Isolation Mode
Isolation Mode in PlayoutONE Pro eliminates the stress and strain of restarting your automation server, allowing you to remain on the air while the restart occurs.
When the main server needs to be restarted, the on-air studio can be put into Isolation Mode by following the instructions below.
This tells the on-air machine to run from its own local SQL server and use twelve hours of cached audio from its local audio store.
Isolation Mode can be activated automatically if the network connection between your server and studio machine is interrupted. Ensure you have a stable connection before trying to leave Isolation Mode.
Whilst in Isolation Mode, you’ll see a yellow triangle on the on-air machine, which indicates that you are now in Isolation Mode. A red triangle on all other client machines indicates the on-air machine is in Isolation Mode.
Once Isolation Mode is enabled, no audio or log changes can be made to the main database. This is because the on-air machine is now in charge and is constantly syncing back to the on-air database to ensure no changes or data is lost.
Isolation mode is only designed for short periods and eliminates the need for an alternative audio source during maintenance.
Once the server has restarted, the on-air machine can be removed from Isolation Mode once all changes have been synced back to the main database.
Prerequisites
Before you can run in Isolation Mode, make sure you have considered the following:
- Isolation Mode only works when the on-air machine(s) is separate from the server.
- On the on-air machine(s), make sure you have installed a copy of SQL Server Express.
- Ensure the
C:\PlayoutONEorD:\PlayoutONEfolder is shared with everyone on your network, and permissions have been set appropriately so the server can read and write to this share. Once shared, make sure the following folders exist in the share:
\\MACHINE\PlayoutONE\Data \\MACHINE\PlayoutONE\Data\Audio
- Make sure you have Audio Engine or Monitor installed and configured as below:
Enabling/disabling Isolation Mode
- Open Audio Engine on your server or studio machine (it should be minimised to the system tray).
- Open the Settings window by pressing the cog button in the bottom right corner.
- Go to the 'Other' tab then 'Isolation & Plugins'.
- Enable or disable Isolation Mode, and decide whether it should kick in automatically if needed (we recommend both these toggles are enabled).
- If your station is in Isolation Mode, you will see a button to 'Leave Isolation Mode' and return to normal operation.
