Q-SYS Corner

[Steve Guttag]

Inputs

This is going to be a little tricky. We have existing buttons and text field from A1 in our A2 schematic. And, anything we drag over will be on the top layer so it will obstruct our buttons. Also, our Meter container still has A1 in its name. The container isn’t an active thing so its name can be identical, just like text in a box can be identical. The meters inside will be appropriately labeled…really…check it out. We’ll want to fix that too.

First, I’m going to drag the Digital Inputs from the inventory onto the schematic.

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Then, I’m going to select the buttons and stuff that I want on top of the “Digital In” component so they are all selected.

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Then, right-click on them and set them to the top layer.

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Now I can position the DCIO-H’s Digital Inputs where I want it.

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Or do I want to place it just yet? How about the wires to connect it up? It will be time consuming to wire it up one contact at a time. It will be pretty much impossible to select all of the pins at once…unless, we slide it over so our cursor can get all of them easily.

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Then, slide it into place. It just takes a little bit of planning.

Don’t forget the big “1” in the Screen number needs to become a big “2.”

There, I think “Inputs” are done (or are they?):

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Visually, yes. But those components on top of the Digital In need to be remapped. Open the “Digital In DCIO-A2” and start clicking/dragging. Remember what the Red LED is? That is the Status LED so we know if the DCIO has any issues while troubleshooting. Drag the LED out of the Digital In and up to the LED on the schematic component and when you get to it, it will ask if you want to press the Control key…do so as you release:

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You want to Remap Control. Repeat for the HDMI, DCP (aka AES 9-16) and the Audio Format box.

In prep for the Processing Section, we should expose the “HDMI Enable” and “AES 9-16 Enable” pins (only needed if you made the modifications I made).

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That wasn’t so bad. And, if you messed up, <CTL-Z> (undo) can be your friend to try again.

Processing

If you look around the “Processing” group, you’ll see that, for the most part, it is pretty much ready to go. We have two broken Signal Names down at the bottom for the ADA signals.

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Anyone remember where they go? Remember, you can always look back to Auditorium 1 and use…<CTL-F> to find where. It is the Analog Out of the DCIO-H. If you go over to the “Outputs” group, add the “Analog Out DCIO-A2” from the LSP. All that remains is the LED that I brought out to represent clipping. Remember though, that will be for A1 so it will need to be remapped. It will also need to be brought to the top (select, right-click and bring to the top). If not, it will be below the new DCIO-H component you are bringing in.

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You can either copy/paste the signal names or just click on the pin, press <spacebar> and start typing (HI or VI) and then select the right one. While I was there, I finished it off by also copy/pasting the Monitor Fader.:

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[Steve Guttag]

Equalization and Amplification

Moving over to the “Equalization” section, we’re all good until we get to the outputs because the amplifiers are not there. Bring the amplifier “Amp Output” from each amp into the schematic. Reveal the “Power On” and “Status” pins.

Now a bunch of copy/pasting will be involved to get the Signal Names from the EQ section and Speakers connected up. You might find that going split-screen will make this easier so you can see how Auditorium 1 was connected. They are all the same names except for the “A2” suffix.

You will also need to configure the amplifiers with respect to bridge/parallel too. For both amplifiers, E and F are parallel with each other (for more current capability).

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Pro Tip: Now, do you want to know a shortcut? While you have it in split screen, copy the Signal Names from the Auditorium 1 (Right-to-Left drag over the wiretags themselves). Then open a text editor that has find/replace capabilities like Notepad++ or a spreadsheet program like Excel.

Paste your selections into your chosen program

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Then, perform a Find/Replace to change the “-A1” to a “-A2”. Then select all of them (typically <CTL-A>) and copy them. Then, back in QDS, select the pins on the amplifier in Auditorium 2. (make sure they are all selected and showing red). Paste.

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That took right about a minute. It will take longer on your first tries and mistakes might be made. But once you master this, you’ll find that doing bulk Signal Name changes will go MUCH faster. Clearly, it works best when all of the pins are nicely lined up and not scattered about.

We need to add in the Signal Names for “Power On” and “Status.” Select the Power On pin. Press <spacebar> and start typing PWR and you should quickly be offered the desired Signal Name (PWR-A2) to select. Do this for both amplifiers.

For the Status pins, you will need to do some typing (sorry). Using Auditorium 1 as the reference, you select the Status pin, press <spacebar> and start typing “AMP1-STAT-A2” for Amplifier 1 and similarly for Amplifier-2. Finish it off by setting the color to bright green.

They are broken Signal Names because we will need to add the other end of the Signal Name to the Status Combiner but we’ve, rather quickly (in my opinion), duplicated everything (including the modifications) on the top row (audio path) of the design for Auditorium 2. The control path will not be quite as easy since we’ll need to rebuild the various Snapshots and other control components.

Status

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Clearly, we have some work to do. The missing components are all LSP (of course) items like the DCIO-H, Touchscreen and Amplifiers. Remember, those red status LEDs that copy/pasted are still tied to Auditorium 1. So, either delete them and drag out new ones or remap them. It is probably easier to just drag out new ones. There won’t be another Core and its status component will remain in Auditorium 1. I, typically, create a separate schematic page for “Central Audio” for common items to avoid confusion.

