PRSS ContentDepot Daylight Saving Time—Fall 2007
The transition from Daylight Saving to Standard Time will occur on November 4, 2007. The following are technical and operational notes about handling the transition to Standard Time. Incuded are the second notice of new DST transition dates, final notes on operating through the transition with an SOSS computer, and information about ContentDepot live and file operations for the transition.
One provision of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 changes the start and end dates of Daylight Saving Time (DST) starting in 2007. The transition dates are now the second Sunday in March (instead of the first Sunday in April) and the first Sunday in November (instead of the fourth Sunday in October). As noted elsewhere, this is a tactic to save energy—the ‘daylight saving’ part. There are links below to abundant sources of fact, history, and opinion on the change
All headend systems directly in the delivery path for both the ContentDepot and the SOSS have been inspected, patched, tested, and are ready-to-go for a normal transition to Standard Time at 0200 Sunday November 4, 2007.
ContentDepot:
The ContentDepot operates in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which is an absolute standard that does not adjust for DST or ‘summer time’. Likewise, the ContentDepot delivers UTC data via NTP on the satellite channels. Any time zone or DST offsets are applied at end devices—typically production computers or time-of-day displays synced via NTP.
This actually makes the ContentDepot transition to Standard Time very straightforward:
If your local computers have been updated with the latest DST patches (available for all major platforms—see links below), they will step back one hour at 0200 on November 4th, and all operations will be fine. Check with your automation/playback system vendor to see if you need to do any special maintenance or procedures to accommodate this transition.
Neither NPR nor IDC issued software updates for the IDC storage receivers and stream decoders to accommodate the “new” DST transition dates. The receivers operate in UTC (synced via NTP) and the only operational function affected by DST offset is the automated deletion of files based on their kill dates—an hour earlier for one week won’t make any difference in local operation.
The Fall Daylight Saving Time transition to Standard Time is traditionally more complex than the Spring transition. Stepping a time source back—and trying to get downstream systems to re-execute events—can be tricky.
If you use ContentDepot stream programs overnight on Saturdays (including early Sunday morning):
Each producer will generate an extra live program hour to fill “Hour X” between 01:59:59 ET and 02:00:00 ET. You do not have to subscribe to this hour; if you are subscribed to a program that ends at 01:59:59 ET, you will get Hour X automatically.
There will be no stream tuning commands generated or sent to decoders at 01:59:59 ET. Your decoders will not change streams at the end of the 0100 hour—and will stay on the 0100 stream until the next tuning commands are issued at the end of Hour X for 0200 ET.
The NPR Newscast scheduled for 01:01:00 – 01:06:00 ET has been adjusted so that the actual scheduled time runs from 01:01:00 to 02:00:00 to accommodate the lack of stream tuning commands for Hour X. There will be newscast audio at 01:01:00 – 01:06:00 and Hour X:01:00 – Hour X:06:00. If you use your “newscast” stream decoder for any live program between 01:06:00 and 02:00:00 on Sunday mornings (very rare), you will need to make local adjustments to accommodate this.
Program cueing will operate normally in the 0100 ET hour and in Hour X ET for all live programs.
If you play ContentDepot file programs overnight, check your program’s portal page. In some cases, the producer has generated a special “extra” hour of their program and uploaded it into the “evergreen” slot. Watch for messages from your program producer(s) for more information.
SOSS:
For SOSS station computers, the transition will take place at approximately 0210 on November 4th. NOC technicians will step back one hour the master time source for the NPR production plant and the SOSS Downlink Services Channel (DSC). As the updated time propagates to the system (it can take up to a minute), your SOSS computer will likewise step back. Any local events you have programmed in your SOSS (there are no system events anymore) will execute according to the traditional rules: any event that’s active at 0210 will remain so until the next event after 0210 and any event that has completed will not reexecute.
If you are still using your SOSS computer for local automation and have questions, please contact PRSS Help.
Please note that you do not have to apply any patches or updates to your SOSS equipment to accommodate the new Standard Time transition. The SOSS operates in Eastern time—sourced exclusively from the NOC master clocks via the DSC—and does not rely on internal features of the OS/2 operating system.
For those of you keeping track, this is the 26th and final Daylight Saving Time transition for the SOSS. The first was in the Spring of 1995.
What else do you need to do? The most important action you can take is make sure that your local production systems (including time-of-day displays) have the latest updates so that they’ll properly step back on November 4th. You should also check with your automation/playback system vendor to see if there are any special scheduling considerations for your particular installation.
For more information, here are some links: http://www.calconnect.org/dstdocs.shtml—a good reference-and-link point with a lot of information, including links to operating system vendors for patch information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time—the wikipedia entry for Daylight Saving Time. Also good for links.
If you require additional assistance, PRSS Help Desk is available by telephone at 800.971.7677, or via email: prsshelp@npr.org.