Scheduling

Scheduling and Time Zones

A schedule consists of a list of schedule items that specify the times when specific configuration slots should be loaded. The schedule attribute ‘UTC Offset’ allows the times to be interpreted in different ways, as described below.

ƒLocal

If you set the ‘UTC Offset’ attribute to 'Local', then the schedule times will represent the local times on the RTM device. For example, if the 'UTC to Time Zone Offset' of the device is -360 minutes (6 hours behind UTC) and a schedule load time is specified as 13:00, then the appropriate configuration will be loaded at 13:00 in the local time zone of the RTM device, that is 13:00

+ 360 minutes = 19:00 UTC.

'UTC to Time Zone Offset' is set through Device Î Configuration Î Set Time (See page 3-8).

Having the ‘UTC Offset’ attribute set to 'Local' is useful where it is easier for the user to think of times in the time zone where the RTM device is installed. It is also useful where there are multiple RTM devices situated across different time zones, and configurations should be loaded in the local time of each RTM device.

Figure 3-36 shows the times at which configurations would be loaded if a schedule with the ‘UTC Offset’ attribute set to ‘Local’ containing a load time of 13:00 were used by RTM devices in several different time zones.

ƒUser Defined Offset

You can also set the ‘UTC Offset’ attribute to a numeric value specifying the time zone in which the schedule is written, and independent of the RTM device. ‘UTC Offset’ represents the difference in minutes between the time zone that the schedule times are written in and UTC. In other words, subtract the number of minutes from the times specified in the schedule to obtain UTC time.

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MTM400 MPEG Transport Stream Monitor User Manual