&
User’s Guide
Alcorn McBride Inc.
Document Revision 2.3
September 2005
Copyright 1996-2005 Alcorn McBride Inc. All rights reserved. Information Station and
the other product line names are trademarks of Alcorn McBride Inc. Windows is a
trademark of the Microsoft Corporation. Sony and Pioneer are trademarks of their
respective owners.
Every effort has been made to assure the accuracy of the information contained in this
manual, and the reliability of the hardware and software. Errors sometimes can go
undetected, however. If you find one, please bring it to our attention so that we can correct
it for others.
Alcorn McBride Inc. reserves the right to make changes to these products, without notice,
in order to improve their design or performance.
Applications described herein are for illustrative purposes only. Alcorn McBride Inc.
assumes no responsibility or liability for the use of any of these products, and makes no
representation or warranty that the use of these products for specific applications will be
suitable without further testing or modification.
Our equipment is not intended for use in applications where a malfunction can reasonably
be expected to result in personal injury or damage to equipment. Customers using or
selling Alcorn McBride Inc. products for use in such applications do so at their own risk,
and agree to fully indemnify Alcorn McBride Inc. for any damages resulting from such
improper use or sale.
Product Design:
Chris Harden, Jim Carstensen, Jeremy Scheinberg, Scott Harkless, Martin Chaney, and
Steve Alcorn.
Document Number 110-100974.00 Rev 2.2
Alcorn McBride Inc.
3300 S. Hiawassee, Suite 105
Orlando, Florida 32835
TEL: (407) 296-5800
FAX: (407) 296-5801
http://www.alcorn.com
info@alcorn.com
Contents
Welcome! ................................................................................ 1
Features ....................................................................................................................... 2
Technical Support......................................................................................................... 3
Getting Started ....................................................................... 5
Check the POWER Setting .......................................................................................... 5
Digital Media Manager.................................................................................................. 5
Live Control - AMITerm ................................................................................................ 6
Play a Factory File ........................................................................................................ 6
Make an MPEG File ..................................................................................................... 7
Make a WMVHD File .................................................................................................... 7
Load Videos.................................................................................................................. 7
Use FTP ....................................................................................................................... 8
Option 1: AMITerm .......................................................................................... 8
Option 2: DOS FTP ......................................................................................... 9
Duplicate IP Addresses ................................................................................. 12
Read the Manual! ....................................................................................................... 12
Front Panel ........................................................................... 13
IS ................................................................................................................................ 13
ISHD ........................................................................................................................... 13
Rear Panel............................................................................. 15
Power Connector........................................................................................................ 15
Composite Video Connector(IS only) ......................................................................... 15
S-Video (Y-C) Connector (IS only) ............................................................................. 15
RGB (VGA) Connector ............................................................................................... 15
DVI Connector (ISHD only)........................................................................................ 15
Audio Output............................................................................................................... 16
Ethernet Connector .................................................................................................... 16
RS-232 Connector...................................................................................................... 16
Networking............................................................................ 17
Connecting via Ethernet ............................................................................................. 17
Direct PC Connection .................................................................................... 17
LAN or the Internet Connection..................................................................... 19
Transferring Files........................................................................................................ 20
Transferring Files using FTP ......................................................................... 20
Update Operating System .......................................................................................... 21
File Names.............................................................................23
Test Files.....................................................................................................................24
Making Videos.......................................................................27
Making an WMVHD File..............................................................................................27
What Is An MPG File? ................................................................................................27
How Do I Make an MPG File?.....................................................................................27
The MPEG-2 Program Stream ......................................................................29
What is a Variable Bitrate? ............................................................................29
Audio Files ............................................................................31
Types .............................................................................................................31
Images ...................................................................................33
Size ................................................................................................................33
Transparency .................................................................................................34
Banners .................................................................................35
File Format / Tutorial...................................................................................................35
Browser Files – URLs and Flash .........................................37
Special Considerations: ..............................................................................................37
Time-Sensitivity in Playlists............................................................................37
Control Limitations .........................................................................................37
Flexibility of the Browser Commands.............................................................38
How Files are Displayed ................................................................................38
Screen Layouts in Manual Mode (ISHD Only) .....................39
Command Summary .............................................................40
Error Codes.................................................................................................................45
Serial Control – RS-232 ........................................................47
Ethernet Control....................................................................49
Hardware and Software Requirements.......................................................................49
AMINet Protocol..........................................................................................................49
Control Message Format ............................................................................................50
Control Message Checksum.......................................................................................50
UDP Message Layer...................................................................................................51
Control Message Response........................................................................................51
Playlists................................................................................. 53
Digital Media Manager................................................................................................ 53
Playlist Engines .......................................................................................................... 56
Auto Execution ........................................................................................................... 56
Extra Commands........................................................................................................ 56
Example Playlist ......................................................................................................... 57
Logging....................................................................................................................... 57
Schedules ............................................................................. 59
Digital Media Manager................................................................................................ 59
File Format / Tutorial .................................................................................................. 64
Basic Command Structure ............................................................................ 64
Fields in Detail ............................................................................................... 67
Restrictions.................................................................................................... 71
Comments & Whitespace.............................................................................. 71
Order of Operations....................................................................................... 72
Coincident Events.......................................................................................... 72
Uploading New Schedules ............................................................................ 74
Logging....................................................................................................................... 75
INI File – is.ini ....................................................................... 77
Completion Acks .................................................................. 79
FTP Client ............................................................................. 80
Updates from CD, DVD, USB Drives ................................... 81
Drive Configuration and Update ................................................................................. 81
Specifications....................................................................... 83
Index...................................................................................... 85
Welcome!
Thank you for purchasing The Alcorn McBride Information Station. We have
tried to think of everything you need in a multi-media playback system that can
be used as anything from a simple video player to an advertising display
complete with dynamic update of video, watermarks, and text. Note this
manual refers to Information Station but also applies to the Information
Station HD, except where noted.
We hope you enjoy using it as much as we enjoyed designing it.
Welcome
Welcome! 1
Features
The Information Station offers a wide range of features including:
• Video type:
• The IS plays high resolution MPEG-2 Video. On S-video or Composite
or RGBHV
• The ISHD plays high resolution WMVHD on DVI or RGBHV
• Overlays images and text banners on video
• FTP Server
• Web Server
• UDP Control
• Serial (RS232) Control
• Scheduler Control
• Playlist Control
• Soft Reboot
• Browser Control – Flash playback and URL browsing
• CD, USB, Compact Flash, file updates on bootup
If you have an earlier version of the OS, you may need to upgrade your unit
before you can use new features. To get the latest Information Station operating
system, go to http://alcorn.com/products/informationstation/osupdate.html
or to http://alcorn.com/products/informationstationhd/osupdate.html.
2 Welcome!
Welcome
Technical Support
You can obtain information about specifying, installing, configuring, updating and
programming your Alcorn McBride Information Station from several sources in the
table below.
For… Contact… When?…
Telephone Support
Fax Support
Knowledge Base
e-mail Support
Software/Firmware
Updates
(407) 296-5800 M-F 9am–6pm (EST)
(407) 296-5801 M-F 9am-6pm (EST)
http://www.alcorn.com/kb Any Time
support@alcorn.com Any Time
http://www.alcorn.com/support Any Time
Welcome! 3
4 Welcome!
Getting Started
Check the POWER Setting
Don’t plug in your unit until you have verified it is set for your region of the
world’s standard power setting. US and Canada – 120V, Europe and Australia
240V. There’s a red slide switch on the rear of the unit that determines this
setting.
Digital Media Manager
Front
Panel
We have made available for the IS and ISHD a powerful GUI application that
runs on Windows XP called Digital Media Manager. It integrates AMITerm
described below as well as many other features, like FTP, Status Checking, File
Synchronization, and more. If you are controlling many players, or would
prefer a simple to use interface for controlling your single player, download a
free demo at http://www.alcorn.com/support/software.html. Look for
“Digital Media Manager” in the software list.
If you have downloaded the demo, click on “Live!” in the left column to send
instant commands as shown with AMITerm below.
Getting Started 5
Live Control - AMITerm
AMITerm is a standalone GUI for controlling the IS and ISHD serially and over
Ethernet. You can even browse to the Information Station’ s web server and
download a copy of the version shipped with the unit, or download the latest
version online at http://www.alcorn.com/support/software.html Look for AMI
Terminal
Play a Factory File
The Information Station boots up and plays a video, banner, and image via an
autoexec playlist. If you want to play your own file, the Information Station is
controllable via Ethernet and serial interfaces. Refer to the section labeled
Networking for details on setup for Ethernet control. Once you have verified
your connection, which you can do by pinging the default IP address, you now
have access to controlling the Information Station via commands in the
Command Summary section. Use AMITerm or DMM’s Live! interface to try
other functions of the Information Station as well.
If you want to write your own application instead of using AMITerm, we have an
application called UDP Tester to get you started. It is located on our FTP site at
ftp://ftp.alcorn.com/pub/software/udpsdk.zip The zip file contains the command
line program and example batch files that implement the commands listed in the
UDP control section discussed below. Once you have unzipped the file, use a
DOS command prompt to type the name of the batch file you want to run. For
6 Getting Started
example, to get the current firmware version, type “ version” and press “ Enter.”
The UDP Tester program sends a request to your Information Station and returns
the version string. Next, type “ 1se” and press “ Enter.” Then type “ pl” and press
“ Enter.” The Information Station arrives from the factory with a “video #1” on
it for your use. You have just searched and played it. If you connected your
NTSC or PAL monitor and speakers to the Information Station, you should be
seeing and hearing the video now. See the Ethernet Control section for a list of
commands.
Front
Panel
Make an MPEG File
MPEG2 video is pretty complicated. If you’ ve never encoded it before, we
recommend hiring an encoding house to do it. You can buy your own encoding
system, but don’ t be cheap. The last thing you want is to find out the encoding
system you purchased has a bug that causes the video to glitch, audio to drift,
pixelation, etc… The encoding house uses their equipment to optimize the
parameters and filtering of your video to achieve the best possible result. If you
want to make your own, our customers have had positive results with the LSX
MPEG Encoder by Ligos and Optibase’ s hardware-based encoder. Darim’ s
DVMPEG is a good encoding solution along with PixelTools’ Multiplexer.
There is a section below this introduction describing production in more detail.
Make a WMVHD File
There are a variety of tools available to create WMVHD video. You can learn
more about it at http://www.wmvhd.com/
Load Videos
You can also use File Transfer Protocol (FTP). FTP is a way of copying files
over an Ethernet Cable (like the special red one that came with your Information
Station). Use AMITerm to launch an Internet Explorer browser in FTP mode. (
Or Digital Media Manager to handle FTP transfers seamlessly for you. See
its tutorials for details). Set the Target IP address to the Information Station’ s
IP address (192.168.0.254 unless you changed it), and press the FTP button.
Then select and copy your files while in Windows Explorer and paste them into
the VIDEOS folder of your FTP connection.
If you configured your computer for the web interface as listed in the
Networking section of this manual, you’ re already able to use the Information
Station’ s FTP interface. You can use any FTP program you like to talk to the
Information Station’ s FTP interface. We frequently use WS FTP (shareware),
Cute FTP (shareware), and even the DOS FTP (which comes on most PC’ s).
Getting Started 7
If you don’ t know how to use FTP programs to put the files on your Information
Station, there are plenty of tutorials on the web. Just visit your favorite search
engine and type in “ FTP tutorial” . Also see the Transferring Files section in
the manual. A basic guide to using DOS FTP follows.
