Hardware Peripherals

By now, you should understand that the every system starts with the Q-SYS Core;

it handles all of the audio, video and control processing on your system.

But now were going to introduce you to all the different specialized network peripherals you can add,

depending on your application needs,

all of these peripherals send their data over the same standard Gigabit network

back and forth to the Core for processing.

The I/O Frame, as its name implies, provides additional audio inputs and outputs the system,

when you need more connections than are available on your Core.

The standard model of I/O Frame can house up to four specialized I/O Cards,

which bring analog and bridge network audio sources onto the Q-LAN network to be delivered to the Core.

After the Core processes the audio, it transports the audio to an appropriate output,

which might be a local connection or I/O Card on the Core itself, or another networked I/O device.

Regardless of where the audio leaves Q-SYS,

that audio is then converted back to analog and delivered to the amplifier.

Q-SYS I/O devices are intended to be physically located close to the signal source or destination.

The different types of I/O Cards will be covered later in this course.

There are also a few other types of I/O devices.

The I/O-8 Flex is a compact PoE channel expander that provides 8 channels of “flex” input or output,

which means that it can be configured in the software with single channel granularity

to be either a mic/line input or a line output. For example if you need all 8 channel to be inputs, no problem.

If you need 3 inputs and 5 outputs, easy peezy! You get the idea.

On top of that, it comes with great mounting hardware that allow for single unit racking,

pairing them up with an additional I/O-8 Flex, or if you’re doing a standard conference room,

you might want to mount one right next to one of our SPA Series amplifiers.

Or mount them outside the rack entirely, under the table or behind an LCD screen.

If you need even higher channel count density in your installation

or you have highly specialized I/O requirements,

certain Cores, like the Core510i for example, can be operated in “IO Frame Mode”

this mode offers the ability to integrate up to 128x128 audio channels via its 8 I/O Card slots.

Keep in mind that you’ll need another Q-SYS Core on the network to do the processing.

Similar to the I/O-8 Flex, the I/O-22 is a compact standalone I/O Box

that provides two mic/line inputs and two line outputs, is powered over Ethernet,

and also includes an 8.5 watt mono amplifier to drive a local monitor speaker. This device is compact in size

which allows for hideaway mounting locations such as under a desk or attached to a rack tray.

Next on our list of peripherals are the AV-to-USB bridging devices,

ideal for integrating soft codec applications like Skype for Business and WebEx

into modern conference room hardware.

These include the Q-SYS PTZ-IP Cameras, and the IO-USB Bridge.

Both conference cameras stream high quality video over the network

to be delivered to a PC via a Q-SYS USB Video Bridge,

typically through an IO-USB Bridge end point device, to a laptops on a table,

or directly from the Core 110f’s USB port for rack-mount PCs.

These devices also allow USB Audio Bridges, which deliver up to 16x16 channels of audio to a computer

on the same USB 2.0 cable as the video bridge.

This system is fully explored in another course in this training.

Next, the Q-SYS touch screen controllers offer fully customizable control of the system for your end user.

User control interfaces can be designed with simple drag-and-drop ease with Q-SYS Designer Software

all without any scripting required.

Best of all, there is no additional control hardware required to run these touchscreen controllers.

Like every other function on Q-SYS,

these are software applications that are driven by the powerful Q-SYS Core processor.

Choose from models that range in size, resolution and form, including wall mount and tabletop versions.

The TSC-7t also has a USB bridge which can accommodate 16x16 channels of

BYOD audio connectivity to those soft codecs applications.

If you want wireless control, you can configured your UCI to be displayed on any iOS device.

Just download a free app from the Apple app store

For those interested in the transportation installations,

we have rugged networked Page Station peripherals available.

Just like with our touchscreens, no additional processors are required to drive this sophisticated paging system.

Q-SYS page stations are available in desktop or wall-mount versions with,

different options for microphones and keypads.

The PS-X is an additional accessory that provides a secondary microphone,

for applications such as an airport gangway or rail platform.

When designing your system, every peripheral that is properly connected to the Gigabit network

will be discoverable in the Q-Sys Configurator.

In order to make a peripheral accessible in your design,

simply go to the Inventory pane, click the Plus Icon, select Peripherals, and add your device to your design.

For more information on how this process, check out our video on the Configurator Tool.