1 Topic by JoshM

  • JoshM
  • JoshM
  • Recording Engineer at Burnt Orange Studio
  • Offline
  • From: Meridian, MS
  • Registered: 2007-08-13
  • Posts: 1,498

Topic: It is not just audio...

As I am sure most of you guys know, there is a lot more to the MediaMatrix NION platform than just audio DSP. As we have shown at InfoComm the last few years the NWare platform provides a foundation of control for not only the audio system, but outside 3rd party equipment as well. Some people seem to understand this immediately and pick right up on it, while others can't seem to understand why it might be beneficial to have only one system to buy parts for and to program.

Anyhow, to that end, here are a couple of tools that I assembled that you may find helpful if you are trying to program a system that uses Samsung Plasma TVs and DirecTV receivers. Basically, you get a Global Cache iTach IP2IR or WF2IR and you can control up to three DirecTV receivers or three Samsung Plasma TVs natively and directly from within NWare. Obviously you can use as many of the Global Cache units as you need to get the number of IR outputs to control all your devices.

We are using this at a great little burger joint that recently opened across the street from our office. they have seven DirecTV receivers that are being distributed to 15 TV's via modulators. There is a page on an nTouch 180 for each of the seven TV channels that allows the staff to navigate the DirecTV menus and guides to find all the programming that is available on DirecTV and tune it on any of the TVs in the place. The Comms Processors in these devices are all assigned to the nTouch 180 instead of the NION, which is only doing the audio processing. It is a very handy little system and the owners of the burger joint are interested in installing this same system into all their restaurants. This system consists of one NION nE, one nTouch 180, five Global Cache WF2IR, and three Global Cache IP2IR.

Please let me know if you have any questions about how these things are supposed to work. They are being distributed here as NWare Plugins (.npp). Save the files on your computer somewhere, then open NWare and go to Tools>Import Plugins. Find the files on your computer and import them. Now these devices should show up in the "Plugins" section of your device list.

Have fun out there!

Post's attachments

Attachment icon DirecTV Receivers.npp 103.21 kb, 726 downloads since 2012-11-29 

Attachment icon Samsung Plasma Televisions.npp 117.34 kb, 753 downloads since 2012-11-29 

Josh Millward
Burnt Orange Studios

JoshM's Website

2 Reply by FrankBloom

  • FrankBloom
  • Member
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  • From: Cherokee NC
  • Registered: 2012-11-21
  • Posts: 2

Re: It is not just audio...

how about for 15 directTV receivers hitting an encoder per receiver and then networked out to 250+ samsungs that are utilizing a set top box? (would this eliminate the STB?)

nevermind on the 2nd half of that - already answered my own question with a little more research... but leads to yet another question:

Is the Global Cache the only device you are setting the plug-in up to work with or are there other brands? and are there larger "multi-IR" capabilities out there other than just the 3 port you mentioned?

Last edited by FrankBloom (2013-01-31 18:06:43)

3 Reply by JoshM

  • JoshM
  • JoshM
  • Recording Engineer at Burnt Orange Studio
  • Offline
  • From: Meridian, MS
  • Registered: 2007-08-13
  • Posts: 1,498

Re: It is not just audio...

Hi Frank,

Global Cache also has a larger box, the GC-100-12 and GC-100-18 which both feature 6 IR ports each. I'm absolutely certain that you could use those with no problem.

I've not done any in depth research, but in most of these networked serial and IR server devices you are simply sending a TCP message across the network and then the networked server device takes the IR or serial message and shoots it out the appropriate port.

I have seen boxes from Extron, Moxa, and Global Cache all used for this kind of thing and they all work very well. Some boxes drop their connection after some period of time, others will stay connected indefinitely. Typically reloading the IP address for the box you are trying to contact will bring it back online and this can be automated within NWare to happen automatically so the thing stays connected forever. Personally, I'm a big fan of the Moxa and Global Cache products as they are what I usually use. With Global Cache's new tiny iTach Flex product, I am becoming a bigger and bigger fan.

The core of communicating with these kinds of devices is using the Comms Processor object in NWare. It allows you to communicate out both the Serial ports and via TCP/IP to other devices. It is extremely flexible and useful.

Josh Millward
Burnt Orange Studios

JoshM's Website