Satellite

Satellite is a small utility program that is available on the UNIVERSE website free of charge. It provides access to the PC that it is installed and running on and delivers the following features:

• Report system health
• Shutdown, reboot or start a machine via Wake-On-Lan
• Manage and watch processes
• Injecting input (Mouse, Keystrokes, Touch)
• Control PowerPoint presentations
• StreamDeck passtrough
• NDI stream creation & KVM

Setup

To connect a remote PC to UNIVERSE using Satellite you need to download the installer and install Satellite on the machine. Once the process is complete, open UNIVERSE Satellite and configure the connection settings. These can be found in the Global Settings section at the top of the Satellite window.

Satellite Name defines the name under which the machine registers in UNIVERSE. To manually determine the UNIVERSE instance this Satellite connects to enter the IP of the machine running UNIVERSE under UNIVERSE IP. Satellite will fill this field automatically when Auto Detect is enabled. The connection state is displayed by the colored indicator.

Note: Use Auto Connect only in environments with one UNIVERSE instance and simple network setups. In case of a production or fixed installation we recommend to work with a static UNIVERSE IP.

Property	Description
Start with Windows	UNIVERSE Satellite auto-starts when the user logs in.
Start in tray	Satellite starts minimized and can be accessed via the tray icon.
Auto Minimize	Minimizes the Satellite window automatically after 30 seconds without an interaction.

Features

Control

The Control tab of the Satellite window contains all settings and features regarding the general permissions and the NDI capabilities of Satellite.

Access Control

These settings set the general permissions for UNIVERSE on this system. It is good practice to grant only the privileges needed to operate. The different categories contain following features:

Property	Description
System	Allows UNIVERSE to shutdown, reboot, hibernate or suspend the machine.
Processes	Allow UNIVERSE to start and stop processes.
Keystrokes	Allow UNIVERSE to execute keystrokes on the system.
Mouse	Allow UNIVERSE to perform mounse movement and execute click events.
Touch	Allow UNIVERSE to execute touch events.
Snapshot	Allow UNIVERSE to request and receive screenshots of the system.

NDI

The NDI section contains the settings for the NDI capabilities of UNIVERSE Satellite.

Property	Description
Enable Screen	This enables the broadcasting of an NDI stream of the screen. In case of a multi-screen setup you can select the displays that you want to generate NDI streams for.
Enable KVM	UNIVERSE and UNIVERSE Satellite together can interact in a way that provides KVM-like features. if the NDI stream of the Satellite PC is displayed in a NDI Control in UNIVERSE the mouse and keyboard interactions with the Control are relayed to the Satellite machine. Thus allowing for remote operation.

System Health

Enabling system health starts the transmission of system health data to the UNIVERSE instance. This data can be used as trigger parameters on Buttons.

StreamDeck

The StreamDeck section lists all StreamDecks detected on the system and shows an overview of the layout managed by UNIVERSE.

Process Management

Process Managemnent in UNIVERSE Satellite consists of two areas: Local & Remote Process Management

Local Process Management

UNIVERSE Satellite can start, stop or watch local processes. This is helpful when working with complex software setups that require e.g. a specific startup order. In this case all the executables can be added to the list with the Start command and a Delay that accounts for the startup times of the different applications and the required delays.

Satellite can also act as a Watchdog to ensure that a process is running. If the process stops UNIVERSE can automatically restart the process.

Property	Description
Check processes every X seconds	Enable and set the interval for checking the state of the processes.
Run all on startup	Executes the commands for the listed processes with the definded delays.

Remote Process Management

Remote Process Management allow a UNIVERSE instace to start, stop or restart processes on a remote machine running UNIVERSE Satellite. To use this feature the "Process" permission needs to be set in the Control tab of the remote Satellite.

You can now use a Button in UNIVERSE to start a process on the remote PC by adding the Start Process Command of the Satellite Device to the Command Stack. The executable should be names with the full path on the remote system or its directory needs to be part of the PATH environment variable.

To stop a process use the "Kill Process" Command and enter the name of the executable as the parameter - in the case of the PowerPoint example above: POWERPNT.EXE. You can find the name of the executable by opening TaskManager while the application is running, right-clicking the process and selecting "Settings". The name of the executable is shown in the field to the right of the application icon.

PowerPoint

The PowerPoint tab contains the settings for static or dynamic interaction with Microsoft PowerPoint.

There are two ways to use Satellite:

Standalone

In this case Satellite takes the presentation file (*.ppt or *.pptx) specified under PPT Path and opens the presentation. The two checkboxes on the right determine if the presentation is opened on startup and if it is preseted in fullscreen mode. Once the presentation is running it can be navigated with keyboard, mouse, a presenter or custom hardware. Of course you also use UNIVERSE to navigate the presentation which brings us to the other mode.

Remote Control

Besides loading one static presentation file on startup, UNIVERSE and UNIVERSE Satellite can also form more complex setups. The following Commands are available for PowerPoint in UNIVERSE:

Command	Description
PPT Navigate	Navigate between the slides or go to first or last slide.
PPT Load	Provide an absolute path to a *.ppt or *.pptx file as parameter to open a presentation in PowerPoint. Second Parameter enables fullscreen mode.
PPT Pull Data	Actively refresh the PowerPoint data from the Satellite instance.
PPT Close	Close the current presentation.
PPT Set Watchfolder	Set the Watchfolder path.
PPT Go Fullscreen	Enable fullscreen presentation mode for the current presentation.

Satellite has the option to specify a Watchfolder. The content of the folder is scanned periodically and a list of the presentations is sent to UNIVERSE. In UNIVERSE we can display this list using a Listbox Control. More on that in the following section.

Wake-On-Lan (WOL)

To start a remote PC via Satellite you can use the Wake-On-Lan Command that the Satellite Device provides in UNIVERSE. When a Satellite registeres in UNIVERSE it automatically communicates its MAC address needed for Wake-On Lan. Therefore you do not need to enter it manually. If you need to have the ability to enter the MAC address manually you can use the dedicated Wake-On-Lan Device.

Note: In order for Wake-On-Lan to function the NIC of your machine needs to support WOL and it has to be activated in BIOS.

Device Node

The Satellite is a Device that can be placed on a Stage. The Device Node them provides advanced access to data from the Satellite.

Output	Description
Current Slide ID	Outputs the index of the slide that is currently displayed.
Slide Count	Provides the total number of slides in the current presentation.
PowerPoint State	Retrieve the current state of PowerPoint on the remote PC.
Current Slide Click	Some slides contain animations or similar that are triggered by a click and do not result in tranistioning to the next slide. Current Slide Click provides the nuber of clicks that have been performed on the current slide.
Slide Click Count	Similar to Current Slide Click but provides the total nuber of clicks on the current slide before transitioning to the next slide.
Watchfolder content	Connect this output to a Listbox Control to display the list of presentations in the Watchfolder on the remote PC. Connect the output of the Listbox to a Button with the PPT Load Command and use Data-Linking to map the presentation name to the parameter field.