How to configure the new Axis C1410 mini network speaker for social distancing messaging

The Axis C1410 network mini speaker is an affordable, highly versatile little PoE-powered amplified speaker with built-in PIR for audio announcements programmed and on-demand, safety warnings, background music and much more. It opens up a lot of possibilities for practical applications, its most pertinent one at present is its use for automated social distancing and hygiene messaging at entrances of shops, workplaces, and in leisure parks, helping you get back to work. Spoken social distancing reminders are more effective than just signage with people responding better to gentle reminders played at the right moments. It is an effective tool in your wider measures of minimising the risk of coronavirus spread.

Here is how to set up the Axis C1410 IP speaker to automatically play an audio clip when visitors or staff arrive at your place. We also provide a number of scenario-specific audio files for you to download and use for free.

How to set up automatic playback

Place the speaker on the network and perform the initial setup. Check the Axis website and ensure you have the latest firmware installed

The first thing you’ll notice if you are already familiar with Axis network video and audio products is the new interface. This interface has appeared in their audio products recently and, we think, simplifies setup greatly. However, it lacks any built-in help files so you may need the manual to hand when setting it up. Visit the Overview page to link to the user manual.

Upload your social distancing clip (must be in one of the formats below)

• .au G.711 u-law, 8-bit, mono (8, 16 KHz)
• .wav PCM, 16-bit, mono (8, 16, 32 KHz)
• .mp3 support

There are any number of ways you can now configure the speaker to play audio. Let’s look at the two most common – playing a clip every few minutes/hours and playing a clip when movement is detected.

Set up your clip to play every 15 minutes

Here you need to set up a recurrence and assign an action against it. Go to Events – Management and choose the ‘Recurrences’ tab. Enter the details as in the screenshot below.

Next, go to Events – Management and choose the ‘Action Rules’ tab and, again, enter details as in the screenshot below, selecting the recurrence you created and the clip you uploaded as follows:

1. Enter a name for the action rule
2. Select ‘Time’ as your trigger
3. Choose ‘recurrence’ and then select the recurrence setting you created earlier
4. Leave ‘Schedule’ set to always, unless you want to constrain the clip to only play during, for example, office hours. You can also create a new schedule if necessary. However, we would suggest that if you have some complex timings to consider that you use the Axis Audio Player to create your schedules and not Action Rules
5. You won’t need any additional conditions if you simply want to play a clip every x minutes
6. Under Actions -> Type select Play Audio Clip and select the clip you uploaded earlier. Choose ‘Do not repeat’ (else the clip may endlessly loop)
7. Enable the rule

Set up the speaker to play an announcement when movement is detected

The C1410 has a PIR detector built-in to the body of the speaker. This allows movement to be detected within the vicinity of the speaker and you can use the PIR detector to trigger playback of an audio clip, for example, when someone walks into a building. The speaker also has a built-in microphone and audio detection algorithm so that audio levels can also be used as a trigger to play a sound clip from the speaker.

1. Go to Events – Management and choose the ‘Action Rules’
2. Click Add to create a new action rule
3. Enter a name for the rule
4. Select ‘Detectors’ and PIR as the trigger
5. Ensure that ‘Active’ is set to Yes (though you can reverse the logic here so that the clip will play when there is no movement detected if you so wish)
6. Under Actions select Play Audio Clip and select your clip. Again, select “Do not repeat clip” for the typically setting
7. Click OK, ensure the rule is enabled and perform your testing

At this point, you will likely need to adjust the volume of the clip. The speaker can be quite loud. Adjust volume and gain levels at Audio -> System overview or Audio -> Device settings -> Output.

Using the Axis Audio Player to schedule announcements

This speaker comes with the Axis Audio Player app built-in. Access this from the Overview page. It is easy to schedule the playback of any clip at any time of the day or night and the tool is ideal to set up the playback of social distance messages at pre-defined times of the day. This is different from setting up a recurring playback, as we saw earlier, as the timings are easier to control using the scheduler here.

The tool is essentially a scheduler for the playback of audio including music, audio announcements and streams (such as Internet radio). You can combine these into playlists and schedule a playlist to operate at any time of the day using the drag and drop scheduler. This facility can be used to create soundscapes, store background music, promotional announcements or just about anything else.

Using Axis Audio Player is simple. Just either select from the library of built-in audio clips and demo tracks or upload your own music and announcements (ensure you have the copyright on any music you broadcast) and use the simple calendar-based tool to determine when each audio file will be played. The tabs at the top of the Audio Player interface are where you will add music, clips or live streams or create playlists. You can then assign any combination of this content to the schedule.

External trigger inputs

Finally, note as well, that it is straightforward to use a camera-based detection method to trigger a clip on the C1410 speaker, or to use Milestone to trigger a clip when a camera detects motion or a button is pressed in the Smart Client. Indeed, the possibilities with this speaker are almost endless. You can place SIP calls to it – we’ve tested this via a VOIP app – or even control other speakers from it.

It is a highly versatile device and incredibly useful and cost-effective.

Free social distancing audio files for use with Axis C1410 and other Axis audio products

Free audio files – generic social distancing announcements
Free audio files – retail store social distancing announcements
Free audio files – social distancing announcements for schools
Free audio files – social distancing announcements for medical centres and hospitals

Published on July 12th, 2020 by Kevin Bowyer