Fold onto a sending card
A fold stacks a surface that is too wide for your sending card's input into rows inside that input. Most perimeter rings need one; LED boards explains why.
Before you start
Set up the surface first, in Configuration → Venue → Patch. A fold needs the cabinet size and the cabinet counts. See Describe an LED surface.
You also need two values from the commissioning software your installer used:
- The number of cabinets per row, and the number of rows.
- The start position of the surface in the raster, usually an X / Y offset.
Copy these values from that software instead of working them out. If its grid differs from what you enter here, the boards show the wrong part of the picture.
You do not work out the resolution either. When you select the screen, ArenaDirector sets the resolution the screen reports. If you do not select a screen, the default resolution is exactly the size the fold uses.
Configure the fold
- On the LED surface page, under Sending card, select the Screen that the card shows itself as.
- Turn on Fold.
- Enter Cabinets per row and Rows.
- If the surface does not start at the top-left of the card input, enter Origin (x, y).
- Check Card input.
- If the card uses a different resolution from the one the screen reports, enter the card resolution in Card input.
A preview of the card raster sits under the fields. Each row of the fold shows in the colours of its sections, and unpopulated cabinet slots have a dashed outline.
- One output controls one screen. If a plain display already uses that screen, connect the display to a different screen or remove it before step 1.
- When you select a screen in step 1, ArenaDirector writes its resolution into Card input.
- The grid counts cabinets, not pixels, so a fold can never split a cabinet.
- The fold sits at the top-left, and all unused pixels stay black. If you do not select a screen and do not type a value, the resolution is exactly the size of the fold.
- Fold is not available for an LED wall, or before you enter the cabinet size and the cabinet count. The card says which value is missing.
On a folded surface, Card input is the size of the signal that goes to the sending card. ArenaDirector works out the full, unfolded surface from your cabinets and shows it as Surface size. A canvas that controls this surface uses both: it lays out its content in Surface size and sends Card input. Its own Resolution value shows Card input.
Validation messages
The card checks the values as you type and shows one message under the preview.
| Message | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Green: All 169 cabinets fit · 13 slots unpopulated | The fold holds all the cabinets. The message gives the number of empty slots in the grid. |
| Red: The fold holds 156 of 169 cabinets — cabinets 157–169 (West end) do not show. Add a row or widen the rows. | Rows × cabinets per row is less than the cabinets of the surface. The message names the section of the first cabinet that does not show. Rows has a red outline. |
| Red: The bands need … px of width or The rows need … px of height | The fold goes past the edge of the resolution that you set. |
| Blue: The card raster is larger than the fold needs: 1872 × 630 of 1920 × 1080 is used, the rest stays black. | This is correct if the card resolution is larger than the fold. The message gives the exact size, so an unwanted letterbox is easy to spot. |
| Red: full-width content needs a texture this machine cannot allocate | The surface is wider than this computer's graphics hardware can hold in one image. A fold does not fix this, because the limit is on the content rather than the output. |
ArenaDirector measures the texture limit only after this canvas's output has shown a frame. If you set up a fold without opening its output window, open the window once and then return to the surface.
Check the fold before match day
The canvas tile in the Outputs strip shows the real folded signal, with the same bands in the same order as the output window sends. Use it to check the values you copied.
To check the boards themselves, use the check pattern:
- In the header of the LED surface page, turn on Check pattern.
- If the surface is on air, the app asks you first. Select Show pattern.
The pattern replaces the picture on the boards until you turn it off, and it tests this surface's cabinet grid. Whichever canvas controls the surface at the time shows the pattern, so the pattern is available only once a canvas controls the surface and the surface has a fold. The header says which of the two is missing.
Each numbered cell is one cabinet wide and the full height of the surface. The numbers start at 1 and run along the strip. On a perimeter board a cell is one cabinet; on a taller wall it is the whole column of cabinets under one number.
- If numbers show on the wrong boards, your grid differs from your installer's.
- If numbers jump where a row ends, the cabinets-per-row value is wrong.
Turn the check pattern off when you finish. ArenaDirector does not restore it after a restart.
Do not use this fold if your installer left blank cells as gaps in the grid. ArenaDirector cannot match that layout yet, and no error shows. The cabinet counts are right but the positions differ, so the boards look set up but show the wrong content.
A ragged tail, where the last row has fewer cabinets than the others, is not a blank-cell layout and works correctly.
Do not use this fold for a grid whose rows change direction, often called serpentine or S-type chaining. ArenaDirector lays every row out left to right, so this layout also fails with no error: the counts are right, but every second row runs the wrong way on the wall. The mapping check pattern shows the problem immediately.
Multiple sending cards
For now, one canvas controls one sending card. A surface too large for one card needs a second card, which ArenaDirector does not support yet. If your card cannot accept a fold's grid, your commissioning software reports the error; ArenaDirector does not.