VISIBOX MANUAL

v2.8.2

Welcome to Visibox!

Visibox is a video and audio playback system for live performance. It is the “instrument” you use to trigger visuals while you perform!

Use Visibox’s drag-and-drop interface to create a song list and assemble the video clips, images, audio clips, or live camera feeds to accompany each song. While you perform, trigger your clips with a MIDI device such as a drum pad, piano-style keyboard, or foot pedals, or use your computer’s keyboard and mouse.

For more about Visibox, visit: https://spaceage.tv

In this guide, we’ll look at:

Visibox Terminology
The Visibox Interface
Setting Up Your Project
Setting Up for a Live Performance
Visibox Menu Tour

Visibox Terminology

Simply put, a Visibox Project contains a number of Songs, each of which may contain a number of Clips.

Project

The Project is the top level. It holds the Songs that make up your set list as well as their order, the Clips they contain, and their respective settings. The Project file collects all of your Songs and Clips into one place so that you can transfer it from one computer to another.

Song

A Song is the container Visibox uses to organize a grouping of Clips. It typically represents a piece of music, although it may be some other unit of a non-musical performance.

Note that a Song simply holds the visuals that play while you perform, so you do not need to upload an audio track for the song. However, you can attach audio clips to be used as backing tracks while you play. Attaching audio clips is discussed in the “Setting Up Your Project” section of this guide.

Clip

Clips are the visual elements that form the basic building blocks of a Visibox project. They are what the audience actually sees. Clips can be video files (MP4, M4V, MOV, or WEBM), image files (JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, SVG, TIFF, or WEBP), or cameras attached to the computer. You can adjust the speed of clips, the loop style, and what happens when you retrigger a clip once it is already playing. If the video used for a Clip has audio, that audio will play unless you Mute it (you can also adjust the relative volume).

Next, let’s get a birdseye view of the Visibox interface before moving onto more detailed instructions on how to use it.

The Visibox Interface

When you launch a Visibox Project, you see two windows: the Controller Window and the Output Window. Let’s take a look at the features of both.

FIGURE: The Visibox interface with Controller and Output windows. The Output window will be black by default until you start playing a Clip.

Controller Window

The Controller Window is where you add and arrange the Songs and Clips that make up your Project. It is also used during the performance to see what Clip is currently playing or to select particular Songs and Clips. During a performance, the Controller Window would typically be on a display that only the performer can see, such as a laptop computer.

FIGURE: The Controller Window

The Control Bar

At the top of the Controller Window is the Control Bar. This allows quick access to transport controls, readouts, and information that may be helpful to have during a performance. You can enable and disable the Control Bar in the Preferences/Settings submenu.

FIGURE: The Control Bar

The left side of the Control Bar contains transport buttons:

Play	Starts playback of the first Clip in the selected Song.
Pause	Pauses playback of the currently playing Clip.
Stop	Stops playback of the currently playing Clip.
Previous Clip	Plays the previous Clip in the selected Song.
Next Clip	Plays the next Clip in the selected Song.
Previous Song	Cues the previous Song in the Project.
Next Song	Cues the next Song in the Project.

The right side of the Control Bar contains readouts and information.

Master Volume	This slider allows you to set the audio level of Visibox.
Imaging	Click to set the audio imaging from stereo to mono.
Audio Level	Visual indicator of audio playing in Visibox.
Stopwatch	Click to start, stop, reset the timer.
Time	The current time of day. Click to adjust readout settings.
Battery Level	Current battery level with indicator for charging status. Note that the entire Control Bar will change color when on battery power. Additionally, it will flash when battery power is low.
Fullscreen	Click to enter or exit full-screen mode.

The Song List

The next section is the list of Songs in your Project. That’s the area where you’ll add your Songs and Clips, which can then be dragged around and reordered.

We’ll talk more about the Song list later.

The Song Preview

The bottom of the Controller Window shows a Preview of the Clips in the currently selected Song at a size large enough to be seen at a glance from the stage. You can drag the slider at the top of the preview area to increase or decrease the size of this area. Icons on the thumbnails indicate what happens when the Clips end or are retriggered. This is not a timeline—any of these Clips can be triggered at any time. The numbers on the thumbnails show the keys that trigger the Clips. The icons on the Preview thumbnails indicate what happens when a Clip ends or is retriggered (this is covered in detail in the “Clip End Behaviors” and “Clip Retrigger Behaviors” sections later in this guide).

Output Window

The Output Window is where your Clips play. During a performance, this will be what your audience sees—most likely displayed using a video projector or other screen display. As you are designing your Project, you can view the Output Window alongside the Controller to see how things look as you assemble it and adjust settings.

While you are working on your Project, you can resize the Output window to any dimension that suits your workflow. When it's time to perform, the Output resizes to fill the aspect ratio of the final display device (a projector, television, or other screen), so be aware that it may not match what you see while you work.

FIGURE: The Output Window displaying a Clip

You can configure the Output to suit the needs of the projection device and environment. You can flip or rotate it to accommodate rear projection, ceiling-mounted projectors, or vertical projectors. You can also “Letterbox” and “Enforce Aspect Ratio” to control cropping of your content. And Visibox has the ability to work with video wall controllers to spread your output across multiple TV screens or projectors. This is covered in more depth in the section “Setting Up for Your Live Performance" later in this manual.

