Contemporary Research ICW-IRC User Manual

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Contemporary Research Corporation 
 
15 
    
IR TV Controller
 
iC-Net Zones 
 
To simplify controlling groups of devices, iC-Net is divided into 16 zones of 255 devices. All the 
devices within each zone can be controlled simultaneously by sending a command to a single “virtual 
device number”.  
 
For example, noting the zone chart below, if we send a Power On command to device #256, any TV 
controller numbered between 257 and 511 will instantly turn on. If we send a Power Off command to 
device #4095, all devices in the system will turn off.  
 
This is an immensely powerful feature, because most systems can only address one device at time. So 
if you need to turn off all 50 TV in a zone, you would need to send 50 commands. In addition to the 
hassles of creating multiple commands, there would be a long delay between the first and last 
command. One command, instant response is easier.  
 
As we noted before, ABC Media Retrieval Systems reserve Zone 0 for devices used in the central 
control system, 1 -15 for iC-Net devices. This structure may be useful for your application, or you 
could use Zone 0 just like any other iC-Net zone.  
 
 
Zone 
First Device  Last Device
Virtual Device 
255 
257 
511 
256 
51
767 
512 
769 
1023 
768 
1025 
1279 
1024 
1281 
1535 
1280 
1537 
1791 
1536 
1793 
2047 
1792 
2049 
2303 
2048 
2305 
2559 
2304 
10 
2561 
2815 
2560 
11 
2817 
3071 
2816 
12 
3073 
3327 
3072 
13 
3329 
3583 
3328 
14 
3585 
3839 
3584 
15 
3841 
4000 
3840 
All Zones 
 
 
4095 
 
Tip:  You've probably figured out that you never want to assign a virtual device number to an 
actual device in the system. If you assigned #1536 to a device, all the TV controllers in Zone 
6 would respond every time you sent a command to that one device.