Grass Valley SSP-3801 User Guide v.1.3

SSP-3801

HD/SD Solid State Playout Card

User Guide

M931-9900-130

18 November 2014

Notices

Belden, Belden Sending All The Right Signals, and the Belden logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Belden Inc. or its affiliated companies in the United States and other jurisdictions. Miranda, Grass Valley, SSP-3801, Densité, GV STRATUS Playout are trademarks or registered trademarks of Grass Valley. Belden Inc., Grass Valley, and other parties may also have trademark rights in other terms used herein.

Terms and Conditions

Please read the following terms and conditions carefully. By using SSP-3801 documentation, you agree to the following terms and conditions.

Grass Valley hereby grants permission and license to owners of SSP-3801 and GV STRATUS Playout to use their product manuals for their own internal business use. Manuals for Grass Valley products may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, for any purpose unless specifically authorized in writing by Grass Valley.

A Grass Valley manual may have been revised to reflect changes made to the product during its manufacturing life. Thus, different versions of a manual may exist for any given product. Care should be taken to ensure that one obtains the proper manual version for a specific product serial number.

Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Grass Valley.

Warranty information is available in the Support section of the Grass Valley Web site (www.miranda.com).

Title SSP-3801 User Guide

Part Number M931-9900-130

Revision 18 November 2014

Table of Contents

1 Overview of the SSP-3801 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Overview of the SSP-3801 package. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

About the SSP-3801 card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

About the web interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

About the SSP-3801 documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Opening the web interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2 Configuring the Channel Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Configuring the off-air behavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

About Evergreen content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Defining media locations and credentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Editing media locations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Deleting media locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Editing media credentials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Deleting media credentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Managing the media downloads to the cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Manually uploading media files into the cache via FTP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

About the supported characters for asset IDs, paths, and mnemonics . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Setting the SCTE-104 access level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Configuring the General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) triggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

3 Testing and Troubleshooting the Playout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

About the Playlist page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

Changing how event types appear in the timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

Troubleshooting failures in the playout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Controlling the playout of events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

Manually breaking away to a live event. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

Manually enabling or disabling secondary events in the playout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Configuring the transitions for the Live and Manual Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

Creating a test playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

About Primary Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

About Secondary Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

About the behavior of automatic and fixed primary events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

Adding a primary event to the playlist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

Adding a secondary event to the timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40

Deleting an event from the playlist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42

Deleting all the events from the playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

iii

Table of Contents

4 Monitoring the SSP-3801 Card’s Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Monitoring the card’s status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Monitoring the System status. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

Monitoring the Input Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

Monitoring the Output Status. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

Monitoring the GPIO Status. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48

Monitoring the Health Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48

Measuring audio levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48

Managing card alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

Configuring the alarm levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50

About System Alarms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51

About Input Alarms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54

Monitoring the media caching process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54

Previewing the broadcast. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

5 Analysis and Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Downloading the Diagnostic Archives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

Downloading the Diagnostics Archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

Downloading the Core Dump Archive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

Deleting the Core Dump Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

Running System Health Checks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

Performing a DNS lookup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59

Testing a server address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60

Locating the SSP-3801 card in the Densité frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60

Switching SSP-3801 cards in a Densité frame (Hot Swap). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60

Performing a Card Hot Swap. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

Performing a Software Upgrade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

Scheduling a Software Upgrade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

Viewing the log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63

Adjusting the logging depth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64

Debugging the status probes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65

Restarting or shutting down the system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65

Enabling or disabling a license option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65

Controlling the failover role and mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66

Synchronizing with the GV STRATUS Playout service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68

Appendix A VANC Packet Creation Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Creating a VANC packet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70

Overview of the SSP-3801

This chapter presents an overview of the Solid State Playout 3801 card (SSP-3801), including the web-based interface that allows you to configure the card, monitor the card, and perform playout tests on the card.

