Quick Start Tutorial

This tutorial walks you through building your first WATCHOUT show. By the end, you have a display configured, an asset placed on the Timeline, and content playing back on a physical screen.

Before you begin

WATCHOUT separates authoring from playback:

• Producer is the authoring application.
• Runner is the playback service that drives the physical outputs.
• Any computer running WATCHOUT Manager is a node, and a node can host any combination of services.

Larger shows split Producer and Runner across separate nodes. For this tutorial, one or two nodes on the same network are enough. If you only have one computer, Producer starts WATCHOUT Manager in the background, so the same machine can both author and play back.

Step 1: Create a new show

A show file holds the display layout, asset references, timeline content, and show settings. It does not embed the asset files themselves, only references to them. The file extension is .watch.

1. Launch Producer from the desktop shortcut.
2. From the Welcome screen, click NEW SHOW.
3. Choose a location and name for the show file (for example, MyFirstShow.watch).
4. Click Save.

The new show opens with an empty Stage and Timeline, ready to build.

Step 2: Add a display

A display is a virtual rectangle on the Stage that represents one physical output. You set its pixel resolution and give it a name. At this stage you are only describing the screen, not yet connecting it to a physical output — that happens in Step 6.

1. Click an empty area of the Stage window to make it active.
2. Go to Stage > Add Display, or right-click the Stage and choose Add Display.
3. A new display rectangle appears and is automatically selected.
4. In the Properties panel, configure the display:

• Name — a descriptive name (for example, Main Screen). For your own reference.
• Resolution — set the width and height to match the physical output (for example, 1920 × 1080).

1. Drag the display rectangle to position it on the Stage.

What is the Stage?

The Stage is a 3D space, but by default displays are laid out flat on a front-facing plane. Every display rectangle on the Stage corresponds to one physical screen. If you have two screens side by side, add two displays and place them side by side on the Stage. The positions on the Stage determine how content moves across screens: content dragged off the right edge of the left display appears on the left edge of the right display, just as it would physically.

Step 3: Import assets

WATCHOUT manages assets in a library rather than reading files directly from disk. The library lets the system optimize files for playback, track which files are used by which cues, and distribute assets to nodes automatically. The Assets window manages this library.

1. Open the Assets window from Window > Assets (or press Ctrl+Alt+A).
2. Drag files from Windows Explorer into the Assets window. Alternatively, right-click inside the Assets window and choose New > Media File to browse for files.
3. Select your image or video files and click Open.

The files appear in the Assets window. A brief optimization progress indicator may appear while WATCHOUT processes files in the background. Once that completes, the assets are ready to be placed on the Timeline.

For the complete list of supported image, video, audio, and 3D model formats, see Formats and Codecs.

Optional: test audio

To test audio playback before moving on:

1. Drop an audio file into the Assets window.
2. Drag the audio asset onto the Main Timeline.
3. Open the Devices window, right-click, and create a new Audio Device from the context menu.
4. In the Device Properties panel, set the Node that should play the audio.
5. Configure the audio device settings (output, bus routing).
6. Enable the audio device by toggling it on.

Press Play in the Timeline window to start playback. You should hear the audio through the configured output.

Step 4: Place an asset on the Timeline

The Timeline arranges show content in time. The horizontal axis is time (left = earlier, right = later), and each horizontal row is a layer.

Dragging an asset onto the Timeline creates a cue — an instruction to play that asset at a specific time, for a specific duration. A cue appears as a colored block, with its left edge as the start time and its right edge as the end time.

1. In the Assets window, select the asset you want to use.
2. Drag it onto the Timeline window and release it anywhere on the timeline.
3. A new cue appears as a colored block on a layer.
4. Drag the cue left or right to adjust its start time.
5. Drag the left or right edge of the cue to shorten or lengthen its duration.

About layers

Each row on the Timeline is a layer. Content on higher layers is drawn on top of content on lower layers. If two cues overlap in time on different layers, the one on the higher layer is visible in front. This stacks multiple pieces of content on the same display — for example, a background image on layer 1, a logo on layer 2, a lower-third graphic on layer 3.

Step 5: Position on the Stage

With a cue on the Timeline, you can position the asset on the Stage. The Stage window shows a local preview of what the output looks like — computed on the Producer node, not yet sent to a physical screen.

The Playhead is the vertical line on the Timeline that represents the current moment. Wherever the Playhead sits, the Stage shows the output at that exact moment. Move the Playhead by clicking anywhere on the time ruler at the top of the Timeline.

1. Move the Playhead over your cue on the Timeline. The asset appears in the Stage window.
2. Click the asset in the Stage window to select it.
3. Drag the asset to position it within the display rectangle.
4. Use the handles around the asset to resize or rotate it as needed.

Step 6: Connect to a Runner

Up to this point, everything has happened inside Producer. The Stage preview is a local simulation; content is not yet going anywhere. To output to a physical screen, assign the display to a Runner, the playback service that drives the actual output.

What is a node?

Any computer running WATCHOUT Manager is a node. Manager makes the node discoverable on the network, and Producer assigns services to it. By default, the Producer node also runs the Director (which coordinates playback) and the Asset Manager (which distributes media), so a small show needs no extra configuration.

Connecting everything

1. On the node you want to use for playback, make sure WATCHOUT Manager is running. If Producer is running on the same node, Manager is already up. A splash screen appears on the connected output while the node waits for instructions.
2. In Producer, open the Nodes window (Window > Nodes). It lists every WATCHOUT node discovered on the network.
3. The playback node should appear in the list. If it does not, check that both nodes share the same subnet — see Network Configuration.
4. In the Stage window, select your display rectangle.
5. In the Properties panel, set the Node field to the name of the playback node, and the Channel field to the channel number of the physical output you want to use.

Channels

Each physical output on a Runner node (GPU port or SDI connector) is assigned a numeric channel, starting at 1. The channel is shown on the splash screen of every output as "Channel N (GPU)" or "Channel N (SDI)". Use that number in a display's Channel field to route content to that specific output.

Step 7: Run the show

With the display routed to a node, you are ready to see the show on the physical screen.

1. Press Home to jump the Playhead to the start of the Timeline.
2. Press Spacebar or click Play on the Timeline toolbar to start playback.
3. The Timeline plays forward from the Playhead. Your content appears on the physical display connected to the playback node, not just in the Stage preview.
4. Press Spacebar again to pause, or press Home followed by Spacebar to restart from the beginning.

Related

• Adding Displays — add more displays to the Stage and route them to additional nodes for a multi-screen setup.
• Timeline and Cues — tweens and animation, layers, control cues, output cues, marker cues, and more.
• The Interface — a tour of every window and panel.

Essential keyboard shortcuts