The MxM provides a comprehensive and powerful control
panel where you can issue direct live commands and visually
build presets for the project you are preparing. Programming
is made easy by using the mouse only and by dragging components
around the virtual screen area.
Control panel overview :
Here is an overview of the different control panel areas,
see the legend below:

- Visualization options
- Components
- Command handling
- Preset handling
- Live edit button
- Screen area
- Command list
- Preset list
- Inputs and frames selection
- Action buttons
The P and M views :
The screen area is the place where you are going to actually
work on. It consists of two distinct views of the projection
surface. These views are a pixel-accurate representation
of the current output resolution and soft-edge covered
area.
The two views are labelled "P" and "M", but even if these
letters sound familiar, their meaning is slightly different
than the one used for the hardware outputs.
"P" stands for "preview". This view will always
represent what is going to appear on your projection screen(s)
when you will push the Take button. Think of it like a
"what's going to happen next" view. Sometimes what is
displayed on the P view will be the same as what is actually
displayed on the P outputs of the processor(s) but not
all the time! The P view is a real preview but the P output
is more like a convenience to preview live sources before
switching them.
"M" stands for "main" but could also have been labelled
"program" (but having two P's would have been a mess!)
This view will always represent what's actually on your
projection screen(s) and when you edit objects in this
view, the changes will be executed live on the processors,
that is, directly on screen. This is a very useful feature
as it allows setting precisely your effects on the real
projection surface (tuning exact PIP sizes for instance
is easier to do directly on screen)
By default, both views are the same because when there
is no pending command, what's going to happen if you press
Take is...nothing! Thus the "P" view still represents
what's going to happen if you press Take, but in this
case, nothing is going to happen so it has no change to
display.
At a given time, only one of the two views is editable
(the other one is locked) The editable view has its label
coloured in green. Which view is editable depends on the
current Take status. If Take is off, the "P" view is where
you are going to work. If Take is on, the "M" view becomes
active and any change on it will be live edited on screen
(live editing on the "P" view will sometimes be shown
on the "P" outputs but not all the time)
View modes and visualization options :
By clicking on the visualization options button, on the
upper-left of the control panel, a drop-down menu appears:
You can choose to show both "M" and "P" views (default
option) but alternatively, you can also choose to show
only one of them, like for instance showing only the "P"
view and using the projection screen(s) as your "M" view.
There is also a special mode where only the active (editable)
view is shown. In this mode, the displayed view will flip
each time you press the Take button.
It is also possible to select a vertical split, more
suitable for vertical stacked projection systems.
Finally, there is an option to show or hide the soft-edge
covering zone. Showing the soft-edge zone is useful to
determine how a given effect (PIP for instance) will use
the available resources: if a PIP is across an edge-zone,
it will use the two processors on both sides of the zone.
If it is not on the edge-zone, it will only use the processor
associated to the screen it is on.
Navigation and object manipulation :
You can pan (scroll) the screen area and zoom in and
out of it in order to quickly reach any part.
Panning is performed by using the two scroll-bars. Alternatively,
you can press the "control" key while dragging the screen
area with the mouse. Note that pressing the "control"
key is strictly equivalent to temporarily selecting the
"pan" tool.
The current mouse behaviour depends on the active tool.
By default the active tool is the selection tool and the
"control" key toggles the pan tool while pressed. If you
click on the crossed arrows icon at the bottom of the
screen area, the pan tool becomes active. In this case,
pressing the "control" key will toggle the selection tool.
You can select the selection tool back by clicking on
the cursor arrow icon.
The selection tool allows selecting objects with the
left-mouse button just by clicking on them.
By using the mouse wheel, one can zoom in and out. The
same effect can be achieved by clicking on the "+" and
"-" magnifier icons, but with coarser steps than with
the mouse wheel.
Finally the "F" icon stands for "fit to screen" and allows
to instantaneously revert the pan and zoom settings to
"safe" values (i.e. the correct zoom ratio and pan to
view all screens at once centered in the area)
Components and commands :
To perform actions on the processor(s) you have to create
what are called "high level commands" (to distinguish
them from the low level ones, which are described in a
section below) These commands typically represent one
action/effect on one or more processors.
