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Like it or not, the Facebook Q-SYS forum is the most popular and fastest place for general answers. As to the plugin issue. Yes, it is reported and this has been the response:
Netgear have confirmed a bug with the Rest API in that firmware version. Live with it a while or roll back to .17 or earlier.
Many thanks for relaying. As you know, my privacy concerns with the social media behemoths are such that I don't want to go anywhere near them. If it's a harmless bug, then we can live with it; especially as the combination of the Q-Sys HDMI endpoints and Netgear AV switches has been very efficient and painless. Once hooked up, they just worked. The glitches and ass bites on this install have all been audio and automation/integration related (e.g. figuring out what commands to send to an ancient Doug Fleenor RS232 to DMX box to control the house lights). The HDMI side of things just plugged and played (once source devices had been forced to 7.1 LPCM audio output, because unlike the DCIO-H, the Q-Sys HDMI video endpoints can't handle Dolby or DTS audio).
Doug Fleenor! I have not heard that name in a while. We exchanged some DMX design ideas about 20 years ago when I worked for Dove Systems in San Luis Obispo. He is in Arroyo Grande, about 15 miles south. I saw him quite frequently back then.
Yes, the Q-SYS endpoints do not support bitstream audio, unfortunately. And, I'm sure, the Q-SYS backbone doesn't either so even if they were to, say, be able to license Dolby/DTS into an NV21/NV32...that end point would need to do the decoding right then and there and move the audio as an 8-channel stream rather than just keep it encoded for it to be decoded elsewhere. By forcing the sources to do the decoding you just move it up stream one notch and are dependent on each source.
The other issue is if you want to have that multichannel audio map to a cinema sound system...how to handle 2-channel, versus 5.1 channel, versus 7.1 channel? Correct me if I'm wrong, the channel count information is lost. So, if you open your NV endpoint to 8-channel audio to cover all bases, it won't tell you that you have just a 2-channel content coming in (e.g. a laptop). Now, you are left with either coming up with clever schemes to use the actual signals to see if it is just 2-channel or a higher count (and then figuring out when to presume 2-channel) or, just letting 2-channel stuff play out of left and right speakers and create a huge hole at the front of the theatre. Additionally 5.1 content will not use the rear surrounds.
I have not played with the NV stuff, myself, yet, because it is, shall we say, pricey, if you just want HDMI endpoints. However, I do see that on the Generic HDMI Display and Generic HDMI source...you CAN specify the channel count and they have "Valid" status pins available. Do these keep up with what is plugged in? It looks like it should but I cannot emulate it.
One of the benefits of the DCIO-H is that it does keep channel count information, even from LPCM so one can apply the appropriate channel routing/decoding.
My next question for you is with respect to the whole network switches in a complex. It is one thing to have a big Netgear switch and feed everything from it...though it makes the network VERY cumbersome when one gets to the point of getting that network down to the screen of a theatre. That is, while it is simple enough to group a handful of lines per screen and land them on a patch bay at each screen (though in a 10-plex, for example, you are now out to 50 such lines with a switch to match...or you have to reduce the line count). You're going to want 3 lines, minimum to each theatre (projector, local, screen area for a lectern/laptop). But, if you are using copper...that distance could be frustrating on the furthest runs. If going fiber, at some point, you are going to need to get it back to copper and all the while, paying attention to the bandwidth of it all because you are going to have at least 2-streams going (source and display) for that single theatre.
The other thought I had was to use a fiber only at the central point where you can get 10G or so to each theatre and then smaller switches at each theatre to go from fiber to copper...10G in and 1G to each device. Again, this gets into a pretty pricey situation.
Another scenario I've thought about is to really minimize hardware. Run 2-3 lines to each theatre but no endpoints. If theatre 2 is using the A/V system, then take the endpoint with say letter "E1" on it...plug it in down by the screen (or mount it in a lectern and use it for Zoom applications since that can be your AV bridge via USB as well)...take another endpoint with say D1 on it and plug that into the projector's HDMI input (via the server or directly into the projector, depending on the feature set)...at that point, all the user has to do is select that E1 connects to D1 and the system doesn't care where they physically are located. You don't need to do any dynamic pairing either. If need be, you can have D1's audio routed to the specific theatre.
One of the things I'm trying to avoid is the added expense of having a bunch of hardware that sits around waiting for the rare opportunity to be used because the event happens to use a specific auditorium on a specific day. Copper is relatively low-cost to buy/install. Endpoints and even network switches, like the Netgear stuff is more expensive (and is more likely to need replacing/updating than the copper in any given period of time).
For Blu-ray stuff, I'm already designing systems where there may be just 2-3 of them for a complex and then just route them to where they need to go for that event. Again, just route BR-1 to D2 and put D2 wherever the event is. Using endpoints like Visionary Solutions (which do handle bitstream as well as scaling/frame rate conversion), it is all PoE stuff (which the NV32 is only PoE if your switch has a small nuclear reactor in it).
It would be great if Q-SYS would come out with a QIO HDMI or, better yet, bring out a new I/O frame and have an HDMI card (probably not going to happen as they have moved away from that model). The added expense of having DCIO-H versus the DCIO could be diverted to building up a sufficient HDMI decoding infrastructure with say Extron SSP200 as you only need enough to handle your worst case rather than...again, if you are a 10-plex, paying for 10 HDMI decoders on the off chance that each particular theatre MAY use the HDMI port, at some time. The extra expense for the HDMI support over that complex is approaching around $10K...that money could be diverted to putting the amount HDMI decoding you really need and getting the right amount of video endpoints that you really need. Make the endpoints less theatre specific.
Note, the Title Count is configurable via the properties on the right hand plane. I have it set to 16 to match the button panel. The text on the buttons are pulled from the projector.
So, you can use the plugin for diagnostics as well as control. The "Test Pattern" box in the upper screen shot is a drop-down so you can select a test pattern too.
And, remember, you don't have to present a plugin as provided, you can parse out the bits and pieces that are important to you (and augment them, as desired) and present them in a manner you find works best. Here is one of my NEC UCIs (the client's colors are burgundy and gold so the UCI reflects that).
For instance, it was confusing what is meant by the douser status. Some that deal with video projectors will know a douser as a video mute so is true when muted or true when open? I opted to use the words Open and Close and to reinforce the state of all three controls with multi-color LEDs that show green when everything should be putting a picture out and red if anything could prevent a picture.
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