Status (Core)

The Core is the centralized digital signal processor (DSP) for the Q-SYS system.

There are three aspects to the Core: physical hardware, network settings, and virtual.

When you start Q-SYS Designer, the Inventory accordion bar is open by default. By default, a Core is always present. The Core is in the Default Location, and has components listed below it. You place these components in your design as required. The components may differ depending on the Core model selected.

When you select the Core, the Core Properties display in the right-side pane. If you drag the Status component into the Schematic, the same properties are displayed in the right-side pane, with the addition of the available Control Pins for the Status component. This topic contains information for both.

Note: The Core 510i can be used as an I/O device (I/O -510i) by adding it from the inventory list under Peripherals. In this mode it is not operating as a Core, but an I/O device. The I/O-510i has eight I/O card slots, two GPIO components, and a Serial Port component.

The GPIO, Loudspeaker Monitor, Serial Port, and the I/O cards (Line Out, Mic/Line In, DataPort, AES3 In / Out, AES3 16 Channel In, AVB In / Out, Cobranet In / Out, and Dante In / Out, are documented their individual topics.

The Core 110f has separate topics for: Mic/Line In, Mic/Line Out, USB In, USB Out, Flex In, Flex Out, POTS In, POTS Out, POTS Controller, GPIO In, GPIO Out. The controls available only on the Core110f are indicated as such in this topic.

Core Type Core Model Local I/O Channels Network Audio Channels AEC Processors Multitrack Audio Players Local I/O Card Capacity VoIP Instances

Unified Cores (small scale)

Core 110f

Cinema Core 110c

24 (8 analog in, 8 analog out, 8 analog flex in/out), 16x16 USB audio

128 x 1281

16 (110f), 4 (110c)

16 (upgradable to 32)

N/A (Built-in I/O on this model)

4

Integrated Cores (medium scale)

Core 500i2

Up to 32 analog, 128x128 AES/CobraNet/Dante/AVB

128 flex in/out

24

16 (upgradable
to 128)

8

64

Core 510i

Cinema Core 510c

Up to 32 analog, 128x128 AES/CobraNet/Dante/AVB

256 x 256

64

16 (upgradable to 128)

8

64

Enterprise Cores

Core 11002

Up to 4 analog, 16 AES, 64x64 CobraNet/Dante/AVB

256 x 256

72

16 (upgradable
to 128)

1

64

Core 31002

Up to 4 analog, 16 AES, 64x64 CobraNet/Dante/AVB

512 x 512

144

16 (upgradable
to 128)

1

64

Next-generation Enterprise Core (IT friendly)

Core 5200

N/A

512 x 512

160

16 (upgradable to 128)

N/A

64
1. When using the Core 110f on-board USB Device Port for video bridging, the Q-LAN / AES67 maximum audio channel count is 64 x 64.
2. Discontinued.

Type 2 hardware provides new cables and connectors between the I/O cards and main boards in Cores and I/O Frames. Due to this change, the Type 2 hardware is not physically compatible with the older hardware. You can still integrate the new I/O Frames and Cores in the same system with older hardware, but the I/O cards are not interchangeable. Type 2 hardware can be identified by a yellow label on the back of the Core and I/O Frame, and the bottom of the I/O cards.

Some controls require a specific setting in the Properties to make them available. In the Properties Settings column

R represents Is Redundant set to Yes

V represents Verbose set to Yes

C represents the Clock Source set to something other than Internal

N represents Not available on all Cores

N / A indicates that there are no Properties available for the Control.

Control

Function

Properties Setting

ID

When the ID/Identify button, in the Q-SYS Designer Status component, or the Configurator's Network Configuration for the hardware, or on the physical hardware is pressed, the ID buttons in the Configurator and Status component flash, and the LCD on the physical Hardware flashes to indicate the association between the three.

The indicators will flash for 5 minutes unless you stop them by pressing any one of the buttons.

N / A

Status LED

This LED changes color to indicate the current status of the Core. See Status for the meanings of the various colors.

