Connections and bindings in Control4

Bindings tell Director how devices are physically and logically connected. Director uses them to route audio and video, decide which devices to power on, which inputs to select, and which device controls volume. Most "wrong input" or "no sound" problems are binding problems.

Connections view layout

Open Connections with Ctrl+2. The left pane is the project tree. Select a device and the top pane lists its connection points.

Control/AV tab:

• Top pane: the selected device's connections, grouped as Audio/Video Inputs, Audio/Video Outputs, Control Inputs, Control Outputs, and Room Control. Columns include Name, Type, Connection, Input/Output, and Connected To.
• Bottom pane: when you click a row in the top pane, this lists only compatible connection points on other devices (filtered by signal type).
• Filters at the bottom: room, connection status (All, Not Connected, Connected), and a text filter.

Network tab:

• IP Network: networked devices with their Address. Use Identify here.
• ZigBee Network: ZigBee devices and the mesh.

To make a binding, drag the row from the top pane onto the matching row in the bottom pane. To remove one, right-click the row > Disconnect (or select and delete).

Signal types: HDMI, analog, digital audio, speaker

A/V connections only bind to the same signal type. One device can list the same connection name several times, once per type. A receiver's "Output" might appear as HDMI, COMPONENT, COMPOSITE, MULTI_STEREO, and SPEAKER. Pick the row whose type matches the actual cable.

If the cable in the rack is HDMI but you bound COMPONENT, Director will still try to route, but the path math may not match reality. Bind what is actually installed.

Control connections: IR, serial, relay, contact, IP

Control connections carry commands, not media.

• IR: bind the device driver's IR input to an IR output port on the controller or an IR expander. One emitter per device, placed on its IR window. Some controller ports can run as IR or serial; set the port mode to match.
• Serial (RS-232): bind the driver's serial connection to a serial port. Match baud, parity, data bits, stop bits, and flow control to the device. Check whether the device needs a straight-through or null-modem cable and the right pinout for the port (many controller ports are 3.5 mm and need the matching adapter).
• Relay: dry contact closure for screens, lifts, gates, fireplaces, garage doors.
• Contact sensor: inputs from door contacts, motion sensors, doorbells, and dry-contact status outputs.
• IP: networked drivers use the Network tab, not the Control/AV tab. Identify the device or let SDDP fill the address.

A driver with several control methods (for example IR, serial, or IP) usually has a property to pick one. The connections it shows in Composer change with that property, so set it before binding.

Room endpoints: video, audio, and volume

Every room has Room Control endpoints. These tell Director where the room's picture and sound end up:

• Video End-Point: the display (TV or projector) the room watches on.
• Audio End-Point: the device the room listens through for Listen sources (AVR, amp zone, soundbar).
• Video's Audio End-Point: where audio goes while watching video, if different from the listen endpoint (for example, TV speakers for video but an amp zone for music).
• Volume endpoints: which device the room's volume buttons control for watch and for listen.

Most AV drivers have a Room Selection connection that binds to these room endpoints. Composer usually creates the room endpoint bindings automatically when you add a display, receiver, or amp to a room. Check before adding them by hand, or you will create duplicates.

Room endpoint bindings belong to the device's proxy (the part of the driver Composer shows as the TV, receiver, or switcher), not a separate hardware sub-item. If a driver shows both a device and a proxy, bind room endpoints from the proxy.

When more than one device in the path could control volume, endpoint priority decides which one the room uses. If volume goes to the wrong device, check which device holds the room's volume endpoint.

How Control4 AV path logic works

When a user selects a source in a room, Director:

1. Starts at the source's output binding.
2. Follows bindings through switchers, receivers, and matrices toward the room's video or audio endpoint.
3. Powers on each device in the path.
4. Sends input-select commands to each switching device (receiver input, matrix route, TV input).
5. Sets the room's volume device.

If no complete path exists from source to endpoint, the source will not appear in the room, or it appears but nothing switches. If there are two possible paths, Director picks one, and it may not be the one you expect. Keep one clean path per source per room.

