Patch Work: Studio Wiring

Patch Work shows which connector is plugged into which. Not as a list, but as a picture: devices with their real front and rear panels, cables running from socket to socket, and a rack where everything sits exactly where it sits in the case. THE CATALOGUE 313 devices from cameras to routers, with 128 connector types, 89 signal types and 506 true-to-scale connector panels. Every socket is where it really is on the device — redrawn, not guessed. Anything missing you add yourself; your own devices then behave like all the others. EVERY SOCKET KNOWS WHAT IT CAN DO Not just what it looks like: which signals it carries, in which direction, at what level and up to what data rate. An SDI output is not an SDI input, 12G is not 3G, and line is not mic. And the devices know what is wired inside them: which input can reach which output, where a router puts anything on anything, where a converter only works one way. That is why Patch Work can follow a signal instead of merely counting cables. SEE IT BEFORE YOU TRY IT That knowledge becomes 28 rules that answer while you drag: signal type, direction, level, data rate, cable length. Touch a connector and only the matching sockets stay bright, with one line saying what the connection would be — before you let go, not after. A cable that does not fit tells you why. RACK PLANNER 19 inch, rack units, front and rear. Sort devices in, turn individual cases around, add shelves, drawers and blanking panels. Cable lengths are estimated along the actual route — vertically inside a case, over the top between cases. SIGNAL PATH From source to destination, through routers, converters and distribution amplifiers. Including every branch. CABLES AND PACKING LIST What the setup needs, measured against what you have in stock. What is missing is listed underneath. ON PAPER Rack plan, patch list, cable requirements and device list as a PDF. The rack plan landscape on A4 or A3, the lists portrait, with page numbers and date. To take into the studio, where there is no screen. READ THE ROUTER LIVE If your setup contains a router, Patch Work reads what is currently switched and puts it next to your plan: "Gallery monitor is showing Camera 2" instead of "6 2". Plus three things that really happen in a studio — a camera on no output at all; a crosspoint with no cable in the plan; two cables on one socket. The app switches nothing. A single command goes out over the wire, a keep-alive with no effect. A planning tool that is wrong costs you a thought. A control tool that is wrong costs you a take. ON IPAD AND MAC One app for both, synced through iCloud. German and English. No account. No sign-up. No ads. No data collection. Your setups live in your own iCloud.