#Video on screens

Play real content on any screen or LED wall — a video you upload, a live stream, or an animated Loop.

A screen in a design reads differently once something is moving on it. Set a screen's or an LED wall's Screen Source to Video and it plays: the opening film you upload, a live feed from a stream link, or a Loop — an animated background EVT3D draws for you. It works the same on a Screen Builder screen and on an LED wall, flat or curved. The video is saved with the project, so it plays again when you reopen the project and when a client opens your share link.

#What it does

#Screen Source → Video

Select a screen or an LED wall. Screen Source, at the top of the panel, sets what is on its face: Standby, IMAG, Material Slot, Video, or Off. Pick Video and the video controls open under the picker — a card for the video that is on the screen now, then three tabs for where a video comes from: Upload, Live stream, and Loops.

Select several screens and LED walls together and you get one Screen Source card for all of them. A change made there applies to every selected screen.

#Upload a video

On the Upload tab, click Upload a video (or drop it here), or drag a file onto it.

• What you can upload. MP4, MOV (ProRes included) and most other video files, up to 5 GB and 10 minutes long.
• What happens next. The video goes onto the screen as soon as the upload starts. The panel shows UPLOADING with a percent, then PROCESSING while EVT3D re-encodes the file for smooth streaming, and the screen shows that the video is processing. When the video is ready it starts playing by itself.
• Your videos. Every upload is listed under the button, with a Search your videos box, its length, its size in pixels and a status: READY, QUEUED, PROCESSING or FAILED. Click a video to put it on the selected screen. Screens that use the same video all play the one video, never a copy, and uploading the same file a second time reuses the video you already have.
• Storage. Processed videos count toward your account's storage. Up to five of your videos can be uploading or processing at one time.
• Deleting. The ✕ beside one of your videos deletes it for good. Any screen that uses it, in any project, then shows VIDEO REMOVED.

Your uploads are also in the library, on the Videos tab. Drag one from there onto any screen or LED wall: it goes onto that screen and the screen's source switches to Video.

#Live stream

On the Live stream tab, paste the stream's playback link and click Use.

• The link. An HLS playback link, which usually ends in .m3u8. It has to start with https://. A watch page on YouTube, Twitch or Facebook is not a stream link, and neither is an address for sending a stream (RTMP, SRT, NDI). The panel tells you which it is and what to ask for instead.
• Before the sender is live. You can set the screen up early. While the stream is not on, the screen shows NO SIGNAL and keeps checking. It starts by itself when the stream comes up, and comes back the same way after a drop.
• Timing. A live stream plays a few seconds behind live.
• What to ask the sender. The ⓘ beside What to ask the sender lists what the stream has to be: an HLS playback link on https, H.264 video (AAC audio is fine) at 1080p and 30 fps or less, a keyframe every 2 seconds with segments of 2 to 6 seconds, and CORS open to EVT3D on the playlist and on the segments. Without that last one the screen stays black. Copy for the sender puts the list on your clipboard, ready to paste into a message.
• Test feeds. The Test feeds list holds free public feeds for trying a screen out: test signals, science, scenery, nature, sports, concerts, news, and a few recordings that loop. Picking one puts it on the screen at once. They are for trying things out, not for a show. They belong to other companies, TV channels may cut to ads, and a feed that goes off the air reads NO SIGNAL.

#Loops

A Loop is an animated background that EVT3D draws right on the screen. There is nothing to upload and nothing to stream, so it is the lightest thing a screen can play, and it runs the same on a phone.

• Presets. Sixteen to start from, such as Northern Lights, Silk Waves, Bokeh Lights, Dot Grid and Sunburst. One click puts a preset on the screen.
• Make it yours. Once a Loop is on the screen, change it under Make it yours. Pattern picks the kind of motion: Flow, Waves, Lines, Floating shapes, Tiles, Rings or Rays. Patterns made of shapes also get a Shape: Circle, Ring, Square, Diamond, Triangle or Hexagon.
• Colors. Three of them: Background, First color and Second color.
• Speed. How fast the Loop runs. 100% is one pass every 40 seconds, and 0% holds it still.
• Size, Softness, Amount, Direction. Size sets how big the shapes, bands and waves are. Softness runs from crisp, hard edges at 0% to a soft glow at 100%. Amount sets how much of the pattern shows. Direction sets which way the pattern travels or leans.
• Add to Project Palette. Saves the Loop with the project under a name you give it. It then lists under Project Palette at the top of the Loops tab, in the video list of a Video Channel, and in the library's Project Palette, ready for other screens. You can also right-click a screen that is playing a Loop and choose Add Loop to Project Palette.

A Loop is drawn to the screen's own shape, so it fills the face edge to edge and has no fit setting and no start point. It is a picture only: a Loop has no sound.

#Play controls

The card at the top of the video controls names the video and shows its status in one word: PLAYING, PAUSED, PROCESSING, LIVE, NO SIGNAL. Under it are Play or Pause, Restart, and Remove, which takes the video off the screen. On a live stream, Restart reads Go live: it jumps back to the live point after a pause.

Play, Pause and Restart are for previewing while you work. They are not saved. Anyone who opens the project or the share link sees the video playing from its start point, looping, with its sound off until someone turns it on.

• Start at. Sets where an uploaded video starts when the project opens. When the video loops, it goes back to the very beginning. A live stream and a Loop have no Start at.
• From the 3D view. Right-click a screen that is showing a video and choose Play Video or Pause Video.
• Every video at once. With nothing selected, the Video Channels section of the properties panel lists every video in the scene with its own play controls and a bar to move through it. See Video Channels.

Videos pause by themselves while the browser tab is hidden or the spec sheet is open.

