Viz Mosart Administrator Guide

Version 3.9 | Published November 04, 2019 ©

System Logging

All logging in Viz Mosart is done through the Log Service. This service typically runs on the server hosting the Viz Mosart Server and is accessed through Windows Services.

All applications transmit log events to the server, including Viz Mosart GUI.

There are three distinct log streams available:

  • The technical log, which contains the normal logging from all applications

  • The as-run log, which contains information about on-air events

  • The MOS log, which contains information about MOS communication between NCS (MOS based) and Manus Administrator
    Viz Mosart Logs are stored at the default Log Directory:

  • C:\MMLogs (configurable)
    The technical log stream is located at the root of this directory, while the other two log streams have their own corresponding subdirectories.

This section contains the following topics:

Log File Structure

All Viz Mosart logs are stored as .XML files.

Filenames

Log filenames are configurable, but typically follow this pattern:

{0}.{1:yyyyMMdd-hhmmss}.xml

Where:

  • {0} - User configurable prefix.
    Default: Log, AsRunLog and MosLog for the three logs respectively.

  • {1} - File creation time. “year-month-day hour-minutes-second”

Current and Previous Files

There are two sets of log files:

  • The current log file, which is active.

    • For efficiency purposes, this log is divided into two separate files; one .XML and one .log

    • When reading the current file it is recommended to open the .XML, as this contains a reference to the corresponding .log file.

  • Previous log files.

    • When a new log file starts, the current active log is merged into a single .XML
      The figure below shows the default setup with a list of log files belonging to the technical log and two directories containing similar log files for the AsRun and MOS logs respectively.

images/download/attachments/28380321/maintenance_log-file-ref.png

Log Viewer

Viz Mosart contains a dedicated application for viewing log files.

Log Viewer is located in the Viz Mosart Server installation directory and is available as a separate installation package.

Tip: To improve filtering and visualization, the .XML log files can be opened in Microsoft Excel.

Technical Log Stream

This log contains ordinary log events produced by all running Viz Mosart Applications.

Note: This includes any Viz Mosart application normally run on other host machines, but belonging to the same control room.

Event Types

All events in the technical log stream are classified according to the event types as shown in the figure below:

  • AsRunLogger: See AsRun Log Stream

  • AudioMixer: Events to/from the audio mixer

  • AudioPlayer: Events from the Audio player (will be changed to also include messages from AVAutomation to Audio Player)

  • AvAutomation: General events issued from AV Automation

  • ConsoleController: Used by default by GenericController. For generic console applications (services).

  • Crossover: Events to/from the Crossover component

  • Database: Events associated with the SNMP Service

  • GeneralInfo: General events not assigned to any device or application

  • GPIControl: Events to/from the GPI control

  • Graphics: Events related to control of graphics

  • GUI: Events from the Viz Mosart GUI, such as mouse and button events

  • GUILocal: Used to log messages to local log service from the Viz Mosart GUI. Extended set of local GUI events. Logged to local GUI PC, except pressed keys, which are sent to the server log.

  • INewsWebServices: Events associated with iNews web service

  • InstantCollect: Event used to identity a user triggered log marker. Note that this event type is obsolete in version 3.x.

  • IntegratedEngine: Events to/from the integrated engine

  • Instrumentation: Events related to the Instrumentation component in AV Automation

  • LightControl: Events to/from the light control

  • Loudness: Events to/from the loudness control

  • ManusAdministrator: General events issued from Manus Administrator

  • MediaAdministrator: General events issued from Media Administrator

  • MediaAssetManagement: Currently only used for Amadeus component

  • MediaRouter: Media router events

  • Mimic: Events associated with Mimic functionality (version 3.8)

  • MosartRemote: Events related to remote control of Viz Mosart

  • MosConnection: MOS events between MOS based NCS and Viz Mosart

  • RoboticCameraControl: Events to/from the robotic camera control

  • RouterControl: Events to/from the router control

  • SoundFilePlayer: Events to/from the Soundfile Player (currently also for messages from AVAutomation to the new Audio Player - will be changed to AudioPlayer)

