Why isn't my video wall working properly?

Why isn't my video wall working properly?

Some of the panels are showing the wrong part of the sign

This is very likely to be a device configuration issue.  Locate your device in ‘Device Admin’ and check that its video-wall settings have the correct geometry. Check your measurements against the physical wall if necessary.  See the Setting up a Video-Wall tutorial for more details on configuring video-wall geometry.

Objects moving from one panel to another are not aligned

Assuming the panels have been physically aligned correctly, this is likely to be a device configuration issue where the geometry settings for one or more devices are not accurate. Possibly the measurements were not taken from the edge of the active area of the panels.  See the Setting up a Video-Wall tutorial for more details on configuring video-wall geometry.

Some of the panels are playing out-of-sync with the others

  • Check in ‘Device Admin’ that the devices have the correct Synchronisation Method set.
  • Check in ‘Device Admin’ that all the devices have a network connection (indicated by a green dot next to each device). Without a reliable network connection, a device will not be able to communicate with its partner devices (when using the Master/Slave method) or with the NTP server (when using the NTP method).
  • If using Master/Slave over Ethernet, confirm with your systems administrator that multicast UDP messages are supported.
  • Check in ‘Device Admin’ that all the devices in the wall have the same site/zone.  If a ‘Synchronisation Group’ has been set for a device, check that it is used consistently for all the devices in the wall.
  • Check in 'Device Admin' that all the devices have the same Player version.  If not, upgrade the older Players by expanding the settings panel for each device and clicking 'Upgrade Player Version'.

If using Master/Slave:

  • Check that exactly one device in the wall is set to be the ‘Net Master’ and all the others are ‘Net Slaves’.
  • Check the diagnostics of the devices for warnings of the form ‘Receiver timed out?’ or errors of the form 'No packets processed...'. If present repeatedly, this indicates that a slave device is waiting for communication from the master, but that communication is failing to get through e.g. because of a network problem.

If using NTP:

  • Confirm in ‘Device Admin’ that all the devices in the wall have the ‘NTP Server’ set.
  • Check with your systems administrator that traffic to the NTP Server is not being blocked by a firewall.
  • Check the diagnostics of the devices for messages of the form ‘Failed to connect to NTP server’.  If present repeatedly, this suggests that a network problem is preventing the device from communicating with the NTP server.  Possibly the traffic is being blocked, or the ‘NTP Server’ address has been set incorrectly, or the NTP server may be down.

Newly-deployed content is taking a long time to appear on the video-wall

First check the general advice available here: http://www.signstix.com/my-screen-hasnt-updated-to-the-new-signage-ive-deployed/.

Bear in mind that for high-resolution videos, the SignStix server may be busy ‘slicing’ the video. This can take some time, especially if there are lots of panels in the wall or if the video file is large.

Also, with the Master/Slave method, the wall will not normally switch to the new content until all the devices have received it.  So it’s the speed of the slowest device that determines the switchover point.

Get to grips with creating video wall displays, straight out-of-the-box, with our new Video Tutorial. 

    • Related Articles

    • My video isn’t in the correct orientation on a portrait video wall

      See this article https://www.signstix.com/support/how-do-i-set-up-my-device-for-a-portrait-screen/   Upgrade the player version to 3.3.3 and then set hardware rotation in the device page for each device. This was a new feature of the 3.3 release.

    • How to set up a video wall?

      A video wall is a combination of 2 or more screens or panels which have been mounted in a rectangular arrangement.  They operate together as one large canvas for displaying digital signage and video content.   Setting up a video wall is relatively ...

    • Why is my video wall out-of-sync?

      There are a number of reasons why a video wall is playing out-of-sync.  Please try the following methods: Check in the Devices section of your SignStix account that the devices have the correct synchronisation method set. Check in the Devices section ...

    • Can you create a video wall using screens of different sizes and orientations?

      Yes it would be possible to create a video wall of different screen sizes and orientations.  You'd just have to ensure that the sign resolution was the size of the total wall resolution and that when you are setting up the wall you are precise with ...

    • Why is my Video Wall falling out of sync when refresh rate is lower than or close to the fps of video?

      Having a video with a higher frame rate than the refresh rate of the screen can cause video wall synchronisation lag. The recommendation is to lower the video frames per second or increase the refresh rate of the screen. (Refer to the Vita Student ...