Also, note that the Amp Status Combiner still has A1 status…they need to be deleted. You cannot rename those Signal Names because it will rename every instance of that Signal Name. We don’t want to do that or we would mess up Auditorium 1. The System Status Combiner-A1 needs to be renamed as well as delete off the TSC and DCIO status from A1. However, for the CORE-STAT, let’s rename it and remove the “A1” part since we do want that one not to be assigned to just Auditorium 1.

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We just need to set the colors and, as far as the schematic goes, the Status group is done.

Tip: You can select all four of the new status blocks and then use the eyedropper from the “Properties” (RSP) to set the color. Likewise for the Signal Names but often the eyedropper fights you on this one.

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Snapshot Duplication

Inputs

Okay, here comes the more-tricky part…we have to work with Snapshots. In fact, we glossed over the first Snapshot in the Inputs section (Snapshot Controller PINK-LEVEL-A2). This only applies if you modified your Sample 7.1 Design the same as I did. A stock design does not have that one.

It’s a single preset snapshot. The only thing in the Snapshot bank is the Pink Noise level.

To set the Snapshot, you have to go to Emulate mode <F6>. You will also need to remap the “Load 1” button from the Snapshot to the -20dB button in the schematic.

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And, of course, you’ll need to set the pink noise level to -20dB and then click on “Save 1” to set it.


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[Steve Guttag]

Manual Control

If you recall, the “Audio Presets” are Snapshot “Load” buttons. We need to recreate the FORMAT Snapshot. The easiest way, in my opinion, is to add a Snapshot Controller and then see what is in the A1 version:

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So, we need to put those same controls (the A2 versions, of course) into our new Snapshot bank. Since they are “All Controls,” you just have to grab the component from the schematic and drag it to the “FORMAT-A2” label you just created.

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The Volume Preselect will only be there if you modified your design as I showed in my blog. If you did, then the new Snapshot controller goes into the Container over in the GPIO section:

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If you open it up, you will find the Volume Preselect. That is the same container where the new Snapshot controller goes. Regardless, the Load and Match pins should be exposed. You will find it easier/faster to wire the pins if you, at first, leave it offset and away from the logic/trigger combiner:

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Then move it into position.

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If you didn’t modify yours, then you have less work. You just have to add the Snapshot Controller into the GPIO & Control section, as was done in the original Sample 7.1 Design.

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Now comes some more tricky Snapshot stuff. Since the Load buttons are renamed in the schematic to the format names, we have to make sure we know which is which. You can use <CTL-F> on the auditorium 1 schematic to see where they are mapped. Or, put your design into emulate mode and run through the snapshot bank Load buttons and see which formats light up (again, on A1).

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1. PRESHOW
2. TRAILER 5.1
3. FEATURE 5.1
4. FEATURE 7.1
5. NON-SYNC
6. MIC
7. HDMI 7.1
8. HDMI 5.1

Okay, remap the buttons in A2 so that A2’s Snapshot Load buttons are mapped to the red format buttons for A2. If you modified your schematic, you will need to do it twice. Once for the buttons in the container and the other time for the original buttons in the Manual Control schematic group. There shouldn’t be any grey dots on the buttons indicating that they are Named Controls (yet).

Pro Tips for Snapshot Copying

The best way I have found to copy Snapshot presets is to, first, on the source Snapshot, use its properties to put it into Write Protect mode. You don’t want to casually overwrite your source.

Enter emulation mode <F6>. Then use split-screen to put A1 on the left and A2 on the right. We’re going to preset by preset. Press the Load 1 button on the A1 auditorium (All of the Load buttons on A2 will be greyed out until we Save the Snapshots).

Okay, there are four things we need to copy for each preset (the four components that are in this particular snapshot bank). With Load 1 selected on the A1 bank, go to the A1 router and right-click on it in the schematic:

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The 3^rd icon is the “Copy All from Component.” Select that. Then, go over the A2 schematic and right-click on its “ROUTING” component:

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Select the 4^th choice (Paste All to Component). If you did it right, you should be able to double-click on both components to open them up and they should be identical:

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Remember, we have to repeat that procedure for the other three things in the Snapshot (SURR. OFFSET GAIN, Digital In DCIO, Volume Preselect). When you get all four copied, press “Save 1” on the A2 Snapshot.

Great now do the exact same thing for the other 7 presets! It sounds worse than it is. When you are done, run through them all to ensure that you copy/pasted them correctly and that the buttons got remapped correctly.

The next Snapshot Controller is the Pink Noise Generator. The method to copy it is the same as for the formats. There are three components in the Pink Noise bank.

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So, create the new Snapshot bank for A2 and put its ROUTING, SURR. OFFSET GAIN and Cinema Pink Noise Generator in the bank. Remember, it is those three components that need to have their settings copy/pasted this time (nearly the same as for the Formats). You’ll need to define it with 12 presets in its properties and don’t forget to remap its pink “Load” buttons to the PINK GEN buttons in A2 (or they will still be controlling A1’s pink noise!).