Use FTP
First, connect an Ethernet cable from the IS to your network or a NULL Ethernet
cable directly from your IS to your PC. If you’ re not familiar with FTP, begin
by searching the Internet for an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Tutorial. (Digital
Media Manager handles FTP transfers seamlessly for you. See its tutorials
for details). You’ ll need to configure your Information Station and the TCP/IP
settings on your computer to use this guide. Please refer to the Networking
section of this manual. It’s a good rule of thumb to keep the demo clips on
your Information Station. You can rename them and then, if ever necessary,
use them later to debug potential problems in the field.
Option 1: AMITerm
First, configure the Ethernet settings on AMITerm. Select “ Ethernet” and press
“ Configure.”
Then type in Destination IP address. Press OK
If you press the “ FTP” button, AMITerm launches Internet Explorer with the
Destination IP address as the URL. You’ ll be asked to login. The default
username and password are admin and password. The same operation goes for
browsing to the Information Station. Just press the “ HTTP” button instead.
8 Getting Started
Front
Panel
Option 2: DOS FTP
DOS FTP usually comes on your PC, which is why we provide this guide. If
using the DOS FTP program doesn’ t work out for you, download from the
Internet an FTP program (like WS_FTP or Cute FTP). They handle all the
commands for you and provide an interface with more of a Windows feel to it.
Select Start\Run
Type command in Win98/ME
or cmd in WinXP/NT/2000.
Press Enter. A DOS prompt
will appear.
Getting Started 9
Change directories by typing cd
<directory where your videos
are>. Press Enter.
Type ftp 192.168.0.254. Press
Enter. (assuming your IP
address is still at the default
value)
(The following steps assume
the factory set username and
password.) Type admin. Press
Enter. If it doesn’ t ask you for
the username for longer than 30
seconds, something’ s probably
wrong. Recheck your TCP/IP
settings with in the Networking
Your Information Station
section.
Type password.. (It won’ t
show the password you’re
typing). Press Enter. It will say
you’ re not logged in for some
reason, or it will say you’re
accepted. Type help to see a
menu of commands.
10 Getting Started
To see what’ s on the
Information Station’ s drive,
type cd VIDEOS and press
Enter. Type ls. Press Enter.
Here you’ ll see the video files
that come with the unit from the
factory. Type cd .. and press
Enter.
Repeat this step to see what
files are in the BANNERS,
IMAGES, PLAYLISTS, and
Front
Panel
SCHEDULES directories.
Return to the VIDEOS
directory. To get a status
update during a file transfer,
type ha. Press Enter. With this
“ hash marks” option turned on,
FTP prints an update character
(the # symbol) to show you the
transfer is still in progress.
Type bin to make the FTP
connection a binary one. The
Information Station provides a
“ type set to binary” response.
To copy file 2 from the
Information Station to your
hard drive, type get
vid00002.mpg. Press Enter. (It
starts printing hash marks.)
When the FTP> prompt is
shown again, you know the
transfer is complete.
Now type !dir. Press Enter.
The file is now shown in your
PC’ s local directory. Notice
the file gets put in the directory
that you are currently in.
Getting Started 11
To copy playlist 0 to the
Information Station from your
hard drive, first change
directories to the PLAYLISTS
directory, then type put
ply00000.lst. Press Enter.
When the FTP> prompt is
shown again, you know the
transfer is complete. Type ls.
Press Enter. Playlist 0 is now
shown on the Information
Station’ s hard drive (not
shown—see above).
To exit DOS FTP, type quit.
Press Enter. To exit DOS, type
exit and press Enter. Take it
from here. Be careful, and
understand the commands that
you’ re using before doing
anything crazy.
Duplicate IP Addresses
If you use the same computer to talk to several Information Station’s straight
from the factory, you’ll need to do the following:
Each time you communicate over Ethernet with a different Information Station,
open a DOS window. Type arp -d 192.168.0.254 Press Enter. (This is
assuming the Information Station is set up to the default IP address). It clears
away old IP address relationships that can cause problems like delays while
connecting when using FTP, web browsers, etc… Once you change your IP
Addresses for the Information Station’ s, you won’ t have to do this anymore.
Read the Manual!
Read the rest of this manual. Information like how to name your files, the power
of playlists, serial control, etc… are all right at your fingertips. The few minutes
you invest will save you hours of time. Enjoy!
12 Getting Started
Front Panel
IS
The Information Station provides a power switch in the bottom right. To
manually reboot the machine, hold in the oval-shaped power button until the unit
turns off. It should take several seconds at longest.
Front
Panel
ISHD
The Information Station HD provides two LED’ s on the front to let you know
when power is on and when the hard drive is being accessed.
Front Panel 13
14 Front Panel
Rear Panel
The Information Station rear panel provides connections for video and audio
outputs as well as an Ethernet jack and power cable connection.
Power Connector
Next to your power connector is a red switch. This supply needs to be manually
configured for 120/240V depending on your power requirements. Do not plug
this unit in until verifying the setting, or you could damage the product.
Composite Video Connector(IS only)
One RCA-type jack is provided. Connect your RCA cable here. This outputs an
interlaced signal. It is for use with NTSC/PAL monitors, RF modulators that
have termination, plasmas...
S-Video (Y-C) Connector (IS only)
One S-Video jack is provided. Connect your S-video (Y-C) cable here. This
outputs an interlaced signal. It is for use with NTSC/PAL monitors, RF
modulators that have termination, plasmas...
RGB (VGA) Connector
One 15pin female high-density jack is provided. Connect your RGB video cable
here. This outputs a progressive scan signal. It is for use with plasmas, PC
monitors, etc...
DVI Connector (ISHD only)
Networking
One Digital Video Interface (DVI) is provided. Some users connect this to their
plasmas via a DVI cable. This outputs a DVI video signal at a maximum
resolution of 1200x1600. It is for use with monitors that support unencrypted
DVI video signals.
Rear Panel 15
Audio Output
IS: One 8th inch stereo phono jack is provided. Connect your audio cable here.
ISHD: Three 8th inch stereo phono jacks are provided. Connect your three 8th
inch phono-to-RCA-jack adapter cables (included) to these. The audio jacks
come configured as being able to output up to 6 channel surround sound through
the three stereo pairs. They dynamically determine how many jacks you have
plugged in and output 2 or more channels accordingly. Please see the diagram
below.
Ethernet Connector
This RJ-45 connector provides connection for a standard 10/100 Base-T
Ethernet cable. This cable would normally be connected to a hub, but may also
be connected directly to a PC’ s Ethernet card using a null Ethernet, or “ cross-
connect” cable, or use a straight Ethernet cable to your router.
Ethernet is the primary mechanism for transfer of video data into the Information
Station, and may also be used for control and monitoring. The Information
Station is shipped with a factory default IP address of 192.168.0.254, which is
useful for transferring video across an Ethernet LAN, but must be changed if the
Information Station is to be connected to a router on the Internet. Refer to the
Networking section of this document for more information.
RS-232 Connector
This is a 9pin D-Sub connector. It follows standard RS-232 communications
(9600 8N1). Note this is an upstream device, so you may need a Null serial cable
to communicate with it from another upstream device like a PC or show
controller.
16 Rear Panel
Networking
The Ethernet connection is a useful tool for transferring video and other files to
and from the unit. It is also useful for transferring feature updates and
controlling and monitoring the Information Station. Ethernet is a physical
medium for transferring data. TCP/IP is used to transmit the data over the
Ethernet. TCP/IP is a common “ protocol” for transmitting data on local Ethernet
connections (Intranet) and also global connections (Internet). The Information
Station allows both. We will refer to the use of either an Intranet or the Internet
as the Network.
Connecting via Ethernet
The Information Station is shipped with a factory default IP address of
192.168.0.254, which is useful for transferring video across an Ethernet LAN,
but must be changed if the Information Station is to be connected to a router on
the Internet. This IP address represents the official test IP address.
The Information Station is configured with default TCP/IP settings. These
setting are the IP address, the login name, and the login password. These
settings need to be changed only if the unit is to be used on an Intranet or the
Internet. If you intend to use Ethernet only to transfer video files into the unit,
then the default settings will work just fine.
If you are connecting the Information Station to an existing Ethernet LAN
Intranet, then the Network System Administrator will need to provide you with a
unique IP address for the Information Station. If you are connecting the
Information Station to the Internet, then your Internet Service Provider (ISP) will
provide you with a unique IP address.
The default login username is admin, and the default login password is
password. The password should be changed if the Information Station is going
to remain on the Network.
Networking
Direct PC Connection
If you are not connecting to the Information Station from your Local Area
Network (LAN), the Internet, or an Ethernet hub, you should follow these
instructions:
Networking 17
1. Plug one end of a “ Null-Ethernet” cable into the Ethernet port on the rear of
the Information Station.
2. Plug the other end of the “ Null-Ethernet” cable into the Ethernet port on
your computer.
3. Using Windows 95, 98, NT, or XP, right-click on the Network
Neighborhood icon and select Properties. If you are not using Windows or
you do not have TCP/IP Networking installed on your computer, please
consult your computer’ s documentation for further instructions on Network
Configuration.
4. Double-click on the TCP/IP option. The “ TCP/IP Properties” window
should be displayed. Select the “ IP Address” tab.
5. Write down your current IP address and Subnet Mask settings and keep
them in a safe location.
6. Change your IP Address (In XP you can add an extra IP address by clicking
the advanced button.) to the value shown above (192.168.0.2). Change your
Subnet Mask to the value shown above (255.255.255.0).
7. Click the OK button twice to exit and save the changes to the Network
setup.
8. Your computer will require you to reboot to change the settings (not XP).
Click the Yes button to do so.
18 Networking
9. Once your computer has finished rebooting, launch a Web Browser
(Netscape, Internet Explorer, etc.).
10. In the address box, type “ http://” followed by the IP address of your
Information Station. If this is your first time connecting to your Information
Station, or you have not changed the IP address, the correct entry should be:
http://192.168.0.254
11. Upon hitting the Enter key on your keyboard, you should be presented with
the introductory web page from your Information Station.
12. When you are finished configuring your Information Station, follow steps 3-
8 to restore your computer’ s TCP/IP settings.
Note: If you are unable to connect to the Information Station over Ethernet after
following the above procedure, the problem may be a result of internal conflicts
in Windows TCP/IP settings. To avoid this Windows problem, right-click on the
Network Neighborhood icon and select Properties. Select each reference to
TCP/IP and click Properties. Write down the old settings and then delete all
references to TCP/IP by highlighting them individually and selecting Remove.
Then click Add, select Protocol and click Add. Select Microsoft on the left
side of the Select Network Protocol dialog. Now select TCP/IP from the right
side of the Select Network Protocol dialog and press OK. Windows will ask
you to insert the Windows installation disk(s) to complete the process. This
procedure will eliminate any conflicts with other TCP/IP entries in Windows.
You will need to perform the above procedure again to connect to the
Information Station.
Also, some laptops with both modem cards and Ethernet adapters may have
conflicts, resulting in an assignment of the IP address to the modem instead of
the Ethernet card. You can try temporarily disabling the modem card, but copy
your settings and do this at your own risk.
LAN or the Internet Connection
Note: This process can only be accomplished once you have already
connected to the Information Station directly and have changed the default
IP address to an address approved by your Network Administrator.
Networking
To connect to the Information Station over a LAN or the Internet:
Networking 19
1. Connect one end of a 10/100 Base-T Ethernet cable to the Ethernet
connector on the Information Station.
2. Connect the other end of the Ethernet cable to your network hub.
3. On your computer, launch a Web Browser (Netscape, Internet Explorer,
etc.).
