Virtual Signals - Description

The VSM solution for timesaving and secure operation adds virtual sources and destinations to the systems’ signal list of physical I/Os. One example, out of the many potential uses of virtual signals, could be the creation of a virtual ‘Camera 1’ signal, which is available both as a source and destination. Now, the following procedure is possible:

To feed the vision mixer, monitors and tape machines with the CCU1 physical source, which is the technical element of that input to the video router, crosspoints are set up between that source and the necessary multiple physical outputs. In the event of having to change the input from CCU1 to CCU2, normally, all of the previously made crosspoint settings would need to be changed manually. Virtual signals represent an additional logical routing control layer, so the routing set up is now carried out in two steps: The first step is to assign ‘CCU1’ to ‘Camera 1’. In the second step, ‘Camera 1’ is assigned to all the relevant destinations. Now, in the event of a source change, only one crosspoint needs to be changed, that being ‘CCU2’ to ‘Camera 1’. All other crosspoint assignments to the physical destinations will follow automatically which now receive physical input CCU2 instead of CCU1. In fact, the crosspoint changes are only made between physical inputs and outputs; all the virtual elements do is simply ease the process of manipulating them.

This method of operation can be compared to using loopbacks with the router, which is by no means as neat, and certainly no more suitable due to potential latency issues, especially when dealing with HD signals.