Introduction
Sometimes you want to be able to show which Studio is OnAir, either via traditional electrically switched lamps, or via a modern digital signage solution such as Broadcast Radio SmartSign,
The great news is that Myriad Playout v5 makes this incredibly easy by it's tight integration with the Broadcast Radio Hardware Service, which is a free application that works with all Myriad v5 products to act as the interface to the "real world" for hardware logic connections.
Typically, you only need to install the HW Service once per site, as all workstations can then connect to that single HW Service and share its resources - for example, instead of having to have an expensive IO card in each studio, you can just have one central one in your technical area and share it's resources throughout your station or even across a wide area network.
You then use a "Virtual Network Device" in the HW Service as the interconnect between Playout and your external IP enabled product. If you need to use a physical logic card such as an Advantech Device to provide relay or closing contacts, then you can just add that instead of a Virtual Network Device. Inside Myriad Playout you just add a line that reflects the OnAir Status and thats the task completed.
Configuring the Hardware Service
Once the Broadcast Radio Hardware Service is installed, open th Hardware Configuration application and right click on Virtual network Devices to add in a Virtual Network Device device
We suggest also naming several of the lines to make it easier – i.e. Line 1 might be Studio 1 On Air, Line 2 might be Studio 2 On Air etc. and so on
To get the Virtual Network Device to then send a TCP or UDP message over to your external signage, you can either configure the device to connect TO the Hardware Service on a Listen Port (10000 in the example above), or for the HW Service to "Connect via TCP to:.. " your device instead.
SmartSign note: To use this with SmartSign, just leave the default option to "Listen on TCP Port : 10000" and then in SmartSign configuration you just tick to enable the connection in settings and enter the name or IP address of the computer running the HW Service.
Whenever any line on this Device turns on, you will get this message, ending with a CR (carriage return) character:
HWLINE {01} ON
And when it turns off you will get this ending with CR:
HWLINE {01} OFF
Useful Tip:
If you want to query the state of the Hardware Lines, just connect on the port specified above (port 10000) and send “HW?” follow by CR and that will send you a list of the current status of all lines.
Configuring Myriad Playout v5
In Myriad Playout v5, go into Hardware Settings and add a connection to the new device on your HW Service - this is assuming that the HW Service is running on the same PC so the word "localhost" can be used.
Click Ok, and Ok again, then re enter the Hardware Settings window, and add in a Line Assignment to follow On Air Status, and select Line Number 1:
Click OK twice – and you may need to restart Myriad for this to fully take effect.
Finished!
Now, whenever Studio 1 has OnAir Control, line 1 on that VGPIO device will go active which you can see in the Hardware Monitor Application.
You can do just the same in Studio 2, but for the last step, choose a different line.
Other options:
As you can see in the Hardware Line Assignment, there are dozens of other "status" options - i.e. Myriad Playout changes these to reflect some internal status e.g. whether a Favourite button has an assignment - or "control" options - where you can tell Myriad Playout to carry out an action - e.g. to play/pause etc. a Media Player.
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