Remote Connectivity
You can remotely connect to a Q-SYS Core processor over the internet. Read this topic to understand the requirements for remote connectivity.
To connect remotely, a network connection between the local and remote networks must be established using VPN or another method. You may need to configure network firewalls to allow communication on the following ports:
- Q-SYS Designer requires TCP port 443 and HTTP Hard Links to communicate with the target Q-SYS Core processor.
- Q-SYS UCI viewers (Windows app and iOS app) require TCP port 443 (supervisory functions), TCP port 1704 (control messaging), and UDP port 6504 (discovery) to communicate with the target Q-SYS Core.
- The remote PC must be able to exchange ICMP (ping) echo messages with the Q-SYS Core. There are separate firewall settings to enable or filter these messages.
External Control
- External control systems can connect to the Q-SYS Core on TCP port 1702 (Q-SYS External Control Protocol - ASCII) or TCP port 1710 (Q-SYS Remote Control Protocol - JSONRPC).
- External controllers can communicate with a Q-SYS Core via any of its network interfaces. For more information, see Network Interfaces, Services, & Protocols.
- Quality of Service (QoS) configuration is not required for external control.
- The external controller does not need to reside on the same LAN network as Q-SYS peripherals. It only needs to communicate with the Q-SYS Core over the network.
To learn more about external control, see External Control APIs.
You can test network connectivity by pinging the Q-SYS Core from your PC using the Windows command line interface (cmd.exe) and the Core's IP address. The format is ping ip_address
. For example:
ping 123.45.6.789
If you get a good response – for example, "Reply from 123.45.6.789: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
" – you have the proper connectivity.
You can configure Q-SYS Designer, Q-SYS UCI Viewer, and the Q-SYS Control iOS app to discover and connect to a remotely located Q-SYS Core. A Hard Link is the IP address of the Core to which you wish to connect. You may include multiple IP addresses. Note that the Q-SYS Administrator application uses the Hard Links as configured in Q-SYS Designer or Q-SYS UCI Viewer.
Note: Do not create Hard Links if your device can already discover the Q-SYS Core – that is, receive multicast packets from the Core.
- Close any open instances of the UCI Viewer.
- Select File > Preferences > Hard Links from the Q-SYS Designer main menu.
- To create a new hard link:
- Click the button at the bottom of the dialog box.
- Enter the IP address of the Core to which to connect.
- Click OK to save the new IP address.
- To manage existing hard links:
- To edit a hard link, double-click an existing entry and specify a new IP address.
- To delete an existing hard link, select a hard link and click the button.
- To toggle a hard link on or off, select or deselect the check box. This is useful when moving between network locations.
- Select the Mode for all hard links: UDP or HTTP. For HTTP, both HTTP and HTTPS requests are attempted.
- After creating the required IP addresses, close all open instances of Q-SYS Designer. You can then:
- Reopen Q-SYS Designer, and connect to the Core using Load from Core and Connect or Save to Core and Run.
- Open the Q-SYS UCI Viewer, and then select a UCI from the UCI Browser.
- Close any open instances of Q-SYS Designer.
- Open Q-SYS UCI Viewer.
- Within the toolbar, click (Edit Hard Links).
- To create a new hard link:
- Click the button at the bottom of the dialog box.
- Enter the IP address of the Core to which to connect.
- Click OK to save the new IP address.
- To manage existing hard links:
- To edit a hard link, double-click an existing entry and specify a new IP address.
- To delete an existing hard link, select a hard link and click the button.
- To toggle a hard link on or off, select or deselect the check box. This is useful when moving between network locations.
- Select the Mode for all hard links: UDP or HTTP. For HTTP, both HTTP and HTTPS requests are attempted.
- Close the Hard Links window, and then select a UCI from the UCI Browser.
- Select Settings on the device
- Under Apps, select Q-SYS Control. The Hard Link IP addresses list displays
- Touch one of the IP address lines. The keyboard displays
- Enter the IP address of the Core to which to connect. You must enter the periods along with the numbers.
- You can continue adding IP addresses as required.
- When you are finished, close the keyboard, and the settings menu.
- Start the Q-SYS Control App. A list of available UCIs displays.
- Select the one you wish to run.