Testing the Distributed Program Bus

Listed below is the primary functionality to test when using a Distributed Program Bus, as well as suggestions on how to perform the testing:

• Confirm that the Distributed Program Bus input sources are available and audible in every zone. You will, of course, need to wait until your hardware is installed before testing this functionality.

• Confirm that the Distributed Program Bus channels appear (with the expected display names) on all DRs that are linked to one or more of your Zone Processor Priority Selector blocks. You can test this functionality within Halogen by opening the DR's Selector properties (click the DR's Selector control in the Control palette) and viewing the DR selection list. After your hardware is installed, you can double-check the selection list displayed on the actual DRs.

• Confirm that the output for each Distributed Program Bus channel is at the appropriate level. After your hardware is installed and you have an audio signal for all your Distributed Program Bus channels, you can view the meters for each incoming channel to determine if a level adjustment is needed. To view the metering, simply double-click the Distributed Program Bus block in your Processing Map. In the dialog box that displays is a meter for each channel coming into the Distributed Program Bus:

Of course, if you can anticipate the level differences for your input sources from past experience, you can certainly adjust their levels prior to installing hardware. Also, if you're concerned about the different dynamic ranges of your different input sources, you can add pre-processing blocks (an AGC, a Compressor, and so on) between the input and the Distributed Program Bus.