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Hive ISAAC Manual

Hive Media Control Ltd

Setting up ISAAC connection​

To connect a Beebox or Beeblade device or devices to an ISAAC server you first have to setup the modules in ISAAC.

Hive media players must be contained inside a Hive Fleet (Basically a fleet is just a way of grouping players that share some common traits), the maximum number of Hive Fleets and the maximum number of Hive players inside each fleet is determined by you ISAAC license.

In ISAAC Workspace navigate to the System -> Modules page.

Adding A Hive Fleet​

Click on + Register Module in the top right of the screen to add a module. Select Hive Fleet as the module type. You can name the module anything you want, and use any description that makes sense to you. If your license allows it you can also choose to enable Allow Direct Media Playback, if enabled this allows all the media in the ISAAC Media Manager to be made available to the players without each file having to be converted into a composition first – this makes the process of adding media much quicker, but puts the responsibility of making sure that the media is compatible onto the user.

Adding Players To The Fleet​

An important thing to understand when adding players to a Hive Fleet in ISAAC is that you can add single Queen players, or players that are part of a Queen / Worker group. When adding a Queen / Worker group, you only need to add the Queen as a player in ISAAC, the ISAAC link will automatically recognise the workers and communicate with them without them needing to be added separately. In short, you should only ever add Queen Bees as players in ISAAC. Playlist, Timecode Lists, Timeline and Schedule should all be disabled before enabling the connection to ISAAC.

Click on Players section of the Fleet that you just added. Click + Add Player in the top right of the screen. You can give the player any name you want and use any description, try and use a name that clearly identifies the player to you later. The Module ID is very important, this is how ISAAC identifies this unique player on a network, it can be any alphanumeric string as long as it is unique on the system. ISAAC will give you a recommended module ID and we recommend leaving the recommended ID. Most important, make a note somewhere of this Module ID as you will need it later. Optionally (if your license allows it) you can choose to enable Allow Direct Media Playback for this individual player.

Settings In Hive Player​

Once you have setup you player inside ISAAC workspace you will need 2 pieces of information to setup your Hive player, you will need the IP address of the ISAAC server and the Module ID of your player (see above).

In your player navigate to the Media page Click CMS at the bottom right of the media list Select ISAAC and this should present you with a settings panel. Enter your ISAAC Servers IP in the ISAAC Server IP field. Enter the Module ID that you got from ISAAC in the Module ID field. The token field can be ignored for now, but once ISAAC has added this functionality, it is where you will enter the 12 character security string that ISAAC will generate for you – for now just ignore this. Media Expiry defaults to 24 hours but can be changed if required, this is the time that media files are kept on the device if they have not been scheduled to be played again, a small number here keeps the system clean of unwanted media but means that files have to be transferred more often, while a larger number keeps files om the device in case they get re-scheduled but can lead to a lot of disk space being used. The last field allows you to enable or disable the ISAAC comms with the player, set this to Enable. Finally press the Store Settings button, you will be asked to confirm your settings, press OK

If all is well and your server IP / Module ID were correct after a few moments the ISAAC Status light should go green, this tells you that the Hive player and ISAAC are now connected and talking to each other. You can now close the settings panel.

How ISAAC Works with Hive players​

Media​

Preparing Media​

Before you can add media to ISAAC for Hive to play, it needs to be in the correct format, so here are the details:

Image Files​

Image files must be a sensible size (the same size as the output of the player is normal (1920 x 1080, or 3840 x 2160 for example), huge images directly from cameras are likely to freeze the system and make it unusable. Hive does support most image file formats, but we suggest using PNG files or JPEG files for best performance / quality. We do not support layered image files such as PSD or Layered TIFF.

Video Files​

Hive is optimised for use with the HEVC (H265) codec and files should be inside an mp4 container with a file extension of *******.mp4 where possible.

Hive will play HEVC files with most settings and up to 800Mb/s bitrate, but we recommend the following settings when encoding:

Codec = HVEC (H265)
File Format = .mp4
Bitrate = 20Mb/s - 800Mb/s (depends on resolution of content)
Profile = Main
Level = 6.2
Tier = High
Keyframe Distance = 1 (Very important for Hive sync)

Hive does also support video files created in H264, Avolites Aim (.mov) and Notch LC (.mov) but these use a different method of playback inside Hive so should only be used if no other option is available.

