Mediacaster 2.0 Service Pack 1

• Import with custom meta tags error update
• Select up to 1,000 grid items
• Watchdog Timer update
• Video playback update
• Transparent scrolling text update
• Overlay plug-in object transparent or opaque background update
• Regional settings update
• Flash movies reload and are not cached
• Multiple slide-shows update
• New player Always On Top option defaults to off

Mediacaster 2.0

GPS Triggered Playlists for networks in motion

• The new GPS feature allows location-triggered playback for use in transport networks like busses, trains, taxis etc. Location input is provided by a GPS device that is connected to the player (any device that uses the NMEA 0183 standard can be used).
• The system works as follows: location waypoints are entered into the manager and a radius is set for each waypoint, defining an area that becomes a hot-zone for that location. A unique playlist can then be assigned to each location, and the location waypoints can be assembled into routes. When the player is outside a hot-zone, the default schedule will be displayed - when the player enters a hot-zone, the appropriate playlist will be triggered. On leaving the zone, the default schedule will resume.
• Any standard playlist can be assigned to a GPS location, so you can use all supported media formats such as still images, video clips and flash files.
• The GPS feature can be found in the Manager under the new "add-in" menu.

Push Video On Demand

• Push VOD allows you to send content to the remote player that is then accessed, on demand, using any MCE-compatible remote control. This feature is ideal for sending training videos or staff communication that can be accessed when required. It can also be used by sales staff when they want to show a product-specific communication to a prospective customer (e.g. Auto dealers).
• The system works as follows: Create a VOD playlist using assets that have already been loaded into the media section (only video files are currently supported) and then assign the VOD playlist to a channel. The next time that channel has a scheduled update, the VOD items will be downloaded to all the players. Media that is common to both the VOD playlist and the normal schedule will only be downloaded once.
• The VOD menu is accessed using any MCE-compatible remote control that is connected to the player. The scheduled programme is then interrupted and replaced with a PVR-like menu that lists all the the VOD media items that have been made available. An additional PIN code access dialogue can be added for extra security.
• The user can then scroll through the list and select any video for playback with full trick play control. When the video is finished, the system returns back to the VOD menu for further selections. Once the user is finished with the VOD mode, they can return the player to the scheduled programming by pressing exit.
• The VOD menu can be customised with your own background image and heading (e.g.: ACME VOD Channel).
• The Push VOD feature can be found in the Manager under the new "add-in" menu.

Other improvements in 2.0

Playlists

• Added option allows you to zoom the playlist view
• You can now select multiple media items and drag all of them to the playlist at one time. This works with shift- or control-select but only in grid view.
• Playlist running lengths now show in grid view

Overlays

• Aspect ratio maintained when using the mouse to resize objects. Also available as a right-click option on appropriate objects.
• Object properties grid now floats - so that you can keep an object's properties in focus when zoomed-in on an overlay
• You can now set the text from file object to increment line by line. This means you can have one text file with multiple lines and each line will display sequentially.
• You can now force the upload of a data file that is used in an Overlay, to the player. For example, a text file.
• RSS now supports proxy servers via HTTP_PROXY environmental variable.
• RSS feeds and Web pages now cache after initial connection.
• Slideshows with multiple images can now be synchronised with playlists that include multiple videos.
• Flash objects now follow the maintain aspect ratio rule like video.

General

• 2GB media file limit has been eliminated.
• Check for new version function added to the Manager.
• Total plays per client option added to reports.
• More display control commands added.
• You can now remotely set Date & Time on players.
• Sneakernet functionality improved.
• Server manager improved.
• Player log uploads and server log downloads have been improved.

Player

• FTP test function has been added to player setup - helps troubleshooting.
• Hide mouse pointer toggle added to player setup - so you can enable mouse pointer for touch-screen or kiosk applications.
• If a font used in an Overlay does not exist on the player, the text defaults to Arial.
• Enabled Shockwave Flash "IsPlaying" function for compatibility with some flash files.
• Improved playback speed for onboard graphics chipsets e.g. Intel 945
• Improvements to live video display.
• Faster player update after download.
• Ticker speed is now unlimited.
• New option forces player to top, helpful if you are running an application with pop-ups that cannot be disabled.

Language support

• Support for foreign languages has been added including non-standard decimal character sets (e.g. German) and non-Roman scripts (e.g. Cyrillic).

