OmniPro II support of Nuvo paging

[Steve]

I am looking at moving my Nuvo Grand Concerto from being controlled by CQC to being controlled by the OPII. I know I can go back to using the paging trigger on the Nuvo and control it with an output but as my outputs are almost used up I would rather be able to control the paging via serial as is done with the software packages. Would it be possible for HAI to add PagingOn and PagingOff commands to the controller as well as the API?

Edit: Actually even if I did use the paging trigger I would need the OPII to support DND on and off.

The integration of Nuvo and HAI is nice for basic music control but it really needs DND and Paging to be fully featured solution.

 

[Mr Spock]

Steve

I'm thinking of the Nuvo GC over the Russound in a planned system. I know the Russound has a 12V trigger input for whole house announcements, be they come from the HAI panel or PC sound card. However the Nuvo does not appear to have this feature (correct?).

A few questions:
1) When you control the GC for house announcements using CQC how do you activate and setup the GC (volume, zones turned ON, input source, etc.)?
2) From the HAI panel are you thinking of using software commands to do this?
3) Please explain a bit more on the missing features you are seeing.
4) Why do you want the HAI panel to control the Nuvo instead of CQC? Seems like CQC would be the better master due to flexibility.

Thanks.

 

[Steve]

No, the GC DOES have a hardware paging trigger that can be used.

1. There is a Nuvo driver for CQC so all command and control is via a serial port. Nuvo has an API so the driver essentially supports that.
2. If the Nuvo API options were available via the panel then it could be done via automation logic or other stuff like Haiku
3. Basically I want to use Haiku (or could be any interface) to control the Nuvo. To do this the Nuvo has to be connected to an OPII serial port. If the Nuvo serial port is connected to the OPII it cannot also be connected to a CQC server or anything else. I have announcements and stuff sent via TTS to Nuvo from the CQC server. The problem is CQC now cannot set/unset DND zones and turn paging on/off since the Nuvo is connected to the OPII. So, the OPII would have to do these things via its serial port. Yes, I can control paging via an output/relay but DND is important to me. I do stuff like detect if my office phone is off hook set DND for office zone so if a page comes through it doesn't play in office as I don't want to have it heard when on a speaker conference. So, I would need HAI to support the Nuvo DND comments and ideally paging via the API. It should be very doable as it would work just like the basic power/volume, etc commands.
4. Because on iDevices I am using Haiku more than CQC. Haiku can operate the audio nicely but I have no way of doing DND and paging as described in 3.

Make sense?

 

[Mr Spock]

OK, I read the Nuvo installation manual. I see how they use contact closure for paging by using the Ext. Mute connector. Then you program the GC for a set state (volume, zones, etc.) upon triggering this line. The audio paging signal must be on audio input 6. That works for me.

I'm glad you pointed out this issue of the OPII not supporting DND and paging. Paging is mandatory for my application.

Anything else it doesn't do?

 

[Steve]

Right, you put whatever source you want paged into Source6. You set page volume, etc separately from zone volume. If a zone is set to DND then it will not page. You can set DND and stuff via the keypads and you CAN page via the trigger so its possible to use, however if you want to control DND especially via control commands that is the missing piece and in my case critical. I explained one dynamic case above. Another very common one which I use as well is to set kids rooms to DND after their bedtime. I'm sure there are other things in the API but paging and DND are the major ones for me. The OPII already supports all the basic functions.

HAI: Fred? Any chance of HAI adding DND and paging in an upcoming firmware release?

 

[Dean Roddey]

Is there something missing on the CQC side of the iOS client that makes you not want to use that?

 

[Steve]

Dean - To be honest when the iOS client came out it was buggy and practically unusable. Also, I would have had to design all the screens from scratch. Haiku let me access everything I needed without taking hours or weeks of building the interface myself and it provides what I need and use the most. I use probably 5% of CQC's functions these days so it is just not worth the effort to build out the interface on that platform. I have no idea how good the iOS client is these days as I haven't even tried it. You know I am a true believer and supporter of CQC but it just doesn't make sense if all you need are the basic functions performed by something like Haiku. It would take me forever to build out even say a security status screen as robust out of the box. For AV and lots of other backend things CQC is still my go to, but I can't justify the labor just for a flexible interface to the OmniPro. So... I wanted to connect my Nuvo since it is so easy to control things and get metadata with Haiku, but since I can't do DND, etc as I can with CQC's driver I'm stuck for now.

 

[Mr Spock]

Haiku is turing out to be a great piece of SW for controling an HAI panel. Wish they would make one for the Android.

 

[Dean Roddey]

From what I understand the iOS client is pretty solid these days. They are also close to a native iOS client as well, which might be something to consider.

 

[jmorris644]

Bump an old post.
 
Steve, what did you end up doing? I am looking at implementing paging now with my OPII and I have an essentia and Haiku/Helper.
 
Joe

 

[lupinglade]

Joe,

You can do some fairly advanced things with HaikuHelper, NuVo and an OmniPro in terms of paging via the scripting functionality. You should be able to do what you need. The triggers should all be available via the API.

HTH.

 

[jmorris644]

Joe,

You can do some fairly advanced things with HaikuHelper, NuVo and an OmniPro in terms of paging via the scripting functionality. You should be able to do what you need. The triggers should all be available via the API.

HTH.

 
Thanks. I was thinking along those lines too. I will do some playing with the API.

 

[picta]

For this and other serial devices that I want connected to both HAI OP and HA software I use serial port splitter. That will give you access to your audio system from both Haiku and CQS.
 
http://www.bb-elec.com/Products/Serial-Connectivity/Serial-Data-Tools-Adapters/Port-Splitters.aspx