Technical data

ASTi ACE Studio Components Reference Guide Rev. M DOC-01-TELAS-CRG-4
Copyright © 2014 Advanced Simulation Technology inc. 69
4.0. Comm Panel
The following section details the CommPanel components and the objects within
them.
The CommPanel components include:
• CommPanel4
• CommPanel8
• CommPanel16
• CommPanel32
• CommPanel8Stereo
• StereoCommPanel
4.1. Comm Panel 4, 8, 16, 32
Summary: Simulation of a generic communication control panel used to link a
single operator to up to 32 assets. A facility is provided for separate control of
input, output and sidetone routing to and from assets. Assets are linked to the comm
panel component using the intercom service.
Description: Although external assets may be connected, only a single channel
needs to be described since the remainder are simply copies of the first. The basic
concept of the comm panel is the connection of an operator input (usually
microphone, often via a vox object) through a PTT gate and gain stage with an
optional control input and scaling factor via a control selector switch (in_control) to
an intercom channel (bi-directional) provided by the ACE intercom service. The
intercom channel may be connected to various other object types to provide
connectivity to other audio objects, or may simply be used as a basic intercom to
provide standard intercom voice communications.
The input is keyed active if the PTT is set (either by default value or external
control) and the input audio is tagged as Active_Tx.
The return signal from the service is passed to the operator via an output control
selector via an optional receive gain control and scaling factor.
The comm panel object determines how sidetone is computed for each asset
depending on the setting of the ‘sidetone local’ mask. If the bit corresponding to a
particular channel is set then gain is computed locally within the comm panel,
otherwise sidetone is a function of the externally connected asset. Sidetone Local is
usually used for intercom connections between operators, while sidetone remote is
used for connections to radio objects. Remote sidetone will cause operators sharing
an asset to all hear each others sidetone, while sidetone local will cause other
operators to hear only transmitted sidetone.
The LocalGain Bypass mask parameter determines whether the receive gain control
and scaling factors affect sidetone gain or not. The normal operation is that the
sidetone gain IS affected by the corresponding channel receive gain values, as well
as the main Outgain value. If LocalGain Bypass bit is true for a particular signal
asset, its sidetone gain will be the product of the Sidetone Gain, the OutGain, and
the Rx Gain for the particular asset.
Likewise normal operation for the Sidetone Control byte is for it to be AND’ed
with the OutControl byte. Unless of course the LocalGain Bypass is set true, in
which case for that Asset the mask is controlled only by the Sidetone Control byte.
The comm panel may be connected to Tx/Rx intercom service channels (typically
voice signals to/from radios and intercom between crew, or Rx only signals (such
as Nav receivers, tone sources and similar).