This chapter contains the following sections:

Overview of the SSP-3801 package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Opening the web interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Overview of the SSP-3801

Overview of the SSP-3801 package

The SSP-3801 is a playout server on a card that plays video and audio clips in a variety of playout applications. In addition to playing out program content, the branding capabilities can insert pre-rendered graphics thanks to its built-in clip player, graphics stores, and external fill & key input.

The SSP-3801 package includes the following components and features:

• The HD/SD Solid State Playout card (SSP-3801) and SSP-3801 rear connector panel (see

About the SSP-3801 card on page 2).

• The web interface that allows you to access the features on the SSP-3801 card (see

About the web interface on page 2).

• A complete suite of User Documentation (see About the SSP-3801 documentation on page 3).

About the SSP-3801 card

The SSP-3801 is a playout server on a card that plays video and audio clips in a variety of playout applications. It is used for playing out channel content provided by GV STRATUS Playout, cloud-based automation and scheduling solution by Grass Valley, A Belden Brand. The card pulls a copy of the playlist from GV STRATUS Playout, caches the required media and then plays the media events to air according to the scheduled times or manual control commands.

In most cases you will interact with the GV STRATUS Playout's interface rather than the card itself. In fact, you should not have to interact directly with the card except to monitor its performance, run tests or diagnostics when necessary. For instance, if playout issues arise, you can access the card directly to run tests or diagnostics to determine the source of the issue.

Note: A full description of the card’s hardware and functional specifications

are provided in the SSP-3801 Installation and Configuration Guide.

About the web interface

Since the card resides in a Densité 3 frame and may be in a remote location, you will likely perform most of the tasks by connecting to the card's web interface (see

interface on page 3). Once you supply a username and password, the web interface allows

you to monitor the card independently of any other system.

Once the SSP-3801 card is properly installed and configured, you should not have to interact directly with the card except to monitor the card's performance, run tests or diagnostics when necessary.

The interface is divided in three main sections:

• Status header: displays the current status of the card, who is logged into it, the system time, and allows you to log out of the card. If a connection alarm is triggered for the GV STRATUS Playout service or the HCO device, its associated tab highlights in red to bring immediate attention to the situation.

• Menu: contains the card features that allow you to view the media, the card status, and perform other maintenance tasks.

Opening the web

• Page: displays the content for the currently selected Menu item.

Status header

Connection alarms

Fig. 1-1: SSP-3801 Web Interface

Fig. 1-2: Connection alarms displayed in status header

SSP-3801

User Guide

About the SSP-3801 documentation

Your package comes complete with the following documents:

• SSP-3801 Installation and Configuration Guide (PDF: M931-9905-110) This Guide provides detailed instructions on how to install the SSP-3801 card in a

Densité 3 frame and configure the system parameters using its web interface.

• SSP-3801 User Guide (PDF: M931-9900-110) This Guide provides detailed instructions on how to access the SSP-3801 web interface,

configure the system preferences, monitor the audio and video output, and use the timeline to test the playout performance on the card.

While we do our best to ensure that the information is accurate, changes to the software or hardware can be introduced that don’t always get included in the documentation. If you notice any errors in the documentation, please contact us at

Opening the web interface

To be able to test, monitor, and diagnose a specific SSP-3801 card, you need to access the card directly. To do this, you need to access the card on your network using its IP address and login to it.

IMPORTANT

To access the SSP-3801 web interface, we recommend that you use a display with a minimum screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and the latest version of Google Chrome at 100% zoom in full-screen (F11) mode.

support@miranda.com.

Overview of the SSP-3801

Opening the web interface

To login to the SSP-3801 card:

1 In a web browser, enter the IP address for the card and press Enter.

For more information on how to assign an IP address for the SSP-3801 card on your network, see the Installation and Configuration Guide. The SSP-3801 Login page opens.

2 Enter your username and password in their respective fields and click OK.

If this is the first time you are logging into the SSP-3801, you should log in as follows:

Fig. 1-3: SSP-3801 login page

• Username: admin

• Password: P1ayout (the second character is the number 1)

IMPORTANT

If you are configuring the SSP-3801 card for the first time, we recommend that you change password for the “admin” account. For more information, see the Installation and Configuration Guide.

