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the system is capable of precise and above all
co-ordinated actions across the entire
workflow, from planning and ingest, through
browsing and editing, to computer-assisted
news playout, to full-blown transmission
automation; and all derived from the same
central database, and a common gateway to
the production environment. The complex task
of synchronizing multiple databases is
minimized or avoided altogether.
The QSeries system can smoothly interface
with a very wide variety of systems provided
by other manufacturers, such as high-
resolution servers and editing systems,
videotape machines, and a full range of
playout devices. These are all incorporated
into Autocue’s seamless workflow, with a
common user interface addressing every
function.
Autocue works with its customers to develop
workflows which make sense for them.
Some examples:
•
At the Jefferson-Pilot group in the
USA, Autocue developed a workflow
in which a single story name,
established at the earliest stage of
planning in the newsroom system, is
automatically applied across system
boundaries at every stage of the
production process, using standard
QSeries tools to provide seamless
integration with a Grass Valley high-
resolution server and craft editing
system.
•
At Carlton Westcountry in Plymouth,
UK, another seamless integration has
been achieved with Quantel and Ibis.
Ibis provides ingest and browsing,
while Quantel delivers high-
resolution editing and playout, all of
which is controlled and co-ordinated
through the QSeries user interface
and master running order.
•
At KHSB in Kansas City, the QSeries
automatically scavenges low-res
copies of all material which is filed
onto their Profile XP high-res server,
and makes it available to every user
at every workstation
•
At Svenska Spel in Sweden, the
QSeries is used both as a pure
transmission automation system
running a full daily schedule, and as
a production system allowing the
compilation and transmission of live
news bulletins, which appear as part
of the overall schedule.
•
At Channel One in Liverpool, UK,
which was based closely on the
pioneering New York One “wheel”
model, a single QSeries system
simultaneously provided, from one
user
interface,
automated
transmission of the pre-recorded
schedule; media management (ingest
and deletion to and from the high-res
server); and a full range of standard
newsroom functions.
•
Bloomberg Television makes extensive
use of Autocue’s centralised
automation to trigger many of their
live on-screen information sources.
These are just some examples of the QSeries’
wide-ranging capabilities, and of what is
achievable with a policy of centralization.
Autocue works with most - if not all - of the
major industry manufacturers, in order to
deliver systems which present few if any
technical barriers to the basic job their users
want to do. And Autocue supports MOS,
where appropriate or necessary, to link
QSeries modules to third party systems.
As a final graphic
example of how the
centralization policy
delivers
special
benefits, we must go
back to Autocue’s
origins, and to prompting.
Although considered by some almost as an
afterthought in production terms, prompting
is at the very heart of live news. It is crucial to
that important eye-to-eye contact between
presenter and audience. The norm in most
places is for the newsroom system to send
scripts to a dedicated prompting subsystem,
with the prompter’s own internal running
order kept up to date by any of several means,
including MOS in many places.
But such a connection is not a really “live”
one. If a story is updated in the newsroom
New options for 24 hour news
system, it can take several seconds to work its
way through to the prompter, and if the
prompter is already displaying the story which
has been changed it may be too late to show it
without resetting to the top of the story, i.e.
some kind of operator intervention. With
Autocue’s QSeries, the prompter display is
derived directly from the central news
database. The instant a story is updated in the
running order, the changes are shown live on
the prompter screen, even if the words that
have been changed are already scrolling.
This direct connection brings several other
benefits over and above the sheer speed of
updating: if, as often happens, a script is
changed at the prompter workstation by the
presenter or by an operator, the changed script
is instantly updated back in the central
database…not always the case with other
systems…and an accurate record is preserved
of what was actually broadcast. Any user at
any workstation can see precisely which story
is being prompted at any given time; and the
prompter can also trigger closed captioning,
translation subtitles and web publishing.
And there is another significant advantage:
with a live connection, the prompter itself
can be used to control events on air.
Anchoring a video clip, or a caption, or a
still, to a precise point in a script creates an
invisible marker which, when scrolled past
the presenter’s eye line, triggers the event. A
presenter can thus scroll through a show at
his or her own pace, with all of the technical
events…clips, captions, stills…being
triggered and switched automatically simply
by the scrolling of the prompter. This is not
possible where the prompter isn’t an integral
part of the system.
Prompter-driven automation is just one
example of Autocue’s constant effort to make
life easier and simpler for news broadcasters,
and is fully in line with the company’s motto
since 1955…”the show must go on.”
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