project (open the original project file)
Save editing (save the currently edited project)
Add a program (click to add to the program bar in the control panel at the bottom of the window)
Add a layer (layer is the carrier of playback resources)
Add lighting programs (you can add lighting programs recorded in advance)
Add material (directly add the video file to the video resource list)
Add stage (physical screen of Octopus Brother running server)
All display (display the added physical screen on the physical screen)
Turn off the display (turn off the physical screen display)
All connections (the playback resource is connected to the screen)
Disconnect all (the playback resource is disconnected from the screen)
Resource management is located on the left side of the window, which includes material, screen management, input management, and output management.
You can add video, audio, lighting, pictures, NDI, text, web material to the material list, click "+" to add material directly.
You can see the name, screen number, and status of the screen in the screen management list.
Right-click in the input management to add input devices, support protocol types OSC, Default.
Right-click on the blank area of the input management window, select Add Device, and then select Protocol Type, fill in the device name, fill in the port and confirm.
Output management can add output devices, remotely control the devices through instructions, currently supports two protocol types: TCP protocol and UDP.
Right-click on the blank space of the I/O management window, select Add Device, and select Protocol type, fill in the IP address of the device to be controlled, fill in the port, name, and command to confirm.
Properties are divided into stage editing properties and layer editing properties on the right side of the software window.
Click Edit Stage in the toolbar, and you can see the properties of the stage on the far right of the window. You can change the position of the stage and the border color.
Click the layer edit in the toolbar, and you can see the attribute information of the layer on the far right of the window. You can change the size, position and border color of the layer, and you can also use the slice, mask layer, and filter functions to add special effects to the layer.
The control panel is located at the bottom of the software. The whole panel is divided into two major areas. One is the program bar, which can arrange multiple programs. The other is the layer control area, which can edit layers and control the playback of media files.
Give the new project a name and choose where to store the files. This time, save it to the desktop under the name "show1".
After saving the project, enter the software interface.
There are two types of screens. One is a physical screen that is actually connected locally, and the other is a virtual screen. The size of the added local screen is automatically read the EDID of the connected physical screen, the size cannot be adjusted, and the resolution of the virtual screen can be set freely.
There are two ways to add a local screen. One method is to click the "Stage" above the toolbar, and the other method is to click the "Add Screen" shortcut icon in the toolbar. After clicking it, a new screen window will pop up and the software will automatically Recognize the connected physical screen, and automatically recognize its EDID, select the screen you want to add, and click Create Screen (If there are multiple screens, to facilitate identification, you can click the recognition screen, and the screen number will appear on the screen for easy identification ), in the example we create 3 new screens to display instructions.
According to the example, let’s arrange the three newly created screens. First, we click to select the stage editing mode , and then drag the small red box in the stage editing area. The three newly created screens are in the superimposed state, and we select one by one Then drag and arrange, and you can change the position and rotation angle of the screen according to the position coordinates in the properties.
The screen can be edited in the stage editing mode. Right-click on the screen or directly double-click the left button of the mouse. The stage "Edit" can adjust the stage color brightness, position and other data.
Refer to the items 9 and 11 on page 8 for the description of "connection" and "display".
In the "Geometric Deformation", after checking the "Distortion" deformation, enter the number of rows and columns of the screen, and drag the screen connection point with the mouse to deform in a straight line. Select "Curve" in "Geometric Deformation" to achieve curve deformation. After clicking Reset, the screen returns to its initial state. The deformation example effect is as follows,
Repeat the above steps below. We select layer 2 and select the box opposite to layer 2 in the stage area, drag it to the red box on the left screen, and then double-click the text in layer 2 in the control panel to change the remarks It is the left screen; and so on, set the right screen; the last step is to drag the last layer larger across 3 screens, and then note it as full screen. After completion, enter the following example:
Adding materials to the material list, and add corresponding materials as required. You can add video, audio, lighting, pictures, NDI, text, and web pages. Click the "+" behind the type to import the material into the material column.
The playback control is designed according to the form of the program list. Each column is a program. In a program, multiple screens and multiple devices can be simultaneously used for audio, video, text, lighting programs, output control commands and other media files. Synchronous playback, with the fine setting of media information attributes to achieve the purpose of sound and light synchronization; in the control panel, there are two material playback buttons, one is to stop the playback, and the other is to pause the playback.
Click on the media file in the layer area of the control panel to display the media information in the attribute area. The play mode and play time of the media file can be set, which better solves the different needs of multiple media files for the play time. (The default playing time of the picture is one hour. You can control the playing time of the picture by setting the end time; in addition, it should be noted that in each column of the program list, you only need to set the play mode for one mainline media, such as Mainly music, video follow, then you only need to set the music play mode, other media will loop by default.
In the layer editing mode, click the layer in the software display area to display the layer properties on the right side of the software. The layer properties include four parts: basic information, slices, mask layers, and filters.
The slice editor has two functions, one is to refer to the layer, which is to copy a layer in the display area, and the other is the slicing function, which only displays the video in the slice on the layer. The set slices will be automatically saved in the slice directory in the material bar. At this time, the slice material can be dragged and dropped to any layer in the program list as a new material. Note: There is a parent-child relationship between the sliced material and the material itself, so it cannot be used under other program lists.
You can add rectangles or triangles to the mask layer. You can also select a mask template to block the layer.
Ticking “√” in front of the "Reverse" checkbox to display in reverse.
The filter function has the most effect styles in the special effect function. First select the layer, and then tick “√” before the special effect.
Take "blinds" special effects as an example. Check the blinds, and then double-click to adjust the parameters.
It mainly answers various problems encountered by practitioners in the matching and debugging of hardware and software systems, and improves the ability to solve problems on the spot. This part of the content will also be continuously updated, please pay attention to the latest version. I believe this part of the content will solve the technical questions of most practitioners. If your question is not answered, please contact the company's technical service department directly.
1.The software closes after opening a new project In this case, the graphics card driver is generally not installed properly. Solution: If it is a professional card such as NVIDIA P series, go to the official website to download the corresponding graphics card driver and reinstall it.
2. Playing blockbuster source freezes. Check whether the video file is a standard video file.
3. The boot computer screen is on the display device, and the display has only the desktop This situation is caused by the main desktop of the system on the display device. We need to set the main desktop of the system on the monitor. The specific steps are as follows:
2). Click the logo button in the setting interface to view the screen number of the monitor
3). Click the screen number, select the monitor, and then check the setting below to set the current screen as the main desktop.
4. Splicing gap when splicing multiple outputs
1). Check whether the video card splicing is set. If the video card splicing is not set, you need to set the video card splicing to ensure the synchronization of the video card output.
2). If there is still a gap in the splicing of the graphics card, you need to check whether the back-end processor and other devices have set the synchronization mode.
5. Solutions to playback freezes and unsynchronized audio and video If the performance of the machine is sufficient, optimize the host system to ensure the optimal state of the machine, optimize the transcoding of the video, and transcode the video to the most suitable encoding, stream, and format, if there is still a stutter , It is recommended to split the video and then transcode.
Double-clicking the left button of the mouse Octopus Brother can be divided into two opening methods, one is "open existing project" and the other is "new project". (Note: The anti-virus software needs to be closed).
In the middle area of the software window is the stage area of the stage and the layer. The position of the stage and the layer can be adjusted according to the needs (there are 2 buttons for mode selection above the display area. When editing the screen, you need to operate in the stage edit mode. When you need to edit a layer, you need to do it in the layer edit mode. )
Double-click the icon , and select New Project.
Click the "Add Layer" button on the toolbar to add a layer. The layer size and resolution can be adjusted manually, multiple layers can be added to one screen, a single layer can also span multiple screens, the layers can be superimposed, and follow the hierarchical relationship from bottom to top. Add a layer, a colored box will appear in the stage area, and each box will be automatically set with a color for easy distinction. We create 4 layers according to the example, then click , to switch to the layer editing mode, and then click layer 1 in the control panel. At this time, the layer will change color, and then use the mouse to drag the color corresponding to layer 1 in the stage area. Move to the middle screen, then hold down shift and double click the left mouse button, it will automatically fill the screen, as shown below:
Then we double click with the mouse,The text of layer 1, change the layer remarks, here I use the full screen as an example, after the change is: main screen.
The position, height and width resolution of the layer can also be changed in the properties. If the layer overlaps and dragging is difficult to select, you can change the edited layer. Turn off the visible button in the layer and turn on the visible button after all editing is complete; to prevent accidental dragging, you can also lock the edited layer
Add the material to the layer, expand the material, select the material to be added, hold down the left mouse button, and drag the material to the primitive in the control panel. (Videos, audios, pictures, virtual screens, and subtitles can all be mixed. You can use the mute button to select the audio you want to play.).
Click folder---click new folder---Newly build Artnet, select the storage location, confirm, and then find the newly created program in the light list of the material, there is a rectangular box behind the play button, after checking, drag it into the program column that needs to be recorded, and click play，The program starts to record automatically. At this time, you can push the lighting console according to the rhythm of the music, click Play to stop, and the program has finished recording. After the program is recorded, the lighting program can be used as ordinary material, and it can be played back with music in any program list, so as to achieve one-time recording, permanent use, and synchronization of sound and light.
1). Click the right mouse button on a blank area of the desktop and select screen resolution or display settings
6. External 4K monitor, the screen display is not complete, right click on the desktop, screen settings, find zoom and layout, just adjust the recommended 200% back to 100%.
