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Comrex ACCESS STEREO BRIC IP, Manual

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ACCESS Rack 2.8 - FEB 2014

Warning: Advanced Topic

You’ll be seeing me from time to time throughout this manual to 
point out ACCESS advanced topics. Feel free to ignore these sections 
as the default settings provide good performance for most users.

Summary of Contents for ACCESS STEREO BRIC IP

Page 1: ...nd Bottom Navigation Bars 17 Network Tab 19 Ethernet Port Set up 19 POTS Modem Set up 20 Web Browser 21 Remotes Tab 21 Stats Tab 24 Audio Level Tab 26 Configure Tab 26 Configuring ACCESS via the Console Connection Interface 27 Manage Profiles 27 Profile Settings 30 System Settings 31 User Interface 32 Calibrate Touchscreen 33 Reset Configuration 33 ACCESS Stereo BRIC IP Codec Table of Contents Sec...

Page 2: ...Modem Settings 51 N ACIP SIP Settings 51 Advanced System Settings 52 BRIC Normal Settings 52 Modem Settings 52 Standard RTP Settings 52 N ACIP SIP Settings 52 TCP Settings 53 Making Connections Using the Web based Interface 54 Creating a Remote Connection 54 Disconnecting 56 Advanced Connection Options 56 Password Filtering 56 Connecting to a Specific Port 57 Backing up a Connection 59 Fall Forwar...

Page 3: ...ULB Ultra Low Bitrate 80 Linear PCM 80 FLAC 80 G 711 80 G 722 81 AAC 81 HE AAC 81 HE AACv2 81 AAC LD 81 AAC ELD 81 Multi Streaming 82 IP Multicast 84 Multicast Profiles 84 Setting up a Multicast Remote 85 Time to Live 85 Changing Port Numbers for Multicast 85 Streaming Server Function 86 Decoding a HTTP Stream 86 Simultaneously Connecting ACCESS and Streaming 86 Gateway Operation 87 About Gateway ...

Page 4: ...ersal Server Use Disclaimer 108 Conformity and Regulatory Information 109 IP Compatibility 113 Information for IT Managers 115 Using ACCESS on Unidirectional Networks 117 Specifications 119hq Table 1 XLR Pinout 11 Table 2 AES3 Pinout 11 Table 3 Contact Closure Pinouts 12 Table 4 Serial Port Pinouts 12 Figure 1 Rear Panel Diagram and Descriptions 10 Figure 2 Front Panel Diagram and Descriptions 11 ...

Page 5: ...5 Figure 29 Connections Password in the Settings Tab 57 Figure 30 Changing the UDP Port for Incoming Connections 58 Figure 31 Backup Fall Forward Functions in the Connections Tab 59 Figure 32 24 7 Operation in the Connections Tab 62 Figure 33 POTS Codec vs POTS Stereo Mode in the Profiles Tab 64 Figure 34 Connections Tab During an Active POTS Call 65 Figure 35 The Effect of NAT 68 Figure 36 Switch...

Page 6: ...Comrex Corporation is warranted by Comrex against defects in material and workmanship for one year from the date of original purchase as verified by the return of the Warranty Registration Card During the warranty period we will repair or at our option replace at no charge a product that proves to be defective provided you obtain return authorization from Comrex and return the product shipping pre...

Page 7: ... perform over the majority of avail able connections BRIC represents a change that is both desirable and inevitable for remotes It s inevitable because as available connections move from old fashioned circuit switched style to newer packet switched style technology like ISDN and POTS codecs will begin to work less and less often The desir ability stems from the new wireless networks that will make...

Page 8: ...on Interface 2 Portable ACCESS codec This product is engineered to provide the most convenience for the remote broadcaster on the road It combines small size battery power clip on mixer and headphone drivers with an audio codec capable of remarkable quality on the public Internet 3 Switchboard Traversal Server This server exists on the public Internet at a fixed address and performs several functi...

Page 9: ...ions and check network statistics of any connections you make While ACCESS is designed to handle most network challenges in its default configuration advanced options are available to allow customization of parameters that have effect on link stability and delay But wait There s more ACCESS is also a POTS codec It has a built in modem which can be set to make calls over analog phone lines directly...

Page 10: ...e Attach a VGA computer monitor here for accessing the Console Connec tion Interface This button will restart the Rack s computer board Attach an analog telephone line here for POTS codec compatibility Four sets of contact closure inputs and outputs are available on this port These can be used to send signals to the far end of the link or to trigger remote control gear such as automation equipment...

Page 11: ...clipping Adjustments to this level must be made on the far end of the link Recessed button to send ACCESS into hardware reset mode Approximately 30 seconds are required to reboot when this is pressed Indicates several states of Ready Off Network ready not connected to remote Red Network unavailable Green Connected to remote Yellow Connected to remote but no network i e network connectivity lost du...

Page 12: ...act Closure Pinouts Pin 1 Input 1 Pin 2 Input 2 Pin 3 Input 3 Pin 4 Input 4 Pin 5 Ground Pin 6 Output 1 Pin 7 Output 2 Pin 8 Output 3 Pin 9 Output 4 The Serial Port is capable of transferring ancillary data to the far end of the connection By default the communication parameters are set for 9600bps no handshaking no parity 8 data bits one stop bit 9600 n 8 1 It is pinned on a 9 pin D female in DCE...

