04: Broadcast Module

Overview

The Broadcast module brings together all the elements you need to get your ticker on-the-air. It serves three main functions: First, it’s where you configure your character generator(s) and intelliCommander(s) for first-time use, as well as other broadcast-specific settings. Second, it’s how you create all of the various playlists you’ll need, including customizing the content in each and matching up the templates within your CG. Third, it’s one of three ways in which a playlist can be started (and paused or stopped) on air, with the other options including the intelliCommander, contact closure, or an automation protocol.

Like much of NewsTicker, the Broadcast module requires careful planning during the initial setup of NewsTicker. Once you’ve determined how you want to use NewsTicker, and made the appropriate configurations within Broadcast, you will rarely touch this module on a daily basis.

Initial Configurations

Within the Broadcast module, click Configure. Here, you can set up your output devices and intelliCommanders(s).

Output devices

In most cases, the output devices you’ll be configuring are character generators. This would include any Freedoms, as well as the CG you will be using for election fullscreens if you purchased the Elections module. You may configure as many as needed to satisfy your license.

Before you configure your devices, you’ll need to gather several pieces of information for each device. If the CG is on your network, you’ll need the IP address of that machine, and its automation port. If it’s controlled by a serial port, you’ll need to find out what port it is connected to on the NewsTicker server and what baud rate is being used.

Once you have that information:

1.  Next to Output Devices, click New.
   • CG Number A unique number assigned to this CG. Multiple devices should appear in sequential order. Typically, primary devices (such as .1 channels) are listed first, with secondary devices (digital subchannels, election fullscreen CGs, secondary affiliations) listed second.
   • Name The logical label for the device. This will appear in dropdown boxes when selecting the device, as well as in the intelliCommander’s LCD display. We recommend a label that is 10 characters or less.
   • Driver The automation driver to use for the device. Any Freedom CG will use Freedom. Most non-Freedom CGs that uses the Intelligent Interface protocol will use the Infinit driver. Other options include Codi (for a blackbox Chyron Codi), File (for writing to a text file), and LED1 (for driving scrolling LED signs).
   • Port Type If the device is controllable via a network connection, select Network. If it is connected serially, or you are using the File driver, select Serial/File.
   • Network: IP/Hostname The IP address or hostname of the device on the network.
   • Network: Port The TCP port on the device where the automation software is running. For all Freedoms, this is 55. For Chyrons, this is 23.
   • Network: Username/Password If the device requires automation, you can configure the username and password here. There is no authentication on the Freedom’s automation port. For other devices, we recommend disabling authentication to increase performance.
   • Serial/File: Port/Path If the device is connected serially, enter the port assignment here. Typically, that would be /dev/ttyS0 for COM1 and /dev/ttyS1 for COM2. If it is connected to a serial port expansion card, it may be in the form of /dev/ttyn1a with a range of a-d. You can click the Help button to see a rear line drawing of a typical NewsTicker server. Simply click on the button where the port is to fill-in the name. (If the device is a file, enter the complete pathname instead, being sure it is writable by the user apache.)
   • Serial/File: Baud The baud rate of the device, if serial.

intelliCommander settings: Individual units

If you purchased one or more intelliCommanders, you will set them up here. Some initial configuration is required to make it operational.

Then, once you have fully configured NewsTicker, you will want to come back and complete your setup, including assigning operations to the macro buttons and contacts.

• Name: A label for this particular intelliCommander. If you have more than one, we recommend you name it based on its location (“MCR” and “PCR”) or function (“WFSB” and “WSHM”).
• Port Enter the port assignment here. Typically, that would be:
  • /dev/ttyS0 for COM1
  • /dev/ttyS1 for COM2
  • If it is connected to a serial port expansion card, it may be in the form of /dev/ttyn1a with a range of a-d. You can click the Help button to see a rear line drawing of a typical NewsTicker server. Simply click on the button where the port is to fill-in the name.
• Macro Buttons: On the front of the intelliCommander are four user- assignable one-touch macro buttons. Common uses include airing breaking news, school closings or severe weather. If you want the macros to trigger a particular runlevel (playlist), you must first create it.
• Contact Closures These settings, like the macro buttons, determine what happens when an input contact is closed, and then subsequently re- opened. This allows you to connect to an external button board or your automation system. (You may also connect to your automation system via a vendor-specific driver.)
• CG Button Assignments: On the front of the intelliCommander are three CG buttons, letting one intelliCommander control multiple devices. If you only have one intelliCommander, you will likely map CG 1 to button 1 on the intelliCommander, CG 2 to button 2, etc. However, if you have more than one, you may wish to change the assignment. For example, you may want button 1 on intelliCommander 1 to be CG 1, whereas button 1 on intelliCommander 2 might be CG 2.
• intelliCommander Settings: Module-Specific Configurations Below the individual intelliCommander configurations, there are additional global settings based on which NewsTicker modules you use. In particular, the intelliCommander can alarm to notify an operator about active school closings, severe weather, or EAS statements.
• Runlevel: When the criteria is met to trigger the alarm, one of the options is to play a runlevel. Assign the runlevel you wish to be associated with this particular alarm. If you leave this blank, the alarm will not trigger.
• IC Assignment: Select which intelliCommander the alarm should appear on. It should be in a location where there is an operator. Note that if you will be performing a GPO contact closure, the contact must be installed on the intelliCommander you select here.
• CG Assignment: Select the CG on which to display the runlevel above. If it will be displaying on more than one CG, a Virtual Runlevel must be configured.
• On-Alarm Hook: If a GPO contact closure is used, set which contact to close when the alarm is triggered. These contacts must be on the intelliCommander set in IC Assignment. This allows you to connect a remote alarm, such as in the weather center.
• On-Reset Hook: When the intelliCommander operator presses Play or Reset in response to the alarm, another GPO action can occur. Set the desired action here.
• Trigger Based on the module: This sets the criteria for when the alarm is triggered. “Audibly” and “silently” refer to the buzzer on the intelliCommander itself. The most common trigger for Closings is On first closure, audibly. For SevereWx, On first condition only is the most common since, once the bug is on the air, it will update itself without the operator having to do anything. Finally, in EAS, the trigger determines whether anything sent from the endec should proceed directly to air automatically (Automatic), or if it should require the operator to press Play to trigger it to air (Manual).
• SevereWx: Automation When set to Enabled, NewsTicker will respect the auto-air settings within the SevereWx module which can be set to take a display to air without any operator intervention. When set to Disabled, those settings are temporarily ignored, forcing an operator to either play the display, or reset the alarm.

Runlevels

Runlevels are among the highest levels of order in NewsTicker broadcasts. They are playlists that designate the data you want to show, the order in which you want to show it, and with which character generator templates.

Runlevels are where you match up the content in NewsTicker with a particular look you created on your CG. Since the look is separate from the content, you could have two runlevels, both using the same content, but looking completely different.

Tip: The intelliCommander will only show the first ten characters of the runlevel name, so be sure it is descriptive enough.

When it comes time to air NewsTicker, you will select a runlevel to play. So, it isn’t uncommon to have runlevels with names like: “Morning Show”, “Breaking News”, “Closings Sponsored”, “Late Sports”, “4 PM Snipe”, “EAS”, etc. And, you can build as many runlevels as you need.

Remember, unlike other systems, you aren’t tied to a single look for a particular display. If you wanted a sophisticated bug with RADAR for severe weather alerts when not in news, a single-line crawl for when you are in news, and a low-profile design for long-fuse winter weather alerts, you can.

While the notion of a runlevel as a collection of NewsTicker modules that you want to show on air at a given time seems very simple, and it can be, you can also create very complex displays with proper planning. Consult the NewsTicker gallery for some examples of sophisticated, highly articulated looks.

Creating a loop

To begin, click New Runlevel from within the Broadcast module. You will be prompted to name your runlevel. In our example, we’ll name it “Late Sports”. Once you’ve selected a name, you will be placed into the Edit Loop screen and prompted to select a module which contains the data you would like to display. For our example, we’ll select Sports.