Which processor(s) is/are targeted by the command depends
on the actual command type and its settings. For instance,
like we've seen above, an "open PIP" command could target
a single processor if the PIP was entirely contained in
a single screen, but could also target several processors
if the PIP is to be opened across screens.
There are three ways to create commands with the control
panel. The first one is to drag one of the four component
buttons onto the screen area. Note that effect opening
commands only are available this way.
If the command can not be created, the mouse cursor will
change into a "no drop" icon. Command creation availability
depends on the resources currently free or in use, and
is dynamic. For instance if you have a single mixer processor
and you drag an "open PIP" command on its associated screen,
you won't be able to drag a second "open PIP" command,
as both scalers are already in use (note that this example
could be a bit confusing as double PIP are possible, but
as they are a very special effect of the iX mixers, "open
double PIP" is provided as a separate command)
Graphical objects are added on the screen area to represent
the result of the newly added command. If you drag a PIP
component on the screens, a PIP graphical object (a small
rectangle) will be created. This object can be further
manipulated with the mouse or the command parameters controls,
as explained in the next section.
The second way to create commands is to use the "new
command" button in the command handling area. This button
displays a drop-down menu containing the list of all possible
commands. Individual commands are greyed out or not depending
on their availability, in the same way as components can
not be dragged if command creation is impossible.
At any time, only commands that you can actually create
will be available, thus prohibiting actions that would
lead to an incompatible device state.
The third and last way to create command is by direct
manipulation with the mouse of the graphical objects.
By right-clicking on an object, a popup menu appears containing
object-related commands, like "move", "close" and "switch
source" for a PIP object. Also when an object has been
opened it is possible to create "move" commands on-the-fly
just by dragging the object itself (works for PIPs and
Logos)
The command list :
Just below the command handling area is a zone called
the command list. It is in fact a command stack. Every
time a command is created, it is added to the stack. Note
that command order inside the stack has some importance.
The picture below shows the command list with a few commands
in it:
The currently selected command in the list is highlighted
in green. Each time a command is selected, its associated
graphical object(s) is/are selected too (shown by a green
border around the object)
The command list can be cleared at any time by clicking
on the "clear all" button.
Please note also that new commands can be added only
when the "P" view is active and editable. If the current
Take status is on, you can't add new commands until you
either un-take or clear the command list (which resets
the current Take status to zero)
Selecting inputs and setting command parameters :
All commands are shown as a small rectangle bar in the
command list, with an arrow icon on the left. This is
the collapsed form of the command. By clicking on the
arrow icon or just by double-clicking on the command body
you can expand it in order to display its parameters.
Some of the command parameters can be set by manipulating
the associated graphical object with the mouse, like setting
a PIP size and position. But advanced command parameters
(and in fact, all non-visual parameters) are only available
by expanding the command to show its parameters controls,
which are a combination of sliders and edit-boxes or combo-boxes,
depending on the actual parameter type.
Many commands take a source number as one of their parameters.
The source selection is of course possible by using the
corresponding combo-box in the command controls, but you
can also use the shortcut buttons found at the bottom
left of the control panel.
Clicking one of the input buttons automatically selects
this input as the source parameter of the currently selected
command. Please note that the same buttons will be used
to set the source of any command. In fact, these input
buttons always reflect the selected command only: if for
instance you have two "open PIP" commands, one with input
#1 and the other with input #2, selecting either one of
the commands in the command list will light the LED of
the corresponding input button (in this case, either the
first or the second button)
The last input button is for optional frame (overlay)
assignment when the selected command allows it. This button
selects the frame number to be displayed. By right-clicking
on it, a popup menu allows to choose which frame will
be used. By selecting the 'none' item, no frame will be
displayed (default) Note: the button reflects the corresponding
'frame parameter' combo-box in the command panel.

The take cinematic :
The way commands are executed and the actual device state
"advanced" is perhaps the trickiest part of the MxM, but
once you have understood it, you should find it pretty
easy to work with.
