Notifications Basics

The selected Notification Type defines the type of notification you're creating and what you can assign in the Message Details section. For example, does the notification just need to send text, and maybe an image? Does it need to include tones or a prerecorded message? Is this a live broadcast notification? The questions and examples below help you determine the Notification Type you need to select for your notification.

There are two Activation Types – Iteration and Continuous. The system default is one iteration; where the notification is received, its content displayed once or audio played once, and then the notification is done. When you increase the number of Iterations, the notification repeats the designated number of times with a pause in between as defined by the Repeat Interval. If you want the notification to repeat with no pauses in between, set the Repeat Interval to zero.

The important difference between iteration and continuous is that when Continuous is selected, the notification continues to repeat until the notification is stopped.

When you set up your notifications, you assign a priority level of 1-10.

Note: Not all endpoints support priority levels. Check the endpoint vendor documentation.

By default, priority 9 and 10 are considered emergency alerts. See Emergency Alert for information about this functionality and how to change the default value.

Here's how priority levels are handled by the system, when all endpoints for the notifications are the same:

• When a higher priority notification is received by endpoints, any active lower priority notifications currently playing are quickly stopped and the higher priority notification plays. An Error-Preempted message is logged.
• When a higher priority notification is currently playing and a new notification of equal priority is received by endpoints, the new notification does not play. A Priority Busy error is logged. Refer to Queuing Notifications to change this behavior for a notification.
• When a lower priority notification is received by endpoints and a notification of higher or equal priority is currently playing, the new notification in not played. A Priority Busy error is logged. Refer to Queuing Notifications to change this behavior for a notification.
• When multiple notifications are triggered at the same time that go to the same endpoints, notifications with the highest priority are played. Lower priority notifications are not played. A Priority Busy error message is logged. Refer to Queuing Notifications to change this behavior for a notification.
• When multiple notifications are triggered at the same time that go to the same endpoints and the notifications have the same priority level, the first notification received is played. The other notifications are not played. A Priority Busy error is logged. Refer to Queuing Notifications to change this behavior for a notification.

Redundancy:  In a redundant environment, Revolution can detect and exclude busy endpoints for lower priority notifications, regardless of the server from which they are busy. Revolution can also detect and stop lower-priority notifications on any server when a higher notification occurs.

The priority rules differ for notifications that have overlapping endpoints.

• In this first case, endpoints C and D are part of two different notifications with differing priority levels.

  

  When Notification 1 begins, endpoints ABCD all receive the notification. However, when Notification 2 activates, Revolution will stop Notification 1 on ABCD and begin Notification 2 on endpoints CDEF. This is because Revolution cannot stop a notification on only a partial set of endpoints, resulting in AB having Notification 1 end without receiving Notification 2

• In this second case, endpoints O and P are part of different notifications, where the second notification is a lower priority.

  

  When notification 3 begins, endpoints MNOP all receive the notification. When Notification 4 starts, it will not override the notification on endpoints MNOP, therefore only endpoints QR will receive Notification 4.

IP Devices with Priority Settings

Some IP devices, such as those with LED signs, have internal priority settings that you can map to our Priority levels.

Refer to the documentation for your device and adjust its settings where necessary.

Emergency Alert

By default, when you set the Priority to level 9 or 10, you are defining the notification as an emergency alert. You can alter this value by going to Global Settings > Notification > Emergency Priority Threshold, where any value greater than the setting will be treated as an emergency alert.

This definition instructs the Desktop module to send notifications to Desktop Notification Clients in the Emergency Alert Template.

It also instructs the Email module to add a High Priority flag to any emails sent.

When editing notifications, the Priority slider will change color and display a tool-tip when you set it to an emergency alert level.

Notification Priority for Mitel 69xx Phones

For Mitel 69xx phones, if an endpoint is on an active call, an incoming notification will behave as follows.

• If the notification priority is greater than the Emergency Priority Threshold global setting (default of 8), then the phone will merge the incoming stream into the active call.
• If the notification priority is less than or equal to the Emergency Priority Threshold setting, then the phone ignores the incoming notification.

You can set each notification to enter a queue if it conflicts with equal or higher-priority notifications. As the higher-priority notification completes, any queued notification will be sent.

Note: This functionality is available only for non-live notification types. Therefore, you cannot use this for One-Way, Two-Way, Conference, Answer or Listen-In notification types,

When you enable the Allow Queuing behind higher priority notification field, Revolution will queue the notification for any overlapping endpoints running higher priority notifications. In this case the lower-priority notifications will return a status of "Queued" and will attempt to run when the higher priority notification completes.