4. In the address box, type “ http://” followed by the IP address of your
Information Station.
Upon hitting the Enter key on your keyboard, you will be presented with the
introductory web page from your Information Station.
Transferring Files
Transferring files onto your Information Station involves connecting to the
Information Station from your PC or Local Area Network using a network card
and the Ethernet port on the back of the Information Station.
Transferring Files using FTP
File Transfers to the Information Station can be accomplished by using a
common Internet/Unix file transfer utility called FTP (which stands for File
Transfer Protocol), such as WS_FTP. This program is freely available on most
computer platforms, just like a web browser.
To transfer a file to or from the Information Station, run FTP, selecting the
proper IP address, login name, and password. You should then be able to
connect to the Information Station, and transfer video files across the Network to
the Information Station. For help with FTP, please refer to the Getting Started
section at the beginning of this manual. Other helpful information can be found
in the section entitled Networking.
You will also be able to update the Information Station’ s Operating System by
transferring the file OS.NEW to the Information Station via FTP, and then
power-cycling the unit, as discussed in the section entitled Update Operating
System.
20 Networking
Update Operating System
Alcorn McBride periodically adds enhancements to its products. The Operating
System (OS) updates can be downloaded to your Information Station to add new
features if you wish. The Information Station retains two copies of its Operating
System: the Current version and the Previous version. This allows you to switch
between the versions if you wish to.
NOTE: There is no need to upgrade your operating system if your show is
already programmed, but installing the new operating system brings your
unit up to date with current production, and allows you to take advantage
of the latest features.
To Upgrade the Information Station Operating System:
1. Use a web browser to connect to the Alcorn McBride Information Station
support page and follow the links to the OS Update Page
(http://www.alcorn.com/support/Information Station).
2. Compare the Operating System version on the Alcorn McBride WebPages
to the version on the Information Station’ s internal WebPages.
3. If the version on the Alcorn McBride page is the same, there is no need to
download. If the version on the Alcorn McBride page is newer, click the
Download Now button. Save the file to a known location on your local
computer. DO NOT MAKE ANY CHANGES TO THE FILE NAME.
4. Once the file download has completed, use a File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
program (such as WS_FTP) to place the file (OS.NEW) in the root directory
of the Information Station. Do this in binary mode!
5. Once the file transfer has completed, quit the FTP program and power-cycle
the Information Station.
6. On power-up the Information Station will detect the new OS version and
perform a check to verify that it is valid.
7. If the new Operating System is determined to be valid, the Information
Station will then update use the new OS. Verify this through the UDP or
web interface.
Networking
Networking 21
22 Networking
File Names
All media file types can be searched by their file name, using the double quotes
notation discussed in the control section(s). You search banners and images in
the same way you search videos and playlists. If you want to search them by
number, use the following convention. File names are represented in simple
DOS 8.3 format – in other words, an eight-character name, a period, and then a
three-character extension. The name is typically made up of eight characters
specifying the type (VID for audio/video file, PLY for Playlist), and the number
of the file (5 digits from 00000 to 99999). The three-character extension is used
to tell the Information Station the data format of the file. Supported formats are
shown in the table below. Note all files except playlists can be autoexectued
with all zeroes 00000 in the number positions. Auto exec playlists are
explained in the Playlist section.
Prefix Extension Format
VID .MPG, WMV Video files
SND .MP3, WAV, .MID, .WMF Audio files
BAN .BAN, .TXT Text Banners
IMG .BMP Bitmap Images
PLY .LST Playlists
SCH .SCL, .TXT Schedules
BRO .SWF, .HTM, .HTML Browser files
FTP .CMD FTP Client scripts
Some example file names:
File Name Description
VID00001.MPG Clip number one. MPEG-2 Video with stereo Audio.
SND00002.MP3 Audio File Number 2
BAN00000.TXT Banner 0
IMG99999.BMP Bitmap 99999
File
Names
File Names 23
played.
Any type of file may
be stored in the
Information Station,
but only those listed
in the table may be
To avoid confusion,
don’t duplicate file
numbers.
Although any file may be copied from or to the internal drive in the
Information Station, only the above-described file formats and file
names may be played back. This allows archiving of ANY
information on the drive: CAD drawings, spreadsheets,
documentation, etc.
If you want to search files by the number convention discussed above,
remember the following. File numbers contained on a drive should be
unique, regardless of the file type. In other words, you shouldn’ t have
PLY00002.LST and VID00002.MPG on the same drive. You can,
but there is an order of precedence assigned:
1. Videos and Audios
2. Playlists
3. Images
4. Banners
So if you search file #2, the video will be used, not the playlist.
Test Files
When shipped the Information Station contains the following test files. We
recommend leaving these for troubleshooting in the field. Feel free to
rename them to get them out of the way.
VIDEOS Directory on the IS:
vid00001.mpg – NTSC 30 second National Geographic commercial (10Mbits/s)
vid00002.mpg – NTSC red, 2kHz tone
vid00003.mpg – NTSC green, 4kHz tone
vid00004.mpg – NTSC blue, 8kHz tone
vid00005.mpg – NTSC SMPTE color bars with 1 kHz tone
vid00006.mpg – NTSC Projector Registration Pattern
VIDEOS Directory on the ISHD:
vid00001.wmv – WMVHD video 1080p
factory1080.wmv – WMVHD video 1080p
magicflight1080.wmv – WMVHD video 1080p
Pachinko1080.wmv – WMVHD video 1080p
24 File Names
speed1080.wmv – WMVHD video 1080p
surroundTest.wmv – WMVHD video 1080p – good for testing Surround
Sound Wiring
AUDIO Directory:
snd00001.wav
snd00002.mp3
snd00003.wma
snd00004.mid
BANNERS Directory:
Text files you can search to practice using a banner on the Information Station.
Ban00001.txt (or .ban for later units)
Ban00002.txt (or .ban for later units)
Ban00003.txt (or .ban for later units)
Ban00004.txt (or .ban for later units)
IMAGES Directory:
File
Names
Bitmap images you can search to practice using a watermark or slide show on
the Information Station.
img00001.bmp
img00002.bmp
img00003.bmp
img00004.bmp
img00005.bmp
img00006.bmp
(There are more images on the ISHD with various file names, please look in the
ISHD’ s IMAGES directory for details)
PLAYLISTS Directory:
Playlist file listing example commands for the playlist engine
These are the autoexec files for playlist engine 1 and 2. To get playlist engine 2
to operate, rename ply00002.sav to ply00002.lst
ply00001.lst
ply00002.sav
SCHEDULES Directory:
File Names 25
Schedule file listing example commands for the scheduler in the Information
Station.
sch00001.txt (or .scl for later units)
WEB Directory:
Flash and HTML files demonstrating how the IS treats flash files.
bro00001.swf
bro00002.htm
26 File Names
. Since higher bit rates equate to better picture
Making Videos
Making an WMVHD File
Only the ISHD can play WMVHD files. WMVHD is a compressed video
format. There are a variety of tools and formats for encoding WMVHD. You
can learn more about it at http://www.wmvhd.com/
What Is An MPG File?
MPG is short for
MPEG, which
stands for Motion
Picture Experts
Group, the
organization that
codified the
audio/video
compression scheme
used in the
Information Station.
The Information Station plays MPG files that contain digital video
encoded in high-resolution by an algorithm known as “ MPEG-2” .
Many encoding systems produce MPG files, but not all MPG files may
be played on the Information Station. Many MPG files are designed
for playback in a small window on a PC, or for transfer over the
internet. These MPG files are generally of very low resolution at slow
frame rates.
The Information Station is designed to accept MPG files encoded at a
resolution of 704 or 720 x 480 (NTSC) and 704 or720 x 576 (PAL).
The Information Station can play MPG files encoded at bit rates up to
15.0 Megabits per second
quality, we encourage you to encode your video at the highest bit rate
supported.
How Do I Make an MPG File?
The most important step in creating video for your application is to perform the
highest quality MPEG encoding of your source material.
Encoding professional-quality MPEG material is more of an art than a science.
The person encoding the material must be experienced and the hardware wellchosen, so users deciding whether or not to encode their material themselves
should put a lot of thought into what would best suit their needs.
Videos
Making
Making Videos 27
The quality of
encoded video
depends upon the
quality of the source
video, the encoding
system used, and the
skill of the operator.
Although encoding your own video is very cost effective and surprisingly
straightforward, only an experienced individual can create the highest-quality
MPEG. Video material encoded without regard to bleeding colors and motion
artifacts will include them, so it is important for the user to decide whether these
elements are acceptable. A good alternative to hiring an on-staff MPEG expert
(or becoming one yourself) is to hire an experienced post-production house to
encode and format your video for you. All you have to do is to provide a Digital
Betacam or D-1 master and they do the rest!
28 Making Videos
The MPEG-2 Program Stream
The Information Station plays MPEG-2 Program Streams. This stream is a
Variable or Constant bitrate stream containing both audio and video. In order to
achieve playback of video only, you must encode an elementary stream of silent
audio that will be combined with your elementary video stream to create a
program stream. A program stream is not the same as a DVD VOB file. The
Information Station does not play VOB files.
What is a Variable Bitrate?
Unlike MPEG-1, which uses a constant bitrate, MPEG-2 also supports variable
bitrate program streams. This means that the encoding process scales the bitrate
up and down depending on quality needs. A scene with a tremendous amount of
movement requires more bits than a still scene.
Program Stream:
Mux Bit Rate: 15.0 Mbits/s max
The stream should be authored according to ISO 13818-1 Format
MPEG-2 Video:
Picture Format SIF-NTSC: 240 lines by 352
pixels
SIF-PAL: 288 lines by 352 pixels
HalfD1-NTSC: 480 lines by 352
pixels
HalfD1-PAL: 576 lines by 352
pixels
CCIR-NTSC: 480 lines by 704(or
720) pixels
CCIR-PAL: 576 lines by 704(or
720) pixels
Chroma Format 4:2:0
MPEG-1 Audio (Layer II):
Sample Rate: 44.1 KHz or 48KHz
Emphasis: Off
Mode: Stereo
Videos
Making
Making Videos 29
Audio Files
Types
Information Station can play MP3’ s, WAV’ s, MIDI files and WMA’ s (Windows
proprietary audio compression format). Choose which type(s) you like, record
them and copy them into the AUDIO folder. There is a separate audio channel
that can play simultaneously while video is playing. Its channel number is 2.
Search and play files according to the Ethernet Control section in order to use
this channel.
Files
Audio
Audio Files 31
32 Audio Files
Images
There is a separate image channel that you can use to search images while video
is playing. Its channel number is 3. Search and play files according to the
Ethernet Control section in order to use this channel.
Size
The supported image format is .BMP. Later versions of the firmware support
.JPG and .GIF. Create RGB 24bit bitmaps for best results. Be aware of this
when you are creating your images. Copy your images into the IMAGES folder.
¾For the IS:
To determine how big your images will appear on the screen, remember they are
sized 1 to 1 over an 800x600pixel window then scaled down to match the
window size of your video. So if the video is 720x480, and you create an 80
pixels tall x 60 pixels wide bitmap, it will cover one-tenth of the screen 800x600
screen. Then it gets scaled according to the diagram below, so you end up with a
72x48pixel image on the video screen. Use the formula to know how big your
image will be. If you are using PAL , substitute 720x480 with 720x576.
¾For the ISHD:
To determine how big your images will appear on the screen, remember they are
sized 1 to 1 over whatever resolution you have the monitor’ s output set at. If it
is 1920x1080 (default) you’ ll see the resolution relationship below. There is no
squeezing down on the ISHD, since it has a high enough resolution output. If
the image is larger than the window size, and the image is in CENTER
mode, it will be squeezed proportionally to fit on the screen.
