Release 1.5.3 (September 29, 2009)

NWare now supports ControlMatrix for Windows. On the NioNode device properties, when you click the Advanced button, you will see a new option called Enable ControlMatrix for Windows. Select this check box to start using the NioNode with ControlMatrix. A new tab called Net Ctl CMW will be added to the NioNode block.

In the NWare device tree, under Control, there is a folder called ControlMatrix for Windows; inside this folder is a new device called Zone Paging Block. This device allows you to specify settings for an individual paging zone. The device is designed to be deployed to a NioNode.

For more information on ControlMatrix for Windows, see the products page on the MediaMatrix website.

In the NWare device tree, under Graphic Elements & Blocks, there is a new folder called Kiosk Layouts. This contains devices that are designed to speed up the process of sizing pages for display in Kiosk on a PC or on the nTouch 180. Each device creates a block containing a Home page with links to individual pages. The pages are automatically exported to a page group, ready to be used in Kiosk. The default page sizes of the devices are 1024x768, 1280x768, 640x480 (Generic device) and 800x480 (nTouch 180 device).

In the NWare device tree, under Control / Tools, there is a new device called Email Sender. This device allows you to send emails from a NioNode or nControl node using the standard SMTP protocol.

The Server field is required and must be a valid IP address for an SMTP server.

Note: Domain names cannot be used.

The From field is required and must be a valid email address. The To field is required and must be one or more valid email addresses, separated by commas. This is limited (by the SMTP protocol) to 100 recipients.

The Progress field shows the progress of the mail sending process, which is useful for debugging.

The Status field shows a result message with a date/time stamp when the process completes successfully. In the event one or more of the recipients is rejected by the server, the addresses of those recipients will be displayed in the Status field.

Note: If you intend to automate the process of sending emails, it is very important to check that the logic in your design is working correctly. If there is an error in the design, a large number of emails may be sent with incorrect content or to the wrong destinations, for example.

There are new devices located under Hardware / Third Party in the NWare device tree for interfacing with a Middle Atlantic 2200 UPS and a SeaLevel SeaI/O-470. For more information on these devices, refer to the MiddleAtlantic website and the SeaLevel website.

The JL Cooper ES-8 100 device is now supported by both NioNodes and nControl nodes. It is located under Hardware / Third Party in the NWare device tree.

For more information, see JL Cooper ES-8 100 in the NWare Device Reference.

The Generic Control device, available under Control / Knobs, Faders, Etc. in the device tree, now has new options on the control properties. These allow you to create a button that will open a page within the same block when clicked. This feature makes it easier to create buttons for jumping between pages when running Kiosk on the nTouch 180.

When you select one of the button styles, a new section called Linked to is made available. When you select the Activate check box, you can choose the name of a page in the Page list. This will be opened when the button is clicked.

There are now two XDAB devices in the NWare device tree, located under Hardware / NION Audio Processor. One is limited to a maximum of 448 channels and is called XDAB. The other device is limited to a maximum of 512 channels and is called XDAB Advanced.

Note: It is possible that using more than 448 channels on an XDAB device may produce unexpected results. We recommend that you use the version of the device limited to 448 channels.

The two Gain Sharing Automatic Mixer devices have been replaced with a single device. This is available under DSP / Mixers / Automatic in the device tree. The Include Link property on the device is selected by default.

You can now control a number of display features in NWare Kiosk by adding entries to the nware_kiosk.xml file, located in \program files\MediaMatrix\NWare <version>\personality:

• The display of scroll bars. The entry

  <item name="provide_scroll_bars_where_necessary" value="false"/>

  switches off the display of scroll bars when the Kiosk screen is larger than the display size.
• The appearance of the window that appears when Kiosk can no longer connect to the project. The entry

  <item name="connection_window_subtle" value="true"/>

  reduces the size of the window and changes the text to Connection lost.
• The coloring of controls when Kiosk can no longer connect to the project. The entry

  <item name="indicate_failed_connection_visually" value="false"/>

  stops the controls from being colored yellow.

The Hardware page in the NION web interface now includes a CPU monitor, which displays similar information to the SYSTEM STATUS page in the NION front panel interface.

The first time the page is displayed, a tilde (~) symbol is shown instead of the CPU Load figure. You must refresh the page in order to see the calculated figure. Each time you refresh the page, the CPU Load figure is recalculated, based on the time since the page was last refreshed. The maximum time interval used for the calculation is 30 seconds.

The Hardware page in the nControl web interface now includes a CPU monitor, showing information about the utilization of the internal CPU.

The first time the page is displayed, a tilde (~) symbol is shown instead of the CPU Load figure. You must refresh the page in order to see the calculated figure. Each time you refresh the page, the CPU Load figure is recalculated, based on the time since the page was last refreshed. The maximum time interval used for the calculation is 30 seconds.

Previously, if you dragged an XDAB device over to the page, the Virtual XDAB Properties dialog box was displayed. If you specified a channel count value greater than 448, then displayed the advanced settings, overrode the normal channel limit and specified a new limit, when you closed the Advanced properties dialog box and then the Virtual XDAB Properties dialog box, a warning message was displayed and the device could not be created.

This issue has been fixed with the introduction of two new XDAB devices: one has a channel limit of 448 and the other has a channel limit of 512.

Previously, the procedure for hiding page tabs in NWare Kiosk involved specifying

<hide_root_tab value = "true"/>

In this version, the procedure now involves specifying

<item name="skip_drawing_page_tabs" value="true" />

When Kiosk was configured so that the status window was hidden (the default configuration for an nTouch 180) and the network connection failed, a Command Prompt window was displayed. This window showed a Corba error message.

In this version, you can suppress the display of the Command Prompt window by specifying

<item name="write_console_message_on_comms_exception" value="false"/>

In NWare, if you performed a system mute operation on a NioNode and then saved the status of the NioNode System Mute button in a Global Preset, when the NioNode was restarted, the system mute was cleared. The system mute should still have been in effect.

When all the NION and nControl units on the network were set to use normal mode for time synchronization, if you changed the time on the nControl unit via the web interface, the time was advanced by one hour from what was specified.

Currently, non-administrator users cannot run NWare or Kiosk without additional steps being completed after the installation.

The administrator must change the permissions of the \program files\mediamatrix\nware <version>\plugins\nware\xml folder to allow write access for the non-administrator users. Once this has been done, NWare and Kiosk will operate normally.

For more information, see Allowing non-admin users to run NWare and Kiosk in the NWare User Guide.

• To uninstall NWare under Windows Vista or Windows 7, you must navigate to the NWare shortcut in the Start menu, click the shortcut, and then click Uninstall NWare <version>.

  Note: It is currently not possible to uninstall NWare via Windows Control Panel, even if you are logged on as Administrator.

If you drag a device from the device tree over to the page, open the device block, and then press CTRL+Z to undo the operation, in the case of certain devices, NWare will close unexpectedly.

Note: This does not occur when adding all types of devices, but we recommend avoiding this exact sequence of steps as a precaution.

If you use the page locking feature, it is possible that NWare will not allow you to view the different pages in your project or add devices to the project. We have seen this problem occur in the following scenario:

1. A new NWare project is created.
2. A new page is added next to the default page and then it is locked (and automatically hidden).
3. The new page is shown again.
4. The first page is deleted.
5. The project is saved and then reloaded.

No page tabs are available, so different pages cannot be viewed or edited.

If you attempt to play audio files using the CHIMP option on the Wav File Recorder, no audio can be heard from the PC headphones. This problem does not occur under Windows XP – it is a Vista-only issue.

If you double-click an npa file to open it, the file is opened in NWare as expected, but a Command Prompt window is also displayed.