Alarm Alerts

VTS notifies operators of the occurrence and priority of alarms using the following alarm symbols and sounds.

Display Manager Title Bar

When an alarm with any priority level above Event has been triggered, a special area of the Display Manager's title bar will flash red to notify operators. An example is displayed below.

Alarm Page

When an alarm has been triggered, the Current list, Active list, and Unacknowledged lists on the alarm page will display details about the alarm.

An alarm that has not yet been acknowledged is always highlighted in the color associated with its priority in the alarm list. An alarm that has been acknowledged is not highlighted, but its text appears in the color associated with its priority in the alarm list as long as it is also active.

Information on the colors associated with alarm priorities is provided in Alarm Priorities.

Alarm Sounds

When an alarm has been triggered, an alarm siren will sound to alert operators. When the alarm has been acknowledged, the alarm sound will cease.

Spoken Alarms

You can configure VTS to speak an alarm, using the Microsoft SAPI 5.1 speech engine. This can be done either in addition to, or instead of, the siren.

Station Symbol (VTScada)

When an alarm associated with a specific station has been triggered, the centre of the station symbol on the Overview page will flash in red for all alarms with a priority higher than Event. Two examples of station symbols indicating alarm conditions are displayed below.

  

When the alarm is acknowledged, the centre of the station symbol will stop flashing but will continue to display red to indicate that the alarm is still active.

Station Page (VTScada)

When an alarm associated with the I/O at a specific station has been triggered, the drawing method for the I/O tag will flash in red for all alarm priorities above Event. Additionally, the alarm will be highlighted in the station page's alarm list in the color associated with its priority (see Alarm Priorities for a list of the default colors associated with alarm priorities). An example of a station page that has I/O tags in an alarm state is displayed below.

When an alarm associated with an I/O tag has been disabled, a small orange square is displayed on the tag's drawing method. As shown in the example above, both the high and low alarms for the analog status tag reading the well level (first column, third tag) have been disabled. The upper orange symbol indicates that the high alarm has been disabled, and the lower orange symbol indicates that the low alarm has been disabled. The alarm for the digital status tag reading the status of the alarm horn (second column, sixth tag) has been disabled as indicated by the orange symbol.