Alarm Scheduling
iControl version 3.20 introduces enhanced alarm management by providing tools to schedule alarm suppression on a per-channel and per-alarm basis.The objective of alarm scheduling is to provide the means to configure an iControl system in order to suppress generation of alarms according to a schedule.
In some situations, normal events in the network would be reported as errors by iControl. Operators now have the ability to schedule certain alarms not to be generated during specific periods of the day.
• Some TV channels only broadcast during a certain period of the day. Outside of the regular broadcast period, the signals consist, for example, of a slate with music. Instead of reporting a “signal freeze” alarm during these periods, iControl can suppress the reporting of “freeze” alarms, while continuing to report alarms for video black and audio silence.
• Some broadcasters perform a sign-off at the end of the broadcast day. Many signals monitored by iControl therefore switch to an invalid format. Because sign-off is a normal, and predictable, event, it is useful for iControl operators to configure their system for alarms to be automatically suppressed during specified periods, and revert to their normal behavior outside of those periods.
Operational modes can be enabled manually or based on a schedule with the exception of the snooze mode which can only be enabled manually. Alarm suppression changes the operational mode of an alarm for a certain period of time.