Images
Images 33
Transparency
You can make your whole image 50% transparent, allowing some of the video to
shine through and creating an overlay effect. See the Command Summary
section for turning on and off this feature. (Note: at the time of the writing of this
version of the manual, this functionality varies in some versions of the firmware.
It either shows translucency as described above, transparent alpha channel
(255,255,255) or neither. Be sure to get the latest version for the most current
mode. Once this functionality has been solidified, new manuals will reflect the
determined functionality)
34 Images
Banners
There is a separate image channel that you can use to search banners while video
is playing. Its channel number is 4. Search and play files according to the
Ethernet Control section in order to use this channel. Information Station has a
special format for the banner files, much like INI files you’ll find on your PC.
They have fields you use to control how the banner looks, what it says, how fast
it scrolls, etc…
File Format / Tutorial
The Scheduler uses a text file loaded in the BANNERS folder of the Information
Station. The text file can be edited in a text editor, like notepad. The default
filename is ban00000.ban or ban00000.txt. A banner is composed of a list of
banner fields.
Here is a table of the fields for your reference:
Fields Value
[BANN
ER]
BT
BC
BF
BD
BL
BV
BM
BB
Must be at the top of the file to work!!!!
Banner Text – What the message will say. You don’ t need quotes,
but you can use them. If you currently have no message on the screen
and you don’ t have this field, the banner will be blank. If you just
want to change the format of the banner, leave this field out.
Banner Color – can either be one of the standard color names defined
in the UDP section like red, or orange (no quotes necessary) or can
be a hexadecimal value like 8982a7
See the Command List for values
Banner direction – see the Command Summary section for values
Banner Location - see the Command Summary section for values
Banner Velocity - see the Command Summary section for values
Banner Mute - see the Command Summary section for values
Banner Background - see the Command Summary section for values
Banners
BS
Banners 35
Banner Size - see the Command Summary for section values
All the fields above besides [BANNER] are not required. You change only the
ones you want to and the rest will stay the same as they were previously.
Example 1:
[BANNER]
BT=Use our easy examples to get started.
BC=8982a7
BF=Times New Roman
BD=RL
BL=B
BV=0
BM=0
BB=0
BS=24
Example 2:
[BANNER]
BT=Let’ s only change a couple of things here.
BC=RED
BF=Arial
BV=1
BB=1
BS=36
36 Banners
Browser Files – URLs and Flash
There is built-in browser support in the Information Station. You can direct the
video output to Flash files and HTML files that are resident on the Information
Station in the WEB folder. Or you can direct the browser to a URL, such as
www.alcorn.com, which can be useful when the URL is continually getting
updated with the latest and greatest information while the Information Station is
running canned video presentations. Additionally, if you wish to send a Flash
update to the unit rather than encoding a video, you can use a .swf file instead.
Remember to set your IP Address, Gateway, Subnet Mask, DNS1, and DNS2, if
you plan to use the browser over the Internet. See the master command list for
these.
Special Considerations:
Time-Sensitivity in Playlists
Unlike the video channel and the separate audio channel, the browser channel
does not know when flash files have completed playback. So you will need to
add an offset in any playlists you create that makes the playlist wait until a
timeout has occurred before continuing forward.
For example here’ s a playlist between a video and a flash file:
11PL, “ flashfile.swf”PL, AFTER[00:00:01:14] ,<
So, above the sequence of events is:
Play video 1 to completion
Play flashfile.swf for 1minute and 14 seconds
Start over
So, you have to be aware of the length of the flash movie in seconds to cause a
playlist to wait on it to finish.
Control Limitations
Also, the browser does not have control over stopping, stilling, pausing, volume
control, etc… over the flash playback. The browser really is for use to play or
browse to URL’ s and then switch to other browser files or back to videos.
Browser Files – URLs and Flash 37
Files
Browser
Flexibility of the Browser Commands
Since URL’ s can lead to .html, .htm, .asp, .com, .org, etc… they can be anyone
of way too many extensions for the Information Station to keep up with. If you
search any URL not on the Information Station, you must use the channel
number in the command. This tells the Information Station it is OK to pass the
URL along to the browser.
Example:
This is correct: “ http://www.alcorn.com”5PL
This is wrong: “ http://www.alcorn.com”PL
If you are searching .swf, .htm, and .html files located on the Information Station
in the WEB folder, then you can use the standard numbering convention or full
names in quotes as usual. There is an order of precedence here too:
Example:
15PL ; causes the Information Station to look for a bro00001.swf, then
bro00001.htm, then bro00001.html in that order.
How Files are Displayed
The current resolution is 800x600 for the IS and 1920x1080 for the ISHD, so
you can set your layouts to this size if preferred. This size is subject to change
without notice. Flash files are expanded to full screen. HTML files and web
URL’ s are shown full screen, as it operates like Internet Explorer in Kiosk mode.
You will need to implement a hide mouse command. In your HTML page’ s
JavaScript you can minimize interference with a crosshair mouse:
<style type="text/css">
<!-p {cursor: crosshair;}
-->
</style>
Or hide in your flash application’ s Action Script:
Mouse.hide().
38 Browser Files – URLs and Flash
Command
Screen Layouts in Manual Mode
(ISHD Only)
In Version 1.05 01/30/05 we added manual screen layout commands to allow you to map your video in
one location, your banner somewhere, your browser somewhere, and your image somewhere.
Imagine creating your own layout tailored to fit your message of the hour, and then changing the layout
again at the next moment to keep the presentation visually appealing. Here are a few example layouts,
but the limit of choices is up to your imagination.
Summary
This is a coordinate-based layout, so you can place and size the display window for each type of
screen element anyway you like. Just like all other commands, you can use these commands in
playlists, schedules, serially, or over Ethernet control. Most users will create a playlist of these
commands to layout their screen.
Here’s the format for setting the video window location: xxx*yyyXYVL
Here’s the format for setting the video window width and height: www*hhhWHVL
Notice XY is for location and WH is for the window’ s width and height.
VL is for video location,
IL is for image location,
BL is for banner location, and
OL is for the browser location
Screen Layouts in Manual Mode (ISHD Only) 39
Version
Examples:
3*5XYVL locates the video window’s top, left corner shifted three pixels to the right and 5 pixels
down. 300*400WHVL sets the width to 300 & height to 400. When all four values X,Y,W,H are zero,
the unit is back in the default, automatic mode, where the video window is full screen, the image is
rotating around the four corners of the screen, the banner is located along the top or bottom, and the
browser takes over the full screen when used.
You can also do Percentages.
Here’s the format for setting the video window location by percent: xxx%yyyXYVL
Here’s the format for setting the video window width and height by percent: www%hhhWHVL
For example:
10%10XYOL
25%100WHOL
Note the asterisk has changed to a percentage. In the above example, if your desktop screen width and
height was 800x600, your browser window would be located 8pixels to the left of the edge and 6 pixels
down from the top. It would be 200 pixels wide by 600 pixels tall.
Command Summary
The following table shows the complete Information Station control protocol. Using these
commands, an external controller or PC can accomplish extremely complex tasks. Throughout the
following table, <CR> means carriage return, a byte with the hexadecimal value of 0D. (The serial
interface uses carriage returns, but the other interfaces do not need them.) Brackets, like [ ], denote
optional message bytes. If you try a command that responds with an error, you may need to
upgrade your firmware form our website at www.alcorn.com. In the Table below, some
commands are channel specific. Use the following list for the specific channels:
Number Channel
1 Video/Audio & Playlist Engine 1
2 Independent Audio only & Playlist Engine 2
3 Image
4 Banner
5 Browser
6 FTP Client
9 Scheduler
Below, [<ID>@] refers to the optional ID byte (zero by default) that can be placed in front of each
command. This is usually left off.
Description Command Bytes Response Comments
Firmware Version [<ID>@]?V<CR>
Firmware Version Request
40 Command Summary
Command
string<CR>
Current File [<ID>@]c?C<CR> n<CR> c= channel n=file name
Current Status [<ID>@]?P<CR> n<CR> c= channel n=file name
Play [<ID>@]cPL<CR> R<CR> upon
receipt
Pause [<ID>@]cPA<CR> R<CR> Picture remains on screen.
Still [<ID>@]cST<CR> R<CR> Picture remains on screen
Stop [<ID>@]cRJ<CR> R<CR> Picture remains on screen
Search by file number [<ID>@]ncSE<CR>
[<ID>@]nncSE<CR>
[<ID>@]nnncSE<CR>
[<ID>@]nnnncSE<CR>
[<ID>@]nnnnncSE<CR>
Search by file name
Also supported:
PL, LP, PN, LN
Loop [<ID>@]cLP<CR> R<CR> Play and loop at end of file
PlayNext [<ID>@]ncPN<CR> R<CR> upon
LoopNext [<ID>@]ncLN<CR> R<CR> Automatically loops this file at
System Command [<ID>@]mSC<CR> R<CR> m= DOS command to execute
Access All [<ID>@]AA<CR> R<CR> Makes log files readable via
[<ID>@]”<filename>” SE <CR> R<CR> Searches by file name instead
R<CR> Only file number 0-99999
receipt
Automatically stops at end of
clip.
c= channel
c= channel
c= channel
c= channel
addressing is supported.
(not frames or time). ‘n’ is the
file number .
c= channel
of number (no channel
required)
c= channel
Automatically plays this file at
the end of current clip.
c= channel * not supported.
the end of current clip.
c= channel * not supported.
FTP.
Configuration
Set IP Address [<ID>@]nnn.nnn.nnn.nnnIP<CR> R<CR> n=IP address entries
Summary
Set Gateway
Address
Set Subnet Mask [<ID>@]nnn.nnn.nnn.nnnSM<R> nnn.nnn.nnn.nn
[<ID>@]nnn.nnn.nnn.nnnGW<R> nnn.nnn.nnn.nn
n<CR>
n=Gateway address entries
n= Subnet Mask entries
n<CR>
Set
DomainNameServer1
Set
DomainNameServer2
Set Password
Set Device ID [<ID>@]nID<CR>
[<ID>@]nnn.nnn.nnn.nnnD1<R> R<CR> n= DNS entries primary
address
[<ID>@]nnn.nnn.nnn.nnnD2<R> R<CR> n= DNS entries secondary
address
[<ID>@]mPW<CR> R<CR>
m= new password
R<CR> n=ASCII Device ID (‘0’-
[<ID>@]nnID<CR>
‘126’)
[<ID>@]nnnID<CR>
Set Time Zone [<ID>@]nID<CR> R<CR> n= number of hours behind
UTC (ex. Orlando is 5TZ)
Command Summary 41
Set Longitude [<ID>@]nLG<CR> R<CR> n= longitude
ex. 26LG, n26LG, -15LG,
s15LG
Set Latitude [<ID>@]nLA<CR> R<CR> n= latitude
ex. 26LA, w26LA, -15LA,
e15LA
Set Time [<ID>@]mTI<CR> R<CR> m=hh:mm:ssTI
(ex. 01:02:56TI) - military
time
Set Date [<ID>@]mDA<CR> R<CR> m=mm/dd/yyyy
(ex.12/12/2003DA) use
slashes, dashes or periods.
2-digit years are accepted
also.
Set Daylight Saving
Time Support On/Off
Set Daylight Saving
Time Type
[<ID>@]nSD<CR> R<CR> n= 1 use DST
n= 0 don’t use DST
[<ID>@]nnnDT<CR> R<CR> nnn = USA, UTC, or AUS
for now. Other DST's can
be added on request.
