VARIZOOM River User manual

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Quick Start Guide for River
Multi-Head Console
Thanks for purchasing the River system. This is a sophisticated motion controller with a
deep feature set, but if you’re using it primarily for switching between cameras, you
don’t need to delve into the more advanced features described in the full manual. This
guide will take you through the basic setup and operation for multi-camera production.
Setup warnings:
1 - When left unused for long periods, switch power on and allow the River console
warm up for 5 minutes before operating (not a big problem, but advisable).
2 - Do not plug all the heads and River console into a power strip or surge protector, as
these devices limit electrical current and this can cause the heads to underperform or
even stall. Plug directly into the wall or a non-limiting multiplug block.
3 - Make sure you have clearance when tilting the camera to avoid lens damage. If
necessary, set “Tilt Limits” or add an optional riser to the head to increase clearance.

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Set up the heads w/ cameras before connecting the green “Head Control” cables
between the head and console. The control ports are indicated with green rings, and on
the River console they are ordered 1-4 from left to right. (connector panel may differ)
The additional ports are for advanced optional equipment and can be ignored for now.
The gray ports are serial connections that can be used for firmware updates or
connection to various external devices. The white ports are analog inputs for external
zoom/focus grips or foot pedals. The BNC connector allows camera sync for frame-
accurate motion control. The black ports are for track control (track not available yet).
The blue ports are for pan bars or hand wheels, and the uncoded 6pin Fischer port
below the BNC is for bloop/sync.
Make sure the power switch is “Off” and connect the River power supply to the XLR
connector.
Power up the console by flipping the back panel switch “On.” Let the console warm up
for 5 minutes before operating. This will give you an opportunity to review Touchscreen
Key Settings (note “Axis” refers individually to Pan, Tilt, Zoom, etc). For now, ignore
anything not pointed out below:

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Head Selection:
Axis Setup:
Axis Enable:
Axis State:
Master Speed:
Head Selection
pushbuttons:
Head Selection: The light bubble above each touchscreen button 1-4 will be green if a
head is synced, red if not synced. You can also use the mechanical pushbuttons H1-H4
to change heads. Touch the onscreen buttons 1-4 to switch heads.
Axis Setup: Quickly access the setup screen for each individual axis to change speed,
smoothing and other parameters for only the selected axis. Touch the onscreen button.
Axis Enable: Green checkbox means the axis is enabled, while red checkbox means
the axis is disabled. On startup, the connected devices will be enabled by default
(green checkbox). Touch the onscreen button to enable/disable.
Axis State: The default state is “Ready,” and this is the desired state for live control of
the heads. The other available states are “Record” and “Playback” – you will not be
able to control the axis if it’s in “Playback” mode. For now, leave all axes in the
“Ready” state. Touch the onscreen button to change mode.
Master Speed: This is the global speed setting for all axes. You can change the
individual axis speeds under “Axis Setup,” but the Master Speed control will scale the
speeds of all axes up or down proportionally. Touch the onscreen button to adjust.

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Axis Setup Screen (note pushbuttons T1-T5 match onscreen tabs)
Direction Toggle:
Axis Speed:
Deadband
Adjust:
Smoothing:
Deceleration:
Position Limits:
Direction Toggle: This allows you to change the direction the axis moves in response
to the joystick. For example, if the head pans left when you move the joystick right,
simply hit this button to reverse the head response and it will change between +/-.
Axis Speed: This allows you to change the response speed of the selected axis without
changing the response speed of other axes.
Deadband Adjust: This affects the joystick response. The deadband is the joystick’s
electromechanical range around center where the axis does not respond. The higher
the deadband setting, the farther you need to move the joystick to make the axis
respond. This is useful for the pan/tilt joystick for separating out the pan and tilt motions;
with the right deadband setting you will find it easy to pan without accidentally tilting, or
vice versa.
Smoothing: Sometimes referred to as ramping, this setting affects how suddenly or
gradually the axis responds to joystick input. With a higher smoothing setting, the start
and stop action will be more gradual in acceleration/deceleration, resulting in smoother
response at the ends. A low smoothing number will result in instantaneous response.

