Latest changes

See RELEASE NOTES for all the changes. This page only highlights select new features or improvements.
Get latest version from spx.graphics/controller/

Upgrading? Read upgrade instructions.

Nov 01, 2024

A maintenance release with minor changes and bugfixes. Most notable changes:

• Fixed a "special characters bug" in directplayout API endpoint
• If a username/password is configured, then apikey is also required
• New optional "updateRundownItem" -parameter to directplayout API call to change on-air state indicator in the UI

July 03, 2024

Version 1.3 is a big update. It has a lot of productivity improvements for advanced users and graphic developers and integrators.

For highlights read below or see the video 

AUTO SCALE MODE

A new renderer sizing option in addition to the original HD and 4K sizes. Auto mode works great with non-standard aspect ratios and with most playout systems and switchers. This also enables "responsive designs" that adjust to any output size and shape. Please keep in mind responsiveness needs to be supported by the templates themselves.

FLOATING RUNDOWN VIEW

A new "Light Rundown Mode" is an alternative, floating user interface panel for playing out graphics. Light Mode has an embedded preview renderer, that will play the focused element automatically for preview. When the Play command is executed, the item will play in the output.

Light Mode can be used on mobile devices and it is an awesome graphics playout solution within OBS as a Custom Dock.

NEW STARTER GRAPHICS PACKAGE
The improved graphics package now looks more professional, is simpler to modify as it supports themes and also has some more production-ready functionalities such as a support for RSS based news tickers.

Below are examples of some of the themes that comes with the example graphics pack:

AUTOPLAY
This new option, allows the local renderer to return to it's previous state by playing all the layers that were in a "playing" state previously.

This does not effect the playout (program) renderer, but only to the local renderer and is there to help the graphics operator's work.

NEW API FUNCTIONALITIES

• invokeExtensionFunction - an endpoint for executing exposed functions in custom-built SPX extensions. For example, you can use Stream Deck buttons to drive custom extension logic. Great for advanced graphics applications, such as sports scoring and timing.
• getFileList - returns a file list from a given subfolder within the ASSETS folder of SPX.
• saveCustomJSON - this POST handler can be used to save any arbitrary data to the disc for persistence app extensions.

• feedproxy - Improved endpoint supports custom headers, that can be used, for example, for authenticating external API requests. This proxy endpoint will help in working with CORS-protected endpoints.
• allrundowns - returns a list of all projects and all their rundowns
• rundown/json - returns full data of a given rundown, or with POST method it can store data to a rundown for a given project. This opens a door for programmatically pushing generated rundown to SPX using the API endpoint.
• executeScript - a utility endpoint for executing operating system scripts from the ASSETS/scripts -folder. For instance, there might be a batch script file for starting production applications, sending messages to external systems, maintaining logs, etc...

BUGFIXES AND IMPROVEMENTS

As usual, we receive reports and issues from users and this release also has a lot of small usability improvements and fixes. For instance, in the rundown view, if you enable CAPS LOCK, SPX will show each itemäs ID and layer and other helper properties.

Sept 05, 2023

SPX version 1.2.0 has some new features, a lot of bug fixes, stability-, performance- and other quality-of-life improvements. See the full list of changes from the Release Notes. Below are a few highlights.

(Reported 2023-09-23) v1.2.0 comes with a demo rundown (Hello World / My First Rundown) that has an incorrect absolute path that will cause the Server to halt when navigating off that rundown. This does not have an effect on any rundowns. To fix the halt, please restart the SPX server and do not use the demo rundown. 

FASTER TO OPERATE
The UI comes with some small improvements and a couple of new features. Now several templates can be selected for importing to the project by holding Control while clicking or by clicking a select ALL / NONE toggle button. Also all templates of a project can be added to the rundown with a single click.

The local renderer can be disabled. This can be beneficial if the system is running out of resources and the graphics operator can see the output from an external output. Also the preview functionality can be enabled or disabled from the config and the preview window can be opened from the renderer options panel. See the image below.

