Products / Transmission Automation / User Interfaces

  • This top level user interface is configured to give a single operator access to multiple automation systems and multiple channels for a variety of onair, offair and device management options.

    Various other configurations of the top level user interface are available to make it appropriate for larger operations with separate work areas, e.g. MCR, Channel Presentation Suites and back-office schedule preparation areas.

  • A common schedule editor ‘look and feel’ is adopted across the system to provide an easy to use, consistent tool to create, manage, change and review transmission schedules.

    Restricted, read-only versions of the schedule editor are available to personnel requiring accurate up to date information about the onair schedule, for example announcers, studio staff.

  • The onair schedule editor can have various ‘plug-ins’. This screenshot shows an optional vertical panel on the right which carries a complete list of all of the attributes associated with the currently selected event. This panel provides a different style of editing in addition to the standard ‘in grid’ editing.

    The optional horizontal panel at the bottom of the screen shows commercial minutage meters for the last, current and next transmission hours as well as a separate meter for the next peak hour commercial minutage. Colour coding of the meters can draw immediate attention to overweight and underweight conditions. These meters are invaluable aids for ensuring that local commercial broadcasting rules are not violated.

  • Contrasting with the previous screens that carry very detailed information, the user is able to configure the same schedule editor to show a minimal, clear screen layout that would be more appropriate for a simple cuts only, server based operation

    The user can configure widely different schedule appearances by changing data content and layout, font size and foreground and background colour schemes.

  • The timeline channel display is particularly useful to view multichannel activity at a glance. The number of channels can be easily defined by the user and extensive display options are available.

    Navigation to the onair schedule editor for any given channel straight from a displayed event is simple and intuitive. This allows for a dynamic and efficient approach to channel maintenance.

  • Various engineering operations can be carried out from the top level user interface for many devices on any of the connected systems. This screenshot shows the results of a checkout procedure that verifies the integrity of a mirrored pair of transmission servers.

    Facilities to correct anomalies are available to delete surplus clips that exist on one server but not on the other, or to copy clips that are present on one server but missing on another.

  • This type of schedule display has been traditionally maintained directly on one of the VGA outputs of our real-time system. The display would often be included in a monitor stack. The popularity of this type of display has led to the development of a PC based version.

    Colour coding of various fields allows this simple display to convey detailed information about the next upcoming 12 events. The bottom line event is overwritten by a clear red error message if any serious condition threatens station output.