Mediacaster 1.4 Service Pack 1

• Playlist zoom added
• Hide mousepointer option in player setup added
• RSS supports proxy server via HTTP_PROXY environmental variable update
• Instant messaging connects to all players simultaneously update
• Player log uploads and server log downloads and processing update
• Check Network Status via Remote Desktop/Terminal Server update
• Web page caching update
• Watchdog Timer update
• FTP change directory error update

Mediacaster 1.4

Network and Communications

• A completely new Server Manager gives you total control over uploads and downloads on your media network.
• Use the new batch feature to queue channel for uploading at times that you specify, even after-hours.
• Schedule what time of day (or night) the players on any channel should download new media and playlists from the FTP server.
• Set an amount by which players should stagger downloads, to prevent FTP server overload on large networks. For example you may set all players on a channel to start their downloads at 01h00 but with a period of 5 sec between new connections so that all the players don't initiate their transfers simultaneously.
• Make use of the new Regional and Location settings to further define upload events, eg upload only to players in a particular region on a particular channel.
• Improvements have been made to the monitoring and diagnostics section as follows:
• The performance of the manual network status check has been improved as all players are now polled in parallel.
• Players now return added system information like PC Manufacturer, Model, CPU speed, Operating System (including Service Pack numbers), RAM, Free Harddrive Space, Free memory etc. Invaluable information for managing the hardware on your network.

Overlay Section

• The Overlay designer has again seen huge improvements, especially with the addition of the layers dialogue and support for SWF files
• Use the new layers feature to name layers and change their display order without having to select individual objects in the design area. Very handy for complex layouts where using a mouse to select objects is too tricky and you risk moving items.
• Drag Resize: use your mouse cursor to resize any object in the design area by dragging any one of the edges.
• Mutiple anti-aliased tickers are now supported: the number of tickers is limited only by your player CPU and RAM specifications.
• Ticker scrolling is much smoother, additional settings allow you to control the speed as well as the x-axis width.
• You can now display logos between each story in a scrolling RSS feed.
• A new object has been added that allows you to embed .swf files in an overlay. Great for kiosks and other similar applications where you want to include an interactive executable along with scheduled playlists and other media. Using a touch screen display, you can enable non-linear navigation of the .SWF while your other media plays as per the schedule.

Players

• New settings allow you to define players as belonging to a Region and/or Location as well as a Channel. This allows you to create schedules that apply only to these sub-channels. Also used for selective uploading.
• Playback quality is improved with silky-smooth cuts between clips in a playlist, even when displayed as a PIP within a complex overlay.

Instant Message

• Finer control over your instant messages. You can now choose to display the message on a single channel or all channels at once.
• Enter pre-defined messages beforehand and then select from a drop-down list for quick action.

Miscellaneous

• Playlists and schedules can now be exported as CSV files.
• Support for free Microsoft PowerPoint Player so there's no need to install the full version on player machines.
• Use the media meta-tags to filter the Media display. Very useful if you have a lot of media objects loaded in one client.
• PC VGA output turns off when using the time zone feature. This sends your LCD or Plasma to standby mode, saving power and lengthening the life of the screen. Used when your display doesn't have RS232 screen controls.
• Program registration info shows in the About dialogue.

Mediacaster 1.3

• Use instant messaging for emergency announcements
• Set object layer order in overlay designer
• Send serial control commands to displays via RS-232
• Extended desktop support for multi-monitor displays
• PowerPoint support
• Restart players via remote control
• Use media meta-tags to better organise your content

Mediacaster 1.2

Network and Comms

• Automatic network status monitoring has been added to the server application. This is used to alert a designated technical person whenever a Player goes offline. The alert is sent to an email address and can easily be sent as an SMS by using an email to SMS gateway.
• A Player polling option has been added to the Player setup dialogue. This is useful when you have a Player that is behind a firewall and you cannot communicate directly with it.
• Setting this option forces the Player to poll the FTP server for any playlist or schedule changes. You can set the frequency in hours. Go to Start/Programs/Isenzo Mediacaster/Setup/Player Setup and check the "Poll for updates" box at the bottom of the window.
• The performance of the manual network status check has been improved. Results are now returned more quickly.

