Over-Bridge Shows "X" Instead of Channel Position Number
Scope
This article is meant to apply to Element, but the info here can be applied to any console engine, really.
Description
Sometimes loading a source to an input channel on the console will result in "X" appearing on the input channel's over-bridge number display. This article discusses the reasons why you'd see this. Before we discuss the reasons, let's discuss some Livewire basics: Advertisement and Subscription:
Livewire Stream Advertisement
A Livewire source will always advertise itself to the network. This allows you to see a list of sources in the browse window of a Livewire Destination prompt. It also allows your console's engine to determine if a device that is providing a source to the network is switched on or off. If the advertisement is not existing, the engine assumes that it is off and removes it from the list of available sources. Cool!
Livewire Stream Subscription
When a console engine loads a source onto an input channel, it is subscribing to the advertised stream. When a console engine subscribes to a stream, it changes the advertisement of the stream to indicate that it is loaded on a console. At this point, the stream advertisement is "owned" by the console engine. The advertisement of that stream can no longer be changed by any other device until the engine unsubscribes from the stream by unloading from the input channel.
1. Used Elsewhere
The most common reason for seeing an "X" instead of the input channel number is the source is in use elsewhere.
The engine is not able to change the advertisement of the stream to indicate that it owns it. It's because it's already owned by another console engine and is literally used elsewhere. The console engine can still present the source and its audio to the console's input channel and will show an "X" on the over-bridge. There will be no backfeed return audio and no GPIO control.
Solution: Unload the source from the other console or change allocation settings
Unloading the source from the other console will free up the stream advertisement. Try loading the source on this console again.
If you plan to have a source available on more than one console, set the source to "shared" mode. See this technote here.
2. Firewall Software
If the source comes from a Windows IP Driver and is not used elsewhere, there's a good chance that Windows Firewall or similar is causing the issue here.
If Windows Firewall or otherwise is stopping the console engine from altering the advertisement as discussed above, the engine can't fully subscribe to the stream. The engine can't tell if it's because of this or if another engine already owns the stream. Therefore, it will display the "X" on the input channel's over-bridge number display.
Solution: Turn off or configure your firewall settings
There are many intrusion prevention software packages out there. Microsoft Windows Firewall, Norton, McAfee, Kaspersky, Sophos, Symantec, and many others can block inbound / outbound network traffic to your computer and this can keep your software from “hearing” the multicast advertisement group on your Axia network. Our suggestion is to completely disable these, as a test, and then re-enable them with proper rules applied to allow this PC to communicate with the Axia network. It's always a good idea to reboot the PC after making these changes.
Take a look at these technotes on the subject:
IP Driver Stream is not Advertising
Let us know how we can help
If you have further questions on this topic or have ideas about how we can improve this document, please contact us.
