[quote="Justin J."]Hey Clint, thanks for the info. This is most excellent because at least we've narrowed the peripheral communications conundrum. It is tricky, I must say, trying to convince the older td's and engineers to go with this timeline feature I want to build which will run the animations and undercut. Being 23 doesn't put much leverage under my belt I guess. Anyways, with all of this helpful info from all of these td's, I've printed out this advice and gave it to the e.i.c. so hopefully this works. Thanks again for your help.[/quote] How old are your TD's? I understand being stuck in time. But I have been TDing for 12 years and the more effects I can build that work with one button press the better I feel. Who wants to manually cue up an animation, key it, play it undercut. When you can have an emem call it all up and with one buttons press magic happens. Keep pushing them, explain how simple it will be, and how much lazier they can be :) That is cool that this machine does all of these protocols, nice design, they are all starting to get it right. Bill

Hey Clint, thanks for the info. This is most excellent because at least we've narrowed the peripheral communications conundrum. It is tricky, I must say, trying to convince the older td's and engineers to go with this timeline feature I want to build which will run the animations and undercut. Being 23 doesn't put much leverage under my belt I guess. Anyways, with all of this helpful info from all of these td's, I've printed out this advice and gave it to the e.i.c. so hopefully this works. Thanks again for your help.

Hey Justin, I don't know about the 3000.....but the Xclyps will talk VDCP, Probel, and Pbus. The xclyps does not need a Lance or DNF box as an intermediary.... it will create its own Pbus registers. Different register files can be saved for different shows to call up the animations that are required. Each channel of the Xclyps has different settings and can be controlled by a different protocol, and have different pbus registers. There are two com ports on the back that can be configured to control each channel independently. Also, we found that using a X-Keys (naming is coincidental this product is not in any way associated with Chyron Xclyps) - a programmable USB keypad made by PI Engineering (ymouse.com). This converts Chyron's convoluted keyboard "shortcuts" into single button presses. GPI does not come standard with the Xclyps - it requires an additional board. GPI commands cannot be customized. An Addendum to the manual describes what a GPI trigger will do - GPI Pin 37 - Play Command, GPI Pin 33 - Stop Command etc...... The Xclyps is fairly new. Many stations use Pinnacle / now Avid's Thunder as a DDR for animations/transitions etc..... The nice thing about the Xclyps is that it has almost an instant cue, compared to the Thunder's sometimes lagging cue. The downside is the XClyps is its VERY limited playlist control and database management. -Clint

[quote="Justin J."]Alright, thanks again for your help, guys. I'm going to forward the information to our engineers and hope that a solution will come in the near future...[/quote] Not sure how quickly your engineers look into stuff like this, but don't be afraid to simply call chyron tech support yourself. You will learn more and might even get an answer sooner. Bill

Alright, thanks again for your help, guys. I'm going to forward the information to our engineers and hope that a solution will come in the near future...

You should find out first if Chyron software even supports P-bus. I have not heard of any machines such from chryon accepting p-bus. 2nd will the xclyps run off serial 422 control? If so does it talk odetics, bvw, etc. Once you find out about that you can then purchase a box to be your go between from the switcher to the Xclyps. BufTek, Lance, or DNF. These all talk P-bus to 422 control. They all work with odetics or BVW. Best bet is to call chryon or cringe.. check out the manual :) Bill

The reason you hear of Fast Forward's is that a few years back several networks decided to use them, then the truck companies bought them. It was not because they were technically the best. Since you are in a studio, you don't need to worry about the remote world. (Unless you try freelancing or your station decides to do a remote with a sports truck.) As for controlling the Chyron, the PBus route offers more control. GPIs are basically a contact closure. Some servers can talk PBus directly, others need a controller to translate the PBus into their control language.

mike and bob, thanks for the reccomendations. here is what happened. the e.i.c. and i had a chat, and it was revealed to me that the gpi system (cables, etc) are non-existant in our set up. therefore there is a literal "communication issue". no gpi/pbus leaving or entering the switcher. mike, the chyron xclyps animation server (2 chanels) are two inputs on our switcher. i'm not sure which route we should persue, i.e. gpi or pbus. this is new territory for us for some reason. thanks again, justin p.s. have you guys ever used a chyron xclpys system for animations? i mostly hear about FF

As Bob said, when using a GPI the duration of the closure can mean the difference between failure and reliable function. When the FSN regional shows had Digicarts triggered by GPI the duration had to be at least 10 fields or the Digicart might not fire. Second, are you using PBus or GPIs? If PBus, does the Chyron connect directly to the 3k or do you use a controller, Lance/DNF/other? The 3k was a workhorse and still is a reliable switcher. Could Chyron have written their software incorrectly and be the source of the troubles?

PBus is just an 8-bit command string. It's universally accepted throught the industry, and all switchers output the same type of strings (except that SONY & GVG reverse the "0" and "1" trigger strings). There should be no difference between a PBus string generated by a Kalypso vs. an older 3K. GPI's are even more basic - they're just a contact closure...like shorting out the 2 "Play" wire of a device. You can experiment with the duration of the GPI closure out of the 3K (that IS user-adjustable), but from what you're saying, I really doubt that any of this is a compatibility issue just because it's a 3K.