I am happy so say that we have gotten things figured out. In our set-up each panel does use a seperate SCU. The trick turned out to be setting the Devices (in the Serial Port Assign menu) to SCU2 in the main control room. Since the first panel is set-up as master panel in needs to be reassigned in that room first. I made a version of the of the set-up file with just the TLY turned on (which seems to be where the DCU settings are located) which loads in about 5 seconds and changes the device control over to the other room. Now, if Sony would let me build macros that load files, I could put in on a button! Thanks for you help.

[quote="pjkelnhofer"]Update: I tried you recommendation with no luck. I went into the first room and set DCU1 ports 4-1 and 4-2 back to no assign. I then went into the second room and assigned them in there. One thing I discovered is that in the room that works I sent the devices to SCU1 in order for them to be seen on on the DCU Serial Port Assign (page 7235.4). In the second room, I need to set them to SCU2 (I assume that this basically mean Panel 1 vs Panel 2). When I go to the DEV menu (page 5333) and try a File List Update, I still get an error message (ERROR FF: No Target Device Has Been Assigned). Is there some setting some where else in the switcher settings that I am missing to assign the devices?[/quote] Believe it or not, set them BOTH to SCU 1. There is a misnomer that a each panel is set to a different SCU. You can actually have 4 panels designated on the same SCU. If that doesn't work, I'm out of ideas and I would reccommend that you contact Sony Service. They're a great bunch of guys and, I'm sure, be happy to assist you. RE

Update: I tried you recommendation with no luck. I went into the first room and set DCU1 ports 4-1 and 4-2 back to no assign. I then went into the second room and assigned them in there. One thing I discovered is that in the room that works I sent the devices to SCU1 in order for them to be seen on on the DCU Serial Port Assign (page 7235.4). In the second room, I need to set them to SCU2 (I assume that this basically mean Panel 1 vs Panel 2). When I go to the DEV menu (page 5333) and try a File List Update, I still get an error message (ERROR FF: No Target Device Has Been Assigned). Is there some setting some where else in the switcher settings that I am missing to assign the devices?

I guess I thought that the Switcher had some software in it to handle the two different panels sharing a device, but it sounds like it pretty much just gets assigned to where ever it gets assigned. I will try that today when I get in today. Just to make sure that I have it correct, I would go unassigned the devices in the first room, then go set them the up in the second and I should have control. Assuming that works, I can make a second set-up file in each room one with the devices set up and one without. This would just become another thing for the first TD to do at the end of the night (we already inhibit ME's 1&2 and have to unlock some routable switcher inputs in the router). Since I can save the secondary set-up file with just PNL that it would be very quick to load (there is literally a 1 minute break from a live show in the first control room to a live show in the second - and the EP want to switch to a seamless transition). That being said, if I have the open to a show on the air loading the new PNL set-up shouldn't affect it, correct?

[quote="pjkelnhofer"]It sounds like what we want to do is not possible. I will just recap quickly, because I probably left out some of the info. We have two control rooms that share one MVS-8000 switcher. Each control room has it's own three row panel. Since there is only one actual switcher, the ME's, DME, Frame Memories, etc. are all shared by the two rooms. Basically P/P is treated as the output of one room and ME/3 is treated as the output of the second room. ME's 1 & 2 are splitting up depending on the show or pre-pro that is being done in either room at the time. We got a two-channel SpotBox which we would like to be able to use from either control room, but it sounds like from what you are saying the Serial control can one talk to one panel or the other. I thought that since there is only one DCU in the switcher it was shared in the same way that the DME's were and both panels would be able to trigger effects using the SpotBox. Is this not the case, can it only be one or the other? I am wondering now if certain ports have to be set to be control by one panel or the other and the ports are not shared. On the panel that is working, the VDCP protocol seems to be just fine. However, sometimes, the "START TC" button on the Device Control Module doesn't seem to transfer the timecode over to the DEV timeline and I have to type in it manually. I haven't figured that one out yet.[/quote] RS422, and serial control in general, is exclusive in nature. Since it is bidirectional only one "thing" can control it at any one time. This is not exclusive to the 8000, it's just physics :-) You can do what you want, someone just needs to take one extra step when they sit down at the switcher. The deivce port must be unassigned on one switcher and assigned on the other and you can certainyl share the same EVS spotbox. The DCU is agnostic in regards to how many panels there are. In fact, you can have 2 DCUs on a single or multiple switchers. Try to take a few minutes to make up a "checklist" that someone can follow to unassign the serial ports from one panel (menu 7325.4) and reassign to the other panel. Or, better yet, make two setup files -- one has devices assigned and one does not. When you're done just load the "unload" setup file in the first ctl room and load the "load" setup file in the other one. Many people do not know that you can save just individual parts of setup. If you go to menu 7111 then touch the suuper right corner of the menu display, that will open a popup that will let you decided what portions of the switcher you're saving to a file. If you just select PNL: (for panel) then you're only saving the panel stuff which is where the DEVICE assignments are. RE

