Cinegy Air is a highly redundant system designed to restore the proper functioning in the case of failure. But to ensure the stable performance, it should be properly configured to work efficiently. It is very important to set up the system to process any possible failures.

The feature of automatic failover presumes the master playout server and slave playout server having the same output configuration. The Master/Slave configuration prevents the server level failures caused by hardware issues (disk, power, etc.).

Several fail-safe playout modes can be used:

1. Workflow with three separate machines - one Cinegy Air client, and two Playout servers – master and slave.

An additional slave Playout server processes the same playlist as master Playout Server. Open Cinegy Air PRO Config (https://open.cinegy.com/products/air/21.2/air/user-manual/configuration/configuring-cinegy-air/) and browse for the "Engine 1" location you would like to use as a master playout server. Mark the checkbox next to "Engine 2" and browse for the location of the slave server. When the master server is down, the system system automatically switches over the broadcast to the slave server with no broadcast interrupting.

In case of SDI configuration, you should have automatic change-over unit that monitors outputs of master and slave channels. In case of IP output, the automatic change-over for IP streams should be used (for example, Cinegy Stream Switcher (https://open.cinegy.com/products/stream-switcher/10/).

Air Server/Client architecture propagates the latest changes in playlist to both servers simultaneously. The playlist is automatically uploaded to the Playout server by Air Control. Please, note that Air Control client should be up and running all the time to reload the playlist once server is back online.

 Please, note: while the system can automatically recover from most of failures, it is highly recommended having an operator working with Air Control to monitor the channel status.

2. Workflow with four separate machines - two Cinegy Air clients, one shared playlist and two Playout servers.

In this mode the "Change over device" (see point 1) functionality allows switching between the master and slave Playout servers. This configuration is the most fail-safe mode. Both Cinegy Air clients and both Playout servers are independently backed up. To configure this mode, set the same playlist path for the master Cinegy Air client and slave Cinegy Air client. Set the fields "Engine 1" and "Engine 2" to be the same for each of the Cinegy Air clients. The playout commutation master/slave is available in this mode.

3. Workflow with four separate machines - two Cinegy Air clients, two playlists and two Playout servers.

This mode is also fail-safe: both editing and playback are independently backed up. The changeover device (see point 1) will quickly respond in case of the signal point failure. Each Cinegy Air client has its own playlist, which can be immediately started if needed (e.g. to replace one broadcasting scheme with another). The process of switching takes about two seconds. To configure this mode, set different playlist paths for master Cinegy Air client and slave Cinegy Air client, but browse the same playout servers (master and slave) for each Cinegy Air client.

You may refer to https://open.cinegy.com/products/air/21.2/air/user-manual/configuration/configuration-models/ for details and graphic schemes of preferred mode.

In case the failure still occurred, due to the hardware issues or human mistakes, please, contact Cinegy support, so we will help you to find out what should be changed to use the system properly.