Video Transcript
Traditional Wiring & Signal Names
4m 14s
0:08
In this tutorial we are going to cover all the different ways you can wire components together
0:11
in the software. Q-SYS offer a variety of ways you can do this,
0:15
and knowing how each one of them works will really keep your design clean and efficient.
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So let’s start off by adding an I/O Frame, go to your Inventory and hit the Plus icon, peripherals, I/O Frame.
0:27
And let’s add some cards to it so we’ll go over to its properties panel,
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let’s say it’s got a Mic/Line Card and a DataPort Card.
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Alright, we’re going to drag the components for both of those Cards into our Schematic.
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Now let’s take a look at these two components.
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Now normally there would be a whole lot of digital processing that goes on in between these two.
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Audio comes into our system through the Mic/Line In, it goes through DSP,
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and then it goes out into our system to a loudspeaker or an amplifier through the DataPort.
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But for the sake of this tutorial, we’re just going to connect them directly.
1:02
The Mic/Line Component has four output pins, and the DataPort Card has four input pins.
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Now you’ll notice that its output pins over here are a different shape,
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they’re a little right-facing triangle rather than a circle,
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that’s because these outputs aren’t an audio line, this is a data line
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and Q-SYS won’t let you wire two components together that don’t match.
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So the first way that we could wire these outputs to these inputs is by Traditional Wiring.
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Where you simply grab a pin, drag it over to the next pin, and voila,
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you’ve got a nice curved line that connects them. You can do this one at a time
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or you can do multiple at a time – you could grab all of these output pins
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and drag them all over to the input pins
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and they will automatically wire themselves to the appropriate inputs.
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Now if you don’t like this curved wire look, you can click anywhere on the wire and create a break point.
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You can drag it somewhere else and adjust the line however you want.
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You can make as many breakpoints as you want, you can even click on a break point
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and then delete that break point if you didn’t like it,
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and you just keep on adjusting it until you’ve got the wire that you like.
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But that looks a little crazy so let’s just make that a nice curve.
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Now sometimes if you have a big complicated design
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you may not want to see wires running all over the place.
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So you can use a second way to wire components together that’s called Signal Names.
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So I’m going to delete these wires. What you want to do for Signal Names is you can click on any pin,
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hit the space bar, and type in the name that you’d like for your signal name.
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I’m going to use “Mic Channel 1" and hit enter. Then you can go to the pin you’re going to connect it to,
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once again you hit the space bar and you type it in.
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Now you’ll notice that before I’ve even finished typing it in,
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it’s going to present to me all the available Signal Names that I can choose from.
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Now you may have also noticed that, until the connection is complete,
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the signal name label has a jagged end to it, indicating that it is unterminated.
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Not only that, down here by our Design Inspector we have a warning icon
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telling us that we have incomplete signal paths. Now once we finish that Signal Name,
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then you’ll notice that they curve off and our design inspector is happy again.
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Now just like traditional wiring, you can create multiple Signal Names at a time,
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so let’s delete these ones. And we’re going to select all four of our input pins and hit the space bar,
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and type in a label. And when we hit enter it will automatically assign them numbers in increasing value.
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Now one thing you may have noticed there is I selected those pins by moving from
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left to right with my selection box, if I was moving from right to left then my component is also
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being touched by that green box so if I were to hit the space bar now and rename it,
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whoops – I’m renaming the entire component.
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So you don’t want to do that. So let’s undo that.
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So now to copy over these Signal Names you want to select them all, hit Control+C to copy them,
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you’re going to select the pins you want to connect them to,
4:01
and hit Control+V and now we’ve got nice terminated Signal Names.
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Alright, why don’t we put a pause right here, and you can go on to the next part whenever you’re ready.
Lesson Description
Traditional Wiring & Signal Names
4m 14s
This lesson demonstrates the first two wiring methods available in Q-SYS Designer: Traditional Wiring and Signal Names.
Tips and Definitions
Traditional Wiring & Signal Names
4m 14s
Adding Inventory: In the Left-Side Pane, in the Inventory Menu, click the "+" button and choose between amplifier, loudspeakers or peripherals.
Traditional Wiring: A type of connection created by manually dragging one pin to another pin.
Breakpoint: If you don't want the defaulted Bezier-curved line, you can create straight breakpoints by clicking anywhere along the wire.
DataPort Pins: These are represented by right-facing triangles.
Signal Name: A type of connection created by naming pins to create a Signal Name. Click on any pin, press the space bar, and type a name. Repeat this process with the desired component pin to terminate the connection.
Creating Multiple Signal Names: Highlight all of the pins you’d like to name, press the space bar, and type in a label; the software will automatically assign the Signal Names numbers in increasing value.
Downloads and Links
Traditional Wiring & Signal Names
4m 14s