Proceeding with our example, we’ll add a second module by clicking the add icon next to “Sports”. Again, the Insert Module dialog appears and, again, we’ll choose Sports. Finally, we’ll click the add button next to the bottom “Sports” label and select Headlines. Your display should look like the following:

Tip: You can re-position the order of modules by dragging and dropping the name of the module to a new location.

Let’s analyze the anatomy of this screen. At the top is a section by itself labeled “Initialization” which we’ll describe shortly. Below that, there are three modules (Sports, Sports, and Headlines). These three modules represent the display loop. So, if this runlevel were played, it would display Sports twice, followed by Headlines, then show Sports twice again, followed by Headlines again, and continue looping until stopped.

Next to each of the three display modules are dropdown boxes. These dropdown boxes reference LOGIC files on your system. LOGIC files are the middleware between the automated and manual data in NewsTicker and the various destinations you want the data sent.

• The most basic LOGIC files bring up a specific template you created on your CG and fills in the placeholders with data from NewsTicker.
• The more complex LOGIC files can do things like rotate sponsors every three sports scores or automatically remove content modules when the number of active school closings reaches a certain threshold.

While all NewsTicker clients are on the same core version of software, each station will have their own LOGIC files and graphical templates to make their on-air look unique.

For more information on writing LOGIC files, see LOGIC Files section.

See the separate manual: LOGIC Programmer’s Guide.pdf

In our example, we will use two LOGIC files: Pro-Only.fmt and HS- Only.fmt. The “Pro-Only” file only shows professional leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, etc.) and the “HS-Only” file only shows my high school leagues. (You will have different LOGIC files on your system.) I’ve decided I want to show all of my professional scores first, followed by high school.

For Headlines, in addition to selecting a LOGIC file, there is an option to apply a filter.

Filters are a feature of NewsTicker version 4. They provide a way of altering the data that goes into a LOGIC file through the graphical user interface. Prior to filters, this would be done within the LOGIC file. As of this writing, Newsroom is in the midst of a rolling upgrade of NewsTicker, meaning version 4 modules co-exist with version 2 modules. Only version 4 modules have the filtering ability.

Click Off next to the “Filter” label to open the Headlines filter. It’s a good idea to include a description of what the filter does so, later, when you go to edit the runlevel, you know what your intention was.

Here, it was named “Sports Heads” and we opted to only show headlines from the “Sports” category. The categories displayed here are the ones I configured in the Headlines modules.

Tip: To temporarily skip over a module, set its LOGIC file to an empty field (the first option in the list). It still appears in the Edit Loop screen, but won’t be sent to air.

At this point, I have created my data loop and assigned LOGIC files and a filter to Headlines. It will air my professional games first, then my high school games, and finally show any content in the Sports category within the Headlines module.

The last thing to set is the Initialization file. This is a special LOGIC file that is executed once at the very beginning of the loop. It also typically contains instructions for what to do when the display is paused, resumed, or stopped. For example, it may start by performing a DVE. When paused, it may contain instructions for moving the video back to fullscreen.

Using an Initialization file is optional, although it is rare not to use one.

One final setting is module Alias which is typically used in displays with tabs showing which content categories are coming up next. Without an Alias, the tab would show the module name. By setting an Alias, you can be more specific, such as “Business” or “NFL”.

Within the runlevel loop editor, all changes you make are effective immediately. If the runlevel were on air, any changes would be detected once it loops back around. When you’ve completed your changes, you may exit out of the editor by pressing Cancel.

Changing module timing

Once a loop is created, you can edit the timing of the modules within it by selecting the runlevel name from the main Broadcast screen, clicking Edit, followed by Edit Timing. If you just exited the loop editor, you can press Edit Timing directly from the menu.

The timing screen presents all of the modules you selected, in the assigned order, letting you enter a time range of when each will appear. If you leave the timing blank for a module, it will have no time restriction (meaning it will air at any time of day).

