Jake’s Take on GPIOs:
With the NAB show now in the rear-view mirror, stations are budgeting and preparing for fall sports, and the integration of new features into our codecs continues. Here at Tieline we strive to create not only the highest quality and most reliable audio codecs, but also the most flexible. Our codecs are designed to integrate flexibly and natively into multiple environments whether that is analog, digital or Audio over IP.
Whether you need to get audio from a Livewire+ network using the latest equipment from Axia to a Wheatstone environment, or to RAVENNA or Dante devices, we have you covered. However, most people think we are just talking about audio, but this isn’t entirely true, as although our focus is primarily on transporting audio, we also focus on transporting logic data between AoIP environments too. In this edition of Jake’s Take, we are going to explore some of the use cases that revolve specifically around relay closures. What is a relay? Why are they important, and most importantly, how can they be used?
Relays are one of the many tools within broadcast facilities that help automate specific tasks as well as system monitoring. For instance, have you ever wondered how on-air lights are triggered on/off, or perhaps how AM transmitters are put into a low-power mode during the night? Usually, these events are controlled by relays of some kind. Relays can be configured to connect specific equipment and enable devices to communicate with each other to provide status updates or event indications.
How does it work?
With Tieline products, we not only offer an audio transport layer across WANs like the internet, but we also transport an additional auxiliary data/relay layer that transports this kind of data across the link in sync with the audio. This means that from the broadcast facility you can wire up our GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output) relays, also known as Control Ports, to your on-air light and trigger this on or off depending on whether the codec is connected to the studio, or perhaps the remote Tieline unit is “triggering” a control port relay locally.
A prime example of using a ‘Control Port’ with a ViA remote codec is connecting it to a Gateway at the studio and talent on site remotely triggering station IDs, commercials, or other automation events at the studio. GPIO activations can be triggered by preconfigured “rules” based on connection events, or pressing a function button combination on the codec itself, or by wiring up a simple electronics circuit with switches connected to the ViA codec Control Port. Pressing these switches or buttons will trigger a relay event back at the studio-based Gateway codec.
Virtual SLIOs (Software Logic Inputs/Outputs)
Some console manufacturers have taken relays to the next level, and instead of needing to physically wire up relays between equipment, they have created a “virtual relay” called an SLIO. SLIOs aren’t an industry standard, and unfortunately don’t work between manufacturers; however, as Tieline supports most modern AoIP protocols like WheatNet-IP and Livewire+, we’ve taken the time to fully implement their SLIO technology as well. As an example, customers that use Wheatstone’s WheatNet-IP for audio/control routing at their broadcast plant can easily use a Tieline Gateway to not only transport their audio across a WAN/LAN, but also transmit SLIO data between audio codecs in completely different locations in the world.
Translating SLIOs Between Different Protocols
Tieline has taken this a step further by allowing the conversion from one network protocol to another. This is an important capability because in large networks you can have different equipment installations across the country, often because stations are added to a network through acquisitions.
Activating SLIOs Between WheatNet and Livewire Equipment
A prime example of this would be if you were a Wheatstone user, but needed to transmit audio and relay data to another facility that was Axia-based using Livewire+. Natively these two systems speak different languages for their SLIO data, as well as their audio data. At Tieline we understand this compatibility problem and have facilitated conversion ‘in-transit’ between these two technology protocols. Both WheatNet-IP and Livewire+ SLIOs require native implementation and we’ve done the work to deliver cross-manufacturer support between facilities.
As an example, when using relay reflection, both WNIP LIOs and Livewire GPIs are transported between codecs as auxiliary data. This auxiliary data is source agnostic, so the transmitting codec doesn’t care whether the LIO/GPIO data is sent to another WheatNet codec or a Livewire-enabled codec. The same occurs with the receiving codec; it doesn’t care whether the LIO/GPIO auxiliary data originated from a Livewire+ or WheatNet-IP codec.
Creating a Rule on a WheatNet-enabled Gateway Codec
In practical terms, using the Rules panel in the Toolbox Web-GUI on a WheatNet-enabled Gateway codec you would create a rule with “Use a local input to toggle a remote output”. Select “WNIP LIO” as both the local input relay and remote output relay.
Then on the receive codec the Tieline GPI toggles in the Livewire GPIO panel in response to a LIO activation on the transmitting codec.
Whether you are using physical relays, or virtual SLIOs, hopefully this provides a better understanding of how GPIOs are extremely powerful and help to automate functions within your broadcast facility and external ones. With Tieline equipment bridging the divide between WheatNet-IP, Livewire+, RAVENNA and Dante AoIP facilities, you can be assured of high quality and reliable audio and data transport.
To learn more about Tieline codecs visit www.tieline.com, or contact Tieline sales:
- For USA, Canada & Latin America contact: sales@tieline.com
- For Australia and International: info@tieline.com
(“Jake’s Take on GPIOs”, first published on May 20th, 2024)
