Cinema Sample Walkthrough Part 2
Video Transcript
00:08
Welcome back! Let’s continue on our walkthrough of the Cinema Sample Design.
00:12
We’ve covered all of the inputs as well as the routing and the gain control in our Processing section,
00:17
so let’s move on to the Equalization section.
00:20
Here, all eight of our channels pass through a Gain component,
00:24
a High-Pass Filter and High Shelf Equalizer, a Low-Shelf Equalizer, Parametric Equalizer,
00:30
and a Standard Delay component, before being delivered to your amplifiers.
00:35
You may wish to adjust these components
00:36
either to tune for your room’s acoustics or for the loudspeakers that you’re using.
00:40
If you’re an audio engineer then you should be familiar with each of these:
00:44
the high-pass filter provides loudspeaker protection from subsonic frequencies typically around 15-20Hz;
00:51
the high shelf provides treble control, which sometimes is useful for matching the tilt of the X-curve;
00:57
the low shelf provides a classic bass boost or cut,
01:00
the Parametric Equalizer is where the meat of the EQ happens,
01:05
and the Delay is mostly for surround delay compensation.
01:08
The delay component, of course, will be important to everyone,
01:12
as you offset the audio playing from the speakers farther from the screen
01:15
to align with the audio coming from the mains.
01:17
You’ll notice on the left- and right-side surround channels
01:21
that there are actually two outputs for the Delay blocks.
01:24
This splits the same signal into two channels that are identical
01:28
except for whatever difference you set in their delays.
01:31
We’re not going to explain how to make all these adjustments in this video
01:35
because if you don’t already know how to use these components,
01:38
then these aren’t the videos you are looking for...
01:40
These aren’t the videos you're looking for.
01:42
Move along.
01:43
Move along.
01:44
I do want to point out however that if you’re using QSC amplifiers and loudspeakers,
01:48
which of course we recommend,
01:50
then our custom voicing for our loudspeakers known as Intrinsic Correction will automatically be applied
01:56
to protect the loudspeaker and provide you the best possible sonic performance.
02:00
But if someone has, let’s say,
02:03
captured your daughter and leveraged her safety to make you use non-QSC amplifiers and loudspeakers,
02:09
then let’s hope you have a very particular set of skills.
02:13
Skills that you’ve acquired over a very long career,
02:16
to help you use these equalization components to voice your loudspeakers.
02:23
Next, our signals get to the outputs.
02:26
We’re using DPA4K8Qn amplifiers, which give us some really flexible options.
02:34
These 8-channel amplifiers can combine their channels in many useful ways -
02:38
in their properties you’ll see that channels A, B, C, D, G and H are configured as six independent channels,
02:47
but channels EF have been combined in parallel.
02:50
We’re using this parallel channel for a subwoofer,
02:53
and this design has two subwoofers so that’s happening on both amplifiers.
02:58
Meanwhile, our left, right, and center loudspeakers have been bi-amped,
03:02
so we’re using two channels for each of these,
03:04
and we’re also using two channels for each of our side surrounds
03:08
since we have those extra channels with the additional delays on them.
03:12
This setup, of course, is going to be different for every single installation.
03:16
Some higher-end applications might require tri-amped or even quad-amped loudspeakers,
03:20
which would of course also require additional amplifier channels,
03:23
which means more amplifiers as well.
03:25
So what I really want to point out is that each of these hardware devices has its “Status” control pin exposed,
03:31
and is it over here … to our Status Combiner.
03:35
This is a diagnostic control component that compiles data from multiple hardware devices in a single place,
03:41
and reports back if any of them are in a Fault state.
03:44
If the light is green then all the devices are good, but if it’s red then you know there’s a problem.
03:49
In our particular case, we’re using one Status Combiner to monitor both our amplifiers,
03:54
and one to monitor all our loudspeakers.
03:57
So if you change these hardware components,
03:59
be sure to wire your new amplifiers or loudspeakers to this Status Combiner too
04:03
so you can monitor them as well.
04:05
And while we’re talking about it,
04:07
don’t forget that if you replace any of the loudspeakers with a different model of QSC loudspeaker,
04:12
you’ll want to open that loudspeaker’s control panel and grab its “Listen” button
04:16
if you want to update the “LOUDSPEAKER MONITOR” we talked about in the previous video.
04:21
Also in the output section, are the DCIO Analog Output channels we talked about earlier.
04:26
You’ll remember that the back of the DCIO has some analog output channels
04:30
that deliver the Hearing-Impaired and Visually-Impaired audio tracks to your assistive listening systems,
04:36
and there is also a generic Line Out as well as a Monitor output with a 10-Watt amplifier built in,
04:42
for a local monitor in the projection booth.
04:45
In our design, we’ve added the voicing for an AD-S32T loudspeaker to this monitor output.
04:51
Let’s shuffle down to this section dedicated to Test and Measurement tools.
04:55
You’ve already learned about the value of Signal Probes and Injectors for field-testing your equipment,
05:00
but this design has gone the extra distance of using a snapshot bank
05:04
to automatically route the Cinema Pink Noise channel to any of the main eight channels,
05:09
or a combination of the center and subwoofers, the combined left surrounds,
05:13
or the combined right surrounds.
05:15
This makes it very easy for a technician to test each loudspeaker signal path individually
05:20
with the touch of a single button.
05:22
But if you need to manually patch some audio input to a new output,
05:27
you can use the probe and the injector here as well.
05:30
This leads us to one of our final topics: control!
05:34
Here in the GPIO and Control section,
05:37
first we’ll see the Snapshot controller we mentioned previously that changes our master Format routing.
