Specifications

Advanced Remote Control of MediaMatrix
®
Advanced Remote Control of MediaMatrix
How to compile a viewfile using a control system
A. Introduction to Remote Control
B. Why use Telnet?
By Joe Kurta, Systems Integration Specialist. Edited by Will Roland, Operations Manager.
When implementing a large-scale MediaMatrix system that may encompass multiple Mainframes, the designer may find the need to
implement tools that support remote control of MediaMatrix. Using a third party, integrated control system such as those offered
by AMX
®
(www.amx.com) or Crestron
®
(www.crestron.com) can be greatly beneficial by adding facility-wide control functionality.
In addition, these systems provide familiar hardware interfaces to common system functions that end-users are most familiar with.
Finally, establishing a centralized control source for all of the site’s MediaMatrix hardware will generally save time, ease trou-
bleshooting and better support maintenance processes.
The interface between MediaMatrix and these types of control systems can be accomplished in many ways. Usually, a serial com-
munications connection (RS-232, RS-422, RS-485, etc.) is used because it is a simple and cost effective solution. However, a serial
interface has serious limits in terms of data flow, stability and speed. A much more robust method of interfacing these, and other
control systems, can be found by making use of MediaMatrix’ built-in Ethernet (TCP/IP) port. Thus, this is the focus of this paper
1
.
MediaMatrix supports multiple, simultaneous toolsets for remote control. One of the most powerful tools when implementing
advanced remote control is “RATC
™
.” RATC, or Remote Access Terminal Control
, is a powerful command-line protocol for use in
remote client control systems. RATC includes functionality that gives a remote client application access to controls and their val-
ues within a compiled view file in MediaMatrix. The remote client application or control system communicates with MediaMatrix
via a TCP/IP network connection, so RATC is compatible with both local area networks, VPN’s and the Internet. In addition, any
reasonable number of RATC clients can be connected simultaneously to the MediaMatrix frame. RATC runs as a “Remote Service”
in the MWare
™
application, and the service is configured and enabled through the MediaMatrix user interface
2
.
Within the MediaMatrix software (MWare), there are actually two separate Windows
®
applications that work together in a client-
server relationship. There is the client GUI, “PAVCON
™
” (Peavey Audio Virtual CONsole), and the server, “PADPU
™
” (Peavey Audio
Digital Processing Unit), which contains the kernel that manages the DSP hardware. The user, however, only sees PAVCON, and
when a control on the MWare screen is gestured, PAVCON sends a message to PADPU to change the setting of the control parame-
ter in the DSP. After the change has occurred in the DSP hardware, PAVCON updates its controls to reflect the new hardware set-
tings. This process occurs transparently to the user, and the controls are updated virtually in real-time.
When the RATC service is enabled, a Windows socket is granted access to PADPU directly, and thus, can send commands to the
hardware much in the same way that PAVCON does (See Fig. 1). It is important to remember that a remote computer using RATC
does not send commands to PAVCON, only to PADPU. In this context, RATC is an independent client to PADPU, just as
PAVCON is. While this is generally acceptable for most control issues, there may arise an occasion when the user wishes to per-
form a function that is only available from PAVCON, such as a “Compile” command. When the user is at the MediaMatrix frame,
operating PAVCON directly, such a command is a simple matter of using functionality from the GUI, or from a command line
switch using the MediaMatrix CLAMM
™
protocol (Ex: "pavcon.exe /compile c:\viewfile.pav")
3
. But in our case, the user is located at
a remote location. Our goal is therefore to allow this remote user to utilize these CLAMM functions on the MediaMatrix in much
the same way as he/she would locally. This can be done using Telnet.