Viz Pilot User Guide

Version 8.2 | Published July 23, 2018 ©

Using the Playlist

This section includes the following topics:

Playlist Pane

When the playlist is active, you can double-click an item to bring up the template/form where you can fill out information and/or take the item to air. Drag items to rearrange them or add them to groups.

Right-click an item to bring up the playlist shortcut menu:

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  • Stop or Pause the video.

  • Cue: Prepare the clip for playout so the first frame is ready in the player.

  • Cue Append: Prepare the clip for playout. The clip will start automatically when the current clip ends.

  • Take: Performs a direct take on the selected page.

  • Continue: Continues the playout of an element.

  • Take Out: Takes the element out (hard cut).

  • Read: Reads the element.

  • Prepare: Prepare the clip in the pending player without affecting the current clip, so it is ready to be played out. The clip will not start automatically after the current clip. Requires Viz Engine 3.3 or later.

  • Initialize Playlist or Initialize Element.

  • Cleanup: Cleans up all renderers that have an item in the current playlist (i.e. clears all loaded graphics from memory for those channels). To clear all renderers, go to the Main Menu > Viz Engine Menu > Cleanup Renderers

  • Schedule Playlist: Activates the playlist. If for example Begin time has been set, the playlist must be scheduled before the changes take effect.

  • Stop Playlist: Stops a previously scheduled playlist.

  • Set external GPI cursor: Sets the external cursor for a selected element. The cursor indicates the element that will be taken if, for example, a “take and advance” General Purpose Input (GPI) action is executed.

  • Auto Preview: Automatically enable preview of next element from selected.

  • Sync with Program Channel: Sync the preview with what’s showing on the program channel. Say you have a lower third on the preview and are showing a fullscreen video on the program channel. See how they add up in the preview.

  • Configure VDCP: Open the Video Disk Control Protocol (VDCP Tab).

  • Remove: Delete the selected item(s).

  • Create Group: Create a new group. The new group will be created above the currently selected item. Groups cannot be created when multiple items are selected.

  • Tree: Organize the elements in the current playlist and change the font used

    Tip: Right-click the column headers and select Store as Default to use these settings and to set layout preferences for all new playlists. See Playlist Columns for more information.

Playlist Cursors

A cursor visibly indicates the item, if any, being acted on in a playlist. When a playlist is active and playing, the current item playing will be indicated by a green arrow.

When GPI is enabled, the external GPI system’s cursor will be displayed in any client that is using the same profile as the external system. The red arrow indicates which item in the playlist is next, according to the external automation system.

Playlist Tool bar

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  • Stop video, if running. Icon active (dark black) if video running.

  • Pause video, if running. Icon active (dark black) if video running.

  • Cue: Prepare the clip for playout so the first frame is ready in the player.

  • DirectTake: Performs a direct take on the selected page.

  • Continue: Continues the animation on the selected page, or any that is loaded in the same transition logic layer as the selected page.

  • Take out the selected page, or any that is loaded in the same transition logic layer as the selected page.

  • Init (initialize) playlist: Loads the playlist on the program and preview renderer.

  • Init (initialize) selected: Loads the selected page(s) on the program and preview renderer.

  • CleanUp (both visibly and loaded memory content) on the Viz Engine renderer.

  • Concept: Select the required Concept for the playlist.

Using the Playout Mode

Playout Mode can be selected as a playlist column. Playout Mode specifies how groups should be played out and the different options are available using the Playout Mode column drop-down menu. The user can choose between three options; None, Duration and Timecode.

  • Timecode is the default option and the time is set in the Timecode column. It indicates that an element should be played out relative to the parent group or video.

  • When Duration is selected, elements of the group will be played out one after the other, each staying on air for the amount of time that is specified in the Duration column. It is possible to set a default duration (at the bottom of the Playout Mode drop-down) for items without an explicit duration. Durations of items using this default value will be shown in italic and greyed out in the duration column. However, they can still be edited by first selecting the item row and then clicking the duration value.
    Default duration fields will not appear for the other Playout Mode options.
    images/download/attachments/33961049/image2017-12-15_12-19-46.png

    Note: The default duration functionality is supported using Media Sequencer 5.0 and later.

    Info: Depending on the selected playout mode for the containing group, the duration column will show one of two different underlying values for each element, internally called duration and take_duration. When playout mode is Duration, the column will show the value called duration, otherwise take_duration. However, regardless of the playout mode, both values might exist in the Media Sequencer at the same time, for example if set in an external application or a previous version of Director. In these cases duration will only have an effect if playout mode is Duration, but take_duration is always considered when taking an element (regardless of how the element is taken on air, if it has take_duration set, it will be taken out after that time). Since the UI is only capable of showing one of these values, having both set might lead to unexpected results. Therefore, before changing playout mode, one must resolve such conflicts by clicking the Resolve button that is shown in this state. It will remove the one of duration and take_duration that is not currently visible on the UI.

    images/download/attachments/33961049/image2017-12-15_13-42-55.png

    To enable looping of a group, the Playout Mode must be set to Duration before the Loop column is toggled on. The duration must be set on all elements in the Duration column. Remember to use the Stop button in the Playlist Tool bar in order to stop the loop.

  • The None option does not allow for playout.

  • There are other options besides None, Duration and Timecode that may be shown in this column. These are the result of playout modes set in other applications that are not recognized by Director. To help avoid accidental changes that cannot be undone through the UI, Director will not allow changing the playout mode when such an unknown mode is active.

Note: Nested carousels (groups with playout mode of Duration) are not supported.

Playlist Filter and Filter Editor

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Use the Filter option to filter what items the playlist will show. You can create as many filters as required with the New option and existing filters can be edited or deleted. When you have created filters simply select the filter to use in the drop-down list. Any items that do not satisfy the filter selected will be hidden from display, not deleted. Deselect filtering to show all items.

In the example below we create a filter that only shows items in the playlist where the description mentions the word Mosart:

images/download/attachments/33961049/newplaylist_playlist_filter.png

Use the drop-down entries and check-boxes to create a filter as required, based on the template attributes.

Note: To filter by the category assigned to the template, you must select Subcategory in the drop-down. This selection will list all categories created using the Template Wizard client to help filter data elements assigned to a given category. See also Categories and Channels.

Playlist Search

Search the playlist. This is a simple search, not a filter. Go to the next match by pressing Enter.

Thumbnail View

Change the thumbnail size.

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Playlist Status

If there is a VDCP handler for the playlist in the Media Sequencer, this button will display the status. Click the button to set the playlist to active/inactive.