The Router Section is an automated feature that populates itself with buttons similar to a standard XY router panel, based on the router-compatible connections you have. You can customize the Router Section using Filters and Tags to perfectly match your environment.
Create a Router Section.
1. Select the Starting Cell.
Click on the cell where you want to begin your router section.
2. Define the Size of the Router Section.
Click and drag to select the cells you want to include in the Router Section. Note that there are minimum size requirements: at least 6x2 cells. In this example, we select a 16x4 cell area, which can be resized later if needed.
3. Convert to Router Section.
Right-click within the selected area and choose Router from the context menu. Or simply press R after selecting the cells you want.
4. Router Creation.
The selected cells will now be converted into a Router Section. It will automatically populate with all Router Enabled connections, along with Filter, Take, Delete, Auto, and Shuffle buttons.
Router Section Layout Options and Settings.
The Router Inspector provides layout options and settings for your Router Section.
1. Default Layout (Duo).
This layout features two scrollable blocks, side by side for Sources and Destinations, with buttons to access filters in each block.
2. Duo Vertical
In this layout the configuration is similar to Duo except the Sources and Destinations are stacked on top of each other instead of side by side
3. Quad Layout.
In this layout, filters occupy two blocks, and Sources and Destinations share the remaining two. This setup is ideal if you frequently use filters and have a large workspace, such as three stacked Stream Deck Studios.
4. Mono Layout.
This layout dedicates most of the button surface to either Destinations or Sources, with a button to toggle between the two.
Limiting Sources and Destinations.
You can also control which sources and destinations are available for your particular router panel.
As an example, we will use a producer monitor, where we want to give the producer access to watch a select set of sources. But only be able to change their own monitor. This can be done directly in the router section or by using Tags. We will have a look at setting it up directly in the Router section first.
Click the + sign after the Destinations text, this will bring up a unfolding dialog-box where you have multiple choices to navigate to the destination you want. You can choose between adding a port which for routers that support it means that you can route video, audio, and data independently, and Bundles which is the ports that match together as one destination. You can also make your selection by using tags, if the particular selection is something you expect to use on multiple router panels we recommend making a tag collection for it, to save you time and ease of editing. We will get back to setting that up later.
In this case we will select Output 3 on the 1mePS4k mixer
In this case we will select Output 3 on the 1mePS4k mixer
Now that we have limited the available Destinations, we can see that we have a lot of wasted space in the Router section, lets switch the layout to Locked destination.
In this use case we don't really need the filter buttons either, They kan be removed under the User filters Display mode.
You can also remove or Hide the Lock Button with the Lock/unlock Buttons dropdown. It's currently in the Action Sections and you can move it in to the Options menu or hide it completly
You can also restrict the available sources in the router section, by clicking the + and select the Bundle, Port or Tag/Collection and the the inputs you want available.
Making Tag/Collection filters for the router section.
Navigate to the Tag Organizer
First we add a Folder to hold our Collection by clicking the blue +Create button give it an appropriate name for your organization needs
Select your newly created folder and click +Create to create a Collection.
And lastly select the newly created Collection and click +Create to create a tag
Go in to the Destination bundles and select the output that the Producer monitor is connected to.
Likewise, go in to the Source bundles and select the sources, you want the Producer to be able to choose between.
Then go in to the Inspector of the producer router panel, and change the available sources and destinations by clicking the + in the boxes
Here you can add Bundles, Ports or Tags/Collection, select Add Tag/collection and browse to the Tag we just created in both Source and destination, You can combine different Tags or a combination of Tags and Ports/Bundles
In This case we will select the Producer tag we just created.
Your router panel will now only show the selected Sources and Destinations.
Filtering and Tagging
The Router section automatically filters your Sources or Destinations as you interact with them.
In the example below, selecting IN 1 on ATEM as a Source filters the Destinations to show only the possible destinations ATEM destinations in our demo setup.
There are multiple ways to organize your router section with User filters.
You can add and remove the different collections you want to use as filters.
You can also apply a default filter, which will be replaced by any other filter you apply
Advanced Routing with Shuffle and Auto
With the Shuffle and Auto buttons, you can control which components of a source are routed to a destination. Note that not all devices support component splitting; for instance, NMOS devices typically allow this by default, whereas budget routers may not.
Below is an example of a two-part route:
- The Video component is routed from SDI 1 Source.
