Production Switchers

Does anyone know of a way to get a "preset black" function on the Carbonite.

It obviously doesn't come as a feature, but if anyone has figured out how to do a custom control to achieve this, I would love to know.

Thanks!

Hi David,

Black is indeed directly available in Carbonite, the default bus map has it assigned to the first button on the source select row. If you dont see it then check your bus map assignments. You can assign black to any button on the crosspoint.

Nigel

#Carbonite

Maybe I wasn't clear... Every switcher I've ever worked with previously has a "preset black" function that allows you to dip to black while having something else in preview, then the next transition is from black to that preset source.

In other words, you can fade to black without putting black in preview, and without selecting keyers.

The Carbonite does not come with this feature.

For example, I'm on a video server with one key in. I want to dip to black, and fade back up to a different video server channel with no keyer. On the Carbonite I need to select BKG and KEY1, put black in preset, fade to black, then select the second server channel and BKG only, then fade up.

Since I'm rolling the video server myself I only have 1 hand available to do this, and I don't want to be in black for more than 1 second.

I could certainly create a custom control, but the keyers may change, and the server channels most certainly will.

I don't think there's a way to do this, but maybe someone figured out a way that I haven't thought of.

#Carbonite

Hi David,

You can certainly achieve the effect you want with a custom control, however what is the server you are using?

Nigel

#Carbonite

We have Precis, part of BitCentral.

It's 4 channels. Like I said, I want the whole board to fade to black, and be able to fade back up to a different source with different keyers. Sometimes none, sometimes 1 or more.

#Carbonite

You would need 4 Custom Controls, one for each channel. The custom would look like this...

1/10 ME2 Trans Diss

2/10 ME2 Trans Time 5fr

3/10 ME2 Prst Bus BK

4/10 ME2 Auto

5/10 Pause 9fr

6/10 ME2 Prst Bus SRV 1 (or whatever the name is)

7/10 ME2 Auto

8/10 Pause 6fr

9/10 ME2 Trans Time 15fr

10/10 End

Note this sets the transition time at the beginning and resets it at the end, you would need to use values that meet you requirements, this one uses a 15 frame transition.

Does this help? It will not affect any transition background or keyer settings, you would select those as normal. Of course they could be included in the macro's if you wanted.

Nigel

#Carbonite

I'll have try it. Thanks!

This won't change what I have on the PGM row, will it? I might have to go through the settings and make sure that's not affected when I create the custom control.

Of course, if I wanted to go to a source that isn't a server channel, this won't work.

#Carbonite

I have made a preset black CC on our Carbonite, and it works with any input. It does a fade to black, then cut, then a fade from black. No need for 4 CCs, though it will only work on the ME that you do the cut on.

This is how I did it:

1. Start recording a CC.

2. Log into the Carbonite remotely using a telnet client (such as PuTTY) and type "FTB" without quotes, followed by enter (don't close the telnet client yet).

3. On the panel, insert a pause of 15 frames.

4. Again, on the panel, press the cut button on the ME that you want the preset black on.

5. In the telnet client, type "FTB" without quotes, followed by enter again (now you can close it)

6. Stop recording the CC.

This should do the trick.

EDIT: note, that because this does a fade to black, which is the top-most layer of the switcher, everything will dip to black, not just that ME.

#Carbonite

How did you figure that one out?? I'll try this as soon as I can.

Thanks!!

#Carbonite

I noticed that FTB was a Ross Talk command in this document. I've had a CC on our Carbonite for FTB for a couple of years now (because there isn't one on the panel), and then thought about using it for preset black earlier this year.

By the way, I forgot to mention, you need to use port 7788 when you telnet into the Carbonite.

#Carbonite

That is very cool. I never would hsve thought to use RossTalk for much of anything, really.

So, the FTB command gets stored as part of the CC.

If done with a 15 frame pause, that gives you that amount of time to select the BKG and keyers yiu want in the second part of that transition?

That is very cool. I'll let you know what happens.

Thanks again!

#Carbonite

Hi David,

FTB is laid on top of everything. so the transition is setup to what you would want to come out to from Black. So say you had Server 1 with CG on Key 1 and you wanted to go to Server 2 Clean but through black (as your doing) what this does is does a FTB which covers up PGM (so does not use PST at all) then it does a Cut on the trans area followed by a FTB command to turn off the Black and dissolve to the new server that is on the air clean.

So it never interrupts the "Preview" like a normal PST Black would.

Les

#Carbonite

No, that makes perfect sense. I was overthinking it.

This does exactly what I want. Put in preview what I want to do, run the CC, and it undercuts under the FTB.

Perfecto! I can't wait to try it.

#Carbonite

David, just something to note, if you find the second FTB (removing the black) happens too soon after the cut, just put in a 2 frame pause after the cut. I had to do that on ours.

#Carbonite

Do I need to enable RossTalk somehow? When I try to Telnet into it using the IP address that the switcher gives me it says that the connection is refused.

Do I need to add a device or something? I've got the media manager connected through a web browser to the same IP address, so I don't know why it refuse the connection.

#Carbonite

Make sure you change the port to 7788. It doesn't work on the normal telnet port.

#Carbonite

I should give you an example. If you go into the Command Prompt (on Windows) or Terminal (OS X/Linux), type the following at the prompt if the IP address is 192.168.0.123:



telnet 192.168.0.123 7788



If on PuTTY, set the port to 7788 in the box to the right of the address box. Make sure the Connection Type is set to "Telnet" first though (changing the connection type sets the port to the default for that type).

#Carbonite

Oh my goodness... I totally misread the document as port 7778 instead of 7788...

I'm now connected. That is really cool.

Thanks everyone!!

#Carbonite