  • SpeakNoticer: Events associated with the Asio Speak Notifier (for Mimic) (version 3.8)

  • Tally: Events to/from the tally control

  • TemplateSharing: Template sharing events

  • Texting: Events to/from the subtitles control

  • TimeDisplay: Events associated with Timing info display

  • Timing: For timing display logging

  • UserMessage: Logs user messages from Control Commands (version 3.7)

  • VideoServer: Events to/from the video server controllers

  • VideoSwitcher: Events to/from the video switcher control

  • VideoWallController: Events to/from the video wall control

  • VirtualSet: Currently only used for BrainstormVS component

  • WeatherControl: Events to/from the weather control

Verbose Properties

All Viz Mosart Applications have a set of configuration properties to control what events are passed to the Log Service:

  • Verbose:

    • Turn on/off verbose logging.

  • VerboseIgnoreEvents:

    • A comma separated list of log event types to ignore during verbose logging.

    • Default: <empty> i.e. no events are ignored.

  • VerbosePassEvents:

    • A comma separated list of log event types that are passed during verbose logging.

    • Default: <empty> i.e. all events are passed.

      Example: Setting VerbosePassEvents = “VideoServer,AudioMixer” will ensure that only verbose events to/from the video servers and audio mixer are passed to the Log Service.

AsRun Log Stream

This log stream contains events connected to content that has been on-air, typically this includes all video and graphic content.

The Log Service may be configured to extract information from the AsRun Log for input into media asset management or presentation automation systems.

All events in the AsRun Log stream are classified according to the event types as shown in the figure below:

  • CROSSPOINT: Issued as response to a crosspoint change from a tally feedback

  • LOG: Issued at start and stop of logging to the as-run log stream

  • NEXT_STORY: Issued when the next story element for on-air is changed

  • RUNDOWN_RELOAD: Issued when the rundown is reloaded.

  • STORY_ENDED: Issued when the current story is ended.

  • STORY_STARTED: Issued when the current story is started.

  • TAKE_EXTERNALS: Issued when externals are taken on-air

  • TAKE_ITEM: Issued when a story item is taken on-air

    Note: Customer specific AsRun Log Adapters have their own syntax.

MOS Log Stream

This log stream contains events communicated between a MOS based Newsroom System and Media Administrator.

Log Adapters

Each log stream may be processed simultaneously by a set of log adapters as indicated by the figure below:

images/download/attachments/28380321/maintenance_log-adapters.png
In the figure the three log streams are configured as follows:

  • The Technical Log Stream has one adapter:

    • BasicXmlFile - default adapter that creates the XML based log files

  • The AsRun Log Stream has two adapters:

    • BasicXmlFile - adapter as for the technical log stream

    • Custom adapter- process the AsRun log stream according to site specific requirements. These adapters are custom built, and not included in the Viz Mosart distribution.

  • The MOS Log Stream has one adapter:

    • BasicXmlFile - adapter that creates the XML based log files

Log Configuration

Each log has its own configuration file making it possible to adjust properties such as filenames and how often new log files are generated.

This section contains the following topics:

Overview

The log configuration files are located in the following directory:

%ProgramFiles%\Mosart Medialab\Mosart Server\ConfigurationFiles

The log configuration files are named as follows:

  • LogRepositoryConfig.xml

    • Technical log

  • AsRunLogRepositoryConfig.xml

  • MosLogRepositoryConfig.xml

    • MOS log
      A log configuration file consists of three segments:

  • Adapters

    • Configuration of one or more log adapters

  • FilterBank

    • Configuration of optional log filters

  • Properties

    • Configuration of log properties

Example (AsRun log)

A sample log configuration file for the AsRun log stream is shown below:

<?xml version=”1.0” encoding=“utf-8“ ?>
<LogRepositoryConfig>
<!- No specified adapters shall result in default adapter -->
<Adapters>
<!- Default adapter -->
<Adapter type=“BasicXmlFileAdapter“ name=“AsRunLog“ />
<!- Custom adapter -->
<Adapter type=“LogAdapterDRMorpheus“ name=“DRMorpheus“ configuration=“DRMorpheusAsRunLogConfig.xml“ assembly=“LogAdapterDRMorpheus.dll“ />
</Adapters>
<!-- Empty filter bank shall result in logging of all events -->
<FilterBank>
<LogFilter event=“TAKE_ITEM“ pattern=““ action=“Log“ />
<LogFilter event=“LOG“ pattern=““ action=“Ignore“ />
<LogFilter event=“LOG“ pattern=“.*break.*“ action=“Break“ />
</FilterBank>
<Properties>
<item name=“AdapterType“ value=“BasicXmlFileAdapter“ />
<item name=“RepositoryPath“ value=“C:\MMLogs\AsRunLog“ />
<item name=“FilePrefix“ value=“AsRunLog“ />
<item name=“MaxDaysInRepository“ value=“60“ />
<item name=“MaxFileNumberOfEvents“ value=“10000“ />
<item name=“MaxFileTimePeriodHours“ value=“24“ />
</Properties>
</LogRepositoryConfig>

Configuration of Log Adapters

A log stream may have one, or several, log adapters. These are configured in the Adapters section as shown in the log filter sample earlier.

If the Adapter section is omitted, or empty, one single log adapter of the default type is created.

The default log adapter type is configurable in the property section, but is normally set to BasicXmlFileAdapter.

A single adapter has the following attributes:

  • type: The adapter type

  • name: Name used for identifying the log activities associated with the adapter. Used mainly for logging purposes.

  • configuration: Optional configuration file for the log adapter. If no configuration file is given the log adapter shall inherit the values in the current configuration file.

  • assembly: Optional .Net assembly (.dll) containing the log adapter. I.e. opens for dynamic log adapters that may be loaded at run-time.

Configuration of Log Filters

A log adapter may have a set of log filters that remove events before being handled by the adapter.

If no filters are defined, or the filter bank is empty, all events pass to the event handling log adapter.

Each filter has the following three attributes:

  • event: Which event the filter applies to. Events are listed in sections Technical Log Stream and AsRun Log Stream. Setting this attribute to “DEFAULT“ will change the settings for the default filter bank. The default filter is used for all events that do not have a designated filter bank.

  • pattern: Optional regular expression pattern that is applied to the log event value. The filter will only return the corresponding action if the pattern returns a match. If no pattern is given, the corresponding action is returned for all events.

  • action: The action to return. The following actions are available:

    • Ignore: The event will be ignored.

    • Log: The event will be logged, i.e. forwarded to the log adapter

    • Break: The event is treated as a break event.

The following shows some examples for filtering the technical log stream:

<!- Empty filter bank, passes all log events -->
<FilterBank />
<!- Only passes events of type “MosConnection“ -->
<FilterBank>
<LogFilter event=“DEFAULT“ action=“Ignore“ />
<LogFilter event=“MosConnection“ action=“Log“ />
</FilterBank>
<!- Passes all log events, but treats “InstantCollect“ events and all Events containing the word “break“ as a break event -->
<FilterBank>
<LogFilter event=“InstantCollect“ pattern=“” action=“Break“ />
<LogFilter event=“DEFAULT“ pattern=“.*break.*“ action=“Break“ />
</FilterBank>
<!- Passes all log events, but ignores all GUI events -->
<FilterBank>
<LogFilter event=“Gui“ pattern=“” action=“Ignore“ />
</FilterBank>

Custom-built AsRunLog Adapters

These adapters are custom-built to suita certain customer’s needs. They are configured by the standard AsRunLogRepositoryConfig.xml as earlier described, but also include two more configuration files that may contain elements that override this standard configuration file.