As we have seen before, the "P" and "M" views have a
slightly different meaning than the "P" and "M" outputs
of the processors. The "P" view is a real preview of the
next device state while the "P" output of the processor
is just a source preview for the pending effect.
When you add a new command, the "P" view is updated to
reflect the device state you will get once you press the
Take button on the control panel, and a source preview
is sent to the "P" outputs if possible.
When you press the Take button, several things happen:
First of all, the Take button stays pushed for the whole
duration of the command(s) execution. All commands in
the list are sent to the processor(s) When the execution
is complete on all processors, the Take button is released.
Meanwhile, the "P" view becomes the current "M" view
(they are flipped) as the preview state is now the program
state. Notice that the "M" label becomes green and starts
to blink so you know that from this point your are working
directly on the "M" outputs, that is working live on the
projection screen(s)
The active LEDs on the input buttons (if any) are also
flipped so that the right one on the button is lit and
blinks, showing that this input is currently displayed
on screen.
Here comes the tricky part: When you have reached this
point, two paths are possible for you to take. The first
one is to go back and revert to the previous state. For
this, just press the Take button again and the device
will un-take the whole command list contents. The "M"
view will become the "P" view again, and any effect opened
by the commands will be closed (and closing effects will
be re-opened) This is really like a rewind feature and
is extremely useful when you are preparing your commands:
You can set some parameter, test its effects live on-screen,
then revert back, change the parameter again and retest
etc...
Then when you are done, you can take the other path,
which is to consider that the current state is satisfying
and declare it as the current device state, in order to
prepare the next state transition (the commands that will
happen afterwards) For this, either press the "clear all
commands" button or select (recall) a valid preset. By
doing so, the "M" view is copied into the "P" view (as
we've seen, this happens when there is no command in the
list, since the next state becomes the same as the actual
state)
If you advanced the device state by recalling a preset,
then the "P" view will also reflect the pending commands
of the preset. In fact, when you recall a preset, the
command list is internally cleared (strictly similar to
pushing the clear all button) then rebuilt with the preset
commands (strictly equivalent to manually adding the commands
and building the next "P" view)
To summarize, think that you are going to build your
show by defining "state increments", which are one or
more commands that make the current state evolve into
the next one. We'll see that presets are only snapshots
of these command-lists / state-increments.
Synchro-take buttons :

The Synchro-Take buttons allow sending a "Take"
command to multiple devices at the same time. On the picture
shown above pressing the "Take" button will
send a "Take" command to both the current device
(orange [A] button) and to another device (green [B] device).
When created, each device gets assigned a unique letter
shortcut (from 'A' to 'F'). The current device is displayed
as an orange synchro-take button (note: this button can
not be selected, it is always on) The remaining buttons
represent the other devices instances. An hint telling
the device name is displayed when the mouse cursor is
over a synchro-take button.
Individual synchro-take buttons can be enabled or disabled
at will. Synchro-Take buttons are green when selected.
When the take button is pushed, the take command is sent
simultaneously to all devices having their synchro-take
button enabled.
Note that presets must have been previously recalled
on all target devices (including the master one) These
presets must of course be compatible with the processors
states, otherwise the take will not happen on that particular
device.
The live edit button :
You probably already noticed the green LED button on
the upper-right of the control panel with a "play" icon
on it. This button is called the "live edit" button. It
has two functions.
Its first function is to give a visual indicator of the
device connection status. When Manager is in stop mode,
the live edit button is off. When you initialize a connection
process by entering Manager run or debug mode, the live
edit button starts to blink.
It will blink until all connection links to the processors
are established, their configuration fetched and the eventual
start-up actions performed. Then it should stay lit.
If the live edit button keeps blinking or suddenly turns
off while previously on, you know you have a connection
problem or a processor failure. Check the device and processor
system variables to confirm the problem.
The second function of this button is to allow while
being online to disable live edition. Just click on the
button to turn it off and no more command will be sent
to the processors (but the connection links are not broken,
the device is still technically online)
Disabling live edition may be useful if for instance
you are working online with other devices but don't want
to mess with your projection screen(s) while debugging
other parts of your show.
