FLOW uses IP technology to let you transport low latency video, audio, comms and data signals across a venue using the concept of ‘Nodes’ which are liked together using fibre. Our control software TFC allows you to control the routing of these signals in the same way as a traditional video router and sits ‘over the top’ of the IP fabric. FLOW is designed to be user friendly, flexible and is operated solely through TFC. It does not require any specific networking knowledge or changes to its default configuration to use.
Please see below to get up and running.
WARNING – The configuration of the network switches inside the nodes may be significantly different to how you’d expect a switch to traditionally operate. Please don’t make any configuration changes to the system outside of TFC unless explicitly told too as this may cause the whole system to become inoperable. If you’re not sure or facing technical challenges, please speak to your cluster manager.
Logging into TFC:
First you need to open Google Chrome on the control laptop in your venue. Here you will find pre-saved bookmarks in the bookmark bar. Open ‘TFC Control’
Once you have opened TFC Control you will be presented with a login page. You need to access 1Password on your phone or personal laptop that is connected to the internet. (The control laptop is not connected to the internet) in order to retrieve the login details for TFC. Once you have logged into 1Password you need to select the Vault on the left hand side labelled ‘Onsite avIP Comms Share’ and retrieve the credentials specific to the node which you have in your venue.
If you haven’t got login details for 1Password please speak to your cluster manager.
Look at the label on your ‘Main’ FLOW node and figure out which node you have. Main Nodes will usually be found in the BTOC.
You should then look up the node in 1Password to find out the login and password. For example the login email for Node 2 (pictured above) would be flowop02@ct-networks.com. Please carefully enter the Login email and password across into the TFC login page. The IT security requirements of the Commonwealth games are strict and ‘Saving’ usernames and passwords on the control laptop is not allowed.
Passwords are case sensitive.
Checking your devices are online:
Once you are logged in hover over the devices tab and select ‘Devices Active’ from the dropdown menu. Once you are on the Devices Active page you should see all of the online video IP devices for your venue. All devices should have a green status light showing that they are ready for use.
Each venue may have a different number of active devices. This is dependant on the number of video inputs and outputs required. If you are in doubt of how many devices you should have, open up the flap on the Grass Valley frames in the back of each node and count the UCP cards – this will vary from 1-4 and will confirm how many devices you should see in the TFC Controller. UCP Cards located in the ‘Main’ node will be labelled ‘Main_Card1’, ‘Main_Card2’ etc in TFC. Cards in attached ‘Sub’ nodes will be called ‘EXT1_Card1’, ‘EXT1_Card2’ etc.
You can have up to four external ‘Sub’ nodes attached to a main node. The ‘EXT1’ represents the number of the fibre connector on the front of the Main node that the ‘Sub’ is connected too. Remember each ‘Sub’ node is connected by a main and a backup fibre (Red and Blue), so although there is eight fibre connectors on the ‘Main’, you can in fact only connect up to four additional ‘Sub’ nodes. A ‘Sub’ node connected to the fibre port three, would be represented as ‘EXT3’ in TFC for example. Depending on how many cards are physically present inside ‘Sub’ node 3, will dictate how many of the EXT3_Card_x devices will come online.
Any device that is labelled ‘Main’ is present locally in the Main node. Any device labelled ‘EXT’ is present in a ‘Sub’ node connected remotely over fibre.
Routing Signals:
Once you have confirmed all of the devices you are expecting are online, go to the ‘Panel’ tab, hover over it and select ‘Pool’ from the dropdown menu. You then need to select the words ‘Main Control’. Do not click on the pencil as this will put the panel into edit mode. The ‘Panel’ is where you go to route signals around your venue.
Once in the panel, all the video sources are in the top half of the screen and have yellow buttons, and the destinations are at the bottom of the screen with purple buttons.
The names of the buttons on the panels correspond with the naming of the BNC jacks on the node in TFCs default configuration. Within the category called ‘Main’ you will find all of the inputs and outputs that are physically on the front of the main node. In the ‘EXT’ categories you can select video sources and destination that are located on a remotely connect ‘Sub’ node.
You can click on a destination (in purple) that you want to route a signal to – this could be locally on the main node or remotely on a sub node.
You then select the source (in yellow) and then click the red ‘Take’ button at the top right of the screen to create the route.
TIP: The number of cards in your node will depend on how many rows of buttons that are active. 2 cards = 2 rows of buttons, equally in this example only the top two rows of BNC on the front of the node will be functional. If the frame is fully populated with four cards, then all four rows of buttons will be active, and all four rows of BNCs on the front of the node will be useable.
TIP – When routing any signals ALWAYS select your destination first, and then the source you’d like to send to it. This helps prevent accidentally changing an output that you didn’t mean to.
Renaming Categories:
You can make your life easier by renaming your nodes depending on where they are located or what their function is. To do this go to the TFC Control homepage, hover over the ‘Tags’ tab and select ‘All Categories’
You will then be able to select your node (example Ext 1), and click edit to rename it (example: Basketball or FOH). When you return to your panel, it will now be obvious that all the sources or destinations that are displayed when you select this category, belong to a specific ‘area’.
Renaming Sources and Destinations:
To rename a source or destination, right click on the relevant button from within your panel. You then need to select ‘Rename’ from the menu that comes up. You can then change the name in the pop-up box using the field called ‘User Label’. Confirm your changes and they should take immediately.
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