  • xxxAsRunLogConfig.xml, (Overrides AsRunlogRepositoryConfig)

  • xxxSchedulerConfig.xml, (Overrides xxxAsRunLogConfig)

    Note: xxx is here substituted for the actual Broadcaster’s name.

    An example of the xxxAsRunLogConfig.xml:

<?xml version=”1.0“ encoding=“utf-8“ ?>
<LogRepositoryConfig>
<FilterBank>
<!-- Triggers all “NEXT_BREAK“ events as breaks... -->
<LogFilter event=“NEXT_BREAK“ pattern=“” action=“Break“ />
<LogFilter event=“STORY_STARTED“ pattern=“BREAK“ action=“Break“ />
<LogFilter event=“STORY_ENDED“ pattern=“BREAK“ action=“Break“ />
</FilterBank>
<Properties>
<!-- Special configuration for the xxx log adapter -->
<item name=“SchedulerConfig“ value=“xxxSchedulerConfig.xml“ />
<!-- These values may be overridden in SchedulerConfig -->
<item name=“RepositoryPath“ value=“C:\MMLOGS\AsRunLog\xxx“ />
<item name=“FilePrefix“ value=“UPD“ />
<!-- Set to true to use local time codes instead of UTC -->
<item name=“UseLocalTime“ value=“True“ />
<!-- Clean up command for files. Set to 0 if no cleanup -->
<item name=“MaxDaysInRepository“ value=“0“ />
</Properties>
</LogRepositoryConfig>

An example of the xxxSchedulerConfig.xml:

<?xml version=“1.0“ encoding=“utf-8“ ?>
<SchedulerConfig>
<ShowPrefix>xxx</ShowPrefix>
<FilePattern>{Name}_{Prefix}_{Date}_{DayOfWeek}_{Intime}_{Rundown}_{StoryTitle}_{StoryId}_{StoryIndex}</FilePattern>
<Directory>C:\MMLOGS\AsRunLog\xxx</Directory>
<Extension>xml</Extension>
<DayOfWeek>Dim,Lun,Mar,Mer,Jeu,Ven,Sam</DayOfWeek>
<!--<DayOfWeek>Dimanche,Lundi,Mardi,Mercredi,Jeudi,Vendredi,Samedi</DayOfWeek> -->
<NoLoggingDuringRehearsal>true</NoLoggingDuringRehearsal> <!-- If false, logging are permitted during rehearsal -->
<UseAbsoluteTime>true</UseAbsoluteTime> <!-- If false, time codes are relative to show start -->
<MinLogDelay>-1</MinLogDelay> <!-- Specifies a minimum logging delay after configured show start (in seconds) -->
<OneFilePerStory>true</OneFilePerStory> <!-- True if a file is to be generated per story -->
<FlushAtStoryEnd>false</FlushAtStoryEnd> <!-- True if file should be flushed when story ends. Default when show ends. -->
<IgnoreEmptyShows>true</IgnoreEmptyShows> <!-- True if file should be flushed when story ends. Default when show ends. -->
</SchedulerConfig>

Log Properties

All configuration files have the same set of properties as shown in the table below:

  • AdapterType: The default log adapter. Default: BasicXmlFileAdapter

  • RepositoryPath: The directory where the log files are stored. Default: C:\MMLogs, C:\MMLogs\AsRunLog, C:\MMLogs\MosLog

  • FilePrefix: Custom file prefix for the log file names. Default: Log, AsRunLog, MosLog

  • MaxDaysInRepository: Maximum number of days before the logfile is automatically deleted. Default: 60

  • MaxFileNumberOfEvents: Maximum number of log events before a new logfile is created. Default: 10000

  • MaxFileTimePeriodHours: Maximum number of hours before a new logfile is created. Default: 24

  • UseLocalTime: If set to true, all timestamps are converted from UTC to local time before being passed to the log adapter. Default: False.