MultiScreener

Free Synchronized Multi-Channel Video Player

MultiScreener is a set of free applications that synchronize the playback of Quicktime movies on multiple computers, using a local network to tie them all together. (It can also sync multiple movies on the same computer using multiple monitors.)

It is intended for multi-channel video art, video walls, trade shows, and digital signage. When I developed it in 2008 I wanted an artist-friendly alternative to expensive industrial DVD players and sync boxes. MultiScreener provides synchronized multi-channel video playback using regular computers.

Note: If you are planning on buying new equipment for multi-channel playback I suggest buying Andor 1 players or BrightSign players instead. They are cheaper and more reliable than computers. (See below for links.) MultiScreener is a great solution if you already have Mac computers, but it’s getting very old!

How It Works

There is a Server and a Client. The server plays a movie and also sends position information over the network. Each client “listens” to the server and subtly adapts its movie playback speed to stay in sync. There is no limit to the number of clients.

Originally, I assumed that each client would run on its own machine, but you can also run multiple clients on the same computer, with each client feeding a different monitor.

Looping and de-interlacing are available, and all settings are automatically saved for unattended startup. MultiScreener can output to the computer screen or external video devices (like DV cameras or decks). There is no native resolution or frame-rate, so all Quicktime video formats are supported.

 

If MultiScreener Doesn’t Do What You Want

• Read the MultiScreener Guide. It’s included in the download, and updated more frequently online.
• Looking for a Windows version? I don’t have one. There is an unsupported version below, for Windows XP, contributed by somebody else. (I don’t have a Windows machine so I cannot help you in any way.) Also see the visual patching language VVVV and its tonfilm-videosync module (free for non-commercial use).
• Looking for an iPad version? I don’t have one. iVideoShow works OK, but sync is not accurate and there’s a long pause at each loop. MultiVid is similar but I couldn’t get it to sync at all. Others might have better luck.
• Looking for an Android version? I don’t have one.
• You can modify MultiScreener. The source code is included under a GPL license. You will need MAX/MSP/Jitter, which costs money, but there is a free 30-day demo.
• The LZX Industries Andor 1 player is a Raspberry Pi-based player designed for gallery installations. It supports easy wireless multi-screen sync. Cheaper and easier than a BrightSign!
• BrightSigns are relatively inexpensive hardware HD players that can be synced over ethernet. Usually you need to use their (Windows only) authoring software to setup the boxes for each show, but there is an easier Mac-compatible way to configure them via script files.
• Spend $$$$ on well-supported professional software like Dataton’s Watchout, Renewed Vision’s ProVideoPlayer,  Scalableplayer from Scalable Display Technologies, or VirtualVTR.
• ArraySync from NaSoLab is a semi-affordable set of apps that do exactly what MultiScreener does. I haven’t tried it but maybe it’s better?
• VPT (Video Projection Tool) is a free app by HC Gilje that handles all kinds of complicated video projection tasks (cueing, mixing, effects, keystoning, etc…). It doesn’t explicitly handle syncing of multiple videos on different machines, but it can play multiple videos on one machine, and it supports a rich set of OSC messages for remote control.
• If you want to have 3 synced displays from a single computer (with a single monitor port) you can also try the Matrox TripleHead2Go. (You make a super-wide movie, played from your single monitor port via Quicktime Player. The Matrox box splits the signal across 3 separate monitors.)
• Bino is a free Mac/Windows/Linux video player designed for 3D projection. We can use it to play two videos on two connected displays. It’s scriptable and seems to work great. (How To: Launch Bino, Set Bino’s Fullscreen settings to “Dual Screen”, Select both movies simultaneously in the “File / Open” menu, set Input mode to “Separate Streams, Left First”, set Output mode to “Left/Right”)

Made With MultiScreener

I’m amazed at the scope of MultiScreener users who have contacted me. From a small flamenco festival in Spain, to the Museum of Modern Art, and plenty in-between. Here are some of them:

Artists & Designers

• Jane Cassidy has used MultiScreener in numerous installations:
  Frimaire Is The Color (2 channel rear projection onto warehouse windows)
  
  Long Since The Sun Has Set (4 vid channels + surround sound, on 2 old G4s and one MacBook Pro)
  
• Dustin Zemel modified the MultiScreener code to support proximity-based video switching for his piece SCOOP 6PM at U of Oregon’s White Box Gallery in Portland, OR.
• Jeb Johenning (Ocean Video) used MultiScreener with 11 laptops and projectors to make this amazing ad for PUMA shoes:
  
• David and Hi-Jin Hodge ran MultiScreener on 4x Mac minis (2010 version) to drive 8 synchronized screens for “Impermanence”. It was part of the traveling exhibit The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama which visited the Nobel Museum in Stockholm to correspond with the announcement of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.
  
• Steina Vasulka
• Michele Theunissen
• Elise van der Linden
• Marko Schiefelbein
• Kimmo Karjunen (award-winning Finnish lighting designer)
• Merge Group
• Ann Carlson & Mary Ellen Strom
• Zig Gron
• Sharon Houkema
• Bradley McCallum & Jacqueline Tarry

Museums & Galleries

• MoMa
• Australian Centre for the Moving Image – www.acmi.net.au “screen worlds”
• ATOPIA, an artist collective in Oslo, uses MultiScreener to sync 4 screens for the “Vitrine” public projection series.

Schools

• Jason Watkins synced 26 iMacs for the Digital Media Production class showcase at
  Arts University College at Bournemouth (UK). The 1 week run was trouble-free.
  
• SUNY Purchase New Media Program
• School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• Edinburgh University’s new new-media art gallery InSpace
• Art Academy Minerva – The Netherlands

Other

• In 2008, MultiScreener was included in a CD-ROM packaged with every copy of the German MACup magazine.

Have you used MultiScreener for something interesting? Let me know and I’ll link to your work here.