NCast Presentation Recorder Reference Manual
Complete documentation for the serial command set is in the “
Presentation Recorder Serial Interface
Specification
”. Please refer to this manual for a more complete description of commands which may be used.
This guide lists a few basic commands which allow the user to start and stop a unit from the Scheduler
interface.
7.7.4. Google Calendar Events
Google Calendar is a web-based interface used to enter calendar events such as meetings and
appointments. It allows multiple personal calendars (e.g. business and home) and allows sharing of public
and private calendars with friends and associates.
One interesting and important aspect of this calendaring system is that Google has defined a standards-
based software API (called “gdata” for many of their services) which allows programmatic access to the
calendars and the events contained within them. The API is implemented in Java and several other
languages, and allows outside programs (e.g. clock widgets, PDA’s, other calendar systems) to access and
create events within a Google calendar.
NCast has taken advantage of this programmable API to implement a scheduling system for Presentation
Recorders where the web-based Google Calendar is the administrative interface for defining session
start/stop times for one or more Presentation Recorders within a customer’s network.
The process works in three steps:
1. An administrator enters one or more scheduled events for a Presentation Recorder
2. The scheduling process queries the calendar at regular intervals and captures these events.
3. Commands sent to the IP Serial Interface of a Presentation Recorder starts and stops the unit.
The calendar interface allows an administrator to setup single or repeating events. The example below
shows a single event scheduled for Tuesday, a Monday-Wednesday-Friday repeating event, and a Monday-
to-Friday repeating event. An event is associated with a single Presentation Recorder listed in the “Where”
field. Two events with the same start/stop times on the same day can be directed to two different
Presentation Recorders simply by changing the contents of the “Where” field. The “Description” field
(discussed below) allows customization of the actions executed at scheduled start time.
So to get started, and administrator must establish a Google Calendar account (different from a Google mail
account) and provide a password for this account. Multiple accounts can be established for multiple
Presentation Recorders if that is easier to administer.
NCast Corporation
Revision 2.2
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