A Coord project is structured into three levels: Sites, Zones, and Groups. This structure organizes the data and enables flexible calculations.
A Site is the topmost level and can contain multiple Zones. Each Zone can have several Groups.
Each level of this hierarchy offers unique tools for calculations and organization.
Frequencies, which represent physical wireless transmitters, are at the heart of the Coord project. These Frequencies are housed in Groups. Groups are nested in Zones, and Zones are nested in Sites.
When performing frequency calculations, a destination group must be selected. This ensures the calculation considers the correct combination of other frequencies in coordination with the chosen group.
Sites
A Site is an organizational and computational tool in a Coord project. It represents a Venue or Location where wireless devices will be used or simply "a unique RF environment". A Site has a Location/Address and time zone assigned. When a project includes multiple Sites, calculation interactions can be customized between them. The "duplicate site" feature allows for customizing what information will be copied from the current site to a new one.
Usage Examples:
- Multiple Venues: For an event with multiple venues (each with its unique RF environment) across a city, creating separate Sites helps manage different environments effectively. Calculations for each Site can be isolated, yet still remain under the larger project for collaboration.
- Venues with a Roving ENG Crew: During an event with multiple venues, an ENG crew will visit each venue using their own wireless devices. The ENG crew’s equipment can be created as their own “Site” with enabled frequency calculation interactions to all other Sites.
- Touring Performance: For a touring act that travels to many cities, a project can be created with the Location of the rehearsal studio or first tour stop. Frequencies can be calculated normally, and for each subsequent stop, the previous Site is duplicated.
- Venue Hosting Various Events: In a venue hosting different events throughout the year, a project is created with a Site that contains all zones, groups, calculated frequencies, etc. This serves as the Baseline Site. For each event, a new Site is created by duplicating the Baseline Site, with the copy options Active Broadcast Channels, Band Plans, Zone Interactions, and Scan Data selected.
Zones
A Zone is a sub-division within a Site, representing a physical space that may need different calculation parameters or to organize frequencies. Zones contain Groups that hold frequencies.
Zones within a project avoid direct hits from frequencies in other Zones by default. Intermodulation tests can be enabled and configured in the Zone Settings Dialog.
Usage Examples:
- Multi-room large event: For a large event with isolated happenings in different parts of a building, Zones can be created for each event space. This allows near events to consider all Intermodulation tests and channel spacing, and disables all interactions for far apart events.
- Large Event + Roving ENG crew: During a large event with an ENG crew visiting each Zone, a dedicated Zone for the crew can be created and all interactions to other Zones can be enabled. This ensures frequencies in this Zone won't interfere with all other frequencies in the venue.
- Large College Football Game: For a game requiring multiple frequencies for sideline comms, broadcast mics/IFB and ENG/press, different zones can be created. For example, the Near and Far sidelines can be different Zones, considering channel spacing but avoiding intermod interference.
- Festival: For a festival with many bands, separate Zones for each band keeps the coordination list clean and small. Each Zone can have multiple Groups (IEMs, Backline, Mics, etc.) for organization.
Groups
In a Coord project, Groups are the final organizational component as they hold individual frequencies. They are primarily used to differentiate various types of devices or users of groups of devices. Similar to Zones and Sites, Groups have additional organizational and calculation features built-in, making them a powerful tool in the project.
Usage Examples
- A Concert with one band: In a concert with a single band performing, Groups can be used to organize frequencies by device type and usage. For instances, Mics, Backline, and InEars can each form a Group.
- Contact info per Group: In a large conference where many ENG crews will be operating, a separate Group can be created for each crew. This allows entering contact information for the operator in case frequencies need to be changed.
- Time of Use (Experimental): In a multiple day event with several Zones and frequencies, and different sets of devices being used each day, the coordination can become unwieldy. Creating a separate site for each day and manually duplicating lots of information might be necessary.
- Time of Use Festival (Experimental): In a festival held in a very congested RF environment with multiple performers throughout the day, frequencies can be reused between performances to ensure clean frequencies for all performances, as most performers use similar equipment.
Band Plans
Band Plans help restrict frequency finding for a device to a specific bandwidth (start frequency and stop frequency). This process avoids interference caused by mics operating in the range of higher power IEM/IFB transmitters, even when the mic is capable of tuning to that range. It also restricts a device to a specific area of the spectrum to protect it from environmental noise or other issues.
The Protect feature of a Band Plan creates an exclusion for all other calculations that do not have the Band Plan selected. Candidates that fall within the protected band plan will not be used unless that Band Plan is selected.
Calculation
When calculating for frequencies with a Band Plan selected, Coord will only consider candidate frequencies within that Band Plan's Start and Stop frequency. When recalculating frequencies, the Band Plan which was used for that frequency's initial calculation will be used for the recalculation, keeping it contained to that Band Plan. Band Plans can be removed or a different one selected when recalculating a single frequency. When a Band Plan's Start or Stop is changed, these new values will be used during the recalculation process, but existing frequencies will not automatically be recalculated.