Polycom VSX Series manual Connecting Control and Accessibility Equipment

Administrator’s Guide for the VSX Series

Connecting Control and Accessibility Equipment

The VSX 5000, VSX 7000, and VSX 7000s systems provide one RS-232 port; the VSX 7000e and VSX 8000 systems provide two. You can use the RS-232 serial ports to:

•Connect a modem and use a closed captioning service

•Pass data from a device connected to your system to a device connected to the far site system

•Control the system through a touch-panel using the API

•Provide control signals for an additional camera

•Provide control signals for a Polycom Vortex mixer (VSX 8000)

You will need to configure the RS-232 equipment according to the manufacturer’s instructions, and you will need to configure the RS-232 serial port on the system exactly the same way.

Connecting Closed Captioning Equipment

The VSX system can receive closed captioning from equipment connected directly to the RS-232 serial port, or from a captioning service via modem or VSX Web.

To connect a modem to receive closed captioning:

1.Connect a null modem adapter to the RS-232 serial port.

2.Connect an RS-232 cable to the modem and to the null modem adapter.

3.Connect the modem to a phone line.

You may need to configure the modem to answer automatically. You may also need to configure it to ignore DTR signals.

You must set the baud rate of the RS-232 serial port and the modem to the same speed. You will also need to configure the RS-232 serial port for Closed Caption. Refer to Configuring for Use with a Modem on page 4-30.

Connecting Touch-Panel Controls

You can connect an AMX or Crestron control panel to the system’s RS-232 serial port as part of a custom room installation. You will need to program the control panel. Refer to the Integrator’s Reference Manual for the VSX Series for information about the API commands.

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