Page 13: ...onable Since there may be bandwidth firewall and security concerns with install ing ACCESS on a managed LAN it is recommended that your IT manager be consulted in these environments The details that follow assume a work ing knowledge of IT topics and network configuration We recommend putting ACCESS on a LAN and scoping out its functions before use To do this ACCESS must be given an IP address Thi...

Page 14: ...ptop ex 192 168 0 37 ex 192 168 0 38 ex 192 168 0 39 USERs connect to the Internet via the NAT router s assigned private IP addresses Server connects to the Internet via web address ex 70 22 155 133 NAT router connects to the Internet via a single public IP address ex 208 37 242 6 and routes this to multiple private IP addresses which it assigns to users USERs communicate with SERVER X via the NAT...

Page 15: ... and private addresses can each be dynamic or static Dynamic DHCP ACCESS is set by default to DHCP addressing mean ing that it looks to your network for assignment of an IP address If your network has a DHCP server and this is the way you intend to use it you don t need to alter any settings in the Console Connection Interface You will however need to know what address is being assigned to ACCESS ...

Page 16: ... assigns IP addresses using the range 192 168 1 2 255 Let s assume that when con nected the ACCESS is assigned an IP address of 192 168 1 7 The LEDs will display the last four decimals of this address including zeros so during boot you will see the following code L Send will display 1 LED R Send will display 0 LEDs L Receive will display 0 LEDs R Receive will display 7 LEDs You can now assume that...

Page 17: ...vigation easier When using the PS 2 style keyboard or mouse remove and re apply power after connection As shown in Figure 5 all menus on the Console Connection Interface contain the top and bottom navigation bars which contain shortcuts to various setup and status displays The top bar contains four tabs Network Enable and disable the Ethernet Port or POTS Modem Configure IP parameters Remotes Crea...

Page 18: ...a PS 2 or USB style keyboard Chat Jumps immediately to the chat screen pickboard allowing text messaging to other ACCESS users F1 Arrow Enter As shown in the legend on the bottom of the page the F1 key on the keyboard provides access to the pull down menus and the Arrow and Enter keys are used to navigate Top Bottom Figure 5 Top and Bottom Navigation Bars ...

Page 19: ... DSL and WiMAX services to establish and end sessions much like a dial up modem does Most IP connections don t use it and it can usually be ignored If your ISP requires PPoE session to be established rather than entering IP information you may enter a user name and password to establish connection These are supplied by your ISP PPoE connections always use dynamic IP addressing When using PPoE an I...

Page 20: ...done in the System Settings Tab the Advanced box must be selected in order for this option to appear PPP Mode allows the use of a dial up Internet Service Provider Configure your ACCESS with your ISP information The ACCESS will function like an IP codec over the link connecting to other ACCESS IP addresses PPP Mode should only be used when connecting to an Internet Service Provider via the modem I...

Page 21: ...rnet connection by looking at a web page This browser does not support Flash and other complex protocols but is suitable for basic Internet use The browser is also helpful in scenarios where the local LAN requires that users log in via a web based security page as in many hotels The browser does not have a close button but the socket it creates will close automatically when an audio connection is ...

Page 22: ...d New Remote This display is shown in Figure 9 You will need to input a name for this remote which can be anything as well as the destination IP address or phone number for a POTS call Finally you must choose one of the pre defined profiles to dictate how each direction of the connection behaves Several factory defined profiles exist for commonly used configurations and you can create your own des...

Page 23: ...d the profile for that remote Remotes will remain in this list until they are deleted or the configuration of the entire system is reset Existing remotes may be edited by highlighting one and selecting Remotes and then Change Remote Settings Incoming connections are displayed by their IP address or if also configured as outgoing connections by their names Incoming POTS connections are displayed as...

Page 24: ...gmented into audio coding data blue and overhead like IP UDP headers RTP headers etc light blue The Numeric Channel Stats tab Figure 11 gives an indication of the same values instantaneously as well as the total amounts of incoming and outgoing data in bytes for the current connection This information can be helpful when operating on data networks with per megabyte transfer charges If you do not h...

Page 25: ...gthening and shortening overall delay The time interval over which this measurement is assessed is called the jitter window and is adjustable in the Advanced Profile editor The work of the Jitter Buffer Manager is shown by the green line which is the target buffer delay that the system is trying to achieve based on measurements done over the jitter window The lower half of the Peer Stats display s...

Page 26: ...or either dBu or dbFS as shown in Figure 14 The Configure Tab allows you to set up any global options on ACCESS as well as create custom profiles to determine the performance of outgoing connections Since these options are many they are treated individually in the next section Figure 14 Audio Metering Audio Level Tab Configure Tab ...

Page 27: ...the concept of Profiles which allow you to define the behavior of a connection in both directions Profiles are separate from the concept of Remotes which define the address to which to connect A pre defined Profile can be assigned to multiple Remotes and multiple remotes may be defined to the same address which can have different profiles Section 5 Configuring ACCESS via the Console Connection Int...