You can re-enable live edition at any time. Note however
that if you worked on the control panel with live edition
off, then chances are the control panel and device states
are desynchronized. If you want to refetch the current
processor(s) configuration(s) you have to explicitly enter
stop mode then run/debug mode again (in order to retrigger
the connection cinematic)
Available high level commands :
We will now look into the high level commands details.
Each command will be described in the same way:
- Command name and description: the command being
described
- Command target: where the command can be applied
- Command multiplicity: how many commands of
this type can be executed at once
- Command exclusions: limitations, usage restrictions
or incompatibilities
Keep in mind that command creation is possible only if
the current processor(s) state(s) is compatible, hence
many commands only apply under certain conditions: "close
Title" for instance, must have a Title effect opened somewhere
on one of the processors or you won't be able to create
it.
Also restrictions apply because the processors hardware
resources are not unlimited: you can't open both a PIP
and the Title effect on a single mixer processor because
it has only two scalers and one is used to display the
background.
To add new commands to the command list the Take status
must not be on, i.e. you can only add new commands when
the "P" view is active and editable.
Command name: Select source for background
Command description: allows to switch the full-screen
background source, either via a transition or via a source
switch. Whether a transition or a switch is available
depends on the current processor(s) state(s). Transitions
are possible only if all processors have a full-screen
source displayed on the "M" output and the second scaler
free. If one processor in the stack has the second scaler
used (by a PIP or a Title for instance) then source switch
will be the only choice. This command also allows displaying
frame stores above the full-screen source with a transparency
setting. Many transition effects are available too.
Command target: always targets all processors
in the stack
Command multiplicity: only one command instance
per preset
Command exclusions: incompatible with any effect
opening or closing command
Command name: Open PIP
Command description: this command opens a holding
PIP effect. The PIP can span across all processors if
needed but can't be placed on a processor which has no
more free scaler. You can set the PIP size and position
by using the mouse and manipulating the associated graphical
object. PIPs have many options like mask cropping and
border
Command target: any processor having a free scaler.
Command can target multiple processors at once
Command multiplicity: only one open PIP per processor
if PIPs are limited to a single processor, only one open
PIP per preset if the PIP spans across all processors
Command exclusions: incompatible with open title
or switch background on same processor(s)
Command name: Jump PIP
Command description: allows to move an already
opened PIP
Command target: must have an opened PIP on one
or many processor(s)
Command multiplicity: as many move PIP commands
as there are opened PIPs
Command exclusions: can't move a PIP being opened
or closed
Command name: Switch PIP source
Command description:source switch of an opened
PIP
Command target: must have an opened PIP on one
or many processor(s)
Command multiplicity: as many switch PIP source
commands as there are opened PIPs
Command exclusions: can't switch the source of
a PIP being opened or closed
Command name: Close PIP
Command description: close a previously opened
PIP with a closing effect
Command target: must have an opened PIP on one
or many processor(s)
Command multiplicity: as many close PIP commands
as there are opened PIPs
Command exclusions: can't close a PIP being opened,
switched or moved
Command name: Display Logo
Command description: displays a logo on the background.
