One of your carillon’s primary strengths is its ‘set it/forget it’ ease of programming. The 100-year SmartAlmanacTM makes this possible and you have total control. In addition to daylight saving time, you may enable or disable liturgical seasons and set the date in December that Christmas music begins to play.
This menu appears on all current musical bell systems. It has had a few variations over the years but everything you see on your system will be covered below.
You can also make these settings using a Windows PC with our free download Management Suite.
Open the Seasonal options setup menu by pressing the front panel green Enter button so that you read Main Menu on the top line of the display. Press any gray cursor button until the flashing lower line reads System Setup Menu then press the Enter button again.
The top line should now say System Setup Menu and you may press any gray cursor button until the lower line is blinking TimeStrike/AutoLevel. One more press of the Enter button will get us there.
The screen will display the following menu:
Set Seasonal Options Auto DST change:Yes
The setting on the lower right of the display will be blinking. You can press the cursor left button to make the lower left prompt blink. This will allow you to back up the menu if you need to.
Normally you will leave the right side blinking while using the cursor up and cursor down buttons to change the settings. Pressing the Enter button while the right side is blinking will accept the current parameter and procede to the next option prompt.
Options and parameters
Auto DST change
- Yes The carillon will automatically adjust the clock between Daylight Saving and Standard Time
- No No Daylight Saving adjustments will ever be made
Note that you can change the dates in the Daylight Saving setup menu.
Use US Patriotic
- Yes will play patriotic music for non-patriotic random groups on Independence Day (July 4) and Memorial Day
(Last Monday of May).
- No will not play patriotic music for non-patriotic random groups
Play Lenten
- Yes will play Lenten music for sacred music from Ash Wednesday until Good Friday.
- No will not play Lenten music for sacred random groups.
OFF Good Fri/Sat
- Yes will not play random selections on Good Friday and Holy Saturday (other bells or specific hymns will continue to ring).
- No continues to play Lenten selections on Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
Play Easter
- Yes will play Easter music for sacred music groups from Easter Sunday until the dates detailed below.
- No puts the system into a non-sacred secular mode. Sacred music groups play ordinary popular hymns.
If this option is set to Yes and the Marian season is also set to Yes then Easter music will play from Easter Sunday until the end of April. If Marian is set to No then Easter music only plays for one week.
Play Marian
- Yes puts the system into Catholic mode. Sacred hymns for other seasons will be Catholic and Marian music will play for sacred music groups on August 15 and 22, December 8, and the month of May.
- No puts the system into General mode. Sacred hymns for other seasons will omit Catholic selections in favor of Protestant selections. Marian music will not play during the dates listed above.
Play Thanksgiving
- Yes plays Thanksgiving hymns for sacred music groups on US Thanksgiving Day and the previous Sunday.
- No continues to play ordinary hymns during the US Thanksgiving days.
Play Advent
- Yes plays Advent hymns for sacred music groups from the First Sunday in Advent until date selected for
Christmas from.
- No continues to play non-seasonal sacred music until the date selected for Christmas from.
LX Carillon Front Speaker
- Yes to use the front speaker
- No when you only want to hear inside through the line output tied to your PA
Christmas From 12/
- Date between 01 and 24
Christmas cannot be disabled. The date Christmas starts can be selected from 12/1 to 12/24. If Advent is enabled, Christmas music will continue to play until January 5. If Advent is disabled, then Christmas ends on 12/26.
In general installations to avoid Christmas music, play from the non-sacred, non-seasonal random group.
Use pre-recorded chime (& Harp Bells) arrangements
(Millennium and Platinum carillons)
May be displayed as:
Use PreRec Split Use PreRec Ch&Hp
- Yes will play factory pre-recorded arrangements with the melody on the selected chime with accompanying harp bells if selected in Voicing Preferences.
- No will not play factory pre-recorded chime selections
Use pre-recorded full carillon arrangements
May be displayed as:
Use PreRec Full
- Yes will play factory pre-recorded arrangements for the selected full carillon voice.
- No will not play factory pre-recorded carillon selections.
If both of the above options are set to Yes then the system will randomly choose between arrangements for each song selected by the SmartAlmanac.
If both of the above options are set to No then the system will not be enabled to randomly play factory pre-recorded music using the SmartAlmanac Groups 1 through 8. A Group 9 list for each selection favored with its own type of arrangement can be used. User keyboard recordings may also be used in place of the factory recordings.
Speakers on automatic
- Inside - scheduled automatic play will be directed inside only
- Outside - scheduled automatic play will be directed to outside speakers only
- Both - scheduled automatic play will be directed to both inside and outside speakers (default)
Speakers on manual
- Inside - user initiated (by remote or front panel) play will be directed inside only
- Outside - user initiated (by remote or front panel) play will be directed to outside speakers only
- Both - user initiated (by remote or front panel) play will be directed to both inside and outside speakers (default)
Pressing the green Enter button after the last parameter has been set will exit saving changes.
Pressing the green Enter button while the prompt on the left is blinking will exit saving changes.
Pressing the red Cancel button at any time will exit the menu without making changes.
Troubleshooting
If when trying to play a random hymn, the display says the seasonal list is empty, check the issues on the Playlist empty error page.