Page 28: ...ions Keep in mind that these profiles are useful only for connections initiated from the local ACCESS Incoming connections are defined by the ACCESS at the other end Several factory profiles are available and may not be edited by the user Here s a short description of the proprietary and less known encoding profiles HQ1 Default This is the default choice of profiles for new remotes It provides a l...

Page 29: ... over INMARSAT BGAN terminals This profile keeps the entire data stream beneath the limit for 32K streaming service which is the most economical mode for use on ACCESS This mode provides a robust medium delay mono stream in the forward direction and a low delay mono stream in the reverse direction POTS Profile used for connections over the modem card directly to other ACCESS or other Comrex POTS c...

Page 30: ... nections are defined by the ACCESS at the other end Profile creation is segmented into commonly used and advanced options In order to simplify the interface Advanced Options are normally hidden from the user Remember building a profile doesn t change how any remotes are con nected until that profile is assigned to a remote on the Connections Tab Once a profile is defined it will be available on t...

Page 31: ...stems Settings Tab has nine categories System Settings Aux Se rial Settings Security Settings BRIC Normal Settings HTTP Settings Modem Settings Standard RTP Settings N AICP SIP Settings and TCP Settings As with the Profile Tab basic options are shown by default Less used options are hidden until the Show Advanced Options box is clicked All of these settings are explained in detail under the Web ba...

Page 32: ...t The Web Browser Home URL setting allows you to change the default homepage for the ACCESS Web Browser ACCESS has many administrative features that are often unnecessary for the casual user Restricted User Mode allows you to hide options that would confuse non technical users allowing them only to connect and disconnect calls enable and disable available networks and change the audio settings Res...

Page 33: ...before booting the ACCESS Rack and the user will be presented with a calibrations screen upon first connection Once this calibration is done the screen may be recalibrated by using this option If no touchscreen is detected this option is not available This option will restore your ACCESS software to factory default settings WARNING All settings profiles remotes and other changes will be lost in th...

Page 34: ...perience trou ble connecting to ACCESS be sure to check that your Adobe Flash player is current Go to the following link to check and update your flash player http helpx adobe com flash player kb find version flash player html Once you are connected to ACCESS a login screen will appear see Figure 20 Key in any user name along with the default password comrex case sensitive to get to the Main User ...

Page 35: ...re described in detail in the next four sections 3 Chat Window Allows for a chat utility between any users that are logged into that particular ACCESS web interface In addition when ACCESS is connected to a remote user chat text will appear from any users logged into the remote web interface 4 Registration Status This window provides various network information and status including Traversel Serve...

Page 36: ...and the IP address of the unit You will also need to choose a profile to use when connections to that remote are initiated To get started simply choose one of the de fault profiles provided we ll show you how to build your own later You may remove any stored value simply by highlighting and clicking Remove Stored Remote Stored remote addresses are saved to system memory where they will remain thro...

Page 37: ...required for the various IP headers on each packet Frame Loss is also listed as an individual figure for lost and late packets This table also includes an estimation of how much delay is attributed to each end of the link This includes coding delay and buffering but does not include any delay being caused by the network Graphical representations of Jitter Buffer Manager activity and Frame Loss are...

Page 38: ...n ACCESS is first enabled This is because transfer of audio level informa tion consumes bandwidth on the local network as well as CPU cycles on the client computer Whenever ACCESS is connected to a data constrained network e g wireless it is strongly recommended that these meters be Off especially if the Web based Interface on the constrained network will also be accessed via the wireless network ...

Page 39: ...special options for jitter buffer management Keep in mind that these profiles are useful only for connections initiated from the local ACCESS Incoming con nections are defined by the ACCESS at the other end Profile creation is segmented into commonly used and advanced options In order to simplify the interface Advanced Options are normally hidden from the user Remember building a profile doesn t c...

Page 40: ...ou can rename the profile to something that will help you remember it Under the Channel category 3 in Figure 25 you can select whether this is an IP connection BRIC normal a modem based connection which uses the telephone line rather than the Ethernet jack or IP Multicast a method to deliver audio to multiple locations Note It s important to define the channel of a profile before moving on to othe...

Page 41: ...der is to follow the local encoder i e it will send exactly the same codec mode it receives This is defined as Follow Mode in the remote encoder selection table See About the Algorithms section for more info on selecting encoders Transmit On Off This option determines whether the selected encoder local or remote is actually sending any data By default all encoders are turned on but there may be ci...

Page 42: ... But if a network failure occurs or a connection is ended abruptly e g killing power to an ACCESS the system will drop the connection after a pre determined time The default is 60 seconds but this can be shortened or lengthened here If an indefinite connection is required see Section 8 Operating ACCESS in a 24 7 Environment for additional information In order to use POTS Stereo Mode special config...

Page 43: ...Incoming unit settings usually the studio unit The incoming unit will receive the call from the field In this case the ACCESS must be configured to treat all incoming calls as POTS Stereo Mode This is done in the System Settings section by selecting Modem Mode under Modem Settings To receive stereo calls this setting must read Stereo POTS To receive calls from older Comrex POTS codecs or ACCESS co...