Sources show up in Watch or Listen based on their type and their path. A source with only an audio path to the room shows under Listen. A source with a video path to the video endpoint shows under Watch.

Room Off powers down devices in the room's current path, subject to each room's settings and whether another room is still using a shared device. Shared sources (one cable box feeding several rooms through a matrix) stay on while any room is using them.

Receivers, AVR zones, and volume

A receiver driver usually exposes one output per zone (Main, Zone 2, Zone 3). Bind each zone's output to the room it serves. Bind the main zone's HDMI output to the TV's HDMI input for the theater.

For volume, the room uses whichever device holds its volume endpoint. In a theater that is the AVR's main zone. If the TV is in the path but the AVR is the volume device, the room's volume buttons go to the AVR.

Driver writers and advanced programmers: receiver proxy commands (volume, mute, surround) carry an output or zone identifier. The main zone is commonly identified as output 4000, Zone 2 as 4001, and so on. Room-level volume commands do not need the zone, because the room already knows its volume device. Some receiver drivers fail silently on a discrete volume command when the zone is missing, which shows up as "volume up and down work but the slider does nothing."

TV ARC or eARC returning audio to a soundbar or AVR: bind the TV's audio output (or HDMI ARC connection if the driver offers one) to the audio device's input so Director knows the sound path.

Matrix switchers and multi-zone audio

Matrix video switchers and matrix amps sit in the middle of many paths:

• Bind each source's output to a matrix input.
• Bind each matrix output to the display, or for amps, the zone output to the room.
• For multi-zone audio amps, bind the amp zone's room selection to the room's audio endpoint. Composer typically creates the related endpoint and volume bindings together.

Director sends the route command (input X to output Y) when a room selects a source. If the matrix driver uses a different numbering than the hardware labels, the routes will be off by one or mismatched. Check the driver's documentation for how its inputs and outputs map to the hardware.

Video-over-IP systems (encoders and decoders) work the same way logically: sources bind to encoders, decoders bind to displays. Put that traffic on its own VLAN with IGMP snooping and a querier.

Network bindings and identify

Network bindings live on the Network tab. A driver can have one or more network connections (for example a control port and a secondary port). Each shows an address once identified.

• SDDP devices identify automatically and follow DHCP address changes.
• Manually identified devices store an IP. If the device's address changes, the driver loses it. Use DHCP reservations.
• Some drivers take an IP Address property instead of using the Network tab. Those also break on address changes unless the driver re-discovers the device.
• ZigBee devices identify on the ZigBee Network sub-tab.

If a network device shows offline, check the Address column first. A blank address means it was never identified. An old address means it moved.

Common binding mistakes

• Wrong signal type: binding the receiver's COMPONENT output when the TV is on HDMI.
• Video-only binding with no audio: COMPOSITE or COMPONENT without a separate STEREO or digital audio binding, so watch sources have no sound.
• Duplicate room endpoints: adding endpoint bindings by hand after Composer already created them, so the room has two competing paths.
• Room endpoint bound from the wrong item: binding from a hardware sub-item instead of the driver's proxy.
• Two paths to the same room: a source wired both directly to the TV and through the AVR, so Director picks the wrong input.
• Wrong AVR zone: Zone 2 output bound to the main room.
• Missing IR or serial binding: the device is in the path but Director cannot control it, so it never turns on or changes input.
• Matrix inputs and outputs swapped or off by one.
• Changing a driver's control method property after binding, which removes or changes the connections.
• Volume endpoint on the TV when the customer listens through the AVR.

Checking a path end to end

When a source is wrong in a room:

1. Select the source in Connections and confirm its output is bound to the correct input.
2. Follow each hop to the display or amp, checking signal type at each step.
3. Select the room and confirm its Video End-Point, Audio End-Point, and volume endpoints point at the right devices.
4. Confirm every device in the path has a working control binding (IR, serial, or identified IP).
5. Refresh Navigators and test the source from the app.
6. Watch the devices: if power and input change but the picture is wrong, it is wiring or binding. If nothing happens, it is control.