Setting Up Your Project

Visibox makes adding visuals to your live performance simple and intuitive. Visibox is not video editing software, but it does provide shortcuts that mean you won’t have to specially format videos before you use them. You may find alternative uses for the tools Visibox offers, but it was designed to add ambient, atmospheric visuals that play in the background to enhance the overall experience or heighten the emotional impact of your performance.

In this section, we’ll look at the process of putting your show together.

Gather your visuals

The first step is to gather video and/or images (that will show on the screen during each song. The following formats will play natively:

Video:

MP4 / MPEG4 (mp4, m4v, mpeg, mpg, mpv, m4p)
QuickTime (mov, qt)
Ogg (ogg, ogv)
WebM (webm)

Codecs: h.264, VP8, VP9, AV1, Theora

Video conversion: Visibox will attempt to convert video files with non-native formats and codecs into a native format so they can be used in your Project. If the file cannot be converted, an error will appear.

Images:

JPEG (jpg, jpeg, pjpeg, pjp)
PNG (png, apng)
WebP (webp)
GIF (gif)
BMP (bmp)
SVG (svg)

The videos you find may be in different resolutions or aspect ratios. That’s fine! Visibox will make them work.

Animated GIF files will be converted to video to optimize file size and allow for greater control.

Creating a new Project

Launch Visibox and create a new Project (File > New Project ⇧⌘N). All of the Clips you add to Songs will be stored along with the Project.

Adding Songs

When you create a Project, it is populated with one Song automatically.

The quickest way to add a new song is with the ⌘N keyboard shortcut. You can also use the Project > New Song menu option.

To rename a Song, double-click in the Song frame to highlight the text and simply start typing. You can also use the Song > Edit Current Song Title menu option.

Customizing the Song list display

Note that by default, Visibox gives new Songs random spaceage-related names, but if you don’t like that feature, you can have them named “New Song” instead. Look for the setting in Visibox > Preferences > Use “New Song” for New Songs.

Notice also that Song names are in all UPPERCASE by default. If you’d rather they appear the way you type them in, toggle the Project > UPPERCASE titles menu item.

Finally, you will find that text for the Song list is BIG! It may look clunky at first, but this is a feature that makes it easy to see the list at a distance when you are using Visibox during your show. You can control the size of the Song list using the Zoom feature: ⌘+ to Zoom in and make it larger; ⌘- to Zoom out for smaller text. (These options are also available in the Project menu.)

Rearranging Songs

You can change the song order by grabbing the handle at the top of a Song and dragging it into a new position. (Bonus—the song numbering updates automatically!) If keyboard control is your thing, select the Song and use the ⌘↑ and ⌘↓ keys to move it up and down in the stack.

Grabbing the handle at the top of a Song frame to move a Song down in the list

FIGURE: Grab the handle at the top of the Song frame to drag the Song into a new position.

To make a duplicate of a Song and all the Clips it contains, type ⌘D (or use the Song > Duplicate menu).

Continue adding and rearranging songs until you have your set list generally the way you want it. It’s easy to update on the fly.

Attaching audio to a Song

You can attach an audio file to a song to be used as a backing track while the Clips for that Song play. Native audio formats include:

Mpeg-3 (mp3)
Advanced Audio Codec (aac)
Mpeg-4 audio (m4a)
WAV (wav)
FLAC (flac)
Ogg (oga)
OPUS (opus)

If you add an audio file that Visibox does not play natively, it will attempt to convert it to a native format. If the file cannot be converted, an error will appear.

To attach an audio track, right-click on the Song and choose Attach Audio from the contextual menu (the option is also available in the Song menu at the top.) When there is an audio attached to a Song, its waveform displays in the background of the Song frame.

A song with a waveform graphic filling the frame

FIGURE: A Song with background audio attached

There can only be one audio track attached to each Song. Be aware that if your videos have audio, the Clip audio and the Song backing track will play at the same time.

Working with Clips

Once you have one or more Songs added to the Project, you can begin adding the visual Clips.

The easiest way to add a Clip is to drag the video or image file from the desktop directly into the Song frame. You could also add a Clip with a menu option (Song > Add Clip) or by right-clicking on the Song and selecting Add Clip there. Or if keyboard shortcuts are your thing, ⇧⌘C will get the job done. When the Clip is added to the Song, its thumbnail appears in the Song frame.

Rearrange the Clip sequence by grabbing a Clip thumbnail and dragging it into the new position. The ⌘< and ⌘> shortcuts move the selected Clip to the left and right, respectively. You can also drag a Clip from one song to another.

To duplicate a Clip, right-click on its thumbnail and select Duplicate or use the ⌘D shortcut. Duplicate Clips can be dragged into other Songs. Visibox is optimized to use a single media file as the source for all duplicates of a Clip, so duplicates do not use up more disk space.

Selecting Multiple Clips

Similar to the Mac or Windows operating system, multiple Clips can be selected at once by clicking the mouse outside of a Clip and dragging a rectangle around multiple clips at once. Selected Clips are outlined in blue. Repeat this behavior while holding down the shift (⇧) key to add more Clips to the selection. Hold down the alt/option (⌥) key to remove Clips from the selected group. Hold down the command (⌘) key on Mac or control (⌃) key on Windows and click individual Clips to toggle their selection status.

