Crestron RoomView User manual

Crestron RoomView™
Software
Reference Guide
Intended for Version 4.0 and Later

This document was prepared and written by the Technical Documentation department at:
Crestron Electronics, Inc.
15 Volvo Drive
Rockleigh, NJ 07647
1-888-CRESTRON
All brand names, product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
©2003 Crestron Electronics, Inc.

Crestron RoomView Software
Contents
Crestron RoomView™ 1
About Crestron RoomView ................................................................................................1
Crestron RoomView Setup .................................................................................................2
System Requirements ...........................................................................................2
License Installation...............................................................................................3
Shared License Setup (Client/Server)...................................................................4
Adding and Editing Users...................................................................................................7
Adding and Editing Rooms.................................................................................................9
Adding a Room ....................................................................................................9
Editing Room Parameters...................................................................................11
Creating a New Room that has Similar Parameters to an Existing Room..........11
Adding and Editing Room Attributes ...............................................................................12
Adding and Editing Contacts............................................................................................17
Adding and Editing Events...............................................................................................20
Groups ..............................................................................................................................25
Preferences........................................................................................................................27
General Tab - Startup Options............................................................................27
Program Options.................................................................................................27
E-mail Tab..........................................................................................................28
Room Messages Tab...........................................................................................28
Simultaneous Database Access.........................................................................................29
Using Crestron RoomView...............................................................................................30
First Time Login.................................................................................................30
Administrator and User Privileges .....................................................................31
Administrator Setup ...........................................................................................31
Establishing a Connection ..................................................................................33
Navigation ..........................................................................................................34
Monitoring Rooms............................................................................................................39
Sending Messages ..............................................................................................41
Help Requests.....................................................................................................42
Find Room..........................................................................................................44
Log File ..............................................................................................................45
Crestron Programming......................................................................................................47
Control System Configuration............................................................................47
Network Traffic Analysis ...................................................................................51
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Crestron Viewport ............................................................................................................52
Viewport: File Menu ..........................................................................................52
Viewport: Edit Menu..........................................................................................53
Viewport: Setup Menu .......................................................................................53
Viewport: Diagnostics Menu..............................................................................56
Viewport: Functions Menu.................................................................................58
Viewport: File Transfer Menu............................................................................66
Viewport: Remote Menu ....................................................................................71
Viewport: Shortcut Keys ....................................................................................73
ASCII Conversions.............................................................................................74
Further Inquiries ...............................................................................................................75
Software License Agreement............................................................................................76
Return and Warranty Policies ...........................................................................................78
Merchandise Returns / Repair Service ...............................................................78
CRESTRON Limited Warranty..........................................................................78
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Crestron RoomView™
About Crestron RoomView
Crestron RoomView™ provides a central monitoring station for 250+ control
systems on a single Ethernet network (more are possible, the number depends on
the combination of IP ID and IP address). This centralization of information is
convenient in corporate or educational applications, where each room has
dedicated hardware and an associated Ethernet-enabled control system. A
system may control hardware for more than one room.
• Crestron RoomView monitors each room, including online status,
system power, lamp life and hardware faults, plus any custom
attribute as defined by the Administrator.
• RoomView notifies the operator when an error or help request is
received. The operator can respond directly to a help request by
sending a text message to the control system.
• The Administrator can run diagnostics with Crestron Viewport.
• The Administrator schedules events to be sent to a room.
• The Administrator adds, deletes, or edits room information, contact
information and events, which are logged automatically by the
software for all users.
• The Administrator can select specific rooms to be viewable by the
user.
• The Administrator can configure Crestron RoomView to
automatically send e-mail notification to room contacts.
• The functions and columns of the RoomView screen are
customizable. The RoomView display can be configured to
monitor any available function and/or signal from the SIMPL
Windows program running on the Crestron processor. Choose any
function in the system for monitoring and scheduling via
RoomView and organize these functions into separate Excel-style
“Tab” views by group, room, function-type, etc.
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RoomView is available in two versions, free and licensed. For additional
licensing information, refer to the “License” section on page 3.
• The free version of RoomView supports 25 rooms, two users (one of
which is the Administrator), and two contacts.
• The licensed version of RoomView supports 250+ rooms, multiple
users and multiple contacts.
Crestron RoomView Setup
System Requirements
Minimum Required PC Configuration
• Windows 98/NT/2000/XP: 333 MHz Pentium II with 256MB RAM
• 800 x 600 screen resolution
• 256 color setting
Recommended PC Configuration
• Windows 98/NT/2000/XP: 1.3 GHz Pentium 4 w/512MB RAM
• 1024 x 768 screen resolution
• 16-bit (high color) color setting.
Minimum System Configuration
Crestron RoomView requires the following minimum system configuration:
• One PC with Ethernet card and RoomView installed.
• One or more 2-Series control systems (to a maximum of 250) with
static or dynamic IP addresses and C2ENET cards installed. The
C2ENET card provides a gateway that translates UDP into Crestron's
proprietary CIP protocol. Crestron does not recommend using the PC-
based CNX gateway since most corporate or educational environments
use dynamic IP addressing.
