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.

Blog18Image8.png

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.

Blog18Image9.png

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

Blog18Image10.png

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

Blog18Image11.png

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.

Blog18Image12.png

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?):

Blog18Image13.png

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:

Blog18Image14.png

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).

Blog18Image15.png

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.

Blog18Image16.png

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.

Blog18Image17.png

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.:

Blog18Image18.png

[Blog-18, Page 2 of 5]

[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).

Blog18Image19.png
Blog18Image20.png

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

Blog18Image21.png

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.

Blog18Image22.png

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

Blog18Image23.png

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.

Blog18Image24.png

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.

Blog18Image25.png

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.

Blog18Image26.png

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


[Blog-18, Page 3 of 5]

[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:

Blog18Image27.png

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.

Blog18Image27.png

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:

Blog18Image29.png

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:

Blog18Image30.png

Then move it into position.

Blog18Image31.png

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.

Blog18Image32.png

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).

Blog18Image33.png

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:

Blog18Image34.png

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:

Blog18Image35.png

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:

Blog18Image36.png

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.

Blog18Image37.png

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!).

Blog18Image38.png

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.

[Blog-18, Page 4 of 5]

[Steve Guttag]

GPIO & Control

Blog18Image39.png

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?

Blog18Image40.png

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.

Blog18Image41.png

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:

Blog18Image42.png

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.

Blog18Image43.png

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)

Blog18Image44.png

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.

Blog18Image45.png

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>.

Blog18Image46.png

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.

Blog18Image47.png

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

[Blog-18, Page 5 of 5, End of Blog]

[Steve Guttag]

Q-SYS For Cinema Blog-19, Copying Auditoriums Part-2 (Sample 7.1 Part-14)

Blog19Image0.png

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

Okay. Here we are at the conclusion of the Sample 7.1 analysis. This blog will wrap it up by looking at copying/duplicating the Named Controls and the UCIs. This is a direct continuation from Blog 18. So, if you haven’t looked at that one, please look at it before going through this one.

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.

Named Controls

Presuming you are continuing from Blog-18, let’s start with getting the Named Controls (that which lets external devices, like the server or an automation like the Eprad eCNA or Integ’s JNIOR, communicate/control a Q-SYS system.

The first step is to select the “Named Controls” on the Left-Side Pane (LSP).

Blog19Image1.png

These are the ones to replicate. There are 15, by my count. 8 of them are the “Audio Presets.” Let’s start by dragging the FEATURE 7.1 button over to the Named Controls.

Blog19Image2.png

Snapshot_Controller_2Load4? What the heck is that? If you go to the actual Snapshot controller and select it so you can see the properties on the RSP, despite it being called FORMAT-A2, its “Code Name” is Snapshot_Controller_2. It might be less confusing if we change that and call it FORMAT-A2 [this theme will come up again].

Blog19Image3.png
Blog19Image4.png

It won’t magically change the name in the Named Controls but we were going to rename it anyway to “F71-A2”. But the next format button we drag over will have a more reasonable name.

Blog19Image5.png

FORMAT-A2Load3 makes a little more sense. We need to rename that one to F51-A2. Repeat for the remaining formats. Your Named Controls should start to look like this:

Blog19Image6.png

While we’re here, we might as well drag those Relay buttons over too.

Blog19Image7.png

And name them appropriately in the “Named Controls.”

Blog19Image8.png

Okay, 12 down, 3 to go. Those are going to be the Fader and Mute ones. If we cruise up to the Processing section and open up the Classic Cinema Fader (or the MASTER FADER on an unmodified design), it has all of the controls we need.

How would you figure out where the GAIN, FADER and MUTE controls were? Using the “Find” command <CTL-F> on Screen-1’s Named Controls for those functions will send you to where they are sourced in Screen-1. You’ll want to use their counterparts in Screen-2.

Blog19Image9.png
Blog19Image10.png

The “_1” in the name is due to Q-SYS preventing a duplicate name. Like with the Snapshots, we could change the name in the properties to be described better.

Tip: It is, in the long-run, going to be worth fixing the names of such components in the properties so that as QDS and Scripts interact with various components, their name makes sense too.

So, here is the full list. You should have an “A2” version for every “A1.”

Blog19Image11.png

That takes care of the Named Controls. All 15 (of the A2 controls) are accounted for.

