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Network & Connectivity Troubleshooting ​

Web UI Not Loading ​

Symptoms: Browser shows "This site can't be reached", "Connection refused", or a blank page.

Diagnosis steps:

  1. Confirm Exaplay 3 is running — check the system tray icon.
  2. Confirm you are using the correct URL: http://<engine-ip>:8123/ (not HTTPS).
  3. From the engine machine itself, try http://localhost:8123/.
  4. Check Windows Firewall: inbound TCP port 8123 must be allowed.

Windows Firewall rule (PowerShell):

powershell
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Exaplay Web UI" -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -LocalPort 8123 -Action Allow
  1. If the page loads on localhost but not from another machine, the firewall is blocking external access.

UI Connected but Data Not Updating (Stale Project State) ​

If the UI loads but shows a project that is not the one currently open in the engine:

  1. Click the 🔄 Reconnect button (appears when the WebSocket indicator is yellow/red).
  2. Hard-refresh the browser page: Ctrl+Shift+R.
  3. Check the Connection Status indicator in the top-right corner of the header.

The UI uses two WebSocket connections to the engine:

  • /info — project events (cue changes, media status, license)
  • /perf — performance metrics

If either disconnects, the indicator turns red. Exaplay automatically retries the connection every few seconds.

OSC Messages Not Being Received ​

OSC receive is always active — there is no enable switch.

  1. Confirm the port in Menu → Settings → Communication → OSC Listen (default *:8000) has not been changed or cleared.
  2. Confirm the sending device is targeting the correct IP and port (default: 8000).
  3. Confirm the address matches /<prefix>/<composition>/<command> — the prefix defaults to exaplay, and the composition segment is the composition's ID (comp1, …) or its name (_ = space). The Inspector's Show Control section shows the exact address.
  4. Test with a simple OSC sender (e.g. TouchOSC, OSCTestCase).
  5. Check Windows Firewall: inbound UDP port 8000 must be allowed.
  6. Check the Monitor tab in the Control View — incoming OSC messages appear in the event log if the connection is working.

ArtNet Timecode Not Locking ​

ArtNet timecode receive is not supported. There is no control to enable it, and incoming ArtNet timecode is not consumed. For external timecode sync, use OSC, LTC, or MTC instead — see Timecode Sync.

NDI Sources Not Discovered ​

  1. Confirm the NDI sender is on the same network segment as Exaplay.
  2. NDI discovery uses mDNS (UDP port 5353). Ensure multicast is enabled on the network switch.
  3. Check Windows Firewall: allow UDP 5353 and TCP/UDP 5960–5989.
  4. Try using NDI Studio Monitor on the Exaplay machine to verify whether NDI sources are visible to the OS at all. If they are visible there but not in Exaplay, restart Exaplay.

Remote Exaplay Instance Not Appearing in Network Tab ​

Exaplay uses UDP broadcast on port 45454 for auto-discovery. Each instance broadcasts a beacon every 5 seconds.

  1. Confirm both PCs are on the same subnet (e.g. 192.168.1.x/24). UDP broadcast does not cross subnets.
  2. Check Windows Firewall: inbound UDP port 45454 must be allowed on both machines.
  3. Some managed network switches disable UDP broadcast forwarding. Enable it in your switch configuration.
  4. Verify the Exaplay Engine is actually running on the remote PC (check the system tray icon).
  5. Open a browser on each PC and navigate to http://<other-pc-ip>:8123/ — if the UI loads, HTTP works but UDP discovery may be blocked.
  6. Restart Exaplay on both PCs to force re-broadcast.

Windows Firewall rule (PowerShell):

powershell
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName "Exaplay Discovery" -Direction Inbound -Protocol UDP -LocalPort 45454 -Action Allow

Effects Not Updating ​

Effects are rendered by the engine itself, on the GPU — there is no separate effects service and no port to open for them, so a firewall is never the cause. (Earlier documentation described an "Effects Server" on TCP 3001; no such service exists.)

If an effect does not change the picture:

  1. Confirm an effect is actually selected — the Inspector's Effect picker is a choice, not a stack, and No Effect is the default.
  2. Check you are editing the clip you are looking at. An effect is a property of one clip, not of the track or the screen.
  3. On a multi-client rig, confirm the fleet is in Edit mode — in Play mode inspector edits to show content are refused by design. See Multi-Client Setup.
  4. If a client shows the old look, confirm master and clients are on the same show — the live value fan-out addresses clips by UID, and a client on a different project answers 404.
  5. Collect the engine log and contact support if the effect still has no visible result.

Remote Control View Not Working from Another Machine ​

The Control View (/control) and User View (/user) are standard web pages served by the engine. If they load on localhost but not from a remote browser:

  1. The remote browser must use http://<engine-ip>:8123/control.
  2. Firewall on the engine PC must allow port 8123 from the remote device's IP or subnet.
  3. Ensure the devices are on the same network (or connected via VPN).
  4. Do not use HTTPS — Exaplay serves plain HTTP by default.
  1. Confirm the projector's IP and port in Config → Devices → TCP Devices.
  2. Ping the projector from the engine machine: ping 192.168.1.50.
  3. Test the PJLink connection with a PJLink test tool.
  4. Ensure the projector's PJLink port (default: 4352) is not blocked by a switch ACL.
  5. Some projectors require a PJLink password — ensure it is set correctly in Exaplay.
  6. Check the Monitor tab event log for TCP errors when attempting a command.

Exaplay 3 User Documentation

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