For example, assume you have multiple panic buttons and there is a possibility that more than one could be triggered near-simultaneously, you could enable this to ensure that Revolution sends notifications for all of them.

See Setting the priority.

You may want to create notifications that are sent only during certain hours of the day.

For example, say you have a CAP notification that should go to one security team during work hours (9:00 am to 5:00 pm) and a secondary security team during off hours (5:00 pm to 9:00 am).

Note: Active hours are ignored if manually triggered within the web interface.

1. Enable Enable Active Hours.

2. For Start Time and End Time, enter the time range for the notification.

   Start Time is inclusive and End Time is exclusive. For example, if you set the active hours as 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm, the notification would activate at 12:00 exactly and up to, but not including, 3:00 pm.

If you enable active hours on a live audio notification, such as one-way or two-way, Revolution will validate your triggers against other notifications with the same trigger. If another notification has overlapping active hours, you will receive an error notifying you that the trigger is already in use.

If your admin has set up multiple sites, you can assign a notification to a particular site or leave it available for all sites (which is the default). To assign a specific site, disable Available in All sites and select a Site from the drop-down list.

Tip: If there is only one site available in the Site drop-down list, then multiple sites are not being used and you can leave Available in All Sites enabled.

Set a maximum time limit for the length of the notification.

1. Select Enable Time Limit
2. For Time Limit, enter a value, in seconds, for how long the notification should be active.

Note: The Time Limit value overrides any other setting. Therefore, if you have six minutes of iterating notifications, but your Time Limit is five minutes, the notification will stop after five minutes.

Some examples of use include:

• Create a passing period for your school schedule. Create a Direct One-way notification that plays audio from an input stream (Source Endpoint) for a defined length between one class ending and the next beginning
• Display a notice (text and or images) on IP phones for a given amount of time.

Revolution can monitor incoming CAP alerts and pass these alerts on to your endpoints. See the CAP Alert Notification example.

For example, I want to pass on severe weather alerts, issued by the National Weather Service, to my endpoints (phones, speakers, etc.) I create a Portland Weather AlertsRevolution's NWS CAP service (by starting with Revolution's preconfigured NWS CAP feed and selecting the Greater Portland area to monitor), and then assign CAP Activator > Portland Weather Alerts to trigger the notification, which I have set up to forward the content from the NWS alert to my endpoints.

A notification is triggered by a device, such as a button or sensor. IP devices have one or more general purpose input (GPI) pins that allow you to connect one IP device, such as a button, to another IP device, such as a speaker. See the Intercom Direct Two-Way Notification example.

For example, I have a notification set up as an intercom between two talk-back speakers. To begin talking into speaker A, I press a button connected to that speaker. This button is the trigger that starts the notification that allows me to talk to speaker B. I select the button on speaker A as the IP Device Activator. I then select both speakers A and B as the endpoints in the Select Tags & Endpoints section.

Revolution users can trigger notifications from within the Mobile app. Mobile Trigger Buttons are defined in Mobile Activator and then assigned as a notification trigger. See the Mobile Notification examples.

For example, I have a notification called "School Closure" that lets me notify faculty, staff, students, and parents that school is closed due to inclement weather. I have the Mobile app installed on my smart phone. I have created a Mobile Trigger Button called "School Closure" that displays in my Mobile app on my phone. I can trigger sending the notification from my phone and the Trigger Button allows me to create content for the notification on the fly on my phone.

Your contacts that have the Mobile app can trigger notifications from within the app using Mobile Assistance Buttons. Mobile Assistance Buttons are defined in Mobile Activator and then assigned as a notification trigger. The difference between Trigger Buttons and Assistance Buttons is that only Revolution users have access to Trigger Buttons.

Tip: Users must receive an invitation from Revolution to download the Mobile app and register their mobile devices. See Using the Mobile App for more information.

Phone services triggers configure a phone's soft-keys so you can send a notification by pressing a button on a phone. Think of it like speed dial. This trigger method is what you'll use for Push-to-Talk notifications. See the Push-to-Talk Notification example.

Important: Live broadcast/paging notifications can only be triggered by dialing a SIP line number from a phone.

This is simply a line number you can dial from a phone to trigger a notification. See the Live Broadcast/Paging Notification examples or the Intercom Two-Way Notification example or the Stored Audio Notification examples.

