Samsung Multiple Display Control (MDC) Integration Guide

This document serves as a comprehensive guide that outlines the steps required to integrate most Samsung commercial (meaning non-consumer) displays with the NetSpeek platform using Samsung’s MDC (Multiple Display Control) protocol over TCP/IP.

Prerequisites

Before beginning the integration, confirm the following:

  • Your Samsung display is powered on and connected to a network that is routable to/from your NetSpeek Edge.
  • You have deployed a NetSpeek Edge VM as described here: https://docs.netspeek.ai/netspeek-edge-installation-guide/
    • Note: This integration requires an Edge running software version Beta5 or later.
  • Samsung display(s) that support MDC (“Multiple Display Control”) are deployed in your environment.
  • You have administrative access to each display’s settings.

Note

  • The MDC protocol works over RS-232 or RJ45 (TCP/IP). This guide covers TCP/IP exclusively.

Extended Prerequisites: Enable remote control on the display

  • On each display, enable the requisite Remote Management / MDC features to allow external control (the names of these features may vary somewhat by device type).
    • Assign a Device ID. These must be in the numerical range from 0–253; for reasons explained below, NetSpeek suggests configuring all Device ID values to be 0.
      • Specific onscreen UI navigation may vary by model; look under Advanced Settings → Remote Management or similar. The MDC ID range and configuration requirements come from the protocol specification.
On the device UI, select ID Settings (or equivalent)
Confirm Device ID is configured to 0

Note

Where the Device ID comes from, and why it matters

The MDC protocol was designed originally for RS-232 (prior to modern IP networks) and allowed for physically connecting / daisy-chaining a large number of displays together, with no natural differentiator for what display in the chain is being sent any given command. Essentially the protocol was for a “party-line” type system, and the 0-253 ID numbers are for identifying which display in the string-of-devices each command is destined for.

When the protocol was extended from RS-232 to TCP/IP, the Device ID concept remained. While these 0-253 identifiers may not be familiar to some administrators, they are necessary (in addition to the device’s IP address) for control commands because of the development history of the MDC protocol. Since each display will have a unique IP address on a modern network, if not using RS-232 there is no necessity for unique Device ID values and thus NetSpeek recommends for simplicity configuring all Device IDs to 0.

For some additional detail on the MDC protocol if interested, see this explanatory video from Samsung.

Step 1. Add Device to NetSpeek Room Canvas

Device Provisioning Flow

  1. In the NetSpeek Console, navigate to Room Management
  2. Select the room you wish to add your Samsung device to
  3. Click Launch Room Canvas
  4. Click Add device to room
  5. Choose your desired device from the manufacturer → device model list.
  6. Configure the appropriate values, and in the “Integrations” section, select a previously created NetSpeek Edge VM integration. Ensure that the Edge VM is on a network that can reach the device’s configured IP address.
  7. In the configuration panel, enter the following fields:
    • Device IP Address (static/reserved IP, or DHCP)
    • Device ID (optional) — enter a specific MDC ID only if your environment has configured a value other than 0 in your display’s settings. As described in the screenshot below, NetSpeek will by default send MDC commands to the display’s IP address with Device ID of 0x00 which corresponds to an on-screen setup configuration of simply the number 0.

Verification

Once the relevant settings described above are configured, to validate the integration:

  • Select a Samsung device in the NetSpeek console, open the Device Actions Tab, and select an available device action. It is generally advisable to test by dispatching a non-intrusive command such as a Get Status.
  • On the device, observe the selected action occurring.

Troubleshooting

Connection Issues

  • Confirm the IP address is correct and routable from the network segment where the NetSpeek Edge VM is deployed.
  • Ensure the port used is not blocked by firewall rules on the machine running your NetSpeek Edge VM.
  • Ensure that the MDC Device ID is set to 0, or if not, that the NetSpeek configuration for the display’s Device ID matches the display’s actual configuration.

Support

If you run into any issues during onboarding or have questions, contact NetSpeek Support at support@netspeek.com.