Manage ZvBoxes Remotely

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Integrators and customers alike have the same question – “How can I be confident that my HD broadcast infrastructure is working, and how quickly can I get back on the air if something goes wrong?”.

We decided that since most of our customers are very capable design and integration firms, they would appreciate a ‘recipe’ so they could build a solution themselves. That also makes it easy to customize the solution to better fit the specific application.

Each ZvBox can be maintained by simply connecting it to a PC with a USB cable. As of release 2.5, it is now possible to simultaneously connect and manage multiple ZvBoxes with a single computer. That’s the main enabler for this capability. Click here for the latest version of ZvBox management tools.

Here is an example of a remote management system that we created for a football facility at a major midwestern university. They have 15 ZvBoxes at the facility.

Some additional notes about the components:

The PC – No need for anything special here. A rack-mounted PC can make for a cleaner installation, but these machines cost more than ‘regular’ PCs. Your choice.

USB Hubs – Selecting a HUB with 2.0 capability is better because it’s faster. Beyond that, there are no special requirements. ZvBoxes do not draw any power from the hub, so you won’t need to power the hub.

USB hubs come in many sizes and flavors. Here is a nice 7-port hub that’s pretty inexpensive. Here is a 12 port version that mounts on the rack rails. Oddly, there aren’t many examples of larger port counts. Hubs can be cascaded up to four layers, which is how you can get the total count where you need it. A single PC can have hundreds of ZvBoxes connected to it. As a rule of thumb, USB hubs cost roughly $7 per port.

Remote PC control software – there are many different versions of this. We use LogMeIn, primarily because the remote side is completely web-based and doesn’t require any software installation. That means you can get to the control computer from any machine that has internet access.

Other popular products are pcAnywhere, GoToMyPc, and VNC. Many of the choices are either inexpensive, or free.

Tuning in the ZV channel(s) – you’ll need a QAM tuner to connect to the PC. There are internal cards like this one, and external USB connected tuners like this one. In general, they let you tune to any channel on the cable using a simple software interface. It’s a great way to see what your ZvBoxes are broadcasting. Expect to pay roughly $100.

Keep in mind that you won’t be able to see the video in real-time remotely (there’s the usual lag and reduced frame rate due to processing and transmission). Tip: make sure that you connect your tuner to the cable at a point where all of the channels are already combined onto the coax.