Requirements
Ovation Premium licence is required.
Note : Watchout requires at least 2 computers; 1 Production computer (Control) and 1 Display (Player).
Each Watchout computer requires a license.
Watchout Production can be hosted on the same computer as Ovation.
For ease of use, please download the Watchout and Ovation demo project.
| The RAVENNA Network cannot be used to link Watchout and Ovation computers, you have to use a separate network. |
Ensure that firewalls are turned off completely on both computers
To communicate the commands between the 2 Ovation computers, some settings have to be applied on Windows network.
You may need Administrator rights to modify those settings.
Go in Windows Control Panel> Network and Sharing Center > Change advanced sharing settings
Make sure that Network Discovery is active. File and Printer sharing is optional.
This setting can be defined for each Network type, Home/ Work, Public or Domain, so please set accordingly to your Network type.
The Network type can be identified in the main Network and Sharing Center window.
Go Windows Control Panel > Network Connections > Select your Windows Network LAN card > Properties
Client for Microsoft Networks,File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks, and Internet Protocol Version 6/ Version 4 must be active.
When you have several networks connected to your computer, the operating system uses the IP addresses to sort the network datas and send it to the correct network.
If two (or more) networks are connected to one computer, the root of the IP addresses have to be different, otherwise the computer will not be able to determine where to send the network datas.
Each computer must have a unique IP address per network.
Examples with a RAVENNA network:
Ovation commands network IP is 192.168.0.10 and RAVENNA is 169.254.25.20 OK
Ovation commands network IP is 10.0.25.20 and RAVENNA is 169.254.25.20 OK
Ovation commands network IP is 169.254.15.10 and RAVENNA is 169.254.25.20 NOT OK
Ovation commands network IP is 192.168.0.10 and RAVENNA is 192.168.10.20 NOT OK
The computers IP addresses can be verified Windows Control Panel > Network Connections > Select the required LAN card > Status > Details.
Depending on your network configuration, the computers will receive their IP addresses automatically (DHCP), or you will have to set it manually (direct connection / non DHCP).
To manually set an IP address, Go Windows Control Panel > Network Connections > Select the required LAN card > Properties.
Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) (or Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) depending on your network) and click on Properties button.
Set it to "Use the following IP address" and enter the IP address.
Once you have entered your IP address, click in the Subnet Mask field. Windows will automatically set the correct Subnet Mask.
Default gateway and DNS server can be left blank.
Click on OK and Close to validate those settings.
Now you need to restart the computer for changes to apply.
| If you do not have any specific address that you wish to use, you can use the following information with certainty. Ovation Computer: IP Address: 192.168.200.130 / Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 Watchout Computer: IP Address: 192.168.200.135 / Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 |
Note :The IP address 127.0.0.0 should NEVER be used.
| Those settings have to be checked on both computers. |
On the Ovation Master, make sure in Windows explorer that you can access the remote Ovation:
Open Windows explorer and access the remote computer, using the “Network” part in the left pane, or by typing the computer name in the address bar;
for example \\OvationB, if the remote Ovation is a on a computer called OvationB.
If that does not work, it will not be possible to remote control the second Ovation.
Tip : adding a password on both computer may help if you can't get access.
Please consult Windows documentation about Workgroups for further details.
Remember that you have to enter a user name and its password for a user account on the machine that you want to have access to.
In the screenshot below, we’re connecting from a machine that is called OVATION A on a machine that is called OVATIONB. The user account on OvationB computer is Lucas.
You do not need to share any folder, but it might be convenient to share the show between the Ovation computers.
Check the box “Remember my credentials”, otherwise you will have to enter the user name and password each time you restart the computers.
Windows login issue: if you did rename your user account, Windows will not be able to log from another computer, it only works locally. |
Insert 1 Watchout licence dongle on the Ovation computer and 1x licence dongle on the Watchout “Player" computer
In Player>IP set the following
Enable it
Set the escape character to “0x0D CR (carriage return)”
| Note : this setting tells ovation what character to use in order to break apart command strings that are sent to the Watchout computer. For example if I sent 3 commands in a row : “runTimeline1haltTimeline1killTimeline1” on the Watchout side which would look to it like a single incomprehensible command. But, an escape character makes it readable as 3 separate commands “runTimeline1 haltTimeline1 killTimeline1”. |
This has now set all the TCP/IP settings so that we can send transport commands to the Watchout Player computer and also then receive Sync information back from it so you can chase your connected audio cues.
| For proper synchronization between Watchout and Ovation, you MUST use the Synchronization Token. The Cue name indicated have to use the exact spelling, including CAPS and spaces |
The Watchout Timelines are fired using IP Commands which are set in the cue properties just like any other control protocol (such as MIDI or GPO etc). if you click on one of the command cues and look at the cue properties, you will see that it is simple English that is used.
For a complete list of the commands available to send to the Watchout Player, please consult the Watchout Manual.
