iControl—and Grass Valley products in general—use a lookup service to get information on remote programs or machines, and use that information to establish communications. In this way, cards, frames and other devices can make their presence known on an iControl network, and thus can participate in monitoring and control operations.

By default, each Application Server runs a lookup service that registers and makes available information about the devices on its network. It will also register with all lookup services that are running on other Application Servers on the same LAN.

When client PCs are on different subnets, or when multiple Applications Servers are involved, the locations of lookup servers must be properly specified in order for operators to be able to (a) access iControl monitoring Web pages using iC Web, and (b) use iC Navigator to view iControl alarms and control panels.

On the iControl Lookup locations page, there are two areas representing two distinct lookup tables.