The major 5.5 features include:
- Updated WATCHOUT playback functionality in WATCHPAX solid-state media server
- WATCHPAX now provides hardware-accelerated playback of HD video in H.264 and MPEG-2 encoding formats. WATCHOUT also supports playback of QuickTime Animation as well as H.264 video in MOV files.
- Hardware Assisted Synchronization – When run on display servers that utilize certain AMD FirePro Workstation Video Cards and a companion ATI FirePro S400 Synchronization Module, WATCHOUT now supports hardware-based synchronization of the video outputs allowing users to play back frame-accurate synchronized content across multiple computers. Using the “gen-lock” feature of the S400 Synchronization Module, users can lock an entire WATCHOUT rig to an external sync source.
- Frame Blending – For smoother video playback, Frame Blending combines the differences in frame rate by smoothly blending frames together in a few simple steps, eliminating the need to skip or double frames.
- Dynamic IP Addressing of Individual Computers and Clusters – Enabling users of WATCHOUT to be even more organized, it is now possible to dynamically or self-assign all computer names and IP addresses in complex video systems. In addition, it is possible to assign a name to an entire cluster group of display computers to be used in a show.
- URL-based Images – Images from URLs can now be uploaded into WATCHOUT at the click of a button. This new feature is in addition to loading images from a file or disk, or from the WATCHOUT Dynamic Image Server.