GRASS VALLEY zodiak, User Manual

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Zodiak User Manual 37
Signal Routing
Shifted Sources
An operator may need to quickly access many sources during a production.
However, a control panel has size limitations, since all the source selection
buttons must remain within reach. The Zodiak system provides shifted
buttons to allow access to more input sources from the control panel.
On a 2.5- or 3-M/E Zodiak system, up to 46 sources can be mapped at one
time, 23 to the unshifted source selection, and 23 to the shifted buttons. A
dedicated
Shift
button is provided as the farthest right crosspoint button
(Crosspoint 24) for every bus. Two shift modes are available: Normal and
Latched.
In Normal mode, shifted or unshifted status of the bus is indicated by the
state of the
Shift
button light. Holding down the
Shift
button while pressing
a source button always selects the shifted source for that bus. The
Shift
button will light when the row of buttons to its left are shifted.
In Latched mode, the
Shift
button toggles on and off in a manner similar to
the Caps Lock button on a standard keyboard. When on, it lights to indicate
that the subsequent selection(s) on the crosspoint selector row will be made
from the shifted set of sources (24 through 46). When off, the subsequent
selection(s) come from the unshifted set (1 through 23). If the user toggles
the
Shift
button to the state that is opposite from the shift state for the cur-
rently selected input, then the crosspoint selector button blinks to indicate
an Out of Sync condition.
A useful configuration is to have sources normally used for backgrounds
(e.g. VTRs) mapped to unshifted buttons, and sources normally used as
keys (e.g. character generators) mapped to shifted buttons. Then you can
then set all the background buses to an unshifted preference, and all the
key buses to a shifted preference. All normal source selections can then be
made without having to use the shift modifier buttons.
Mix/Effects (M/E)
An M/E is a subsystem of a video production switcher that can create a
composite of two or more pictures. An M/E includes multiple source selec-
tion buses and provides transition (mix and wipe) and keying capabilities
on the selected signals. An M/E can be organized with the keying circuitry
separate from the mixing circuitry, which permits Effect Send capabilities
(see
Effects Send on page 39 for more information).
A simple basic M/E used in a typical switcher will be used as an example
in the following discussion. A Zodiak M/E has added capabilities, but the
basic principles described here will apply. See
Figure 7 on page 28 for a
simplified diagram of the actual Zodiak M/E architecture.