Q-SYS Corner

[Steve Guttag]

Without removing the Core and opening it up, I don't know of a means to find out its RAM capacity. The serial number contains the week/year of the unit so determining 2017-APR is going to be easier to determine.

I just read in another forum that the RAM is indeed the stumbling block. This Crucial brand RAM kit has been tested (by users) to allow operating QDS10: crucial 8gb kit 2x4gb CT2K51264BF160B DDR3L - 1600 SODIMM 1.35V CL11. The noted that DDR3L is key. DDR3 did not work. I also hear that the 4GB kit also works (2 x 2GB). One would think that QSC would offer a RAM upgrade themselves as that would be a cheap/easy way to keep an existing system going. Then again, one would think that they would also offer the boards within a Core as a repair part as they are just screwed in. One can be in and out of a Core 110 in under an hour, regardless of what has failed.

I just had a Core 110c repaired...and by repaired, I mean they changed one of its boards and did indeed up the RAM in it. They also upped its storage too (which probably came along for the ride with the new CPU board). I would presume that it is now QDS 10 capable but since there is a TSC-7 in the system, that won't be happening. Then again, it should have been okay with QDS 10 since it was a 2019 unit.

[Steve Guttag]

Q-SYS For Cinema
Blog-16, QDS–Part-12, Sample 7.1 Part-11, Logic and Control Part-5

Current QDS Versions: 10.0.0 and 9.4.8 LTS.
Sample 7.1 design version: 4.3.0.0

Introduction

This blog will focus on the remaining control for the Sample 7.1 design. The next blogs should start the wrap up the Sample 7.1 design with a discussion of the UCI and duplicating an auditorium.

Disclaimer

If any of the content in this blog happens to show up in a Q-SYS exam, it is not my intention to provide an answer-sheet beyond the discussion of good practice. I have not seen any form of the cinema final exam (my Level-1 was before there was a cinema version).

Disclosure

I do not, in any way, work for QSC/Q-SYS. These thoughts are my own based on my own interactions with the product(s) and implementing Q-SYS within actual cinema environments. I do work for a dealer that has sold QSC products since the 1980s, including Q-SYS and its predecessors. For the purposes of this blog, I represent only myself and not my employer(s) or any other company. Control Components

So, picking up after the booth monitor, we have the four relays and Amp Power:

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Relays

So, what are the relays? The DCIO-H has four genuine relays for controlling typical theatre things. For instance, they could be used to control a dimmer or a masking system. Because they are relays, they don’t have the restrictions/conditions of a typical GPO that might use an “open-collector” type transistor output (transistors are more delicate and, often, limited in the current capabilities. They also, often, have pull-up resistors that could interfere with what you are controlling). You should check the device you are wanting to control to ensure that you do not exceed the capabilities of the relays. They handle up to 30VDC at 1-amp and provide both Normally Open and Normally Closed contacts.

The Sample 7.1 Design has configured them to be pulsed relays but you can configure them anyway you choose. Let’s look at how they are configured.

The blue buttons in the image above sets off a sequence of events. If you want to trace how it is configured; how would we do that? Our friend <CTL-F>.

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We can jump to the source of the control.

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It is a “One-Shot” button within an LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) that is inside a container labeled “Relay Pulse Buttons.” Wow…there is quite a bit going on there too! It looks more complicated than it really is.

The LFO is a handy component for making (among other things) a “pulse.” The one-shot feature of it (turn off “Free-Run”) allows one to send out a single pulse (low-to-high and high-to-low transition). They have it set to square wave, which may seem like a good choice but I’m guessing there is a test question in there. As such, I’ll work with it in its present form. Just know that a wave like a square wave has a positive going wave and a negative going wave for its complete cycle and we just want one of them. There might be a better choice that reduces our overhead. A clue would be the 3-second period when the pulse duration is just set to 1.5-seconds.

So, what does the LFO do in this design?

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Hmm. It has a Signal Name of T1 that goes to “Period.” We’ll come back to that one. It has a Signal Name on its Output of RELAY1-A1. That shows up on the DCIO-H’s GPIO:

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We were expecting that since it was called “RELAY 1.” If you open DCIO’s component up so you can see its buttons that represent the relays, you can emulate the design <F6>. Press the blue Relay 1 button (in the schematic) and watch the “Relay Output” “click” for the desired amount of time.

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You can also verify that if you change the time (they labeled it as “width”) that it does indeed change to the desired pulse width.

Okay, what’s with all of the crazy extra components in there with “Relay Pulse Buttons” container?