Set Scheduler
Bootup Delay
[<ID>@]nDB<CR> R<CR> n= number of seconds
before scheduler starts
after reboot
Set Scheduler
Activity Logging
[<ID>@]nSL<CR> R<CR> n= 1 update
schedulerlog.txt
n= 0 don’t write log
Get IP Address [<ID>@]IP<CR> IP String<CR>
Get Gateway
Address
Get Subnet Mask
Request
Get Username
[<ID>@]GW<CR> DefaultGateway
<CR>
[<ID>@]SM<CR> Subnet Mask
<CR>
[<ID>@]US<CR>
Username
<CR>
Get Device ID [<ID>@]ID<CR> ID String<CR>
Get Time Zone [<ID>@]TZ<CR> Timezone<CR>
Get Longitude [<ID>@]LG<CR> Longitude <CR>
Get Latitude [<ID>@]LA<CR> Latitude <CR>
Get Time [<ID>@]TI<CR> Time<CR>
Get Date [<ID>@]DA<CR> Date<CR>
Get DST support [<ID>@]SD<CR> n<CR> n= 1 using DST
n= 0 not using DST
Get DST Type [<ID>@]DT<CR> DST Type<CR> USA, UTC, or ASU
currently. Other DST's can
be added on request.
Get Scheduler
Bootup Delay
[<ID>@]DB<CR> n<CR> n= number of seconds
before scheduler starts
after a reboot
42 Command Summary
Command
Get Scheduler
Activity Logging
[<ID>@]SL<CR> n<CR> n= 1 updating
schedulerlog.txt
n= 0 not using log
Set Audio Mode
Decrease Volume
[<ID>@]mcAD<CR> R<CR>
[<ID>@]-cAD<CR> R<CR> Decrease volume by one
n=1 unmute
n= 0 mute
c= 1, 2
step
c=1,2
Increase Volume
[<ID>@]+cAD<CR> R<CR> Increase volume by one
step
c=1,2
[<ID>@]n%cAD<CR> R<CR> Set volume 0 to 100%
c=1,2
Left/Right Balance [<ID>@] nnnnnBcAD<CR> R<CR> nnnnn is millidecibels
10000=all audio on right,
0=Left and Right are equal,
-10000=all audio on left
c=1,2
Shift Balance Left [<ID>@]<cAD<CR> R<CR> Shift balance to left by one
increment c=1,2
Shift Balance Right [<ID>@>cAD<CR> R<CR> Shift balance to right by one
increment c=1,2
Menu Mode
Full Screen Mode
NTSC Video Mode
PAL Video Mode
MONITOR Video Mode
MONITOR PAL Video
Mode
Video Modes VD
Commands
Surround Sound On/Off
Soft Reboot [<ID>@]REBOOT<CR> Reboot the unit
Shutdown [<ID>@]SHUTDOWN<CR> Shutdown the unit (IS only)
Banner Specific
[<ID>@]SHOW_MENU<CR> R<CR>
[<ID>@]HIDE_MENU<CR> R<CR>
[<ID>@]NTSC<CR> R<CR>
[<ID>@]PAL<CR> R<CR>
[<ID>@]MONITOR<CR> R<CR>
[<ID>@]MONITOR_PAL<CR> R<CR>
[<ID>@]nVD<CR>
[<ID>@]nSU<CR>
R<CR> n=0 Mute Video
R<CR> (IS only)
Display debug menu
Hide debug menu
Output NTSC (IS only)
Output PAL (IS only)
Output to the RGBHV 800x600
for NTSC videos (IS only)
Output to the RGBHV 800x600
for PAL videos (IS only)
n=1 NTSC (IS only)
n=2 PAL (IS only)
n=3 MONITOR (IS only)
n=4 MONITOR_PAL (IS only)
n=7 SHOW MENU
n=8 HIDE MENU
n=0 Off
n=1 On
n=? Status
This feature exists ONLY on
units purchased with optional
S/P DIF output card
Summary
Command Summary 43
Banner Text [<ID>@]mBT<CR> R<CR> Set Banner Text. m=string to
send
m= string to display
Banner Direction Left [<ID>@]LBD<CR> R<CR> Set Banner Direction to left
Banner Direct. Right [<ID>@]RBD<CR> R<CR> Set Banner Direct. to right
Banner Position Top [<ID>@]TBL<CR> R<CR> Set Banner Position to top of
screen
Banner Position Bottom [<ID>@]BBL<CR> R<CR> Set Banner Position to bottom
of screen
Banner Velocity [<ID>@]nBV<CR> R<CR> Set Banner scrolling velocity.
n = 0,1,2,3
Banner Mute [<ID>@]nBM<CR> R<CR> n=0 Display Banner
n=1 Don’t Display Banner
Banner Color [<ID>@]nBC<CR> R<CR> n=RRGGBB hex string like
ffff00
n= “Red” - quotes for
predefined colors
Banner Background
On/Off
[<ID>@]nBB<CR> R<CR> n=0 Background Off
n=1 Background On
Banner Font [<ID>@]nBF<CR> R<CR> n= “Font Name” - quotes for
predefined fonts like “Arial”
Banner Size [<ID>@]nBS<CR> R<CR> Set Banner font size n = 5 to
150
Image Specific aka. Watermarks, Overlays
Image Position Top Left [<ID>@]TLIL<CR> R<CR> Place Image in top left corner
Image Position Top
[<ID>@]TRIL<CR> R<CR> Place Image in top right corner
Right
Image Position Bottom
Left
Image Position Bottom
Right
[<ID>@]BLIL<CR> R<CR> Place Image in bottom left
corner
[<ID>@]BRIL<CR> R<CR> Place Image in bottom right
corner
Image Position Center [<ID>@]CEIL<CR> R<CR> Place Image in center of
screen. Oversized images
resize to fit in screen for this
mode
Image Transparency [<ID>@]nIT<CR> R<CR> n=0 Transparency Off
n=1 Transparency On
Image Mute [<ID>@]nIM<CR> R<CR> n=0 Display Image
n=1 Don’t Display Image
Manual Screen Layout
Video Window XY
Position
[<ID>@]xxx*yyyXYVL<CR> R<CR> xxx= X coordinate of video
window from left of screen
yyy = Y coordinate of video
window from top of screen.
Image Window XY
[<ID>@]xxx*yyyXYIL<CR> R<CR> (see above) for Image window
Position
Banner Window XY
Position
Browser Window
XYPosition
[<ID>@]xxx*yyyXYBL<CR> R<CR> (see above) for Banner
window
[<ID>@]xxx*yyyXYOL<CR> R<CR> (see above) for Browser
window
44 Command Summary
Command
Video Window
Width/Height
Image Window
Wdth/Hght
Banner Window
Wdth/Hght
Browser Window
Wdth/Hght
Layouts by Screen
Percentage
Logging
Schedule Logging
On/Off
Playlist 1 Logging
On/Off
Playlist 2Logging
On/Off
[<ID>@]www*hhhXYVL<CR> R<CR> www= width of video window
[<ID>@]www*hhhXYIL<CR> R<CR> (see above) for Image window
[<ID>@]www*hhhXYBL<CR> R<CR> (see above) for Banner
[<ID>@]www*hhhXYOL<CR> R<CR> (see above) for Browser
[<ID>@]www%hhhXYVL<CR> R<CR> For all above Manual Screen
[<ID>@]nSL<CR> R<CR> n=0 Logging Off
[<ID>@]n1L<CR> R<CR> n=0 Logging Off
[<ID>@]n2L<CR> R<CR> n=0 Logging Off
hhh = height of video window
window
window
Commands, replace asterisk in
string with percentage to layout
screen in terms of 0 to 100
percent. xxx, yyy, www, and
hhh are put in terms of
percentage.
n=1 Logging On
n=1 Logging On
n=1 Logging On
Summary
Error Codes
The Information Station returns the following error codes:
Error Code Description
E00 Communication Error
E04 Feature Not Supported
E12 Search Error
E13 Internal Error
Command Summary 45
46
Command
Serial Control – RS-232
The unit may be controlled using serial RS-232 (9600 baud rate, 8 data bits, No
Parity, and 1 Stop bit -- 9600 8N1) messages via the 9-pin serial port located on
the back panel of the machine. The protocol is ASCII-based, and many
commands are similar on structure to Pioneer Disc protocol. Upper or lower case
characters can be used interchangeably in most cases. Please see the Command
Summary section for a table of commands. Note this section DOES require
the <CR> carriage return listed in the protocol summary. Note this is an
upstream device, so you may need a NULL serial cable to communicate with it
from another upstream device like a PC or show controller. If you are using to
control a downstream device, like a projector, you need a straight cable
Serial
Control
Summary
Serial Control – RS-232 47
Ethernet Control
Control up to
127 Information
Stations at once
over a standard
Ethernet
network!
Please see the Command Summary section for a table of commands.
Note this section does NOT require the <CR> carriage return listed in
the protocol summary. Now you can use a powerful subset of commands
from the Pioneer/AMI serial protocol to control multiple Information
Stations at once that are connected to a standard Ethernet network. By
sending UDP (User Datagram Protocol) packets across a network, you can
communicate with and control up to 127 Information Stations
simultaneously or independently.
A Software Developer’s Kit with C Source Code implementing this
protocol is available on our website at
ftp://ftp.alcorn.com/pub/software/udpsdk.zip
Hardware and Software
Requirements
Any Ethernet capable show controller or PC with a network interface card can
send messages to Information Stations located on the same network. To use
Ethernet control, your control source must have a way to broadcast UDP packets
containing arbitrary message bytes to a specific UDP port number (2638). Each
Information Station must be connected to the physical network via the RJ-45
Ethernet connector on the rear of the unit. All Information Stations must have
different IP Addresses to reside on the same Ethernet network. Each one must
also have a unique Unit ID, if you are using the broadcast IP address for UDP
control (255.255.255.255).
Control
Ethernet
AMINet Protocol
The user data sent in the UDP packet follows our AMINet Ethernet protocol.
AMINet was originally developed for use with our Ethernet Machine, which
provides an Ethernet backbone for communication between Alcorn McBride
Show Controllers and controlling our DVM2 family of video players. Now the
same, easy to use protocol, can be used to control the Information Station.
AMINet is a very flexible and robust Ethernet protocol that allows for many
different uses; however, only one of AMINet’s command op-codes is necessary
to transmit commands to the Information Station making the usage very simple.
Ethernet Control 49
Control Message Format
The control source will send a UDP packet that contains an Information Station
Control Message as the User Data in the packet. A UDP Control Message is
comprised of a few bytes needed specifically for AMINet and some Command
bytes. The Command simply needs to contain an Addressed Pioneer / AMI
protocol command. For example, An Information Station Control Message
containing the Command bytes 7@?V<CR> would cause the Information Station
on the network with Unit ID 7 to send back a UDP packet containing its version
information. Please see the Serial Command Summary section for detailed
information about the rest of the command set.
The basic format of an Information Station Control Message is as follows:
0xF1 0x01 0x04 <Pioneer / AMI Command> <Checksum> 0xF2
The only bytes that change from message to message are the Command bytes
and the Checksum. The command corresponds exactly to an Addressed Pioneer
/ AMI serial command.
Control Message Checksum
The Checksum is the summation of the hexadecimal value of all of the bytes in
the Control Message except the first byte (0xF1), the last byte (0xF2) and of
course the Checksum itself. The value of the checksum may easily increase to a
value that cannot be represented by one byte. This situation calls for what we
call number expansion.
