BayCom PAD-Encoder / MOT-Server

 

 

Contents

General Description of Operation
Configuration
PAD-Encoder Configuration
Tree Item of Type PAD
Tree Item of Type RDS
Tree Item of Type DL
Tree Item of Type MOT
Statistics Page
General Informationen
MOT-Server Configuration
Tree Item of Type Global Settings
Tree Item of Type Slot
Statistics Page
General Informationen
Troubleshooting
Tips & Tricks
 

General Description of Operation

Digital Audio Broadcast ( DAB ) allows you to transmit Program Associated Data ( PAD ). These data can consist of texts with up to 128 characters ( Dynamic Label ) or multimedia objects ( MOT-Service ). Latter are in general HTML or JPEG Files. This software is able to transmit dynamic labels and files via MOT.

The software package consists of two modules:

1. The PAD-Encoder is responsible for multiplexing different data sources (dynamic labels and MOT services) and packing them into smaller packets. Those Pakets are sent to a Musicam, RDS- or ADR encoder.
The PAD encoder supports the standard format for ancillary data of Musicam-Encoders in DAB-Mode and the UEC protocol of RDS/ADR encoders.

The software was tested successfully with those encoders:


2. The MOT-Server codes single files, whole directories or arbitrary data streams accortding to the MOT specification. The server creates so called  MOT segments which are sent over a network connection to the PAD encoder. The MOT server itself is capable of managing multiple data sources and sending them simultanously.

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Configuration

The software package is available for Linux and Windows NT/2000. If a Musicam Encoder is connected directly via RS232 a specially adapted device driver for the serial port is necessary. This driver is installed automatically under Windows. Under Linux a manual installation has to be done.
Access to and configuration of the software depend on the operating system. However it is possible to run PAD encoder and MOT server on different plattforms.
Under Windows the user interface looks like that: on the left side of the dialog window there is a tree structure which gives an overview of the general software configuration and die installed data sources. A mouse click  on the root of the tree shows a program  dependent statistics page on the right side.  A mouse click on a tree item (leaf) shows a configuration dialog for the currently selected category. A context sensitive menu  can be opened by right clicking on a leaf. This menu enables you to add, rename or remove items.
On the lower part of the window there are buttons to add or remove the currently selected tree item. The button 'Hide' minimizes the window to the task tray. A click on the mini icon in the task tray restores the dialog window. To close the window clock on the 'Quit' button.

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PAD-Encoder Configuration

When PAD encoder is opened the first time it is configured with default values which often only have to be changed only a little.

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Tree Item of Type PAD

By selecting the tree item Target a configuration dialog for the Musicam interface is opened.

The settings are explained below:

PAD-Size : This value selects the size of the PAD data packets sent to the Musicam encoder for a single MPEG1 Layer 2 frame. Normally the maximum value of 48 should be selected to get the best data rate for the program associated data.
However older encoders like the R&S Music or the AVT Magic do only transmit realiable 16-24 bytes per frame otherwise the bit error rate increases significantly.

Typ: Selects the type of connection to the Musicam encoder. The default is Dummy which does not transmit any data and is just for testing purposes or usage without any PAD encoders. Normally RS232 should be selected. A software Musicam encoder is connected via TCP/IP . This option is currently not available under windows.

Dest/Port: Is used to select the symbolic name of a serial port (COM1, COM2, etc.) or an IP address.

Baudrate: When connecting a Musicam encoders via RS232 a  baudrate must be selected. The default value is 38400 Bit/s which is in most cases correct.

Monitor Mode: The PAD encoder has got a built in PAD decoder which allows to monitor the transmit data in the same manner as a DAB radio would do it . Therefor a Folder has to be selected.

Apply: Press apply to save and change the configuration of the PAD encoder. The checkbox in the upper left corner of the dialog activated or deactivates a complete configuration.