If you do not know what your username and password are, contact your System Administrator.

The System Status information for the SSP-3801 card is displayed in the Status header of the web interface. It displays the information about the service such as the system time, the name and status of GV STRATUS Playout, the HCO status (if enabled), and the username of the person who is currently logged in.

Fig. 1-4: Login name displayed in the header

Configuring the Channel Options

This chapter explains how to define the Channel Configuration options on the SSP-3801 card, including the locations of the media files, how to manage incoming system commands, and what actions to take when the media files are not available.

This chapter contains the following sections:

Configuring the off-air behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Defining media locations and credentials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Managing the media downloads to the cache . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Setting the SCTE-104 access level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Configuring the General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) triggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Configuring the Channel Options

Configuring the off-air behavior

The Off Air Behavior settings define what the card will do if you force the broadcast off air or something goes wrong during the broadcast such as a loss of media, an empty playlist, a missing asset, or a hardware or software crash, for example. Whenever you do not have a primary event on air, it is considered an off-air situation.

IMPORTANT:

When the SSP-3801 card is registered with GV STRATUS Playout, then GV STRATUS Playout overwrites any Channel Configuration changes made through the card’s web interface any time it updates the card with its own changes.

When the card encounters an off-air situation, one of the following occurs:

• If the card was forced off air and no primary events are available in the playlist, the configured Off Air Action is triggered immediately.

• If no primary event is on air but primary events are available in the playlist, there is a 3 second delay before the configured Off Air Action is triggered. During the first 2 seconds of the delay, the last frame of the last played clip remains on air. This allows time for the card to resume the playout, if possible. If the card is unable to resume playout after 2 seconds, it switches to a black screen for 1 second before triggering the configured Off Air Action.

The Off Air Action can be configured to output a black screen, output a live feed, or output a full-screen slide that announces that the broadcast is off-air. The Off Air Action can activate even in the event of a complete hardware or software crash.

If the off-air situation is still not resolved 30 seconds after the Off Air Action was triggered, the action selected in the Off Air Recovery list is applied. If a primary event is pending such as a failed event is being restarted, the card will delay triggering the Off Air Recovery for up to 30 seconds to allow the possibility of a successful resumption of the playout. Once the Off Air Recovery is triggered, the Off Air Recovery event continues until valid on-air programming resumes.

The screen graphic used as the off-air slide should be full-screen, in the required video standard for the channel, and be in OXT format. The SSP-3801 card contains some samples of off-air slides in various video standards in the FTP location /mediacache/push, which can be accessed by using local:// in the path. To use a sample slide, choose the slide with the appropriate video standard for your channel and type one of the following paths in the Off Air Slide field:

• local://ApologySlide1080.oxt

• local://ApologySlide720.oxt

• local://ApologySlideNTSC.oxt

• local://ApologySlidePAL.oxt

SSP-3801

User Guide

Fig. 2-1: Sample of an off-air slide

To configure what action to take when playout is off-air:

1 Select Channel Configuration > Off Air Behavior. The Off Air Behavior page opens.

Fig. 2-2: Off Air Behavior page

2From the Off Air Action list, select one of the following actions to occur after the initial

three seconds has expired and the off-air situation is not resolved:

• Show Black: displays a black screen with no graphics.

• Show Off Air Slide: displays the full-screen graphic specified in the Off Air Slide field.

• Show Live: displays the live feed from the source selected in the Live SDI Source list.

3In the Live SDI Source list, select the source for the live feed to be broadcast if an off-air

situation occurs and the Show Live option is selected.

4In the Off Air Slide field, type the URI location for the screen graphic to be broadcast if

an off-air situation occurs and the Show Off Air Slide option is selected. The screen graphic should be full-screen, in the required video standard for the channel, and be in OXT format.

5In the Off Air Recovery list, select one of the following actions to occur 30 seconds after

the Off Air Action if the off-air situation is not resolved:

• Stay Off Air: continues the action selected in the Off Air Action list.

• Perform Take Next: places the next scheduled event on-air.

