"How do you know when something has gone wrong on your Livewire network? Do the jocks come screaming to you? You can get ahead of the curve by configuring your Telos Alliance gear to message you using a little logging and alerting protocol called "SysLog."

"This nifty protocol allows you to centrally log messages from a variety of equipment, and trigger alerts based on their importance. There are two components: the client and the server. The client simply sends a UDP packet to the server, and it's up to the server to actually do something with it.

"You get to choose what software you use. Telos has their own free SysLog Server, but I prefer the What's Up Gold FREE SysLog Server for it's more advanced event-based alerting. If you have Nagios or another network monitoring tool, you may be able to use that. Hey, you could even write your own in under 20 lines of code!

"Configuration is a simple matter of putting the server's IP address into the Web GUI of your equipment. This can be found in the System page of your Axia Node, the Diagnostics page of your Element Engine and the Log Setup page of a QOR engine. Most IP-enabled Telos Alliance gear supports this protocol.

"Once you've done this, you should start seeing log entries appear in your server software. When navigating around the Web GUI, you'll probably see some Error messages but otherwise on a healthy Livewire network you won't see too much.

"The next step is to setup your alerting. How you do this and what rules you use is a matter of personal preference. In the What's Up Gold server, I choose to have anything at the Critical level or above trigger an email. I find there is too much noise at the Error level so I tend to ignore this. After a while you will get a feel for the types of messages your equipment generates, and you can setup keyword filters to treat the various messages differently.

"Bonus Tip: You can also setup other devices such as a Cisco Switches to send SysLog alerts to that exact same server! It's a common protocol so plenty of devices support it."

All of us at the Telos Alliance share with our clients a fatal attraction to broadcasting, as well as a passion for making great audio. But many of us have other hobbies and interests that might surprise you. From time to time, we'll profile members of the Telos Alliance and what they do when they're not inventing the next generation of broadcast audio gear.

As a kid growing up during the 80s in the Cleveland area, Cornelius Gould became fascinated with rocketry. He put together and launched Estes kit rockets, designed and built a flying scale model of the space shuttle out of cardstock and read extensively about the space program. "My earliest memories of NASA are from the Apollo-Soyuz flight in July of 1975," recalls Gould. As his knowledge and skills developed, he became interested in the problem of designing and building a remote control (RC) boost glider, a tall order with 1980s rocketry technology. One of the first challenges was determining whether 1980s state-of-the-art RC transceivers would have enough range to control the glider once it was deployed. Gould's tests with RC gear led to his developing low-power transmitters, which in turn, led to an interest and career in radio broadcasting and audio processors.

Fast forward twenty five years, and Omnia brand manager and developer Corny Gould takes his stepdaughter to see the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis. "That was the point when I knew that I wanted to get back into rocketry and build the boost glider," notes Gould. A lot had changed while he was away from the hobby. Rocket engines had become more powerful, microprocessors were everywhere and RC equipment was smaller, lighter and more versatile. His dreams of flying remote control boost gliders seemed well within reach.

Gould found a group of like-minded geeks in the Mantua Township Missile Agency, and became vice president of the club. He also created a blog, CPGAeronautics.com, to chronicle his research and design work.

Gradually, the plans for creating his boost glider became clearer. Beginning with a series of smaller custom rockets, he plans to collect data about G-forces and acceleration curves under various launch conditions for use in designing the RC boost glider. Various electronic data gathering and computerized control of key recovery functions will be developed on this portion of the project for general use in exploration of model rocketry.

After gathering data with an Artemis booster, which has a ceiling of about 1,000 feet, he plans to step up to the Perseus booster, which can reach about 2,000 feet. The following step, the Sagitta Heavy lift booster, will require Gould to gain additional certifications from the National Association of Rocketry. It will be this booster that will lift the glider into the air. At this point, many computerized functions will need to be developed and debugged, such as computer controlled parachute deployment as well as "mockup" shuttle / booster flight tests. "This will be a busy period of testing," notes Gould, "and the results should prove to be very interesting!"

The final stage will be development of the Carina Shuttle, or remote controlled glider It will be mounted on the Sagitta heavy lift booster, and released at the apogee of the Sagitta booster's flight path. As the booster returns on parachute, Gould will fly the shuttle portion back to the launch site by remote control.

So, when will the boost glider finally take flight? That's hard to say. Gould has no hard and fast timetable. "Getting there may take a bit longer than planned, but that's OK. It's all about the journey!"

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