You can select all Clips with the Select All Clips(⌘A) menu item. You can deselect any selected Clips with Deselect All Clips(⇧⌘A or by clicking outside of any selected Clips in the Controller window.

FIGURE: Hold down the shift key to add more items to an existing selection.

Setting Options For Multiple Clips At Once

When multiple Clips are selected, you will be able to drag them, duplicate them, or delete them together. You will also be able to edit their common options together. For instance, if all selected Clips are video Clips, you can change all of the “When Clip Ends” behavior for all Clips at once. However, if you have a mix of different types of Clips, some options may not be available. For instance, if you have both video and image Clips selected, you will not be able to edit the “When Clip Ends” behavior because this is not an option for image Clips.

FIGURE: With multiple Clips selected, right-click to set options for all selected Clips.

Clip audio

If the video file has audio, that audio plays when the Clip plays. To prevent the audience from hearing the audio, you can mute it by right-clicking the Clip thumbnail and selecting Mute (that option is also available in the Clip menu at the top). You can also adjust the volume for the Clip, which is useful for balancing the sound level across Clips and with your performance.

Clip resuming behaviors

The very first time you play a clip, it will play from the beginning. The When Resuming options allow you to choose what happens when you come back to play this Clip again after playing another Clip. You can choose to either Restart From The Beginning or Resume From Last Point. The second of these is good if you've got a longer video clip and you want to pick up where you left off when you switched away.

To change the resuming behavior, right-click on the Clip and select an option from the When Resuming menu (you can also access the options from the Clip menu at the top).

Clip retriggering behaviors

“Retriggering” happens when you trigger a Clip that is already playing. The default behavior is to Restart a video from the beginning. However, Stutter allows you to jump back about 1 second. If you want to ensure that you do not accidentally retrigger a playing video, choose the Do Nothing option.

The retrigger behavior is indicated with an icon that displays centered below the progress line when the Clip is playing. Options include:

FIGURE:The retrigger behavior for the currently playing Clip is indicated below the playback bar.

	Restart	(default) Clip plays from the beginning
	Stutter	Clip jumps back a short amount of time
	Scratch (Beta)	Clip scratches like a record, reversing and fast-forwarding at high speed for a moment
	Reverse (Beta)	Reverse playback direction
/	Pause/Resume	Clip pauses, next trigger will resume from the paused position
/	Pause/Restart	Clip pauses, next trigger will restart
	Stop	Clip stops and goes to black/background
	Do Nothing	Nothing happens

Clip end behaviors

Visibox gives you a lot of control over what happens when a particular Clip ends. By default, the Clip loops automatically, allowing it to continue playing until you trigger the next Clip while performing. To change the end behavior, right-click on the Clip and select an option from the When Clip Ends menu (you can also access the options from the Clip menu at the top).

An icon in the bottom-right corner of the thumbnail (in both the Song frame and the Preview) indicates what happens at the end of the Clip. The options with their respective icons are as follows:

FIGURE: Clip end behavior indicator icons

	Loop	(Default) Clip starts over
	Bounce (Beta)	Clip reverses direction when it reaches end/beginning
	Stop	Clip ends and goes to black or the background image; audio stops playing
	Freeze	Clip pauses on the last frame
	Start next clip	The next Clip starts playing automatically
	Cue next song	Activates the next Song but does not start playing

Fade In/Out (Beta)

The Fade In and Fade Out submenus let you apply a fade in or fade out to each Clip individually. Fades are applied to the Clip in real time, so they do not affect the original video file. Fade In additionally defines the crossfade (dissolve) time between the previous Clip and the current Clip. Any Fade Out value on the previous Clip is ignored when switching directly from one Clip to the next.

To apply a fade, right-click on the Clip(s) and select a time value from the Fade In or Fade Out submenus. Fade In and Fade Out icons appear in the lower left and lower right of the thumbnail when a value is set.

	Fade In	Fade in or crossfade between Clips
	Fade Out	Fade out to black or Background Clip

Rotate and Flip

The Rotate and Flip submenus let you rotate and/or flip each Clip individually.

Filters

The Filters submenu lets you apply filters to each Clip individually. Filters are applied to the video image in real time, so they do not affect the original video file. You can apply multiple filters to a single Clip. Filters include: Blur, Brightness, Contrast, Grayscale, Rotate Hue, Invert, Saturate, and Sepia.

Cropping and Letterboxing

In most cases, videos for a live performance are intended to add visual texture and excitement to the stage, not to “show a video” per se. With this in mind, by default Visibox crops Clips to make them display edge-to-edge in the Output Window for consistency. The advantage is that you can use a variety of video sources without editing them beforehand to fit a particular display. Visibox just makes it work!

Comparison of original video dimensions and cropped view in the Output window

FIGURE: Visibox crops videos to make them fill the final display.

If you have a Clip that must be seen entirely without any cropping—for example, videos or images with text that should not be cut off—you can opt to “letterbox” the Clip. Letterboxing adds black bars as needed to show the whole video regardless of the aspect ratio of the final display. You can letterbox a particular Clip by right-clicking on its thumbnail and selecting Letterbox.

