Occasionally I get asked, ‘Why does my snapshot recall correctly in switcher A, but not in switcher B?’  It’s often difficult to find an obvious answer, but I learned a few reasons over the last month.

The World Cup provided the uncommon challenge of 12 locations and multiple production teams. Every MVS operator required that they could save a setup or snapshot in one location, then recall it perfectly on another desk in another location. And it worked very well. But here are some situations where a snapshot may not recall correctly:

• Snapshots created on MVS 8000A or G will not recall correctly on MVS 7000X or 8000X. There is a software utility to translate G to X.
• Snapshots created in earlier versions of software may not recall correctly – for instance, version 12 software on a 7000X supports a maximum 6 M/Es, whilst earlier versions only supported 5 M/Es. As a result of the extra M/E6 signals, the crosspoint numbers in the main table have changed, so an old snapshot may recall incorrect sources.
• In multi-switcher environments, where several MVS switchers share the same router, a snapshot created on switcher 1 will not recall directly on switcher 2, and vice-versa. You can overcome this by changing the Unit ID associated with the snapshot.  Mail me if you need to do this, and I’ll explain how.  Thankfully it’s not a situation most operators come across!