N / A

Status

Component status is conveyed with the Status LED and Status box, which uses both color and text to indicate the current condition:

  • OK: The device is functioning normally.
  • Initializing: The device is in the process of a firmware or configuration update, or the design is starting.
  • Compromised: The device is functioning, but a non-fatal problem exists.
  • Missing: The device cannot be discovered.
  • Fault: The device is malfunctioning or is not properly configured.
  • Unknown: This status appears during a Core reboot (for example, during a firmware update), or when a design is being pushed to the Core and before it has started running.
  • Not Present: If applicable to the device, this status appears when the device is not connected to the network and its Is Required component property is set to 'No'. This status also appears if the device component's Dynamically Paired property is set to 'Yes', pairing has not been assigned in Core Manager, and the device component's Is Required property is set to 'Yes'. See Dynamic Pairing.

N / A

External Clock

The Clock Source in the Core's Properties must NOT be set to Internal. The External Clock illuminates if the Core receives a valid external word clock or AES3 signal. (Not available on Core 5200)

C

External Frequency

The Clock Source in the Core's Properties must NOT be set to Internal. The frequency of the clock sync connected to GPIO. This is usually 48000 (+- a few samples). If you are using GPS sync it will be either 5 (for 5pps) or 1 (for 1pps) (Not available on Core 5200)

C

External Lock

The Clock Source in the Core's Properties must NOT be set to Internal. The External Lock illuminates if the Core is able to successfully synchronize to the external clock signal. (Not available on Core 5200)

C

Clock Master

LED indicating if the Core is the Master Clock for the Q-SYS system or not. The Core can be the Master Clock even if the clock is synchronized to an external clock.

N / A

Clock Offset

Indicates how much of an offset exists, in microseconds, between this Core and the Master Clock. If this Core is the Master Clock, the offset is zero.

N / A

Grandmaster

The clock master of the network. See ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision_Time_Protocol#Architecture)

N / A

Parent Port

The device and interface name that this device is syncing to when it's not the clock master. Usually it is the same as the Grandmaster name.

N / A

Processor Temp

The current temperature, in Celsius, of the Core processor.

N / A

Processor Fan

The current speed of the processor fan in RPM. The speed varies based on the temperature. Not all Cores have this field.

N

Chassis Temp

The current temperature, in Celsius, of the Core chassis.

N

Chassis Fan

The current speed of the chassis fan in RPM. The speed varies based on the temperature.

N

Memory Usage

The percentage of memory used.

V

Audio File Sync

Text field indicating whether or not the audio files on the inactive Core, of a redundant pair, are in sync with the active Core.

R

Details

You must set Verbose to Yes in the Properties for this field to display.

Text indicating the Details of any errors occurring with the Core. The information in this field is updated regularly and is cumulative. None of the items listed below display unless there is a value associated with it. If there are values associated with these, call Support.

fpga_fifo_error

sequence_error

recv_fifo_error

xmit_task_early

xmit_fifo_error

xmit_task_late

recv_dma_error

xmit_task_error

xmit_dma_error

xmit_overrun

sync_error

clock_sync_loss

V

This section is available only when the Is Redundant Property is set to Yes.

Control

Function

Default / Range

Active

Identifies which Core is currently Active

On / Off

Standby

Lights if the Core is in Standby mode. When the Core is booting, this LED is lit.

Off / On

Go Active

Click this button to force the inactive Core to become Active. 3

Off / On
3. In a redundant Core, redundant network system when the LAN-A connection to one Core is removed, and the LAN-B connection to the other Core is removed, you cannot switch between Cores using the Go-Active button.

This section is available only when the Verbose Property is set to Yes.

Control

Function

Default / Range

Audio 1 and Audio 2

(audio processing time – microseconds)

Contains the following information when the count is not zero:

  • current
  • minimum
  • average
  • maximum
  • lat_current
  • lat_minimum
  • lat_average
  • periods
  • overruns
  • timeouts

N / A

Reset

Resets the statistics in the Audio and Network fields.

While the Reset button resets all entries in both fields, the average, periods, and overruns are the most noticeable.