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Because the Square Waveform was chosen, we need to get the period to be double our desired pulse duration. They:

• Added a “Custom Control” (RSP component) and set it to be a “Float Knob” and then labeled it “Input.”
• Added another Float Knob and set its range to 2 for both minimum as well as maximum so it is always set to 2 (or 2.00, since it is a float knob).
• Added a “Control Function” (also a RSP component) and set it to “Value Product” with 2 inputs.

All of that allowed them to provide a means of setting the desired pulse duration and multiply it by 2 so that the LFO would time out properly. So, if you set the width to 1.00, the float knob will go to 1.00. It will be multiplied by 2 using the Value Product component and the result is sent to the Period of the LFO.

So, what are those “Width” controls?

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They are the Float Knobs from the “Input” controls shown above. You can use <CTL-F> to find that out.

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To get the float knobs into a desired form, merely drag the knob out of the Custom Control and change it to a “Text Field” in the properties of the knob you just drug out. Then size it and set the colors as desired.

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[Blog 16, Page 1 of 4]

[Steve Guttag]

Amp Power

Compared to the Relays, Amp Power is going to be easy. Again, using <CTL-F> you can find that it is a Toggle Button (Custom Control).

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The PWR-A1 Signal Name connects to the amplifier “Power On” pins.

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So, there is nothing tricky there.

Test & Measurement

Pink Noise

In order to tune a theatre, we need to have a means of sending a known/calibrated pink noise source to the various channels. Q-SYS has a specific Pink Noise generator for cinema that has the prescribed 12dB crest factor pink noise and should be used for cinema calibration. And, furthermore, the reference level for cinema is -20dBFS. So, when you are calibrating your speakers to 85dBc-slow, your pink noise should be set to -20dB.

If you’ve been reading the blog, you will know where the pink noise generator is in this design. They chose to make the pink noise generator to be a source, just like DCPs, Mics Non-Sync. So, you’ll need to go back up to the upper-left of the design, where the other inputs reside.

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For a quick refresher, I added a Snapshot Controller for just the level so we could return it back to -20dB quickly. I also brought out the level so, when we are setting up a system, for the first time, we can lower the level to say -40dB to better protect the speakers until we know things are hooked up correctly and we are in the right ballpark for out output levels.

The PINK-A1 Signal Name lands on the “Routing” on pin 24.

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Okay, back to the Test & Measurement section:

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Those magenta (you might even call them “pink”) buttons are Snapshot Load buttons and you can use <CTL-F> to find which buttons they map to. The Snapshot controller is right above the buttons.

Looking at the Snapshot section of the schematic (LSP) we can see what is involved on a Snapshot Load (what happens when you press one of the buttons?).

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Note, they used “All Controls” for each of the three components they are controlling.

• For Routing, the Pink Noise input is selected and the outputs are muted, except for the channel or channels that are desired.
• The SURR OFFSET GAIN is returned to 0dB (so you set the surrounds to 82dBc for each of surround channels).
• Cinema Pink Noise Generator is set to -20dB.

So, when you select a channel, the Snapshot takes care of ensuring that internal gains are set to where you want them so you can just worry about setting the output levels.

I find it odd that the way they turn PINK OFF is to leave Pink Noise selected but MUTE all outputs (from the Router). The SURR OFFSET GAIN is set to -3dB. So, it does not leave you where you were. You need to reselect whatever format you want (i.e. FEATURE 7.1).

Since both the Format Selector and the Pink Noise control the Router, there is a Snapshot interaction. If you select a pink noise channel, the format button merely dims…so you don’t really know what format is selected.

This is what the UCI looks like when you conclude your pink noise usage (PINK OFF) if you were on Feature 7.1.

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If there was no sound (and there won’t be) …the user won’t know that there is an internal pink noise selected and that it is off. In my opinion, that is a little sloppy. I’ll refer you back to Blog-10 for my opinions on how I would recommend injecting pink noise to avoid this sort of design pitfall.

Pink Noise Injector

Speaking of injecting, they provide an Injector (a couple really) but one is tied to the Cinema Pink Noise component.

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This can be quite handy. With a live system, you can click on that Injector and move it to whatever pin in the signal chain you want to test and then hover your cursor over various outputs to trace out the signal path to look for breaks or other problems and, of course, you can listen/measure what is coming out of the speakers.

Some people do not even build in a full pink noise system and JUST use the Injector to put the pink noise where they want it. There is nothing wrong with that but it can be frustrating because one false “click” and the Injector goes running back to its parking spot.