• Play Evergreen Content: places the Evergreen schedule on-air. For more information about Evergreen, see

About Evergreen content on page 8.

• Play Evergreen Content Unless Playlist is Empty: places the Evergreen schedule on-air unless the playlist is empty. If the playlist is empty, it defaults to playing the action selected in the Off Air Action list instead.

6Click Save when done.

Configuring the Channel Options

About Evergreen content

Evergreen content is material that is always relevant. In this case, the Evergreen content is a library of videos that can be broadcast in place of a previously scheduled event that for some reason cannot be played. The Evergreen media and schedules are managed by GV STRATUS Playout; however, the media and schedule are cached on the SSP-3801 card.

The card plays the Evergreen content according to two schedule modes depending on the situation in the playlist:

• Indefinite Media Scheduling mode: plays a continuous cycle of Evergreen videos scheduled in the order of the least-played to the most-played. If multiple videos have the same playout count, those videos will each be selected in a random order until all with the same playout count are played before continuing to the video with the next least-played count. This mode is launched when there is an indefinite period to fill with content such as when the playlist is empty.

• Timed Media Scheduling mode: plays Evergreen videos prioritized by how well the video fits within the off-air period and its playout count. An off-air situation may occur when an event in an otherwise valid playlist fails to play. This results in an off-air situation of a definite duration before another valid primary event is scheduled to play. To fill the time slot, precedence is given to a single event that fits within the given period with priority given to events that have not been played in the longest time. If a match is not found, the off-air period is divided in half and attempts are made to fill the new time slots. The process repeats until the time slots are less than an hour and no matches are found. If this occurs, then it reverts to a cycle of videos scheduled in the order of the least-played to the most-played until the off-air period is filled or exceeded to ensure continuity of the playout. This mode is launched when there is a gap in the playlist between valid events.

If the channel is configured to play Evergreen content during an off-air situation, it will access the local cache and play the Evergreen content as required by the situation.

Defining media locations and credentials

For the SSP-3801 card to access the locations where the media files are stored, you must specify which servers contain the media. Since these servers are likely to have security, you must also provide the login information so that the card can access the media files.

IMPORTANT:

To define the media locations and server credentials:

1 Select Channel Configuration > Media Locations.

Fig. 2-3: Media Locations/Media Credentials page

SSP-3801

User Guide

2In the Media Locations section, click Add to add new locations where media files are

stored.

3In the Location Details dialog box, type the URI for the media file and click OK. The

format of the URI should be http://[URI], https://[URI], smb://[URI], or ftp://[URI].

4 Define the sequence that the card should follow to download the media. In the Media

Locations section, select the URI and use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to change its position. Order the media locations closest to the card’s location at the top of the list and the furthest to the bottom.

5In the Media Credentials section, click Add to add the login credentials for a media

server.

6In the Credential Details dialog box, type the required information in the following

fields to enable access to the server that contains the media files:

• URI: type the http path where the media files reside.

• Domain: type the name of the domain that stores the media files.

• Username: type the login name for the specified Domain.

• Password: type the password assigned to this Username.

Editing media locations

IMPORTANT:

Configuring the Channel Options

Deleting media locations

To edit a m edi a loca t i on:

1 Select Channel Configuration > Media Locations. 2In the Media Locations section, select the location and click Edit. 3In the Location Details dialog box, change the URI address. 4Click OK.

Deleting media locations

IMPORTANT:

To delete a media location:

1 Select Channel Configuration > Media Locations. 2In the Media Locations section, select the location that you want to delete. 3Click Delete. The media location is removed from the list; however, this does not delete

the media file itself from its location.

Editing media credentials

IMPORTANT:

To edit a media credential:

1 Select Channel Configuration > Media Locations. 2In the Media Credentials section, select the credential and click Edit. 3In the Credential Details dialog box, change the credential settings. 4Click OK.

Deleting media credentials

IMPORTANT:

To delete a media credential:

1 Select Channel Configuration > Media Locations. 2In the Media Credentials section, select the credential you want to delete.

3Click Delete.