[Blog-19, Page 1 of 4]

[Steve Guttag]

Duplicating the UCIs

It’s time to switch to the User Control Interface section on the LSP.

Blog19Image12.png

Now, you may not have added the Monitor Mixer and I left the original MONITOR page in there. So, your UCI page may look a little different. The techniques are going to be the same, regardless. I would not suggest leaving both Monitors in there…pick one.

There are two ways, that I know, to duplicate UCIs. There is the original method of recreating each page, one-by-one. There is a MUCH faster way by using the UCI export/input function. I’ll go over both.

Traditional Replication.

To begin, you add in auditorium 2 by clicking on that “+” icon at the top of the “User control Interfaces.”

Check the size of the touchscreen. Click on Auditorium 1 and look at the properties. It shows that it is a TSC-55-G2.

Blog19Image13.png

Is that what you were “given” when you added Auditorium 2?

Blog19Image14.png

Nope. We need to change that to match the touchscreen you are going to use.

Then, count the number of pages (just 4 since we aren’t doing two different monitor pages). Add that many pages to your new Auditorium 2 (down at the bottom of the Pages/Layers column there are + and – buttons).

Blog19Image15.png

We need to rename them to HOME, MONITOR, METERS, CLEAN SCREEN. Also, since we are using “Navigation Buttons,” we don’t need the tabs.

Blog19Image16.png

I would change the “Fill” of each page to the same color as on Auditorium 1 too. That could be key to some of the backgrounds, if the QSC image isn’t part of it. One-by-one, select the page on Auditorium 1, go to its properties, and copy its fill color. Paste that color code into the mating page on Auditorium 2.

Blog19Image17.png

If you have any pages with more than 1-layer (if you copied my Monitor Mixer), then you need to add those layers to the MONITOR page (and name them) so you have parking spots for everything.

Copying

Okay…now we get to Copy and Paste. Go to Auditorium 1 HOME page, select all <CTL-A> and then copy <CTL-C>. Go over to the Auditorium 2 HOME page and make sure it is selected (little green vertical bar on the right of that page’s name).

When we paste, all of the items will not complete the paste until you click your mouse (left-button). However, you will want to hold the <shift> button so everything goes to the exact same places they were on the original page.

Okay…what happened?

Blog19Image18.png

The background didn’t come over. Why? Since I’m presuming that this may be a “test question,” I’m going to leave it up to you to solve. My only suggestion is to carefully look at the Auditorium 1 page right after you select all <CTL-A> to see if you can see anything there that looks different than the rest.

Before doing that, use <CTL-Z> to undo the paste, since we do want the background.

Presuming you figured out the trick, your paste should look (somewhat) like this (it may be different if you didn’t make changes or made different changes to the stock design):

Blog19Image19.png

Key Point: Keep in mind, the buttons, meters, and such are all (still) for Auditorium 1.

They are ALL going to need to be remapped!

I would go split-screen and adjust my window sizes to make this go faster:

Blog19Image20.png

Drag the “AUDIO PRESETS” over to their respective buttons on the HOME page and use the <CTL> button to allow for “Remap Control”

Blog19Image21.png

Work your way around the page and don’t forget the Status Popup (if you matched what I did…they will just be status LEDs in the original).

As you copy some things, their status/meter/levels will change to blanks…like the System Status or the main fader:

Blog19Image22.png

The “CORE STATUS” doesn’t need to be copied since it is the same Core.

The “Navigation Buttons” only work on the UCI they are in so they don’t need to be “Remapped.” If you named your pages exactly as Auditorium 1, in ALL CAPS, then they should be good-to-go. If you went with the Monitor Mixer, you’ll likely find that the MONITOR button needs to be remapped. Regardless, it is good practice to check everything and make sure all buttons are mapped properly, including navigation buttons.

Okay, one page down, three pages (and possibly some layers) to go! The process is the same for each page and each item on the page. This is an area where, if you are not careful, you’ll have a touchscreen in A2 controlling things in A1 If you aren’t sure if you’ve (re-)mapped something, use <CTL-F> to see what things are mapped to.