Page 44: ...d functions travel over the TCP protocol which inherently assures retransmission if a packet is lost and is therefore reliable UDP is optimized for real time applications and does not offer any guarantee of packet delivery Retransmission typically causes extra delay in an IP network and ACCESS is optimized to conceal an occasional lost packet so it makes more sense for ACCESS to use UDP for transm...

Page 45: ...al new categories will appear Some of them address the encoder and some address the decoder Most of the Advanced Encoder options alter the relationship between frames and packets In this context a frame is the smallest chunk of encoded audio that can be extracted from the encoder For the lowest possible delay this frame is wrapped into its own packet and sent into the network The following advance...

Page 46: ... should work well The Advanced Decoder options are a means to override these defaults and changing them should be done with care The following advanced options affect the Decoder Retransmit Squelch These options are used to determine how the buffer manager reacts to typical data dropouts like those seen on wireless networks Some explanation Many wireless networks have their own layer of data prote...

Page 47: ...ying a range of statistical properties They may arrive in reasonably good timing and in order or half may arrive quickly with the other half delayed significantly In some cases most of the packets arrive in a timely manner but a small percentage of them may be extremely late In this case it s usually preferable to allow these late packets to be left out and keep the delay lower The decoder error c...

Page 48: ...t at a similar value so that the delay buffer is defined to the chosen value and will not increase or decrease significantly Buffer Management On Off This option is available only as a troubleshooting tool Turning the manager off will result in eventual failure since the manager is required to compensate for clock skew between the encoder and decoder The System Settings Tab defines parameters that...

Page 49: ...ow Advanced Options box is clicked Unit Name Users are encouraged to name their codecs here The default name of a codec is the unique MAC address of the Ethernet port By changing this to something familiar and unique e g roving reporter weather guy etc this name is reflected in several places 1 In the browser used to show the remote control page 2 In Comrex provided utility software such as Remote...

Page 50: ... CC Connect Status This setting 4 in Figure 26b alters the perfor mance of output contact closure 4 Under normal circumstances the signal indicates a trigger of the corresponding contact closure input on the far end of the connection If this box is selected that function is no longer available and the signal follows the ACCESS front panel Ready light This signal will be valid closed when a valid c...

Page 51: ...rrectly for POTS codec calls to work The default setting is POTS codec which causes ACCESS to answer incoming POTS calls that are compatible with ACCESS Matrix BlueBox and Vector codecs but not Hotline More information on may be found in Section 9 POTS Codec Connections The other option is Stereo POTS Stereo POTS Mode provides a stereo audio signal over a single dial up phone connection It utilize...

Page 52: ...setting determines how many rings to allow before answering Max Modem Rate Min Modem Rate These settings constrain the modem and instruct it not to connect higher than the Max or lower than the Min This is valid for incoming and outgoing POTS calls Extra Modem Init This option will allow the entry of special initialization strings to be sent to the internal modem before a call is placed These stri...

Page 53: ...ut there are some rare circumstances when the system may need to be switched over to TCP operation This advanced option defines how incoming TCP calls are handled Outgoing calls are defined as TCP when their profile is configured ACCESS normally listens for incoming calls on both TCP and UDP ports and chooses the first to arrive If a TCP call is detected ACCESS will attempt to use the same TCP lin...

Page 54: ... Before you can establish an outgoing connection on ACCESS you must enter the info about remote connection into the Connections Tab This acts like a phone book saving the names and numbers of everyone to whom you connect As shown in Figure 27 ACCESS comes pre programmed with three connec tions Loopback is chosen when you wish to test ACCESS by connecting the local encoder and decoder together The ...

Page 55: ...lank Finally you will need to choose a profile to use when making these con nections ACCESS includes several common default profiles to choose from each of which enable a simple full duplex link using one of the avail able algorithms If you wish for a more complex feature set when making this connection you will need to click over to the Profile Tab and set up a specific profile using your custom ...

Page 56: ...mple Highlight the desired connection and click Disconnect to end the connection The Connection Password function can be used to filter incoming BRIC IP connections but not POTS calls Using this function attempted incom ing connections will be rejected if they do not know the proper case sen sitive password For outgoing connections the password is entered when the remote connection is created on t...

Page 57: ...and destination port Under most cir cumstances the source port is unimportant but the destination port can be key Certain incoming ports can be firewalled to outside traffic and in the case of several ACCESS behind a router sharing a single public IP ad dress the only way for them all to take incoming calls is to assign different incoming ports to each device To transfer audio ACCESS uses a defaul...

Page 58: ...Options box in the lower left corner of the System Settings Tab To change the destination port of an outgoing call you must add the port number to the IP address in the following format IP_address port_num For example to initiate a connection to the Comrex test line at port num ber 5004 enter the following into the IP address field 70 22 155 131 5004 Note The call will fail unless the ACCESS on th...

Page 59: ...d to the primary connection If the connection is restored in that amount of time no backup will occur If the timeout period passes without restoration of the primary connec tion ACCESS will automatically establish a connection POTS or IP to the designated backup connection It will maintain that connection until manually disconnected Backup connections are enabled and selected on the Change Remote ...

