Control a Monoprice Blackbird Switcher with Mira Connect

Posted March 17, 2019

Aveo Systems’ Mira Connect smart touchscreen appliance now offers control for the Monoprice Blackbird Pro 4K 4×4 matrix switcher for video management in cost-sensitive installations.

Mira Connect is the control system that is easy to set up and even easier to use. No costly programming is required. Now you can control all of the A/V equipment (including DSPs, video codecs, displays, projectors, and more) in your conference room with one intuitive touchscreen. You can also remotely manage your room from anywhere.

Using a Global Cache IP2SL (RS-232 to IP) device to connect to the RS-232 port on the Monoprice switcher, Mira Connect manages the source selections of the Monoprice video switcher. Users can easily change content sources routed to the four outputs of the Blackbird video switcher. They can also manually select sources from the switcher’s front panel buttons, and Mira Connect will automatically update to show the status of the system.

Getting Started

To get started, select your room in Mira Portal, our cloud-based management platform. Add a Monoprice Video Switcher from the equipment list, and choose the Blackbird 4K Pro 4×4 model.

Enter the IP address of the Global Cache IP2SL and navigate to the VIDEO INPUTS tab. Enable the desired video inputs, choose an icon, and enter labels and descriptions.

To use the different outputs from the video switcher, add one or more displays (or other equipment), and enable an input on the display (HDMI 1 on an LG display in this example). Choose ‘Use Sources Connected to Other Equipment…’. Select the Monoprice video switcher from the list and choose the desired switcher output (HDMI 2 in this example) from the video switcher that is connected to that display’s input.

Press ADD EQUIPMENT, and you’re done. The settings that you have selected in Mira Portal are instantaneously reflected on your Mira Connect touchscreen. Users can now select from the menus which video source input to view on their display.

Additional Resources

For step-by-step instructions on integrating Mira Connect with a Monoprice switcher, see Aveo Systems’ Monoprice Blackbird integration guide.

See our training videos for further set-up assistance.

For a list of displays supported by Mira Connect, see our equipment list.