#Sound

Every video starts silent. You set its volume with nothing selected, in the Video Channels section of the properties panel: each channel that is playing a video, and each video under Videos not on a channel, has a speaker button and a Volume slider. The Audio section below it has Master volume, which scales every sound in the scene. The speaker button beside Master volume turns sound on or off for you only, and is not saved.

You can also right-click a screen that is showing a video and choose Unmute Video or Mute Video. A volume belongs to the video, not to one screen, so screens showing the same video share one sound. Volumes are saved with the project.

In View mode the toolbar shows a speaker button (Turn sound on / Turn sound off) whenever the project has sound, and right-clicking a screen offers Unmute Video or Mute Video. What someone chooses in View mode is their own, for that visit. It never changes what the project saves.

#Fit

Four buttons set how a video fills a screen whose shape is different from the video's. A Loop has none of these.

• Fit. The whole video shows. If its shape doesn't match the screen, the leftover strips are black, so a mismatch is visible before the show rather than on it. The first video you put on a screen starts on Fit.
• Fill. The video fills the screen and the overflow is cropped off the edges.
• Stretch. The video is squashed or stretched to the screen's exact shape.
• Custom. Starts as Fit, then you set the size and position yourself — zoom in on part of the video, or park it in one area of the screen.

Custom adds three sliders. Scale sets how big the picture is: 100% is the Fit size, the slider runs to 1000%, and you can type a larger number. Position X moves the picture left or right as a percent of the screen's width. Position Y moves it up or down as a percent of the screen's height, and positive is up. 0 is centred on both, and Center puts all three back.

#Image Adjustments

A screen playing a video ignores its material's emissive setting, so the picture has its own two controls under Image Adjustments.

• Brightness. How bright the picture is, from 0% to 300%. Above 100% the screen runs hot and starts to glow into the room.
• Contrast. The gap between darks and lights, from 0% to 200%. Higher makes blacks deeper and whites brighter; lower washes the picture toward grey.

100% on both is the video as it was made. Reset puts both back.

#Rotate / Flip

The Rotate / Flip card turns or mirrors the picture on one screen: for a screen hung on its side, a mirrored projection, or a diamond. It works on whatever the screen shows — a video, IMAG, a graphic, or the standby pattern.

• Rotate left and Rotate right turn the picture a quarter turn.
• Flip horizontal and Flip vertical mirror it.
• Rotation angle sets any angle. Positive turns the picture clockwise. Between quarter turns the corners run off the screen and the gaps show black.
• Reset rotation and flip puts the picture back.

#What a viewer on a share link sees

A viewer link opened in Share Mode plays the videos without anyone pressing anything: an uploaded video from its start point, looping, with its sound off until the viewer turns it on; a live stream live; a Loop running. Each viewer streams the video straight to their own browser.

• Pause and play. The viewer's toolbar has one button, Pause videos or Play videos, that pauses or plays every video in the scene together. It appears when the scene has video. Right-clicking a screen offers Play Video or Pause Video for that one.
• Sound. A share link opens silent. The viewer turns sound on with the speaker button in the toolbar, or by right-clicking a screen and choosing Unmute Video.
• When the browser won't start a video. Some browsers refuse to start a video until the page is tapped, for example a phone in low power mode. The video then reads TAP TO PLAY, and the Play videos button starts it.
• Phones and tablets. Uploaded videos play at a lower resolution there to save memory.

Viewers cannot change what a screen plays.

#Which plan you need

Adding a video is a Pro feature. Uploading, using a live stream link or a test feed, putting a Loop on a screen and picking a different video all need Pro or higher. On a lower plan the controls stay visible — the upload button reads Upload a video — Pro — and clicking one opens a card about the plan.

Playing is never locked. A viewer on a share link sees the videos, and so does an owner who has moved to a lower plan: videos that are already on screens keep playing.

#Video in a recorded Movie

Record Movie records the scene to an MP4, with uploaded videos and Loops playing on the screens. A live stream cannot be recorded that way: it appears frozen in the Movie, and the Record dialog warns you when a project has one. Use an uploaded video or a Loop on that screen instead. See Record Movie.

#How you use it

1. Select a screen or an LED wall. Click it in the 3D view. Select several to set them together.
2. Pick Video. Under Screen Source, click Video.
3. Choose where the video comes from. Upload a file, paste a link on Live stream, or pick a preset on Loops.
4. Set how it fills the screen. Choose Fit, Fill, Stretch or Custom. With Custom, set Scale, Position X and Position Y.
5. Set the start point (optional). Drag Start at if an uploaded video should open partway through.
6. Tune the picture (optional). Use Brightness and Contrast under Image Adjustments.
7. Turn the picture (optional). Open Rotate / Flip for a screen hung on its side or a mirrored projection.
8. Set the sound (optional). With nothing selected, set the video's Volume in the Video Channels section of the properties panel.
9. Feed several screens from one source (optional). Put them on a Video Channel. See Video Channels.
10. Share it. Create a viewer link. The video plays for everyone who opens it.

#Why it matters

A design review is easier when the screens show what will be on them. A grey rectangle asks the client to imagine the opening film; a screen playing it does not. The shape of the content matters as well: a 16:9 film on an ultrawide wall shows its black bars on Fit, so everyone sees the mismatch weeks before load-in instead of at rehearsal.

Each of the three sources has its own job. Upload the finished piece when you have it. Use a live stream to show a remote presenter or a broadcast feed on the wall. Use a Loop when there is no content yet and the room still needs to feel alive, or when the screen is only there for colour and movement. All three play in the share link, so the client sees the room the way the audience will.