Black bars appear on the sides of the video to preserve its aspect ratio

FIGURE: The same video set to “Letterbox”

Note that if you need to letterbox all of the Clips in your project, you can also set Letterbox at the Project level (Project > Letterbox). The Project level setting becomes the default, which you can then override for each particular Clip.

TIP: Using Letterbox

Because video projectors, televisions, and computer monitors rarely conform to the aspect ratio of most common videos, it is recommended that you don’t activate Letterbox unless you have specific information in your video clips that you do not want cropped out. Most background videos are okay with a little cropping and this means that you won’t need to spend a lot of time editing your videos to ensure that they are exactly the same aspect ratio as your projector… or spend time at a gig trying to figure out why your projector is showing 16:10 instead of 16:9...or that the club’s projector is 4:3. Just turn off letterbox and let the Visibox Output conform to the space available.

Note that things can get a little weird when you combine Letterbox with Enforce Aspect Ratio. Pay attention to the Output window when you change these settings.

Playback speed

You can alter the speed of a video clip from within Visibox by right-clicking on the Clip thumbnail and selecting Speed from the contextual menu. There are several options ranging from 3x down to .1x normal speed. The same option is available in the Clip menu at the top.

Clips in the Preview

When a Song is selected, its Clips appear in the Preview pane at the bottom of the Controller window. Note that each Clip is assigned a number (top-left corner). You can trigger Clips by their reference number using the computer’s keyboard or a MIDI controller mapped to that Clip position. In other words, they do not necessarily need to play in the sequence in which they appear in the Preview. This is not a timeline; you can trigger any of these Clips at any time. They are there as a reference.

Grab the bar at the top of the Preview to make it larger. This is helpful for seeing what Clips are queued and available from a distance while you are on stage.

comparison of the Preview pane before and after resizing

FIGURE: The Preview pane can be resized by grabbing and dragging the bar at the top.

TRY IT!

Now that you know about adding and rearranging Songs and Clips, why not take Visibox for a quick spin?

You can download an fully configured Visibox Project from within Visibox (Help > Download/Open Example Project…). Trigger the first Clip in the first Song and watch it play in the Output Window. (Not seeing the Output window? Go to Window > Show All.) Try turning on or off Letterboxing to reveal the source video and how Visibox makes it work in the overall presentation.

Try editing the Song order. Rename some Songs. Move some Clips around. Pay attention to their end behaviors and watch what happens when they play in the Output window. Try changing the end settings.

Try adding your own Clips to a song. Any video you have will work to play around with. If you don’t have a video, you can use an image.

Rounded Corners

Visibox allows you to put rounded corners on your Clips using the Project > Round Corners menu. You can choose roundness from 10% to 50%.

the output window shown with corners rounded to 10%, 30%, and a circle

FIGURE: Examples of rounded corners

Attaching a camera

A cool feature of Visibox is that you can use a camera source as a Clip. For example, you could display a live close-up of the drummer’s view during their big solo or the singer’s view of the audience back at them.

Setting up a camera to import into Visibox is covered in the “Basic Hardware Setup” section later in this guide.

Using MIDI to trigger Clips

While it is possible to select Songs and trigger Clips using the mouse and computer keyboard, Visibox really comes alive when you connect one or more MIDI devices. Not only can you control all of the performance aspects of Visibox, many MIDI devices will also light up to show you what is happening without needing to look at the Controller display.

Setting Up for a Live Performance

When you arrive at the performance venue, you will need to set up your laptop and display device (likely a projector). In this section, we’ll cover the basic hardware setup for a typical show, as well as tools in Visibox for making sure your image appears at the proper scale and orientation when projected on a screen or some other display device.

Basic hardware setup

While it is possible to run Visibox on a single screen by fullscreening the Output window, this will hide the Controller window – so you’ll be flying blind, unable to see what song is currently selected and other information from the Controller window. A better option is to use two displays.

Two-display setup

The most common way of using Visibox will be on laptop computer connected to a video projector. Visibox has been optimized so that you should be able to run it on just about any compatible Mac or Windows laptop connected to just about any video projector. You will probably find that a faster computer with a solid-state drive will load and play high-resolution media content better. Likewise, you will probably want a bright (3000+ lumen) video projector with 720P resolution or better. There are myriad different connectors on different computers and video projectors, but chances are good that with the right set of dongles and adapters, you can get from one to another.

More than two displays

There are countless ways to set up Visibox. If you would like to more than one display (projector, TV, LCD, etc.) showing to your audience, you'll want to decide whether you want the audience-facing displays to show the same thing or different things.

If you want to show the same content on multiple screens, you can use a simple HDMI splitter (about USD $20) to split the signal. This can also be done by attaching each display directly to multiple video outputs on the computer and using the computer's settings to mirror the displays. However, this will use up more of your computer's graphics resources, and may be less performant the the video splitter option.

If you would like to show different content on each screen, then your best bet is to use a video wall controller. This device takes a single video input and spreads the image across multiple outputs. They are available in a variety of configurations, from 2x2 to 4x4 and beyond. They are also available at a variety of price points, depending on the resolution and features you need. We've had good luck with a USD $150 2x2 video wall controller from Amazon. Most inexpensive video wall controllers will only support a single input resolution, and they will stretch this across whatever number of outputs you have. So, for instance, if you have 2 horizontal 16:9 video projectors on either side of the stage, the image spread across them will be squashed down and stretched out to fit the 32:9 aspect ratio of the combined display. But Visibox offers functionality to fix this. See the “Video Wall Stretch” section below.

