Lesson Description
Control Tree
3m 52s
Investigate the behavior of control pins, and the structure of scripting parameters that define every Q-SYS object.
Video Transcript
Control Tree
3m 52s
0:08
The Control Components branch of the Schematic Elements Library contains a variety
0:12
of components that can be used in conjunction with any control in your Q-SYS Design.
0:17
As you hopefully know already, every control in your design has a Control Pin that is
0:21
associated with it, which can either accept information from another control, or send its
0:26
own information forward to another control.
0:29
If you’re not familiar with exposing Control Pins, wiring them together, or with adding
0:34
new controls via the Custom Controls component, I’d highly recommend that you check out
0:38
our video on Control Pins before you move forward.
0:42
… Welcome back. So – in the video that you just hastily rewatched, we mentioned that
0:47
controls express themselves both textually and numerically. That was actually a
0:51
bit of a simplification, so I’d like to discuss this in a little bit more detail now. The reason we didn’t
0:57
go deeper in the introductory control pins video is because the explanation of this
1:02
actually involves a little bit of scripting.
1:04
When you refer to a Q-SYS object in script, there are a lot of parameters you might reference.
1:09
These are all represented by the name of the object – dot – the name of the parameter.
1:14
Every parameter describes some aspect of the object. For instance if you were to describe
1:20
a bottle of soda, you might have Bottle.Height and Bottle.Width as numerical fields.
1:26
You might have Bottle.Brand and Bottle.Color as textual fields.
1:31
You might have Bottle.IsOpen and Bottle.IsCarbonated as true/false fields.
1:37
You might even have Bottle.Full or Bottle.Delicious as percentages within an object-specific range.
1:45
This is known as the Control Tree – each parameter is a branch off of the main trunk of the control.
1:52
This same Control Tree idea is true with every Q-SYS control. A control’s numerical
1:57
parameter is its .Value. A fader or gain knob can have a wide variety of Values, while
2:03
a button will have a Value of 1 for on and 0 for off. A control’s textual parameter is
2:10
its .String. Buttons have Strings of true or false, while text fields use this textual
2:16
string for its full description. Controls also have a .Position, which is a percentage
2:22
represented between the range of 0 and 1. A fader set to half would have a Position
2:28
of .5, for instance, while a button that toggles between on and off would jump to the
2:34
top and bottom of its Position range – 1 and 0. This is coincidentally the exact same
2:39
as its Value, so be careful not to get these mixed up. Controls have a wide variety of
2:44
other parameters, including .Color for their visual color, .Legend for their label, and
2:50
others such as .IsInvisible to describe its appearance, which we won’t get into right now.
2:55
For the purposes of wiring controls with Control Components, the .Value, .String, and
3:01
.Position parameters are the most important ones to understand. In fact if you look
3:05
at any component in the Help File, you’ll notice that their controls are usually listed
3:09
in terms of their possible Values, Strings, and Positions. You won’t actually see these
3:14
terms used anywhere on the components when you start wiring them together, but
3:18
understanding them may be critical to make sure your controls do what you want.
3:22
It’s also worth noting that you can hover your mouse over a control pin to see its current String.
3:28
Let’s open the Control Training Worksheet and look at the first exercise in the Control
3:32
Components category. We’ve provided you a variety of controls, and then display
3:37
the .Value, .String, and .Position parameters for each one. Just spend a minute or two
3:43
interacting with these controls to get more familiar with these three parameters,
3:46
and then move on to the next video when you’re ready.
Downloads and Links
Control Tree
3m 52s