The example below would air as follows:

• Midnight – 7:11 PM: Sports (Pro-Only)

• Headlines 7:12 PM – 7:59 PM:

• Sports (Pro-Only)

• Sports (HS-Only) Headlines 8:00 PM – Midnight:

• Sports (Pro-Only)

• Headlines

Never adjust the timing such that no module airs! Always have something in the loop or you may put the NewsTicker server into a race condition, diminishing performance. Where this usually comes into play is when somebody is timing, say, a morning show. They want one thing from 5:00 AM – 6:00 AM, and another from 6:00 AM – 7:00 AM. Thinking that the show airs from 5:00 AM – 7:00 AM, they do something like this:

However, if the show starts at 4:59 AM, or you go to test it outside of that time, nothing will air. Instead, it is recommended you do the following:

Assigning runlevels to intelliCommanders or CGs

By default, all runlevels can be accessed from any intelliCommander, and can be assigned to any CG. But, if you use multiple intelliCommanders or have multiple character generators, you can configure NewsTicker to only show those runlevels that should be played to the specific device.

From the Broadcast main menu, select a runlevel and click Edit. From the edit menu, choose Edit Visibility.

Select those intelliCommanders or character generators from which you wish to hide the runlevel.

Virtual runlevels

A Virtual Runlevel is a runlevel of runlevels. It doesn’t contain any modules itself, rather its job is to provide a way to launch multiple runlevels on multiple character generators at the same time. For example, let’s say you have three CGs – one for your native SD stream, one for your native HD stream, and a digital subchannel. And, let’s say you want to show a breaking news crawl on all three. You could build a Virtual Runlevel that would air the breaking news on each of the CGs, each with its own look and feel.

Obviously, before building a Virtual Runlevel, you have to have the actual runlevels you wish to trigger already built. Then, from the main Broadcast screen, click Virtual Runlevel. Each of your output devices will be listed.

Runlevel The runlevel that should be run on the specified device when this Virtual Runlevel is launched.

Follow control of The designation of which CG this device should follow to know when to pause, resume or stop. For example, you launch a Virtual Runlevel that starts a crawl on your native SD stream (CG 1) and HD stream (CG 2), which both contain the same programming. You want them to pause together by pushing one button. Both CG 1 and 2 should follow the control of CG 1. Then, when you pause CG 1, it will also pause CG 2. This ties the actions together.

If, instead, you have each CG follow the control of itself, then each runlevel will launch at the same time, but from that point forward, they are controlled individually. This would be useful where you have two different programming streams (e.g. CBS and FOX), and you want school closings to start on both, but they’ll need to be paused separately.

Master Runlevel The runlevel with this designation will be the one from which all others are spawned. If all CGs are following the control of one runlevel, then that runlevel is usually the master.

LOGIC Files

As described earlier, LOGIC is NewsTicker’s powerful formatting language. It is the middleware between the automated and manually entered data in NewsTicker’s database, and the various destinations to which you want the data sent.

At the core, NewsTicker is a content management system. Data is stored in a database unformatted. When it comes time to actually use the data, that’s when the formatting takes place. This allows you to present the information in an endless number of ways on-air, on the web, even on a scrolling LED sign.

To call LOGIC a formatting language would only be touching on the surface of what it can do. It’s so powerful, it can allow you to establish real-time decision-making trees so that NewsTicker will follow a prescribed action sequence. With it, you could rotate sponsors every third sports score, use a “cold weather” sponsor if the current temperature drops below a certain threshold, or automatically remove all other content modules when the number of active school closings meets your specific requirement.

Ultimately, a LOGIC file is producing the automation commands recognized by your character generator which, for the majority of users, will be the Freedom. So the file is a combination of CG-specific formatting commands, and LOGIC commands. Let’s take a very simple example of a snipe. We’ll assume the template on your Freedom is in c:\Expio Media\Templates\snipe.tts, it’s a two line display, and the information for the data fields are in the Globals module, globals 10 and 11.

