Configuring Emergency Screen (Alarm Clip)

Alarm Clip is Top Menu command in Air Manager for emergency switching to an “alarm” clip. By the Alarm Clip button in Air Manager Top-menu, the app inserts a new line containing a clip with an emergency sequence into the current playlist position and switches to this line. The line status changes to Hold and the “alarm” clip is played infinitely, with no automatic switching to the next event. Switching from the “alarm” clip is implemented by the Skip or GoTo command in Air Manager Top-menu.

Configuring Alarm Clip Function

Uploading the alarm media file to the server

Uploading the file to SL NEO server is implemented directly from Administrator Control Panel. Choose the Files item in the console menu, then click Upload File and select the file. The uploading procedure is simple copying media-files without any conversions. When a file is uploaded, it appears in the list at the Files page of the control panel.

The technology allows uploading files from any remote machine to the server, using a web-browser with no shared resources. Physical location of the uploaded file is the folder at the SL NEO server: C:\Program Files (x86)\SL NEO Media Platform\run\files. You can also copy a file to the folder by using Windows Explorer: after the end of copying, the file will appear in the list of the Files console menu.

Note that the alarm clip file will be played back from the server system disk, and not from the RAID-array. This circumstance imposes restrictions: you should use the minimal bitrate for the Alarm Clip file, as the system disk performance is wittingly lower than performance of the RAID-array (the recommended speed is not more than 20 Mbit/s).

Setting the file as Alarm-clip for the Program Channel service

The procedure is implemented from Administrator Control Panel. Select the Manage item from the console menu and find the Program Outputs tab. In the selected Program Channel service, open the Automation tab and select the Parameters item: choose the uploaded file from the list in the Alarm Clip field. To save settings, click Apply Changes at the top of the server control console. Herewith, the configured Program Channel will be reloaded, playback of the current channel will be stopped while reloading.

Alarm Clip with Clock

To use a clip with a clock as an alarm clip, first export the needed clip with the *.slg extension (a graphic composition from the server database) to the file folder, then upload it to the server and set as an Alarm-clip (see pt. 1 and 2). Note that the file is a text xml-description of a composition, therefore all initial media data should be present in the server database for correct playout. Also note that in case of breakdown of a RAID-array containing the media-base, the app will be unable to playback an alarm clip that refers to the materials from the database.

The solution is creating a graphic composition with a clock with no database participation, using media files placed in the system disk local folder. Save the composition file (*.slg) to the server folder C:\Program Files (x86)\SL NEO Media Platform\run\files, and set it as an alarm clip (see pt.2).