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Deceleration: This affects how “softly” the position limits are approached. With a higher
number, the axis will begin to decelerate sooner as the position limit is approached. A
lower number means the axis will come to a stop more suddenly.
Position Limits: Also called soft limits, allowing you to restrict the axis’ range of motion.
Changing settings
For the numerically scaled settings (1-100), you merely touch the screen in the number
box and then use either the mechanical pushbutton keypad or the onscreen popup
keypad. Note that you will have to do this for each axis and head separately. The
settings of one head do not carry over to another, and the axis settings are all
independent.
The Position Limits can be set two ways.
1) The quick method is to use the mechanical “Limits”
pushbuttons adjacent to the joystick. Simply move
the head to the desired stop position in one
direction and then press the corresponding “Limits”
button, and you will see its LED turn red. Then
move the head in the other direction to the desired
stop position and press the other “Limits” button,
and you will see its LED turn red. As you move
between the limits the LEDs will be green and only
turn red when you hit the limits. To deactivate the
limits, simply press the buttons again and the
LED’s will turn off. (Note: when the LEDs are off,
no limits are set)
2) You can also set the limits in the Axis Setup menu. In this case, move the head
to each end and press “Set Limits” on the touchscreen. Here you can also
change the deceleration setting, which softens the ‘braking’ action when you run
into the limits.

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The same limits setup applies for focus (when
available on the lens in use):
Heads Menu
Head Power Toggle:
Head Orientation:
PTZ Sensitivity:
Comm Mode:
Lens Setup:
Head Power Toggle: Allows you to remotely power off the head, or if your head is
connected and powered but not responding, you can press this button to cycle power.
Head Orientation: This is simply used as a reference for positioning/direction. Pan is
reversed when you invert the head from overslung to underslung.
PTZ Sensitivity: ONLY use this if you are controlling a digital lens through the head.
Otherwise, always leave it set to zero. This setting progressively increases smoothness
and decreases speed of pan/tilt as you approach full telephoto, but it only works
properly on digital lenses with positional info. When in doubt, leave it at zero.
Comm Mode: Leave this set on “Two Way” and “Wired” at all times. As a
troubleshooting measure, if you’re having trouble with the head that can’t be resolved,
you can try changing to “One Way,” but it shouldn’t be necessary.

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Lens Setup: This is only necessary if you are controlling a servo lens through the head.
Analog Lens:
“Default” mode is for analog connection to Canon or Fujinon lenses and you have to
adjust the “Analog Voltages” to suit the lens being used.
To set up zoom, adjust the “Zoom Center”voltage until it stops zooming and then set
the “Low”and “High”voltages equally far apart so the lens zooms the same max speed
to wide and telephoto. “Zoom Mode”should be set to “Velocity.”
For “Focus,”adjust endpoint voltages until you can reach Near and Infinity focal points
on the lens.
Digital Lens:
The other “Digital Type” options are Canon, Fujinon and Preston, which do not require
“Analog Voltage” setup.
Moves Menu
Ignore this menu for now. See the full manual for instruction on recording and playback.

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System Menu
The only important item here is “Reset All.” Only use this if the system isn’t responding
properly and you’re unable to figure out what’s wrong. Note that it will change all of your
settings back to factory default.
“Calibrate Analog Inputs” shouldn’t be necessary, but if a joystick seems to respond
unevenly or is drifting, you can use this feature.
“Soft Pot Assignment” is merely a status readout of an advanced feature –nothing to
change here.
System Notes
Lens Setup:
Digital Type: _____________________________
Analog Voltage:
Zoom: Low _______ Center _______ High _______
Focus: Low _______ High _______
Axis Advanced Setup:
Pan and Tilt Scale Factors: ____________