Using "Fixed" lines in VX to always assign lines to dedicated faders

Updated by Bryan Jones

Scope

This document covers the Studio configuration aspects for ALL VX products. The concept of "Fixed" lines applies to both old and new VX products, including;

  • VX (Classic VX system) - Delivered on the 2U fanless engine platform
  • VX Enterprise - Delivered on 1 U server platform
  • VX Prime+ - Delivered on 1 U server platform
  • VXs - Continerized platform

Description

There are generally two terms that might be unknown to some users of VX. This is the term FIXED versus SELECTABLE lines.

SELECTABLE - Generally this is the way that most US-based radio broadcasters use their phone lines. You have multiple phone lines; between six and twelve and then you "select" which line goes to the fader. In this mode, you could have one or two faders on your console, sometimes more, but generally only one or two.

FIXED - This mode is also referred to as "Euro" mode as it's often used in the European countries more so than in the US. In fixed mode, the lines are often "fixed" to a fader. For example, if you had four phone lines, each phone line would have its own fader on the console. Fixed-line configurations generally have a one-to-one relationship.


Configuration

In this example, we will explain how to configure your VX Shows and VX Studios in this FIXED configuration so that each phone line has it own fader on the console.

Configuring the Show

The "show" in the VX is just the phone lines without respect to which studio they are used in.

Before you start it's important to note that we want the number of phone lines and the number of phone faders to match. In this example, we'll configure four.
  1. Using a Web Browser, log in to the configuration page of your VX.
  2. On the left side menu, under the Configuration heading, click the Shows link.
  3. Click the Add New button on the Show Configuration page.
  4. Assign a friendly Show Name, in this example, we'll use Main Show
  5. In the Lines box, enter 4 (the number of fixed faders we want in our configuration)
  6. Click the Apply button

A blank show configuration is shown.

  1. Enter a Name for each line. Line names are shown on the Vset and can be anything you want.
  1. Enter the Extension for you four lines
  2. Pick the correct Server from the drop-down list
  3. Set the Fader option appropriately.
Note that Selectable is the default choice. You must change position 1 to Fixed #1, position 2 to Fixed #2, etc, as shown here.

  1. Click Apply

Configuring the Studio

The "studio" in the VX is just the audio, in and out of your console, without respect to what phone lines (more accurately, shows) are assigned.

We also assume that you have already configured your Extensions in your PBX and have added those extensions to the SIP configuration. Please see Adding Extensions in VX if you have not already completed this step.
  1. Using a Web Browser, log in to the configuration page of your VX.
  2. On the left side menu, under the Configuration heading, click the Studios link.
  3. Click the Add New button on the Studio Configuration page.
  4. Assign a friendly Studio Name, in this example, we'll use WXYZ Studio 1
  5. In the Fixed Channels box, enter 4 (the number of fixed faders we want in our configuration)
  6. Click the Apply button (this is all the way at the bottom of the page)
    When you click apply, you will see that four new Fixed Channel configuration options appear
  7. Click the Enable button for each channel
  8. OPTIONAL - Change the Name assigned to the fader (the are pre-filled for you)
  9. Set the Livewire channel number for each channel (in our case, 16701 thru 16704, you system will differ)
  10. Select Standard Stereo for each channel
  11. Click Apply at the bottom of the page
The Advanced Receive topic is not covered here. If you are using Axia consoles, the receive channel is configured for you automatically.

Your finished Studio configuration will look like this.


Load the show

Once you have both the Show and the Studio configured, you can change the Current Show setting in your Studio Configuration to Main Show. This will load the lines we created in the Show called Main Show, on the Studio that we called WXYZ Studio 1


Let us know how we can help

If you have further questions on this topic or have ideas about improving this document, please contact us.


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