If the value of the Checksum is between 0x00 and 0xF9 (0-249), the value is
represented in only 8 bits (1 byte). If the value is between 0xFA and 0xFFFF
(250-65535), the value is represented in 16 bits (2 bytes) and is preceded by
0xFF to signify the number has been expanded to 16 bits. If the value is between
0x10000 and 0xFFFFFF (65536-16777215), the value is represented in 24 bits
(3 bytes) and is preceded by 0xFE to signify the number has been expanded to
24 bits. The following example shows a Control Message with an expanded
Checksum.
0xF1 0x01 0x04 5 5 @ R J <CR> 0xFF 0x01 0x58 0xF2
The value of the checksum is calculated by adding the hexadecimal values of
each byte preceding it except the first byte (0xF1) as follows:
50 Ethernet Control
0x01 + 0x04 + 0x35 + 0x35 + 0x40 + 0x52 + 0x4A + 0x0D = 0x158.
The Checksum in this example is 0x158, but because it is greater than 0xF9, the
two byte Checksum is preceded by 0xFF.
Control
Ethernet
UDP Message Layer
The control source sends UDP Packets to the Information Station. A UDP
Packet contains information about the packet source (IP Address, Port number)
as well as definable user data. The user data contains the entire UDP Control
Message including all AMINet specific bytes. These packets should be sent to
the broadcast IP Address (255.255.255.255) or the unit’ s IP address (if you need
to control one particular unit a network of many) with UDP port number 2639.
Control Message Response
The Information Station will normally send back a response to each Control
Message it receives. The user data in these responses exactly match those in the
Pioneer / AMI Serial control command descriptions but will have the added
AMINet wrapper like a Control Message. For example, you’ ll receive an “ R”
contained in the AMINet wrapper when you send a “ PL” contained in the
AMINet wrapper. The responses are sent to the IP Address and UDP Port
number found in the UDP packet that contained the original Control Message.
As with the Addressable serial protocol, any Control Message sent to the
wildcard unit ID (127) will not receive any response. This practice avoids any
potential confusion at the source of the Control Message due to many responses
to the same message.
Ethernet Control 51
Playlists
Playlists provide a mechanism for the Information Station to automatically play a
collection of clips in a predefined sequence. Playlists often allow the unit to be
used to perform complex functions that would normally require an external
controller. Playlists can perform functions as simple as looping a single clip, or
as complex as user prompted pacing of the playback. Please see the Serial
Command Summary section for a table of commands. Note this section does
NOT require the <CR> carriage return listed in the protocol summary.
Playlists
Digital Media Manager
We have made available for the IS and ISHD a powerful GUI application that
runs on Windows XP called Digital Media Manager. It integrates Playlist
Builder described below as well as many other features, like FTP, Live control,
Status Checking, File Synchronization, and more. If you are controlling many
players, or would prefer a simple to use interface for controlling your single
player, download a free demo at
http://www.alcorn.com/support/software.html. Look for “ Digital Media
Manager” in the software list.
If you have downloaded the demo, click on PlaylistBuilder in the left column
and follow the tutorial below.
Playlists 53
¾Playlist Builder
Playlist Builder is a friendly GUI you can use to create your Playlists. Go to
http://www.alcorn.com/support/software.html to download a copy today! You
should also read the section below for a tutorial on how the engine works.
Here’ s how to operate the interface:
Select a Product Type:
On the main menu select: Insert, Command
Choose your command to insert in the Event Section. Note the drop down box is
tailored to your unit’ s commands
54 Playlists
The Parameters section tailors itself to the specific command’ s needs, instructing
you on what to enter in the available parameter fields. For this example, we
chose play by filename, so we entered a file name. Note we entered it in quotes,
as that is the way the command is normally used.
Playlists
Press OK, and you then see your entry in the playlist. Add more, and save.
Then FTP the file to your unit, and play it! There is a discussion on FTP in the
first part of this manual.
Playlists 55
Playlist Engines
Information Station has two built-in playlist engines. You search playlists like
you search media files. When you use an engine, you assign it to a media
channel. In particular, you can assign one playlist engine to the video channel
and one to the audio channel. Commands in the playlists can control all aspects
of the Information Station, though. For example, you could have one playlist
control audio, video, banners, and images. Or, if you are using the unit as both a
video server and an audio server, you could have one playlist control video,
images, and banners, while the other controls the independent audio channel.
Commands may be entered into the Playlist in either upper or lower case. All
text following a semicolon (;) is interpreted as comments, until the next carriage
return. You may put anything you want in comments, including the special
command characters normally used in the Playlist. Playlist files are stored in
the PLAYLISTS directory.
Auto Execution
To make the unit play a playlist on bootup, name your playlist one of the two
following names:
ply00001.lst The unit will assign this playlist to channel 1 on bootup
ply00002.lst The unit will assign this playlist to channel 2 on bootup
Extra Commands
Please see the Command Summary section for a table of commands. Note this
section does not require the <CR> carriage return listed in the protocol
summary. Below are additional commands available to the Playlist interface,
since it has some special functionality the other interfaces don’t have.
56 Playlists
Char Meaning
AND
AFTER[dd:hh:mm:ss]
All commands AND’ed together will be implemented in one group. The
playlist will go no further until all commands in this group have been
completed
Make the command immediately after this command wait the time
defined in the brackets before executing.
WAIT
Insert this to make the playlist wait on the current group until it has
received another play command.
<
LOOPPOINT
;
Delimiters
Repeat entire Playlist. The only way to stop the Playlist from looping is
to use the Stop command, or to start another file. Anything in the
Playlist after the ‘<’ character is ignored.
When you want to make a playlist loop using the ‘<’ command, but you
don’ t want the playlist to start all the way from the beginning of the file,
insert this command where you want the playlist to start from. Can be
useful when setting up some one time initialization in the playlist.
Comment - everything after the semicolon on that line is ignored
Commands (,), white space (spaces and tabs), carriage returns (and line
feeds) separate commands.
Example Playlist
The Playlist is a list of numbers representing the file numbers of video or audio
clips. The list can also contain special control codes or symbols to govern
playback. The list can be arranged all on the same line, as shown above, or
vertically as shown below.
;play multiple videos and update image and banner with each new video
"ban00001.ban"4PL AND "img00001.bmp"3PL AND "vid00001.mpg"1PL ;scene 1
"ban00002.ban"4PL AND "img00002.bmp "3PL AND "vid00002.mpg"1PL ;scene 2
"ban00003.txt"4PL AND "img00003.bmp "3PL AND "vid00003.mpg"1PL ;scene 3
"ban00004.txt"4PL AND "img00004.bmp "3PL AND "vid00004.mpg"1PL ;scene 4
"ban00005.txt"4PL AND "img00005.bmp "3PL AND "vid00005.mpg"1PL ;scene 5
<
Playlists
Logging
The logging engine creates a new log file each hour with the date and hour
stamped on the filename. Each entry inside has the minute and second stamp.
This approach allows all the time logging of every event in a playlist without
Playlists 57
creating a bulky file which burdens the CPU time and causing a disturbance in
playback.
Example of the filename:
playlistlog1_August_09_2004_03PM.txt
PlaylistLog1.txt and PlaylistLog2.txt will be kept in PLAYLISTS\LOGS
directory, if the INI file has the correct entries. They log the time and date of
events and once they reach a maximum file size (.25MB as of OS version .33) it
will trim off the first chunk of the playlist file that is larger than the maximum to
accommodate the last time being added.
¾Inside the log:
When commands are launched, the time stamp and the command are listed
When commands have a lifetime, like a video can last 2 minutes, but not an
image, which is instant, they also register a completion stamp. When commands
are completed, a ’C’ is placed after the time stamp and the command is listed.
Every night, the UNIT (not the engine) deletes the log files that are older than 28
days (4 weeks), so customers can wait up to 4 weeks before having to upload
their files.
See the INI File – is.ini section to turn this on.
58 Playlists
Schedules
Information Station has a down-to-the-minute scheduler based upon its internal
real time clock. According to the time of day and date of year, Information
Station can start a video, audio file, banner, image, etc… at 3pm on January 1st
2002, for example. This functionality is built into a feature called the
Scheduler.
Digital Media Manager
We have made available for the IS and ISHD a powerful GUI application that
runs on Windows XP called Digital Media Manager. It integrates Schedule
Builder described below as well as many other features, like FTP, Live control,
Status Checking, File Synchronization, and more. If you are controlling many
players, or would prefer a simple to use interface for controlling your single
player, download a free demo at
http://www.alcorn.com/support/software.html. Look for “ Digital Media
Manager” in the software list.
If you have downloaded the demo, click on ScheduleBuilder in the left column
and follow the tutorial below.
Scheduler
Schedules 59
¾Schedule Builder
Note as of January 2004, we have Schedule Builder, a friendly GUI you can use
to create your Schedules. Go to http://www.alcorn.com/support/software.html
to download a copy today! You should also read the section below for a
tutorial on how the engine works. Here’ s how to operate the interface:
Select File: New, and choose your product from the pop-up dialog box:
Create a New Event:
In the new event dialog box, set a start date and time by clicking the down
arrows on those controls:
60 Schedules
Scheduler
If you have an end date and time, do the same for those fields.
Choose the Event (the command) from the drop down menu. Here we have
selected PlayFilename:
Schedules 61
Type in 1 for the channel, and a filename in quotes, like “ vid00001.mpg” for this
example:
Type in 2 and select Minutes, so the unit will repeat this command every 2
minutes. Add a comment, if desired:
62 Schedules
Scheduler
Press OK, and here is the resulting event:
You can also select Edit:Edit Event to edit this entry with the dialog box or
manually edit the events yourself.
You can then save the schedule and test it with the built in tester. Select
File:Test Schedule. Press the Options button to set your simulation time. With
this dialog box, you can set simulation time, start date and time, what to do on
errors, etc… . Then press OK and press Run.
Schedules 63
File Format / Tutorial
The Scheduler uses a text files loaded from the SCHEDULES folder of the
Information Station. The text file can be edited in a text editor, like notepad.
The autoexec filename is sch00000.txt or sch00000.scl. You can search
schedules just like media files. Ex. 39pl searches sch00003.txt to the scheduler
channel.
A schedule is composed of a list of events. An event is some sort of action that
must happen at a given time, whether it is changing to a new video or changing
the font. All of the events you can use are listed in a table in the “ Events” section
below.
Basic Command Structure
Please see the Command Summary section for a table of commands. Note this
section does not require the <CR> carriage return listed in the protocol
summary. Simply include a command after the 1: field in your schedule file.
64 Schedules
E:COMMAND 1:<command here>
An event has a variety of parameters that can be applied to it, in order to
customize the Information Station’s control to your show. In order to understand
how you define an event in Information Station, let’s take this simplest example
and build it to the most feature-rich example.
Example 1: T:13:46 D:01/1/2000 E:COMMAND 1:"Hello, world!" BT
An event exists on one line. It is made up of several fields. Example 1 shows
the minimum number of fields you need to define an event, which are an Event, a
Start Time, and the required data field, and a Start Date. Each field begins with
a delimiter.
Scheduler
Delimite
r
T:
D:
I:
A:
E:
1:
2:
3:
4:
R:
P:
Here is a table of delimiters for your reference:
Field
Starting time (hh:mm) (military time)
Starting date (mm/dd/yy or mm/dd/yyyy . You can use periods,
slashes, or dashes to separate dates)
Ending time (hh:mm) (military time)
Ending date (mm/dd/yy or mm/dd/yyyy . You can use periods,
slashes, or dashes to separate dates)
Event – always set to COMMAND
The actual command you would use on any IS interface
(not used for Information Station)
(not used for Information Station)
(not used for Information Station)
Repeat Number: repeat after this number of periods has expired
Repeat Period: Time to wait between executions, used with Repeat
Number and Set when necessary
S:
;
Schedules 65
Repeat Set: special case usage described below
Although not a field, this marks a comment
Now that we have seen a table of the scheduler fields, let’ s look at the event in
Example 1. Here are its fields:
Start Time: 1:46pm in the afternoon (13:46 military)
Start Date: January 1st 2000.
