D R Camcon Visual Radio Control User Manual

CAMCON
VISUAL RADIO CONTROL
version 1.01
User Manual

Camcon Visual Radio Control

Dear Client,
Thank you for choosing the D&R CAMCON (CAMera CONtroller).
The Camcon hardware was designed by Radio Broadcast professionals along with the D&R design team and is intended to be used as the control unit for Visual Radio Control (VRC) software Scene controller together with OBS in the most demanding production room.
We are confident that you will be using the Camcon hardware and VCR software for many years to come, and wish you lots of success.
We value suggestions from our clients and would be grateful if you could email us with your comments when you are familiar with the Camcon unit and its VRC.
We learn from the ideas and suggestions of customers like you and appreciate your time taken to eventually do this.
And… we al ways appreciate nice studio pictures with the Camcon in use to include on our website.
Please mail them to sales@d-r.nl
With kind regards,
Duco de Rijk
md

CAMCON
The “CAMCON (CAMera CONtrol Triggerbox)” measures microphone levels and sends these over a USB link to a PC where visual radio software runs.
The Triggerbox/CAMCON is very simple to use. The unit is placed in series with the microphone and the mixing console.
Therefore each channel will have an XLR input and an XLR output that also acts as a thru connector.
In order to support multiple microphones , the gain for the level measurement to switch camera’s can be done on the front panel with one single push switch.
NOTE, This has no influence on the Mic XLR signal and is only for internal measurement.
This product needs to be used with the following software CAMCON server software (included), Visual Radio Control (VRC) (inluded) and OBS (freeware version 27 only)

The CAMCON needs to be connected to a power source between 100 and 240 volt AC.
The USB cable (part of the delivery) needs to be connected from the USB plug at the back of the CAMCON to your PC where the software runs. Mic cables go in and out hardwired. The GPI and GPO jacks are wired on tip and ring, so mono and stereo cables will work here.

On the front panel you can adjust the incoming Mic level with the pushbuttons, this can also be done in the software. Leds show the level settings and signal level. If GPI or GPO is active these corresponding leds will light. The Status leds on the right side of the frontpanel will indicate the unit is on and the USB connection is active.

NECESSARY DOWNLOADS

Before you install the Visual Radio Control (VRC) software it is important to install the Camcom application software first and then the OBS freeware.
Only then the VRC software can find the links to both applications and then it will work as intended.
Let’s start with the CAMCON software.
Go to the www.dnrbroadcast.com website and click on the tab “Your Support” and then choose tab “Service information / FAQ”
The D&R WIKI page will be shown. Select the Camcon device which brings you to the product page of the CamCon.
Now choose CamCon Control where the green arrow below points to, to start your download.
Note: You can ignore pop up screens warning you for malware.
In case you have malware protection that pops up. Choose “more info” and accept/continue.

After going through the usual installation steps the control software will be installed and can be launched from the desktop icon or shows itself right away on Screen as a replica of the frontpanel of the CamCon.
After installation, you will see in your webs browser: http://localhost.8519/
An image like below picture will now be seen on your screen.

Make sure that your Camcon Device is connected over USB to your PC and that it is turned on.
A blank screen will show when there is no Camcon connection.
You can refresh your screen (F5) if there is no picture, or even better close the existing application and restart the Camcon application.
Your Camcon Device should appear on screen with the ON LED (below STATUS) turned on green.

RENAMING CHANNELS

To make the channels easy recognizable in the software later, you can give it names like DJ-1, other than “Ch #1” for instance.
Simply left double-click the Channel name to see a picture as on the right side or right-click on the channel and select Change channel name from the menu. Then enter a new name in the Dialog Box and click Ok.

You can also see that there are a number of changes that can be made by right clicking the mouse pointed at the label.

