Avid INEWS | Command User's Guide I News 3.2 User’s NEWSCommand V32 UG EN

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Avid iNEWS | Command
User’s Guide

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Footage
Arri — Courtesy of Arri/Fauer — John Fauer, Inc.
Bell South “Anticipation” — Courtesy of Two Headed Monster — Tucker/Wayne Atlanta/GMS.
Canyonlands — Courtesy of the National Park Service/Department of the Interior.
Eco Challenge British Columbia — Courtesy of Eco Challenge Lifestyles, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Eco Challenge Morocco — Courtesy of Discovery Communications, Inc.
It’s Shuttletime — Courtesy of BCP & Canadian Airlines.
Nestlé Coffee Crisp — Courtesy of MacLaren McCann Canada.
Saturn “Calvin Egg” — Courtesy of Cossette Communications.
“Tigers: Tracking a Legend” — Courtesy of www.wildlifeworlds.com, Carol Amore, Executive Producer.
"The Big Swell" — Courtesy of Swell Pictures, Inc.
Windhorse — Courtesy of Paul Wagner Productions.
Arizona Images — KNTV Production — Courtesy of Granite Broadcasting, Inc.,
Editor/Producer Bryan Foote.
Canyonlands — Courtesy of the National Park Service/Department of the Interior.
Ice Island — Courtesy of Kurtis Productions, Ltd.
Tornados + Belle Isle footage — Courtesy of KWTV News 9.
WCAU Fire Story — Courtesy of NBC-10, Philadelphia, PA.
Women in Sports – Paragliding — Courtesy of Legendary Entertainment, Inc.
News material provided by WFTV Television Inc.

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creators of every genre — Just finished an incredible project and want to share it with the world?
Send us your reels and we may use your footage in our show reel or demo!*
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*Note: Avid cannot guarantee the use of materials submitted.

Avid iNEWS Command v3.2 User’s Guide • 9329-65264-00 Rev B • Created 9/9/14 • This document is
distributed by Avid in online (electronic) form only, and is not available for purchase in printed form.

Contents
Using This Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Symbols and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
If You Need Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
How to Order Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Avid Training Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Chapter 1

Introduction to Avid iNEWS | Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Architecture and Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Starting Avid iNEWS | Command at a Workstation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
The User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Menu Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Status Bar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Support Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Chapter 2

Panels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Working with Panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Playlist Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Customizing the Inventory Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Searching for Items in Inventory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Deleting Items in Inventory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Protecting Items in Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Editing Items in Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Playout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Media Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Displaying Thumbnails in Media Viewer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
7

Editing Fulfillment Data and Time Codes in the Media Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Chapter 3

Playlist Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Types of Playlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Overview of Playlist Viewer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Hiding a Playlist’s Playout or Channel Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Channel Groups Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Customizing the Channel Toolbar for Tally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Viewing Playlist Items by Component . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Graphic Trigger Count . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Customizing the Playlist Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Customizing the Cursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Customizing Playlist Clocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Customizing Columns in Playlist Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Time of Day Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Resizing the Playlist Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Displaying Thumbnails in a Playlist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Locking and Unlocking Playlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Working with Channel Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Locking Channel Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Assigning Channels in Playlist Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Setting the Graphics Style for a Channel Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Setting Workstation Alias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Working with Standalone Playlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Inventory Versioning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Working with Embedded Playlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Editing Embedded Playlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Using Time of Day Playlists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Chapter 4

Shotbox Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Overview of the Shotbox Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Configuring the Channel Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
8

Customizing the Shotbox Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Customizing the Shotbox Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Customizing the Clocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Resizing the Shotbox Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Displaying Thumbnails in a Shotbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Creating a Shotbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Loading a Shotbox from iNEWS or NRCS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Deleting a Shotbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Working with Channel Groups in a Shotbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Locking a Channel Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Replacing a Channel Group in a Shotbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Assigning Channels in a Shotbox. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Pinning Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Setting the Graphics Style for a Channel Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Chapter 5

iNEWS Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Inserting Machine Control Events into Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Auto-assigning Media IDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Using an NRCS ActiveX Plug-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Time-Code Triggered Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Loading Rundowns to Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Loading and Unloading Playlists from iNEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Monitor LOAD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Monitor Off and Unload . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Event List Queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Composite Queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Item Status After Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Changing Channels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Chapter 6

Working with Stories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Inserting New Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Deleting Stories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Updating Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
9

Editing an Item’s Media ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Rearranging Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Floating & Unfloating Stories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Chapter 7