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Tree Item of Type RDS

By selecting the tree item Target a configuration dialog for the RDS/ADR encoder interface is opened.

The settings are explained below:

Typ: Selects the type of connection to the Musicam encoder. The default is Dummy which does not transmit any data and is just for testing purposes or usage without any RDS/ADR encoder encoders. Normally RS232 should be selected.

Protocol: Selects the communication protocol being used. Currently only UECP is supported.

Adresse/DSN/PSN: Normally 0. You can find detailed information at the RDS Universal Encoder Communication Protocol UECP Version 5.1 specification

Dest/Port: Is used to select the symbolic name of a serial port (COM1, COM2, etc.) or an IP address.

Baudrate: When connecting a RDS/ADR encoders via RS232 a baudrate must be selected. The default value is 38400 Bit/s which is in most cases correct.

RT-Source/PS-Source: Selects the DL-Source which is sent via RDS/ADR. The labels of the combo box correspond to the names of DL-Sources. RT means Radiotext (64 characters maximum,  every 5 seconds), PS means Programm Station, i.e. the name of the station (8 characters maximum, every 2 seconds).
 

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Tree Item of Type DL

By selecting the tree item DL a configuration dialog for dynamic label sources is opened.

The settings are explained below:

Type:

Password/Allowed IPs: This field allow to specify passwords or lists of IP addresses (seperated by semicolons), to prevent the PAD encoder from unallowed network access.

Repeat Count: The number of transmission repetitions for dynamic labels.

Repeat Rate: Specifies the numbe of MPEG frames after a dynamic label will repeated.

Display Time: This parameter specifies the time in seconds until the next dynamic label may be sent. All dynamic labels received in the meantime are buffered.

Period: When using file or pipe sources this field specifies a time in seconds after which a source is read again.

Charactertable: For every DL source a character translation table can be specified. This might become important if umlauts should be transmitted. DAB define a character table according to an extended ISO-646 standard. A table which converts the normal PC-OEM umlauts can be found in your installation directory named ISO646.TXT. If the field is empty or contains 'none' no conversion is done.
 

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Tree Items of Type MOT

If a tree item of type MOT is selected a configuration dialog for a MOT source is displayed.

The settings above are explained below:

Type: The setting TCP describes how the MOT server is connected to the PAD encoder.

TCP-Port : The TCP/IP port can be selected here.

Password/Allowed IPs: These forms allow to set passwords and lists of IP addresses (seperated by semicolons) to prevent the PAD encoder from unauthorized access.

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Statistics

If no tree item is selected a statistics page is displayed. There you can see the current working state of the software:

TX-Frames: Shows the number of transmitted audio frames. If the communication with the Musicam encoder broke down or is disturbed this value does not increment constantly.

Dynamic Labels/DL-Bytes: Shows the number of dynamic labels and bytes transmitted of all sources.

MOT-Segments/MOT-Bytes: Shows the number of MOT segments and bytes of all sources.

Uptime: Number of days, hours and minutes since the software was started.

The lower part of the statistics page shows textual output of the current internal state.

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General Information

Therefore just clock with the left mouse button on the tree item, then click right to get the context menu and select rename.
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Configuration of the MOT server

The MOT server uses a default configuration when started the first time. You have to change this configuration according to your needs:

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Tree Item of Type Global Settings

Here all general operating paramters can be selected:
The settings above are explained below:

Type: The value Dummy allows to test a configuration without connection to a PAD encoder. The value TCP binds a MOT server to a PAD encoder or a FHG-MMDS on a specified  IP address and a port.

Transport ID Start: If more MOT servers are bound to a PAD encoder, the used transport IDs used by the different MOT servers must not interfere. This value sets the smallest Transport ID to be used.

Transport ID Number: This value selects the number of Transport IDs for a particular MOT server.

Repetitions: If MOT segments should be repeated then this value selects the number of repetitions.

Segment size: The size of bytes for the MOT segments can be selected here.

