Q-SYS Products: Part 2

Welcome back! This next set of Q-SYS Products are geared specifically for high-impact collaboration spaces.

At the very beginning of the audio signal chain, Q-SYS offers options for network microphones.

Rather than using analog inputs or third-party network channels, native Q-SYS network microphones are simple to install,

and give you access to extra features like customizable LEDs and proximity sensors for touchless muting.

Next on our list of peripherals are the AV-to-USB bridging devices, ideal for integrating UC platform applications like Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, etc.

A USB Bridge allows a single USB cable to deliver multiple audio channels and video to a PC or laptop.

This lets your compute device take full advantage of the Q-SYS audio system in your room, as well as receive Q-SYS video camera streams to deliver to your conferencing application to use instead of its default camera.

A USB Bridge may be a dedicated peripheral device, but a USB bridge may also exist as an additional feature on other peripherals, or on the Core itself.

Speaking of cameras, there are several Q-SYS models including full PTZ-IP cameras as well as fixed-lens ePTZ options.

Far easier to install and manage than HDMI or USB cameras,

these PoE cameras allow a large number of camera sources to be routed to your Video USB Bridge to be used by the conferencing application of your choice.

Even better, Q-SYS also offers plugins to allow you to recall camera position presets based on where the voices are situated in the room.

For HDMI distribution, particularly in the collaboration environment, look to our network video endpoint peripherals.

These peripherals can encode a local HDMI source and transport it across the network to another video endpoint, which then decodes the video and delivers it to an HDMI display.

Audio can be taken from the HDMI source, processed or mixed differently, and even re-inserted into the HDMI display.

These peripherals are more fully explored in our Video 101 training series.

Q-SYS offers a sophisticated paging system, including Page Station peripherals that come in a variety of models including desktop or wall-mount versions,

with different options for microphones, keypads, and microphone accessories.

You could also pair any microphone with a touch screen to create a virtual Page Station to control the PA system components.

For more information, take a look at our “Public Address” Quickstart tutorials.

For all of the physical hardware peripherals we just mentioned, adding them to your design is pretty simple.

First, you’ll find your desired device in the Inventory panel of Q-SYS Designer software, which will let you add the control components for that peripheral into your design.

Second—once your peripheral is physically connected to the network—open the Q-SYS Configurator tool to find your new hardware device.

Use its Peripheral Manager interface to assign it a name, IP address, and network settings that are appropriate for your installation.

Finally, be sure to change the name of the Inventory device in your design to match the new name of the hardware peripheral, so the design knows which device to connect to.

We’ll look at these steps in greater detail in future videos.

Don’t forget that not every device in your design will be a Q-SYS Product, which is why Q-SYS creates the condition for an entire Ecosystem of third-party product integrations.

If you’re connecting to third-party devices like lighting controllers, projectors, control systems, etc.,

you can communicate with those devices by using one of the available Q-SYS Partner manufacturer plugins,

by sending simple TCP or Serial strings using Command Buttons, or by using custom scripting components.

These topics are covered in future videos as well.

It’s also worth mentioning that not all inputs and outputs are hardware-related.

There’s a library of network streaming components that allow you to send or receive channels to third-party devices across the network.

This includes our Software Dante components, AES67, WAN and Media Stream Receivers,

as well as Q-LAN and System Link components that allow you to stream audio, video and control from one Q-SYS system to another.

Additionally, not all Q-SYS products are physical devices. Software feature licenses, for instance,

are Q-SYS products that expand the capabilities of your Core for installations with advanced needs.

For example, if your design uses custom scripting or plugins, you’ll need to install the Q-SYS Scripting Engine License to your Core before deploying it.

Other licenses might allow you to deploy UCIs or increase your software Dante channel count,

while Q-SYS scaling licenses offer a number of application-specific processing improvements that are bundled together.

Be sure to look for what kind of licenses are available for your model of Core on its product page.

Finally, you can monitor and manage any number of your Q-SYS systems remotely by enrolling in a Q-SYS Reflect Enterprise Manager account.

Enterprise Manager gives you access to valuable data and controls of your Q-SYS systems from anywhere in the world from a single web-based dashboard.

Receive proactive notifications on all native Q-SYS devices and connected third-party devices, interact with UCIs, upgrade Q-SYS Designer remotely,

and even create custom helpdesk GUIs for on-the-fly troubleshooting.

For more information on Q-SYS Reflect Enterprise Manager training, be sure to check out our training course on this service.

By now, you should now have a broad overview of all the different hardware, software, and streaming categories contained within Q-SYS Products.

The next step is learning how to actually build a design. So let’s take a break, and move along whenever you’re ready.