Settings like

• Gain 0|20|30|50dB (can also be activated directly on the frontpanel)
  GPI triggers (None, or Mic on)

• GPO triggers (None, GPI, Mic on, Remote)

• Identify channel( the CamCon leds on the hardware will blink a few times)

IDENTIFYING DEVICE/CHANNELS
When you are not sure your device is connected, or when you have multiple Camcon Devices connected to the PC, you want to make sure that you are working with a  specific device.
You can identify the device by either:

• click the Camcon word on screen
• click the D&R logo
• right-click on the left side of the device and select Identify from the menu.

When any of the these actions are performed, the connected hardware Camcon Device should respond by blinking with all of the Gain LEDs. When nothing happens, the connection between the PC and the Camcon Device fails.
It is also possible to let just only one channel blink its LEDs by:

• clicking the separator bar of the channel, or
• right-click on the channel and select Identify channel from the menu.

This could be helpful when wiring up the harware Camcon Device and you want to make sure you have the right channel.
INSTALLING OBS STUDIO version 27 (version 28 will NOT work yet sorry)
Now it is time to downoad OBS from this link:
64-bit: https://github.com/obsproject/obs- studio/releases/download/27.2.4/OBS-Studio-27.2.4-Full-Installer-x64.exe
32-bit: https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/releases/download/27.2.4 /OBS-Studio-27.2.4-Full-Installer-x86.exe
In order for OBS Studio allowing to be controlled by other software, a plugin is required.
!!! The Visual Radio Control software requires the We sockets Plugin for this.!!!
INSTALLING OBS WEBSOCKWET PLUGIN
Download the OBS Studio We socket Plugin from:
WebSocket Plugin: https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/obs-websocket- remote-control-obs-studio-using-websockets.466/
On the middle-right of the page, click on Go to download.
Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and download the WebSocket plugin for your system.
Now install the downloaded file as is appropriate for your system.
Install instructions are included on the page as well. Please do note that in the current version (1.0.0) only support for WebSocket Protocol version 4.X is included!
CONFIGURING THE WEBSOCKET PLIG IN
When the Websocket plugin in properly installed, after (re)starting OBS Studio, it should present itself in the Tools menu. Click Tools > Websockets Server Settings. Please make sure that the `Websockets

serverisEnabled. (look where the arrow points to) if desired aPassword can be set to control access to yourOBS Studio`. The password must then also be configured in the VRC settings.

INSTALLING VISUAL RADIO CONTROL

This section describes where you can download Visual Radio Control (VRC) from and what the installation options are. Also the first time the software is used, some initial settings must be checked to ensure proper operation of the software.
Go to www.dnrbroadcast.com website and click on the tab “Your Support” and then choose tab “Service information / FAQ”
The D&R WIKI page will be shown. Select the Camcon device which brings you to the product page of the CamCon .
Now choose Visual Radio Control where the green arrow below points to, to start your download.
Note: You can ignore pop up screens warning your for malware.
In case you have malware protection that pops up. Choose “more info” and accept/continue.

• Choose Install for all users (recommended)
• Select Destination Location
• Select additional Tasks
• Create a desktop shortcut if you like
• Then you see Ready to Install, click Install and Finish.

If you have done right you will see below start screen on your PC.

As you can see the software tells you that there are no scenes in OBS defined yet.
But before doing that we will explain some more about the VRC software.
1.3. Using it for the first time
By default the software is configured that everything is installed on the PC.
It is however quite possible to have different parts of the whole switching system running on different PCs.
Or just configure the Visual Radio Control engine from a mobile device.
To check if the current configuration is working, let’s start with Visual Radio Control.
Make sure that CAMCON CONTROL and OBS Studio 27 (including the plugin) is already running.
Click on the ‘Cogwheel’ icon labelled ‘Configuration’.
Below screen will be shown.

You are now presented with a list of connections that are made by VRC.
The first connection is that of the Web browser (VRC engine connection)
The second connection is to the CamCon hardware.
The Third connection is to the OBS software. (OBS Studio Websockets Server)
When you are using a PC where all this software is installed on, this should show a green ‘check-mark’ indicating that there is a live connection.
If not go to the “Trouble Shooting Section” of try F5 to refresh all the connections.
Now close this screen by hitting the Close button
A quick glance
What is inside this software, let’s go through the menus.
The manual of OBS (freeware) has to be downloaded to get more understanding how it works.
Here is a simple start, go to the main screen of OBS and create a scene where the white arrow points to and give it a name.

