Part C: Queuing and Command Buttons
| Site: | QSC |
| Course: | Q-SYS QuickStarts |
| Book: | Part C: Queuing and Command Buttons |
| Printed by: | Guest user |
| Date: | Tuesday, 3 December 2024, 9:22 AM |
Description
Lesson Description
Configure your Queuing system and assign customizable buttons on your Page Station.
Video Transcript
0:09
Welcome back – let’s start this section off by talking about Queuing.
0:14
You just learned that if two pages or messages are played at the same time,
0:18
the one with the higher Priority is played.
0:20
But what happens to the other lower-priority messages that get denied or even interrupted?
0:26
They’re placed into the Queuing system, and will be played the next time their destination Zones are available.
0:32
If there are multiple actions in the Queue already, they’ll be placed just behind any action that has equal
0:36
or higher priority. You can fine-tune the Queuing system back in the Global Settings tab.
0:42
The Queue Timeout setting determines how long an action will live in the Queue,
0:46
which by default is indefinitely, but could also be set between 1 minute and an hour.
0:52
The Cancel Delay will create a buffer between the time you send the command
0:56
and when it is sent, allowing you a short window to cancel if you so desire.
1:00
The default is none, but it could be set to 5, 10, or 15 seconds.
1:05
You can see that if I set it to 5 and then launch one of my commands from the Station,
1:10
then you have five seconds to hit cancel before it goes.
1:13
Oh wait! I didn’t want that! Clear! Ah- just in time. I didn’t want that one, I wanted the Right Ear.
1:19
I’ve got five more seconds to cancel, and once that timeout is complete, then you’ll hear your page.
1:24
Right Ear. Sounds good. I’m gonna put that back to zero.
1:28
The Retry Count allows you to set a number of times, none through four,
1:32
that an action will be requeued if it is consecutively interrupted.
1:36
Note that a page may reach its Queue Timeout before it achieves all of its retry attempts.
1:41
This one applies to priority levels that are allowed to Retry at all.
1:45
You can see next to each Priority level are a few check boxes:
1:49
and if Retry is checked then the action will be requeued.
1:53
Obviously this cannot apply to Live Pages.
1:56
Now the Archive checkbox will create an MP3 of live pages at this Priority level
2:01
and store them in the Page Archives folder on your Core.
2:04
Now you could listen to these pages if you go to the Audio Files tab,
2:08
and go to that folder, and play the message that you just created … This is a page.
2:14
… or by pressing the play button on the Event that was created here in the Event Log.
2:18
This is a page. Now if you would like your pages to be exported elsewhere,
2:22
you could enable the Archive Export option. Specify an FTP server and directory to export your pages to.
2:28
Be sure to input the User Name and password for that location if necessary.
2:32
Archives are not created for Messages, only Pages.
2:35
Finally, the Split box will allow a message or page to be split if it is being sent to multiple zones
2:41
of which some are available and some are not. If Split is checked, it will be played in the available zones,
2:47
and queued in the unavailable zones.
2:50
If Split is unchecked, then it will wait until all zones are available and then play in all of them simultaneously.
2:56
Now you may remember when we created a Page Command that there were a few Queuing options.
3:00
Now that we’ve discussed Queuing, let’s look at what those were.
3:03
Pages have three Queuing options – Live, Delayed, or Automatic.
3:09
A live page goes directly over the loudspeakers in real-time – if the zones are available.
3:16
A Delayed Page will be recorded,
3:18
and after you are finished it will either play or it will be queued if the zones are unavailable.
3:26
Automatic Mode combines these – if the zone is available then it will play in real-time,
3:31
but if the zone is not available then it will be recorded and delayed
3:37
Now let’s wrap up the Administrator section by looking at the Page Stations tab.
3:41
Here you’ll see a list of all your Page Stations, sortable by name and by priority.
3:46
If you double-click one you can edit its Settings.
3:48
You’ve seen already that this is where you can either select its Priority Level or Override options,
3:52
this is also where you configure its buttons.
3:55
In the Command Buttons tab, you can designate a command to be assigned
3:59
to each of the Page Station’s command buttons.
4:02
I’ll link Command Buttons A and B to the two commands that I’ve already created.
4:06
Hit OK and Update, and then you’ll see on the unit that these command buttons are now in Ready mode,
4:11
and you can select the Command button and hit the Start button. Right Ear.
4:15
Now by default, the most recently used command will stay selected,
4:19
but if you like you could set it to revert, either after a certain amount of time
4:23
or simply when it’s done executing, to either No Command or to Command Button A.
4:29
I’ll set it to No Command. You can also set the maximum page duration for a Live page,
4:33
between 30 and 240 seconds, or unlimited.
4:37
By the way, if you cycle the zero button on the Page Station,
4:40
you can view all the available coded commands in case you’ve forgotten them.
4:44
If you’re using a PS1600 with a keypad like I am, then you’ll have two more options
4:48
Keypad Commands and Security. Keypad Commands refer to
4:52
inputting a Command’s code with the numeric pad,
4:56
and you choose to limit the available commands that can be summoned at that Page Station.
5:00
In Security you can set whether or not a User must log on to gain access,
5:04
how long that User will be logged on before automatically being logged off,
5:09
and of course which Users are allowed to have access at all.
5:12
Alright, now you’ve seen all the options in the Administrator that apply to your Public Address system.
5:17
In the final section, we’ll head back to the Schematic
5:19
and open up some of the paging components. So come on back to the final section whenever you’re ready.
Tips and Definitions
Queue Timeout: Length of time a single Command can live in the Queuing system before being canceled
Cancel Delay: Legnth of time, after issuing a Command, that the message will be delayed
Retry Count: Number of times a page will be re-queued before the page is canceled
Enable Archive Export: Will export achived pages to a FTP server
LIVE page: Will be played immediately if the Zone is available
DELAYED page: Will be recorded and then played once the Zone becomes available
AUTOMATIC page: If the intended Zone is available, then the page will go out live. However, if the intended zone has pages and messages already in the queue, the page will be recorded and played when the zone becomes available