Momentary switch

CPU Statistics Notes:

  • average - the result of the number displayed in the average field, divided by 300, then multiplied by 100 should be slightly less than the DSP Usage shown in File -> Check Design....
  • maximum - a value of > 333 causes overruns to increment, which means a dropout in the audio. An isolated dropout sounds like a click and is usually inaudible with program material but can be heard when listening to pure tones. There may occasionally be overruns when the design starts or when the primary and backup of a redundant pair of cores are swapped because of clock mastership change. This is OK because audio streams are not running at these points.

Note: The following USB Audio controls are available on the Core 110f , I/O USB Bridge, I/O-8 Flex, and the TSC-7t.

The following information is available only when the USB Audio Bridge, in the Properties, is set to anything except Disabled, and one or more of the USB Audio components are in the schematic.

Control

Function

Default / Range

Connection

Green LED indicating that the USB Out component is connected to a computer.

Off / On

USB Speed

Speed of the USB Connection. For example: High (2.0)

 N / A

Active

Green LED indicating that signal is streaming.

Off / On

More button

Click to show or hide the details listed below. (Samples, SRC+, SRC-)

N / A

Samples

Total number of samples since the audio started, or since the count has been reset.

N / A

SRC+

The number of samples added in order to match the USB clock with the Q-SYS PTP clock

N / A

SRC-

The number of samples removed in order to match the USB clock with the Q-SYS PTP clock

N / A

Reset

Resets the Sample count for the associated audio device.

N / A

The following information can be found on the Core 110f Status component and the I/O USB Bridge Status component.

Control

Function

Default / Range

Note: In order to see the data in the fields listed below you must have a network connection between the camera and the I/O USB Bridge, and a USB connection to an output device. The output device must be receiving and displaying the video. If there is no signal flow, there are no statistics.

Input LED

Indicates whether or not there is active input to the I/O USB Bridge.

N / A

Video Bridge Input Connection

The network Name of the input device (camera).

N / A
IP Stream 1 and IP Stream 2

Test (button)

Test the network setup for the Q-SYS video streaming implementation without having a PC or any USB connection. This tests QoS and IGMP on multicast.

  
Frames per Sec

Number of frames per second being sent by the camera

N / A

Bitrate (Mb/s)Src

Speed of the connection in Mb/s

N / A

BMcast IP Src

Bad Multicast IP Sources (IP Stream 1 only)

N / A

Packets Lost

Number of packets lost since the last reset.

N / A

Packet Loss%

The percentage of packets lost based on Packets Lost and Packet Count.

N / A

Packet Count

Total number of packets since the last reset.

N / A

Frames Lost

Total number of frames lost since the last reset.

N / A

Frame Count

Total number of frames sent.

N / A

USB Active LED

Video Bridge USB Active: Indicates if the USB is active or not.

N / A

Video Bridge USB Format

(text field under USB LED)

Displays the format of the Video present on the USB (ex. 1080P30 MJPEG)

N / A

Frames per Sec

USB Frames Per Second

N / A

Bitrate (Mb/s)

USB Bitrate

N / A

Buf Depth

USB Buffer Depth

N / A

SRC-

The number of samples removed in order to match the USB clock with the Q-SYS PTP clock

N / A

SRC+

 The number of samples added in order to match the USB clock with the Q-SYS PTP clock

N / A
Reset Button

Clears the readings, and restarts monitoring.

N / A

Property

Function

Choices

Name

Identifies the Core component in Q-SYS Designer, enabling the connection between the design and the physical Core. This name must be the same as the name (hostname) in Q-SYS Core Manager > Network Settings.

The name must follow standard naming conventions, restricted to the following:

ASCII characters a - z, A-Z (case insensitive)

Digits 0 - 9

Hyphen (cannot be at the beginning or end of the name)

Underscore (acceptable with a Q-SYS implementation)

No other characters, symbols, punctuation, or blank spaces.

When you have entered the Name, it displays next to the Core icon in the left-side pane.

Note: When you use Telnet or third-party external control you must enter the Name exactly as it is entered here.

User input

Location

The Location is a means by which you can organize your virtual equipment to correspond to your physical equipment.

For example, the Core may be in Rack 1.