Page 60: ... will enable ACCESS to monitor the primary IP connection while the backup is active If the primary is restored and is detected to be valid for the timeout period the backup will be disconnected and opera tion will revert to the primary The Backup Fall Forward functions have the following limitations 1 Only IP connections can be designated as primary IP or POTS connections can be backups 2 Fall For...

Page 61: ... network fails and is later restored the packets stream will be restored to the decoder For most applications like remote broadcasting it s useful to simulate a connection oriented stream so ACCESS uses a low bandwidth sub channel to deliver information back to the encoder about overall connection status It does this in its application layer rather than the transport layer where UDP exists By defa...

Page 62: ...n is necessary on the remote side ACCESS has another option for persistent connections When building a remote entry a field is available for backup options one of those options is Keep Retrying This Remote mode In a similar fashion using this mode will disable the connection timeout setting and keep a persistent connection The difference is that the Disconnect function still works and the connecti...

Page 63: ...t outgoing POTS connections be defined on the Con nections Tab When defining any outgoing connection a profile must be assigned to it For POTS Codec compatible connections the factory default POTS Profile should work best Note When creating a profile you must designate the modem mode as POTS Codec rather than POTS Stereo in order to be compatible with legacy devices This is shown in Figure 33 To u...

Page 64: ...g a new pro file in the Profile Manager Select Channel under Global Settings and then Modem for the outgoing channel Under Local Settings choose a Modem Mode of Stereo POTS Once the profile with these parameters is built it can be named and as signed to any outgoing remote that uses a phone number rather than an IP address as its destination Additional profiles may be built utilizing the normal PO...

Page 65: ...tab la beled Retrain and Rate Drop These are special functions applicable only to POTS calls so they are not visible during IP connections The Connection Tab display contains two user controls Rate Drop and Retrain 1 in Figure 34 These controls are similar in function to those provided on POTS codecs ACCESS will initially connect at the best data rate supported by the telephone line and will displ...

Page 66: ... your broadcast 4 If there is call waiting on your line disable it by entering 70 in front of the number you are dialing 5 If possible try the POTS codec out at the remote site before your actual broadcast at about the same time of day that you plan to use it This will give you a good idea of expected connect rates and possible line problems 6 At minimum connect a few minutes before airtime to ass...

Page 67: ...web server the web server can automatically derive the reply address from the request and respond to it So the traditional four segment decimal address e g 70 22 155 130 is completely obscured to the user Even if you know your IP address it s quite possible that address will change over time This is because the vast majority of Internet users establish their addresses via DHCP a protocol whereby a...

Page 68: ...ated easily and automatically by the studio unit using the source information contained in the incoming packets Of course even in this scenario the studio IP address must be memorized or input into each codec individually The first function of the Traversal Server works around the dynamic IP address problem by acting as a Directory Server Codec users simply log in to the free server and are given ...

Page 69: ...ncludes current addresses and status info for all codecs within the group As shown in Figure 36 this information forms a sort of Buddy List that gets integrated into the codec s connection address book The list may still consist of entries made manually by IP address into the codec but those are signified by a different icon Current status of each codec is reflected by graying out entries which ar...

Page 70: ...obtaining or managing port forwarding on the LAN at each remote venue you would certainly encounter a high volume of grumpy IT staff if you tried In describing NAT routing it s important to understand the concept of ports These are numbers like the source and destination IP addresses that are attached to each packet to further qualify which application on a computer or codec is meant to send or re...

Page 71: ...eturned to the codec for a limited time as shown in Figure 38 The Traversal Server aids in breaking through these different types of routers for incoming calls Because it is in constant contact with all subscribed codecs it can send and receive test patterns to determine whether one or more NAT routers exist on a link and what type they are It can then choose a connection method to be used to circ...

Page 72: ...ng behind a symmetric NAT In this situation calls will fail even with Traversal Server The only option in that environment is to resort to port forwarding on one side of the link Switchboard TS is licensed to your codec when delivered from the factory An account on the Switchboard TS is required and can be obtained by contacting Comrex at 978 784 1776 or 800 237 1776 or by emailing techies comrex ...

Page 73: ... your ACCESS unit as it appears to other Traversal Server peers you can set it via the Unit Name option of Connections in the System Settings menu In order to use Switchboard TS you must first have an account with the server A user name and password will be provided by Comrex You can log in to switchboard comrex com using that information Once you ve logged in we advise clicking Account Info and a...

Page 74: ...c name AAC status and other information will be updated Once Switchboard TS is enabled and you have correctly created your group on the server you will get a download of the all other codecs in your group to your Remote List as shown in Figure 42 On the Web based Interface Switchboard TS entries are shaded as shown in Figure 43 Using Switchboard TS Figure 41 Switchboard TS Main Account Screen Figu...

Page 75: ...ort forwarding is applied connections will not work 3 Full Cone Restricted or Port Restricted NAT Switchboard TS can usually work around this type of router allowing calls to be placed in both directions 4 UDP blocked No normal codec connections are possible through this router To make calls with the help of Switchboard TS simply click one of the entries with the orange TS icon or shaded entry in ...

