Best way to handle Master Panel in large installation

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  ericmedley Posts: 4,177

  December 2007

  One way that might work if indeed each room's panel was identicle (or at least fairly close) would be to have just the one interface using only one port and then a 'set system' type button.
  
  So, for example, let's say that you decide that buttons 101-110 on the panel were source selects for the projector in the rooms. 101=computer, 102=Document Cam, etc... If there's no Doc cam in the room, you simply skip using that button in that room.
  
  Now, have a conditional on the main panel that flags which room you're looking at. So, a series of buttons that indicate which Room you're looking at.
  
  button 1=bld 1 - room 107, button 2= bld. 1 - room 108, etc...
  
  I'll do old fashioned button stacks to make it simple. I'd create dev arrays myself...

  BUTTON_EVENT[TP_MAIN,1] // however many rooms
  BUTTON_EVENT[TP_MAIN,2]
  BUTTON_EVENT[TP_MAIN,3]
  BUTTON_EVENT[TP_MAIN,(etc)]
  BUTTON_EVENT[TP_MAIN,100]
  {
  push:
    {
    tp_button_pushed=button.input.channel
    current_room_control=tp_button_pushed
    on[TP_MAIN,tp_button_pushed]
    }
  }
  
  

  
  Now, you know which room you're trying to control.
  
  Next, put in conditionals for the buttons as they pertain to the room control. For example, in the Projector Source example above...
  (Again, this is overly simplified to make the example short. You'd want to gussy it up quite a bit and deal with feedback updates and whatnot. I'd do it in a completely different way myself. but you'll get the general drift of the example.)

  BUTTON_EVENT[TP_MAIN,101] // PROJECTOR SOURCE SELECT
  BUTTON_EVENT[TP_MAIN,102]
  BUTTON_EVENT[TP_MAIN,103]
  {
  PUSH:
    {
    tp_button_pushed=button.input.channel
    SWITCH(current_room_control) // which room is being controlled by the master
      {
        CASE 1: // bld. 1 - room 107
             {
              // code to change the video switcher in  room 107
             }
        CASE 2: // bld. 1 - room 108
             {
              // code to change the video switcher in  room 108
             }
        CASE 3: // bld. 1 - room etc...
             {
              // code to change the video switcher in  room etc...
             }
       } // end switch
    } // end push:
  } // end button_event
  

  
  Hope that helps.

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  Jeff Posts: 374

  December 2007

  I considered doing things like that, but the real reason I left it alone was the need to define all the devices in each room on my Main Panel. Is there a way to easily control multiple devices in remote rooms without defining them all on the Master System? My current method has all the code for controlling stuff in the remote rooms on their own masters, instead of on the master system.
  
  J

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  ericmedley Posts: 4,177

  December 2007

  Jeff wrote:

  I considered doing things like that, but the real reason I left it alone was the need to define all the devices in each room on my Main Panel. Is there a way to easily control multiple devices in remote rooms without defining them all on the Master System? My current method has all the code for controlling stuff in the remote rooms on their own masters, instead of on the master system.
  
  J

  
  Well, you don't need to define each device in the master per se.
  
  It's all in the way you organize the programs in the first place. Take the video switcher example. If it were me, I'd always put the video switcher on the same port. Or, I'd at least create a consistent virtual device that is the same on every system.
  
  So,

  (*  Code in each of the rooms masters *)
  dv_Switcher  =  5001:01:0
  
  
  vdv_Switcher  = 33001:01:0
  

  
  Then in the Master you could just do the math and send it to the correct system.
  

  (* code in the main master *)
  button_event[TP_MAIN, (all the source select buttons)]
  {
   PUSH:
      {
      TP_BUTTON_PUSHED=BUTTON.INPUT.CHANNEL
      SEND_STRING 5001:01:CURRENT_SYSTEM_NUMBER,' Change source command here'
      } // end push:
  } // end button_event
  

  
  If you're dealing with different switchers and whatnot, send the command to the virtual device and let it interpret what command you need to send locally to get the gig done.

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  Spire_Jeff Posts: 1,917

  December 2007

  This is just a thought, as I don't run across this type of situation on the jobs I deal with, but you might want to create virtual touch panel devices on your master and then use COMBINE_DEVICES() and UNCOMBINE_DEVICES(). Then when a room is selected from your master touch panel, you simply flip to the appropriate page layout and Combine the master touch panel with the virtual touch panel for the room. This may actually be a good thing since all of the rooms will only be continuously talking with the virtual TP device on the master, you lower the risk of network congestion due to the master touch panel popping on and off line. It would also allow you to conserve space in the master touch panels memory because you would not need to duplicate rooms that are identical.
  
  Just a thought,
  Jeff

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  jdevito Posts: 4

  December 2007

  I had a project with 11 conference rooms, all with a similar setup. To control each panel from any panel I used the computer control functionality to control remote panels. The '^BVN' command is used to set the IP of the selected panel to control. Not sure if this would be a viable solution for you but worth a mention.
  
  SEND_COMMAND tpDEV_ARY[tpCUR_DEV], "'^BVN-1090,tpIP_ADDRESS_FOR_VNC_CONNECTION'"

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  Jeff Posts: 374

  December 2007

  Thats really cool, I'd never even begun to think about that. I just added buttons to my control pages for each room that have the ^BVN command in the Command Output section of the button, with the IP address on it, and a link to a page with fullscreen computer control. I may use this more than any of my Master Panel only pages.
  
  J

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  jdevito Posts: 4

  December 2007

  It is really nice, because it saves you programming time, and tp design time. Plus it gives you real time feedback in a help desk scenario. The project that I implemented it on had several conference rooms and a tech room. The tech room could use the ^BVN to access a panel on the network when a user called with a question. We also used it to start up and shutdown the rooms when users would forget or we were preparing for an event.

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