You will see color bars appear on the program output and notice that the ‘bars’ button on the
front panel is illuminated red. If you have a source on the front panel selected on preview, you
will still see that button illuminated green. You can press cut or auto to transition between the
color bars and the preview source.
A safe way to preview sources before switching them
to air is to use the LCD menu to select sources to the
preview output and monitor them on the multi view
Changing to Cut Bus Switching
By default, the control panel works in program/preview mode, which is more like a traditional
switcher and means changing sources is a two step process where you select the next source
on the preview bus and then select cut or auto. However, in many cases you might like to have
the switch to the new source happen immediately when you select it. This mode is called cut
bus switching and you can change the mode in the LCD menus.
To change to cut bus mode:
1
Press the menu button to display the menus.
2
Scroll with the knob through the menus to the ‘Settings’ menu.
3
Press the set button and you will see the settings menu page will be selected.
4
Scroll down the list to the mode menu and select it by pressing the set button.
5
Scroll to the cut bus mode and select it by pressing set.
6
Press the menu button to back out of the menus back to the video preview screen.
Now the front panel will have changed how it works and switching is performed the instant you
select a source. For example, try selecting a different source using the main input buttons and
you can see that it’s immediately selected and the button is illuminated red. You will notice that
there is no green button highlighted now and that’s because there is no preview bus to select
the source as the source is simply selected the moment you push the button and it’s on air
instantly. That’s why all buttons are now illuminated red.
However, there is another change to the front panel in cut bus mode and that’s the behavior of
the cut and auto buttons. Now the inputs are selected the instant you press them, the cut and
auto buttons don’t trigger the transition anymore. What they are now used for is to select the
type of transition you want when you press the input buttons.
In cut bus mode, any input button you press switches directly to the program output
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Using the ATEM Constellation 8K Front Panel