Using a video wall controller, you can accommodate a wide number of screens. So you could have 3 vertical output screens, spread across the stage; 4 screens aligned horizontally; or 2 screens stacked. You'd configure the video controller for 3x1, 1x4, or 2x1 respectively. Then within Visibox, you would select the appropriate number of columns and rows in the Project > Video Wall Stretch submenu. You may also need to rotate the output to the video wall controller, either through system settings, or through Visibox's Project > Rotate submenu.

VIDEO TUTORIAL: How to set up a video wall with Visibox. YouTube link

Common laptop video output formats:

USB-C (or Thunderbolt 3)
HDMI
VGA
DVI
Display Port or Mini Display Port
Thunderbolt 1 or 2

Common video projector input formats:

HDMI
VGA
DVI

You can pretty easily find adapters between HDMI and any of these connectors. So you can usually use HDMI as your common denominator. For example: let’s say you have a new MacBook Air with USB-C connectors and an older video projector that only has a VGA connector. You could pick up a USB-C to HDMI adapter, a long HDMI cable, and an HDMI-to-VGA adapter and you’re good to go! Not all adapters are created equally though, so try out a few options if your first try doesn’t work.

Attaching and configuring MIDI devices

Most modern MIDI devices will have a USB connection. Just connect the device’s USB to your computer (directly or through a USB hub) and Visibox should recognize it. If your MIDI device does not have a USB connection, you can find an inexpensive MIDI-to-USB and use that.

In order to use a MIDI device with Visibox, it will need to send either MIDI note information or continuous control (CC) messages. While this covers the vast majority of piano-keyboard-style, drum-pad-style, and drum-machine-style MIDI controllers, some MIDI pedals only send program change messages. When choosing a MIDI device to use with Visibox, just make sure it can send MIDI note or CC messages.

The best Visibox controllers will also receive MIDI messages in order to display an indicator (probably an LED) associated with each note/pad/trigger. Visibox will light up these LEDs to show how many Clip slots are available in the current song. And while a clip is playing Visibox will flash the LED associated with the trigger pad for that clip.

To map specific pads/keys on your MIDI device to specific functions in Visibox, open the MIDI Map window (found under Visibox > Preferences > MIDI Map).

Select your device from the MIDI Input menu selector at the top of the window. Your device should also be selected as the MIDI Output. You can enter MIDI note numbers or CC ids manually. However, the easier thing to do is to hit “Learn” next to the function you would like to control. Then hit the pad/key on your device that you would like to use to control it. Do this for all of the pads/keys you would like to use.

Visibox will send MIDI messages to your device using the same settings as the input trigger in the MIDI Map. So if note 44 is set to trigger your first clip, note 44 will be sent to the MIDI device to indicate that the first clip is enabled and/or playing.

New MIDI devices will automatically be enabled as MIDI inputs for Visibox. If you would like to disable, visit Visibox > Preferences > MIDI Inputs and deselect your device. To allow your device to receive MIDI from Visibox, visit Visibox > Preferences > MIDI Outputs and enable your device.

FIGURE: The MIDI Map accessed in the Preferences menu is where you assign functions in the app to MIDI notes and continuous controllers.

VIDEO TUTORIAL: Use MIDI to trigger videos, images, cameras, and audio with Visibox. YouTube link

Connecting an Elgato Stream Deck

If you have an Elgato Stream Deck, you can use it to control Visibox. Visibox will take over all of the buttons on the Stream Deck and automatically map them to the Clips in your current Song. It also shows buttons for Stop, Previous Clip, Next Clip, Previous Song, and Next Song.

Since Visibox takes over complete control, you will need to Quit Elgato's Stream Deck application. Then just launch Visibox, connect your Stream Deck and everything will work.

FIGURE: An Elgato Stream Deck controlling Visibox.

VIDEO TUTORIAL: Control Visibox using the Elgato Stream Deck. YouTube link

Connecting a camera

USB cameras are often referred to as “webcams.” However, with various hardware adapters or software solutions, you can connect a wide variety of digital cameras to your computer. But in short, if it works with Zoom, it’ll probably work with Visibox. Additionally, most laptops have a built-in camera. Just set up the laptop next to your drummer, add a Camera Clip to your project, and bonzo! Instant drum cam!

Connected USB cameras will show up under Visibox > Preferences > Default Camera. This is where you can choose which camera will be used when a new Camera Clip is added to your project. Right-clicking on a Camera Clip in the Controller Window will allow you to choose a specific camera for each clip. So if you’ve got three cameras connected, you could switch between them.

Handling audio

Any connected audio interfaces will show up under Visibox > Preferences > Audio Output. The first item in this list will simply default to the audio output you’ve chosen in your system settings. You may just use your computer’s built-in output with Visibox. But if you have a higher quality audio interface that you want to use, you could set your system settings to use the built-in audio output (probably the built-in speakers on your laptop), and then set Visibox to use your external audio interface. This will ensure that any alerts or messages that you receive on your computer will come out of your internal speakers and not accidentally go out to the audience.