Page 76: ...ns it might not be desirable for every codec in your fleet to see the Switchboard status of every other codec To help filter what s displayed on a codec s interface Switchboard has implemented the concept of Contact Lists Contact Lists contain a subset of your codec fleet on your account You can create multiple Contact Lists that consist of different subsets With the exception of Shares discussed ...

Page 77: ...t List This is an important point Assigning a Contact List to a codec determines what gets displayed in its own list It does not have any impact on how that codec is displayed on other devices As shown in the Switchboard web interface you can select one of your individual codecs and change the Active Contact List from default This will change the list of codecs displayed on that unit In the case w...

Page 78: ...e email address of the administrator of the account it must be the one they used to create their Switchboard account An email will be sent from the server asking the user to confirm your Shares Once the Shares are confirmed your shared devices will appear as options in the external user s contact list menu This is important Shares do nothing until the external user adds them to a contact list If t...

Page 79: ...2 or 15 kHz mono or stereo transmission at low data rates and reasonable delay Here are some details of BRIC HQ2 Medium Delay BRIC HQ2 uses a 64 or 80mS audio frame with an overall encode decode time around 260mS Interactive applications are possible using BRIC HQ2 in the forward direction and BRIC ULB or BRIC HQ1 in the reverse Low Digital Bandwidth BRIC HQ2 encodes at 24 kbps for a full bandwidt...

Page 80: ...tically on BRIC ULB Mono Only a single audio channel is supported on BRIC ULB Dynamic Data Rate The BRIC ULB encoder adapts its out going audio frame size based on the complexity of the incoming audio This encoder does not compress audio at all It uses a 48 kHz sampling rate and simply applies small frames of linear audio to IP packets This mode is only useful on high bandwidth LAN or managed WAN ...

Page 81: ...ng Spectral Band Replication SBR a technique that partially synthe sizes these high frequencies HE AAC is trademarked by other companies as AACPlus HE AAC and close derivatives are often used as the main audio codec for digital radio and satellite networks This algorithm further increases the efficiency of HE AAC by adding inten sity stereo coding This results in a lower bit rate for stereo signal...

Page 82: ...irection This means that users interested in hearing a multi stream must turn off their encoders This can be a bit confusing because multi streams can be initiated from either end of the link Figure 44 shows an ACCESS multi stream arrangement ACCESS A is the multi streamer with ACCESS B C and D listening to the same audio In order to set up a multi stream scenario you will need to know how to turn...

Page 83: ...en establish a connection with ACCESS B first fol lowed by C and D In model number 2 where the serving ACCESS accepts all incoming con nections all the profiles are built on the Remote Receivers ACCESS B will use a simple profile by defining the encoders in each direction and assign it to ACCESS A ACCESS C and D will each define a profile with their Local Encoders turned Off and assign them to A A...

Page 84: ... Multicast Some private LANs and WANs are IP Multicast capable IP Multicast supports only a single direction stream An IP Multicast encod er can not receive input streams In this manual we assume that IP Multicast users will be familiar with the basic concepts of setup and operation of the network so we will focus on how to configure ACCESS for Multicast mode To set any remotes to Multicast you mu...

Page 85: ... These remotes are configured within a special address range known as a Multicast Block typically 224 0 0 0 to 239 255 255 255 To establish a Multicast connection simply define a remote as having an address within the IP Multicast Block use an IP Multicast profile and press Connect Time to Live TTL is a variable set by Multicast encoders to determine how long a packet is processed before it is dro...

Page 86: ... require this bandwidth along with around 25 overhead for each stream The Genre Info URL and Public options may be set for anything or left alone These options if applied will be embedded into the stream To decode a stream open one of the supported players and find the option to open a URL based stream In Winamp and VLC input the address of the ACCESS in the following format http 192 168 0 75 8000...

Page 87: ...Under most circumstances ACCESS will be sharing a network with an USB based network based attached to its USB port and distributing data to other users via Ethernet In this configuration you will need an Ether net switch between ACCESS and the computers getting the data Alternate ly if only one computer will be connected an Ethernet crossover cable may be used between ACCESS and the computer This ...

Page 88: ...your shared network side with the factory default static IP ad dress network mask and DHCP pool information Since this is usually Ethernet this is done in the normal Ethernet TCP IP Tab Simply select Gateway in the pull down menu as shown in Figure 52 In Gateway Mode ACCESS is acting as a DHCP server and router to the other devices It will assign a dynamic address to all devices connected to it on...

Page 89: ...are important to your application it s best to stick to a single codec vendor and their proprietary protocols The Tech 3326 document defines several mandatory encoding algorithms and the transport layer that could be used on them for compatibility But the most complex part of the standard was the decision on how to arrange Session Initialization which is the handshake that takes place at the start...

Page 90: ... tages When using a SIP server The server can be used to help make connections between codecs through routers The remote codec can be dialed by its SIP URI instead of IP address The SIP server can be used to find codecs on dynamic IP addresses A SIP server exists in a domain This domain is represented by a web style URL like sipphone com or iptel org A SIP server or proxy generally handles IP conn...