Adding Media​

With the ISAAC integration there are 3 ways that media can be added and scheduled inside ISAAC.

  1. Any media that already exists on the Hive player, or any media that is uploaded directly to the player at any time will become available in ISAAC to be scheduled and played back as a “Playable”, please note that media that is uploaded to the device directly will have no thumbnail inside ISAAC so you will have to rely on the file name to select it. If you delete any files directly inside the Hive player, they will not be deleted inside ISAAC, they will instead be marked as “Unavailable” and will show up as red in ISAAC, this is because they may have been scheduled at some point. ISAAC will tell you this and will offer you the option to remove all deleted media from ISAAC manually.
  2. If the Allow Direct Media Playback option was enabled for a player and its fleet, then all the media in the ISAAC CMS is automatically made available to the player for playback, please be sure to only use media that is compatible with the Hive players as they have very specific requirements for high quality playback.
  3. Inside the CMS in ISAAC you can create compositions for a player, these use “Templates” that have automatically been installed when you connected your player to ISAAC and allow you to choose media, set playback settings or add non file based media such as web pages, live video inputs or NDI feeds.

Creating media compositions​

Compositions in ISAAC allow you to create Playables from different types of media that can be added to a schedule, calendar or other playback method in ISAAC. The main reason for using compositions is that it allows you to enter additional information to go alongside the media, for example – if you were adding a still image, it allows you to set the duration of time that the image is displayed whenever you add it to a schedule or playlist.

There are currently 5 different types of composition that can be made for Hive players:

  • Video
  • Still Image
  • Live Video Input
  • NDI Feed
  • Webpage or Web App

To create a composition, navigate to the CMS -> MediaManager page in ISAAC. Click the Compositions Tab at the top of the page. Click + Add Composition in the top right of the page. Give your composition a name, this is what you will see in the Playables list for the player later. Make sure that the Template Group is set to Hive Base Templates. Select one of the 5 installed templates in the Template Name field.

Depending on which template you selected you will have to select / enter different information but there is one option that is common to all compositions / templates: there is always an option “Goto black if no other media scheduled after” – by default this is not enabled, which means that if a composition is scheduled (for example an image composition) but nothing is scheduled directly afterwards then the image will remain being shown until the next media item is scheduled, or in the case of a video the video will loop until another piece of media is scheduled. If this option is enabled than the media will only play for the scheduled time and then the screen will go black.

Specific options for different templates:

Video
In the video template, the only thing you need to do is click the “Select Media” button and select a media file from the media manager, the duration of the video file will automatically update the duration field for you.

Image
The image template requires you to select an image from the media manager, and then you must set a duration for the media to be displayed in the duration field.

Web
The web template allows you to display a webpage, or a local HTML5 web app that has been uploaded to the device, you need to provide the URL of the page or file:// and the UNC path to the file for a local webapp.

IMPORTANT: In the current software version (1.1.131), web pages and web apps can only be displayed full screen and do not use the video renderer and mapping that all other video sources use, as such you will not see the web page in the devices preview and it will not be processed through any of the devices mapping options.

NDI
The NDI template allows you to display an NDI feed. You will need to supply an NDI feed address in the form of a computer host name followed by the name of the stream in brackets for example, if my computers name was Tigercomputer and the stream was called testimage then it would be:

Tigercomputer (testimage)

You also need to enter a value in the duration field to say how long the NDI feed should be displayed.

LIVE
The live template allows you to display a live feed (via a USB capture device plugged into the front of the device), you need to enter the resolution of the feed , the framerate of the feed and the duration that you want it to be displayed – the Hive player will automatically find the first device that is connected to it and display it’s live input.

