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Working with Playlists

Table of Contents

  1. Filling the Playlist
  2. Status
  3. Loop Mode
  4. Automation
  5. Playlist Control
    1. Take, Update & Clear
    2. Editing & Operation
    3. Loading & Saving
    4. Remote Playlist
    5. Options

A Playlist is one way to plan ahead in Ventuz Director. It is a simple list of templates or Pages the operator can step through in order or jump around. To cue an entry, it is activated by  double clicking on the entry. What makes the Playlist a very powerful tool is a feature called Auto-Cue: If the operator takes the activated item on air, the Playlist detects this and will automatically cue the next entry in the list. So after activating the first entry, an operator can run a complete show by just doing Takes whenever the next entry should come on air! At any point in the show, the operator can jump around in the playlist by simply activating another item and continue auto-cueing from there.

Playlists are hosted inside the Playlist docking window. The playlist is part of the default window layout but hidden by default. To make it visible, go to Window / Playlist in the main menu. If there is no such entry in the current layout, it can be added via the Window Management.

Filling the Playlist

Each Channel in a Show has its own playlist. There are two ways to add entries to the Playlist:

  1. Drag templates or pages to the playlist window. If the window is docked behind another window, drag the templates/pages over the docking window layout and a box around it will appear. Drop the content and it will be added to the playlist.
  2. Use the Add to Playlist button in the footer of the Property Editor.

To remove an entry, select it by  clicking on it and pressing Delete. To re-arrange entries, again select them and then drag them to their now position.

Status

Each playlist entry has a status:

The status of a playlist entry - especially the Aired state - can be reset by selecting entries and then choosing Playlist / Reset Status from the main menu.

Loop Mode

The button at the bottom of the control activates loop mode. Ordinary, when the last entry on the playlist goes on air, the cue remains empty so that the next take will perform a final take out. When loop mode is activated, the first entry is activated instead so that the next take will start the playlist all over again.

Automation

Each playlist entry can have an optional duration that specifies how long the entry should be on air. Once that duration is reached, Director performs a take which - in combination with the auto-cue feature - brings the next entry on air. By activating the loop mode, this is a very comfortable way to produce Digital Signage setups where the same set of pre-filled templates is shown over and over again. For example, imagine a conference where displays in the halls show the program of the conference, paging between different tracks and showing sponsor pages every few minutes. If the current on-air item's duration is tracked, the remaining on-air time will be shown in the time code field in the Playlist's toolbar.

To cancel this self-driving cycle of auto-cue and automation takes, either perform a clear or toggle the Ignore Duration Values button in the playlist's toolbar. If this button is activated, Director stops tracking on-air duration for playlist entries. This can for example be used to temporarily interrupt automated playlists to keep a template longer than expected on air while changing the playlist.

The on-air duration of an entry is counted from the moment it is taken to air - so including its in-animation. If the specified duration is smaller than the time it takes to perform the in-animation, Director will wait until the animation is done. Specifically, it re-checks every 100ms if it can perform the take. The behavior for playlist entries which have a duration that is shorter than the in-transition it takes to bring them on air is currently undefined and subject to change. At the time of writing, with deactivated Timeline, the on air item will stay on air until the in-transition is complete, even if this means going over the duration. With activated Timeline, the next playlist entry's on air duration will effectively be reduced by the overtime of the problematic playlist entry

Multi-take templates are currently not supported for automation. For those, the second take will be performed after the duration expires if the timeline is deactivated or a take out after the first take if it is activated.

Playlist Control

The toolbar at the bottom of the playlist window contains various operations that can be performed. Which buttons are shown can be customized via the docking window configuration options to fit workflow needs.

Take, Update & Clear

These buttons function exactly the same as those in the Show Control. However, they only affect the channel this playlist window is bound to.

Editing & Operation

These buttons affect the actual usage of the playlist:

Loading & Saving

A channel's Playlist is stored as part of the Show file. However, the Playlist can also be exported to/imported from a separate playlist file.

Remote Playlist

Running a Remote Playlist allows you to decide between two sync-modes or even change to any other playlist that is available for the same context.

Playlists with Automatic Sync enabled cannot be modified by the user. When the Automatic mode is disabled, changes can be applied but get lost as soon as the Autoatic mode gets re-enabled!

Options

The Window Options allow you to enable and disable certain sections and buttons of the Toolbar and select the columns you want to see in your playlist.

Columns:



Misc:

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