Set up a video wall

A video wall is a grid of TVs that together show one big picture, such as two TVs side by side in a shop window or a 2 × 2 wall in a lobby. CastWize tells each TV which part of the picture to show and keeps them in step.

What you need

• One player per TV. Each TV is a normal CastWize screen at $5 per month, so a 2 × 2 wall is four screens.
• The same player type and similar TVs across the wall give the most even result.
• Content designed at the size of the whole wall (Studio tells you the size).

Steps

1. Pair every TV. Pair each player as its own screen. See Pair a screen. Name them by position, such as "Wall top left".
2. Create the wall. In Screens, open the Video walls tab and click Add video wall. Enter a Name and the number of Rows and Columns (up to 20 each), then click Create and arrange.
3. Place the screens. In the Arrange window, drag each screen from the tray onto its panel, or click a panel and pick a screen. Drop a screen on another to swap them. Click Save.
4. Make the content. Design at the size Studio shows: 1920 × 1080 per TV. Two TVs side by side is 3840 × 1080; a 2 × 2 wall is 3840 × 2160. A normal 16:9 slide gets its edges cropped on a wall of a different shape.
5. Give every screen the same playlist. Open each wall screen and choose the same playlist (and the same zone layout), or put all of them in one group in Groups. Studio warns you in the Arrange window if one screen plays something different.
6. Publish and check the wall. On the wall's card, Refresh screenshots shows what every panel shows right now.

The picture doesn't line up across the TV frames. What can I do?

Open each screen, expand Advanced and set its Edge insets in pixels (Top, Right, Bottom, Left). This pulls the picture in from that edge, so lines and text match up across the gaps between TVs. Publish after each change and compare.

How well are the screens synchronised?

Slides change at the same moment on every screen, using the CastWize server's clock. Videos are kept in step by small adjustments to their playback speed, and jump only if a screen falls too far behind. It is close, but not frame-perfect. Live streams are not synchronised.

Can one computer drive the whole wall?

No. Each TV needs its own player.

How do I take a screen off the wall?

Open the screen and set Video wall to Not part of a wall, then publish. To remove the whole wall, use Delete wall in the wall card's menu; its screens go back to full-screen.

Can I use a Raspberry Pi for a wall?

You can, but test first. The Pi decodes video in software, so video may not stay smooth, and a wall makes any stutter easy to see. See Raspberry Pi setup.