If you are using the Monitor Mixer, be careful that you are on the right layer, when you paste:

Blog19Image23.png

If you mess up. Don’t worry, just cut <CTL-X>/paste <CTL-V> them where you want them. Note, when you select objects on the UCI, their corresponding parts in your page/layer list are also selected:

Blog19Image24.png

This works in reverse. You can select everything in the list, including shift-clicking to get an entire collection of items. You can then drag them to the layer you desire.

[Blog-19, Page 2 of 4]

[Steve Guttag]

Export/Import

While the traditional method is fine for doing a handful of things. I’ve found it faster/easier to use some relatively newer tools. One can export a UCI. Then import the UCI (as many times as you want) and you’ll get an exact duplicate. You still have to remap things but there is a tool for that as well (still listed as Beta).

Okay…I’ve undone everything so we are starting fresh.

Select the Auditorium 1 UCI. You can either right-click on the Auditorium 1 UCI:

Blog19Image25.png

Or go up to the Tools menu. Look down to the UCI Operations and then to Export UCI.

Blog19Image26.png

Export the UCI to a place you can easily find and give it a name you will recognize and makes sense.

Then, go back to the Tools menu and this time go to UCI operations and select Import UCI and choose the file you just saved.

And just like that, you have an Auditorium 2 UCI! Seriously, QDS increments the number and everything.

Blog19Image27.png

That is so much easier, I think. However, it is still all mapped to Auditorium 1. So, we still have to remap everything.

UCI Remap Tool [Beta]

The Remap Tool can be a time-saver…IF, you have done diligence in your component naming. To use it, select the page/layer you want to remap. I’m going to start with the HOME page. Then go up to Tools, UCI Operations and finally Remap UCI Controls [BETA]. Note the handy <CTL+M> hotkey for next time.

Blog19Image28.png

Upon selecting the Remap tool, we get this:

Blog19Image29.png

Let’s start with an easy one. The Classic Cinema Fader (which will only be there if you put in the Linear Fader, like I did on a previous blog). If you click on its far-left arrow, it will open up and show the 4 things that may need remapping:

Blog19Image30.png

Honestly, I rarely open the left arrows up. I click on the down-arrow to go about remapping. But you may find it informative to know that we need to map the levels, and mute. The three Dolby Levels are the Up, down and the meter itself. Note the icons and colors.

So, if we click its down arrow, we are presented with options:

Blog19Image31.png

We want Auditorium 2 so click on its arrow. We get a decent sized list of things but the most likely is often at the top:

Blog19Image32.png

We do want the ClassicCinemaFader_1 but it would be much less confusing if we renamed all of the components with their A2 names. So, if we fix its Code Name, it will appear easier to understand:

Blog19Image33.png
Blog19Image34.png

Select it and click on “OK” at the bottom of the remap tool.

Key Point: If you don’t click on “Ok” you haven’t remapped anything.

Now all four items for the fader are remapped:

Blog19Image35.png

[Blog-19, Page 3 of 4]

[Steve Guttag]

You can use <CTL-F> to verify (and that is a good idea when you’ve done remapping. It is super easy to overlook something. Renaming your Code Names with the auditorium number will go a long way to making it easy to spot on the Remap tool too.

So, look over the Remap list and go to the schematic and start the naming process before proceeding. A big chunk of them are the speakers and they are all lined up on the schematic. I normally just copy/paste the Label to the Code Name (providing that I’ve got the theatre number in that).

Most of them are straight forward, in my opinion (as to what they are). The ones that just end in a number, like “Custom_Controls_12” will take a little investigation. If you sort the controls by Page and Layer:

Blog19Image36.png

It might make things more clear:

Blog19Image37.png

That is the Booth Monitor fader. It would probably be best if it was better labeled altogether. That Router 8x8 isn’t even an 8x8 router! It is a 2x1 router but during the copy/paste process when it was created, many blogs ago, it got the original router configuration in its Code Name.

After taking the time to do proper names on the components, then the Remap tool can be a handy way to know you’ve likely remapped all of your controls:

Blog19Image38.png

Note, all of the “A2” suffixes there. One should still go through and <CTL-F> to ensure that things are mapped right. Alternately, you can put QDS into emulation mode <F6> and set up a split screen so you can see if the controls on the UCI operate the items on the schematic as you think they should.

When I checked mine, I found that I had not assigned an actual UCI to the TSC-55-A2!

Blog19Image39.png

It shouldn’t be blank. A couple of clicks and it is assigned to Auditorium 2.

