Operations Guide of Icareus Playout

Playout Time

Introduction

The time for the set-top boxes and TVs is sent in TDT (Time Definition Table), which is generated by Icareus Playout. Time is transmitted in UTC -time.
It is possible to double check the current value from Status->Multiplexer Info->TDT (by double clicking on it)
Additionally it is possible to use TOT (Time Offset Table) to define an offset for the UTC time frim PSI/SI->Edit TOT Descriptors
In practice this enables network operators to force a local time setting for the network, e.g. Poland's local time offset.
It is recommend to use NPT servers to sychronize Playout servers clock.

Playout Server Time

NOTE: The Playout's multiplexer service must be restarted after changing servers time

NTP Client Configuration

It is not required to install any NTP packages to Playout server. They are installed by default and NTP time synchronization is activated

NOTE: Internet connection is required to use external NTP servers

Updating Time Manually

1) Update timezone

There are a number of predefined time zone values in /usr/share/zoneinfo directory. It is necessary to create a symbolic link to one of those files to define a time zone.
# mv /etc/localtime /etc/localtime.bak
# ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Helsinki /etc/localtime
# date
Sun Mar 21 16:07:58 EET 2010
The above code sample moves current time zone info to a backup file, creates a symbolic link to a Helsinki time zone and calls “date” command to check current system time zone.
2) Update current date and time
It is necessary to run the following command to update these parameters.
#date -s "21 MAR 2010 17:00:00"
The string parameter is date and time that will be set.

Installing local NPT Server

In case the servers do not have Internet access, it is necessary to setup dedicated NTP server in a local network. This NTP server should have Internet access to perform time synchronization. All other servers should be configured with this local NTP server IP address.

There are a lot of web resources that have description of NTP server setup procedure.

RedHat: http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Deployment_Guide/sect-Date_and_Time_Configuration-Command_Line_Configuration-Network_Time_Protocol.html
Windows: http://www.satsignal.eu/ntp/setup.html

After NTP server is configured, please make sure

  • port 123 is not blocked by Firewall
  • local NTP server is configured to accept connections from playout.server.ip.address. However, usually default NTP server configuration allows any connections from local network.

Configuration of NPT Client

It is necessary to update NTP client configuration with local NTP sever IP address.

1). Open /etc/ntp.conf file
#vi /etc/ntp.conf

2). Replace
server 0.centos.pool.ntp.org
 
server 1.centos.pool.ntp.org
 
server 2.centos.pool.ntp.org
 
with
 
server local.ntp.ip.address
where local.ntp.ip.address is actual IP address of the local NTP server.

3). Restart ntp service
#service ntpd restart

4). Set NTP service as start up service in the system.
#chkconfig ntpd on

5). Restart Playout server: Server->Service Management->Restart All


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