Vi - MADI HD Card Wiring Recommendations
Frequently Asked Questions
Question:
How should I connect/wire my Stagebox to my Vi Console?
Answer:
When using the Optical or CAT5 MADI card, you have a few options, having both “MADI MAIN" & “MADI AUX" ports available to you.
Optical
- Both “MADI IN" & “MADI OUT" are required to enable bi-directional transmission. Use an Optical MADI cable for this.
- When using a secondary Vi console for something like a monitoring/recording console:
- Set the MADI HD card switch to “MAIN". This enables pre-amp control from the console connected to the “MAIN" port while the console connected to the “AUX" port only receives the MADI streams. The “AUX" port in this scenario would not have control of the pre amp. Only one console can have control of the pre amp at a time.
- Connect “MADI MAIN" to the primary console.
- Connect “MADI AUX" to the secondary console.
- When only using a single Vi console, we ALWAYS recommend the use of redundant wiring to ensure stability and performance you can rely on. Should either the “MAIN" or “AUX" go down, unexpectedly, you will still have communication to the Stagebox.
- Set the MADI HD card switch to “RED" (Redundant).
- Install two runs of Optical MADI: one pair for “MADI MAIN" & the other for “MADI AUX".
CAT5
- Use non-shielded CAT5 when connecting the console to the stagebox. The shield will cause issues with pre amp control.
- When using a secondary Vi console for something like a monitoring/recording console:
- Set the MADI HD card switch to “MAIN". This enables pre-amp control from the console connected to the “MAIN" port while the console connected to the “AUX" port only receives the MADI streams. The “AUX" port in this scenario would not have control of the pre amp. Only one console can have control of the pre amp at a time.
- Connect “MADI MAIN" to the primary console.
- Connect “MADI AUX" to the secondary console.
- When only using a single Vi console, we ALWAYS recommend the use of redundant wiring to ensure stability and performance you can rely on. Should either the “MAIN" or “AUX" ports go down, unexpectedly, you will still have communication to the Stagebox.
- Set the MADI HD card switch to “RED" (Redundant).
- Install two runs of non-shielded CAT5 cable: one for “MADI MAIN" & the other for “MADI AUX".
Note:
For both Optical & CAT5 MADI cards:
- to give the secondary console (console connected to “AUX") control of the pre amp, simply change the switch on the MADI HD card from “MAIN" to “AUX". Keep in mind this will remove pre amp control from the primary console (console connected to “MAIN").