The GPI-100 encodes or decodes up to 8 GPIs as VANC packets. The GPI-100 enables GPIO triggers to be carried in the Vertical Ancillary VANC) data area of an SDI (SMPTE 259) or HD-SDI (SMPTE 292) video signal, in accordance with SMPTE 291 and other related standards. The GPI-100, as an encoder, reads GPIO inputs and inserts them into the VANC. As a decoder, it reads the VANC and applies the data to GPIO outputs. This allows GPIO enabled equipment to be triggered remotely through the video path. The GPI-100 provides a simple interface allowing the carriage of GPIO triggers as part of the video signal. For example:The card is set to act as an encoder or a decoder. This determines if the card will read and place the GPIOs into the VANC (encode) or read the VANC and assert the GPIOs (decode). GPIO triggers are logged both to the screen and to a log file. The log file can be transferred from the card to the PC. Entries in the log file are time stamped. The GPI-100 can be set to use an NTP time server, time code or its own internal clock as its time reference. One GPI-100 can insert trigger for many GPI-100s acting as receivers. There are eight GPIOs available and a receiver can act on all or some of them. As a member of the openGear family, the GPI-100 shares a common control interface, known as DashBoard, with a broad array of other products. Card configuration can be uploaded to a PC. This configuration can be used to reconfigure a card back to a known state or to quickly clone the card setup into other cards. To make configuration truly easy, the GPI-100 offers a complete user interface through the dashBoard control program. It also provides a Heads-Up Display on separate monitoring outputs; both analog video and SDI are available. When activated, card status and parameters can be viewed and adjusted using the card-mounted finger joystick and an easy to use menu system.