{"id":4086,"date":"2022-11-13T11:08:02","date_gmt":"2022-11-13T18:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.knightware.net\/?p=4086"},"modified":"2025-09-01T13:22:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T20:22:49","slug":"building-a-camera-tally-controller-for-spyder-in-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.knightware.net\/?p=4086","title":{"rendered":"Building a Camera Tally Controller for Spyder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A whole 7 years ago I published a blog post<\/a> and a couple YouTube videos showing a cool Tally (camera relay) system that anyone could make with a $35 Raspberry Pi device and $10 relay board. Back then this was running Windows on the Raspberry Pi 2 – a special stripped-down version of Windows called IoT Core that was designed to run on the Pi.

In seven years, a lot has changed. I started sprouting some gray hairs, Microsoft has all but abandoned Windows IoT Core on the Pi, .Net Core has become a mature way to deploy applications on Linux, and the Pi itself has had a powerful version 4 on the shelves for almost two years now. In this blog post, we’re going to modernize our prior approach and add some cool new features like a front panel display and a configuration\/monitoring web interface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Front View of Device<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Device with Top Off<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Back of Device (Open)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Features and Overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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  • Works with Spyder 200 \/ 300 \/ X20 \/ X80 hardware<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Works with every major release version of Spyder software<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Supports different servers and rules per individual tally<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Built-in web server for remote configuration and monitoring<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Front panel shows device IP and on\/off tally icons for quick viewing of status<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    If you have a Spyder video processor of any generation, this device will work as a tally controller. For those wondering what tallies are, imagine a live show where multiple cameras are pointed at talent on a stage. Lights are usually physically positioned on top of the cameras and light up when a camera is ‘live’ to help the talent know which camera they should be looking at. The tally controller described here contains relays (electronically controlled contact closures) which open and close when specific sources are shown or hidden in windows on Spyder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The video below walks through the device hardware and software, providing probably a better end-to-end overview than this blog post for those of us out there who prefer to consume video content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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