You can control the Abekas A60 videodisk directly via an Ethernet connection. If multiple workstations are connected to your network, you can access the Abekas A60 from any workstation that has Ethernet access to the Abekas A60. Please refer to your workstation's network configuration manual for instructions.
If you have multiple A60s on your network, you may want to create a configuration entry for each of them. The syntax is:
device video controller name
server_name server
server_id socket
server_host host
buffer buffer exclusive
display display
defn
name ethernet_name
format format
D1_port port
enddefn
enddevice
device video controller name
The name is the name you want to assign to this device. Since your Abekas A60 also has an Ethernet name, you may want to use that same name here.
server_name server
The server is the name of the executable that controls the Abekas A60. It resides in the product_bin. For the A60, server should be vtcabekas. (If you relocate the server executable, or if the server is running on a different host than your application, you must specify the server as a full UNIX pathname.)
server_id socket
The socket is the socket number through which your application communicates with the Abekas A60 server process. This number must be unique to your UNIX system for each defined device and (Alias|Wavefront and non-Alias|Wavefront) server process. If you are defining multiple Abekas A60 configurations, you must use a different socket number for each Abekas A60.
server_host host
The host is the name of the workstation on which the server executes. The host name is different than the Ethernet name of the Abekas A60. The host name is typically the workstation on which you are running your application, but can be any of the workstations on your Ethernet network. If a different workstation is being used, you must ensure that your application has been installed on that server workstation as well. If you are accessing an Abekas A60 from many workstations, you must ensure that each workstation's configuration file defines the same host (and not localhost) for that Abekas A60 server process.
buffer buffer exclusive
The buffer is optionally used to specify the frame buffer to open when the A60 is opened. Use the keyword exclusive to specify that the A60 can access only this frame buffer. For information on the Abekas A60 video frame buffer device, see page 297.
display display
The display entry is optionally used to specify how you want the disk location to be displayed. The default, timecode, displays disk locations using time code. To display disk locations as frame numbers, specify frame. Note that this setting does not affect the display format on the Abekas A60 console.
name ethernet_name
The ethernet_name is the name of the Abekas A60 on the Ethernet network.
format format
The format indicates whether your Abekas A60 recognizes NTSC or PAL video. If this line is omitted, NTSC is used by default.
D1_port port
The port indicates whether the D1 video input port is to be used. The default, 0, indicates that D1 video is not recognized; instead, the Abekas A60 expects to receive image data across the Ethernet. If port is 1 or 2, then the Abekas A60 expects to receive D1 video input via port 1 or 2, respectively. If you are using port 1 or port 2, a video frame buffer is required to convert the RGB image into D1 video.