Event: COMMAND event, this is ALWAYS set to COMMAND
Field 1, the string, defined as Hello, world!BT , which is the Banner Text
command, telling the unit to set its banner’s text to the string Hello World!.
Now let’ s finish up with the remaining fields
Example 2: (New fields are in bold. kept on one line for clarity.)
T:14:46 D:01/1/2000 R:30 P:minute A:1.3.00 I:3:00 E:COMMAND 1:"Hello, world!"BT ;Repeats a while
We’ ve now added:
Repeat Number: 30
Repeat Period: minute
Ending Time: 3am in the morning (3:00 military)
Ending Date: January 3rd 2000
The Repeat Number acts as a multiplier of the Repeat Period. They should
be read in conjunction like this: “Repeat this event every 30 minutes”.
You may have noticed a slight change in the times and strings used in the
examples above. The events used in Example1 and the final one in Example3
are used in an example file on Information Station that you can run with
Schedule Builder (discussed below) to see how these actually operate.
The only field not discussed yet is a set.
Example 3:
T:1:00 D:11-28-02 R:4 P:Thursday S:November E:COMMAND 1:"Happy Thanksgiving!"BT
66 Schedules
A set defines a certain range of valid repeat periods. In this example, only the
Thursdays in November are eligible for this event. When a set is used in an
event, the Repeat Number takes on a different meaning. Instead of being a
multiplier of the Repeat Period, it and the Repeat Period become an index of
the set. These three fields should be read in conjunction like this: “Repeat this
event every 4th Thursday in November.”
Fields in Detail
There is a summarized table in the File Format/Tutorial section that lists all the
fields for your reference. Since the Event, and event Parameter fields (E:, 1:,
2:, 3:, and 4: ) have been discussed in detail in the Events in Detail section,
we’ ll discuss the rest of the fields here.
¾T: Start Time
The Start Time is the hour and minute your event becomes active. For most
cases being active simply means, “gets executed” . You specify it in military
time 00:00 is midnight, 23:59, 11:59pm, is last minute of the day something can
be scheduled. You can specify the word BOOT as the field’ s value. This used
to make an event get executed upon every reboot after the start time and start day
have been reached. You can also specify sunrise or sunset. In order to take
advantage of sunrise/sunset calculations in the Information Station, you need to
determine you longitude, latitude, and time zone. These can be determined from
many websites by typing your zip code into a form. Simply do a search for
longitude latitude zip code in your favorite search engine like www.google.com
to find them out. Then enter them into the Geographic Settings in Information
Station’ s INI file is.ini. Information Station calculates the sunrise/sunset values
and replaces the start time with them.
Scheduler
Example:
T:13:30
T:Boot
T:Sunrise
T:Sunset
¾D: Start Date
The Start Date is the month, day, and year your event becomes active. For most
cases being active simply means gets executed. You specify it in a variety of
ways. You can use periods, slashes, or dashes to separate the fields of the dates.
Dates from the year 2000 to the year 2099 are supported. Leap years are
handled.
Schedules 67
Examples:
D:1.1.00
D:1/1/00
D:1-1-00
D:01.01.2001
D:01/01/2001
D:01-1-2001
¾I: End Time
The End Time is the hour and minute your event stops being active. See the T:
Start Time section for syntax.
Examples:
I:1:30
I:sunset
I: sunrise
¾A: End Date
The End Date is the month, day, and year your event stops being active. See the
D: Start Date section for syntax.
Examples:
D:1.1.00
D:1/1/00
D:1-1-00
D:01.01.2001
D:01/01/2001
D:01-1-2001
¾R: Repeat Number
The Repeat Number acts in one of two ways:
• With no Repeat Set field present.
• With a Repeat Set field present.
With no Repeat Set field present:
68 Schedules
This is the most common usage of the Repeat Number. It acts as a multiplier of
the Repeat Period. They should be read in conjunction like this: “Repeat this
event every <repeat number> <repeat period>”. Ex. “ Repeat this event every
30 minutes” .
The repeat number can be anywhere from 1 to over 4billion. You can specify
repeating a number of minutes, which is why this is so huge. Realistically
though, you would specify repeating in years, if it got that large. Whatever
combination you choose between Repeat Number and Repeat Period should not
multiply out to be greater than a century.
Example:
R:1 ;do it every period
R:117 ;do it every 117 periods
With a Repeat Set field present: The Repeat Number and the Repeat Period
become an index of the set. These three fields should be read in conjunction like
this: “Repeat this event every <repeat number> <repeat period> in <set>.”
Ex. “ Repeat this event every 4th Thursday in November.”
Although many customers may come up with other uses, we can use an example
of holidays to explain what using a set can do for you. Over the period of a year,
you may want to schedule events for some holidays. Unfortunately, not all
holidays land on the same date every year. By defining a set, along with the
repeat number and repeat period, you can choose the first Monday of the month,
or whatever you like. Sets can be specific months or general and periods can be
specific or general too.
Example:
R:2 P:Sunday S:May E:LP 1:"mothersday.mpg" ;Mother’s Day video
R:1 P:Day S:LP E:2 1:1 ;Tell unit to do audio show for day #1
R:1 P:Day S:LP E:2 1:2 ;Tell unit to do audio show for day #1
R:2 P:Day S:LP E:2 1:3 ;Tell unit to do audio show for day #2
R:3 P:Day S:LP E:2 1:4 ;Tell unit to do audio show for day #3
… .
Scheduler
¾P: Repeat Period
The Repeat Period defines how long to wait. It is multiplied or indexed
according to the presence of a Repeat Set field. (See the Repeat Set and Repeat
Number sections for details)
Schedules 69
Periods can be one of the following:
Sunrise, Sunset
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Minute
Hour
Day
Year
Boot
Notes: Month is not a valid period. If you want to make a monthly schedule, use
a combination of repeat number, period and set to do so. See the example in the
Repeat Number section for details. You can also specify sunrise or sunset. In
order to take advantage of sunrise/sunset calculations in the Information Station,
you need to determine you longitude, latitude, and time zone. These can be
determined online by typing your zip code into many websites. Simply do a
search for longitude latitude zip code in your favorite search engine like
www.google.com to find them out. Then enter them into the Geographic
Settings in Information Station’s INI file - is.ini. Information Station calculates
the sunrise/sunset values and replaces the start time with them, after the first
execution has taken place.
Examples:
R:sunday
R:year
R:sunset
¾I: Repeat Set
Using the Repeat Set field changes the way Repeat Number and Repeat Period
operate. Together they act as an index into the Repeat Set. Please read the
Repeat Number section above, for a detailed explanation of the different
behaviors they take on when the Repeat Set field is present.
In order to create a monthly schedule, you can specify the Repeat Set as month.
Sets can be one of the following:
Month
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October,
November, and December
70 Schedules
Examples:
R:5 P:day S:month ;repeat 5th day of every month
R:2 P:monday S:month ;repeat 2nd Monday of every month
R:4 P:Thursday S:November ;repeat 4th Thursday in November
Restrictions
Since the Scheduler is very flexible, it is easier to explain what you cannot do,
than to explain what you can.
1. When using BOOT as the Repeat Period, the Repeat Number can only be
one. The unit does not keep track of the number of times it has rebooted.
You can put in other numbers, but it will ignore them.
2. Whatever combination you choose between Repeat Number and Repeat
Period should not multiply out to be greater than a century. For example,
don’ t repeat an event every 102 years.
Scheduler
3. One event executes per minute. If you want more and you haven’ t already
purchased a small show controller, like the Alcorn McBride InterActivator,
then get one of these. It can increase the amount of events you can generate
from 1per minute to 30 per second * 60 seconds per minute = 1800 events
per minute!
Comments & Whitespace
Comments are prefixed with a semicolon (;). Anything found after a
semicolon is ignored by the scheduler. You can place a comment on its own
line, if you like. You can use spaces or tabs to organize your schedule. They
both are ignored.
Examples:
;This is a comment on its own line
T:1:00 D:1-1-01 E:SetVarEQ 1:2 2: 33 ;this is a comment too
Schedules 71
Order of Operations
Here is a listing of times when Information Station checks the schedule and the
operations afterwards.
1. Information Station loads the schedule from sch00000.txt (default) at:
a. Boot up
b. Every night at midnight.
1. Information Station gets today’ s date (or already knows it) from built in RTC.
2. Information Station parses the schedule and loads all of today’ s active events.
3. If it is a bootup that caused the schedule load, the Bootup event gets loaded.
4. If there has been a bootup delay set via the INI file is.ini, then the unit will
wait until that time has expired before starting. This allows Information
Station to wait on products that boot slower than it does before starting a
show. An example is a slow booting projector. Information Station has to wait
until it has booted before playing video.
Coincident Events
If you plan on having a fairly complicated show, you may want to be sure you
don’ t have events competing with each other for execution when their time and
date come around. This discussion looks at what happens when two events end
up on the same time and date. It explains the rules used to determine which
event wins.
¾Definitions
The following are previously undefined terms used in the Scheduler Rules
discussion below
• Timestamp - time portion of the event's starting point (T: and D: )
• Datestamp - date portion of the event's start point (T: and D: )
• Slot - the event's timestamp + datestamp
• Startslot - slot when the event begins (required)
• Endslot - slot when the event ends (not required)
• Profile - an event’ s startslot, endslot, type (defined below)
72 Schedules
• Double Occupancy - two events in the same slot
The following types of events exist in Information Station:
• One-shots -One time events with no repeat
• Loops - Repeating events
• Finites - loops that have an end time and end date
• Infinites - loops with no end time or end date
• Active Event - events with today’s datestamp that have been or will be
loaded into the queue
• Executable Event - events with the current timeslot
• Start Time Bootups - events with start time listed as BOOT
• Repeat Period Bootups- events with repeat period listed as BOOT
¾Scheduler Rules
Precedence: If two events occupy the same slot, this is the precedence:
1. StartTime Bootups take ultimate precedence during the bootup minute, and
are treated as normal events afterwards (if they repeat).
Scheduler
2. Repeating Bootups take second precedence during the bootup minute.
3. One-shots take precedence over Loops.
4. Finites take precedence over infinites during their period of execution.
Schedules 73
5. Finites started on a later slot will take precedence over earlier finites.
6. Infinites started on a later slot will take precedence over earlier infinites.
7. If two or more events with the same profile are scheduled for the same start
slot, the first one found in the file will be executed. This should only occur
as a mistake. Ex. Two one-shots, finite loops, or infinite loops are
programmed with the same startslot.
When Double Occupancy is Legal: There are times that two events can legally
occupy the same slot. These are expected to occur as:
• Overlaps - When two or more loops (finites or infinites) unintentionally line
up. Ex. A 3hour infinite and a weekly infinite will eventually overlap, if
programmed on same timestamp of the day, but not necessarily the same
datestamp.
• One-shot Overrides - one-shots that are intended to supersede a standard
finite or infinite show. Ex. A special holiday show at the regular show’s slot.
• Finite Overrides - Finites that are intended to supersede another finite or
infinite show. Ex. 1week finite that is placed in the middle of a 6month finite
to override the standard show for 1week, then go back to normal.
