Rick, Easy there buddy. Andrew has merely asking for some help on the gear. He didn't solicit any personal diatribes. Please keep to the thread. We've been down this path many times before. Thanks for your understanding. -John

[quote="Andrew in Kansas City"]Hopefully the guys at GV can work on making this more user friendly. Thanks again![/quote] Andrew: Don't settle for a switcher they forced down your throat - make your voice heard! Have your Chief Engineer get on the phone with Grass Valley and have them either fix the problem with user friendly software fixes. Or better yet, have him read this forum then he can tell Thompson/Grass Valley to come collect the switcher and refund their money for a product that is not ready for the market. If you can't get it to work easily, what good is it. You might get used to it over time, but that is the problem, time.... on other switchers you can program effects easily this is not the case with the Kayak. It's too time intensive for everyday use. Your Chief Engineer should have realized that before he was sold a "bill of goods" probably from a smooth talking salesman or a demo that is just that .... a demo. They don't tell you how difficult it is to program and how many levels you have to go through to get a simple effect programmed. Keep after your Chief Engineer and have them re-evaluate their purchase. It would be best to get another switcher that is not Thompson/Grass Valley especially if this doesn't do the job it is supposed to... you'll be much happier, because the Kayak is not the same Grass Valley product we have all gotten used to over the years. Good luck! Rick

Yes, we do have the side panel. I really appreciate the information. This may not be as easy as the Sony but at least now there's some flexability with the info. you porided. Hopefully the guys at GV can work on making this more user friendly. Thanks again!

Cool, thanks Mike, I'll try that next time. I just thought it still saved it to the Active Application, but didn't actually load it to the panel, and then you still had to re-load your Active Application. The Kayak Side Panel is the exact same as the DD-35, but the panel is not anywhere close. --- Dan

Dan, If the sidepanel is the same as the DD-35 you can copy effects to an active application using detailed. I haven't seen the program in a long time but I believe in the copy destination listbox there is a choice for "Active Application" or "Current Application". You can't just select "Current Application" as your destination, you must navigate in the tree of the current application to the bottom level destination. So if you're copying macros your destination will be something like: Current Application>Panel>MAKE (I think you can stop at MAKE for a 1-1 copy or you can open the MAKE menu tree to select an actual location if you want to put it in a different location.) Once you have the macro you want to copy selected on the left side and the bottom level destination on the right, the copy button should activate. If you have multiple items selected to copy, it will remain grayed out. You can't copy a group of effects or macros at once... only one at a time. One thing to remember is that the macro is only copied to the panel itself but not yet saved in the actual application file so you must save your current application before loading another application. That's how it works on the DD-35 and XtenDD so hopefully it's the same with the Kayak. Mike Tiffee

Andrew in Kansas City, this is definitely not the easiest thing to do (as you've noticed with everything else on the Kayak). 1st, do you have the Side Panel program running on an external PC connected to the switcher? If you don't, you need one, or you can't do this. In the Side Panel, go to the Config Menu (I think that's what it's called, it's where you load your "Application"). Then in the upper part of the screen there is a selection Simple & Detailed, I forget what it's called, but you want Detailed. Now you can select the Application you want to copy from on the left pane, then you can follow the menu tree (Ebox-ME-Emem/DPM) to select what Emem, DPM, etc. you want to copy (I believe you keep hitting select till you get all the files you want). On the right pane now select the Application you want to copy to, go find the ME and such you want the effect copied to. Then in the upper right of the screen hit Copy, and your effect will be copied over. I've found that it is a one-to-one copy, meaning, Emem #21 will copy into Emem #21, so if you have something in Emem #21 that you already want, you will lose it (or you can move it before hand, of course you'll need to re-save your Application before you do your copy, yes, many traps). I think you can go from ME1 to ME2 if you want, haven't tried it though. Now that you have the effect copied over to the Application you need it in, you now have to load that Application. Huh! Can't I just load an effect into the current state of the switcher and start using it? Well... I have been wondering the same thing, and as far as I've found, the answer is NO! This switcher wasn't designed the way you and I think, and have been working for the last 15+ years. This switcher was designed by engineers, who, working with computers all day long, might think, "maybe I'll need to load a file that I can work on right now, not the entire operating system," but no, that thought never came about. IF there is a way to load a single effect into the switcher and start using it without loading an entire Application, please, PLEASE let me know. The worst part of this, is if you have an effect you want and it uses the DPM, and you don't know which DPM (cause it shows the Emem names, but NOT the DPM names), you 1st have to copy the Emem (Timeline, whatever), load the Application, call up the Emem, see which DMP is being called up, now copy the DPM over, and re-load the Application. Hmmmmm.... there's GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY! Oh, yeah, I know a better way, buy a Kalypso, or a Sony! (yeah, I know, too late, too expensive, and yes, you definitely get what you pay for on this switcher). --- Dan