It sounds like what we want to do is not possible. I will just recap quickly, because I probably left out some of the info. We have two control rooms that share one MVS-8000 switcher. Each control room has it's own three row panel. Since there is only one actual switcher, the ME's, DME, Frame Memories, etc. are all shared by the two rooms. Basically P/P is treated as the output of one room and ME/3 is treated as the output of the second room. ME's 1 & 2 are splitting up depending on the show or pre-pro that is being done in either room at the time. We got a two-channel SpotBox which we would like to be able to use from either control room, but it sounds like from what you are saying the Serial control can one talk to one panel or the other. I thought that since there is only one DCU in the switcher it was shared in the same way that the DME's were and both panels would be able to trigger effects using the SpotBox. Is this not the case, can it only be one or the other? I am wondering now if certain ports have to be set to be control by one panel or the other and the ports are not shared. On the panel that is working, the VDCP protocol seems to be just fine. However, sometimes, the "START TC" button on the Device Control Module doesn't seem to transfer the timecode over to the DEV timeline and I have to type in it manually. I haven't figured that one out yet.

[quote="pjkelnhofer"]At the second panel you get a "no device assigned" when you try to load the file list from the SpotBox. There seems to be no communication at all between the SpotBox and the second panel at all. If a clip is already loaded in the SpotBox the device control module has no communication with the SpotBox at the second panel either. A little more info, in the room that works, the SpotBox channels at set to DEV1 and DEV2, they are on DCU ports 4-1 and 4-2 and set to SCU1. Copying over all those settings exactly still leave us with no communication at the second panel. I am not in front of the panels right now, but I will be this afternoon if you would like anymore settings. Thanks![/quote] First off, each panel operates independantly from the other. If I'm reading your message correctly, you want both panels to have access to the same channels of EVS at the same time? This isn't possible -- not becuase of the MVS, but becuase it's just not possible for RS422 communication to do this. If that's not what you means, please read on. For the entire system, you go to menu page 7355 to set what the serial ports are doing on the Device Control Unit. It seems like you have already done that. Then, for EACH panel you must go to menu page 7325.4 and set that the devices will be for each panel. On your first panel, it sounds like you've done that. If you do this for the second panel, things should work normally. A tip..... Since the EVS has one clip list for each spotbox, you should set each of the devices on the EVS to use the same file list on this menu page. This will prevent you from having to refresh the file list for each channel of EVS. To do this, after you have set which DCU port to be what device dial the FILE LIST # on the 2nd knob to be 1, then press the purple button labeled (cryptically) "Same File List Set." If you set this to 1 for each device you designate, then the file list will always come from DEV1. I assume that you've set your EVS to use the proper VDCP protocol for the MVS? Here's a simple way to tell if it's set wrong..... When you press STOP on the trackball, does it unload the clip? Second.... what do the file names look like? If they look likie jibberish then the EVS is set to UMID and not LSM ID. Somewhere in the forum, someone posted a message with a link to an EVS document that went step by step to setup the spotbox with the MVS (pictures and all). If you search and can't find it, let me know and I'll see if I can find it. Good luck, RE

At the second panel you get a "no device assigned" when you try to load the file list from the SpotBox. There seems to be no communication at all between the SpotBox and the second panel at all. If a clip is already loaded in the SpotBox the device control module has no communication with the SpotBox at the second panel either. A little more info, in the room that works, the SpotBox channels at set to DEV1 and DEV2, they are on DCU ports 4-1 and 4-2 and set to SCU1. Copying over all those settings exactly still leave us with no communication at the second panel. I am not in front of the panels right now, but I will be this afternoon if you would like anymore settings. Thanks!

Phil, This scenerio should work just fine. Can you be more specific as to the problem you're having with the second panel and EVS? When you say "not working as well" are there small problems or it not communicating at all? RE