  1. Click in the Location property; the " Default Location" is highlighted.
  2. Type the name of the new location. Once you have entered the new Location name, it is available on the pull-down for the Location property for other Inventory devices.

When you have given the location a name, the Core is now displayed under the new location. Any other equipment you identify as being in that location display under that location.

User input

Model

Select the model to match that of the physical Core.

The model of your physical Core must be equal to, or greater than what you specify in this Property or the design will not run.

 

* Discontinued models

110f

250i

500i

510i

1000*

1100*

3000*

3100*

4000*

Is Redundant

If you have redundant Cores in the installation select Yes, otherwise, leave it as No.

No / Yes

Backup Name

This property displays when you set Is Redundant to Yes. Same requirements as the primary Core Name.

User input

External USB Audio

(Core 110 only)

 When enabled, you can connect an external audio device to the USB input and route audio to and from that device. See External USB Audio Device In and External USB Audio Device Out.

Disabled / Enabled

Available only on the Core 110f and Core 110c. Refer to the USB Audio Bridge and USB Video Bridge topics for property descriptions.

Property

Function

Choices

Telephone Country

Select the country in which the telephone service resides.

Multiple

Default = USA

Telephone Tone Output

When 'Yes' is selected, the Ring, Entry, Exit, and DTMF tones are fed to a separate output channel (Tone Output) on the POTS In component. These tones can now be routed independent of the voice audio.

No / Yes

Property

Function

Choices

I/O Slot

Identifies the type of I/O card installed in the physical Core.

After you make your selection, the I/O card displays under the Core in the Inventory list.

The number of I/O Slots varies depending on the Core Model.

Line Out

Mic/Line In

DataPort Out

AES3 In / Out

CobraNet

Dante

AES3 16-channel In

SRC Disabled (AES3)

When an AES3 In / Out or AES3 16-channel In card is selected for the I/O Slot Property, you have the ability to disable or enable the AES3 Sample Rate Conversion.

Enabled / Disabled

Maximum DSP

When this is set to the default (Yes) the core operates normally (same in earlier releases of Q-SYS).

When this is set to No, the core has the following changes:

  • ½ DSP Power
  • Category 1 Signal Processing only
  • No Category 2 Signal Processing
  • No AEC/NFC
  • 2x non-audio system processing
  • 2x Media Stream Receivers (The Core 250i and 500i normally allow 16 Media Stream Receivers, with Maximum DSP set to No, the Cores can have up to 32 Media Stream Receivers.)
  • More overhead (unmeasured) for audio file players, etc.

Yes / No

Network Receive Buffer

Adds extra buffer time to the default maximum of 1 ms.

Additional Network Receive Buffer time is useful in (rare) cases where the network latency through the network exceeds the default maximum. Additional network latency my be introduced by sub-optimal QoS functionality, some layer-3 routing implementations, long distances or large networks.

Because the specified additional latency is added both to transfers from IO Frames to the Core and from the Core to IO Frames, the additional system latency is twice the amount of additional receive buffer selected. Total system latency based on this setting is calculated and displayed immediately below the Network Receive Buffer property.

Default

Extra 1/3 ms

Extra 1 ms

Extra 2/3 ms

Note: The PTP settings for the Core are now available in the Design Properties dialog. (Menu > File > Design Properties.)

Property

Function

Choices

Sample Rate

Selects the sample rate. Typically, 48kHz is used as the Sample Rate. In scenarios where Q-SYS is externally synchronized to a (video) house sync signal you would use 48kHz Pull Down as the Sample Rate.

48 kHz

48 kHz Pull-Down

Clock Source

The AES3-1 and AES3-2 options display when you have an AES3 In / Out card selected for the Core I/O slot. When you have an AES3 16-channel In card selected, only the AES3-1 option is available. Use these options to sync to an external AES3 signal. The AES3 selections require either regular AES3 or AES3 black. The clock should be connected to the AES3 card either connector Channel 1/2 In, or Channel 3/4 In.