Events​

Events are simply actions that can be added to an ISAAC schedule just like media to action at specific times. There are 6 events that can be added to an ISAAC schedule:

Disable Output – will blackout the output of a Hive player so the screen goes black
Enable Output – Re-Enables the output of a Hive player after the Disable Event has been used
Restart Device – Performs a full device restart, same as powering down the unit and then re-powering it.
Shutdown Device – Performs a full device shutdown (aka power off), the unit must then be manually restarted or setup to wake on LAN (see hive manual)
Restart Software – This forces the software to restart on Hive, can be useful to do this occasionally to keep the system healthy and clean as it resets memory etc…
Identify Device – Forces the output of the Hive device to display an identification banner at the top of the screen for 5 seconds – useful for troubleshooting

Adding media and Events to a schedule in ISAAC​

All of the media and events that are available for the Hive players will appear as Playables or Events in ISAAC and can be added to a calendar or schedule either directly (by going to the schedule->Calendar page in ISAAC, selecting Playables or Events in the library on the right and then dragging the items directly onto the calendar when you want them to play.

Media can also be added to playlists / Days and Blocks in the schedule editor section of the ISAAC interface (goto Schedule->Editor and choose one of the tabs at the top) – for details on how to use each of these please refer to the ISAAC user manual.

When media or events are added to the schedule, they will by synchronised with the Hive player every minute. If you open the schedule page in Hive you will see the scheduled items in the scheduler once they are synced. Hive will only display the last known event before the current time, and a set number of items after the current time, it will not show the whole schedule – this is normal and is done to make the interface much cleaner and easier to navigate. Don’t worry, the items in the future will be added way before they are required by the system.

If a file that is scheduled has not yet finished transferring to the device, then it will not be added to the schedule, but as soon as it has been transferred the schedule will be updated with the new file.

Media Transfer and Expiry​

It’s quite important to understand how media is transferred / moved around and when it expires when using an ISAAC / Hive system.

All media that is uploaded directly to the Hive player will not be touched, it will remain on the device and usable until it is manually removed by a user , at this point it will be shown inside ISAAC in red and will be marked as not available, but it will not be removed from ISAAC until the user manually tells ISAAC to remove all media marked as not available. This is also true for any NDI feeds / Web Pages or live input streams that were created on the Hive player directly.

Any media that is added via the ISAAC media manager will not be transferred to the hive player until it is scheduled to be played in a playlist, Block, Day or directly on the schedule / calendar in ISAAC.

The moment that a new piece of media is scheduled in ISAAC it is added to a list of files to be transferred to the device – this transfer will happen in the background, but the new file will not be added to the schedule in Hive until it is fully transferred and available to play, this means that it is possible that if a file is scheduled to play with very little notice (less than a minute or so) then it might not get transferred in time and as such may not play.

Please be aware that the list of files needing to be transferred is only checked every minute, so it could be up to a minute before a file starts to transfer after first being scheduled.

Once a file has been transferred to the Hive player it will be added to the normal media list in the “Media” folder, ISAAC only uses the default “Media” folder in Hive so do not create user folders if using ISAAC integration.

Once a file has been transferred to the Hive device, it will remain there for the Media Expiry duration (which is set in the ISAAC settings in Hive but defaults to 24 hours) unless it is rescheduled to be played before then, this avoids the requirement for media files to be delated and re-transferred if they are played regularly.

Instant Play​

If instant play is included with your ISAAC licence and you have enabled Instant play on your Hive Fleet AND on your Hive players, then you can use this feature.

You can mark any Playable (internal or external) or composition as being available for instant play, only playables that have had this option selected will be available for Instant Play.

IMPORTANT: Any media that is set to be available for Instant Play will be transferred to all Hive players ASAP and will not be subject to any media expiry time, it will remain on the device until it is made not available for Instant Play so be careful with the amount of storage on the device, do not make everything available for Instant Play if it is not needed.

In ISSAC Navigate to CMS->Player Manager, here you will see a list of all the players associated with your system. Next to each player are 2 controls for Instant Play, clicking the Play button allows you to select a media from the list of Instant Play media and have it play on the device immediately even though it is not scheduled – you might want to do this as an announcement, or simply to test a piece of media or a specific screen. When you select a piece of media to play, you can decide if it plays constantly or if it just plays once and then goes back to what was playing before.

