ITL PVBX BLOG

Priority settings are designed to allow certain actions have priority over others.

For example, we want “emergency mode” to always happen, so it has the highest priority. It doesn’t matter what is being viewed by a teacher or principal at the time, “emergency mode” will always be shown on their monitors.

If you create a scheduled event or an action that doesn’t use “User Select – Current Room” as an output you will need to set a priority. Priorities are numbered 1 though 9. With 1 being the highest and 9 being the lowest.

What happens if an action’s priority is lower than something already using an output? Nothing. If you’re looking at the PVBX Server application when a priority conflict happens, you’ll see a priority error notice scroll by in the status screen, but otherwise nothing happens. That action will not overwrite the current one.

Here are some priority examples and tips:

The “Blank Screen” action releases the output. No priority level is set, so any action or scheduled event can use the output.

Any action that uses output “User Select – Current Room” will automatically use priority 3. This way when you are logged into your room, this action will always happen (except when something with a higher priority is already using that output.)

A scheduled event to show the lunch menu to all the classrooms can be set at priority 5. This way if a teacher is showing a video to their class, your scheduled event will not bother them.

If a principal wants to make an important announcement to all classrooms you can set that action to priority 2. This way the principal will overwrite anything the teachers are currently viewing. Remember, you must release this action. Either create a separate action to “blank” all the classrooms’ screens, or use the “Save and Restore” feature.

As mentioned before, “emergency mode” has the highest priority. It actually uses a system level priority of 0, just to make sure it always happens. No action or scheduled event should ever be set as priority 0.

So remember if you’re troubleshooting an action, like a broadcast to “all classrooms” action, and you are not seeing what you expect, verify there wasn’t a priority conflict.

First monitor the status screen on the PVBX Server application. If you see a priority error notice, you’ll know right then.

If you want to make sure no one is using the PVBX. You can reset the system from the PVBX Server application. First click the “Stop Server” button, then click the “Reset System” button. This will log everyone out of the PVBX and release all outputs. Optionally if you want to make sure nothing was in the PVBX queue waiting to be processed, click the “Zap Queue” button. And finally, click the “Start Server” button to get the system going again.

If you have any questions on priority settings, please contact your techical supervisor or ITL PVBX Support.