As an example, if I wanted to inject pink noise into the Right Rear Surrounds (RRS), it would look like this:

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Note, the injector has a gain associated with it…you might want to make sure it is set to 0dB, if you are calibrating anything off of it.

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IO Monitor

The IO Monitor can be handy device. As its name implies, you can monitor the input and outputs. They have it connected to an RTA. In the Sample 7.1 Design, your input is the DCIO-H and your outputs are the amplifiers. You can select any channel on any of your input/output audio devices.

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You could combine that with “hovermon” (where you can merely hover your mouse over an audio pin and hear the audio at that pin plus it provides a mini-RTA) to check your system.

[Blog-16, Page 2 of 4]

[Steve Guttag]

Signal Probe and Signal Injector

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These are way-cool. If you’ve ever worked with a patch bay, that is what is like to work with the Signal Probe and Signal Injector. You can drop the Signal Probe wherever you want your source signal to be and then drop your injector wherever you want to inject that signal. You can, literally, rewire a system, on-the-fly with these.

I think they should be part of any “Test Kit” within a Q-SYS System. You get gain and mute with each of them too so they can be very handy when working with them as a pair.

You can certainly put multiple ones in your design, as this one has done. So, be sure to color coordinate them so you know which ones you are working with! Just know, they are temporary. If the system reboots or you close down your instance of QDS, they will snap back to their parking spots.

GPIO & Control

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We’ve already covered just about everything in the first column (Fader Snapshot, Bypass Snapshot, and the Amplifier Power). If you plan to have a clock anywhere in your design. It can be used for UCI displays as well as other components where you might want a timestamp.

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You do have a degree of customization on how it displays the date and time, which can be particularly useful as different parts of the world display dates differently and you may prefer 24-hour time versus 12-hour.

The time is whatever the Core’s time is. That is how you set it. Set the Core’s time in Core Manager or via NTP (configured in Core Manager).

GPIO In (and out)

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You should note that the GPIO In is from the Core, not the DCIO. Different Cores have different GPIO capabilities. The Sample Core is a Core 110f.

We are using just GPIO-1 as a contact closure input:

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So, when input 1 is connected to the Core’s GPIO Ground terminal, it will be “On” or “Active.” Typically, a mechanical switch or relay is what one would connect here. In the case of this design, we are wanting the Fire Alarm system to provide a dry contact closure (relay) input when the Fire Alarm is active. Normally, they can provide either Normally Open (what we want, in this case) or Normally Closed relay contacts. If they can only provide Normally Closed contacts (open when there is a fire), then we would need to put a “Logic NOT” (Control Function) on our GPIO pin.

After the GPIO, there is a Toggle Button and they brought that out and placed it right below the component. Why? So, you can test the system without needing to either unwire it or set off the fire alarm. You will want to know that when you press the “FIRE” button that the system behaves as expected. You would NOT want to put that button on the UCI! (why not?)

The output of that toggle button is connected to the “System Mute” (RSP component) and it has a FIRE1 Signal Name.

The System Mute does as you would think, it mutes all outputs during a fire event. It unmutes to -20dB and then ramps the level back up to 0dB. That is, when it is muted, all outputs are muted but when it unmutes, it applies a -20dB to all outputs (on top of what you have already set them to) and then ramps them back up to “normal” levels so all of your calibrations are at the same levels as they were.

Just know, the System Mute does not go out of its way to call attention to itself. In the upper-right corner of QDS, there is a “speaker” icon that will either be red with a slash through it (muted):

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Or black, without the slash:

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You probably will want it to be obvious that the system is muted (appropriate LEDs located in the UCI and possibly the schematic).

You are free to use other means to kill the audio/show during a fire event. For example, you could put the amplifiers into Standby as that would also indicate that the system is not playing audio (the CX-Q amps will have their buttons turn red). Your Amp Power button would also turn red. There is the Mute button on the DCIO could also be utilized…again, that will show to the user that the system is muted.

Okay, let’s not forget that “FIRE1” Signal Name. Where does it go? It goes to the “Logic Or” (Control Function). The OR is if either the FIRE1 or the DCIO MUTE-A1 are activated, the MASTER MUTE-A1 is activated.

So, where does the MASTER MUTE-A1 go? <CTL-F> and we find that it goes to the Classic Cinema Fader if you made the changes I made back in Blog-14 or the “MASTER FADER” if you retained the original dB-based fader.

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But notice that Muting the Master Fader/Classic Cinema Fader also mutes the DCIO-H’s Mute button, which gives the user a means of indication that the system is muted. This is good. But there are some not-so-good aspects.

