USB Bridging

Q-SYS Level 1 Training : QSC Conferencing Solution

6 ) Audio Playback

13m 10s

9 ) QSC Conferencing Solution

25m 14s

12 ) Final Exam Overview

15m 59s

Video Transcript

USB Bridging 7m 21s
00:00
[Music]
00:06
If you're not familiar with integrating
00:07
Q-SYS USB bridging alongside acoustic echo cancellation,
00:11
network video streams,
00:12
and audio I/O into your collaboration space,
00:15
it might sound a little confusing at first.
00:18
That's why I'll be using a translator to explain
00:20
everything in layman's terms. That's me.
00:23
He's going to talk marketing; I'll talk like a human.
00:26
High-impact collaboration rooms are some of the
00:28
most common applications for Q-SYS systems.
00:31
You know that room at work where everyone
00:32
sits around a big table and talks to people on a screen?
00:36
We're talking about that.
00:37
Whether it's a small meeting space, training rooms,
00:40
lecture halls, or executive boardrooms,
00:42
these collaboration spaces have elevated
00:44
experience expectations and therefore similarly
00:48
elevated requirements for audio, video, and control.
00:52
Translation: all these rooms should be cool.
00:55
Sometimes cool spaces are tricky.
00:57
Q-SYS proudly supports all of the leading UC
00:59
collaboration providers with certified,
01:01
vetted solutions for Microsoft Teams Rooms,
01:05
Zoom Rooms, and Google Meet, and even
01:08
offers complete UC bundles for some of these solutions.
01:11
Their stuff is cool and reliable; our stuff is cool and reliable,
01:14
so it all works out nicely.
01:16
These dedicated platform rooms and other rooms
01:19
might also incorporate BYOD functionality to allow a
01:23
participant to bridge the room's AV system to
01:26
their local collaboration application.
01:28
That's BYOD.
01:29
You can bring your own B later.
01:31
All right, save it for Friday, buddy.
01:32
BYOD is bring your own device.
01:35
So basically, you can walk in with your laptop,
01:38
hook it up to the room, and use the room's mics,loudspeakers, and cameras rather than the
01:42
crummy ones that are on your laptop.
01:44
Regardless of the type of room,
01:46
this functionality is achieved via a
01:48
USB bridge to transport your Q-SYS room's
01:51
high-end collaboration cameras to your device
01:53
or in-room compute. Translation:
01:56
all you got to do is plug in a USB cable.
01:58
That's it. And did you say compute?
02:01
Is it not a computer anymore? What happened?
02:04
No, computer is correct. No, what?
02:05
Who changed that? It's a computer.
02:07
Any number of Q-SYS devices can provide
02:10
USB bridging functionality, including your Q-SYS
02:12
core processor, dedicated I/O bridge device,
02:15
network video endpoint device,
02:17
and even certain models of touchscreen devices.
02:19
You got a lot of options here, folks.
02:21
All right, just use the one that is closest to your computer. I hate you.
02:27
Regardless of the type of room or the device
02:30
that you're using to provide USB bridging,
02:32
adding that functionality to your system
02:34
is the same process. All right, show them
02:37
how it's done, layman. Layman, it's layman.
02:40
You're a layman, not lay. It's layman.
02:43
Okay, so find the device whose USB port
02:45
you're using in the inventory and go to its properties.
02:49
Here, we're using the MV 32H, which is
02:52
operating as both the core for the room,
02:54
a local HDMI switcher, and the source for
02:57
our USB bridge. In the properties,
02:59
there's a category called USB bridging,
03:02
which is disabled by default.
03:04
First, let's enable the USB video bridge.
03:06
This creates a new component for our inventory
03:09
item called the USB video bridge,
03:11
which we can add to our schematic.
03:13
The media cast pin on this component can
03:15
receive a wire either directly from a Q-SYS network
03:18
camera or from a media cast router that allows
03:22
you to choose from any of up to 255 possible
03:25
cameras in your system.
03:26
There's no output from the USB video bridge in
03:29
Q-SYS because its output is the physical USB
03:33
cable that delivers the camera video to your PC.
03:36
You can access it the same way you would
03:38
access any USB camera on your PC,