Command Tablet Application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Connection Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
The iPad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Setting up Your First Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Viewing Command Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Starting the Command Tablet Application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
The Sidebar and View Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Locking or Unlocking Shotbox Channel Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Working with Shotboxes in Tablet Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Working with Graphic Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Chapter 8

Playout Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
UI Controlled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Playout Media from Command Workstation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Resolving a Mismatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Disabling the Keyboard at the Command Workstation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Looping and Follow-on Playout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
USB Keypad Controlled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Channel-Specific Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
GPI Controlled. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Toggling Between GPI and UI Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Appendix A

Control Room Quick Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Failover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Appendix B

Icon and Button Quick Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Playlist and Shotbox Viewer Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Playlist Viewer Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Shotbox Viewer Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Channel Group Icons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Alerts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Playlist Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
10

Appendix C

Action Quick Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Using This Guide
Congratulations on your purchase of your Avid iNEWS® | Command system.
Command offers a considerable amount of functionality for the state-of-the-art newsroom,
including newsroom system integration and playout control. With Command, newsroom
personnel can easily create and manage playlists.
This publication provides information on how to use the Command system.

The documentation describes the standard features of a basic system configuration.
Therefore, your system might contain certain features and hardware that are not covered in
the documentation.

Symbols and Conventions
Avid documentation uses the following symbols and conventions:
Symbol or Convention Meaning or Action

A note provides important related information, reminders,
recommendations, and strong suggestions.

A caution means that a specific action you take could cause harm to
your computer or cause you to lose data.

w
>

A warning describes an action that could cause you physical harm.
Follow the guidelines in this document or on the unit itself when
handling electrical equipment.
This symbol indicates menu commands (and subcommands) in the
order you select them. For example, File > Import means to open the
File menu and then select the Import command.
This symbol indicates a single-step procedure. Multiple arrows in a list
indicate that you perform one of the actions listed.

(Windows), (Windows
only), (Macintosh), or
(Macintosh only)

This text indicates that the information applies only to the specified
operating system, either Windows or Macintosh OS X.

Symbol or Convention Meaning or Action

Bold font

Bold font is primarily used in task instructions to identify user interface
items and keyboard sequences.

Italic font

Italic font is used to emphasize certain words and to indicate variables.

Courier Bold font

Courier Bold font identifies text that you type.

Ctrl+key or mouse action

Press and hold the first key while you press the last key or perform the
mouse action. For example, Command+Option+C or Ctrl+drag.

| (pipe character)

The pipe character is used in some Avid product names, such as
Interplay | Production. In this document, the pipe is used in product
names when they are in headings or at their first use in text.

If You Need Help
If you are having trouble using your Avid product:
1. Retry the action, carefully following the instructions given for that task in this guide. It
is especially important to check each step of your workflow.
2. Check the latest information that might have become available after the documentation
was published. You should always check online for the most up-to-date release notes or
ReadMe because the online version is updated whenever new information becomes
available. To view these online versions, visit the Knowledge Base at
www.avid.com/support.
3. Check the documentation that came with your Avid application or your hardware for
maintenance or hardware-related issues.
4. Visit the online Knowledge Base at www.avid.com/support. Online services are
available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Search this online Knowledge Base to find
answers, view error messages, access troubleshooting tips, download updates, and to
read or join online message-board discussions.

How to Order Documentation
To order additional copies of this documentation from within the United States, call Avid
Sales at 800-949-AVID (800-949-2843). If you are placing an order from outside the United
States, contact your local Avid representative.

Avid Training Services

Avid Training Services
Avid makes lifelong learning, career advancement, and personal development easy and
convenient. Avid understands that the knowledge you need to differentiate yourself is always
changing, and Avid continually updates course content and offers new training delivery
methods that accommodate your pressured and competitive work environment.
To learn about Avid's new online learning environment, Avid Learning Excellerator™
(ALEX), visit http://learn.avid.com.
For information on courses/schedules, training centers, certifications, courseware, and
books, please visit www.avid.com/training or call Avid Sales at 800-949-AVID
(800-949-2843).

