Gear

Gear is the equipment that you use in your projects. This can be anything from a lighting fixture to a network switch. Every gear item in GearConnect falls under a category. This categorization helps you to easily find the gear you are looking for. It appears in the My Gear Pane as well as gear reports.

Each gear category can be divided into three sections:

• Library: The category a piece of gear belongs to in the library.
• Gear: The category a piece of gear belongs to in the gear list / once added to a project.
• Port: The category a port belongs to, as part of a gear item (example a switch gear item has switch ports).

Each section can have additional properties that are specific to that category but all gear share most properties with the other categories.

Shared Properties

All gear categories share the following properties:

Library

• Model: The name of the gear model.
• Brand: The brand or collection the gear is part of. This can be a marketing range, a series, or any other grouping that the manufacturer uses. * Each brand belongs to a manufacturer. The manufacturer can have several brands, and this is used to group gear in places like the Library Browser Pane.
• Reference: A URL or link to the manufacturer’s website or product page. This is useful for quickly referencing the gear’s specifications or documentation and can be accessed from the add gear dialog.
• Ports: All categories have their port configuration. GearConnect is very flexible in this regard, where despite the category, you can create any combination of ports and assign it to any gear item. The library ports are used to populate the default values for the gear ports when the gear is inserted into a project.

Gear

• Label: This is the name that will appear in the project and is editable by the user.
• Notes: Notes are useful for keeping track of any specific information about the gear item.
• Layer: The layer the gear item is on. Layers can be hidden or shown in the drawing to make it easier to work with complex drawings.
• Colours: All gear has a primary and secondary colour. These are used to colour the background and the border respectively. By default, the layer colour is used, but you can override this on a per-gear basis.
• Detail Mode: Gear inserted into the drawing can either be in Detail Mode or Standard Mode.
  • Detail Mode: Great for switches or consoles that have a lot of different connectors.
    • Default: Port are spread out evenly left and right based on port groupings (all DMX out on one side, all DMX in on the other for example).
    • Left: All ports are placed on the left side.
    • Right: All ports are placed on the right side.
  • Standard Mode: Great for simple devices like lighting fixtures or speakers that only have a couple of ports.

Port

• Connected Gear: The gear item that is connected to this port via a connection.
• Label: The name of the port.
• Category: The category of the port (Network, Audio, Lighting, etc.). These are used mostly for labeling purposes and don’t affect connection validation.
• Connector: The physical connector on the device (RJ45, XLR5, BNC, etc.). These determine the colour that appears in the drawing for the port. This is used for validation.
• Fiber Type: When the Connector is set to fiber, then this is used to determine the type of fiber connection (OpticalCon Duo Single Mode, HMA-J 2-Channel Multi Mode, etc.). This is used for validation when the Connector is set to fiber.
• Direction: This refers to the physical direction of the port, determining how the cable is plugged in, based on pin orientation. For most ports, the direction is bidirectional since most ports, like RJ45 or BNC, have the same male or female port on the device. However, for ports like XLR, which can have different male and female pin directions for inputs and outputs, we use Direction to specify. (Input, Output, Bidirectional). This is used for validation.
• Signal Type: This is the type of signal that will be sent or received from this port (SDI, sACN, MIDI, etc.). This is used for validation.
• Signal Flow: This is the direction of the signal flow. (Input, Output, Bidirectional). This is the not the physical direction of the pins on the port, just the flow of data. For example, an SDI BNC port will physically both be the same port direction on the two connecting devices, but the signal flow usually only goes one way. This is used for validation.
• Speed: For some ports, a speed is also provided. For network ports, this may be 1Gbps, 10Gbps, etc. For SDI ports, this may be HD-SDI, 3G-SDI, etc. This is not used for validation.
• Sort Order: The sort within the port’s grouping. For example, all DMX Outs might be numbered from 1-8 while DMX Ins could be numbered from 1-4. Renumbering DMX In 1 to DMX In 5 would change DMX Ins to be 2-5, while maintaining 1-8 for DMX Outs.

Expansion Cards

In addition, certain categories have additional functionality via Expansion Cards. These are additional cards that the user can swap out to add additional functionality to the gear item. For example, a media server might have different cards that give you different video outputs.

These are usually reserved for gear that allows the user to preform the swap themselves, but for more complex gear, they can be used to represent different configurations of the gear, where it would be unwieldy to have separate gear items for each configuration.

Gear categories that support Expansion Cards are:

• Switches
• Projectors
• Camera Control Units
• Media Servers
• Video Switchers
• Video Distribution Systems
• Audio Consoles
• Audio Distribution Systems

Note

We can expand this functionality to additional categories as needed. If there a piece of gear that would benefit from this functionality, please let us know!

