Specifications

April – June 2002 ExtroNews 13.2 11
UNIQUE TECHNIQUES
Communitronics, an A/V dealership in St.
Louis, Missouri, recently hatched upon the
idea of utilizing DSVP’s powerful active
updating capabilities within AMX touch
panels.
To begin, Leitensdorfer determined that
the easier the detection, the better the
results. He reasoned that many end-users
are not concerned with the horizontal and
vertical scan rates; they just want to know
if the signal is active or not. “The scan rate
of the inputs really only benefits the
technical staff,” he said.
With that, he and his team set about to
simplify the message. “We’re using the
CrossPoint Plus and asking for its read-
out. With the RS-232 response, it sends
horizontal and vertical read-outs. With the
software, we’ve transformed the message
by simply indicating whether or not a
source is active or not active. If the source
is active, we show an active button on the
touch screen.”
To illustrate the point, Leitensdorfer
refers to the following example. “If you
have two floor boxes—one at stage right
and the other at stage left—and you have
nothing plugged in either one, you won’t
see a button on the screen. If you plug a
computer into stage left, the input button
will pop up on the screen within five
seconds. It lets you know it’s an active
source. If anything is unplugged, the
button disappears from the touch screen.
It’s really that easy.”
Leitensdorfer emphasizes how the DSVP
feature keeps the screen real estate less
cluttered with unnecessary data and
information. Once the active input is
determined, the user can concentrate on
other aspects of the control system
software. Best of all, there’s no need to
continue to query the status of the input.
Another benefit is that the user at the
touch screen can easily determine the
status of the system, isolate at what point
The DSVP information
can be viewed on a touch
panel or on a PC using
Extron’s Windows
®
-based
control software.
a signal has dropped out, and most likely
identify source changes, switching errors,
and the like.
Leitensdorfer is keen to note that his
trick also lends itself to monitoring a
system remotely, even over the Internet.
This opens up a realm of possibilities for
long-distance troubleshooting and
centralized monitoring. No matter how
the system is set up, DSVP makes it much
easier to detect and solve any problems
that occur.
The Communitronics staff continues
experimenting with the DSVP techniques.
Leitensdorfer thinks this technology can
improve many installations. “We foresee
DSVP becoming a standard part of system
integration. It saves time, resources, and
money. And that’s a benefit our industry
will always welcome.”