When to use this guide

This guide covers two hands-on checks. Theator no longer raises separate alerts for them: a connected cable with no video is reported as a Cable Disconnected alert, and a room whose unit is missing or unplugged is reported as a Unit Offline alert. Use this guide when one of those alerts points to a dark video source or a missing unit, or when you spot either during a daily check.

• No Video Signal: The cable is connected but the unit is not receiving a video signal from the source.
• No Unit Present: A room that should have a theator unit does not have one physically present.

Impact

• Cases in the affected room are not being recorded.
• For "No Video Signal": the unit is connected and online, but cannot see any video — the issue is with the video source or cable signal.
• For "No Unit Present": there is no theator device in the room at all.

Step 1: Acknowledge the Alert

If you arrived here from a Cable Disconnected or Unit Offline incident, open it in the Incidents Dashboard and click Acknowledge.

Step 2: Check the Monitoring Pages

1. In the theator app, open System > Monitoring, select the Rooms tab, and switch to the By Unit view.

2. For No Video Signal:

   • The unit will show as connected (green)
   • The video input will show as connected but with no active signal
   • No frame preview will be displayed

3. For No Unit Present:

   • The room may show with no unit assigned
   • Or the assigned unit may show as offline

Step 3: Go to the Room

For No Video Signal:

1. Check the video source equipment:

   • Is the surgical tower / camera system powered on?
   • Is it outputting video? Check the tower's own display if available.
   • Is the correct output port being used?

2. Check the cable connections:

   • Re-seat the cable at both ends (unit and tower)
   • Try a different output port on the surgical tower if available
   • Try a different cable if you have a spare

3. Check cable type compatibility: Make sure the cable type (SDI/HDMI) matches both the unit input and tower output ports.

For No Unit Present:

1. Check if the unit was moved: Ask OR staff if the unit was relocated to another room.
2. Check storage areas: The unit may have been moved to storage during cleaning or room reconfiguration.
3. For roaming/mobile units: Check if the cart was wheeled to a different location.
4. If the unit is found, bring it back to the room, power it on, and connect it.

Step 4: Verify the Fix

1. Open System > Monitoring, select the Rooms tab, and switch to the By Unit view — confirm:

   • The unit shows as connected
   • Video inputs show as active with frame previews

2. If a case is scheduled soon, verify the room shows as ready in the By Room view of the Rooms tab.

Step 5: Resolve the Alert

If you found the problem during a daily check and there is no incident for it, there is nothing to resolve in the dashboard — the fix you confirmed in Step 4 completes the guide.

If you acknowledged an incident in Step 1:

1. Return to the Incidents Dashboard.

2. Click Resolve on the incident.

3. Add a note, for example:

   • "Surgical tower was powered off. Turned on and video signal restored."
   • "Wrong output port on tower. Switched to HDMI output 2."
   • "Unit was moved to OR 3 for cleaning. Brought back and reconnected."
   • "Replaced SDI cable — old cable had no signal."

When to Escalate

Escalate to theator support if:

• The surgical tower is on and outputting video, but the unit still shows no signal
• You've tried multiple cables and ports with no success
• The unit is missing and cannot be located
• You suspect a hardware issue with the unit's video input

When escalating, include: unit name, room name, video source equipment model (if known), cables/ports tried, and what you observed.

Related Articles

• Understanding Customer Ops Alerts — Overview of all alert types and how they work
• Getting Started with the Incidents Dashboard — How to use the dashboard to manage alerts
• Daily Monitoring Checklist — Quick daily routine for biomed technicians and Clinical Engineers