Now go back to the VRC software screen and hit the “+ Add scene” button.

The menu on the left will be shown Under the scenes menu is the main action of the VRC software.
Here scenes from the Broadcasting software will be connected to audio sources, so the VTR software will know which scene to activate when an audio source becomes active.
Also other parameters can be set to influence the director’s decisions.
The VRC software will also indicate which scene is currently active.
This will continuously be updated from the VRC software.
When a scene is active in the VRC software that is not under control of the Visual Radio Control, then no scene in the users interface will appear to be active.
Configuration menu
The configuration menu holds the hard- and software connection configuration information to the outside world. Here the connection information to the VRC software and monitoring hardware need to be entered.
Please refer to the documentation of the respective hard- and software for the connection details.
Please do note that this information is sent to the engine, so all connection information must be relative the this engine. This is only important when you use the term localhost, which refers to the local PC, relative to the engine.

Scene:
If you click on the button you will see the scene with the label you have made in OBS, choose that label to control that scene.
Audio (metering) source:
If you click on the Audio source label which says you can select one out of the created scenes in OBS. The audio and MicOn sources will be retrieved from the connected hardware.
Based on this information, the software can decide if there is activity on a channel (someone is talking) and this channel (and corresponding scene) should be considered to be activated (e.g.receives the focus).
The metering information is not the only parameter that is considered in this decision. It might even be completely ignored. The channel also has a MicOn source, which must be active before the metering information is even monitored.
MicOn source:
If you click on the MicOn source label which says you can select one out of the sources in OBS to control the scene.
A mic on source is usually the combination of a mixer channel that is turned On and the fader of that channel set to anything other than minus infinity.
In some cases, for instance when using a Camcon Device, this could be the GPI signal on the channel that is also used as Audio source.
In such case the audio mixer device will generate the appropriate Mic-on signal and should be physically connected to the Camcon Devices’ GPI input port.
The MicOn source must be active before a scene’s Audio source is monitored and considered to have its scene be activated.
Metering threshold
When a Mic on is active and metering information is available on the audio source, the threshold level comes into play.
The metering level (ranging from -50dB to +5dB) must be above the level that is indicated here.
Do note that this is a metered level and the channel’s Gain settings do apply to these measured values.
Scheduling priority
When two or more sources are active and have metering levels above their threshold (two or more speakers interrupting each other), the Scheduling priority helps deciding who will actually receive the focus.
A higher value for the priority means that it will be more likely to be picked.
Priorities can be negative as well, if that helps your thinking process.
When two, or more, sources are active and have equal priorities, the first scene as it is configured and appears in the list will be activated.
The range can be set between -999999 and +999999
2.1.2.6. Hold time
To prevent flickering and too frequent scene switching, a hold time can be set between zero and 10 Sec.
This holds the scene active for at least the given time, even if the metering level drops below its threshold or even if the mic on gets deactivated within that time.
Do note that choosing longer hold times, some side effects might occur.
For instance, when the hold time is long enough, an other channel can become active and inactive during the hold time of this channel and therefor the other channel’s scene will not receive the focus.
Activation delay
It can be useful to wait to activate a scene, even though the channel is active.
This can have various reasons, like coughing or enthusiastic agreeing noises.
Or maybe even intermittent noise static or occasional plugging-in sound plops.
For this an activation delay can be set.
This results into a period of time that a channel needs to be active before its scene gets the focus.
Do note that the activation delay time and the hold time can run concurrent.
This means that a channel’s activation delay time can already have passed, while the current scene’s hold time is still preventing the actual activation of the scene.
Note: When creating new scenes in the VRC software you sometimes need to refresh the connection by hitting F5 and get the latest data from OBS.
Modifying scenes
Go to edit mode by clicking the Edit scenes button.
In the edit mode, each configured scene can be changed on all its properties except for the scene it is attached to. When you want to change the scene for the given sources, you will have to remove this configuration to free up the sources and create a new scene.
Removing scenes
Go to edit mode by clicking the Edit scenes button.
In the edit mode, under each configured scene, a Delete button will appear.
Be careful, clicking the Delete button will remove the configured scene, immediately and without undoing this action.
Let the Visual Radio Control direct
When done, click the Edit scenes button. All configured scenes are now under control of the engine and will automatically be activated in the broadcasting software.