- The Audio and Data components are routed from SDI 4 Source to the SDI 1 Destination.
Using the Shuffle view, you can achieve an even more detailed view. The example shows a 64ch Madi destination and a 4 ch SDI Input of an Atem 4me Constellation.
Buttons give you access to route any of the 4 source Audio channels to any of the Madi destination. You can press the purple Destination button to toggle between active sources and destinations.
Router Inspector Options.
The Router Inspector have a lot of settings, and we will take a look at them below.
Layout:
The Layout is described in another part of this article.
Scrollbar Position:
Here you can determine where the Navigation buttons for the scroll function should be placed, You can also remove them, if your router section is in a position with surfaces that have encoders.
Layout Ratio:
The Layout Ratio lets you move the dividing line between Sources and Destinations. Making room for more sources than destinations, or the other way around depending on your configuration.
Options:
The options dialog box lets you turn on and off:
- Auto Take: Will automatically take a route when you have selected a destination and source.
- Show Release button will show a selection release button.
- Text Scroll: Will move oversized labels back and forth on the button so that you can read the full label.
- Auto Close Filter: Will close the filter dialogs after you have made a selection.
- Clear Selection After Take: Will clear the selected sources and destinations after you take the route.
- Ignore Lock: Some routers have a Lock state on destinations that will prevent you from making changes to it, turning on this option will ignore any lock state.
Destination Lock/Unlock
| Some Routers like Blackmagic design VideoHub and others, feature a Destination Lock to prevent accidentally routing of important destinations. Buttons lets you Lock and Unlock destinations on supported routers. The Buttons for this control can be placed in the Action area or under the Options menu or hidden from the Router panel. |
| Any locked destination will show a small orange padlock in the lower left corner when locked |
Sorting Mode:
Determines how the sources and destinations are sorted in the Router Section
- Default:
- Labels Alphabetical (All): Will sort the buttons in alphabetical order of the labels set on the buttons.
- Labels Alphabetical (Grouped): Will first group the buttons by connection and then sort them alphabetical by the label on the buttons.
- Custom: will sort the buttons in accordance with the custom sort column in the Label page of the Routing UI.
Smart Navigation:
Smart navigation will allow buttons to organize your sources and destinations into folder groups based on the label of the sources and destinations. You can Enable Smart navigation for Sources and/or destinations. And you can also specify which label source will be used for the smart Navigation you can also set the minimum number of equal labels are needed before they are grouped into a folder.
Ports:
Gives you options for the Auto Matching under the Auto button in the Router Section, here you can select which ports that will be available and Matched in the Router Section. If you want to make a Router section that only handles Video, you can turn off the Audio and Data options.
If you turn off the "Show Auto Match Options" the Auto button itself will be removed from the Router Section.
Available Sources/destinations:
The Router Section will by default show all available Sources and Destinations in the configurations. By adding Tags In these boxes you can limit which Sources and Destinations are available for the Router Section.
Default Filters:
The default filter allows you to apply a filter to the startup and cleared state of the router section, and if needed you can step out of the filter to gain more access to the various sources and destinations. The default filter can be used together with available sources and destinations and User filter to make a real taylor made router section You can add multiple ports, bundles and tags to both the Sources and destinations
User Filters:
By Default, Buttons will use the Auto Generated filters in every Router Section. You can add your own, or remove any of the Auto Generated Filters. You can also use different display modes for the filters or remove the filter selection buttons all together.
Labels and Label Strategy:
These two settings needs to be seen in conjunction.
You can choose which Label you want to use on sources and Destinations independently of each other.
The Name and Ext Custom label are fetched from the connections, all connections have a Name but not all connections will have an Ext Custom Label. The User, Setup and Installation. Labels are user labels created in the Labels section of the Router UI.
The Label Strategy will fall back from the label you have chosen under Labels. Meaning that, if there is no label in the chosen category it will use the next to the Right all the way down to the Name Label in accordance with the chosen Label Strategy. If you Choose the Off option you must make sure that all ports have a label in the chosen category, or you will end up with buttons without a label.
Styling:
Here you can change the colors for the sources, Destinations and the Active Source. You can also set the Font Size for the Source and Destination buttons.
The Router Section works closely with the Routing and Tags pages. Familiarizing yourself with these will unlock the full potential of the Router Section.