Zoning your audio devices
  • 09 Apr 2024
  • 3 Minutes to read
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Zoning your audio devices

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Article summary

The Zones tab enables you to assign display configurations and/or audio device outputs to zones, while the Zone groups tab allows you to group zones as well as other zone groups. There is no restriction to how many times each zone or zone group can be used in other zone groups, leaving the structure of zone grouping up to the user. 

Since the zones are generated on the Audio devices tab, each zone is created once, see the tutorial on nnounce - Cloud voice configuration.

In this tutorial, we will rename zone labels, create zone groups and assign zones to them. Therefore, it is assumed that you already have audio devices connected and configured. 

Once zones are configured, they can be assigned to:

  • UI configurations of OpsUI, GateUI, FlexUI and BaggageUI, so that users with access to those UIs could use those zones for announcement playback.
  • directly to users so that they could use those zones in addition to the zones already assigned in OpsUI configuration. Note: This option does not apply to GateUI, FlexUI and BaggageUI.


Topics covered:
  • Zones tab
  • Zone groups tab
  • UI configurations tab
  • Users tab

TUTORIAL STEPS:

A) Edit an automatically preconfigured zone

  1. Open the Zones tab.
  2. Click an already preconfigured or generated zone.
B) Renaming your zone label

  1. Rename the zone label.
  2. Click the Save button.

Note: In the zone selection section of any Simpleway user interface, users will see zone labels rather than their actual names displayed on the Zones tab.

C) Create a new zone group

  1. Open the Zone groups tab.
  2. Click the New zone group button.

D) Configure your zone group

  1. Name your zone group.
  2. Enter the name of the zone label.
  3. Drag & drop zones and/or zone groups to be used in your zone group from the Available zones & zone groups section to the Selected zones & zone groups section.
  4. Click the Save button.
Note: In the zone selection section of any Simpleway user interface, users will see zone group labels rather than their actual names displayed on the Zone groups tab.
E) UI configurations tab

  1. Open the UI configurations tab.
  2. Select an existing UI configuration for OpsUI, GateUI, or BaggageUI.



F) Assign zones and zone groups to UI configurations

  1. Drag & drop zones and/or zone groups from the Available zones & zone groups section to the Selected zones & zone groups section.
  2. Click the Save button.
Now users with access to this user interface will be able to use these selected zones & zone groups for announcement playback. 
G) Users tab

  1. Open the Users tab.
  2. Select an existing user.

H) Assign zones and zone groups to user

  1. Drag & drop zones and/or zone groups from the Available zones & zone groups section to the Selected zones & zone groups section.
  2. Click the Save button. 

Now, this user will be able to use these selected zones & zone groups in addition to the ones already selected in OpsUI configuration for announcement playback.


Advanced feature - custom field configuration, paging split:

A) Zones tab
You can categorize zones by Custom field / Asset values and for paging split.

  1. Open the Zones tab.
  2. Click the cog button in the upper right corner of the page.
B) Select assets

  1. Click the Add new asset button and create a new custom field. If the required asset already exists, skip this step.
  2. Drag & drop assets from the Available assets section to the Selected assets section.
  3. Tick the Paging split checkbox for the selected asset.
  4. Click the Save button.


C) Edit zone page

  1. Open your zone for modification.
  2. Select the asset value for your zone.
  3. Click the Save button.
Set up other zones using different asset values in the same way.

To optimize the announcement flow and expedite the process, it's recommended to carefully choose the Paging split when configuring the system. This may be particularly useful for paging into several locations that are far away from each other.
For example, by selecting a custom field type such as "Location" with values such as "Location 1" and "Location 2", the announcement will be played as two separate actions. The announcement for "Location 1" will be played when all zones in that location are available, without needing to wait for zones in "Location 2" to become free. This can significantly improve the speed and efficiency of the announcement delivery.

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