Preserving aspect ratio

The “aspect ratio” is the ratio of the width to the height of an image or screen. Some common media aspect ratios are 16:9 (referred to as HD or widescreen) and 4:3 (referred to as SD). Your videos have an inherent aspect ratio. Display devices (projectors, televisions, and other screens) also have their own aspect ratios.

When you set the Output window to Full Screen as you would for a performance (Window > Full Screen), it resizes to match the aspect ratio of the display device and resizes the video in it too. Because you may not know the aspect ratio of the video projector you will be using, you can select “Project > Enforce Aspect Ratio” to ensure consistent output.

Using the “Calibration and Focus” screen

In a typical performance situation, you may have only minutes to set up, focus, and calibrate a video projector. The Window > Calibrate And Focus (⌘K) function projects an image with fine lines for easy focusing, bright colors for color calibration, and grayscale values to calibrate contrast. Various aspect ratios are indicated to help you determine the aspect ratio of the projector or display device.

FIGURE: The Calibrate and Focus image is used to assess the aspect ratio of the projector or display device and can be used for focusing and color balance.

Dealing with projector variations

Part of setting up your Project is to make sure it is suited to the projector or other display screen that it will appear on. Visibox provides a number of controls for making sure your videos display as you intend, regardless of the projector. You will see the results of your settings in the Output Window.

Rotate

Some projectors are suspended upside-down from the ceiling, in which case, you can rotate the Project 180 degrees (Project > Rotate) so the image appears the right way up.

You can also use the Rotate function to show your video content vertically (rotated 90°). Vertical banner-like screens have the advantage of a smaller footprint on the stage.

Flip

If the venue uses rear-screen projection, use the Flip function (Project > Flip) to flip the image horizontally so the picture is not reversed. You can also flip the output vertically.

Soundcheck checklist

Ensure that the laptop is plugged into AC power. You don’t want to run out of battery power halfway through a show.
Ensure that the laptop is connected to the projector
Run Calibration and Focus (⌘K) and make sure the projector is aligned and focused
If you are triggering Visibox with a MIDI device, ensure that it is sending/receiving MIDI. Trigger a few Clips. If it has indicator lights, ensure that these are lighting properly.
If your project uses sound, run an audible video Clip or song with attached audio. Make sure sound is getting to the soundboard and monitors.

Visibox Menu Tour

We recommend using Visibox’s keyboard shortcuts and right-clicking for contextual menus to quickly navigate and manipulate Songs and Clips. However, every function that has an efficient shortcut can also be accessed using the menus at the top of the application for instances when the mouse is preferable.

This section covers the functionality of every menu option in Visibox in detail. (Note that the wording and arrangements of these options may change slightly when the product is updated.)

FIGURE: Visibox Application Menu and Preferences

The Visibox menu contains functions related to the application itself, such as registration, inputs and outputs, updates, and a few handy items such as Quit.

This handles matters related to registration and authorization. It’s where to go to purchase a subscription, and activate (or deactivate) Visibox.

Volume Up: Increases the volume of the audio output by 10%.
Volume Down: Decreases the volume of the audio output by 10%.
Audio Output: If you have multiple audio interfaces connected to your computer, you can choose your preferred audio output here. Choosing “default” will use the output selected by the system.
Mono Audio Output: Selecting this menu item, will convert Visibox’s audio output from stereo (or other multichannel) to mono. If you have created beautiful backing tracks with the tambourine panned hard left and the cowbell panned hard right, but the sound person hands you a single cord for your output, you can select this option and keep that glorious cowbell in your mix.
Default Camera: If you have multiple USB cameras connected to the computer, this will let you choose which one to use for new camera Clips.
MIDI Inputs: Enable the MIDI device(s) that will control Visibox.
MIDI Outputs: Enable the MIDI device(s) that will be controlled by Visibox.
MIDI Map...: This brings up the window where you define which MIDI notes and continuous controllers are associated with the various triggers and functions in the app. Want to stop the currently playing clip every time you hit middle-C on your keyboard? This is the place to set that up.
Control Bar: Turn on/off the Control Bar at the top of the Controller window.
Use “New Song” for New Songs: Visibox generates a random space name when you create a new Song. If you find that annoying, select this option and the songs you add will be named “New Song” instead.
Language: Choose the language Visibox will use for its menus and other user interface elements.
Enable Beta Features: Visibox is constantly being improved. If you want to try out the latest features before they are officially released, select this option.

Check for update...

Checks to see if a newer version of Visibox is available.

FIGURE: File Menu

You can create a New Project… (⇧⌘N) or Open Project… (⌘O) through the File menu. You can also create a new copy of the current project with the Save As… (⇧⌘S) menu item.

In order to allow you to undo, Visibox keeps a copy of the previous media added to the project. Cleanup Unused Files… acts like an “Empty Trash” on your computer, saving space by deleting unused media files in your project.

Use Visibox to print a nicely formatted set list for your project. No more Sharpie markers! Print a copy for everyone in your band. Don’t forget the sound person!

FIGURE: Project Menu

Settings in the Project menu apply to your Project as a whole. It’s where you add new Songs and customize your view of the Controller and Output windows. It’s where you specify how the Output window displays, and thus how your Project will look to your audience, allowing you to adapt your visuals to the environment where you are performing.

You’ll likely get used to adding new Songs with a keyboard shortcut (⌘N), but this menu item is here if that is not an option.

