Silly Multiview Tally routing

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Alex Gorski

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Silly Multiview Tally routing

PostFri Dec 01, 2017 12:39 am

How could the devs behind the Multiview 4 be so "un-smart" by routing the tally cues along the lines of the physical inputs ?
How could they have gone that far on the "un-realistic" presumption that MultiView4's inputs are glued to the same order of inputs that exist on an ATEM ?

I'm constantly using BMD's fiberbased Camera Converters, on these connections, we have 3 PTZ cams and a handheld that are plugged into Inputs 2, 3, 4 and 5, Input 1 being conserved as an exclusive HDMI input for Computer GFX, without the need of another converter.
All Inputs above #5 are remaining pure SDI connections.

( BTW .. life would have been already simpler if BMD hadn't insisted to keep the sole switchable HDMI/SDI connection on #1 on high end models like the Production & Broadcast Studio 4k models, on the lower end of the switcher family it might make sense when you have 4 HDMI & 4 SDI connections, but not anymore on those really professional switchers )

At a time where everything is so flexible with the help of a software control/preference module, this fixed behaviour of a Multiviewer is just shameful for the devs and the junior bosses underneath the big boss.

Not worthy of the Blackmagic name.

Sorry for the rant, but there have been so many instances where clever hardware comes together with dumb software ( MediaExpress, do you hear the bells of hell ? ), frustration is not a strong enough word.

Here it gets worse because of the "luv" somene can still have for the palette of interesting equipment BMD puts on the market.

Be nice, use your brains ......
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Baz

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Re: Silly Multiview Tally routing

PostFri Dec 01, 2017 11:18 pm

Its all doable with firmware upgrade. All it takes is a feature request and crossed fingers.
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Gary Adams

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Re: Silly Multiview Tally routing

PostMon Dec 04, 2017 9:00 pm

Hello Alex. While definitely noting the feedback, I would like to offer that the Arduino Shield could be used to cross ATEM tallys to Multiview tallys.
Gary Adams
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Alex Gorski

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Re: Silly Multiview Tally routing

PostTue Dec 05, 2017 4:47 am

HI Gary,

Thanks for taking into account my little "ranty" feedback.

And yes, Arduinos could take care of that kind of routing.

But we don't want to be building another layer of control.

I don't have the time and energy to sit down and learn from scratch all those nice things that can be done with an Arduino board. That's one little thing in the world of "computing" I'm really avoiding like hell. And I don't want to return back to the wonders of GPI triggering, had my share of that over several decades.

My boss wanted to get a Quad from Decimator, much cheaper, but without looped connections and a "wrong" formfactor. And it uses the traditional GPI protocol. That was a no no for me !

Although proprietary, I like the idea of embedded flags on the PGM output, even if that means having to use the PGM signal on the fourth quarter.

But in the workflow we were looking for, routing PTZ cams to 3 screens plus the PGM for the operator, via 3 out of 6 AUXes and the PGM out, all camera sources being still able to be looped out for ISO recordings, this seemed ideal. And together with the common BMD form-factor and the Teranex panel, this choice seemed manageable.

On our basic setup with the 2 M/E Production Studio, we are still suffering from the continuous choice by BMD of having the switchable SDI/HDMI input set as physical entry #1, because our main cameras are set to live on physicals #2 to #5, via a Fiber-based Studio Converter connected to 4 Camera Converters.
The next 2 inputs #6 & #7 are OF hybrids through the use of 2 pairs of Optical Fiber Mini Converters.

So imagine the not so convenient mapping of all those INs with a ( slightly ) shifted number that has to be corrected on the Camera Converters own Tally routine.

Having HDMI sources placed as numero uno made sense when we started with our first "flat" ATEM, but on High End switchers, the place of that lonely dedicated ( and we still have some use for it ) HDMI capable input should be at the end of the bus.

And BTW : if Camera Converters can be as easily programmed via USB to get the Tally cross-corresponding to the correct PHYSICAL input, then there must be somewhere a nice solution on the wheels for the Multiview Tally Routing.

To make things simpler for the setting of the whole BMD Armada when starting an assignment, I've saved a template xml where the internal Multiview mapping on both M/E screens represents the order of the physical inputs and the labels add to that physical nº the type of connection to be used.
Once all sources are present at their correct place, names can be customized as wanted.
That's how many other operators get also things done quickly.

As you can see, for every little "annoyance", we found a simple parade that makes a setup hasslefree.

The one and only element that, for now, goes beyond annoyance, is this new acquisition.

But we'll stick to this otherwise clever piece of hardware, if only there could be less time lost on the upgrade of the software ...

Thanks ... for being nice !

Cheers from France

alex
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