This panel shows simple control of Harmonic’s ChannelPort or Spectrum X systems from Helm. The panel allows an operator to control two layers of logo insertion, browsing image thumbnails and monitoring the keyer states.
Simple player control allows clips to be selected and played. A playlist can be built by appending additional clips.
This is a basic panel showing simple operations. It’s possible to build much more sophisticated panels with additional controls and capabilities.
First, download the Demo panel, and open it using Helm Designer. You’ll then need to configure the panel to match your ChannelPort system.
Click on the black background of the panel to select the “Root Panel” object. You’ll see the selection at the top right. (Sometimes images appear over the background. You can also select the Root Panel by using the dropdown at the top of the Property Inspector.
Now, we need to edit the BeforeConnect script. Double-click on the -SCRIPT- and it will open up in the editor. This is a Lua script, containing a table called chans that defines the properties of the channels. Each channel is on a separate line.
Copy and paste lines in the table according to the number of ChannelPort ‘channels’ you need to control. Make sure that each line apart from the last has a comma at the end.
Let’s look at the various parts of the channel table:
- name : A ‘friendly name’ for your channel. This will appear on the channel’s button in the panel
- ip: The IP address of the ChannelPort
- port: The TCP “Automation Port” for your channel . Consult your ChannelPort documentation, but these are typically between 9000-9003. Do not use the 9100-9103 “Network Ports”.
- fs: The folder for the base filesystem on your ChannelPort. This is usually “fs0” or “fs”
- player: The name of the Spectrum ‘player’ attached to the ChannelPort. Spectrum System Manager will show you this,
- suffix: You can use this to filter media clips with a particular suffix (eg “HD” or “SD”)
For each channel, edit these values as required. Make sure that you have double-quotes around values (apart from port and dst which don’t require them).
When you’re done, click “OK” to save your changes, and then save a copy of your new panel. Test it with Helm Designer using the “Run Panel” button.
If everything works, you’ll see the panel like this. There may be a delay the first time as image thumbnails need to be constructed by Helm.
If the icons are missing from the server’s transport controls, you should install the FontAwesome icon font onto your PC.