FAQs

Can I do my design work in Poet for free?

Yes, you can. Poet is available for download on our website, allowing you to build your full project, access all features, and use the 3D preview to visualize your content in the project. However, the outputs will include watermarks. To remove these watermarks, you or your client will need to purchase a software license for the project. The license is provided via a USB security dongle.

The Poet file you use to design your project is fully compatible with the licensed version and can be seamlessly uploaded to the project server.

How does the licensing work?

Poet is available as a free download on our website, enabling you to build your complete project, access all features, and use the 3D preview to visualize your content. However, the outputs will include watermarks. To run a project without watermarks, a license is required, which is provided via a USB security dongle.

The license cost depends on the features needed for the project. We offer two types of licenses:

Standard Poet Creator Operating License: Includes a popular set of standard features.
Poet Creator Pro Custom License Options: Allows you to select advanced features such as interactive camera effects, live data inputs, and outputs to suit your project’s specific requirements. Essentially, the project only pays for the features it needs.

Licenses are available as either:

Yearly Subscriptions, which include free software updates.
Perpetual Licenses, with optional paid updates.

How do I buy a license?

Please contact us at support@poet.software, and our team will assist you in determining the most suitable license option for your project. We will also provide you with a detailed quotation.

What are content engines?

They are built in motion graphics generators that you can use to create patterns, movement, colour fields and other effects very quickly. Each content parameter can be linked to live data inputs such as camera tracking, people quantity, weather, crowd noise or even a football match. This way the graphics will change automatically following those data inputs. You can use the content engines to control lighting or to send them to LED screens or projections.

What sensors can I use?

Poet works with a specific set of 3D cameras, Ai trained sensors, ambient sensors and RFID sensors. Contact us to determine the best sensor types for your use case. You can also integrate other sensors through UDP and OSC to Poet.

Can I make interactive content just with a normal camera?

Yes. You can use any USB, CCTV (rtsp) or NDI camera and generate responsive content quickly and easily through Poet Creator.

Can I request a custom data input for my project?

Yes. We provide custom data input integration as a service.

What sports does Poet Creator data input include?

We currently support Football, American Football, Baseball, Ice Hockey and Baseball. If you need a different live sports data input please contact us for custom data input integration.

Can I import my own 3D file into Poet?

Yes. Poet supports most common file types, for example .fbx and .obj. Note you need to UV map the surfaces you want to show Poet content on before importing the file.

How many video outputs does Poet have?

Poet does not limit the number of video outputs you can configure in the ‘Outputs’ tab; however, it does require you to dedicate one video output of your server computer as a system monitor. For example if your graphics card has four DisplayPort outputs, you must dedicate the first one as the Poet control monitor and use the remaining three for your project outputs. You can also send up to two HD NDI outputs at the same time as the video outputs.

What screen sizes do you support?

This depends on the graphics card on the server computer you use to run Poet Creator Software on. Typical maximum screen size on a good Nvidia graphics card is for example 3 No of 5120 x 2880

Can I run any video content or image on Poet?

Yes, Poet supports all popular file types.

Can I do edge blending in Poet?

Poet Creator comes with ede blending, warping and other video projection tools.

Does Poet support sound?

Yes. You can import sound files and choose to which output send them to. Poet supports Dante.

Is Poet a lighting control system?

Yes, you can integrate Poet to control architectural lighting in an imaginative way, linking your lighting to live data inputs and sensors. We recommend using Art-Net or sACN as the lighting protocols, though you can also integrate with other protocols and control systems.

How do I integrate Poet with Art-Net, sACN, or Kinet lighting?

You can integrate Poet using one of the following methods:

NDI Output: Send an NDI output from Poet to a pixel mapping software, such as ENTTEC ELM, running on the same server as Poet.
HD Video Output: Send an HD video output to an external pixel mapping system, such as Pharos.

Depending on the processing capability of the server computer you choose you can run any number of universes from 4U to 8192U from a single machine together with Poet.

Can I control Poet with BMS or other AV and Lighting systems?

Yes. You can send and receive TCP/IP, UDP, OSC and RS232 commands with Poet. We also offer REST API.

Is Poet a media server?

Not really in the traditional sense of the word, but you can schedule and play media files with it as part of your presets and states. Its good to note that Poet is designed for fixed installations, we do not recommend it for timeline based show applications.

Can I stream content to Poet from Unreal engine or other media servers?

Yes. You can either capture video from another system or stream it in as RTSP or NDI.

Do I need to use specific brand of lighting or screens and projections with Poet?

No. You can use any manufacturer that supports the particular lighting and video protocols you like to work with.

Do you offer media servers?

Yes, we provide three tiers of dedicated media server computers designed for 24/7 permanent installations. Learn more here.

Do I have to use your media servers?

No, you can source any Windows OS media server computer to run Poet Creator. You’ll just need to purchase a license from us, which will be shipped to you with a physical USB security dongle.

Does Poet Creator run on Mac or Parallels?

No, Poet Creator is only compatible with Windows running on a PC.

Do you provide sensors and cameras?

Yes. We will advise you on the best options and then pre-configure the sensors and supply them to you.

Do you provide LED lighting?

No. We do provide integration support services that can include advise on LED lighting protocols and systems best suited for your use case.