Managing the media downloads to the cache

The SSP-3801 card features onboard storage space that allows you to store and preload media content locally so that it can be retrieved and broadcast smoothly and quickly. You can define how the card manages the media cache and what action it should take if the server times out and the media cannot be accessed.

IMPORTANT:

To configure how the media cache is managed:

1 Select Channel Configuration > Media Cache. The Media Cache page opens.

SSP-3801

User Guide

Fig. 2-4: Media Cache page

2In the Channel Media section, define when the indicated pre-broadcast alarms are

triggered (in HH:MM format).

• Missing Media time window: type the amount of time before broadcast to trigger the Missing Media alarm if the media file cannot be found.

• Inaccessible Media time window: type the amount of time before broadcast to trigger the Inaccessible Media alarm if the media file was found, but cannot be downloaded to the SSP-3801’s storage space.

3In the Transfer Speed Alarm section, define

• Minimal Download Speed: type the minimum acceptable download speed (from 1 to 100MB/s) for the media. An alarm is triggered if the download speed falls below the specified threshold.

• Speed Test Period: type the number of seconds (from 1 to 120) defining the length of the test period used to verify the actual download speed. The download speeds are tested throughout the specified duration and are averaged. The resulting value is compared to the Minimal Download Speed threshold to verify its performance.

4In the Max segments per download field, type the maximum number of blocks (up to

10) you can download per server at a time.

Configuring the Channel Options

Manually uploading media files into the cache via FTP

5The Parallel Download Configuration section defines the maximum boundaries for

downloads performed in parallel. Set the following values:

• Max (overall) parallel downloads: type the maximum number of downloads (up to

10) that can take place simultaneously.

• Max SMB parallel downloads: type the maximum number of downloads (up to 4) that use the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol.

• Max HTTP/HTTPS/FTP parallel downloads: type the maximum number of downloads (up to 10) that can take place simultaneously using the HTTP, HTTPS or FTP protocol.

6Click Save when done.

Manually uploading media files into the cache via FTP

Media files are transferred to the card in two ways: automatically from GV STRATUS Playout or manually using FTP. The storage space is shared between the two methods, but it is not managed in the same way. The media downloaded from GV STRATUS Playout is managed by the card so that the media scheduled closest to air is cached first and media files not immediately required may be deleted to make room for those that are. The media files that were manually uploaded on the card are not managed by the card and remain until manually deleted, which can be useful for more ‘permanent’ media such as station logos. Be judicious about the amount of media that you manually upload on the card. Since both methods share the storage space, the more media manually uploaded on the card, the less room remains for GV STRATUS Playout’s cache of media.

The manually uploaded media files are also only available on the card and are not made available to other cards. Unlike the media downloaded from GV STRATUS Playout, the manually uploaded media files are not managed through the GV STRATUS Playout service and therefore will not be restored automatically after a card hot swap.

Media files that are manually downloaded to the cache can be accessed by using local:// in the path. For example, if you downloaded a file called TestSlide.oxt into the /mediacache/push folder, you would type local://TestSlide.oxt to select the file.

To download media to the cache:

1 Configure the FTP access in the card:

•In the left pane, click Card Configuration > Security.

•In the FTP Password field, type a password for the FTP server.

•In the Device Access Settings section, select Enabled for FTP Access.

•Click Save.

2 Open an FTP connection with the card using “ftp” as the username and the password

that you set in Card Configuration > Security.

3 Add the media files to the mediacache/push folder.

About the supported characters for asset IDs, paths, and mnemonics

The SSP-3801 card only supports ASCII 7-bit printable characters for router source and destination mnemonics, the asset IDs for the media files, and the components of the path to the media files. The list of supported characters:

Symbol Hexadecimal Description

20 space

! 21 exclamation mark

" 22 double quote

# 23 number sign

$ 24 dollar sign

% 25 percent

& 26 ampersand

' 27 single quote

( 28 left or opening parenthesis

SSP-3801

User Guide

) 29 right or closing parenthesis

* 2A asterisk

+ 2B plus

, 2C comma

- 2D minus or dash

. 2E dot or period

/ 2F forward slash

0 30 zero

1 31 one

2 32 two

3 33 three

4 34 four

5 35 five

6 36 six

7 37 seven

8 38 eight

9 39 nine

: 3A colon

; 3B semi-colon

< 3C less than

= 3D equal sign

Configuring the Channel Options

About the supported characters for asset IDs, paths, and mnemonics

Symbol Hexadecimal Description

> 3E greater than

? 3F question mark

@ 40 at symbol

A 41 uppercase A

B 42 uppercase B

C 43 uppercase C

D 44 uppercase D

E 45 uppercase E

F 46 uppercase F

G 47 uppercase G

H 48 uppercase H

I 49 uppercase I

J 4A uppercase J

K 4B uppercase K

L 4C uppercase L

M 4D uppercase M

N 4E uppercase N

O 4F uppercase O

P 50 uppercase P

Q 51 uppercase Q

R 52 uppercase R

S 53 uppercase S

T 54 uppercase T

U 55 uppercase U

V 56 uppercase V

W 57 uppercase W

X 58 uppercase X

Y 59 uppercase Y

Z 5A uppercase Z

[ 5B left or opening bracket

\ 5C backslash

] 5D right or closing bracket

^ 5E caret or circumflex

_ 5F underscore

` 60 grave accent

Symbol Hexadecimal Description

a 61 lowercase a

b 62 lowercase b

c 63 lowercase c

d 64 lowercase d

e 65 lowercase e

f 66 lowercase f

g 67 lowercase g

h 68 lowercase h

i 69 lowercase i

j 6A lowercase j

k 6B lowercase k

l 6C lowercase l

m 6D lowercase m

n 6E lowercase n

o 6F lowercase o

SSP-3801

User Guide

p 70 lowercase p

q 71 lowercase q

r 72 lowercase r

s 73 lowercase s

t 74 lowercase t

u 75 lowercase u

v 76 lowercase v

w 77 lowercase w

x 78 lowercase x

y 79 lowercase y

z 7A lowercase z

{ 7B left or opening brace

| 7C vertical bar or pipe

} 7D right or closing brace

~ 7E equivalency sign or tilde

Setting the SCTE-104 access level

The SCTE-104 standard allows you to receive trigger messages from the audio or video feed, which can be used to flag the start and end points for commercial breaks, for example. It allows you to receive trigger messages in the SDI (Serial Digital Interface) signal that you can use to control the playlist.

Configuring the Channel Options

Setting the SCTE-104 access level

The SSP-3801 card supports SCTE-104 splice requests with the following splice_insert_types:

• spliceStart_normal: determines the pre-roll period in milliseconds, which defines the delay between receiving the message and putting the event on air.

• splice_cancel: cancels a scheduled Take Next initiated by a spliceStart_normal command.

• spliceStart_immediate: attempts to take the next event to air as quickly as possible (non-deterministic).

In all cases, the event that is to be taken to air should already be on hold in a cued or commit state. Typically, the schedule should contain an SCTE-104 triggerable manual event that will hold at the on-air threshold until one of the SCTE-104 splice request is received. For more information on SCTE-104, refer to the “SCTE 104 2014 Automation System to Compression System Communications Applications Program Interface (API)” available from http://www.scte.org.

IMPORTANT:

To configure how the SSP-3801 card will treat SCTE-104 messages:

1 Select Channel Configuration > SCTE-104. The SCTE-104 Access page opens.

Fig. 2-5: SCTE-104 page

2 Select the Act upon SCTE-104 splice request triggers checkbox to execute and log

received SCTE-104 splice messages. Clear the checkbox to ignore and not log the splice messages.

3 Select the Block all SCTE-104 messages from being passed-through checkbox to

prevent all SCTE-104 messages from reaching the card and from being logged. Clear the checkbox to allow SCTE-104 messages to reach the card.

4Click Save when done.