PAD-Encoder IP address: Here you have to set the TCP/IP destination address of the PAD encoder. If MOT server and PAD encdoder is running on the same computer localhost or 127.0.0.1 has to be set.

PAD-Encoder IP-Port: Here the TCP/IP Port of the PAD encoders is set. By default port 8881 is used.

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Tree Item of Type Slot

A data source for the MOT-Server is called Slot. You can define up to 16 different sources.

The settings above are explained below:

Type: Here different data and file types of the sources can be selected:

Base File is a single file, which is used to transmit the start page of interactive data services. As Source a file has to be selected. The Name is equivalent to the transmitted filename for that file. This allows for instance to transmit a file index.html as base.htm. As Label normally something like 'Index' is supplied.
A Rootdirectory can be chosen to complete the path of the transmitted file.

Directory takes a directory from the local filesystem from where all contained files are transmitted cyclically. Source has to be the full path to a directory. The Rootdirectory selects the path for the files from the directory. If the files of a directory should be transmitted as a slideshow just check the box Slideshow .

File List points to a list of files which are transmitted periodically. This list containes on each line a full path to a file. As a common path the input from the Replace path field is taken. Optionally seperated by a pipe symbol (|) followed by a number selects the seconds until the next file is transmitted. A further pipe symbol followed by 5 numbers selects the time of transmission in crontab style. The format looks like that:
 

Filename       Displaytime  Minutes Hour   Day Mon Weekday
---------------------------------------------------------
noon.jpg        | 12       | *      12     *   *   *
studiocam.jpg   | 10       | 6-59   *      *   *   *
traffic.jpg     | 20       | 5,30   6-21   *   *   *
news.jpg        | 15       | 0-4    6-21   *   *   *
stationlogo.jpg | 10       | */5    *      *   *   *
weekend.jpg     | 5        | *      *      *   *   6-7   


The example above desmonstrated different facilities of the crontab format. The first column denotes the minutes followed by hours, day of the month and finally the weekday. It is possible to specifiy single or multiple points in time separated by comma or a period can be specified by using a dash (see line 1-4).
If a file should be transmitted every point in time a star has to be set in the corresponding column. If every column contains a star the file will be transmitted every minute. Intervals can be specified by */ followed by a number. Line 5 of the example above will transmit the stationlogo.jpg picture every 5 minutes.
The last line will only be active on days 6 and 7 i.e. saturday and sunday. 

URL allow to specify a HTTP:// a ddress, to fetch data directly from the internet and transmit them immediately.
URL-List specifies a file containing HTTP:// a ddresses,  to fetch data directly from the internet and transmit them immediately.
Pipe calls an external programm and transmit its standard output.
 

Source: A source can be a file, a filelist or a directory. For type URL an address beginning with http:// has to be used.

Name: Specifies the name of the file to be used as Base File .

Label: allows to associate a file with a symbolic name for the Base File .

Rootdirectory: Specifies a virtual path of the file on the receiving host (DAB receiver).

Repetition Rate: Priority of this slot. The smaller tha value is the less frequent segments from this slot are transmitted.

Replace Path: When using filelists the leading path can be replaced by an arbitrary one.

Slideshow: Sets the trigger time to now for all files being transmitted. This makes a receiver display a slideshow.

Example for Rootdirectory/Replace path:

The filelist contains only files with (absolute) path names, which all start with "/radio1/mot/html/". To let the receiver put these files into "/service1/html/", a rootdirectory "/service1/" and a replace path "/radio1/mot/" have to be selected.

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Statistics

If no tree item of the above is selected a statistics page is displayed. There you can see the current working state of the software:

MOT-Segments: Number of transmitted MOT-Segments.

Files: Number of transmitted files.

Bytes: Number of transmitted bytes.

Uptime: Number of days, hours and minutes since the software was started.

The lower part of the statistics page shows textual output of the current internal state.
 