1 Introduction to Avid iNEWS | Command
Avid iNEWS | Command is a device automation system that integrates with any iNEWS or
MOS-enabled newsroom computer system (NRCS) and provides broadcasters precise control
over a range of playout devices, including video servers, still stores, and character generators in a
broadcast news environment. Backup services and mirrored playout make this system reliable
while the user interface allows you to control multiple production devices. Command works with
Avid Service Framework applications and services to ensure you always have the best
system performance.
This chapter contains the following main sections:
•

Overview
-

Architecture and Workflow

Features

•

Starting Avid iNEWS | Command at a Workstation

•

The User Interface

•

Support Dialog Box

Overview

Overview
The basic iNEWS Command system is comprised of iNEWS Command Servers, workstations
that run the client software, and devices, such as Avid AirSpeed video servers, Thunder
production servers and Deko graphics system. The system is designed to be an extension of your
current Avid system. It allows you to receive playlists from Avid iNEWS (or a MOS-based
newsroom computer system) while controlling your video and graphics devices, or even create
standalone playlists using drag-and-drop functionality from an inventory of media items.
The iNEWS Command system supports industry standard protocols that make it compatible with
many other products.
For newscast control your iNEWS Command system provides automated playlists, tracks script
changes, and automates control of production and playback devices including video servers, and
character generators. It integrates with the iNEWS rundown—or any other MOS-enabled
newsroom computer system—allowing a producer to change a show while it is on air, and
reflecting those changes in their iNEWS Command system. MOS commands are provided so
that journalists can use MOS plug-ins within the newsroom computer system script.
Production playout devices, including Avid Deko and Avid Thunder on-air graphics solutions
and AirSpeed video servers, are triggered based on the events in the rundown.
News graphic and text templates for news elements can include logos and station IDs,
lower-third captions or superimposed graphics, and full-screen backgrounds with text.
Journalists, using iNEWS newsroom computer system, fill in the templates and insert them into
their stories in a variety of ways. For instance, machine control commands can be entered using
Deko Select or Thunder Select plug-ins. They can be entered manually or by using a macro.
They might also include clips and stills in their script by entering the ID of the graphic in the
story as a production cue. At air time an iNEWS Command operator triggers the graphics
playlist, which is synchronized with the iNEWS rundown.

Architecture and Workflow
Avid iNEWS Command is scalable and can adapt to work in traditional newsroom-based playlist
creation to production-centric workflows where running orders are created inside the iNEWS
Command playback application. All of the components can run on a single computer, or they can
be spread out across multiple computers with redundant services configured to take control if the
primary services should become unavailable.
An example of a basic Command system architecture is shown in the following illustration:

Overview

In the most common news workflow, playlists are created using the iNEWS newsroom computer
system and the video and graphic assets are referenced in stories using their IDs or by dragging
and dropping them from an Active-X plugin, such as Deko Select.
Playlists can be saved to use later, standalone playlists can be created, and multiple playlists can
be embedded in a single running order. You can set a playlist to playback at a specified time, or
you can set groups of assets within a playlist to play in follow-on mode.
A basic workflow is shown in the following illustration.

Overview

Features
The Avid iNEWS Command system provides the features described in the following table:
Feature

Description

Playlist Functionality

You can load a playlist from the newsroom computer system or create the
playlist manually within Avid iNEWS Command. You can also embed
within other playlists. This provides the flexibility to control event playout
locally, at the desktop, or from a rundown. It also allows seamless transitions
between shows or segments produced by separate editorial teams.

Manual and Automated
Triggering

Items can be played back manually by the operator, via keyboard, X-keys, or
GPI. Items can also be played automatically, using the follow-on or looping
playout setting. And a playlist can be set to start at a specified time of day.
This provides total integration with the facility, its systems, processes,
and staff.

Redundant Failover

Mirrored playback allows a single Play command to initiate playback on two
channels simultaneously for seamless failover. All Command services are
redundant.

Advanced Playback Features

These features include: autocue, play while record, and play while transfer.

Frame Accuracy

Avid iNEWS Command provides frame accurate video playout for
follow-on items assigned to the same channel.

Flexible Device Configuration

Actual device channels can be configured into multiple virtual possibilities
through channel groups.
19

Starting Avid iNEWS | Command at a Workstation

Feature (Continued)

Description (Continued)

Flexible Integration

You can configure the Avid iNEWS Command system to control any
combination of supported video or graphics devices that are operating in an
Avid iNEWS, ENPS, or other MOS environment.