Page 91: ...his is usually the dialing address 3 The password on the SIP account Fig 53 shows where this information can be applied in the systems setting section You will also need to enable the Use SIP Proxy option in that menu Once this information is correctly entered a new field appears in the Reg istration Status box located on the Connections Tab see fig 54 Registering with a Server Figure 53 N ACIP SI...

Page 92: ... ACIP SIP profile behave differently than normal The address field regardless of whether it is a SIP URI or an IP address is forwarded to the server No connection attempt is made until the server responds If the server accepts the address the call will be attempted If not an error message will appear in the status line Reasons for call rejection by a server are many Some examples 1 The server does...

Page 93: ... used for audio data trans fer the port number directly above this is used as well Because this port number is negotiated at the beginning of a call over the IP port this port may be changed without breaking compatibility Note that many SIP stan dard devices use port 5004 for this function Due to the negotiation it is not important that these numbers match on each end Changing this port to 5004 ca...

Page 94: ...s then the called codec would extract the source IP address from the incoming data and return a channel to that address In fact that s how the default mode of Comrex codecs work and it works well But SIP includes a separate forward address or return address field and requires that a codec negotiating a call send to that address only This is important in the case of having an intermediate server An...

Page 95: ...d essentially allows for the codec to learn what its public IP address is It does this by contacting a STUN server out on the Internet the default one is maintained by Comrex and simply asking If this option is enabled the codec itself will handle the address switching Be aware of the dreaded battling workarounds issue In our simple de scription we left out the fact that ports are being translated...

Page 96: ...re more 3 Is audio quality the paramount concern AAC or HE AAC op tional upgrades are the best choices for applications that need excellent audio quality If delay is also a concern consider AAC ELD optional upgrade If you are running on an unconstrained net work and without the optional algorithms Linear PCM would be a good choice 4 Am I running on a constrained network If your Internet pipe is su...

Page 97: ...ts 24 kb s 170 ms 15 kHz B5 Stereo 24Kb BRIC ULB For worst case networks delivers 7kHz voice at ultra low bitrates with low delay not recommended for music 14 kb s 49 ms 7 kHz C1 Mono lowest bitrate of any BRIC algorithm Linear PCM Delivers transparent audio with no compression and very low delay for use on high throughput networks 768 kb s 19 ms 20 kHz F1 Mono 1536 kb s 19 ms 20 kHz F2 Dual Mono ...

Page 98: ...eplica tion 18 kb s 209 ms 12 kHz G1 Mono 18Kb 24 kb s 268 ms 12 kHz G2 Stereo 24Kb adds Parametric Stereo to SBR for higher quality audio at low data rate 32 kb s 184 ms 20 kHz G4 Stereo 32Kb adds Parametric Stereo to SBR for higher quality audio at low data rate 48 kb s 210 ms 20 kHz G3 Stereo 48Kb adds Parametric Stereo to SBR for higher quality audio at low data rate 56 kb s 184 ms 20 kHz G5 S...

Page 99: ...l steps you can take to determine that cause of poor IP connection using ACCESS The first step is to determine whether the problem is occurring in one direction or both If in only one direction take a look at network usage patterns on the local end of each ACCESS If someone else on your LAN is downloading large files on the decoder side or uploading large files on the encoder side this may cause s...

Page 100: ...rease overhead and preserve bandwidth Finally if you don t require audio in both directions disable the return channel by turning off the Remote Transmitter in the profile As a guide an ACCESS set this way will average about 8 minutes of talk time per mega byte in each direction Q How can I change modem parameters like dial tone detect and ring cadence detection A Contact Comrex for more info on t...

Page 101: ...ot and hang the Do Not Disturb sign the office door We re going to take a leap here and as sume familiarity with concepts like public and private IP addresses NAT routers and application specific port numbers used by IP data If this isn t the case a good overview is available in our product manuals What is all this about Comrex codecs and many other brands have a set of nifty protocols that allow ...

Page 102: ...andard But the most complex part of the standard was the decision on how to arrange Session Initialization which is the handshake that takes place at the start of an IP codec call The most commonly used protocol is called SIP which is used extensively by VoIP phones and therefore was a logical choice But SIP isn t terribly simple and has some drawbacks which will af fect codec operation We ve buil...

Page 103: ... sitting behind a router has a private IP address and has no idea what the public address is So naturally it will put its private e g 192 168 x x style address into that return address field The called codec will dutifully attempt to connect to that address and undoubtedly fail since that can t be reached from the Internet at large Incoming Call Issues Incoming calls to codecs behind routers are c...

Page 104: ...ddress switcheroo Be aware of the dreaded battling workarounds issue In our simple de scription we left out the fact that ports are being translated by the router as well as IP addresses If the ALG enabled router receives an unexpected result in the SIP address field as it might if using STUN it may not trans late ports as expected and it s likely that the call will fail When in doubt the best tec...

Page 105: ...SS makes use of open source and or free software with the following copyright restrictions ncurses Copyright c 1998 1999 2000 2001 Free Software Foundation Inc See further Copyright notice below dropbear Copyright c 2002 2004 Matt Johnston Portions copyright c 2004 Mihnea Stoenescu All rights reserved See further Copyright notice below libxml2 Copyright C 1998 2003 Daniel Veillard All Rights Reser...