API CHANGES

• executeScript - can execute any script file (supported by the operating system) in the SPX/ASSETS/script -folder
  
• gettemplates - returns all templates and their properties of a given project
  
• focusByID - will select an item from the rundown by its ID
  

EXAMPLE EXTENSION FOR DEVELOPERS
SPX v.1.2.0 comes with an example extension project for developers. See ASSETS/plugins folder, and remove the underscore from _SPX_ExtensionDevExample -folder name and the example extension will become visible in the SPX UI at page reload. The source code is not minified and allows developing custom extensions to control graphics.

Version 1.2.0 has a long list of other smaller quality and usability improvements, such as more detailed console error messages and other feedback making operation and troubleshooting faster than before. See the Release Notes for a detailed list.

Jun 18, 2022

SPX version 1.1.2 has a lot of bug fixes, stability-, performance- and other quality-of-life improvements.

NEW FEATURES TO ITEM EDITOR

Now it is possible to change rundown item's playout options such as outmode (manual or duration etc) and layer number as well as item ID, as before.

MORE API ENDPOINTS

SPX has a public API at http://localhost:5656/api/v1 which can be used for external control. This version of SPX introduced some more endpoints for integrating SPX into other production tools. The link for the API doc page is also added to the Configuration view of SPX.

REGISTRATION OPTION
The main menu has a registration link to an optional form. We are trying to understand our users better and filling in this form is 100% voluntary. Users who submit the form using their email address will get a DISCOUNT CODE to the SPX Store. The information is only used to collect a statistical snapshot of users of SPX and the information is not shared with any third parties.

UPDATED DEFAULT TEMPLATES
SPX comes with a collection of default templates. In version 1.1.2 all default templates have a dropdown menu to choose a custom CSS file for different visual themes. This mechanism is an improved workflow from previous templates, where changes had to be made in the CSS files themselves. SPX will expose all CSS files in the "themes" subfolder of the template. This makes it easy to duplicate files to new themes.

BUG FIXES
Several rundown-related bugs have been fixed ("play duplicated item" bug, spacebar when several items open, etc). See Release Notes for a full list.

Feb 23, 2022

IMPORTANT: Port changed to 5656

SPX default port has been changed from 5000 to 5656. This is because macOS uses port 5000 by default for the Airplay receiver process, forcing users to change the SPX port on Mac. This may affect your own bookmarks and Streamdeck buttons. You can however edit config.json and change the default port back to 5000 if needed. SPX will generate config.json with default values at startup.

Preview functionality and optional pop up windows

These are two separate but linked features.

SPX can now do a preview. When any item gets "focused" on the rundown it will be sent to "preview renderers".  

The local renderer can be detached from the main user interface into its own popup window. When the window is closed, it will re-attach to the main user interface. 

These can be controlled from the renderer options panel, see the top right area in the image below.

4K
There is now an option in application configuration to choose between HD (1080) or 4K (2160) output size. Remember the templates will need to support the selected resolution. For example, fixed-size HD templates will render to the top left corner in 1/4 size using 4K output resolution. But if the template can responsively scale up they will work as expected.

Recent files and project list filtering
The last three rundowns are now easily accessed from the main dropdown menu.  And if you have a lot of projects a filtering mechanism will aid in finding your projects faster. Just type in any letters in the name of the project and it will magically appear!

Temporarily disable CasparCG connections

Sometimes you may want to disable sending playout commands to your output CasparCG servers. Now you can simply toggle it.

Bug fixes and other minor changes

• Template dialog paths had major issues on some systems and SPX functions. These have been ironed out and are now tested on Windows, Mac and Linux.
• New API endpoints. See "/api/v1" URL in SPX for a list of features available.
• Various minor changes and improvements.
  

For a full change history see RELEASE_NOTES.md on the source code repository. If you have a feature request or other feedback let us know via the chat on this page or by using the feedback form.

Have you been to the SPX Store lately?
Visit https://spxgc.com/store to see the latest items
such as the End Credits Roll -template.