Op-Pad Alternatives?

[Bob]

I love the QU series desktops, and the Qu-Pad is an elegant mobile solution for most. However, I need to drive one of my Qu-Pacs remotely over a VPN from either a Mac Mini or a PC. The actual needs are pretty simple – I need to control the various mix outputs and some basic routing. This Qu Pac provides mix-minus feeds for guests in a live broadcast scenario, as many as four guests at a time, with each their own MXM. Security limitations make it impossible to use anything with WiFi. Any thoughts?
Thanks!
bob

[volounteer]

@Bob

Live broadcast and security limitations seems contradictory. Especially with VPN.

Exactly what do you NEED? . Won’t AMM do the mixing for you okay with no need to futz with tablets.

[Mike C]

love the QU series desktops, and the Qu-Pad is an elegant mobile solution for most. However, I need to drive one of my Qu-Pacs remotely over a VPN from either a Mac Mini or a PC. The actual needs are pretty simple – I need to control the various mix outputs and some basic routing. This Qu Pac provides mix-minus feeds for guests in a live broadcast scenario, as many as four guests at a time, with each their own MXM. Security limitations make it impossible to use anything with WiFi. Any thoughts?

You can do a hard wire ethernet connection to an iPad using, it takes a couple of adapters, lighting to USB camera adapter and a USB to ethernet adapter.
Also available are direct lighting to ethernet adapters.
Most of those require a separate power supply to power the adapter.

The set up has been posted here a while ago.

[Mike C]

Won’t AMM do the mixing for you okay with no need to futz with tablets.

The AMM will not help or do a mix minus monitor mix for each guest.

The AMM could possibly work/help for the main broadcast mix.

[Bob]

The actual broadcast mix is done in a different location. The Qu-Pac is in a downlink center, and we want to create the guest MXM’s at that location.
As for the actual MXM, it’s a pretty easy mix-minus. In the case of four paths (Host/Studio & 3 guests) A, B, C, D:
A gets B, C & D
B gets A, C & D
C gets A, B & D
D gets A, B & C

Hardwire to an iPad is the most likely solution, would really love it is there was a desktop version of Qu-Pad (or similar) should I need to reach it from a different control room (or different state).

Thanks for your thoughts- stay safe 🙂

[SteffenR]

the Qu series is not made for that (remote control over internet connections)
it’s possible with dLive and SQ
i guess Avantis will follow

[Bob]

Sorry, I should point out that each location is a different city and has a different transmission delay. For those not familiar with it, this means audio coming back can be a couple of seconds delayed. We take your mic out of the mix (the minus) and feed the rest of the mix in your ear, plus the director or producer. Different than mixing a ballgame or a band where you’re tweaking individual levels into headsets/monitors.
bob

[Mike C]

Not sure if there is there a desk top/lap top QU Pad..ish something available.
There is a third party QU APP called Mix Station, not sure if there is anything
else from them or not.

Maybe doing something with custom using midi commands or a midi control surface
connected to a computer?

If there could be a way to control the QU Pac remotely over the internet within the same building or across the state would the control latency be an issue?

Is this for radio or TV broadcast? Curious if you have tried to or if there is even a need to delay the different incoming audio feeds back to the feed that has the longest
delay time.

[Bob]

Mix Station could be the solution… loading and testing today. Thanks for the suggestion!
Abelton Live 10 and the A&H DAW control using CC Translate was my first thought, but not quite the control that I need, and I’m not wanting to write a bunch of code for a panel 🙂
This is for TV. Control latency is not a big problem. If I run Mix Station on a computer connected locally to the Qu Pac, I can reach out via my VPN and drive it from any of my control rooms.

Interesting times… COVID-19 has gotten everyone used to delays as anchors working from home handoff questions and toss to other announcers & guests. I’m happy with just keeping lip sync close and having remote talent hear the questions! This has forced us to develop some pretty cool remote work flows. The way we do business has gone through a massive change. Much of our social-distancing and remote control will become a regular part of our business.

Thanks again!

[Author]

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