In the modern world, it’s often easier to just watch the video rather then read text. Don’t wait for the Blu-ray though.
In this example, we’ll create an event whose purpose is to activate at 4:00 pm weekdays, but not on weekends. The event needs to deactivate at 6:00 pm when happy hour is over, even though this is two hours not one as “hour” implies. Two changes are needed during happy hour: a slight increase in the audio volume and a logic output to turn on the happy hour light so patrons and staff know when it’s happy hour “officially.” We’ll setup the event, then create the preset contents, and finally link the two together.
Now that we’re done configuring the event, let’s set up the preset and then test it all.
Adjust the Level control to the slightly increased value, say, +6 dB above the typical volume. Use a dedicated Level block that is not a Level adjusted by the end user from a remote, for example. This will allow the two volumes to act independently. Thus, the staff can always turn things up or down as needed. Also, anything beyond a 6 dB jump in volume will be noticeable to patrons and staff (unless they started happy hour early). So go easy on the size of your level steps to avoid sudden and rude changes in volume.
note: To provide a Level whose typical value provides plus and minus 15 dB of range, drag a new Level block in place in your audio flow. Change its default value of 0 dB, to -15 dB. Then right click on the block (not the opened properties dialog) and select “Save block(s) to Baseline.” This stores a new default value of -15 dB for this block, instead of zero. This way, we can add 6 dB to this value and use it in our Happy Hour preset to increase the volume.
Link the preset to the HAL1x or HAL2’s output Relay:
Next link the Happy Hour Event value to the Happy Hour Preset so that the time of day event turns the relay on and off and adjusts the volume:
In the All Presets dialog, to the right of the preset name, drag the Active chain symbol with the mouse onto the chain symbol that is to the right of the Happy Hour event name in the Event Manager dialog.
Click the Activate button to see both the Level value increase and the relay output turn on. Click Inactivate to verify they return to the previous setting.
Once the Halogen configuration file is applied to a live HAL, the time clock on the HAL will drive the Happy Hour event’s activation. And when the toggle Happy Hour event becomes active automatically, the toggle preset linked to the event also becomes active.