Additional shared properties on gear with Expansion Cards are:

Library

• Available Expansion Card Slots: The number of expansion cards you can add to the gear.
• Default Expansion Cards: The default expansion card that comes with the gear. These can be swapped out when being inserted.
• Expansion Card Reference: A URL or link to the manufacturer’s website or product page for the expansion card.

Gear

There are no additional properties at this time.

Port

• Expansion Card: The port understands if it belongs to an Expansion Card or not, and uses this information to display the port in a separate section in the Gear Config tables.

Caution

Expansion Cards are not editable for user library items. They are available on default library items currently. Copying a default library item with Expansion Cards will not copy the cards over to the user library (Pro feature).

Gear Categories

In addition to the shared properties above, some categories have additional properties that are specific to that category, listed below.

Generic

Generic gear is a catch-all category for gear that doesn’t fit into any of the other categories, gear that doesn’t need validation, or general purpose equipment like TVs and monitors.

There are no additional properties for this category at this time.

Switch

Switches are used for networking gear, primarily for network switches.

Gear

• IP Address: The IP address of the gear.
• Subnet: The subnet of the gear.

Port

• VLAN: The VLAN the port is assigned to.

Communication

Communication gear is used for com devices, like headsets, IP communication, and virtual intercom.

There are no additional properties for this category at this time.

Projector

Projectors are used for video projectors, used for projecting video onto a screen or surface.

There are no additional properties for this category at this time.

Video Wall

The video wall category is usually used for LED tiles that form a video wall.

Gear

• IP Address: The IP address of the gear.
• Subnet: The subnet of the gear.

PTZ Camera

Cameras that have pan, tilt, and zoom functionality, used for video capture.

Gear

• IP Address: The IP address of the gear.
• Subnet: The subnet of the gear.

Broadcast Camera

Cameras used for professional video capture.

There are no additional properties for this category at this time.

Camera Control Unit

Devices that connect to cameras to control them and offer additional functionality.

There are no additional properties for this category at this time.

Media Server

Media servers are used for playing back video content, usually for live events, installations, or broadcast applications.

There are no additional properties for this category at this time.

Video Switcher

Equipment that allows switching between multiple video sources.

There are no additional properties for this category at this time.

Video Distribution

Video distribution gear is used for receiving a video signal and distributing it to other devices.

There are no additional properties for this category at this time.

Lighting Fixture

Fixtures used for lighting, like moving heads, LED fixtures, and conventional fixtures.

Library

• DMX Modes: The various modes the fixture can be set to, along with the default mode.

Gear

• DMX Mode: The mode the fixture is currently set to.
• DMX Channels: The number of DMX channels the fixture uses in it’s current mode.

Lighting Console

Gear used to control lighting fixtures and send DMX signals.

There are no additional properties for this category at this time.

Lighting Distribution

Gear used to distribute DMX signals to multiple fixtures, usually nodes.

There are no additional properties for this category at this time.

Audio Mic

Microphones used for audio capture.

There are no additional properties for this category at this time.

Speaker

Loudspeakers used for audio playback.

Amplifier

Amplifiers used to power speakers.

Library

• Power Modes: The various power modes the amplifier can be set to, along with the default mode.

Gear

• Power Mode: The mode the amplifier is currently set to.

Audio Equipment

Audio equipment for processors, compressors, and other audio gear.

Gear

• IP Address: The IP address of the gear.
• Subnet: The subnet of the gear.

Audio Console

Gear used to control and mix audio signals and send audio signals.

There are no additional properties for this category at this time.

Audio Distribution

Gear used to distribute audio signals to multiple other devices.

There are no additional properties for this category at this time.

Right Click Menu

When you right click on a gear item in the drawing, you will see a context menu with the following options:

• View Ports: Opens a dialog to view and edit the ports of the selected gear item.
• Edit Label: Opens a dialog to change the label of the selected gear item.
• Edit Layer: Opens a dialog to change the layer of the selected gear item.
• Edit Colours: Opens a dialog to change the primary and secondary colours of the selected gear item.
• Resize: Enables you to resize the selected gear item. You won’t be able to resize the gear smaller than the default size.
• Duplicate: Creates a copy of the selected gear item.
• Send to Front: Brings the selected gear item to the front of the drawing.
• Send to Back: Sends the selected gear item to the back of the drawing.
• Remove: Removes the selected gear item from the drawing, but it will still be available in the My Gear Pane.

Note

Gear Groups always have lowest priority and will always be behind gear items.