Setting up Flanders Scientific BoxIO

Livegrade comes with support for Flanders Scientific’s BoxIO LUT box.

FSI BoxIO

FSI BoxIO

For general information about setting up Livegrade with HD-SDI devices please refer to the article HD-SDI Setup for Livegrade.

Adding the FSI BoxIO as a Device

In order to exchange look information with Livegrade, the FSI BoxIO needs to have a working network connection with the Mac where Livegrade is running on.

The default IP address for BoxIO can be found on the bottom of the device (e.g. 192.168.1.244).

Once you obtained the correct IP address, launch Livegrade and you can proceed to add the BoxIO as a device. In order to do that, you can choose “Slots” in the main menu and then “Add Device”. Alternatively, you can add the device through the Device Manager.

After that, a wizard window opens:

figure 3: entering the IP address

  • Enter the IP address of the BoxIO
  • Click on “Add FSI Device ”

Single- vs. Dual-Channel Mode

The BoxIO possesses two separate processing chains and can be used in so called single- or dual-channel mode. You can learn more about the different modes on the FSI web page.

You can change the mode of the device via the BoxIO utility provided by FSI.

In single-channel mode Livegrade will use BoxIO as a usual device and will add it to a slot:

Fig. 4: BoxIO in the Device Manager in single-channel mode.

BoxIO in the Device Manager in single-channel mode.

In dual-channel mode BoxIO will generate two device instances named with “Ch. 1” (Channel 1) and “Ch. 2” (Channel 2) that will be added to successive slots in the Device Manager:

Fig. 4: BoxIO in the Device Manager in dual-channel mode.

BoxIO in the Device Manager in dual-channel mode.

Please be aware that you will have to re-add the BoxIO device after changing modes. Once the gradin mode is changed, hit the refresh button in Livegrade and you will see the device name indicate the status in the Slots view.

While transitioning from single-channel to dual-channel mode delete the BoxIO from the slot and add it again to see two channels populate. While transitioning from dual-channel to single-channel mode simply erase the second device (Channel 2) from the slot.

When initially connecting the device in dual channel mode you can switch back and forth between the two modes while always refreshing the devices. Switching into single-channel mode will activate channel one to work solely while channel two will immediately work again when switching to dual-channel mode and refreshing the devices in the slots in Livegrade.

Getting the FSI BoxIO Image in Livegrade

BoxIO is capable of taking a framegrab from the SDI signal that is connected to it.

In the main Livegrade window, the FSI BoxIO is now displayed in the corresponding grading slot as a device, as well as the FSI BoxIO image as an Image Source of the same slot.

You can open the Image Viewer to display the image by double clicking on the «FSI BoxIO Image» thumbnail.

figure 6: the FSI BoxIO's image

The FSI BoxIO’s image in the Image Viewer

In case that the live image has changed, you can update the image shown in Livegrade by clicking on the «Refresh Image» button. After that you will have the latest frame of the live image.

Controlling the SDI Signal Range Through Livegrade

Livegrade allows to control the SDI signal range through the device manager. When controlling the SDI signal range through the BoxIO application, Livegrade will display the selected range in the Device Manager:

Fig. x: The signal range set through the BoxIO app.

The signal range set through the BoxIO app.

Click the “Advanced…“ button (highlitted in yellow) to enable the signal range control by Livegrade:

Fig. 8: Controling the signal range through the LiveGrade Device Manager.

Controling the signal range through the Livegrade Device Manager.

You will now be able to control the signal range inside of Livegrade. Please refer to the article Legal and Extended – SDI-Signals and LUTs in Livegrade to learn more about the range control in Livegrade.

 

You can generally check if the FSI BoxIO is properly connected by going to the Device Manager. A green indicator shows a positive connection status. You can use the «Blink» button to send a red-green-blue screen flash sequence to check if the BoxIO is ready for the use with Livegrade.

FSI BoxIO can also be connected via Wifi. For best performance concerning fluid look interaction and framegrabs we recommend a tethered ethernet connection.

ScopeStream

The FSI device provides a technology called “ScopeStream” that calculates scopes for the signal on the hardware device and provides it for display on your Mac.

When adding a FSI device (DM monitor series or BoxIO) you can choose to enable the ScopeStream with the according checkbox:

Fig. 9: Enable ScopeStream when adding a FSI device.

Enable ScopeStream when adding a FSI device.

Livegrade automatically opens the ScopeStream window:

Fig. 10: The ScopeStream window showing a waveform

The ScopeStream window showing a waveform

After closing the ScopeStream window it can be reopened again by clicking the gear button next to the device in the slot view:

Fig.11 : Reopening the ScopeStream window.

Reopening the ScopeStream window.

Please be aware that the scopes are drawn from the unprocessed signal. Looks that are applied to the FSI device are not taken into account for the ScopeStream scopes.

 

Tags: waveform, vectorscope