Page 106: ...f conditions and the following disclaimer 2 Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright no tice this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documenta tion and or other materials provided with the distribution 3 The names of the authors may not be used to endorse or promote prod ucts derived from this software without specific prior written permission THIS SOFT...

Page 107: ...ON OF BUSINESS EVEN IF COMREX CORPORATION OR ANY OF ITS SUPPLIERS HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SAME IN NO EVENT SHALL COMREX CORPORATION AND OR ITS SUPPLIERS TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF ACTION EXCEED THE AMOUNT YOU PAID AS PART OF THE PURCHASE PRICE OF THIS PRODUCT COMREX CORPORATION AND ITS SUPPLIERS MAKE NO WARRANTY EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED THAT ANY USE OF THE P...

Page 108: ...yed and provided you account details for a Switchboard TS account on our server located at http switchboard comrex com Comrex provides this service free of charge and at will As such Comrex offers no warranty as to availability of this server or of its function Comrex reserves the right to discontinue availability of this service at any time Comrex also reserves the right to remove any account fro...

Page 109: ..._________________________ Thomas O Hartnett Vice President Comrex Corporation Note This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class A digital device pursuant to part 15 of the FCC Rules These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful in terference when the equipment is operated in a commercial environment This equipment generates uses and ca...

Page 110: ...the following standards and other normative documents European EMC Directive 89 336 EEC EN 55022 1998 A1 2000 Class A Conducted and Radiated Emissions EN55024 1998 A1 2001 A2 2003 Immunity ITE Equipment Low Voltage Directive 72 23 EEC EN 60950 1 2001 Information regarding configuration of this equipment for operation on the telephone networks of the EC countries may be found in the Comrex ACCESS R...

Page 111: ...5 0 To be certain of the number of devices that may be connected to a line as determined by the total RENs contact the local telephone company The REN for the Comrex ACCESS Rack is 0 1 and is shown as the digits represented by in the product identifier US DXDMD ACCRK If the Comrex ACCESS Rack causes harm to the telephone network the telephone company will notify you in advance that temporary disco...

Page 112: ...state public utility commission public service commission or corporation com mission for information This equipment cannot be used on telephone company provided coin service If you have specially wired alarm equipment connected to the telephone line ensure the installation of the Comrex ACCESS Rack does not disable your alarm equipment If you have questions about what will disable alarm equipment ...

Page 113: ...unicate with Luci Live only in Luci s AAC modes Note The free demo available from Luci does not incorporate the AAC functions you must have a licensed and registered copy to use AAC To communicate with a Luci Live device a Initial Setup This will define all Standard RTP connections to be Luci Compatible i ACCESS Rack On the System Settings Tab open the Stan dard RTP Settings option and choose RTP ...

Page 114: ...tibility Mode On the pull down box select Zephyr Xstream ii ACCESS Portable Choose Configure then System Settings on the display Under Standard RTP Settings select RTP Compat ibility Mode and choose Zephyr Xstream b Incoming Connections Zephyr Xstream sends an AAC stream to the ACCESS on UDP port 9150 These streams will be automatically decoded By default a return channel of AAC 96kb s mono is ret...

Page 115: ...e from Comrex or else it is rejected In order for the unit to be remotely updated TCP port 8080 must be forwarded to the device Alternately updates can be initiated from any local PC using the Device Manager application In its most commonly used mode the ACCESS codec delivers an RTP UDP stream from source port 9000 to destination port 9000 by default By default it listens for incoming RTP UDP stre...

Page 116: ...e an outgoing TCP socket from port 8082 As part of the STUN protocol outgoing requests may be made on UDP ports 3478 and 3479 By default the device serves as an SSH host on TCP port 22 Only SSH clients with an authorized DSA key can access SSH services on the device Other forms of authentication are disabled This key is kept confidentially by Comrex for factory diagnostics only SSH services may be...

Page 117: ...stem Settings 2 Find the Advanced tick box and check it 3 Find Standard RTP Settings and choose to edit the RTP Compatibility mode 4 Change this setting to Standard and click Apply or Save on ACCESS Portable Also under Advanced Standard RTP Settings find the Return Channel Enable entry Disable the return channel and click Apply or Save on ACCESS Portable This will make sure that no channel will be...

Page 118: ...n to be always active i e reconnect in the case of power outage or network failure choose that connection on the System Settings Tab as the Always Connect To location To trigger the connection when an external contact is closed choose the connection under one of the Contact Closure settings on the System Settings Tab Full Time or Triggered Connections ...

Page 119: ...ouse Serial w adapter 9 pin D female RS 232 pinout Monitor 15 pin D female VGA monitor pinout USB 2 USB Type A Ethernet 8 pin modular 100BASE T wiring Line Inputs Type Balanced Impedance 50k Ohms pins 2 3 Level 0 dBu nominal 20 dBu max Line Outputs Type Balanced Impedance 100 Ohms pins 2 3 Level 0 dBu nominal 20 dBu max Frequency Response Varies with algorithms see descriptions Voltage 90 264 VAC ...

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