Direct Optical mode - How to

[alandbush]

I am confused as to how the optical splitter works. Does the splitter separate left from right or are the phantoms themselves handling the sound processing to split for stereo?

Yes, it is confusing although the term splitter is correct, I think.

The audio signal is actually being duplicated but being split to two or more outputs, depending on the device.
Each output contains the original stereo signal and a Phantom is set to choose either left, right or mix.