1 M\c:/Expio Media/Templates\\[% CRLF %] 
2
3 W\_pg\snipe\On Now\[% GLOBAL10 %]\\[% CRLF %]
4 Y\_pg\\[% CRLF %]
5 [% SLEEP(4) %]
6
7 W\_pg\snipe\Up Next\[% GLOBAL11 %]\\[% CRLF %]
8 Y\_pg\\[% CRLF %]
9 [% SLEEP(4) %]
10
12 B\1\\[% CRLF %]
13 [% STOPLOOP %]

Line 1 changes the directory of the Freedom into where our template is housed. Line 3 brings up the snipe template, sets the first data field to the words “On Now”, the second data field to whatever is contained in global 10, and stores it in memory as _pg. Line 4 takes the rendered _pg to air and line 5 rests for four seconds.

Lines 7 – 9 work very similar to 3 – 5, except the first data field says “Up Next” and the second data field is pulled from global 11.

Finally, line 12 takes the template off air before line 13 ends the runlevel.

In a more advanced LOGIC file, like the sports example below, you might check to see if the game is final and, if so, see which team won, turning that team and score a different color:

[% FOREACH game = Sports %]
W\_pg\sports_template\[% game.period1 %]\
[% IF ((game.final == ©Y©) && (game.visit_score > game.home_score)) %]
<color 0xFAFA00>[% game.vt_name1 %]</color>\
<color 0xFAFA00>[% game.visit_score %]</color>\ [% ELSE %]
[% game.vt_name1 %]\
[% game.visit_score %]\ [% END %]
[% IF ((game.final == ©Y©) && (game.visit_score < game.home_score)) %]
<color 0xFAFA00>[% game.ht_name1 %]</color>\
<color 0xFAFA00>[% game.home_score %]</color>\ [% ELSE %]
[% game.ht_name1 %]\ [% game.home_score %]\
[% END %]
\[% CRLF %]
Y\_pg\\[% CRLF %]
[% WAITFOR(©Sleeping©, ©4©)%] [% END %] 

 

There is tremendous flexibility inside of LOGIC files, allowing you to mix real-time decision making with all of your data sources for highly articulated displays.

When you go to edit or create your LOGIC files, you’ll want to have the automation documentation of your CG available so you can reference the commands you need, as well as the LOGIC Programmer’s Guide, which gives you the LOGIC syntax as well as the list of data fields within NewsTicker.

LOGIC Editor

The LOGIC files reside on the NewsTicker server. There are three common ways to edit the files. You can log into the server using an ssh client and edit the files directly on the server itself by using a Unix text editor, such as vi, emacs or pico. You could use a text editor on your PC and FTP the files back and forth. Some Windows editors, like UltraEdit, allow you to “Open from FTP” and “Save to FTP” from within the app. Or, you can use the built-in web-based client within NewsTicker.

The NewsTicker LOGIC Editor gives you quick access to your files. From within the Broadcast module, click LOGIC Editor. You are placed in the root directory of where LOGIC files are stored (/web/htdocs/formats on the server itself.) In the dropdown, you’ll see a list of modules where the LOGIC files are stored. Select a module and click Change Dir to see the listing.

 

Clicking on the name of the file will open it for viewing in another window. If permissions are set, you can also edit, copy or delete an existing LOGIC file, or create a new one within that directory.

Finally, you can click Show Usage to see a complete listing of all LOGIC files on your system, and which runlevels call them.

Complete information on the syntax of LOGIC files can be found in the LOGIC Programmer’s Guide.

Sponsor auditing

The Sponsor Audit portion of the Broadcast module is where NewsTicker does some basic bookkeeping for you. By using Sponsor Audit, you’ll get a report of when a sponsor logo was sent to the CG.

For more information on how to use the SPONSORAUDIT command in your LOGIC files, consult the LOGIC Programmer’s Guide.

To generate a report, enter a starting and ending date and time to search, and press Set. The report that is generated can be used as a starting point for an affidavit to the client.

You can print the report by using your browser’s print function or cut and paste the results into an application of your choice. If you would like to have the report formatted to reconcile against your traffic system automatically, please contact NewsTicker Support for details.