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Quickstart

This walkthrough installs CanvasPro on a Windows machine and gets a scene on screen.

1. Run the installer

Download the latest CanvasPro installer for Windows and run it. The installer is a single signed .exe.

The installer steps:

  1. Welcome. Click Next.
  2. Choose components. Three are selected by default:
    • Ventuz is the real-time 3D graphics engine CanvasPro renders through. It downloads from ventuz.com during install.
    • CUDA Toolkit 12.3 enables GPU-accelerated AI inference for first-party apps such as PeopleAI. The installer downloads it from NVIDIA. Allow 10 to 15 minutes for this step.
    • Blackmagic DeckLink Drivers add SDI capture and output. The installer downloads them from Blackmagic. Around 400 MB.
  3. Optional components. These are off by default:
    • IP address wallpaper sets the desktop wallpaper to the machine's IP, which is useful for kiosk installs.
    • Disable Windows Update prevents Windows from rebooting the machine mid-broadcast. Recommended for production installs.
    • Auto login after reboot logs the configured user in automatically on boot. Recommended for production installs.
  4. Install location. Defaults to C:\CanvasPro\. Change if you need to.
  5. Install. Each component downloads and installs. The window shows progress per step.
  6. Finish. A reboot is recommended to ensure all components register correctly.

2. Sign in

Open CanvasPro in your browser. The first time, the First Time Setup screen asks you to name the instance and create an admin account.

3. Upload an asset

Open Assets from the left rail and drop a file into the upload zone. CanvasPro accepts MP4, MOV, PNG, JPG, SVG, HTML and several live source kinds. Wait for the thumbnail to appear; the asset is then ready to use.

See Supported formats for the full list of codecs and resolutions.

4. Upload a template (optional)

CanvasPro ships with default templates that cover most common cases, so for the Quickstart you can skip this step.

If you have a custom Ventuz template (a .vza archive), open Templates from the left rail and upload it. Custom templates work the same way as the defaults from step 5 onwards.

5. Build a channel, a queue and a scene

The model is: a channel holds queues, each queue holds scenes, and each scene is built on top of a template.

  1. Open Channels from the left rail and click + to create a new channel.
  2. Click the channel card to open its queue deck. Edit mode is on by default.
  3. Click + on the queue rail to add a queue, name it, and Create Queue.
  4. Click + on the queue to open the Create Scene dialog.
  5. The dialog opens on the from asset tab. Pick the asset you uploaded in step 3. CanvasPro looks at the asset's tags, finds a matching default template, and builds the scene for you. No template selection needed.
  6. Create Scenes to save.

That is the fastest path. The dialog has two other tabs for more control:

  • From template lets you pick a specific template (custom or default), then bind variables manually.
  • From preset uses a saved template configuration.

Scenes can also be built from the On Air page when you are operating live and need a new one on the fly.

6. Get it on screen

  1. Open On Air from the left rail.
  2. Click the Assign Channel affordance on Frame 1 (or Swap Channel if a channel is already bound) and pick your channel. Frames themselves are configured under Configure; each frame maps to a region of your physical output.
  3. With the channel bound, hover the scene card and click the » button to Force Live that scene. The queue's own » does the same for the queue.

The screen attached to your output now shows the scene.

Next steps