03:41
and it should usually identify itself as the default
03:43
USB camera to be used by any of your conferencing applications.
03:47
Next, let's look at the audio side of the USB bridge.
03:51
We can choose to enable either a mono speakerphone
03:54
connection, a stereo sound card connection, or both.
03:58
Adding these to your device will once again give
04:00
you new input and output components in the inventory,
04:03
so let's drag those into the schematic too.
04:06
Even though these are represented by multiple components,
04:09
all the audio and video are still transported
04:12
over that single USB cable.
04:14
These simply represent different types of
04:16
audio that your PC might use.
04:18
The USB speakerphone in represents the
04:21
far-end caller's voice that comes in via the
04:23
conferencing application.
04:25
You'd want to wire this into your room's
04:27
loudspeaker signal path so you can hear
04:29
the far-end caller over the high-quality
04:31
loudspeakers in your room rather than the
04:33
PC or laptop's onboard speakers.
04:36
The USB speakerphone out represents all the
04:39
audio we want to send to the far-end caller,
04:41
which will certainly include the room's
04:43
microphones after they've been processed
04:44
by acoustic echo cancelling,
04:46
but it may also include other program material
04:48
in the room if desired. The USB sound card,
04:52
on the other hand, represents the rest of the PC's audio.
04:55
This would include the other applications running
04:57
on the PC, like presentation software, video players,
05:01
web browsers, etc.
05:03
All of this arrives in Q-SYS as a stereo source,
05:06
once again letting you use the room's loudspeakers for your
05:09
PC's content. It's less common to send anything
05:13
back to the PC via the USB sound card out,
05:16
but there are plenty of installations that might
05:17
choose to do so for recording purposes or streaming considerations.
05:22
You can choose to name your USB bridge,
05:24
which will change how it identifies itself to your PC.
05:28
If you look for these inputs and outputs in
05:29
your system sound options or in your
05:32
conferencing application's video sources,
05:34
you'll see them notated by the name you choose in the Q-SYS design.
05:38
When you're configuring your system on the
05:40
same PC you're going to connect to,
05:43
you might get a little turned around considering that
05:45
the output from Q-SYS becomes the inputs to your
05:48
PC and vice versa. Remember that the Q-SYS design
05:52
thinks about everything from the core's perspective,
05:54
even when you're building it on the PC.
05:57
Other things to note: if you're using a Zoom Room,
06:00
there's a particular property to be aware of called
06:02
Zoom compatibility, which you should be sure to enable.
06:06
And regardless of the application that you're using,
06:09
you may find that you want to manage that
06:11
application from Q-SYS or control other things within
06:14
your system based on the activity of the
06:16
conferencing application.
06:18
For instance, you may want to set the room's lights
06:20
and cameras to a default setting every time a
06:23
conference call begins.
06:24
You can communicate with the application
06:26
that's running by grabbing the HID conferencing
06:29
component from the device you're using.
06:32
This once again uses the same USB cable as
06:35
everything else and allows you to start, stop,
06:38
or mute the conferencing session, as well as provide
06:40
you with LEDs to indicate when the call is in session,
06:44
when it's muted, when you're receiving an
06:46
incoming call, and whether or not a USB cable
06:49
is currently connected.
06:50
You could use these LEDs to drive any number
06:53
of control logic to automate the system to
06:55
react to your user's conferencing activity.
06:58
For more information on the HID conferencing component,
07:01
check out our quick start video on the subject.
07:03
Oh, welcome back. I thought you said I was
07:05
supposed to do the hard parts. You are,
07:07
but integrating a USB bridge into the software is just that easy.
07:10
Ah, thanks for watching,
07:12
and we'll see you next time.
07:13
Translation: it's Friday.
07:16
USB bridge into my belly.