Sneakernet

• When using a CD/DVD as the transfer medium in a sneakernet situation, you can now set the disc to autorun when inserted into the player PC. This eliminates the need for a keyboard or mouse at the Player. When you insert the disc, the Player application will terminate, the new media, playlists and schedule will be copied across and the Player will then restart.

Media Module

• Shockwave Flash support (.swf) has been added.
• You can now import a still image and set the default duration.
• When you view your media list, you can now switch between a thumbnail view or a text list by choosing the appropriate icon on the top RHS. Double-click on any item to bring up the media details.
• The read-only file name of a media clip is now displayed in the media detail view. This name is automatically entered into the description field, which you can then change.
• You can now remove multiple media clips simultaneously. Just use shift+select or ctrl+select to choose a range of files and then use the Remove button at the bottom of the window.

Overlay Module

• Live video input is now supported and can be combined with other elements in an overlay. We support any capture device that uses either the Windows Device Model (WDM) or Video For Windows (VFW) standard.
• Live video is controlled in the same way that you would insert a video playlist into an overlay. First define a media object in the overlay and set it to the position and size that you require. Then when you schedule the overlay, instead of combining it with a playlist, choose the live video option instead.
• An "eyedropper" function has been added which you can use to pick up a color value off any pixel in the overlay design area. This is particularly handy when you want to match text colors to colors used in a background image without looking up the RGB values. To use the tool, just click with the mouse pointer anywhere in the overlay and the "Color" icon on the LHS will change accordingly.
• You can then use this value when setting text foreground or background colors.
• Images can now have a colour set to transparent. To use it, do the following: Import a still image and select the colour you want to become transparent using the eyedropper tool (see above). Then right-click the image and select "Set Transparent Color". Transparency can also be set for images that are used at the start of scrolling text tickers. To clear transparency right-click the image and select "Clear Transparent Color".
• The interval for updating text data from either a text file or an ODBC database can now be set manually. This helps to reduce unnecessary network traffic.
• Portrait aspect ratios are now supported in the Overlay designer. Each landscape aspect ratio now has a portrait equivalent if you plan to mount your LCD/Plasma display vertically. E.g: 3:4 and 9:16
• A date / time object has been added that displays the current date and time in an overlay. It's quite versatile and can be defined in many different ways.

Playlist Module

• Media preview will now display correctly with respect to the pixel aspect ratio of the clip. This means that if you view a clip that is 720x576 but has a pixel aspect ratio of 16:9, it will display correctly.
• You can now insert still images and Flash movies into a playlist. The initial duration will be set to the default length you chose when you imported the image. You can change this duration manually.
• You can now set a relative start time for any playlist. This allows you to accurately gauge the length of a playlist relative to a particular start time.
• Thumbnail extraction has been improved.

Schedule Module

• Live video input can now be scheduled as a full screen event in the same way as a playlist or overlay. We support any capture device that uses either the Windows Device Model (WDM) or Video For Windows (VFW) standard.
• Live video can also be combined with an overlay that has a media object as part of the layout (see Overlay Module above). The live video will display as a Picture In Picture (PIP) in the area defined for media.

Miscellaneous

• A Quick Start Assistant (Wizard) has been added to help you get a new network up and running in three easy steps. Start the assistant by clicking on the lightning bolt icon on the toolbar or by choosing Tools>Quick Start Assistant. The assistant helps you set up a network, define players, load media, create a playlist and schedule it by taking you through each necessary action step-by-step.
• The new version now has a thirty day trial period instead of fourteen.

Mediacaster 1.1

Database Tree View

• You can now control whether the full tree expansion of the database is on or off. When this function is switched on, all the items in the database are loaded into the structure. You can increase the Manager program's response time by switching this expansion function off when working with large data sets. Go to Settings > Options and deselect "Allow full tree expansion".

Sneakernet

• The Sneakernet function has been improved; You can now create a sneakernet per client; We also added an automated script so that sneakernet updates will happen automatically when you insert the media into the Player machine.

FTP Communication

• We weren't happy with the way some non-standard FTP servers were working with Mediacaster, so our CTO, Peter Scholtz, re-wrote the FTP core. It's now faster, extremely reliable and highly compatible with all server types. You can now also set a different FTP server for each client.