05:42
You’ll notice that every load button is sent through a Logic block
05:46
that will then Mute the Pink Noise Generator when you’re in any of your standard preset modes.
05:52
We also have the “BYPASS” Snapshot controller here,
05:55
which is the feature we mentioned in the previous video
05:58
that lets you reroute your left, right, or center channels in the event of an amplifier failure.
06:04
There are also a couple of simple items here –
06:07
the “Date/Time” control component provides the current time based on the Core’s clock,
06:12
which we see displayed here as well as on our UCIs.
06:15
We also have a custom toggle button we’ve labeled “AMPLIFIER POWER”
06:20
which we’ve wired to the “Power On” control pins of our amplifiers.
06:24
This is another button we'll put on our UCI to turn on all the amplifiers simultaneously.
06:30
Jumping over to our GPIO pins,
06:32
we can combine physical controls in the real world with virtual controls here in Q-SYS.
06:37
For instance, the front of the DCIO panel has a rotary control and a mute button,
06:42
which are represented inside Q-SYS by these “Level Knob” and “Mute Button” control pins.
06:48
We’ve wired these to the Master Fader’s Gain and Mute buttons inside Q-SYS,
06:52
and then back again, letting these buttons control each other regardless of which one you’re pressing.
06:58
We also have a GPIO signal coming in from our Core’s GPIO #1.
07:03
This is a typical fire alarm application.
07:06
When the fire alarm goes off, we need to mute all the auditorium’s audio –
07:10
so here our incoming signal hits a custom toggle button we’re calling “FIRE 1”,
07:15
to control our Master Mute button.
07:18
This button also goes directly to our “System Mute” component,
07:22
which you can also control from this button in the top toolbar.
07:25
The System Mute will mute all output channels in the entire design,
07:29
just in case you were also, I don't know, using a signal injector or something like that
07:33
which might not have been muted by the Master Fader..
07:36
Basically, you can never have enough Mute when you need it.
07:39
Beetlegeuse, beetlegeuse, beetelgeu—
07:40
Phew.
07:40
Alright, finally we have four Relay Outputs leaving our DCIO,
07:46
which can be used to send signals to external devices in your auditorium.
07:50
These might typically be used for dimmer controls,
07:53
or for the masking motors that crop the edges of the picture.
07:57
All of our Relay buttons, format presets, power buttons, and gain controls
08:01
are all gathered here in our Manual Control section, but that’s only useful if you have Designer software open.
08:08
More likely, a user will be interacting with the system via a Q-SYS touch panel.
08:13
This design comes with three UCIs that all have the same controls,
08:17
designed for an iPad, a TSC7, or a TSC5.5 G2 device.
08:24
Each of these have the master fader control on the right, the hardware status LEDs at the top,
08:29
access to a METERS page that shows all all of the input and output levels,
08:34
a MONITOR page that uses the Monitor snapshots or the Loudspeaker Monitor presets that we discussed earlier,
08:41
as well as the monitor gain control.
08:44
And, of course, the format selection options are at the bottom.
08:47
Of course, we’re talking about these buttons as if you’re ever actually going to use them.
08:52
Exactly... come on, who actually presses buttons anymore?
08:55
What would be far more convenient is if it happened … all on its own!
09:00
Q-SYS, Q-SYS, Q-SYS, Q-SYS...
09:06
“What - do you get - when need some con-trol
09:10
Q-SYS provides it while saving your bank-roll
09:14
Tri-gger the chan-ges automatic-ly
09:18
Au-tomat-ion is what – you – need …
09:23
AND YOU GET IT ALL FOR FREE
09:27
Okay, so automation’s not always a good thing.
09:30
But it is in a cinema auditorium.
09:33
Everything is automated these days—
09:35
when it comes to changing formats between the trailer audio and the feature audio,
09:39
there’s usually isn't a projectionist sitting in the booth to do that.
09:43
Instead, a media server sendd a TCP command on the network at the top of every one of its media segments.
09:50
Q-SYS can of course receive those commands
09:53
so that the cinema processor is actually the one recalling your snapshots.
09:58
Earlier in your Q-SYS Training you learned how you could add a control to the Named Controls Bin
10:03
to allow the Command Scheduler in the Administrator Tool access to your schematic,
10:07
and schedule your commands at certain points of the day.
10:09
Well the Named Controls Bin also exposes its controls to other devices on the network,
10:15
so long as they know your IP address, what port to talk on, and what commands to send.
10:20
We’ve already added all of the Format snapshot recall buttons to the Named Controls Bin –
10:26
F51, F71, HDMI51, etc.,
10:30
along with some other common controls like GAIN, MUTE, etc.
10:34
For an in-depth look at this External Control Protocol, you can check out our training videos on that subject.
10:40
But for now, suffice it to say that the cinema processor can fire them using a command like:
10:46
“csv F51 1”, which sends a “control set value” to the “F51” control with a value of “1”,
10:56
which means on.
10:58
This will activate format AES 5.1. Voila!
11:02
Don’t worry, you don’t need to memorize those commands … we've provided them for you!
11:07
Just click this “Automation Command List”
11:10
for examples of the strings you need to enter to execute different commands.
11:14
Just don’t forget that if you do end up copying this page to a second auditorium,
11:20
the Named Controls for the next auditorium will be different, so adjust these commands too!
11:26
And that’s it! That is the Cinema Sample Design walkthrough.
11:30
With this design you have everything you need to have a fully functional auditorium.
11:33
To finalize your certification in Q-SYS for Cinema,
11:36
you now have to execute some design changes to this file based on specifications that we’ll provide you.
11:41
So download that, good luck, and that's all folks!