• Infinite Overrides (Replacements) - Infinite loops scheduled for the same
timestamp at a later date. Ex. Daily infinite for three months, another daily
infinite for the rest of the year. Although this probably should be
programmed as finites, a customer may program it as replacements.
Uploading New Schedules
You can FTP sch00000.txt to the Information Station, replacing your current
version. Information Station has the current schedule in memory. At midnight,
or after a fresh reboot, the new sch00000.txt will get loaded into memory. If you
want to cause an immediate update of your schedule, you can cause the
Information Station to reboot with a software command over an interface like the
74 Schedules
UDP interface, or by holding in the power button. You can also completely
automate this process by using the built in FTP Client. See the FTP Client
section for details.
Logging
Scheduler logging works exactly like playlist logging for later versions of the os,
except it logs its files in SCHEDULES\LOGS. See the playlist logging section
for a complete description.
Scheduler
Schedules 75
76 Schedules
INI File – is.ini
In the MEDIA folder (where you are located by default when you log in via FTP) is is.ini. It has INI
settings that you can use to setup default behavior of the unit. Here are the entries and descriptions.
Many of these are changed automatically when you send a command to change them via the interfaces.
Or you can edit it manually and FTP it to the unit then reboot for the settings to take effect.
[GEOGRAPHICAL]
Longitude=0 set this if you want sunrise sunset calculations for scheduler to work
Latitude=0 set this if you want sunrise sunset calculations for scheduler to work
TimeZone=5 set this when you set your time
DSTEnable=1 set this to support Daylight Savings Time
DSTType=usa set this to values like usa, aus, utc. Check the General Command table for values
[GENERAL]
UnitID=1 unit ID – useful when talking to multiple units over UDP and serial
UpdateINI=1 Set to zero to turn off changes to your INI – rarely used.
DontSendSerialResponses=1 Acks and Nacks are NOT sent out serial port. Used when unit is
controlling another product that would get confused from those messages.
[SCHEDULER]
BootUpDelay=0 Make the scheduler wait this many seconds before beginning.
LogActivity=0 Set to 1 to Log scheduler activity
Verbose=1 Set to 1 to Log scheduler engine activity in heavy detail – good for debug
[NETWORK]
IPAddress=192.168.0.254
SubnetMask=255.255.255.0
GWAddress=192.168.0.1 Gateway Address
DNS1=12.12.12.12 Domain Name Server Primary Address
DNS2=12.12.12.12 Domain Name Server Secondary Address
Password=password FTP login password
INI File
[VIDEO]
MuteAudio=0 Set to 1 to mute the video’ s audio track
Format=NTSC Set to PAL, NTSC, or MONITOR depending on your preference
Volume=1000 Set the volume. This is in milli decibels (later may change to percentage)
Balance=0 Set Left/Right balance. 0=middle, -10000=all left , 10000 = all right side
[AUDIO]
Mute=0 Set to 1 to mute the separate audio channel
Volume=1000 Set the volume. This is in milli decibels (later may change to percentage)
INI File – is.ini 77
Balance=0 Set Left/Right balance. 0=middle, -10000=all left , 10000 = all right side
[PLAYLIST1]
LogActivity=1 Set to 1 to Log playlist engine 1 activity
Verbose=1 Set to 1 to Log playlist engine 1 activity in heavy detail – good for debug
[PLAYLIST2]
LogActivity=1 Set to 1 to Log playlist engine 2 activity
Verbose=1 Set to 1 to Log playlist engine 2 activity in heavy detail – good for debug
78 INI File – is.ini
Completion
Completion Acks
The InformationStation sends Completion Acks at the end of playback of video, audio, and playlist
files. Completion Acks are the following format: n<CR>
where n is the corresponding channel. The port (serial or UDP) that plays the playlist or media file
gets the completion ack. Here are the rules:
• Video files selected directly return 1<carriage return>.
• Audio files selected directly return 2<carriage return >.
• Playlists that don’ t call any other playlists return the channel number to which the playlist was
assigned.
• When the current playlist selects another playlist, a completion ack will be sent at the
transition point if the new playlist-play command is the LAST command in the current
playlist. A completion ack will be sent at the end of the final playlist.
• If the new playlist-play command is NOT the last command (like you typed a dummy
command afterwards), no completion ack will be sent at the transition point. A completion
ack will be sent at the end of the final playlist.
Acks
Completion Acks 79
OPEN
TYPE
GET
PUT
CWD
DELETE
QUIT
DISCONN
!(DOS
comm
FTP Client
As of firmware version 0.39 the unit supports an FTP client that gets initiated by searching a command
file to channel 6, as described below. It operates by reading in a text file, which has an FTP script
inside of it. The filename convention is ftpxxxxx.cmd. Here’s an example of one:
ftp00003.cmd
OPEN www.alcorn.com
demoftp@alcorn.com
password
PUT C:\MEDIA\IMAGES\img00008.bmp img00008.bmp
GET vid00150.mpg C:\MEDIA\VIDEOS\vid00105.mpg
QUIT
The commands available for the FTP client are:
Command Data1 Data2 Data 3 Description/Comment
IP address This must be the first line. It is used to log into the FTP
I, A Sets the mode to binary or ASCII. Binary mode is necessary
Remote
Filename
Local
Filename
Directory Change to the directory
Remote
Filename
Exit the FTP session
Same as QUIT, just whatever your preference is…
The exclamation point (!) lets you execute DOS commands
and)
Local
Filename
Remote
Filename
Deletes that remote file
You have to have both. GET C:\MEDIA\README.TXT
You have to have both. PUT C:\MEDIA\README.TXT
server you are trying to reach. Note the IP address can be
an IP address or a URL. Ex 192.168.0.200 is correct
Notice in the example above that the username and
password follow on separate lines.
for videos, ASCII mode is necessary for text files.
README.TXT for example
README.TXT for example
from the ftp script. Example: !del c:\Media\readme.txt
will delete the readme file on your IS.
80 FTP Client
Updates from CD, DVD, USB Drives
The Information Station has the ability to automatically detect media files
located on devices connected to it. You can connect a media device that is
natively supported under WinXPE, like a USB key, USB hard drive, Compact
Flash adapter, or CD/DVD drive. If you have configured the device and its
directories properly, when the unit boots up, it will scan the device, copy new
media files to its directories, and continue on with normal operation. Note USB
2.0 has not been tested, and some Compact Flash adapters require a driver to be
installed before they work. If this is true for your device, you cannot use it with
the Iinformation Station. ScanDisk Compact Flash adapters, BusLink USB keys,
and ViPower USB drives have been verified. For the CD/DVD option, you must
order an Information Station from your Alcorn McBride distributor with the
CD/DVD option specified.
Drive Configuration and Update
Here are the steps you need to take to ensure your drive image will be
successfully copied to the unit’ s drive image:
1. Name your volume label NEW_MEDIA
2. Create a MEDIA directory on the image
3. Inside the MEDIA folder, create a VIDEOS, folder if you want to
update videos.
4. Copy your videos into the VIDEOS folder on your device.
5. In the MEDIA folder, the unit has several subfolders: VIDEOS,
AUDIO, IMAGES, BANNERS, PLAYLISTS, SCHEDULES, AND
WEB. As in steps 3 & 4, create the appropriate folder inside the
MEDIA folder on your device for whatever files you want copied to the
IS, then copy your files to the appropriate directories. You can also
update your unit’ s firmware by putting os.new in the MEDIA folder
itself.
6. Attach the device (or insert your CD) and reboot the Information
Station.
Updates
CD & USB
Updates from CD, DVD, USB Drives 81
7. The Information Station will copy any files to its MEDIA directories
that do not match files already located in its MEDIA directories. If it
finds a match, it compares the date & time stamp and file size. If any of
these are different, it overwrites the one on its hard drive with the one
from the device.
82 Updates from CD, DVD, USB Drives
Specifications
Video
IS:
MPEG-2 (ISO 13818 MP@ML)
704x480, 720x480 NTSC, 30 fps Interlaced
704x576, 720x576 PAL, 25 fps Interlaced
15 Mbps maximum
Supports 4:3 and 16:9 Aspect Ratios
S-Video DIN connector
Composite RCA phono connector
ISHD:
Please see WMVHD Specifications on encoding at www.WMVHD.com
Supports 1080i, 720p, 24fps (please see specs for more detail)
DVI output supports up to 1200x1600 output
RGBHV output supports up to 1920x1080 output
Audio
Unbalanced stereo on 1/8th inch phono jack
+4 volts max. into 20K
Less than 10 ohms impedance
16-bit linear quantization
96 dB Digital Dynamic Range
0-48 KHz Sample Rate
20-20,000 Hz +/- 0.5 dB Frequency Response
96 dB Signal-to-Noise Ratio
0.01% THD,
Ethernet
IEEE802.3u 100 BASE-TX and 10 BASE-T (RJ-45)
FTP server
FTP client
Http web server
UDP control
Serial
Serial RS-232 Control (DB-9M) Pioneer protocol with Alcorn McBride extensions
Response Time
Less than 33 msec, however video playback response depends upon encoding.
Typical video playback in less than 0.5 seconds.
Power
+5V at 3 Amps max.
+12V at 2 Amps max.
-12V at 0.3 Amps max.
Connector: 5-pin DIN
Adapter for 115 or 230 volts provided.
115/230 volts, 50/60 Hz, 250 W max.
Certificates:
UL/CSA: CAN/CSA C22.2, No. 950-95 / UL 1950, 3rd edition
TUV: EN 60 950:1992+A1+A2+A3+A4+A11
CB: IEC 60 950:1991, 1992, EMKO-TSE(74-SEC)207/94, UL 1950
Specifications 83
CE: EN 55022 : 1998, CISPR 22, CLASS B, EN 55024 : 1998 IEC 61000-4
FCC: FCC PART 15B, Section 15.107(a) and Section 15.109(a), CLASS B
Physical
IS (Shelf Unit):
13" W x 16.5" D x 3.6" H (330mm x 420mm x 90mm)
11 lbs
0º to 38º C (32º to 100º F)
0 to 90% relative humidity,s non-condensing
ISHD (Rack Mount Chassis):
19" W x 16.1" D x 5.15" H (483mm x 409mm x 131mm)
21 lbs
0º to 38º C (32º to 100º F)
0 to 90% relative humidity, non-condensing
Model Number:
Information Station: IS
Information Station HD: ISHD
84 Specifications
Index
A
AMINet ........................................................................................................................... 49
AMITerm ......................................................................................................................6, 7
Arp................................................................................................................................... 12
Audio.........................................................................................................................16, 29
B
Balanced Audio ............................................................................................................... 15
Banners................................................................................................................ 23, 35, 36
Betacam........................................................................................................................... 28
Bitrate..............................................................................................................................29
Boot .................................................................................................................................71
Browser Files...................................................................................................................37
C
Carriage Return ...............................................................................................................40
CCIR-NTSC .................................................................................................................... 29
CCIR-PAL....................................................................................................................... 29
CD/DVD..........................................................................................................................81
Channels ..........................................................................................................................40
Chroma Format................................................................................................................29
Commands....................................................................................................................... 40
Command Bytes .............................................................................................................. 40
Comments........................................................................................................................71
Completion Acks.............................................................................................................79
Control Message.............................................................................................................. 50
Checksum ........................................................................................................................50
Format ............................................................................................................................. 50
Response..........................................................................................................................51
D
D-1................................................................................................................................... 28
Darim DVMPEG...............................................................................................................7
Delimiters ........................................................................................................................65
DOS................................................................................................................................. 23
Index 85
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