Table of Contents

Tutorial 2: Explore the technician pages

The demo has a PIN-protected technician menu, the kind of tools an installer or support tech uses. In this tutorial you'll unlock it and see live device status, display control and matrix routing, all driven by the same devices the room uses.

Before you start: complete Tutorial 1 and have the UI open, with the room on.

Step 1: Unlock the tech menu

  1. Press and hold the audio icon (sliders) in the header for 3 seconds.
  2. Enter Access Code appears, with a keypad. Enter 1234.

The keypad clears and flashes Incorrect if the code is wrong. The code comes from the room's config file (tech.password); you'll change it in Tutorial 3.

You're now in the tech menu. The navigation on the left has System Status, Displays, Routing, Volume and About. Exit Technician Controls at the top right takes you back to the room.

Step 2: System Status

System Status shows a health row for each device in the room: the matrix router, both displays, program audio, the four sources and the lighting. Each shows Online.

The status comes from each device's own communication monitor. For a real device, that's the same "is it talking?" status you'd watch in SIMPL. For the demo's simulated devices it's always online.

Along the bottom are Rack Temp and Rack Humidity from a (simulated) rack sensor. Humidity reads 10% and shows a warning: the page warns below 30% relative humidity and above 60%.

Step 3: Displays

Select Left Display. You see its Power State (Power Off, Power On) and its Inputs.

  1. Tap Power On. The button pulses for about 10 seconds while the display warms up, then stays lit.
  2. Tap Power Off. Power Off pulses during cool-down.
  3. Tap an input (HDMI 1 to HDMI 4, DisplayPort) to switch it. The selected input lights up.

The simulated display has real warm-up and cool-down timers, so the UI is showing genuine device state as it changes, not a button that toggles itself.

Step 4: Routing

The Routing page is a classic matrix-switcher tie screen for the room's matrix router:

  • Across the top: the signal type to route, Audio, Video or Audio & Video.
  • Inputs: the four sources, each with a signal dot, plus None.
  • Outputs: Left Display, Right Display and Program Audio. Each shows its current audio (A:) and video (V:) input.

Make a route:

  1. Select Video.
  2. Tap Cable TV under Inputs.
  3. Tap the Left Display output. Its V: line changes to Cable TV; A: doesn't.

Tap None, then an output, to clear that output for the selected signal type.

See the room and the tech page stay in sync

  1. Open the UI in a second browser tab. Leave this tab on the tech Routing page.
  2. In the new tab, start the room if needed and switch on Advanced Sharing.
  3. Route Wireless Presentation to the Right Display card.

Back in the first tab, the Right Display output now shows Wireless Presentation for both audio and video. Both pages are driven by the same matrix device, so when the room routes a source through it, the tech page shows it.

It works the other way too. Routes you make on the tech Routing page switch the matrix directly, like a technician using the switcher's own front panel. Essentials notices the matrix change, works out which source now reaches each display, and updates that display's current source. So the room's destination cards follow within about half a second.

Route from Dev Tools

Essentials Dev Tools can make routes too, from its Routing diagram. Open Dev Tools as in Tutorial 1 and select Routing. Keep a UI tab on the tech Routing page and another on Advanced Sharing so you can watch both.

  1. In the diagram, find the Left Display box and select its input port, hdmiIn1. A small panel opens, listing every source that can reach that port. A ✓ marks the current one.
  2. Select Cable TV.

The port shows a pulsing blue dot until the processor confirms the route. Then the diagram redraws the path through the Matrix Router. In the UI, the tech Routing page's Left Display output shows Cable TV, and so does the Left Display card on Advanced Sharing.

You named only a source and a destination. Essentials found the path through the matrix from the tie lines, just as it does for the room's own routes. To clear the display, select the port again and choose None — clear route.

Tip

Dev Tools, the tech Routing page and the room's screens all switch the same matrix device, so each one shows routes made from the others. That makes Dev Tools a quick way to check what's really routed when a UI looks wrong.

Step 5: Volume

The Volume page has the overall Room volume, plus a fader and mute for each audio point in the room: Program, Wireless Mic and Lectern Mic. They're the same controls as the room's audio panel, laid out for a technician.

Step 6: About

About shows the software versions: the touchpanel app, Essentials, and each loaded plugin. Reboot and Program Reset each ask you to confirm first.

Warning

Reboot restarts the whole processor. Program Reset restarts the program, which you'll use in the next tutorial to load config changes. Only confirm them if that's OK for your processor.

Tap Exit Technician Controls to go back to the room.

What you've learned

  • The tech pages show live state from the same devices the room uses: communication status, warm-up and cool-down, matrix crosspoints and sensor readings.
  • Routes made from the room screens, the tech Routing page or Dev Tools all switch the same devices, so every view stays in sync.
  • Everything on these pages is configured, not hard-coded: which devices appear on System Status, which displays are listed, which matrix is routed, and the PIN are all set in the room's config.

Next: Tutorial 3: Make your first config change

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