By default, a black screen is displayed when your content stops and nothing is playing. But you can use the Add Background Clip option to specify a background image or video to display instead. You can also set a background by dragging an image or video file from the desktop to the Output window.

Background Clips apply to the whole project; in other words, you can not specify different background images for each Song.

Lets you rotate the Output display in 90° increments.

This setting lets you accommodate different projection systems. Flip the content horizontally for use with a rear-project system. Or flip the content vertically for use with a ceiling-mounted projector.

By connecting a video wall controller to your computer, you can span the Output Window across multiple displays. However, most video wall controllers will stretch your output to fit the combined aspect ratio of all the displays. This setting will allow you to to compensate for this stretching and ensure that your content is displayed correctly.

Once your video wall controller is connected and configured, choose the item from this menu to match the arrangement of your displays in rows and columns. If you have 2 projectors (arranged either horizontally or vertically), set on each side of the stage, you would choose "1 row x 2 cols" from this menu. If you have 4 televisions stacked on top of each other, you would choose "4 rows x 1 col". If you have 4 video projectors projecting on all of the walls in an art installation, you would choose "1 row x 4 cols".

Find out more about connecting multiple screens to Visibox in the “Setting Up For Live Performance” section.

The Rotate, Flip, and Video Wall Stretch items are intended to configure your Output when presented in full screen on a ceiling mounted or rear projection projector, or stretched out with a video wall controller. Select this option, so these settings only appear in our Output window when it is presented in full screen. This makes it easier to set up your Project without the Output window appearing sideways, upside down, backwards, or stretched out.

By default, Clips fill the Output Window entirely, getting cropped as necessary. When the Output Window is set to “Full Screen”—as is typical for a performance environment—the Output Window resizes to match the aspect ratio of the display device (a projector, television, or some other display). Your Output gets resized along with it.

However, there may be cases where you will want your content to have a different aspect ratio than that of your presentation screen. The Enforce Aspect Ratio menu allows you to choose from many standard spec ratios (such as 4:3, 16:9, etc.) in both horizontal and vertical orientations in order to preserve the aspect ratio of the Clip, independent of the display device. Black bars will be added as necessary to make up the difference.

This option lets you apply rounded corners to all the clips in your Project. Select from square, 5%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% or circle. Combined the “circle” option with a square aspect ratio, to show your Visibox project in a circle, regardless of your output screen’s intrinsic output ratio.

Visibox’ default setting is to crop videos so that they show edge-to-edge on any screen. However, if you would like to ensure that all of the Clips in a project do not crop, you can choose Letterbox (⌘L) at the Project level. You can also letterbox individual Clips using the Clip menu.

The default setting is to show all song titles on the controller screen in UPPERCASE, but if you would rather show them as typed, we’ve got a menu item for that!

These settings let you enlarge or reduce the size of the Song list in the Controller Window without affecting the Clips Preview at the bottom. This is handy for making them easier to see on stage.

FIGURE: Song Menu

The Song menu holds functions related to adding Clips and background audio to individual Songs in the Project. There are also menu items for renaming, moving, and deleting individual Songs, although it will likely be easier to do these tasks in the interface itself (i.e., dragging a Song frame to move it or double-clicking a Song title to edit it) or by using keyboard shortcuts.

This prompts you to select a Clip file to add it to the Song. Clips can also be added by dragging them from the desktop into the Song frame.

You can add a webcam feed to a song as if it were a video clip, showing content from any internal or external USB camera connected to your computer.

For songs that have an attached audio track but no visual Clips (note that Clips are required to trigger audio), this option generates an empty Clip used simply to trigger the audio track. If you are using a background image on your Project, the background would display through the Placeholder Clip, otherwise, it displays a black screen.

These are the controls for adding and removing a background audio track to the Song. This “backing track” audio plays while the sequence of Clips is playing. You can also specify what happens when the audio track ends (stop the current Clip from playing, let the current Clip keep playing, loop the audio, cue the next Song, or start the next Song). Audio files can be:

Mpeg-3 (mp3)
Advanced Audio Codec (aac)
Mpeg-4 audio (m4a)
WAV (wav)
FLAC (flac)
Ogg (oga)
OPUS (opus)

FIGURE: Clip Menu

The Clip menu has options for the currently playing Clip, but you can also right-click on any Clip thumbnail to pop up a contextual menu and edit its settings.

Deletes selected Clips. You may also use the Cmd-Delete keyboard shortcut.

Duplicate Clip ⌘D

Makes a copy of the selected Clips. Note that this references the same media file as the original, optimizing space on your hard drive.

If your video Clip has an audio track, you can mute it or set its relative volume. This is useful to balance the audio levels across multiple Clips with audio.

When you stop playing Clip, you can choose to have it resume from the beginning or from the point where you stopped it.

By default, retriggering a currently-playing Clip starts it playing from the beginning again (Restart). Clips can be set to any of the following behaviors:

Restart (Default) - Restart from beginning
Stutter - Jump back a moment
Scratch (Beta) - Shuttle back and forth like a record scratch
Reverse (Beta) - Reverse current direction of the Clip
Pause/Resume - Toggle between pause and resume from current point
Pause/Restart - Pause, then start from beginning
Stop - Stop the Clip and the current Song
Do Nothing - Ensure that the Clip will continue playing if retriggered accidentally.