GOOD TO KNOW, TIPS and Hints

• The Visual Radio Control engine can and will do its thing in the background. It does not need a web browser to be opened.
• As long as there are configured scenes available, the engine will try and direct your configured broadcasting software.
• However the engine will connect and update the web browser UI when it is open (or actually the other way around).
• So it will be possible to monitor the engine from the browser and even influence it.
• It is possible to bypass all algorithms and activate a (configured) scene by hand, simply by clicking on it. You will see that the scene that currently has the focus, will have a different recording indicator in front of the scene’s name and that it will have a colored band as well. Clicking a different scene, will eventually lead to receiving the focus, as it will be visible by the recording indicators.
• Please do note that closing the web browser will not stop the engine. As indicated before, the engine holds the connections to both hard- and software. The engine will continue to try and direct the broadcasting software. The engine must be stopped separately to prevent further (unwanted) scene switching.
• When some devices or software are running on other PCs, this will become more of a hassle. In that case, make sure that you enter the correct hostnames or ip-addresses of the individual PCs. Followed by clicking the Apply button directly underneath the field that was changed. Then every connection box should end up with a green checkbox next to it. When you have this, you’re good to go.
• When you are using a PC where all this software is installed on, this should show a green ‘check-mark’ indicating that there is a live connection. If not try F5 to refresh all the connections
• When you are using an other PC or a mobile device and pointed the web browser to the actual PC, you will most likely have a yellow-ish round pointing arrow figure. This indicates that there is no active connection, but the software is trying. In this case change the contents of the URL field from ws://127.0.0.1:10840 into [ws://<ip-address-of-pc>:10840](10840)Then click theApply` button directly underneath this box. This should establish the connection. Then the other connection boxes become relevant. The connection information in these boxes are seen from the engine perspective. When everything is installed on a single PC, there will be no problems and all connections can lead to “localhost”

Scene properties
Lets explain the properties that can be configured and how they might affect the _Visual Radio Control software.
Scene name
The list of scene names is retrieved from the VRC software automatically.
When the VCR software is properly configured. This list should be the same as in OBS your broadcasting software. From this list, you can select the scene that you want to have the Visual Radio Control software under its control. In order to have proper control, also the Audio source and the MicOn source must be assigned.
Audio source
The audio source will provide metering information to the Visual Radio Control.
Based on this information, the software can decide if there is activity on a channel (someone is talking) and this channel (and corresponding scene) should be considered to be activated (e.g. receive the focus).
The metering information is not the only parameter that is considered in this decision.
It might even be completely ignored.
The channel also has a MicOn source, which must be active before the metering information is even monitored.
MicOn source
A mic on source is usually the combination of a mixer channel that is turned On and the fader of that channel set to anything other than minus infinity.
In some cases, for instance when using a Camcon Device, this could be the GPI signal on the channel that is also used as Audio source.
In such case the audio mixer device will generate the appropriate Mic-on signal and should be physically connected to the Camcon Devices’ GPI input port.
The MicOn source must be active before a scene’s Audio source is monitored and considered to have its scene be activated.
NOTE:
In case there is no GPO signal available from your mixer, just patch the GPI to the same channel’s GPO and activate the GPO output in the ‘Camcon Configuration Manager’ to “solve” this problem.
The disadvantage is that scenes are switched by mic signals only even when a fader is down (this fader down information lacks now for the Camcon to repond properly).

