Thanks, guys. Turns out I didn't set it up because I didn't have much time on Friday - bigger fish to fry, as they say. For the purpose of this discussion, I was not planning to use anmations with audio on the Profiles - just backgrounds (splits, Official Review, etc) - believe me, I'm looking out for my A-1. :-) And Mike C, regarding your warning: "... If you do it this week, will your production team not understand next week why you can't do all the same effects? Don't show them things that you can't do every week." I appreciate the heads up but my team (believe it or not) actually gets it - they trust me when I tell them what we can do, what we can't do, etc. They know that we're on a different truck each week (damn it) and that I use every inch of these little trucks we've been given to give them the biggest show possible. Trust and honesty are always the key and I'm very fortunate that my CFB production team trusts me. With that said, we've actually pulled off some pretty cool things that have gotten the attention of the bigger shows. By the way, for those keeping count - our show was on NMT's A-16 for weeks 1 and 2, then NEP SS 8 at Va Tech yesterday. And YES: it's my understanding that ESPN U gets their pick of trucks before we do! The paradighm has shifted, ladies and gentlemen. John

Mike .. I think your referring to a post I may have made sometime ago. When we used two Fast Forwards on the NFL on FOX we used to use a "Y" connector for the audio. So for example; if you need to put some audio elements on the other channels you should assign those elements to CH 1 & 3 respectively. Some planning by the TD is necessary. As per usual, put all your non audio elements ie: mattes and backgrounds on Channels 2 & 4 respectively. By using a "Y" audio adapter (which will probably have to be made up), you can have your A-1 track one source L & R of CH 1 & 3 instead of multiplie sources. By using the "Y" connector on the audio outputs of CH 1 & 3, the sounds effects associated with your effects will come to him as one (1) L & R source. Then you control which ones run and stop at their specific times. You're A-1 only needs to know to track your DDR but it's important audio levels are the same on all materials transferred. Cheers, Rick.

Mike, you are correct, PBus is between the Lance and the switcher frame. John just needs to make sure sure 422 cables connect between the Lance and the DDR's.

[quote="Mike Cumbo"]John, it SHOULD work... Now will audio have enough faders for the extra DDR channels? Engineering will have to make sure PBus is connected to both DDR frames. I seem to remember someone posting on the "old" board about having to use two separate Fast Forwards, one channel on each unit wasn't working. John, one warning. If you do it this week, will your production team not understand next week why you can't do all the same effects? Don't show them things that you can't do every week.[/quote] Generally you put things on channel 3 and 4 that don't require audio, like backgrounds, split screens, monitor loops, additional mattes etc. I've had some situations where I keyed clips on channels 3 and 4 before but used channel one to playback a clip for audio only. You're right, audio generally is much happier when they only have 1 DDR to worry about. Pbus is connected between the Lance and switcher, not the DDR's, so there is only one PBUS connection. I can't see why there would be any issues with different devices, even though the FFW is one box, it's still treated as two separate VTR's and the lance probably doesn't even know the two VTR's are in the same box. I've used situations like this to show production what I CAN do if I had an extra DDR every week. Sometimes you get it.

John, it SHOULD work... Now will audio have enough faders for the extra DDR channels? Engineering will have to make sure PBus is connected to both DDR frames. I seem to remember someone posting on the "old" board about having to use two separate Fast Forwards, one channel on each unit wasn't working. John, one warning. If you do it this week, will your production team not understand next week why you can't do all the same effects? Don't show them things that you can't do every week.

What you want to do will work. You technically don't even need different PBUS ID's to control 2 machines, but to do what you want you will. If I were in your shoes I'd do the same thing, I prefer the FFW over Profile but not Spotbox. Tiffee