Welcome to AlarmWorX Multimedia

Welcome to ICONICSAlarmWorX™ Multimedia, the next generation of modular automation for advanced OPC-based HMI and Visualization. It is an option of AlarmWorX64 that provides OPC-compliant multimedia technology for remote alarm notification, enabling you to send and receive alarms using various multimedia agents.

AlarmWorX Multimedia is a distributed, enterprise-wide alarm notification system that delivers real-time alarm information to the end-users, wherever they may be. The notification messages are sent to a recipient via Multimedia Agents (such as email, pager, fax, voice, text-to-speech, phone, software or Ethernet hardware marquees and more).

The AlarmWorX Multimedia Configurator is a standalone product that allows you to configure alarms on several different types of media agents that can notify anyone, anywhere, of an occurring alarm. Use the ICONICS AlarmWorX Multimedia Configurator to configure alarms, alarm action sets, multimedia agents, and alarm acknowledgement codes. You can also use the Multimedia Configurator to create subscriptions to OPC Alarm and Event (AE) servers. In addition, you can configure schedules and destinations for alarm notification messages.

AlarmWorX Multimedia provides the following capabilities:

Multimedia alarm notification
Configurable media templates
Configurable personnel schedules
Alarms subscription to OPC Alarm and Event servers on the local computer or the intranet/internet
Alarms notification to multimedia agents on the local computer or to agents on the intranet/internet
Remote configuration through the Workbench

Important Note:AlarmWorX Multimedia does not support online changes. Be sure to make any changes in configuration while AlarmWorX Multimedia is not currently in Runtime mode.

Multimedia agents you can use include:

Telephony Agents: Three separate agents:
- The Call-out Agent calls a defined number and gives a message with options to respond.
- The Call-In Agent enables callers to dial in by phone to get alarm information and browse for OPC Data Access tags.
- The PA Agent uses a public address (PA) system device to announce alarms and events over a loudspeaker.
Pager Agent: Delivers alarms not only to numeric pagers, but also to alphanumeric and even two-way pagers. Use the templates provided out-of-the-box, or configure your own message formats to send the information you need to the handy remote devices. Supports not only the TAP paging protocol standard, but also the newer SMS paging services for universal worldwide support.
Video Agent: Plays a prerecorded video or a video captured at the moment of the alarm, allowing you to use a video device to send a video or a snapshot to a computer providing alarm information.
E-mail Agent: Allows you to receive and acknowledge alarms using standard e-mail messages. You can configure e-mail attachments, send screen snapshots, data files, or other files. You can also send a reply back to the alarm system and acknowledge alarms via e-mail. Includes simple MAPI support (supports non-Microsoft e-mail clients), support for Microsoft Outlook, and support for SMTP (for outgoing mail only), which could eliminate the need for an e-mail client. (Note: If you are using Gmail, see the configuration details on Working with Gmail SMTP. If you are using Office365, find additional information here.)
Marquee Agents: The Software Marquee Agent sends alarm and event messages to a marquee that scrolls across the screen of a PC, either local or on the network. The Hardware Marquee Agent sends alarm and event messages to external scrolling marquees, and includes support for multiple (LAN-based) devices.
Sound/Text-to-Speech Agent: Plays prerecorded sounds and/or speech from text locally or remotely over a network. The sound message is specified in the sound template, where you can select a sound (.wav) file from the Sound Library or enter a text message to be converted to speech. Alarms are generated and spoken through speakers connected to a sound card.
Fax Agent: Sends alarm notifications using a fax machine. The template determines the actual message that gets faxed to the number specified, and includes an optional cover page design that can be used for all faxed messages.
Popup Agent: Launches an application of your choice (e.g. Internet Explorer) to provide alarm messages and allows you to open and execute a file on a computer. For example, you can configure a Popup Agent to open Microsoft Internet Explorer and display alarm information within your Web browser so that an HTML Web page appears on your screen whenever a critical problem occurs.
Custom Agent: Enables you to create your own Multimedia agent. You can create a customized executable file by specifying parameters that the Multimedia Server will use to call the Custom Agent's interface.

Installation Notes

Important Note: You must have Microsoft SQL server installed on your computer in order to create a new configuration database. Installation of Microsoft SQL Server Data engine (MSDE) occurs during the Workbench Multimedia installation. If you are using Microsoft Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003, you must log in with administrator capability in order to run the configuration Database Wizard.

If you plan to use email or SMS agents with acknowledgement, you must install AlarmWorX Multimedia correctly.

For email: During installation, the default active email agent is SMTP (outgoing mail only), but if you want to receive alarm acknowledgment via email you need to select For use with Microsoft Outlook (or Outlook Express) during installation. For more information, refer to Email Agents.

How to Proceed

You can configure AlarmWorX Multimedia remotely using the GENESIS64 Workbench.

Before you configure your multimedia settings, you must first create a database in which your configuration can be stored. Then you must connect to the database.

For a roadmap to creating alarm configurations for multimedia alarms, refer to Creating an Alarm Configuration. When your database configuration is completed and you start the Multimedia Server, as described in Starting the Multimedia Server.