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Bypass Router Snapshot

The Last Snapshot bank is over in the GPIO section and it is for the Bypass system. The only thing in that bank is the Bypass mixer itself and it just has 3 presets. This is should be easy for you now that you are “seasoned-pro” with the previous two.

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[Steve Guttag]

GPIO & Control

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We’ve got some decisions to make. Do you want a single point of interaction between the Fire Alarm for the entire complex (which could be just 2-screens) or do you want to handle it on a screen-by-screen basis? There is no one correct answer as the fire codes in your area and what your fire inspector wants may determine what the best move will be.

You still have to drag in the GPIO for the “DCIO-A2” and, in properties turn off the GPIO pins.

Single Fire Alarm Connection

Clearly, a single fire alarm connection will be the easiest since you only have one connection and we’ve done it already in screen 1. But what do we do with these?

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Well, we don’t need the separate Custom Control and System Mute. If the system is muted, it is muted everywhere.

We will need to get the Signal Names fixed. Anything that has an “A1” in it should be deleted (not retyped or you will mess up Screen 1). Then add in the A2 Signal Names.

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GAIN A2 is a broken Signal Name. Do you remember where it goes? How can we find out where it goes? Go back to the A1 and use our best friend, <CTL-F> to find where it goes. It is up at the Gain component in the “Processing” group. You will need to delete off the “GAIN A1” first (not retype, delete). Then, you can copy/paste the signal name or add in the Signal Name and as you start to type, the “GAIN A2” should be presented to you as an option.

The “Classic Cinema Fader” (if you added in the linear fader) or the “Master Fader” (if you kept the original dB fader) should look something like this:

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Separate Fire Alarm Connections per Auditorium

If you are going to have separate fire alarm connection points for each auditorium. It is pretty much the same thing except the GPIO on the Core is of no use for the “other” auditorium(s).

Fortunately, GPIOs are on most Q-SYS peripherals. You could use the GPIO of the DCIO-H (there are 6 available). They are on an RJ45 connector so perhaps, they are not as convenient as a terminal block. But most installers are pretty comfortable with handling RJ45s and making up such cables.

However, the CX-Q amplifiers also offer GPIO and they are on terminal blocks already! Either are viable and are equally as good though the CX-Q amplifiers use “digital inputs” rather than contact closure. Depending on where your components physically are versus where the fire alarm company places their wires (and you want “dry-contact” relay contacts from the fire alarm company is which one is better to use.

The preference should be contact on fire. If the Fire Marshal wants open on Fire, then you will need to invert the logic with a Control Function “Logic Not.”

For this example, I’m going to use the DCIO’s GPIO. So, I need to expose those pins and wire it up similar to Screen 1.

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Yes, you can have two System Mutes. I’m not wild about that idea The System Mute component is going to respond to a logic transition. So, the two theatres could alternate the System Mute. I think it would be best to use a Logic-OR on the original System Mute. (Split Screen below)

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Either way, this isn’t too hard to overcome.

Relay Outs

The last little bit (in terms of wiring) is to get the Relays to be controlled from our “Relay Pulse Buttons.”

Open the Relay Pulse Buttons container.

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Select the found Signal Names (already correctly named). I would use a right-to-left selection to get all four of them at once. Then copy <CTL-C>. Then select the Relay Out pins (1-4) and paste <CTL-V>.

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Note, the “Period” Signal Names are updated to the names T5-T8, automatically, There is nothing wrong with that as they just need to be unique names. If it bothers you, you can always append “A2” to those names as well.

Automation Command List

Don’t forget to update the Automation Command List to switch all of the “A1” to “A2.” This won’t affect the operation of anything but it does provide accurate information to someone wanting to integrate the system with a server or automation system.

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What’s Next?

I think we’re done with the schematic and Snapshots. We have the Named Controls and the UCI to duplicate on the next blog.

Conclusions

There are a bunch of little steps in duplicating auditoriums. I’d say the trickiest part, particularly once you are familiar with the various techniques for the outright duplication, is to ensure that you don’t have your copy controlling the auditorium that you copied from!

If you’ve been good about your naming scheme, you should be able to spot the wrong Signal Name(s) in the schematic. The use of split screens can be very handy for not only duplicating but also ensuring that you haven’t forgotten anything.

If I were using a single Core for controlling multiple auditoriums, I would not be inclined to assign that Core to a particular auditorium, even if you physically locate the Core there. Note, if you are using redundant Cores, you could locate the Cores in different theatres so if something goes down in one theatre such that the Core and/or switches disappear, if the other Core is in a separate rack, with its own switches, you might keep the remaining theatres up.

What I did not discuss but is equally as viable is to use a separate Core for each theatre. However, if you did that you wouldn’t put both auditoriums in one design. You could merely save the design under a new name…give the Core a unique name and the rest of what I showed will still apply (with respect to naming). You just wouldn’t need to copy/paste anything because it will all be there already.

Q-SYS has a lot of flexibility in how you choose to set up your system for reliability and/or redundancy.
©2025 by Steve Guttag

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