Using Talk 8
The first step in operating the Talk 8 is to select one or more zones. This can be done two ways. The first is to select the zones by pressing their buttons. Once a zone is selected, the Talk 8 will be in its Zone Selection state. This will be shown by the Talk button illuminating white or yellow.
Zone selection buttons
If the Talk button is white, Talk 8 is ready to make an announcement page. If the Talk button is yellow then a chime has been selected and will be played before an announcement can be made. The zones that are currently selected will light up white. To return to an Idle state the Clear All button can be pressed, or by toggling off all the selected zones.
Another way to set the zone selection is by using the Select All button, which will add all zones to the selection, from there individual zones can be toggled off.
The last way to set the zone selection is by using the Group buttons. More than one group can be selected at a time, and all zones inside these groups will be added to the selection.
Once the selection of zones have be set, the user can press the Talk button to begin announcing. If an announcement chime has been configured, then the talk button will flash yellow while the chime plays. Once the microphone is unmuted, the Talk button will turn green, ready for the announcement to be made.
Talk button ready for an announcement
The Talk button has two modes, hold and toggle. When holding, the Talk 8 will stay in its talking mode while the Talk button is held down, and once the Talk button is released the Talk 8 will return to its idle state. However, if the Talk button is pressed briefly, then the Talk 8 will stay in its talking state until the Talk button is pressed again, at which point it will return to its idle state.
Once an announcement is complete, there is a five second window where the Talk button can be used again while the Talk 8 is idle, this will result in another announcement being made without chime, automatically recalling the previously selected zones. This is intended to be used as a way to add onto a previous announcement without needed to reselect the zones and without a chime playing if one is selected. It's important to note, that if a zone becomes blocked between the end of the first announcement, and the attempt for a follow up, then the follow up with recent zones becomes unavailable.
If any zones are unavailable to be added to the selection, they will light up red to show they are blocked. And if a group contains one or more blocked zones, they will also light up red. The Talk 8 will not allow selection of a blocked zone or group, this is because the zone or group will be blocked by the other Talk 8 having them in their selection.
Inaccessible or blocked Zones/Groups will illuminate red
Playback Buttons
To start playback of a file using the playback buttons, a zone selection is required. This is done the same way as making a zone selection for talking, but instead of pressing the talk button, the user will press one of the six playback buttons.
If a playback button lights up white after zone selection, this indicates an announcement file has been assigned to the button in WebApp. The announcement will be played by pressing one of the illuminated buttons.
The playback button will flash white while the announcement file is being played. After the file has finished playback, it will return to its idle state. The playback can also be stopped by pressing the button again during playback.
WebApp Indication
When using the Talk 8 to make an announcement, or if play back of a file has been triggered, this is indicated on the WebApp when in the zone control view. There are two places where this indication happens, once on the zone selection panel which shows which zones are being announced to, indicated by a megaphone icon.
In the zone control page, announcements in progress are indicated by a yellow banner at the top of the page.