For example, I have a notification called "Campus Lockdown" that sends a high-priority notification to all phones and speakers to let everyone know there's an intruder on campus and lockdown protocols are immediately in place. I assign SIP Activator and line number 5417 as the trigger. When an authorized person needs to send this notification, that person dials 5417 from any phone to trigger it.

Tip: If the trigger has an alarm next to it, hover on it to see a list of notifications using this trigger. If there's no alarm icon, the trigger hasn't yet been assigned.

Using SIP Activator as a trigger also allows you to assign endpoints on the fly (dynamically) to receive the notification. For example, I set up a Two-Way intercom notification, I want to decide at the time I trigger the notification which phone or talk-back speaker I want to create my intercom with. I have Two-Way as my Notification Type, SIP Activator as my trigger, Revolution will only allow one dynamically entered endpoint (because two-way can only connect to a single endpoint), and no endpoints assigned. I dial 7101 from a phone and then enter the line number of the phone I want to connect with. See Dynamic Endpoints below for more information.

Note for multi-site customers: If the notification is assigned to Site 1 and the endpoint dynamically input is assigned to Site 2, the call will not connect, and the end user receives a message that no endpoint was assigned. If the notification is assigned to All Sites and the endpoint dynamically input is assigned to Site 2, the call connects. If the notification is assigned to Site 1 and the endpoint dynamically input is assigned to All Sites, the call connects.

A notification is triggered by a scheduled event you've set up on a calendar. These notifications are triggered automatically, according to the date and time set in the event created in Scheduler. See the Scheduled Notification example.

For example, I have notifications set up to play bell audio tones for my school schedule – first bell, tardy bell, lunch bell, dismissal bell. I create an event and a notification for each time I want a bell audio file to play on my speakers. In my notification, I assign the event as the action that triggers the notification.

If you're using Cisco, Mitel, or Poly phones, Revolution supports monitoring specific calls such as 9-1-1. Once the numbers to monitor are configured, they can be assigned as a notification trigger. When the monitored number is dialed on a phone, the notification it's assigned to is automatically triggered.

Revolution Interface – Notifications that are not live broadcasts can be triggered from the Revolution interface.

Tip: You can add triggers on the fly when setting up the notification. Select the Activator and then click New from the Trigger drop-down list. A separate window opens that allows you to create the trigger. (Note: This is not an option for Mitel dial monitoring triggers because those triggers are set up in your Mitel communications manager.)

When a trigger is deleted from Revolution, it's also removed from any notifications to which it is assigned.

You can limit the activation of a notification based on the location of a trigger.

This functionality is limited to activating endpoints (such as dial monitoring, phone services, SIP DN matches), mobile and GPI triggers.

The following are some sample scenarios:

• You want a mobile contact, who activates a Request Assistance button, to be routed to the closest security team.

• When a 9-1-1 call is placed, enable a visual indicator, such as a flashing strobe, that identifies the location where the call was made.

From the Select Triggers section of your notification:

1. Enable Restrict Triggers by Geographic Area.

2. For Area, select the area you have already created. See Defining geofence areas.

3. For Boundary, define whether the selected region should be Inside or Outside the defined area.

Based on your selections, the notification will activate if any of the area restrictions are met.

• Caller ID – You can choose to Show or Hide the caller ID, which may be the extension number or the name of the person assigned to the extension calling, depending on how this is set up in your phone communication manager system. Alternatively, you can select Custom to add a descriptive name of your own, which allows for the use of text variables from the Add Text Variables icon .

• Select Audio and Select Image – You can include whatever combination of these items you like, such as: image and text; image and audio; image, audio, and text; text only; or audio only.

• Volume – You can choose to use a device's default volume instead of setting the volume in the notification. Keep in mind that if you choose this and someone has the volume turned down low on their phone, they may not hear the notification. If the endpoint is a speaker, your admin may have adjusted the speaker volume in the speaker itself, and/or in the Revolution Endpoint volume setting. See Endpoints > Volume for more information.

  Poly Note: Revolution does not control Poly Paging Groups, therefore the default volume of the endpoint is always used.

• Font Color – You can use a different font color for your message text. If a receiving device doesn't support color, the device's default font color is used (typically black).

• Title – Enter text or variables to briefly describe the message. See Using external content for the message for information about variables.

  Note: You cannot use the following characters in the Title: Ampersand (&), less- or greater-than ( < > ), or double-quote (").