If you set a media to play constantly then you can stop it playing at any time by pressing the stop button in the list of media players, in the Instant Play column.

Control Panels​

Hive will populate ISAAC with a list of control panels that can be added to your ISAAC workspace that allow you to access the interface of the Hive players directly. All of the standard Hive interface pages are available including Media management, Mapping, Adjust settings and the various Play pages, but in addition to this you can also access the 16 Custom pages that you can design yourself, so you can create any type of information or preview page that you like by just creating them in Hive.

You can easily add these control panels to your workspace by going to System->Modules->Your Fleet and selecting “Control Panels” tab. Here you can see all the panels that are available and you can add them to your workspace by pressing the “+” button on the line of the panel you want to add, then giving your panel a name and optional description, setting the security options and then on the last page pressing “Quick Add” – it will then be added to your list of available panels.

Variables​

The Hive players will send lots of information back to ISAAC on a regular basis, these bits of information are called variables and can be found by going to System->Modules->Your Fleet and selecting the Variables tab.

The variables provide information such as system status, system temperature, number of media files, amount of free disk space etc..

You can setup warnings and health checks for any of these variables by going to the Health tab – instructions on how to do this can be found in the ISAAC user manual.

Troubleshooting​

A lot of issues can be diagnosed by looking at the logs, Hive players write to a set of logs stored on each system, the ISAAC integration messages can be found in the Nectar Log , can view this by logging into the Hive player and going to Adjust->Device Commands->View Nectar Log , if you select “Auto Update” you will see the logs as they are generated. All messages that are to do with the ISAAC Integration are prepended with ISAACBRIDGE: so they should be easier to see.

If the connection with the ISAAC server has been established and is active, then Hive will also log messages about most actions into the ISAAC Activity log which can be seen by going to Logging->Activity Logs in the ISAAC workspace, this is especially useful if you are trying to find out if a media file has been transferred or not.

You can use the faq below to try and troubleshoot any issues that you may be having:

Status light in Hive ISAAC Settings remains red​

Check that the ip address of the ISAAC server is correct. Check that your local network settings allow communication to that server IP address (same subnet range and ip range for example) Check that the Module ID is EXACTLY the same as the one in ISAAC (Module id’s are case sensitive and spaces/punctuation must be included) Check that you have set “Enable” to on and you have pressed “Save Settings”

My Instant Play media is not playing​

Instant play media needs to transfer to the device before it can be played, this can take up to 5 minutes so check the media page of the Hive device to see if the media is in the list, if it is not then it has not yet transferred.

If the media is there then check that it is in the correct format and the file is not corrupted – There must be a green status light next to the file in the media manager page in Hive, if the status is not green then there is something wrong with the format of the file and Hive will not be able to play it

My scheduled media is not playing​

Scheduled media needs to be transferred to a player before it can play,m this can take up to 5 minutes from the point at which it was scheduled, so if the file has only just been scheduled then it may not play straight away.

If the media is there then check that it is in the correct format and the file is not corrupted – There must be a green status light next to the file in the media manager page in Hive, if the status is not green then there is something wrong with the format of the file and Hive will not be able to play it

Files that were uploaded to Hive directly should play immediately as there is no need to transfer them anywhere.

Output of device is black, but my items are in the schedule​

Check that a “Blackout” event has not been scheduled prior to when your media is supposed to play, if a blackout event is scheduled then the output of the Hive player will go black and will not play media again until an un-blackout event is scheduled, or the unit is restarted

Webpages are not displayed​

For webpages on the world wide web to be displayed, the Hive player needs to be set to a DHCP IP address and it needs to be on a network where it can access the internet.

Webpages are not processed by the internal render engine so the Hive preview will not show the webpage, so check the output screen that is connected to the Hive player to make sure that the web page is not actually being displayed

My NDI Feed is just showing the NDI symbol​

This is because the unit cannot find your NDI source on the network, make sure that it is on the same network as your Hive player and that is it currently broadcasting, then check your composition settings to make sure that the host name and source name are correct.

It is often easier to add NDI sources directly into the Hive player rather than through compositions in ISAAC, this is because in the Hive interface there is an NDI sources search function that will enter all the details for you.