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Tilecast Docs

Build a Span video wall

Use Span when several displays should show separate panels of one larger image. Use Mirror when every display should show the same full image.

Set up the wall

Section titled “Set up the wall”
  1. Create a Display Group and add every screen that belongs in the wall.
  2. Open the group, select the Display tab, and choose Span under Display mode. This starts a draft. Tilecast doesn’t change the group yet.
  3. Choose a 2 × 1, 1 × 2, or 2 × 2 preset, or set the canvas width and height.
  4. Open each screen under Panel settings to set its position, size, rotation, and bezel compensation. Every group member needs one panel, and panels cannot overlap.
  5. Select Save wall. Select Discard to leave the group in Mirror.

If you leave the Display tab, or switch back to Mirror, while the wall has unsaved changes, Tilecast asks you to keep editing or discard them. It never saves or discards a wall on its own.

Tilecast uses the canvas as one coordinate space and sends each Player the panel assigned to its screen. Set each canvas dimension between 320 and 16,384 pixels, and use a panel rotation of 0, 90, 180, or 270 degrees. Current Android and Linux Players support Span; update older Players before switching the group. To stop using the shared canvas, choose Mirror under Display mode and select Save display mode.

Choose content and check preparation

Section titled “Choose content and check preparation”

Assign a Playlist or published Layout to the Display Group as fallback content, or target the group with a Schedule. Images and Layout content are clipped to each screen’s panel. For video, Tilecast prepares a panel-sized H.264 file for each screen. Span video panels have no audio track.

On the Display tab, check Panel preparation and wait for every required video panel to show ready. A geometry change can require new video panels. A queued or failed panel cannot be used; fix the source or geometry and check its status again.

Tilecast keeps the group’s presentation position aligned, but each Player and display renders its panel independently. Span is not a hardware genlock system: panel refresh timing still comes from each Player, GPU, cable, and display. Tilecast prepares panel videos with matching timing and keyframe rules and keeps the shared playback position aligned, but a visible seam can still expose display latency or a Player that cannot decode fast enough.

For each source video, Tilecast prepares every panel from the same source with constant-frame-rate output and matching keyframe rules. That keeps the panels for that one video aligned. It does not convert every video in a Playlist to one global wall frame rate, so a Playlist that mixes 24, 30, and 60 FPS sources can still change display cadence between items. Qualify mixed-frame-rate content on the actual wall if a seam must be hard to notice.

Bezel compensation changes the panel geometry so content can continue visually behind the physical bezel. It does not calibrate color, brightness, panel latency, or overscan. Configure the displays themselves to use matching picture modes and 1:1 pixel mapping where possible.

An offline or unprepared member cannot show its panel, so the wall will be incomplete until that screen is ready.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”