Scope

by Augmentl Studio

One operational surface for electronic artworks deployed globally, including the portal network. Built by the person who already keeps them running.

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The problem

The portal network operates almost completely in the dark. Problems surface through visitors, or not at all.

When a portal goes dark

We find out from a visitor, a local operator, or a guess. Never from a monitor.
Diagnosing what actually happened can take hours, working blind across six hardware layers
Recovery means Splashtop and a restart. No real diagnostic capability, no root cause.
Reports from people passing by are inaccurate, always delayed, and nobody's job

The deeper problem

Operational knowledge lives in one person's head: a single point of failure for a global network
No tool encodes what a healthy portal looks like, so nothing can detect when one isn't
Konstruktiv Controller: retired, never had hardware depth
Splashtop: remote access, not monitoring. Not a substitute for either.

What Scope is

A control plane for electronic art installations. Not a dashboard bolted on top.

Scope understands a physical installation the way it actually works: compute, display, environmental controls, cameras, power, network. One system, not six dashboards. The portal network is where it runs today. Every future Augmentl deployment is where it scales.

PC

OS · services · logs

LED

NovaStar brightness · panels

Env.

Controllino · AC · UPS · WAN

A/V

Cameras · VW · streams

How it fits together

Scope architecture.

Cortex · Augmentl Studio Server

📱 Scope Controller

Mobile-first PWA · on-site and remote · per-portal deep control

💻 Augmentl Dashboard

Fleet overview · telemetry history · incident feed

🔔 Alerts

Telegram · Discord · escalation schedule

☁ Cloud Server

⚡ Scope Hub

MQTT command bus & telemetry stream · retained state · WSS

📍 Portal Site

🖥 Portal PC

Scope Bridge · streams · kiosk screenshot · service watchdog

▶ Video Window

Portal AV app (3rd party) · monitored & kept alive by Scope Bridge · future: native replacement

🟧 Controllino

Heartbeat · relays · thermal · boot/reset

🟪 NovaStar VX

LED brightness · blanking · panel temps

🎥 Camera

Exposure · VISCA · virtual tilt · lens

🔋 UPS + AC

Bicker supercap · AC alarms · Modbus

📡 WAN

Peplink dual-WAN · 5G failover

Proof of concept

This isn't a proposal. It's already running on Portal 5, Barra Grande.

The system is operational. Not a mockup, not a prototype. Portal 5 in Barra Grande runs it live. The rest of the fleet already has basic connectivity. This pitch is about resourcing the full rollout.

4

Portals in MQTT fleet

V2

Second-gen UI shipped

30d

Rolling reliability tracking

€500

per portal / month

Coverage

Scope sees what an installation actually is.

Visual state

Live kiosk screenshot + operator display capture · LED brightness and panel temperature grid · VW call state and stream health · freeze detection · 30-day rolling uptime.

Display control

NovaStar brightness, blanking, test patterns · weather/solar auto-brightness with thermal override · per-panel temperature mapping.

Hardware layer

Controllino system state · AC alarms and probe temps · UPS supercap state · energy draw · WAN 1/2 with failover history · PC health and uptime.

On-site commissioning

Camera exposure, white balance, virtual tilt, lens correction, VISCA source selection · presence sensor tuning · per-installation configuration profiles.

Overview

Tab 1 / 4

Live status at a glance.

Live stream + operator display
Both camera feeds update on demand. See exactly what the kiosk and operator are seeing right now.
Stream health monitoring
VW running state, display live/blank, stream freeze detection, auto-blank logic. All in one status block.
Full system telemetry
CPU, RAM, disk, temps, uptime, VW state, LED brightness, presence state. Single panel, no SSH required.
WAN + power at a glance
Internet state, latency, 30-day uptime, UPS power mode, Tailscale status.
One-tap recovery actions
Restart VW, reboot PC, force screenshot refresh. Scoped controls with confirmation.

Screen

Tab 2 / 4

Full LED display control.

NovaStar brightness control
Direct TCP command to the VX400. Set brightness 0–100%, blank, unblank, test pattern, all without NovaCT or Windows.
Auto-brightness modes
Manual, time-of-day schedule, or live solar irradiance via weather API. All configurable per portal.
Thermal override logic
Automatic brightness reduction when panel temperatures exceed safe thresholds. Protects the LED at every site.
Panel temperature map
Per-panel temp grid from NovaStar telemetry. Spot hotspots before they become failures.
Brightness reasoning log
See exactly why the current brightness was set: source, logic, override reason, last change time.

