Configuring DTMF tag generation in the server output at the central station

The SL NEO servers allow you not only to receive (Setting up DTMF tags to control regional advertising)), but also to generate DTMF tags in the output of program audio signals and thus mark the beginning and end of regional blocks in the signals of the central station. Tags can be generated in any type of output signals - SDI+AE, AES, Analog Audio, DVB ASI/IP TS.

When the playlist is executed on the center side, certain playlist events (lines) may contain tokens that specify a mask, a sequence of any number of DTMF-acceptable characters (0123456789ABCD*#).

A label generation rule will read the mask from a certain column of the playlist string and generate a command to generate an audio sequence, according to the mask, a few milliseconds before the end of the clip that is labeled - for example, the header before the regional block (see figure). In the rule you can set the duration of tone parcels and the length of pauses between them, the audio level of the parcel on the dBFS scale and select audio channels for inserting labels.

The procedure of setting a new rule for generating the tags is performed from the web-server control panel: Administrator Control Panel→Manage→Program Outputs→Program_N→Actions→Playlist Events→Add action.

In the Action Configuration window we give the arbitrary name of the new rule in the Name field, and in the Layer field we select 1 (the main full-screen layer of the playlist, which controls the generation of labels).

The Delay field specifies the value of the delay from the start of the on-air event to the generation of the label in milliseconds. The same delay value we will use when generating the marker before the end of event and set the time interval from the beginning of marker to the end of event.

In the Address field we should specify the IP address of the server or leave it blank if we set localhost. In the Service field click the button… select the name of the service from the list. In our example, this is Playback Channel 1 (ProgramChannel_1 in the list).

In the Vairable field of the Action condition window, specify the playlist column that will be responsible for generating the marker. Let's set GPI1 Value as an example - we shall add DTMF mask to this column of the playlist in the line, which refers to the header before the advertising block. Trigger should be set to NOT EQUAL, Value field should be empty - the rule will work if GPI1 Value field in the playlist line is not empty.

In order to make the mark appear a certain time before the end of the broadcast event, select Trigger at end when primary matches. This item is available in SL NEO 1.6.50 and higher.

In the Action Parameters field in the Param1 button… value, in our example, it is GPI1 Value. In the Param2 field, select an audio channel to generate your marks (you will see a hint when you put the mouse cursor to an empty field).

Param 3 is responsible for the tone level in dBFS, Param 4 and 5 - for the duration of tone messages and pauses between them in milliseconds. After entering the values, press OK - the rule setup is finished.

To save the settings, click Apply Changes at the top of the server management console window. This will restart ProgramChannel service, the configuration of which has been changed.

If necessary, you can configure transmission of a series of labels before the start of the block (so called “preliminary”, “direct” and “direct” commands), using any fields from the Action Condition / Vairable list, in which you can write text: GPI1…8 Value, Keyer1…8 Value, Comment, etc.

GPI1…8 Value columns are preferred and convenient to use for the following reason: in Air Manager's Media Browser window, each clip has User 1…8 meta description fields. If you enter text in them, when you put a clip on the playlist, it will be transferred to the GPI1…8 Value playlist columns respectively. To avoid entering mask texts in playlist columns every time, it is enough to mark corresponding clips in the server database.

The rule for generating labels signaling the end of a block is configured in the same way.

Besides, in the mask itself you can pass information about the number of the block with regional advertisement that should be played and other service information.