Player - control, manage and run playout schedules

Player is a simple, reliable and efficient linear broadcast playout system. Player uses a single PC that combines video server functions with all secondary events allowing you to output a fully branded channel. The software can be used in an entire OASYS workflow providing a complete end to end solution, or as part of a workflow integrated to many other broadcast suppliers software.

Player is scalable and flexible, with integration to common third party software and hardware, such as MXF, routers, storage and editing systems. Each Player license is controlled by a USB hardware dongle which controls the features enabled so you can start with the standard features and can add further features at a later date with a simple software update. You can choose from a range of hardware ranging from analogue, to SD SDI, or HD SDI.

At a glance software features:

• Playout management
• Playout information
• Schedule management
• File management
• Redundancy management
• Upconvert from SD to HD
• Automatic aspect ration conversion
• Time delay all events

Optional features:

• Enhanced graphics
• Live controls
• Triggers
• Sub titles 

Player standard features

Player comes with a number of optional feature packages, however there are numerous standard features that make Player a unique automated playout system. The standard features enable you to create and manage your playout, and provide much more than a video server clip Player. The following are standard in the software:

Scheduling:

At its heart Player is a schedule management system. Player software allows you to create, edit, report and transfer schedules and schedule information, providing you with the ability to use a single system to broadcast all of your primary and secondary events. Schedules are made up of not just video clips, but of transitions, metadata, notes, audio tracks, graphics overlays, picture in picture controls, third party device triggers and controls, sub-titles, teletext, WSS, recording, and links to data sources.

A schedule is made up of events, groups of events, and groups of groups. At each level, event, group and sub-group, you can schedule overlays, hotkeys, and colour coding, so that you do not need to create individual effects for every event separately.

As the system is based around windows, you get the standard windows type options of cut, copy, paste, and you can drag and drop items around the playlist. This means you are not having to create a linear database of items, and you don’t have to continually hit checkboxes.

Standard scheduling features include:

Schedule creation, insertion and appending – Schedules can be created in advance (without time limit), or “on the fly”, with the only limitation being that the files have to be available on the Player machine a few seconds before playout of that file begins

Append without interruption – you can append a schedule to a running playlist without interruption, and playlists can be defined for any time period into the future

Event start and end timing – you can set events to start at a specific time or follow the prior event. You can repeat or loop and event, and you can set it to auto over-run or to end on the last frame.

Trim edits – you can set trim in and out positions for your video and all secondary events

Edit effects – you can fade audio in and out, and disolve, cut, wipe, roll and crawl graphics.

Transition effects between events (either file based or live) – you can cut, disolve, or choose from a range of effects to move between events

Update groups – you can update groups created and edited by off-line schedulers, either manually or automatically by using a watched folder

Save as template – you can save a finished schedule as a template to be used as a standard default

Save groups – you can save parts of your schedule to be re-used later or to be worked on by off-line schedulers

Save as event – you can save an event as an event file, which allows you to save all the details of a single event, including all the primary and secondary events, all the trim timings, all the transitions, and all the metadata. Inserting a saved event file into a schedule saves you having to create the effects again

Grouping/nesting – every event can be grouped, and every group can be nested. This allows you to create looping, group effects, and sub-schedules

Non-exisiting events – you can schedule events containing a non-existing event as a placeholder. When the event is ready, it automatically replaces the non-existing event, and re-calculates accurate timing.

Auto-schedule events – you can schedule events based on voting, or input from external systems, which allows you to interact with your audience

Live/VTR event insertion – you can mix and match file events with live events

Static event insertion – you can play idents with static files

Auto merge – you can automatically merge schedule files created off line

Auto append – you can automatically append new schedule files created off line

Fillers – you can have the system automatically fill small gaps in your schedule

Schedule from text file – you can create schedules by drag and drop from a text file

Multi-channel filter – you can pre-set your storage and playout systems to only allow media for the correct channel to be seen and scheduled

Flexible secondary event scheduling – you can have secondary events start and stop at any time during a primary event, including time from start and time from end

Audio levelling – you can schedule audio level changes during an event to automatically change the levels of tracks that can then be mixed for broadcast, which allows you to do voice overs and cross fades.

Graphics insertion and positioning – you can schedule a single graphic with each event, and you can use the position editor to determine where on screen it will be displayed.