Troubleshooting

3.0.
In case you have downloaded OBS version 28 the D&R VRC software will not(yet) work.
You have to download version 27, see links below.
64-bit:
https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/releases/download/27.2.4/OBS- Studio-27.2.4-Full-Installer-x64.exe
32-bit:
https://github.com/obsproject/obs-studio/releases/download/27.2.4/OBS- Studio-27.2.4-Full-Installer-x86.exe
WebSocket Plugin:
https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/obs-websocket-remote-control-obs- studio-using-websockets.466/
3.1. USB Device not recognized, refresh with F5 or unplug and relog the USB cable.
3.1. Cannot connect, check your USB cable and refresh with F5
3.2 “Windows Defender” reports virus during/after upgrading.
Uninstall software and install, rather then upgrade.
Download and install the software from: <http://www.mambanet.org/wiki/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=XXX>
After installation, point your web browser to: <http://localhost.8519/>
This exact image will shortly be replaced with the actual Camcon information as it is attached to your computer, or a blank screen when there is no Camcon connection.
Make sure that your Camcon Device is connected over USB to your PC and that it is turned on.
You Camcon Device should appear on the screen with the ON LED (under Status) turned on green.
DIMENSIONS Camcon frame
Front Left-Right: 482 mm
Frame left right: 430mm
Front-Back: 175 mm
Height: 44 mm. (1HE)
Front panel thickness: 2 mm
Radius Corners: 20 mm
Weight: 5 kg.
We wish you many creative years of productivity using this quality product from:
SUMMERY
We hope this manual has given you sufficient information to use this new CamCon triggerunit in your studio.
If you require more info please contact your local dealer or send us an email at support@d-r.nl and we will answer your email within 24 hours during weekdays.
In case you have bought this unit from a previous owner, check out the dealer in your area on our website www.dnrbroadcast.com in case you need assistance.

ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY

This unit conforms to the Product Specifications noted on the Declaration of Conformity.
Operation is subject to the following two conditions:
This device may not cause harmful interference
This device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation
Operation of this unit within significant electromagnetic fields should be avoided
Use only shielded interconnecting cables.

DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY

Name Manufacturer: D&R Electronica b.v.
Address manufacturer: Rijnkade 15B, 1382 GS Weesp, The Netherlands declares that this product
Name product : AIRLITE
Model number: n.a.
Product options installed: none
passed the following product specifications:
Safety: IEC 60065 (7th ed. 2001)
EMC: EN 55013 (2001+A1), EN 55020 (1998)
Supplementary Information:
The product passed the specifications of the following regulations;
:Low voltage 72 / 23 / EEC
:EMC-Directive 89 / 336 / EEC. as amended by Directive 93/68/EEC
(*) The product is tested in a normal user environment.

PRODUCT SAFETY

This product is manufactured with the highest standards and is double checked in our quality control department for reliability in the “HIGH VOLTAGE” section.
CAUTION
Never remove any panels, or open this equipment. No user serviceable parts inside. Equipment power supply must be grounded at all times. Only use this product as described in the user manual or brochure.
Do not operate this equipment in high humidity or expose it to water or other liquids. Check the AC power supply cable to assure secure contact. Have your equipment checked yearly by a qualified dealer service center. Hazardous electrical shock can be avoided by carefully following the above rules.
Ground all equipment using the ground pin in the AC power supply cable. Never remove this pin.
Ground loops should be eliminated only by use of isolation transformers for all inputs and outputs.
Replace any blown fuse with the same type and rating only after equipment has been disconnected from AC power. If problem persists, return equipment to qualified service technician Always earth all your equipment by the grounding pin in your mains plug.
Hum loops should be only cured by proper wiring and isolation input/output transformers.
Replace fuses always with the same type and rating after the equipment has been turned off and unplugged.
If the fuse blows again you have an equipment failure, do not use it again and return it to your dealer for repair.
Always keep the above information in mind when using electrically powered equipment.

References

• D&R Broadcast Mixing Consoles | radio console
• xxx [D&R Wiki]
• Download | OBS
• obs-websocket - Remote-control OBS Studio using WebSockets | OBS Forums
• D&R Broadcast Mixing Consoles | radio console

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