• If the user presses the DCIO’s MUTE button, in this condition, what happens? The DCIO Mute LED goes out but the system remains muted. That could lead to a frustration of the system not properly representing the state that it is in. Remember, the Logic-OR needs either the FIRE1 or the DCIO MUTE-A1 to remain active and so long as the Fire event remains active, the system is muted.
• When the Fire event is over, the mute button and Master Fader remain muted. But they can be unmuted, at that point, by pressing the DCIO-H Mute button, a UCI control or automation/server cue.

Speaking of UCI controls. Can the user unmute the system from there? No. The System Mute is muting all of the outputs. Furthermore, so long as the DCIO-H is Muted, the UCI Master Mute button will fight you to stay muted. Now, if you wanted, you could take something like the LFO and set up a system that, so long as there is a Fire event, there would be the LFO perpetually pressing MUTE to ensure people could not override the system but, by and large, this is probably excessive. You just want to ensure that you are compliant with any fire codes applicable to your site. You also want to provide enough information to your users as to the state of the system.

[Blog-16, Page 3 of 4]

[Steve Guttag]

Automation Command List (ECP)

The Automation Command List is a Popup Button (RSP Component) and is a handy command structure for those using the “ECP” commands. ECP commands are going to be the most popular for cinema since cinema servers and automation systems can send them. They are Ethernet commands using TCP port 1702.

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I suppose I should add in my linear Fader command:

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I opted to use the “csv” (Control Set Value) instead of “css” (Control Set String). In this case, either the GAIN or FADER, both can be represented as Strings or Values so either can be used. But, since all of the other commands are “csv,” I didn’t see the point of having one oddball command.

The ECP commands can be found in the Help file here (note, this link will need to change for the version of QDS you are using):

https://help.qsys.com/q-sys_9.13/#Ex...P_Commands.htm?

QSC has a couple of training videos in their Quick Starts that discuss ECP commands in more detail.

Part A: Connecting to Q-SYS
Part B: Issuing Controls

There is a Part C for Change Groups but I think that is beyond typical cinema needs.

Now, if you are going to use one Core for multiple screens, it is imperative that you think about your “Named Controls” to also specify the theatre you are controlling. There will be just one IP address for your servers/automations to talk to. So, your commands must be unique for each theatre (e.g. FADER-A1 would be a better choice if there are multiple screens).

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And don’t forget to fix the “Automation Command List”

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It should be noted, the ECP control systems will shut the TCP socket down after a minute of inactivity. What this means is, depending on what you are using to control it, you may need to allow for opening the socket before issuing your desired command. Or you may need to configure a “keep alive” routine that polls the Core every 50-seconds or so. A common command to use for this is “sg” for Status Get.

You can use “sg” to open the port and then issue your command too. So, you could create a command like: sg\x0A csv F71-A1 1\x0A (select Feature 7.1).

Note, I used \x0A where you could use whatever your device uses for “new line.” Often that is the shorthand of \n

When working with Doremi products and their Dolby IMS descendants, you will want to bookend your command with a \w (wait command). So, if using, for example, the IMS3000, let your command be \Wcsv F71-A1\n\w. Q-SYS would also respond if you threw in a carriage return (it will ignore the carriage return and still process the command). So, \Wcsv F71-A1\r\n\w will process the same as without the carriage return <\r>. I’ve used the capitol \W on the leading part of the command to give a slightly longer wait. It should work with either the capitol or lower-case “w.”

Conclusions
The control system is reasonably straight forward, in my opinion. Probably the trickiest part is making the relays “pulse” type relays but rest is really pretty straight forward. The probe and injector are very handy tools as is “Hover Mon.”

Hover Mon Help

This is not an all-inclusive design but it is one you can build (and learn) from. I have made some suggestions and critiques (along the way in most/all of the blogs) but those positions are my own and not, necessarily, definitive. Q-SYS is a very flexible platform and able to embrace all kinds of design philosophies as well as accommodate more than most any other cinema sound (and control, with video to boot). My changes should highlight just how easy it is to make the design your own. It is just a few clicks and drags away.

The control system can integrate with your existing servers/automations just like with other sound systems.

Well, this has been quite a journey. This is the last part of the schematic portion of Sample 7.1 Design. The next blog should be a look at the UCI. We’ve touched on it a bit throughout the discussion but there are some bits still left to do. I’ll also go through the steps one might need to take on duplicating this design for another screen on a future blog.

©2025 by Steve Guttag

[Blog-16, Part 4 of 4, End of Blog]