Technical information

Simply put, MODOS Ambience allows you to present ultra wide video content spanning up to 4 projectors with built-in playback synchronization.

The video content is either provided by MODOS or by the user who can upload it to MODOS Cloud and push it to each of his/hers room from there.

The installation consists of the Ambience Hub. A Linux-powered device that is engineered, produced and customized by MODOS. This device can provide up to four 1080p HDMI signals for up to 4 Epson laser projectors. The Ambience Hub can connect to the projectors via the local network to automatically turn them on, adjust input or volume.

In addition to projectors, we may also use motorized curtains/screens, amplifiers and lighting fixtures (DMX) which are also controlled by the Ambience Hub.

All of this is integrated into our software, which effectively allows you to seamlessly turn on projectors, play back ultra wide video content, set the room lighting, run down the projection screens and set the volume.

All with a single touch through our web-based iPad control app. The app is even hosted locally on your Ambience Hub, which means that MODOS Ambience continues to run flawlessly, even if the internet is momentarily down.

Architecture

What components make up Ambience?

While Ambience can be composed in many configurations, they follow a similar structure.

The core of Ambience is made up the MODOS Ambience Hub. The Ambience Hub is a special wall-mountable unit that is typically placed above the ceiling or inside a cabinat. This unit contains our hardware, primarily one or more player boards. Each player provides a high definition video signal to a projector. The first peer is also in charge of controlling auxiliary hardware, typically over ethernet.

Auxiliary hardware can include amplifiers, light fixtures, buttons, screens and projectors. The peers are connected to a router which is connected to the internet. The peers use this internet connection to maintain a secure link to our cloud.

Finally, we have the iPad which provides our app, MODOS Play, used to control the operate Ambience. The iPad is connected to the Ambience Hub through Wi-Fi.

Network

How is Ambience connected to the internet?

A MODOS Ambience solution comes with a network wi-fi router. The WAN-side of this router is connected to your network. On the LAN-side of the router, you'll find our hardware, which runs on it's own internal network using our IP plan. For larger Ambience installations, we may include an unmanaged network switch.

Can Ambience run without an internet connection?

No. Ambience can run with occasional interruptions, but without an internet connection you cannot add new Moods or change configuration. And your system is not covered by the technical support included in MODOS Care.

What if our IT department cannot provide an internet connection or doesn't allow third party devices like Ambience?

In that case, the easiest option is to purchase a mobile data router and connect the MODOS Ambience wi-fi router to it.

Does Ambience require incoming connections and/or static port forwarding?

No.

Does Ambience use non-standard ports for outgoing connections?

Yes. Ambience communicates with our cloud service over a secure VPN connection. Since we reserve the right to unilaterally change hosts and ports, we do not support whitelisting firewalls. If you want to use an outgoing firewall, you must use a blacklisting firewall. For standard ports, we only depend on 80, 123 and 443.

Does Ambience consume a lot of internet bandwidth?

Not really. To optimize performance and minimize network congestion, Ambience downloads Moods before they can used. As a result, the network is only burdened when a Mood is initially added, but not during playback.

Service and maintenance

Do I need an in-house IT department?

No. Ambience is 100% managed by MODOS.

How do I get support?

When you install Ambience, you appoint one or more super users. A super user is authorized contact MODOS and make decisions about the behavior of Ambience.

If a user has a problem/question, who do they contact?

First they consult their super user. If he/she cannot address the question, they can contact our technical support.

How can you support us over the phone?

We have access to your system through an encrypted connection between our cloud platform and your Ambience. This allows us to interact with the system almost as if we were standing next to you in the room.

Do your projectors need lamp replacements?

Our projectors use premium 100% maintenance free laser technology. There are no lamps to replace and no filters to clean.

What is the lifespan of your projectors?

Our projectors have an expected lifespan of 20.000 hours. This is more than 2 years of 24 hours usage. If you use Ambience 4-8 hours per day, you can expect a lifespan exceeding 10 years.

Hardware

What hardware do you use?

Ambience solutions can be composed in many ways, but typically they include one or more RPi4 BCM2711B0 boards, a Neets programmable Relay, a Neets 2:25 programmable amplifier, one or more passive speakers, one or more Epson EB700U laser projectors, an iPad, one or more wall-mounted buttons, one or more DMX-controlled RGB lamps and a D-Link router.

What software do you use?

Our Ambience Hub runs a light-weight version of Linux and on top of that we use our own custom-made Ambience software to manage media and auxiliary hardware.