• Body – Enter a more complete message to be sent as the notification, using text or variables. See Using external content for the message for information about variables.

Set up your notification to ensure any displays receiving the notifications, including the Desktop Notification Client, are cleared after a specified amount of time. Use this setting to delay when a notification is cleared after its normal time.

Note: This option is not available for Avaya or Cisco multi-platform phones.

When completing the Message Details section of your notification:

1. Select Clear notification from display on completion
2. For Delay before clearing, enter a time, in seconds, after which the alert is cleared from the display.

For example, if you send a text-based notification with a short-duration audio, use this setting to ensure the text displays beyond the length of the audio.

Note: For Mitel 53xx phones, this functionality is available, however the phones will only poll for updates every 15 seconds, so you may see a delay before a notification clears after completion. It is suggested that you set Delay before clearing to a value greater than 15 seconds to avoid the scenario where the phone receives an instruction to clear the display before displaying the notification.

You can choose to use the content from the action item triggering the notification. For example, to forward the content from the National Weather Service alerts I set up to monitor weather alerts for Portland, I click the bracket symbols { } next to title and body to insert variables that will use the title and body from the NWS weather alert.

Using the Add Text Variables icon, you can use multiple variables for the message title and body. For example, I have a School Closure notification set up. I've included date and time variables in the title since notifications received by my IP phones don't include a date/time stamp.

Here are some things to keep in mind when using variables:

• Depending on what the receiving endpoint is, including additional variables may result in some duplicate information being included in a notification. If this notification is sent to Desktop Notification Clients or contacts' mobile devices, those endpoints automatically include a date/time stamp, so end users viewing the notification on their DNC or in their Mobile Client app see this information twice. And this may be fine if it's important that phone and speakers receive a date/time stamp.
• If you have Caller ID set to Show and include the {callerID} variable, this information will be received twice.
• The {activatingContact.Coordinates} and {activatingContact.Address} variables are only applicable to notifications triggered from a mobile device via the assistance button. See the Mobile Notification examples.

When you select a SIP activator for your Trigger, for Allow users to add endpoints dynamically, you can select Allow and users can enter as many endpoints as they want on the phone when triggering the notification.

What this means is that when a user dials the line number to activate the notification, the user is prompted to enter the destinations, separated by an asterisk (*). When finished, the user enters the pound sign (#) and then begins speaking.

For example, I dial 7101 to trigger the notification. I'm then prompted to enter the destinations I want the notification sent to. I enter 2019*2105*2040#. The notification is sent to extensions 2019, 2105, and 2040.

Note: Users can only enter one DN for two-way notifications, while an unlimited number of DNs can be entered for one-way notifications.

You can also include IP speakers as destinations if your system administrator has assigned destination codes to them. Your system admin may also have configured a combination of IP phones and speakers for the same destination code.

For example, my system admin has configured all the speakers on the first floor with a destination code of 20. I dial 7101 to trigger the notification. When I'm prompted to enter the destinations that I want the notification sent to, I enter 20#. The notification is broadcast to all the speakers on the first floor. Another example might be that my system admin has configured all the speakers and manager phones on the first floor with a destination code of 30. When I dial 7101 to trigger the notification and enter 30# as the destination, the notification is broadcast to all the speakers on the first floor and the manager's phones.

Your system admin should provide you with a list of destination codes you can use. (Admins, see Destination Codes for more information.)

These are the endpoints you select from the list. You can add as many as you like.

You can assign individual contacts or use a dynamic contact tag that your admin has created.

General Purpose Output Relay Mode

This functionality always displays but is only applied when an IP device with a relay is selected as an endpoint, such as an IP speaker or Paging Relay. This is used when an IP device (such as a Paging Relay) is connected with another IP device (such as a strobe light or beacon) and you want the IP device to perform an action when the notification is triggered (such as turn the light or beacon on). It's also used when an on/off GPI button is connected to an IP speaker (such as a talk-back speaker) and the button is used to turn intercom communication on and off.

• While Active- Relay is on only for the duration of the notification. For example, a light comes on when the notification begins and goes off when the notification finishes.
• Pulse - Relay is on for the user-defined length of time, regardless of whether the notification is still playing or finished. For example, a light comes on when the notification begins and continues to stay on after the notification is finished, until the specified time, and then the light turns off.
• Turn On/Turn Off - Relay turns on when notification is received and stays on until a notification with GPO=Turn Off is received. For example, a light comes on when a campus emergency notification is received and the light stays on until a second notification is sent to turn it off.