Automatically inserting new recordings or items into rundown
Especially for web playout scenarios a workflow can be established to fill a prepared rundown with hot news from a MultiCoder or any other source which writes into the DigaSystem database table.
Therefore a special BUS task called Show-Insert was developed which is able to watch a table and react on rules.
The idea is importing material automatically directly into the current show of the day. This can be limited to a time frame by setting a limit for the start and end of the show. With this limit you can e.g. forbid to overwrite the news block at the begin of each hour.
Imported material will be placed directly below the current OnAir element. TurboPlayer will continue the playout of this element and the next one will be the inserted element.
Additional you can limit the import to the newest element of the database table. This will skip importing material which is older. On the other hand in some workflows it is very important that only recordings are handled which have reached a special duration. This avoids importing material which is invalid, e.g. when someone opens the microphone fader too early and decided to restart the recording process.
The idea behind this workflow is to produce material from a central news studio and broadcast it later in an automated way. This works also with pre-produced material which will be copied to the source table of BUS Show-Import task.
Live recordings which are done with level detection do have a disadvantage regarding the end of the recording. The MultiCoder software needs a trigger level to stop the recording and this level must exists for a specific duration to avoid stopped recordings just because one made a small break while reading. On the other hand this would result in silence at the end of this new take.
Therefore the BUS File check task comes with an option to correct the silence at the end of inserted audio file. You need to specify a value in dB which fits to the trigger level in MultiCoder for the STOP command. This will result in moving the MarkOut of the inserted recording to the real point where the recording of the voice should have stopped.
This works even if TurboPlayer already started the playout of the ongoing recording. The correction will be done immediately after finishing the recording and setting the state to Existing. TurboPlayer is by default able to play ongoing recordings.
Usually this workflow is used for automated radio programs where the music is played in sequence by following the predefined LinkOut values of each database entry. This works fine but it also causes that an inserted news audio will start at the LinkOut point of the music element which is still playing. This would result in a mix of music and voice.
This problem can be solved with an internal macro in TurboPlayer. This macro will react on changes made for the next element and will correct the technical metadata for the last playing element. The result will be a LinkOut set to 0 = MarkOut. Therefore there is no more mix of music and news.
Local Settings \ TurboPlayer \ EventsInternal \ NewsInserted :
Event = NextElementChanged
Command =
Code:
if ( %TheRundown == Show )
{
if ( ( DataOfElement ( %TheRundown, %TheElement, Class ) $= "News" ) || ( DataOfElement ( %TheRundown, %TheElement, Class ) $= "Audio" ) )
{
TP_SetDataOfElement ( Show, LastPlaying, Fade_LinkOut, 0 )
TP_ShowError ( "LinkOut updated!" )
}
}
This will check the class of the new inserted element. Typical pre-produced news elements will have the class "News" and MultiCoder recordings will have the class "Audio". Therefore the macro will check both classes.
Instead of using "LastPlaying" you could also use the value Cursor1. This would work when switching the Rundown to a mode where the cursor always remains at the last started element. Typically this is valid for automated pl
Keeping attributes of elements while replacing in DigAIRange
With DigAIRange you can overwrite planned elements by pressing and holding the ALT key while dragging the new element from e.g. DBM to the position of the element you want to replace.
In such case the element will get a green background and after releasing the mouse the old element will be fully overwritten with the metadata from the new one.
In some workflows it is useful to keep some metadata while replacing is done.
This can be realized with a special DLL, e.g. DASTDREPL.DLL
This DLL can be called by DigAIRange and you can configure the behavior for every of your programs.
Example: Keeping the Stinger flag of the original element
Global Settings \ DigAIRange : ReplaceModule = DASTDREPL.dll
Global Settings \ Digas \ PlanServer \ <BCS> \ <Program> \ DigAIRange : KeepTagsInReplacement = Stinger
This works for all types of Stingers because the selected Stinger name is stored inside the XML tag <Stinger>.
You can also specify a list of tags which should be kept, e.g. KeepTagsInReplacement = Source,MixerSource,Stinger
Switching to free showlist on startup of TurboPlayer
TurboPlayer 4 comes with a feature that allows creating a unique show list instead of handling all shows of the day.
Therefore a new mode button was introduced which allows switching on or off the "Free showlist" feature.
If you enable this feature you are able to press on the Show selection button. Instead of a dropdown list you will now see a window which displays all existing shows of a day. You are able to decide which of them should be added to your TurboPlayer.
Afterwards the next possible show will be loaded in TurboPlayer.
To avoid loading the current show on startup you need to create an internal macro for TurboPlayer to switch to free showlist before loading the current show. Please note that version 4.1.1002.2 is required for using this feature.
The macro would look like this:
Local Settings \ TurboPlayer \ EventsInternal \ Startup
Command = TP_ToggleMode ( FreeShowlist, On )
Event = Startup