360 Systems 1200HD-EX - Manual (Page 93)

Page 92 MAXX-1200 Owner’s Manual
Controller Priority
Only one serial controller can take control of a given video channel at a time. In general, the
first controller to gain control of a video channel will have exclusive control; this prevents
conflicting commands that would cause unexpected behavior. The only exception is that the
graphic user interface can immediately take control of a channel by de-selecting Serial
Control
in that channel’s dialog window.
External controllers are prohibited from taking control away from the GUI. The Serial Control
box must be checked in the channel dialog window before a remote control device can
communicate with that channel.
Configuring the Automation Interface
Setting the automation protocol for a video channel
Each video channel can be configured independently for VDCP or BVW protocol.
To map a protocol to a channel, Click EDIT >CONFIGURE >SERIAL PORTS from the main
pull-down menu. The screen of in Figure 35 is displayed. Use the PORT pulldown to select
COM1, 2 or 3. These map to Video channels 1, 2 and 3.
• Select VDCP to map the port to VDCP protocol
• Select BVW to map the port to BVW and ODETICS protocols
Note that the ODETICS protocol is layered with the BVW protocol, and that it supports clip
names of up to eight characters only. Clips with longer names will not be displayed by an
Odetics controller and will not be accessible. This includes the demo clips shipped with the
server; see the section on page 56 to rename the clips to allow their use for testing.
VDCP operation can allow control of a channel by ID number from a different numbered serial
port, while BVW and Odetics protocol control only the channel number corresponding to the
number of the serial port in use. Take care if using both protocols not to allow VDCP
controllers to address a channel that is controlled by BVW/Odetics on another serial port.
If necessary turn on “Assigned Serial Ports” in VDCP Options – this will force VDCP to
control the channel corresponding to the serial port it is connected to regardless of the channel
ID in the control messages. This allows flexible assignment in control systems that limit choices
of channel IDs, and also (with some systems) can reduce the possibility that, if the server is
disconnected for any reason, the controller might have to be reset to resume communication.