The processor on which the logo will appear is specified
by one of the command parameters, as long as the index
of the logo to display
Command target: any processor not in double PIP
mode
Command multiplicity: up to two command instances
per processor, providing that no logo is already opened
on the processor
Command exclusions: incompatible with double PIP
mode
Command name: Jump Logo
Command description: moves a previously displayed
logo
Command target: must have a displayed logo on
the target processor
Command multiplicity: up to two command instances
per processor, if two logos are displayed
Command exclusions: incompatible with double PIP
mode
Command name: Remove Logo
Command description: removes a logo from the screen
Command target: any processor having a logo currently
displayed
Command multiplicity: up to two command instances
per processor, if there are two logos to close
Command exclusions: incompatible with double PIP
mode
Command name: Open Title
Command description: opens the title effect on
a single processor. Also used for the shadow title effect
Command target: a single processor having a free
scaler
Command multiplicity: one per processor
Command exclusions: incompatible with open PIP
or switch background on same processor
Command name: Switch Title source
Command description: switch the source of a previously
displayed title
Command target: a single processor having a pending
title effect
Command multiplicity: only one per processor
Command exclusions: can not switch the source
of a title being opened or closed
Command name: Close Title
Command description: closes a previously displayed
title
Command target: a single processor having a pending
title effect
Command multiplicity: only one per processor
Command exclusions: can not close a title being
switched or opened
Command name: Open double PIP
Command description: open the double PIP effect
on all processors. Up to two PIPs per processor can be
displayed by using this effect. All processors share the
same background frame store
Command target: always targets all processors
in the stack
Command multiplicity: only one per preset
Command exclusions: incompatible with any opening
or closing command or background switch
Command name: Jump M double PIP
Command description: moves a currently displayed
M-PIP
Command target: any processor in double PIP mode
Command multiplicity: as many as there are M-PIPs
displayed
Command exclusions: only available when in double
PIP mode
Command name: Jump P double PIP
Command description: moves a currently displayed
P-PIP
Command target: any processor in double PIP mode
Command multiplicity: as many as there are P-PIPs
displayed
Command exclusions: only available when in double
PIP mode
Command name: Switch M double PIP source
Command description: switch the source of a currently
displayed M-PIP
Command target: any processor in double PIP mode
Command multiplicity: as many as there are M-PIPs
displayed
Command exclusions: only available when in double
PIP mode
Command name: Switch P double PIP source
Command description: switch the source of a currently
displayed P-PIP
Command target: any processor in double PIP mode
Command multiplicity: as many as there are P-PIPs
displayed
Command exclusions: only available when in double
PIP mode
Command name: Close double PIP
Command description: allows to leave the double
PIP mode
Command target: always targets all processors
in the stack
Command multiplicity: only one per preset
Command exclusions: only available when in double
PIP mode
Command exclusion chart :
Here is a chart summarizing the various command exclusions
and special conditions. To read the chart, find the index
of the A command and the index of the B command, then
look at the crossing point: the letter in it is the exclusion
type of A command vs. B command.
Only the first half of the chart is filled, just swap
the two command indexes if the crossing point falls in
the wrong half. Also, you can check the command multiplicity
by looking at the crossing point of the command index
with itself (i.e. A command vs. A command) The legend
is below.
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
1 |
P |
X |
C |
C |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
C |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
2 |
. |
1 |
~ |
~ |
~ |
|
|
|
~ |
~ |
~ |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
3 |
. |
. |
1 |
|
~ |
|
|
|
~ |
~ |
~ |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
4 |
. |
. |
. |
1 |
~ |
|
|
|
~ |
~ |
~ |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
5 |
. |
. |
. |
. |
1 |
|
|
|
~ |
~ |
~ |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
6 |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
2 |
~ |
~ |
|
|
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
7 |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
2 |
~ |
|
|
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
8 |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
2 |
|
|
|
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
9 |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
1 |
~ |
~ |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
10 |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
1 |
~ |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
11 |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
1 |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
12 |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
P |
X |
X |
X |
X |
X |
13 |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
1 |
|
|
|
X |
14 |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
1 |
|
|
X |
15 |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
1 |
|
X |
16 |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
1 |
X |
17 |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
. |
P |
Command
indexes:
- Select
source for background
- Open
PIP
- Jump
PIP
- Switch
PIP source
- Close
PIP
- Display
Logo
- Jump
Logo
- Remove
Logo
- Open
Title
- Switch
Title source
- Close
Title
- Open
double PIP
- Jump
M double PIP
- Jump
P double PIP
- Switch
M double PIP source
- Switch
P double PIP source
- Close
double PIP
|
Legend:
- 1
= One command per preset, per processor
- 2
= Two commands per preset, per processor
- P
= Only one command instance per preset
- X
= Commands are not compatible
- C
= Compatible if transition is a switch
- ~
= Compatible if not on same processor
-
= Commands are compatible
- .
= Swap the two command indexes and retry
|