Ease of use features:

Cut, copy, and paste – you can use standard shortcuts to amend your schedule as you would use standard office packages. You do not have to enter items into, and correct schedules using a database and database forms

Drag and drop from watched folders – you can set folders to use for drag and drop operations

Hotkeys – you can set up overlay or emergency events that apply to the whole playlist, or to groups or events within the playlist. This allows you to have flexibility in your MCR operation

Search – there are a range of search features allowing you to quickly find and correct schedules

Go to – you can search by using a time

Find and replace – you can search for strings and replace them with alternatives, allowing you to do replacement of every occurence of a name

Find error – you can interactively find errors using a playlist error window, or you can use the find error function to take you to problems in your playlist

Creation of VTR/Live capture lists – you can use the missing material information in your playlist to create lists of material to ingest

Colour coding – you can customise colour coding schemes, and you can select a background colour for every item in the playlist, to provide a visual reminder of items

Missing file controls and reporting – you can see the status of copying of all files required for playout, and you can control the location of which system will be searched for missing files

Commercial counters – you can flag all primary and secondary events as commercials, log them in the AS-RUN logs, and report on commercial time compliance, and display the time on screen as a percentage of time left, and you can see at a glance which events have commercial time scheduled in them

Playlist errors – you have a fully interactive list of playlist errors, that is updated with every change in the playlist

Multiple file format support - Player can play any combination of file formats in any compression providing they are the same frame rate. Files supported include MXF, AVI, MOV, MPG and WMV. HD file formats are supported, and you can up scale SD to HD content, or automatically change aspect ratio between 4:3 and 16:9.

Playout controls and alerts:

Play to air – Once the schedule is created you want to output your channel content “ON-AIR”. The playout management software in Player allows you to run the schedule attended or unattended, or to use it like a full MCR (Master Control Room) system with special event keys, and emergency action features.

User controls – A user friendly interface is an essential requirement in the MCR, so Player displays a simple to understand time-line representation of the output going to air. You can manually control playout from the user interface, using point and click mouse buttons, or by using keyboard shortcuts. Additionally you can trigger events or hotkeys to start by sending UDP commands from other systems. You have programmable shortcuts and hotkeys, and you can interface to external conrol devices like HiTec or JL Cooper

Playlist errors permanently updated – Player automatically calculates the time-line for the playlist and creates a playlist error window to alert for scheduling conflicts, missing events and other playlist timings. Issues with the playlist can then be easily corrected by simply clicking on the error which takes you directly to the place in the playlist where the error occurs

Correct an event during playout – Whilst an event is playing, if you realise that something is wrong with it, you can edit that event and correct it on the fly using the re-submit current event function.

Changing the playlist – You can cut edit and change all parts of any event in the playlist whilst the playlist is playing, by using the preview and edit function.

Backup management – Using synchronisation allows you to have systems run together for backup purposes, but synchronisation can be done either way between pairs of machines, or to multiple backup machines if required.

Audio alerts – you can pre-set the time silence has to be detected before the system provides an alert to let you know that no audio is present on the output.

Display a commercial counter – to manage regulatory compliance for all types of commercial media

Display customer definable counters – to prepare the MCR before a live event, or showing event positions and countdowns to events

Alert for missing files – using colour coding and reports

Alert for time adjustment – when a specific “timed” event is running short or running over

LIVE indicator – You can get real time feedback from a router to show which system is broadcasting live.

Start from timecode – You can start any event from any point within the event by using the play from timecode feature. This allows you to start events part way through if required.

Record during playout – You can record events whilst they are playing out, and you can include or exclude graphics overlays from the recording allowing you to immediately re-use recorded materials.

Share playlist information- you can copy a linear list of the playout by copying data or saving a file, and you can view running playlists over HTML allowing others to check on the schedule without interfering in the MCR

Machine controls:

All OASYS workflow solutions come with a Media library. The Media Library on Player is synchronised to that on the central storage system, and when media is required on a local Player drive, the software controls copying to hard drives (for playout control and no file fragmentation). Storage systems can be Windows or Linux based, or with special integrations already completed could be EditShare, Isilon, Rorke/XenData and many others.

New Media – Automatically update new versions of files on Player as they arrive onto central storage

Setup systems to suit you – Configurable inputs and outputs allows you to define how the system handles input sources and output standards

Playlist cleanup – Player can be set to automatically delete played groups, or to leave all events in the playlist for later use.

Storage disk management – Player can be set to automatically manage disk space by deleting files not required for playout. It can do this incorporating the retention of evergreen material.

Customer support process – Player can store logs used for customer support, and can be set to automatically remove old logs.

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