• A program for each control system that controls one or more rooms to
be monitored. The program must contain one RoomView Interface
symbol in each control system program.
• (optional) One or more room touchpanels.
NOTE: X-Generation CUZ limitations may cause some features not to work.
NOTE: RoomView works on port 41794.
Other Required Software
RoomView requires a SIMPL Windows program containing a RoomView
symbol that communicates to RoomView. A library update for SIMPL
Windows may be required in order to edit a program with this symbol. Library
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update version 202 or later is required for programs using the RoomView
symbol. If you cannot open the demo program provided with the installation
(RoomView/demo/RoomView.smw) with your current version of SIMPL
Windows, visit our website at www.crestron.com to download the required
library update or contact customer service for assistance.
License Installation
NOTE: On Windows 98, the RoomView License Manager is installed as a
standard application and must be started by selecting the icon in the RoomView
program group in the Start menu. On Windows NT, 2000, and XP, the
RoomView License Manager is installed as a service and automatically starts
when the computer is restarted after installation is complete. On any platform
the option to run as a service can be changed once the license manager is
running.
Use the following procedure to obtain and install the license.
1. Ensure that the RoomView License Manager is running.
NOTE: If the icon is not on the task bar, start the RoomView License Manager
from the RoomView program group.
2. Right click the RoomView License Manager icon on the task bar
and select License.
3. To obtain the license upgrade from Crestron®for 250+ rooms, and
unlimited users and contacts, contact Crestron at 888- CRESTRON and
provide the site code displayed on the “Crestron Licensing” window.
4. Copy the Site Key information as supplied by Crestron in the Site Key
field and click OK.
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5. Right-click on the RoomView License Manager icon and select About
License Manager to view license information.
Shared License Setup (Client/Server)
RoomView can share a single license among multiple, separate computer
installations.
One installation (the RoomView server) installs the license from Crestron and
the other installations (clients) acquire the license from the computer where the
license is installed.
The RoomView License Manager is installed every time the RoomView
software is installed. When License Manager is running on a networked
computer, the license is available for sharing with other computers.
NOTE: License Manager must be running on the computer where the license is
installed to share the license with other networked computers.
Setting up the Server
This procedure requires setting up the license and setting up the database file for
sharing.
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1. Install RoomView.
2. Acquire and install the license.
3. Right-click the RoomView License Manager icon in the task bar and
select Preferences.
4. Check Run as a service if desired.
NOTE: WIN 98 machines install License Manager with this option unchecked.
5. Enter the port number for client connections. The default port number
is 1000, allowable port numbers are 0 to 65535. The port number and
IP address of the server must be specified in the login window of client
installations that are connecting to the server.
6. Use Windows Explorer to browse to the RoomView database folder.
7. Right-click and enable sharing for the folder.
Setting up the Clients
1. Install RoomView on each client machine.
2. Start RoomView, click Browse, and navigate to the shared database
folder on the server machine.
3. Click the License button on the “RoomView Login” window.
4. Click Obtain remote license.
5. Enter the IP address or hostname of the server computer where the
RoomView license is installed.
6. Enter the port number specified in the Server's RoomView License
Manager.
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7. Click OK.
8. After login, select About RoomView from the Help menu to display
license information.
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Adding and Editing Users
1. Click Users on the Edit menu, or press <Ctrl+U>, or click the Edit
Users icon , then click New User.
2. Enter the username.
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3. Enter the E-mail address.
4. Enter and confirm the password.
5. Select User or Administrator for the program access.
6. Click the Rooms tab and select the rooms to which this user will have
access. The Administrator may restrict rooms visible to each user by
unchecking the check box for a room. By default, all rooms are visible
to all users:
7. Click OK to save your user.
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Adding and Editing Rooms
A room is a location, such as a meeting room or classroom that is controlled by
one control system.
In both corporate and educational settings, it is common for rooms to have a
projector or other "display" device with a light bulb or lamp. Here RoomView
can monitor both the lamp life and power status of the display device and send
notification when the bulb requires replacement.
NOTE: If you are using an unlicensed version of RoomView, you are limited to
a maximum of 25 rooms.
Other parameters that RoomView can monitor are the online status of the
control system, power status, error conditions, help requests and custom
attributes as defined by the Administrator. You can also schedule system events
to occur at regular times. Refer to “Scheduling Events” on page 20 and “Adding
and Editing Contacts” on page 17 for additional information.
Adding a Room
1. Click Rooms on the Edit menu, or press <Ctrl+R>, or click the Edit
Rooms icon . Then click New Room to create a new room or select
an existing room and click Edit.
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2. Enter a name for the room, and then enter the room location and group
if desired. In large applications, the location and group can help
organize the rooms and provide useful search parameters.
NOTE: You can assign a new group or select from an existing group by
clicking the drop down arrow.
3. Enter the IP address or host name (DHCP) of the control system, and
then select the IP ID. This is the IP ID assigned to the interface in the
control system's SIMPL Windows program. If a hostname is used
instead of an IP address, click the DHCP enabled box.
