Scheduling

Straight from the old website --Malcolm.chambers 23:36, 22 December 2009 (UTC)

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The main scheduling hardware is provided by the Hedco network mux - the NetMux.

This provides two 16 input, single output video muxes, and the same for stereo audio. Currently both video boards are fed from the same video sources from the distribution amplifier. Audio comes from the NetMuxBreakout, and currently only uses the campus network audio layer to feed both stream and network outputs via the compressor. For more details of the wiring see NetMuxWiring.

The network mux is controlled over a serial port from the custom NetMuxController built by Rob. This has a series of preset manual settings (to send live shows, vidserv, clock and inform to net / stream) and the Obey switch that gives the computer control system authority over the system. To cut other sources to net, use the mux front panel (for how, see the NetMux page).

The desk controller is plugged into a USB port on the old office PC which is now used to run SpiDer - the heart of the network control system. This accepts command requests from all the possible control sources (a command line interface and SchedSeven currently), and sets the highest priority requests onto the hardware.

The firmware within the NetMuxController is currently being updated to move away from using serial emulation over USB to communicating using a lower level access to the USB and a custom protocol. This custom protocol is defined in SpiderUSBProtocol.

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