The GPIO selections require an external TTL level word clock or a GPS connection: pin 3 is signal, pin 8 is ground. When you select GPIO A-1 or GPIO B-1 as the clock source, the respective GPIO 1 Property changes to "Input used as clock source". The clock source should be connected to pin 3 of the respective GPIO connector - either GPIO A or GPIO B.

Note: Typically, Internal is used as the clock source. Only if there is a need to synchronize the Q-SYS system to an external clock would you use GPIO or AES3. You would use GPIO if the external clock signal is a word clock or GPS. You would use AES3 if the external clock signal is an AES3 signal. Often an AES3 signal without audio is used to reduce the clock jitter. This signal is called AES3 black.

AES3-1

AES3-2

GPIO A-1

GPIO B-1

Internal

Clock Source

The GPIO selection requires an external TTL level word clock or a GPS connection: pin 1 is signal, ground in is indicated by the ground symbol on either end of the connector. When you select GPIO In Pin 1 as the clock source, GPIO Pin 1 is no longer displayed. The clock source should be connected to pin 1 of the GPIO connector.

Internal

GPIO In Pin 1

Clock Type

When the Clock Source is set to a GPIO pin, the Clock Type field is available.

Word Clock

GPS (1PPS)

GPS (5PPS)

Baud Rate

If a GPS clock type is selected, you can specify the baud rate based on your connected clock's requirements.

  • For 1PPS clocks, the default baud rate is 4800.
  • For 5PPS clocks, the default baud rate is 19200.

1200

1800

2400

4800

9600

19200

38400

57600

115200

230400

Verbose

Adds CPU Statistics Audio and Network to the Core Status component, along with a Reset button to reset the statistics to zero. You must have the Core Status component in the schematic area, and selected.

Yes / No

There are no Control Pins available for the Core when it is selected in the Inventory list. The Control Pins are only available for the Core Status component when it is in the Schematic. The available Control Pins depend on settings in Properties.

Note: The Control Pins listed here are only those directly related to the Core when the Core Status Component is selected. Other Control pins are for components listed under the Core in the Inventory. If you don't see what you're looking for, refer the help topic for the Core component you want to see.

Pin Name Value String Position Pins Available

Primary / Backup (must be redundant)

Active

0

1

false

true

0

1

Output

Go Active

0

1

false

true

0

1

Input / Output

Standby

0

1

false

true

0

1

Output

Chassis Fan

RPM

4-digit number

text

N/ A

 Output

Statistics (must be Verbose)

Audio 1

Text box with statistics on the audio on network 1

Output

Audio 2

Text box with statistics on the audio on network 2

Output

Reset

trigger

Input / Output

Audio File Sync

Text box with information regarding syncing audio files between redundant Cores

Output

Chassis Temperature

Text box displaying the internal temperature of the Core in Centigrade.

Output

Core Status

0

1

2

3

4

OK (green)

Compromised (orange)

Fault (red)

Unknown (red)

Updating (blue)

0

0.250

0.500

0.750

1.00

Output

External Clock

(clock must not be internal)

0

1

false

true

0

1

Output

External Clock Frequency

(clock must not be internal)

Text box displaying the external clocks frequency in Hz.

External Lock

(clock must not be internal)

0

1

false

true

0

1

Output

Identify

0

1

false

true

0

1

Input / Output
Memory Used 0 to 100

Text

0 to 100%

 0.0 to 1.00

Output
Network Clock Grandmaster Name

Text box indicating the network name of the Network Clock Grandmaster

Output

Network Clock Master

0

1

false

true

0

1

Output

Network Clock Offset From Master

–

0 ms to n ms

–

Output

Network Clock Parent Port Name

Text box indicating the network name of the Parent port, usually the same as the Network Clock Grandmaster with the LAN appended.

Output

Processor Fan RPM

4-digit number

text

N/ A

 Output

Processor Temperature

Text box displaying the temperature of the Core's processor in Centigrade.

Output

System Info (Details)

Text field displaying system information.

 Output

If your design contains an AES67 Receiver or Atmos Receiver (cinema only) component that was originally added to your design prior to version 7.0.1, you may see the aforementioned fault message in the Core Status component after saving your design to the Core. To resolve, replace these components in your design with new versions.