Rane HAL1x Design Guide - Page 185

APPENDIX A: Transitioning from Drag Net l We save the best for last! Just like with presets, you can now test your control links offline-from within the Halogen software! This is a tremendous benefit for you, the designer. You will know long before your hardware is installed if all your remotes are linked and working correctly. Configuring Remote Device Hardware Configuring your HAL System remote devices is much simpler than in Drag Net. Following are a few reasons: l What good is a remote device without a display showing possible selections to the end user? To provide such a display for your remote devices in Drag Net, you had to create and load a bitmap onto each device. You will be happy to know that in Halogen, you simply specify the text that should be displayed on a specific device and, voila, it appears on the device's LCD screen. It could not be simpler! l Another complexity in Drag Net was the requirement to specify an address for each remote. But in the HAL System? Nope-remote device addresses are no longer needed. Each HAL System DR connects to HAL via a homerun. In other words, every DR is connected directly to its own DR port on the back of the HAL device. There is no daisy chaining or star wiring. In addition there is no termination required and no need for termination switches. l The HAL system is capable of powering any DR produced by Rane-at a cable length up to 1000'. What does this mean for you? No more power calculations or external power supplies! l In summary, because of these differences, you will be able to implement much more complex situations with regard to remote control devices than was ever possible with the RPM (Drag Net) products. Setting up Zones and Paging Remember the Automixer/Ducker block in Drag Net? Such a beast does not exist in Halogen. Instead, Halogen offers some terrific new blocks that combine to accomplish the same applications of the Drag Net Automixer/Ducker block, but with far simpler configuration and vastly superior features. These blocks include: l Distributed Program Bus-provides a central place for configuring all background music channels and any other audio that you want distributed to all zones l Paging System-a central place for configuring paging needs for your entire system, automatically includes ducking functionality l Zone Processor-defines a specific audio zone, automatically includes the Distributed Program Bus channels as well as paging 181