Rane HAL1x Design Guide - Page 102

HAL SYSTEM DESIGN GUIDE As you can see, the Zone Processor contains three connected processing blocks: a Priority Selector block, a Level block, and a Paging Zone block. Each of these blocks serves an important function for the zone, as detailed below. The order in which the blocks are connected is also important, with the placement of the Level block before the Paging Zone ensuring that a page is audible regardless of the volume setting for the zone's output. Automatically including these blocks and connecting them appropriately is yet another Zone Processor feature that simplifies your design process! Priority Selector block The purpose of this block, which includes all of the zone's audio input (including the Distributed Program Bus channels), is to designate which of the zone's input(s) have higher priority when audio is coming in from more than one of the input sources. For example, a large 50's theme restaurant plays background music from that era, but its bar also contains a jukebox from which customers can pay to hear a specific song. When a customer drops their quarter in the jukebox, one would expect the background music to stop and the customer's song selection to play. The Priority Selector block makes it possible to automate this behavior. By giving the jukebox input a higher priority than the background music, the HAL System, when it detects a signal from the jukebox input source, knows to give that input source precedence and make it the active selection. When the jukebox stops sending a signal, HAL returns to the background music input source. In addition to input priority settings, the zone's Priority Selector block contains the zone's input selection control which you can link to a DR (or other remote hardware device)-to give your end users control over the zone's audio selection. You can also use this block to configure a number of detector settings for the input: Threshold, Low Cut, High Cut, Hold, and Ramp Back. To access the block's properties, simply double-click it or hover over its title bar and click the properties icon that appears in the upper right corner. The Zone Processor Selector block is virtually identical to the standalone Priority Selector block available in the Selectors category in the DSP palette. The only difference is the inclusion of the Distributed Program Bus inputs in the Zone Processor Priority Selector block. Level block Use this block to configure the Level properties for the zone's inputs and to create a link to a remote device for end user control of the zone's input volume. To access the block's properties, simply double-click it or hover over its title bar and click the properties icon that appears in the upper right corner. The Level block in the Zone Processor is identical to the generic HAL System Level block. It is included here as a convenience and to guarantee its proper placement in the zone's audio route. Designers sometimes mistakenly place the zone's input level control to the right of the paging output which results in inaudible pages when the input's volume is turned way down. Paging Zone block As previously mentioned, using a Zone Processor gives you an automatic connection between that zone and HAL's paging system. The inclusion of this Paging Zone block provides that connection. Use this block to configure page ducking and adjust the page gain setting. To access the block's 98