Contemporary Research ICE-HE - Manual (Page 22)

Contemporary Research 22 ICE-HE Ethernet Head End
To simplify controlling groups of devices, iC-Net is divided into 16 zones of 255 devices, also called
SmartZones. All the devices within each zone can be controlled simultaneously by sending a command
to a single ―virtual device number‖.
For example, noting the SmartZone chart below, if we send a Power On command to device #256, any
TV controller numbered between 257 and 511 will instantly turn on. If we send a Power Off command
to device #4095, all devices in the system will turn off.
This is an immensely powerful feature, because most systems can only address one device at time. So
if you need to turn off all 50 TV in a zone, you would need to send 50 commands. In addition to the
hassles of creating multiple commands, there would be a long delay between the first and last
command. One command, instant response is easier.
ABC Media Retrieval Systems reserve Zone 0 for devices used in the central control system, 1 -15 for
iC-Net devices. This structure may be useful for your application, or you could use Zone 0 just like any
other iC-Net zone.
Zone First Device Last Device Virtual Device
1 257 511 256
2 513 767 512
3 769 1023 768
4 1025 1279 1024
5 1281 1535 1280
6 1537 1791 1536
7 1793 2047 1792
8 2049 2303 2048
9 2305 2559 2304
10 2561 2815 2560
11 2817 3071 2816
12 3073 3327 3072
13 3329 3583 3328
14 3585 3839 3584
15 3841 4000 3840
All Zones 4095
Tip:You've probably figured out that you never want to assign a virtual device number to an actual
device in the system. If you assigned #1536 to a device, all the TV controllers in Zone 6 would respond
every time you sent a command to that one device.