User Manual

970 User Guide and Technical Information

Network Grouping

When multiple rack-mounted PIX video recorders (PIX 250i, PIX 270i, or PIX 260i) or the 970 Audio

Recorder are in use on an Ethernet network, they can be grouped together for transport control and

linking of most setup options. Setup Menu option [Network - Network Group] assigns the 970 to

one of four available groups.

In this section, the term “unit” refers to PIX 250i, PIX 270i, or PIX 260i Video Recorders, or the 970

Audio Recorder.

There is no “master” / “slave” relationship in Network Groups. All units in a group are “master”.

Transport commands and settings changes made on any unit a group will ripple to all other units

in the group. If a transport command or settings change has to be made to only one unit in a group,

the unit must be temporarily removed from the group before making the change. To quickly toggle

between No Group and the current group setting, press MENU Button + Control Knob.

Requirements and considerations when setting up Network Groups:

• The maximum number of units supported in a single group is currently 10. Increasing the amount

of units in a group increases the time of response for grouped transport commands and auto-con-

guration.

• It is recommended that timecode be distributed individually to each unit in a group rather than

“daisy-chained” through units in a group.

• Allow all units in a group to auto-congure before proceeding with grouped operations. See the

following section for details. (See “Group Auto-Conguration”, page 27)

• Some seings are not linked even when units are in a group together. (See “Grouped Seings”, page

28)

Group Auto-Conﬁguration

When changes are made to a Network Group, all units in the group must auto-conﬁgure. It is im-

portant to allow all units in the group to complete auto-conﬁguration before proceeding with any

grouped operations (Transport control, settings changes, etc). While conﬁguring, units will display

a dialog message: Configuring Network: Please Wait... Wait 10 seconds after this dialog has cleared

before proceeding with grouped operations.

Common tasks that will cause a group to auto-reconﬁgure:

• A unit on the LAN is powered on or o.

• A unit is connected or disconnected from the LAN.

• A unit is added or removed from a group via [Network - Network Group].

Grouped Transport

Transport control (Record, Play, Pause, Stop, Fast Forward, and Rewind) of grouped units is linked.

Recording and playback is frame-synchronized among PIX 260i and 970 units in a group. When a ﬁle

is selected for playback, all units in the group will play the ﬁle of that same name if it exists. If no ﬁle

of that name exists, grouped units will play the most recently played or recorded ﬁle.

Adding and removing cue markers, jumping to cue markers, and looped playback is not supported

in grouped units. These features can be effectively used in a grouped unit setup; However, manual