So, in addition to the touchscreen. My list of things that I needed to fix included:

• Navigation Buttons. They all had to be set (for EACH PAGE).
• For the Monitor Mixer, I had to point the Layer Controller in the Schematic to Auditorium 2 (choose what it is controlling).

So, just three things (after doing the Code Name changes and using the Remapping tool). That’s not too bad, in my opinion.

Note, the Remapping tool works if you did the traditional Copy/Paste of each page/layer too. It is a good way of checking yourself, regardless.

If you really can’t decipher what the Remap Tool is trying to work with, then you can still drag and remap anything you find isn’t working correctly during your testing.

Conclusions

Well, here we are. We’re at the end of the Sample 7.1 Design analysis. By my count, I’ve done 14-blogs relating to the Sample 7.1 Design and I’ve provided links (earlier in the series) to the videos by Q-SYS in the “Level-1” course.

I hope what I have shown/discussed has helped/been informative in your Q-SYS journey, particularly as it pertains to cinema integration. What we’ve gone over is pretty typical for most any cinema design. Sure, you will have different components and layouts but the processes required are going to be pretty much the same.

None of this stuff is hard, in my opinion. What is different is that you are now in control of your sound and control system, not some engineer’s (or group of engineers) thinking what you may want. On the flips side, that now means that you have to think about all aspects of what it takes to make both a sound processor and its control system. However, you get the benefit that you can change yours, as you see fit, even after deployment. And, you get to do so without having to go back through the entire production process.

While we’re done with the Sample 7.1 Design, it may show up again, from time-to-time (and in whatever manner it may evolve), if it helps show something. It remains a design that is accessible for anyone that is using Q-SYS.

©2025 by Steve Guttag

[Blog-19, Page 4 of 4, End of Blog]

[Leo Enticknap]

For those of you using Visionary Solutions HDMI over IP endpoints in your Q-Sys installations, an updated version of the plugin is just out:

image.png

[Steve Guttag]

The new Visionary Solutions plugin is not an updated version of the ones already in circulation. They are new, ground-up, plugins where (one configures 4000/5000 via the properties). There is a 26-page manual associated with the new plugin.

You must be using QDS 9.10.x or later...which, if you putting in a new system, is not going to be a new tune as all new Cores (except maybe the NV32H), DCIO require 9.10 or later. So, if you happen to want to use Visionary Solutions in a system with legacy hardware (older Cores like the Core 250i or TSC-3 touchscreens or even the I/O Frame 8S (8-slot I/O frame), then you have some decisions to make).

Confusingly, they don't show up in the normal "Enterprise Manager" folder of Asset Manager (plugins with Q-SYS involvement and supporting Reflect normally ar ein the Enterprise Manager. They are in the "User" folder (and then "Visionary")

image.png
(The PacketAV" folder is where the original plugins are living).

If you are presently using the 4000 or 5000 series plugins, you will need to delete them off and place the new one in your design, configure it appropriately and migrate your Signal Names (wiretags) as well as remap all of your thumbnail displays. Whereas on one site, I have something like 25 or 30 displays, there will be some drag/remapping to do...on top of changing all of the encoder/decoders.

My point is, unlike most plugin updates, which don't require changing the design other than to allow the updated plugin, this one will feel more like changing a user component where you DO have to remove and reinstall the component. Going forward, hopefully, it should be like other plugins where as they update it, you just have to install the update in your QDS and when you open your design next, it should give you the option of keeping the existing version or adopting the new version.

On the upside, aside from, presumably, better functionality, this plugin also works with Q-SYS Reflect for those utilizing that service. Though I have not discussed Q-SYS Reflect yet, one can use Reflect in a NOC like fashion to get an Enterprise level overview of your equipment.

Internally, there is more similar than different (they're not connected to a live system, hence all of the red and non-populated boxes):

image.png

Note, the new one give yous an Event Log tab.

You get a Save button for the log as well as a reboot! I could see them has being handy:

image.png

The serial and IR implementation is vastly improved/less cumbersome. You now get normal pins (if you enable them in the properties). So, you can issue serial commands and it will send them right out of its serial port. The IR pin does require their IR Driver, which if you are familiar with Global Cache's Control Tower, is pretty much same-same, right down to using the Control Tower to load the IR set.