Extron electronic 4LDXI Looping the System 4xi with Other Switchers, Input Channel Addressing

Chapter 4 • Connecting Multiple Switchers

Looping the System 4xi with Other Switchers

The System 4xi can be interconnected, or “looped” with other switchers to allow for a greater number of inputs to be switched to the projector. With each of these configurations, the System 4xi acts as the “Master”, to communicate with the projector and supply the video signal. The switcher that provides input to the System 4xi is the “Slave”. If two switchers are looped with the System xi4, the second switcher is a “Slave” to the first, and the first is a “Slave” to the System 4xi.

•The slave switcher is always connected to the highest master input (input #4 on a System 4xi, input #10 on a System 10 and input #8 on a System 8, etc.).

•Input numbering always starts at input #1 of the System 4xi and input #4 will become the first input from the “slave” switcher.

•The System 4xi cannot be used as a slave switcher.

•The only switchers that can be looped with the System 4xi are:

Extron’s SW4 ARMX, SW6 ARMX, System 8 PLUS and System 10 PLUS.

•In any master/slave arrangement, the System 4xi acts as if it is one large switcher. That is, each slave input can be selected and set up from the System 4xi Front Panel. Any Slave input can be configured for any signal type.

For example, a System 4LDxi with a System 8 PLUS as a slave is seen by PC software as a line-doubling, 11-input switcher.

Input Channel Addressing

The System 4xi must be set up to recognize input that is from another switcher unit. The Front Panel operation in Chapter 3 explains how this is done. In a master/slave configuration, input channel numbers of 4 or higher are translated and sent to the appropriate slave input number. For example, selecting input #9 will select input #4 on the System 4xi, and then tell the slave switcher to select its input #6. See shaded table entry below.

Channel	Sys4	SW4	SW6	SW8+ SW10+		Multiple SW8+/SW10+
Ch #1	Ch #1
Ch #2	Ch #2
Ch #3	Ch #3
Ch #4	Ch #4	Ch #1	Ch #1	Ch #1	Ch #1	Ch #1 (1st SW10)
Ch #5	Ch #4	Ch #2	Ch #2	Ch #2	Ch #2	Ch #2
Ch #6	Ch #4	Ch #3	Ch #3	Ch #3	Ch #3	Ch #3
Ch #7	Ch #4	Ch #4	Ch #4	Ch #4	Ch #4	Ch #4
Ch #8	Ch #4		Ch #5	Ch #5	Ch #5	Ch #5
Ch #9	Ch #4		Ch #6	Ch #6	Ch #6	Ch #6
Ch #10	Ch #4			Ch #7	Ch #7	Ch #7
Ch #11	Ch #4			Ch #8	Ch #8	Ch #8
Ch #12	Ch #4				Ch #9	Ch #9
Ch #13	Ch #4				Ch #10	Ch #10
Ch #14	Ch #4					Ch #2 (2nd SW10)
Ch #15-22*	Ch #4					Ch #3 - 10

*Channel numbers continue if multiple switchers are used as slaves. The highest number of channels is 22, using two System 10 PLUS units as slaves.

The following pages show configurations for looping the System 4xi with other Extron-approved switchers. Looping the System 4xi will not work with all switchers; call Extron Electronics if you have any questions.

4-1 Extron • System 4xi Switcher Series • User’s Manual