Chapter 04
Sending content
Content goes from your files to the screens in two steps. First you add it to the Library, which lives on the Server. Then you send it to the screens you choose. Scenic checks every screen before anything is sent, and tells you, screen by screen, whether the content will play exactly.
What you can send
| Kind | Files | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Scenic decks | .sgdeck | Made in Scenic Decorator. Plays the same on every kind of Player. |
| Keynote | .key | Read by Scenic itself, with builds, transitions, Magic Move and media. Keynote is not needed. |
| PowerPoint | .pptx, .ppsx, .potx, .pptm, .ppsm | Read by Scenic itself, with builds and transitions. PowerPoint is not needed. Macros never run. |
| Media | Images and video, or a folder of them (PNG, JPEG, MP4, MOV) | A folder plays as slides in name order, one file per slide, and holds on its last slide. |
Older PowerPoint files (.ppt, .pps, .pot) are refused with a note to save them as .pptx first. So are password-protected and damaged files, each with its own reason.
Adding to the Library
Open the Library (⌘3, or the Library button in the toolbar) and press Add…, or use File ▸ Add Content to Library… (⇧⌘O). You can also drop files onto the Library.
The file is copied to the Server, so every Controller sees the same Library, and the Server sends each screen its own copy. The Library lists each item under Scenic decks, Keynote, PowerPoint or Media, with its slide count, size and the number of fonts it uses. A badge says In use when the open Show is showing it, and Changes on some screens when it will not play exactly everywhere.
When you add a Keynote or PowerPoint file, the Controller carries its fonts with it and the Server checks it against every kind of Player in the Show. You find out what will change while you are setting up, not when you cue.
Delete from Library removes an item. The Server refuses to delete something the open Show is using and says why.
Sending to screens
- Select the screens in the Player List or on the Grid.
- In the Library, select the item and press Send to N Screens…. Or right-click a screen and choose Send Content Here…, then pick the item.
- Read the send sheet.
- Press the send button.
The send sheet
The send sheet lists every selected screen with its verdict, checked against that screen's own Player: its kind, its version and its fonts.
| Verdict | Means |
|---|---|
| Plays exactly | This screen will show it as authored. |
| Plays with N changes | It plays, with differences you can open and read, such as "Slide 4: Magic Move plays as a dissolve" or a font that is not on that Player. |
| Cannot play | It will not play here, with the reason, such as "Player 1.1 is too old: update it in the Network window". |
| Offline · not sent | The screen cannot be reached now. |
The button names exactly what will happen: Send to 8 screens, or Send to 6 screens that can play it when some cannot. There is no "send anyway". A screen that cannot play the content keeps what it is showing.
The button wakes up a moment after the sheet opens, so an extra press of Return from a moment before cannot send by accident.
What happens next
Each screen switches to the new content as soon as its own copy has arrived. A fast Player may show it while a slow one is still copying. On each card you see:
Preparing → Copying 43 % → Checking → Showing
If a copy fails, that screen keeps what it was showing and its card says "Copy failed" with the reason. The other screens are not affected. The Activity list (click the summary line in the dock) has the whole send, with Retry Failed and Cancel Send.
"Sent" is not "shown"
Scenic keeps two things apart for every screen:
- What you asked for, and how far it got. Accepted means the Server took your command and sent it.
- What the Player reports it is showing. Observed means the Player has confirmed it.
The card's slide counter, thumbnail and state word only ever show what the Player reports. Scenic never shows a screen as changed because you pressed a button. If a card stays at Accepted and does not reach Observed, the Player has not confirmed it: look at that screen before you do anything else.
Keynote and PowerPoint on every Player
Scenic plays Keynote and PowerPoint files natively on every Player, with their builds and transitions. Nothing on any show machine needs Keynote or PowerPoint installed.
- Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple TV play the
.keyor.pptxdirectly. - A Windows PC plays the Server's prepared copy. When you send a
.keyor.pptxto a PC, the Server turns it into a Scenic deck and sends that, with the same slides, builds and transitions. You do nothing different.
Where Scenic cannot reproduce something exactly, it says so before you send: which slide, what changes, and what plays instead. It never drops an effect silently.
A deck saved by a newer Keynote than Scenic knows still opens; the send sheet warns you in plain words that it may contain things Scenic does not yet know.
Changing a deck that is already on screen
To edit a Scenic deck, or a Keynote or PowerPoint file, that is already in the Show, select it in the Library (or a screen that shows it) and choose File ▸ Edit in Decorator (⇧⌘E). Scenic Decorator opens a working copy. The Library item and the screens are never changed in place: when you are done, Send to Show in the Decorator puts the new version in the Library, and you send it like any other content. See Scenic Decorator.
Bringing back earlier content
Each Player keeps the 20 most recent things it was sent. To go back to one without sending it again, right-click a screen and choose Previous Content, or use Show ▸ Previous Content for the selected screens. If the Player no longer holds it, the item is greyed out with the reason.
Players that are too old for a deck
When Scenic improves how it plays an effect, a deck prepared by a newer Server may look slightly different on an older Player. It still plays, with the older Player's motion, and you are told: the send sheet, the screen's health glyph and the Warnings list read Player too old for this deck, with Update Player.