Chapter 11

The Players

Scenic Player runs on Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Windows PCs. Every kind of Player takes the same cues, reports what it shows the same way, and appears in the same Player List. This chapter covers what is particular to each one.

Three rules hold on every Player:

• A show output shows content or black, nothing else. An idle Player, one not yet in a Show, or one that has lost the Server shows black on its show outputs, never a logo, a spinner or an error. That screen may be in shot.
• Players keep their picture. If the Server or the network goes away, each Player holds what it is showing until told otherwise.
• Local changes are reported. Anything someone does at the Player itself is reported to the Server and shown on the screen's card.

#Which content each Player plays

A Windows PC never opens a Keynote or PowerPoint file itself. When you send one to a PC, the Server prepares a Scenic copy of the deck and sends that, with the same slides, builds and transitions. You send the .key or .pptx as usual; the Server does the rest. A Mac Server is always part of a Scenic show, so this is always available.

Each Player keeps the 20 most recent things it was sent. Previous Content, in a screen's menu in the Player List, brings one of them back without sending it again. Content pinned by a Snapshot is kept for as long as the Snapshot needs it.

#Mac

Scenic Player needs macOS 13 or later. Install it from the Network window with Fleet Setup, or double-click Scenic Player.pkg on the Mac (see The Network window).

The installed Player starts at login and relaunches by itself if it crashes. Use an administrator account on Player Macs: IP Config, Wi-Fi changes and renaming the Mac need it.

#Screens

A Mac drives one screen per display. A Mac mini with two monitors is one Player with two screens, Wall Mac · S1 and Wall Mac · S2, and you can send each its own content, grade and overlays. Show outputs go first to displays without the menu bar. If a display is unplugged, its screen is held back and never moved onto another display.

#Full screen

A show output is borderless and full screen, with the pointer hidden. To leave full screen at the machine, use View ▸ Leave Full Screen (⌃⌘F); the same key goes back. Esc and ⌘F do nothing on a show output, so a bumped keyboard cannot drop a screen out of full screen mid-take. From the Controller, the Network window's Display ▸ Full Screen does the same.

Quit asks first while the Player is in a show: its screens go dark until it is opened again.

#Local Controls

Window ▸ Local Controls (⌃⌥Space) opens the Player's own console on the Mac, above its show outputs. Use it when you are standing at the machine and need to check or fix something there:

• what is open, the slide and build, and the Player's health ("Live", "Server not connected", "Disk 4% free", or a missing permission);
• which Server it is connected to and when it last heard from it;
• Previous, Next and Blackout, and brightness, colour temperature and contrast;
• test pattern, logo, name overlay, whiteout, VFX and Flash Screen;
• aspect (Fit, Fill, Stretch) and how many screens it drives;
• Output latency: if a projector or LED processor shows frames later than the other screens, enter its delay in milliseconds here. Video on this Player starts that much earlier, so it lands with the others.
• the keyboard and mouse lock, Focus Guard and Keep Alive.

With more than one screen, Controls act on chooses all screens or one.

#Show safety on a Mac

• Keyboard and mouse lock. Lock the Player's input from the Network window, or from Local Controls, when the machine is where cast or crew can touch it. Your cues still reach it. ⌃⌥⌘L at the machine always unlocks it.
• Focus Guard keeps other apps and system pop-ups from coming in front of a full-screen output. Pause it from Local Controls when you need to work on the Mac.
• Keep Alive opens Scenic Player again by itself if it quits or crashes, and when the Mac starts up.
• Sleep. The Player keeps the Mac and its displays awake while it runs. Also run Disable Sleep from the Network window once on every Player Mac.

#Permissions

Scenic Player ▸ Permissions… lists what macOS needs to allow, such as Local Network, and lets you grant it. The Network window's Perms column and the screen's health glyph show a Player that is missing one.

#iPhone and iPad

Scenic Player needs iOS or iPadOS 16 or later. Install it, open it, and leave it open: it keeps the screen awake while it is in a Show.

Until it is added to a Show, the welcome screen shows its name, address and version, and "Add this Player from any Server's Network window." It goes black after 10 minutes. In a Show, the whole screen is the output.

A second display. Connect an iPad or iPhone to a monitor or TV by HDMI, USB-C or AirPlay, and the external display becomes the show output while the device itself shows the controls.

Local Controls. Hold two fingers on the screen for 1.5 seconds. A panel appears at the bottom with Previous and Next, Blackout and Reveal, dim, colour temperature and contrast, and video controls when a video is on screen. It hides itself after 5 seconds. Its More menu has Open Deck…, Open Media Folder…, Go to Slide…, Rename Player…, Restart Player…, Player Log and Leave Show…. While the panel is used, the screen's card on every Controller reads LOCAL.

#Apple TV

Scenic Player needs tvOS 16 or later. Install it on the Apple TV, set the Apple TV never to sleep, and open the app.

Until it is in a Show, the TV shows its name, address and version, and "Add me from any Server's Network window." In a Show it shows content or black.

With the Siri Remote:

Anything done on the remote shows as LOCAL on the Controllers.

#Windows

Scenic Player needs Windows 11. It runs on ordinary PCs with one or more monitors.

#Installing

Run the Scenic Player installer on the PC. It installs for the current user and needs no administrator account, except for one option:

• Start Scenic Player when I sign in (recommended for show computers).
• Allow Scenic Player on the show network. This adds a Windows Firewall rule and asks for administrator approval. Without it, the Server cannot reach the PC.

Set the PC to sign in automatically and never to sleep, and turn off Windows notifications and update restarts during the shoot. The Player keeps the PC and its displays awake while it runs, and relaunches itself if it crashes.

#Screens

Each monitor is one screen. The Server chooses which monitors carry show output, and each can have its own content and grade, as on a Mac.

#Keys and the Player window

A Windows show PC is meant to be left alone, so its keys are few and hard to hit by accident:

The Player window has the same essentials as Local Controls on a Mac: which screen, Previous, Next, Blackout, brightness, temperature and contrast, the Player's name overlay, Output latency, recent decks, Leave Show… and Enter Full Screen.

#Taking a Player out of a Show

To release a Player, choose Remove from Show in the Network window, with Undo if you change your mind. At the Player itself, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Windows offer Leave Show…. A Player that has left goes black on its outputs and waits to be added to a Show again.