Data Export

• Playlists and schedules can now both be exported directly from their relevant modules. Just select Export and save as a .txt file.
• You can also now backup a client's content. Right click on the client's name and select Export to save Media, Overlays and Playlists

Overlay Module

• If you create a slide show by selecting multiple images from a folder, you can now change the display order of the still images.
• When you load in an RSS Feeds, the headline is now capitalised.

Playlist Module

• Clips in the media bin can now be viewed either as icons or as a text list.
• When media loads into the playhead it is now paused by default. You can change this back to autoplay by going to Settings > Options and selecting "Auto Preview in Media".
• A tooltip has been added that displays the filename when hovering over media in the bin or in the timeline. This makes it easier to identify clips with lengthy descriptions.

Scheduling Module

• The schedule timeline now retains its zoom state after the user has added or removed any item.

Player Module

• An aspect ratio setting has been added to the player configuration. When "Maintain Aspect Ratio" is selected, media will play at it's original aspect ratio regardless of the screen size. For example a 4:3 video will play pillar-boxed on a 16:9 screen. When "Fill Screen" is selected, the player will fill the entire screen with a clip, distorting it if necessary.
• Another feature we added is the ability to control the Player's behaviour if it rolls over to the next day and has no schedule. The "Play Last Playlist" option forces the player to use the previous day's last playlist and to loop it continually until it gets a new schedule. The "Play Last Day" option forces the player to repeat the previous day's schedule in it's entirety.
• The Player now displays an SMTPE test pattern if it has no media or schedule.
• A software watchdog timer has been added. This seperate thread monitors the Player and on detecting any freeze, immediately relaunches it.
• A virtual view option that allows you to visually monitor the content of any remote screen.

Bug fixes

• An issue with non-english versions of Windows has now been resolved.
• Mediacaster is now compatible with Microsoft Windows Vista.

What's planned for the next release ? A sneak preview of what we're working on right now.

• Automated network status checking and notification via sms or email.
• Flash support.
• Many new features for the Overlay module.
• Remote diagnostics tools.
• Improvements to the Playlist and Schedule modules.

Mediacaster 1.0

Overlay section

• You can now import any sized picture without pre-formatting it.
• The aspect ratio setting is now fully functional.
• You can place scrolling text on top of video.
• Added a fail-safe function for links to text files - if the file is unavailable for any reason, the last values will be displayed until the file is online again.
• You can now place any sized logo in front of scrolling text.
• Object property sheets have been improved
• Fully functional ODBC text, RSS text, video PIP and HTML pages.

Scheduling section

• Multiple playlists can be selected and removed simultaneously.
• You can now copy and paste a time range across a particular day. For example; If you inserted 5 playlists that spanned 1hr in total length, you can now copy that hour across the rest of the day without having to insert the 5 playlists repeatedly.
• If you copy a full day's schedule across to other days in the week, you now have the option of overwriting whatever schedule data was already present on those other days.
• A schedule compacting function has been added. This is used when media is changed or deleted from a playlist; to remove gaps and realign the playlists for continuity.

Network Status section

• We added a lot more detail about the status of players on the network, including:
• What version of the software is running on the remote player;
• Information on the status of the remote player; whether it's in startup, download or play mode;
• Information on the media and playlist currently being displayed on the remote player; including current playlist, current media clip, percentage of current media clip played out so far.

System Management Features

• The new remote software update function allows you to easily update players in the field.
• A "sneakernet" function has been added. Players can be manually updated using a removable hard-drive or memory stick.
• Players can now be assigned a port number as well as an IP address. This allows communication with players that are behind a NAT. An example would be a dynamic IP network like ADSL. This allows you to place multiple players on one ADSL router and address them individually.

Cellular / Mobile Network Communication Module

• If you want to use a cellular/mobile network as the communication platform for your channels, we now have an additional application that adds the ability to use HSDPA/3G/EDGE/GPRS dialup devices for player communication - without you having to pay your provider for an APN.
• Our application will maintain a connected state and whenever the IP address changes, a reverse lookup site such as www.dyndns.com will be updated so the manager can find the dynamic IP connected players. Contact us for more information.

Other miscellaneous features

• A quick start installation guide is now included with the software. It's in the documentation subfolder in the installed directory.
• Imported media can now have duplicate filenames. Example; you could have multiple files called logo.jpg. This can get confusing but sometimes it is necessary.

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