Timing

As a prerequisite for a virtual studio every part of the equipment must be synchronized. This includes the Viz Engines, the tracking systems and the tracking hub.

The Tracking Hub can be synchronized in two ways:

• Using a synchronized Viz Engine as sync source, or

• a Plura PCL-PCI card.

It is the possible to switch the Tracking Hub to freerun mode. This is not intended for production purposes, rather it is meant for emergencies and experiments. Never under any circumstances use freerun mode for production.

Even in freerun mode the tracking hub will generate a smooth result, but a change in delay will become visible periodically. This occurs when the free running Tracking Hub swaps over the field border of a synchronized Viz Engine.

It is possible to run the tracking hub in low latency mode. This is the case when the “overall delay” is set to a value below 1 in the rig. If you see missing data packages (indicated by warning displayed on the tracking system) you can increase the delay to values over 1. At that point, the Tracking Hub starts to interpolate missing tracking packages.

If, from time to time, one data package is missing, a delay value from 1 to 2 is enough to smooth the data. When more than one package is missing (2 successive missing packages) the delay must be increased accordingly. Even if this is possible with the Tracking Hub now, we want to achieve as low delay as possible. So if you see missing packages, you will have to check the connection to the tracking system. Check if the system is synchronized in a correct way or find out what is causing this wrong behavior.

Use the timing monitor in Studio Manager to check the timing behavior of a tracking system.