How to configure PLURA Timer on MCS

Owned by Ramya Raman (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Aug 06, 2024
3 min read

The connection to the Plura timer is TCP-based (bidirectional connection), including the keep-alive connection. The connection is initiated by the MCM, and the Plura acts as the server. Whereas, in TSL, the MCM is the server waiting for connection from the TSL source. For this reason, it is mandatory to configure both the Plura device IP and PORT defined by the Plura device.

Plura source has a limitation on the number of connections, so there is a limit on the number of MCMs (or other devices) that can be connected to the source. The Plura supports up to 6 timers, and those are mapped to our internal timers 0..5

The timers can be displayed in the tile UMD or/and in the standalone clock/timer object. Tally config for such timer should be: tally_id,mode=timer,timer=3 same as Tally and Timers.

MCS version 1.1.1 onwards tally configurations for TSL and UDP are available under System Configuration.

Screenshot 2024-08-06 113335.png

 

 

External TSL

  1. Click on add button to add (+) button to create a new Tally setting and select the Type as PLURA. Fill in the details and click on the save icon.

    mcs_plura1.png

     

Fields

Description

Label

TSL name

Type

TSL protocol (TCP/UPD/PLURA).

Hash

The “HASH” id can be any string - TSL is the default in the GUI for the auxiliary items - but for Plura it makes sense to use something else, otherwise it might be confusing.

Groups

Groups are resource groups that can be configured for Tally on MCS. Please refer to Adhoc Monitoring Workflow (Resource Grouping) to know about the resource groups configuration

IP Address

Plura device IP

Port

Network port.

Network

The “Port” is usually 8851.

Serial

The “Device Serial” - Is relevant for stack scenario and it defines which of the system will connect to the Plura source. If not specified all systems will connect, and due to the connection limitation it will not work. In case of a non-stacked system, should be ignores.

 

  1. Navigate to Outputs → Templates. In the Editor drag the clock to which you need to assign the Plura timer. In this example, BW Digital Clock is selected as shown below.

 

  1. Navigate to Outputs → Layouts. Click on a clock (in this example clock in tile 3) to assign PLURA timer as shown below and save.

    Input the Tally Source as specified below. The Tally settings should be in the format, tally_id,mode=timer,timer=1.

    For example, plura01_B,mode=timer,timer=1 where the “_B” is A, B, C, D, E, F depending on the timer.

    • The tally_id should be the same PLURA HASH as specified in step 2.

    • mode=timer

    • timer can range between 0 to 7 since every plura timer has 7 clocks.