These are discussed in more detail in the section “Setting Up Your Project” earlier in this guide.

By default, each clip will loop for continuous play. However, any clip can be set to one of the following options:

Loop (default)
Bounce (Beta) - Reverse direction
Stop - Play to end and stop
Freeze - Play to end and freeze on last frame
Start Next Clip - Play through and automatically start the next clip in current or next song
Cue Next Song - Play through and cue the next song

See the “Setting Up Your Project” section for more information about clip end behaviors.

A small icon indicating what happens when the song ends is shown in the bottom-right corner of the Clip thumbnail.

These options fade the Clip in or out over a specified number of seconds. The Fade In value also determines the cross-fade between Clips. It takes precedence over any Fade Out value of the previously-playing Clip. For video Clips with an audio track, the audio will fade in/out with the Clip. If the Project has a Background Clip, fade in/out will cross-fade from/to the Background Clip.

NOTE: Clips with a Fade Out value will continue to play after stopping Visibox.

Rotates selected Clips 90 degrees clockwise, 90 degrees counter-clockwise, or 180 degrees (upside down).

Flips selected Clips horizontally or vertically.

Add video filters to selected Clips.

Here you can override the default Letterbox settings that were set at the Project level (Project > Letterbox) for an individual Clip. Default uses the Project setting (Project > Letterbox). Crop always crops the video so it fills the Output window edge to edge. Choose Letterbox (black bars) if you have a video clip that has important content that should not be cropped, such as text.

Allows you to adjust the playback speed of selected video Clips at increments ranging from 3x to .1x without needing to edit the videos themselves.

Set the Clip to play Forward (as normal) or Backward. Clips are muted when playing backwards.

It’s usually easiest to just drag clips into position. However, you can also move the current clip using the Move Clip Left (⌘←) and Move Clip Right (⌘→) menu items and command keys.

FIGURE: Play menu

The Play menu provides menu-based alternatives to Clip and Song playing functions you will most likely handle with the keyboard or MIDI triggering device.

Clips can be triggered using the 1–5 keys on the keyboard, or by MIDI. The 1 key triggers the first clip, 2 triggers the second and so on. Note that the 6–9 keys trigger their respective Clips as well. These Play menu items provide an alternative option to keys if necessary.

If no clip is playing, the space bar starts the first Clip of the current Song. If a Clip is playing, the space bar stops it. This makes the space bar a quick way of saying “stop” without jumping to another Song. ⇧Space pauses and restarts the current Clip.

This set of menu items navigates between Songs, but it may be easier to use the arrow buttons on your keyboard. Previous Song (↑) and Next Song (↓) cue the adjacent Song and stop any currently playing Clip. If you you want to cue the next Song without stopping the current clip, hold down the shift key.

You can also click on a Song to select it. Shift-clicking will select it without stopping any currently playing clip.

When this option is selected, navigating to the "Next Song" from last Song will circle around to activate the first Song. Likewise, selecting "Previous Song" with the first Song active will activate the last Song.

This set of menu items are related to switching Clips. The number keys and MIDI give you random access to the Clips in the current song, but you can also go to the Previous Clip (←) or Next Clip (→) within the current Song using the arrow keys. Hold down the shift key for the same functionality without being constrained to the current Song.

When this option is selected, navigating to the "Next Clip" from last Clip will circle around to activate the first Clip. Likewise, selecting "Previous Clip" with the first Clip active will activate the last Clip. This also works with When Clip Ends behaviors, so when "Start Next Clip" is chosen as the end behavior for the last Clip in a Song, it will play the first Clip in the Song when finished.

FIGURE #: Window Menu

With multiple displays connected to your computer, the Window menu gives you options for managing the Controller and Output windows, including which display shows the Output and which shows the Controller, and whether they are set to Full Screen.

Select Full Screen (⌥⌘F) to present your Output and Controller windows full screen on different displays. If you only have one display connected to your computer, only the Output window will become full screen.

Once in Full Screen mode, you can Escape Full Screen with this menu item or the esc (⎋) key.

Choose Swap Presentation Displays (⌥⌘X) to swap which display is showing the output and which is showing the controller. If you have more than two displays, you can use the Present Output On and Present Controller On submenus to choose which you want where. Confused about which display is which? Select Show Display IDs to flash the display numbers onto each of the attached screens.

In a typical performance situation, you may have only minutes to set up, focus, and calibrate a video projector. The Calibrate and Focus (⌘K) menu item projects an image with fine lines for easy focusing, bright colors for color calibration, and grayscale values to calibrate contrast. Various aspect ratios are indicated to help you determine your current aspect ratio.

Close the selected window with the ⌘W shortcut or this menu item.

Lose track of a window? These menu options make sure you see them.

FIGURE #: Visibox Help Menu

Visibox Manual

You are currently reading the manual this option opens! Good work.

Download/Open Example Project…

There is an example project available to play around with if you’d like to kick the Visibox tires before assembling your own media.

Spaceage YouTube Channel

Check out the Spaceage YouTube channel for tutorials, videos, and more.

Visibox Support

A link to the Spaceage contact form if you need some assistance.

3rd Party Libraries

Giving credit where credit is due! This is a list of the 3rd party Open Source libraries distributed in Visibox.