SSP-3801

User Guide

Configuring the General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) triggers

The SSP-3801 card has two General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) connectors offering up to four opto-isolated, open collector GPIOs. The pinouts are 1|G|2 and 3|G|4. The GPIO pins function both as inputs and outputs. As inputs they can be used to trigger internal preprogrammed actions and as outputs they can be used to trigger downstream external hardware. It is not recommended to use the GPIO pins as both inputs and outputs simultaneously.

When used as an output, the GPIO operates as follows:

• ON: the GPIO pin is internally driven to ground by an opto-isolated, open collector transistor (active low is represented by 1V or less) and can sink up to 20mA.

• OFF: the GPIO pin is internally pulled weakly high.

When used as an input, the GPIO input is activated as follows:

• ON: the GPIO pin is connected to 0V.

• OFF: the GPIO pin is not connected (the GPIO signal pin is pulled high).

A change from one state to another when the pin is used as an input can be configured to trigger an action in the playlist. On the GPI Triggers page, you can configure the SSP-3801 card to perform one of the following actions when an input changes to an On or Off state:

• No Action: a change to the state is not acted upon.

• Take Next: a change to the state triggers a Take Next action, which places the next event in the playlist on air.

• Cue Next: a change to the state triggers a Cue Next action, which cues the next primary event, its related secondary events, and any subsequent automatic events so they are ready to go on air safely when a Take Next action is performed.

• Hold Next: a change to the state triggers a Hold Next action, which prevents the next events from going on-air.

• Drop Next: a change to the state triggers a Drop Next action, which removes the next event in the playlist.

To configure the GPI triggers:

1 Select Channel Configuration > GPI Triggers. The GPI Triggers page opens.

Fig. 2-6: GPI Triggers page

Configuring the Channel Options

Configuring the General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) triggers

2 In each GPI section, specify the action for each state. Each GPI section represents one

input.

Testing and Troubleshooting the Playout

This chapter explains how to use the Playlist page to test or troubleshoot the playout from the card. The Playlist page is not intended to be used to create or edit schedules. Schedules are created, edited, and added to playlists in GV STRATUS Playout and then the playlist is downloaded to the SSP-3801 card.

Instead, the Playlist page is used to diagnose whether an issue is caused by GV STRATUS Playout or the card, to administer the playout during the loss of connectivity with GV STRATUS Playout, or to test or troubleshoot the configuration of the card.

This chapter contains the following sections:

About the Playlist page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Troubleshooting failures in the playout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Controlling the playout of events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Manually breaking away to a live event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Manually enabling or disabling secondary events in the playout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Configuring the transitions for the Live and Manual Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Creating a test playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Deleting an event from the playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Deleting all the events from the playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Testing and Troubleshooting the Playout

Timeline Boundary

On-air

Cued

About the Playlist page

The SSP-3801 web interface features a timeline that displays the status of the events as the playlist is played out. Since the playlist is created and managed by GV STRATUS Playout and then downloaded into the SSP-3801 card, GV STRATUS Playout overwrites any playlist changes made in the Playlist page any time it updates the card with its own changes.

Fig. 3-1: Playlist page

A timeline appears at the top of the Playlist page. It is a visual display of the playlist as it is broadcast. It contains three threshold markers:

• Cued (orange, far-right): indicates that the media event is ready to be played. The time between the Cued and On-air markers is 15 seconds.

• On-air (red, middle): indicates that the media event is currently being played. The time between the On-air and Timeline boundary markers is 10 seconds.

• Timeline boundary (grey, far-left): indicates the boundary of the timeline view. Once an event moves fully past the boundary, it disappears from the timeline.

Events become off-air as soon as the entirety of the event rectangle has moved past the Onair threshold (red line). The event remains visible in the timeline until it moves past the Timeline boundary (grey line).

Fig. 3-2: Playlist timeline

You can move left and right through the timeline to view the entire playlist by clicking in the timeline and dragging your cursor left or right. To increase or decrease the period visible in the timeline, click in the timeline and use your scroll button to zoom in or out of the timeline.

As an event moves through the timeline from right to left, it changes color to indicate its status. As the events playout, their status is displayed in the timeline, in the channel grid at the bottom of the page, and in the buttons on the Manual Controls toolbar.

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