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Can I use VPage outputs to indicate paging status or mute a speaker?

YES YOU CAN!

Sorry, we're just a little excited because a client of ours needed this and we were pretty sure it was going to work -- and it did.

Your exact use for this might vary, but basically, you can use an output from the VPage (or VCom) 16K to drive a solid-state relay (no more than 50mA, please!) to control any number of neat output options to indicator your paging state, mute a BGM or other speaker or whatever else you need when you are actively paging (maybe it's triggering a neat lighting effect highlighting the person doing the paging?). The sky's the limit.

So here's how you do it. You have your power supply (standard voltages are 24VDC, but it could be 5VDC, 12VDC, etc.) already wired up to the IOBB to run your kit's light outputs to your buttons already. You're going to use the same power supply and voltage as those. You'll need a solid state relay from someone like Phoenix Contact, Wago, Allen-Bradley or others that runs on that voltage. You'll wire the positive side of your power supply to your relay's (+) contact (generally A1). The negative side should already be wired to your IOBB module on inputs 19 or 37 (or both). You'll connect your relay's (-) contact to whatever output you want to run it from (we're using Zone 16 in the example). 

You'll want to turn on the output pin for "Paging Status LED" and the input pin for your chosen zone (16 in our example) for "Green Light Output". You'll "wire" in Q-Sys from the Paging Status LED back to the Green Light Output for your zone. It'll look a little weird, but it DOES work.

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You also need to enable "Break Away Toggle" on the zone you plan to use for it to start working properly (that allows us to have control of that zone's green LED output. 

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Then! You'll wire whatever you want in to your relay's normally open and/or normally closed contacts and you've got a handy-dandy paging status indicator. If your need is to mute a speaker when paging, you could route one of the speaker's wires through your relay's Normally Closed and common terminals. The speaker will be on by default, until you page; then it'll mute nicely (see the accompanying video, and don't mind the messy wiring job). 

As always, if you have questions, let us know. We're happy to help any way we can. And we'll probably be pretty stoked about it!

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