Hardware

Tab 3 / 4

Deep hardware visibility.

Controllino system state
Firmware version, uptime, loop timing, heartbeat interval, boot reason, watchdog resets. The full embedded controller picture.
AC unit monitoring
Controllino → Modbus → probe temps, alarm states, compressor state per AC unit in the cabinet.
WAN failover history
Peplink dual-WAN with live path state. See which link is active, latency per path, and recent failover events.
UPS state
Bicker supercap charge state and power input. Know before the site loses mains whether the backup is ready.
Power + reboot controls
Controlled PC shutdown, hardware reboot via Controllino relay. No physical access required.

Camera

Tab 4 / 4

Camera setup and monitoring, built into the controller.

Live camera preview
Stream the kiosk camera directly in the app. Verify framing, exposure, and image quality from anywhere.
Exposure and white balance
Adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, WB mode, all via VISCA over the portal bridge. No physical access needed.
Virtual tilt and lens correction
Software tilt and keystone correction applied at the source. Adjust the field of view remotely after commissioning.
Presence detection tuning
Tweak the XIAO presence sensor threshold and see real-time occupancy state. Tune without standing at the portal.
Source selection
Switch between camera inputs or video sources via VISCA. Change what the portal displays without touching the PC.

Side by side

Scope vs the Video Window proposal.

Video Window: €500/portal/month

PC setup = install VW, set correct display output
Monitoring = someone logs into Splashtop and looks
Problems detected when the daily check happens, or when a visitor reports it
Zero visibility into LED processor, Controllino, UPS, AC, or WAN
The team's operational knowledge doesn't transfer to them. And theirs doesn't add up to much.

Augmentl Scope: €500/portal/month

Problems surface as alerts, responded to in minutes, not at the next check
Automated recovery paths. Some faults resolve without human intervention.
Structured telemetry history. Recurring fault patterns visible across time, not just in the moment.
Full-stack: PC, LED, Controllino, UPS, AC, WAN, cameras. All layers, one view.
Begins encoding operational knowledge into the tool. Alerts anyone, automated recovery reduces single-person dependency.

Video Window tells you something failed, after someone noticed. Scope tells you before that.

Konstruktiv Controller

Context

The portal network has had a controller before.

Basic system state
System and computer state, heartbeat, two temperature probes. That's the full picture.
Three buttons
Reboot, Boot, Shutdown. No diagnostics, no root cause, no recovery paths.
Screen blank only
One button. No LED brightness, no NovaStar access, no display health data.
AirCon toggle and target temp
On/off and a slider. No alarm states, no compressor monitoring, no probe history.
Retired
Built by an external team with no stake in the network. Not maintained. No longer in use.

Security

Portal data stays inside the team. Access is controlled end to end.

Encrypted transport

All commands and telemetry flow over MQTT/TLS and WebSocket Secure (WSS). Nothing travels in the clear between Cortex, the cloud hub, and the portal sites.

No direct hardware exposure

Portal hardware is never directly internet-accessible. The Scope Bridge on the Portal PC initiates all outbound connections. No inbound ports required at the site.

Authenticated controller access

The Scope Controller requires authentication before any portal is accessible. Per-portal command permissions can be scoped per user.

Self-hosted infrastructure

All telemetry, screenshots, and operational data are retained on infrastructure you control. No third-party platform involved. No portal data leaves to an external vendor.

Why this matters

What Scope gives the portal network.

Operationally

Faster diagnosis when a portal goes dark
Fewer blind recovery attempts
Confident remote support without relying on local staff
A reusable baseline for every new portal deployment

Strategically

Augmentl owns the operational stack, rather than buying a narrower capability from a third party
The network gains a technical backbone instead of stitched tools
Works for legacy portals, current portals, and the next ones
The standard operating layer for everything we ship

The ask

Adopt Scope as the operational platform for the portal network.

Instead of outsourcing a narrower capability to Video Window, make Scope the standard support, commissioning, and monitoring layer across the fleet.

Formalise Scope as a network capability with roadmap, rollout plan, and technical ownership
Continue productising the stack we already depend on
Redirect the Video Window spend into Scope development and rollout

Bottom line. The fastest path to a robust operational platform is to keep building the one that already understands the system — and it's already here.

First step: Agree on a rollout plan and budget for expanding Scope across the full portal fleet — and confirm it as the standard operational layer for future deployments.

Scope

Every installation. Fully in view.

by AUGMENTL STUDIO

nick@augmentl.com