Alcorn Mcbride Digital Video Machine 4, User Manual

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Ethernet Control 29
Ethernet Control
All the commands that are supported in the Pioneer /AMI Protocol are
also supported via UDP control over Ethernet. By sending UDP (User
Datagram Protocol) packets across a network, you can communicate with
and control many DVM4’s simultaneously (using Unit ID’s) and/or
independently.
Hardware and Software
Requirements
Any Ethernet capable show controller or PC with a network interface card can
send messages to DVM4’s located on the same network. To use Ethernet
control, your control source must have a way to broadcast UDP packets
containing arbitrary message bytes to a specific UDP port number (XXXX).
Each DVM4 must be connected to the physical network via the RJ-45 Ethernet
connector on the rear of the unit. All DVM4’s must have different IP Addresses
to reside on the same Ethernet network. See the
Web Page Setup section for
information on setting IP Address and Unit ID.
AMINet Protocol
The user data sent in the UDP packet follows our AMINet Ethernet protocol.
AMINet was originally developed for use with our Ethernet Machine which
provides an Ethernet backbone for communication between Alcorn McBride
Show Controllers. Now the same, easy to use protocol can be used to control
the DVM4.
AMINet is a very flexible and robust Ethernet protocol that allows for many
different uses; however, only one of AMINet’s command op-codes is necessary
to transmit commands to the DVM4 making the usage very simple.
Control Message Format
The control source will send a UDP packet that contains a DVM4 Control
Message as the User Data in the packet. A DVM4 Control Message is
comprised of a few bytes needed specifically for AMINet and some Command
bytes. The Command simply needs to contain an Addressed Pioneer / AMI