USB Bridging
Video Transcript
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[Music]
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If you're not familiar with integrating
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Q-SYS USB bridging alongside acoustic echo cancellation,
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network video streams,
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and audio I/O into your collaboration space,
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it might sound a little confusing at first.
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That's why I'll be using a translator to explain
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everything in layman's terms. That's me.
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He's going to talk marketing; I'll talk like a human.
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High-impact collaboration rooms are some of the
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most common applications for Q-SYS systems.
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You know that room at work where everyone
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sits around a big table and talks to people on a screen?
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We're talking about that.
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Whether it's a small meeting space, training rooms,
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lecture halls, or executive boardrooms,
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these collaboration spaces have elevated
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experience expectations and therefore similarly
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elevated requirements for audio, video, and control.
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Translation: all these rooms should be cool.
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Sometimes cool spaces are tricky.
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Q-SYS proudly supports all of the leading UC
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collaboration providers with certified,
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vetted solutions for Microsoft Teams Rooms,
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Zoom Rooms, and Google Meet, and even
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offers complete UC bundles for some of these solutions.
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Their stuff is cool and reliable; our stuff is cool and reliable,
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so it all works out nicely.
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These dedicated platform rooms and other rooms
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might also incorporate BYOD functionality to allow a
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participant to bridge the room's AV system to
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their local collaboration application.
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That's BYOD.
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You can bring your own B later.
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All right, save it for Friday, buddy.
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BYOD is bring your own device.
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So basically, you can walk in with your laptop,
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hook it up to the room, and use the room's mics,loudspeakers, and cameras rather than the
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crummy ones that are on your laptop.
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Regardless of the type of room,
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this functionality is achieved via a
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USB bridge to transport your Q-SYS room's
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high-end collaboration cameras to your device
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or in-room compute. Translation:
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all you got to do is plug in a USB cable.
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That's it. And did you say compute?
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Is it not a computer anymore? What happened?
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No, computer is correct. No, what?
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Who changed that? It's a computer.
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Any number of Q-SYS devices can provide
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USB bridging functionality, including your Q-SYS
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core processor, dedicated I/O bridge device,
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network video endpoint device,
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and even certain models of touchscreen devices.
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You got a lot of options here, folks.
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All right, just use the one that is closest to your computer. I hate you.
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Regardless of the type of room or the device
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that you're using to provide USB bridging,
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adding that functionality to your system
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is the same process. All right, show them
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how it's done, layman. Layman, it's layman.
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You're a layman, not lay. It's layman.
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Okay, so find the device whose USB port
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you're using in the inventory and go to its properties.
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Here, we're using the MV 32H, which is
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operating as both the core for the room,
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a local HDMI switcher, and the source for
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our USB bridge. In the properties,
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there's a category called USB bridging,
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which is disabled by default.
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First, let's enable the USB video bridge.
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This creates a new component for our inventory
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item called the USB video bridge,
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which we can add to our schematic.
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The media cast pin on this component can
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receive a wire either directly from a Q-SYS network
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camera or from a media cast router that allows
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you to choose from any of up to 255 possible
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cameras in your system.
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There's no output from the USB video bridge in
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Q-SYS because its output is the physical USB
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cable that delivers the camera video to your PC.
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You can access it the same way you would
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access any USB camera on your PC,
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and it should usually identify itself as the default
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USB camera to be used by any of your conferencing applications.
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Next, let's look at the audio side of the USB bridge.
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We can choose to enable either a mono speakerphone
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connection, a stereo sound card connection, or both.
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Adding these to your device will once again give
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you new input and output components in the inventory,
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so let's drag those into the schematic too.
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Even though these are represented by multiple components,
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all the audio and video are still transported
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over that single USB cable.
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These simply represent different types of
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audio that your PC might use.
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The USB speakerphone in represents the
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far-end caller's voice that comes in via the
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conferencing application.
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You'd want to wire this into your room's
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loudspeaker signal path so you can hear
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the far-end caller over the high-quality
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loudspeakers in your room rather than the
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PC or laptop's onboard speakers.
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The USB speakerphone out represents all the
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audio we want to send to the far-end caller,
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which will certainly include the room's
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microphones after they've been processed
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by acoustic echo cancelling,
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but it may also include other program material
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in the room if desired. The USB sound card,
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on the other hand, represents the rest of the PC's audio.
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This would include the other applications running
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on the PC, like presentation software, video players,
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web browsers, etc.
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All of this arrives in Q-SYS as a stereo source,
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once again letting you use the room's loudspeakers for your
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PC's content. It's less common to send anything
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back to the PC via the USB sound card out,
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but there are plenty of installations that might
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choose to do so for recording purposes or streaming considerations.
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You can choose to name your USB bridge,
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which will change how it identifies itself to your PC.
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If you look for these inputs and outputs in
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your system sound options or in your
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conferencing application's video sources,
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you'll see them notated by the name you choose in the Q-SYS design.
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When you're configuring your system on the
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same PC you're going to connect to,
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you might get a little turned around considering that
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the output from Q-SYS becomes the inputs to your
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PC and vice versa. Remember that the Q-SYS design
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thinks about everything from the core's perspective,
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even when you're building it on the PC.
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Other things to note: if you're using a Zoom Room,
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there's a particular property to be aware of called
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Zoom compatibility, which you should be sure to enable.
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And regardless of the application that you're using,
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you may find that you want to manage that
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application from Q-SYS or control other things within
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your system based on the activity of the
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conferencing application.
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For instance, you may want to set the room's lights
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and cameras to a default setting every time a
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conference call begins.
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You can communicate with the application
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that's running by grabbing the HID conferencing
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component from the device you're using.
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This once again uses the same USB cable as
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everything else and allows you to start, stop,
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or mute the conferencing session, as well as provide
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you with LEDs to indicate when the call is in session,
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when it's muted, when you're receiving an
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incoming call, and whether or not a USB cable
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is currently connected.
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You could use these LEDs to drive any number
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of control logic to automate the system to
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react to your user's conferencing activity.
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For more information on the HID conferencing component,
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check out our quick start video on the subject.
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Oh, welcome back. I thought you said I was
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supposed to do the hard parts. You are,
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but integrating a USB bridge into the software is just that easy.
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Ah, thanks for watching,
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and we'll see you next time.
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Translation: it's Friday.
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USB bridge into my belly.