Overview
This document describes the action of pots on Emphasis Control Systems. This includes submasters,
fader pairs, and the grandmaster.
Definitions
Physical Pots: These are the pots on a physical facepanel.
Virtual Pots: These are simulated pots either on the Emphasis Visualization application, or the
Emphasis Console application.
Pot Source: This is any device that can generate pot levels. Currently these are physical facepanels,
Emphasis Visualization and Emphasis Console.
Pot Priority: This is a number assigned to each pot source. It is either 0 or unique.
How Priorities Work
Pots levels are accepted from only one source at a time. Each source has a priority. The source with
the highest priority (lowest number) that is currently connected will be the accepted pot source. All pot
movements on other devices are ignored. A device with a priority of 0 is disabled. More than one device
can have a priority of 0. All other priorities must be unique.
How Priorities are Assigned
The virtual pots on Emphasis Console will always have the lowest priority. The virtual pots in Emphasis
Visualization will have the next higher priority. All physical facepanels will have even higher priorities or
will be disabled. When a physical facepanel connects to Emphasis for the first time it is assigned the
highest (lowest number) priority not already assigned to something else. The assignments are saved in
the INI file when Emphasis exits. This file is located in C:\Program Files\ETC\EmphasisConsole\temp.
The file is called EmphasisConsole.INI. This insures that the assignments will be remembered the next
time that Emphasis starts running. The assignments are based on the MAC address of the pot source.
If you want to change the assignments you can delete the INI file and reconnect the facepanels in the
desired order. Virtual pots in Visualization mimic the source that has priority.
Real World Examples
Connect two physical facepanels to an Emphasis Server. The first one to connect will be assigned
priority 1 and the second will get 2. Wiggle the pots on facepanel 1. Emphasis will respond as normal.
Wiggle the pots on facepanel 2. Emph will ignore them. Now disconnect facepanel 1. Emphasis will
snap to the current pot positions of facepanel 2. Reconnect facepanel 1. Emphasis will snap back to the
levels of facepanel 1. Feel free to move facepanel 1ís pots before you reconnect it.
If you’re feeling masochistic try this again with two (or more) Express 2-scene facepanels. Connect
both facepanels. Make sure you’re in single scene mode. Put the A and B fader pots in different
positions on the two facepanels. Emphasis should respond to facepanel 1ís pots only. Disconnect
facepanel 1. The pots in Emph should snap to the current positions of facepanel 2. DO NOT WIGGLE
THE POTS (its a tougher test)! Now change to 2-scene mode. The A and B fader pots now become the
A and B scene pots. They should register correctly on Emphasis. Try the same scenario but this time
switch from 2-scene to 1-scene. Now try both scenarios again but switch scene modes before you
disconnect facepanel 1. Now try reconnecting facepanel one.