Check Zones Panel

or Projection Zone identification, BEYOND uses names. A Name is a text string; each zone has its own name. Zone names are used in two places. The first place is in the Projection Zone List. The second place is within laser content (images, timeline track/events, effects, etc.). In all these places, BEYOND stores the zone name as a text “string”.

Imagine a situation where you load laser content and the content uses a projection zone name that does not currently exist in BEYOND. This is a typical situation and may appear in various places. For all big objects, like the workspace, BEYOND checks the laser content when it is loaded. But there is one more level of “protection”; BEYOND has a function that does a search of Projection zones by name. If this function is unable to find a projection zone during its search, it creates a warning notification; a blinking panel in the lower left hand portion of the BEYOND status bar area. BEYOND registers an unknown name and offers you options to solve this situation.

If you notice this panel is blinking, then in some place within BEYOND, laser content has been loaded that is being routed to a projection zone name that has not been defined.

If a projection zone name is not found, BEYOND will block the content from being displayed. Otherwise it could be dangerous. From your perspective, it might look like something is not working in BEYOND; for example you click on the cue and no output. Please pay attention to the status area for the blinking “Check zones” icon.

If your laser content uses an undefined projection zone name, you may modify the content, or add a new name to an existing Projection zone. The second way allows you keep the content without modification when it travels between BEYOND systems.

LD2000 and QuickShow both use fixed zone numbers and zone index/numbers for identification. This is a different model comparatively to BEYOND. When BEYOND loads content created in LD or QS, the zone index must be transformed to a name. BEYOND has a special table of names. This Table defines a correspondence between an index/number and a name.

BEYOND has 3 tables. The first is for LD2000 zone names, a second is for QuickShow zone names, and a third is a “default” table. BEYOND tries to recognize where the content was created, and then uses the corresponding table.

This Table is initialized by a default setting of the corresponding system. During the startup, BEYOND looks for installed LD and QS applications and creates the table according to corresponding applications’s current Projection zone settings. The tables can be adjusted in the Zone Explorer dialog window:

Pay attention for any <?> signs. It means that the zone name next to this sign indicates the zone does not exist in BEYOND. The table describes how you should transform the index to a name; it does not do the conversion. We recommend you check the settings and adjust them the best way you feel fits your configuration.

Projection Zones may have more than one name. BEYOND gives priority to the first name. The first name defines a projection zone object identifier. The first name will actually have priority in all places where BEYOND needs to use one zone name. The secondary names are used in a procedure that searches projection zones by name. BEYOND searches from top to bottom through the zones list, and uses the first and the secondary names. The secondary name can be helpful when you load content that uses undefined projection zone names. In this case you can add the name used in the laser content to one of the existing projection zones. Names can be controlled in the General tab of the Projection zones setting dialog: