The NEV Omega Bridge offered complete DMX control of the FFV Omega Deck line. Video loops were edited with the console encoders and stored as gobo presets. It was first used on May 15th 2001 and continued service through 2013.
The NEV3 Omega was the first DMX Bridge and my first adventure in serial control protocols. All of the logic and user interfaces were built with Max/MSP, and the custom DMX interface was developed by Milton Davis at Doug Fleenor Design, based on their DMX-Merge hardware. However, not all were in the DMX Bridge format. Custom controls for clients also included MIDI keyboards, the MotoMix, and the MCS-3 Jog/Shuttle device.
The FFV Omega Drive was state of the art, and being used by the NFL for instant replays at the time. Frame access was quick by any standard.
DMX Profile for: Hog2
With the NEV6, Omega control became decidedly DMX-controlled and added two new features. The new START parameter was introduced to work with the IN and OUT parameters. It’s basically an in-point offset, so you don’t have to start at the beginning of a loop. It also allows cuts from place to place within a loop. And, if you reduce the playback speed to zero, the START parameter can be used to scrub the video. The START offset loops within the loop, so you can never jump outside the IN and OUT points. The NEV6 also introduced loop-trimming functionality to the highlight button, which stopped playback and allowed you to compare the in and out points easily to fine-tune long loops (you can check the out-point without having to wait through the whole loop).
DMX Profile for: Hog2, GrandMA1
The NEV7 Omega Bridge introduced the “Frame Engine” with various frame re-ordering effects. Instead of allowing the Omega Deck to play through, the Frame Engine takes over the frame ordering. The frame modes are End-Stop, Loop, Bounce, Mulch, Shuffle, Wander, and Scrub. The new parameter FRAMERATE determines how often these seek messages are sent to the deck. SPEED and FRAMERATE are independent parameters; SPEED is the transport speed of the loop and FRAMERATE is how often the current frame us updated.
DMX profile for: GrandMA1
001 ELEMENT
002 IN(fine)
003 IN(coarse)
004 START(fine)
005 START(coarse)
006 OUT(fine)
007 OUT(coarse)
008 SPEED
009 DIRECTION
010 MODE
011 FRAMERATE
012 CONTROL
The NEV8 Omega Bridge is an exact clone of the NEV7 Omega Bridge on the embedded NEV8 platform. DMX addresses are set with the buttons and LCD display. The LCD also shows you the loop parameters live and you can view the index of video elements from the Omega Drive. Color LEDs on the front panel show loop status: cyan=empty, green=video, red=zero_length.
DMX Profile for: GrandMA2
001 ELEMENT
002 IN(fine)
003 IN(coarse)
004 START(fine)
005 START(coarse)
006 OUT(fine)
007 OUT(coarse)
008 SPEED
009 DIRECTION
010 MODE
011 FRAMERATE
012 CONTROL