Open topic with navigation

External Control Overview

Q-SYS is designed to allow third-party systems to control and/or monitor various aspects of the system by writing your own code using the new Q-SYS Remote Control (a.k.a. QRC), the originalQ-SYS External Control Protocol, or the Q-SYS Communications Library. This section describes these features, and how to use them.

NOTE:  External Control does not include User Control Interfaces (UCI) or Wall Controls; these are considered to be part of the Q-SYS System.

CAUTION:  The Q-SYS external control protocols or their functional details, may change from release to release. Please be sure to check the Release Notes before installing subsequent releases of Q-SYS Designer. QSC is not responsible for the compatibility of your code with the Q-SYS External Control Protocol.

In Q-SYS Designer, a design file contains various Components from Inventory and the Schematic Library. These elements have adjustable controls and/or indicators and Q-SYS provides the capability of making these controls available to external systems for control and/or monitoring.

Q-SYS Remote Control (QRC) (Q-SYS 4.0 – present)

Q-SYS Remote Control is the latest and most advanced means to allow an external control system to control various functions within Q-SYS. As opposed to the original External Control protocol, which requires the use of Named Controls for any control needing external control, Q-SYS Remote Control allows multiple levels of control at the component level. Gone is the need to drag every control you want to control into the Named Controls pane and creatively name each control for external access. QRC offers the following major features:

• Named Controls
• Component Control – Control any control within any component by customizing the name of the component to make it unique.
• Mixer Control – Specialized control of mixers using mixer concepts rather than unintelligent control of each individual control
• PA Router Control – A powerful API for integrating third-party control of the PA Router functionality. This was specifically designed to allow message assembly vendors to send audio files, control and monitor the PA Router.

Refer to the "Q-SYS Remote Control" topic for details on controlling Q-SYS using this protocol. Refer to the separate "Q-SYS Public Address Remote Application Programming Interface" for information on how to use QRC for interfacing third-party applications with the PA Router for paging applications.

Q-SYS External Control Protocol (Q-SYS 1.0 – present)

Refer to the "Q-SYS External Control Introduction" topic for details on "exposing" controls and indicators to external control and monitoring using the original External Control Protocol. This method of remote control is not going to be phased out. This is because we do not want to break existing designs which are currently being controlled with a third-party controller using this protocol.

Related Topics