Each combination of IP addresses and IP IDs must be unique. That is,
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two rooms can have the same IP address so long as the IP IDs are
different. Similarly, two rooms can have the same IP ID so long as the
IP addresses are different. Of utmost importance is that the IP ID that
you select for a room matches the IP ID of that interface symbol.
NOTE: Changing the IP ID requires recompiling the SIMPL Windows
program.
4. The e-Control Link box specifies an internet URL or IP address to
which the Internet Explorer can browse when the e-Control Link option
is selected in the context menu. If no e-Control Link address is
specified, the option is hidden in the context menu. An e-Control Link
allows the RoomView user to browse to web pages for a given room.
An e-Control Link can also point to an executable file generated by
VisionTools Pro-e. The browse button is used to select the web page or
.exe file that should be launched when the "e-Control" context menu
item is selected for a room.
5. If an external gateway is used instead of the control processor acting as
its own gateway, select the External gateway option and enter the IP
address of the gateway.
6. When you are satisfied with the room settings, click Save Room and
then click Close. Alternatively, you can delete the room by clicking
Delete Room. You can also delete all the rooms in the database by
clicking Delete All.
NOTE: Save Room replaces all previous information with the new information.
Save As retains the old room information and adds a new room with the new
information.
NOTE: After saving the room, three additional tabs appear: Attributes, Contacts
and Events. Each room can be assigned it's own combination of attributes,
contacts and events.
Editing Room Parameters
1. Disconnect the room before making any changes.
2. Edit the room information fields.
3. Click Save Room. This saves the original room with your changes.
Creating a New Room that has Similar
Parameters to an Existing Room
1. Disconnect the similar room before making any changes.
2. Edit name, location, IP ID and IP Address, and any other room
parameters.
3. Click Save As. This saves your changes as a new room and makes no
change in the room you used as a model.
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Adding and Editing Room Attributes
Attributes define a monitored signal for a room, such as room lights, system
power, etc. An attribute can be a digital, analog, or serial signal and is assigned a
join number. The join number must have a corresponding signal mapped to the
RoomView symbol in the SIMPL Windows program. Custom attributes require
changes to the RoomView symbol and to the SIMPL Windows program to
function. An attribute must be assigned to a room in order for that room to
monitor the attribute signal. RoomView supplies ten attributes that are applied to
all rooms by default. You can keep or disable any of these, and you can add
attributes of you own making.
The standard list of reserved attributes appear in the following order:
Name, Location, Group, Online, Log, System Power, Display Power,
Display Usage, Help, and Schedule.
These reserved attributes cannot be deleted, but they can be individually
disabled and renamed. Attributes can be selected to appear for particular rooms,
and not for others.
Use the following procedure to add a new room attribute.
1. Select Attributes from the Edit menu, or press <Ctrl+A>, or click the
Edit Attribute icon .
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2. Reserved attributes are displayed in gray and cannot be deleted. Click
New Attribute to create a new attribute or select an existing attribute
and click Edit.
NOTE: The signal type and join number of reserved attributes are fixed and
cannot be changed.
NOTE: If the option to apply to all rooms is selected, the room tab is not shown.
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3. In the General Tab, enter a Signal name. This is the title of the new
attribute.
4. Select a Signal type from the pull down list (Digital, Analog, or
Serial). The signal type determines which graphics are available to
display the attribute.
5. Enter a Group name or select one from the pull down list.
6. Assign a Join number. The join number must match the corresponding
signal in the SIMPL program. Refer to “Control System
Configuration” on page 47.
7. Select the Graphic icons for this attribute. Digital attributes have icons
for off and on states. Analog attributes have a single graphic to display
the current value of the signal. Serial attributes display the signal text.
Digital room attribute icons can be changed to an icon selected from a
pull down list on the “Edit Attributes” window.
8. If this attribute pertains to all rooms, select the option Apply attribute to
all rooms.
9. If the attribute should be displayed on the main screen and/or on the
main screen context menu, select the options Display on main view or
Show on context menu.
10. Click the Alert tab.
11. Check the Send e-mail alert for this attribute option to enable e-mail
alert notification for this attribute or uncheck the option to disable alert
notification for this attribute. Refer to “Adding and Editing Contacts”
on page 17.
12. Select the condition for which an e-mail alert is sent:
• For digital signals, choose notification when the signal is on, off or
both.
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• For analog signals, choose equal to, equal or less than, equal or
greater than or not equal to the specified alert notification value.
This window allows you to define the condition under which an e-
mail is sent to the assigned room contact.
• For serial signals, you can specify a specific string of characters.
11. The alert can be customized on a per room basis. Click the Attributes
tab in the “Edit Room” window, and highlight the Alert Value field to
enter a custom notification value for the alert.
NOTE: Contacts must be assigned to the room in order to receive e-mail alerts.
Refer to “Adding and Editing Contacts” on page 17.
12. If the option Apply attribute to all rooms is not checked, click the
Rooms tab.
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13. Check all rooms to which the attribute applies.
14. Click OK to save your changes.
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