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General Information

Therefore just clock with the left mouse button on the tree item, then click right to get the context menu and select rename.
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Troubleshooting

If the software should not work properly it makes sense looking at the logging window ob the lower part of the statistics page: 
All messages are sorted by date and time followed by a letter indicating their importance.
 
Letter Meaning
<I> Information, used to describe simple I/O operations.
<W> Warning, used to point out irregularities.
<C> Critical condition, used to tell about correctable problems.
<E> Error, designates a problem which cannot be solved without user intervention.
<D> Debugging, used by software developers for internal information.

The example above shows a critical condition, because the newly restarted software caused a drop out in the PAD data stream. This problem could be fixed by the software. A non correctable error is the message 'Bind to UDP 8880 failed'. This error says that the port 8880 is already in use by another application. To fix the problem the user has to change the port configuration.

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Tips & Tricks

If you have got further questions please mail to info@baycom.de

Software updates can be found at http://www.baycom.de
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Appendix A: Keywords of the file padenc.ini

Section [PAD] : PAD-general settings
Command Parameter-Type  Allowed values Description
type  String  dummy, rs232  Output of the PAD stream
port  String  COM1 etc., /dev/ttyS0 etc.  Port for PAD output
baudrate String  9600, 19200, 38400, 57600 etc...  RS232-Baudrate
active Integer  0,1 Activation of the PAD encoder
description  String  ...  textual description
monitor_enable Integer  0,1 activation of the monitor mode
monitor_path  String  ...  Index of the HTML-Monitor file

Section [DLx] : Settings Dynamic Label Source x
Command Parameter-Type  Allowed values Description
type  String  telnet, tcp, udp-fht, udp-rs232, file, pipe  DL Source
port  String  COM1 etc., /dev/ttyS0 etc, TCP-Port (1024-65535)  Port for DL-Source (rs232/udp/telnet/tcp)
baudrate  String  9600, 19200, 38400, 57600 etc...  RS232-Baudrate
active Integer  0,1 activation of PAD encoder
description  String ...  Textual decription
password  String  ...  Password DL-Source
accept_ip  String ...  Allowed IP addresses (udp/telnet/tcp)
repeat_count Integer  0-99999 DL repetitions
repeat_time Integer  0-99999 time between repetitions (MP2-Frames)
priority Integer  0-99999 minimum display time (s)
period Integer  0-99999 Update time (s)

Section [MOTx] : Settings MOT Source x
Command Parameter-Type  Allowed values Description
type  String  tcp  MOT Source
port  String  TCP-Port (1024-65535)  Port for MOT source
active Integer  0,1 activation of the PAD encoders
description  String  ...  Textueal description
password  String  ...  Password DL source
accept_ip  String  ...  Allowed IP addresses (udp/telnet/tcp)

Appendix B: Keywords of the file motserv.ini

Section [MOT] : MOT-general settings
Command Parameter-Type  Allowed values Description
type  String  tcp  MOT target
pad_host  String  TCP-Port (1024-65535)  Host for MOT-target
pad_port  String  TCP-Port (1024-65535)  Port for MOT-target
transaction_id_start Integer  0-64000 Start Transport-IDs
transaction_id_size Integer  0-64000 Number of Transport-IDs
segment_length  Integer  0-64000 MOT-Segmentsize
description  String  ...  Textual description

Section [SLOTx] : Settings MOT Source x
Command Parameter-Type  Allowed values Description
type  String  basefile, directory, filelist, url, urllist  Sourcetype
active Integer  0,1 activation of the MOT-Slot
source  String  ...  Filepath/Directory/Fileliste
label  String  ...  Label for base file
rate Integer  1-10000 Priority
slideshow Integer  0,1 Slideshow (Triggertime=now)
description  String  ...  Textual description
name  String  ...  File name of the Startfile
root String  ...  Receiver root directory
replace  String  ...  base directory of the filelist


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