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"Reproduced from original article printed in the May 31, 2000 edition of TV Technology magazine.  Charles Petrosky is a staff engineer with Kennametal.  The opinions expressed are his own."

By Peter J. Petrosky
Staff Engineer
Kennametal Inc.
Latrobe, PA

Kennametal is North America’s largest supplier of metal cutting tools.  In 1997 the company began development of a Metalworking Technology Center at its Latrobe, Pa., headquarters.    The Technology Center would be a state-of-the-art machine tool laboratory used to showcase Kennametal products to customers and aid in new product development.

However, safety shielding and splashing fluids make showcasing the action inside a machine tool very difficult.  To solve this problem, we envisioned a unique use of video and audio technology.

Our plan was to use 12 miniature, high quality video cameras (Toshiba IK-M43A) to capture the action inside the harsh environs of six machine tools.  From the machines, the audio and video would be routed to as many as 32 output devices.  These would include six display monitors within the Technology Center, projection monitors in training auditoriums at the opposite end of our headquarters facility, VTRs and the control PC for creation of AVI files.  Laboratory workstation microscopes equipped with three-chip CCD (Sony DXC-970) cameras, a VTR and PCs for electronic presentations would provide eight additional inputs to the system.   An electronic router would be needed to efficiently handle the various connections.

BIG CHALLENGE

Equipment selection was a formidable challenge for us.  The main concern was that the router be simple to operate.  Personnel with varying technical backgrounds would be using the device. 

The next concern was that it be “robust” and function reliably in a dusty machine shop environment.  The final key was affordability. 

The Knox Chameleon was chosen.  We opted for a 32 x 32 video matrix because this met all our immediate needs.

The system consists of  PC-driven hardware switching modules.   The basic router accepts up to 64 video and 64 audio inputs and connects any one of the channels (buffered electronically) to one or more of 64 outputs.

Knox software provided with the router offers several means for accomplishing signal routing based on personal preference and/or functionality.  Upon start-up of the program, connection is made with the hardware through a PC communications port.  The program then provides three basic windows used to manipulate the inputs and outputs.

The first window is a crosspoints view.  This allows you to change the crosspoints through either an array, a connections table using “drag and drop,” or a text mode view.

The second window is a batch queue connections view, and the third is a panel of color-coded pushbuttons that function similarly to the “drop and drag” panel in the crosspoints view.

Another method for routing is the “fast route” window.  It is basically a split window containing color-coded pushbuttons.  One click then makes all the connections.

The drag and drop feature in the crosspoints view is very user-friendly and is most often used by our personnel.  You simply drag the desired input to the appropriate output, and the video and/or audio connections are made.

Once a pattern of connections is made, it can be stored as a PMF (pattern memory file).  This is an extremely useful feature.  Because various machine tools are used for training or demonstrations, a tailored PMF file can be created for each one.  At the next setup, one click resets all the connections needed for the appropriate machine tool.

Although the Knox software is excellent, it is also possible to customize control of the system with custom code.  Knox provides the protocol that enables users to write programs that can integrate the router with other pieces of equipment.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Two other considerations are noteworthy.  First, our specifications for robustness were completely met.  Second, one of the best features of the Knox system has been customer service.  During the implementation of the switch, we found two features of the software that functioned as advertised but were a bit unwieldy for our application.

After a brief conversation with the Knox service engineer we received one update on-line, and a second disk update within a week.

The Knox Chameleon router provides comparable features to those found in other, more expensive units.  It is simple to operate, and its flexibility makes it ideally suited for non-studio as well as studio applications.

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