User Interface

The intuitive user interface provides visual tools, including clocks that show
time elapsed and time remaining, channel assignments for easy
identification of transmission paths, and color-coded status indicators that
illustrate the inventory of assets based on availability and playability on all
devices. This improves operation, reduces training time, and ensures
complete synchronization of devices with the playlist

Status Updates

The Command user interface reflects playability status of inventory assets;
display of playout and channel group lock status; and status-based colors
and fonts for stories and items at a glance. These status updates speed up
decision-making saving time, while maintaining accuracy.

Starting Avid iNEWS | Command at a Workstation
Avid iNEWS Command client software requires no password to log in and is easy to start.
To start iNEWS Command at a workstation:

1. Do one of the following:
t

Double click the iNEWS Command icon on the desktop.

Click the Start button and select Programs > Avid > Avid iNEWS Command.
The iNEWS Command window opens.

The User Interface
The Avid iNEWS Command window is the graphical user interface that contains panels, a menu
bar, a status bar, and a workspace area.

The User Interface

Not pictured is the Shotbox Viewer, which opens in the same area as the Playlist Viewer. For
more information, see “Shotbox Viewer” on page 91. Also not shown are thumbnails in the
playlist. For more information, see “Displaying Thumbnails in a Playlist” on page 68.

Panels
Panels are components that appear in the application and provide information in various
ways.The iNEWS Command window contains panels that you can dock, undock, move, resize,
or even hide from view. Each panel is easily identified by the name appearing in its title bar.
For more information about the panels, including the Inventory Explorer, used in iNEWS
Command, see “Panels” on page 29. The workspace area contains either the Shotbox Viewer
panel, Playlist Viewer, or both simultaneously. For more on them, see “Playlist Viewer” on
page 50 and “Shotbox Viewer” on page 91.

Menu Bar
The menu bar for iNEWS Command contains the following:
•

File

•

Edit

•

The User Interface

•

Playlist

•

Shotbox

•

Media

•

Tools

•

Help

Each menu, its options and descriptions are described in the following tables:
Menu

Submenu

Menu Option

Shortcut Keys Description

File

New

Playlist

Ctrl+Shift+N

Opens the Create New Playlist dialog box.

Shotbox

Ctrl+Alt+N

Opens the Create New Shotbox dialog box.

File

Import

Export

Playlist

Imports a playlist to Command.

Shotbox

Imports a shotbox to Command.

Playlist

Exports a playlist from Command.

Shotbox

Exports a shotbox from Command.

Command can export a playlist in .csv format so that users can keep track of their playlists in an Excel
spreadsheet; however, .csv files cannot be imported back into Command. Exported data includes the ID,
Title, Duration, and Channel, and puts in a separate line for Breaks.
Exit

Edit

Closes the Command program.

Cut

Ctrl+X

Cut selection.

Copy

Ctrl+C

Copy selection.

Paste

Ctrl+V

Paste selection.

Delete
View

Delete selection.

Playlist Explorer

Ctrl+Shift+E

Displays or closes the Playlist Explorer.

Inventory

Ctrl+Shift+I

Displays or closes the Inventory.

Shotbox

Displays or closes the Shotbox Viewer.

Clock

Displays or closes the Clock.

Playout

Displays or closes the Playout panel.

Media Viewer

Ctrl+Shift+M

Displays or closes the Media Viewer.

Alerts

Ctrl+Shift+A

Displays or closes the Alerts.

The User Interface

Submenu

Playlist View

Menu Option

Shortcut Keys Description (Continued)

Ctrl+Tab

Displays next playlist

Ctrl+Shift+Tab

Displays previous playlist

Set Focus

Ctrl+F

Sets the keyboard focus to the active view.

Ctrl+W

Closes the current playlist.

Close All

Ctrl+Shift+W

Closes all playlists.

Maximize
Playlist Select

Maximizes the Playlist Viewer.

Next item

Ctrl+Down

Select next item in current playlist.

Previous Item

Ctrl+Up

Select previous item in current playlist.

Next Row

Alt+Down

Select next item in current playlist.

Previous Row

Alt+Up

Select previous item in current playlist.

Item In
Ctrl+Page Down Select next item after story.
Following Story
Playlist Edit

Properties

Opens Playlist Properties dialog box.

Edit Selection

Ctrl+E

Edit current selection in playlist.

Edit Channel

Ctrl+* (asterisk)

Sets focus to current playlist item’s
Channel column so the user can manually
assign a channel.

Edit Trigger

Ctrl+/ (slash)

Sets focus to current playlist item’s Trigger
column so the user can select manual or
follow-on playout.

Edit Media ID

Sets focus to the current playlist item’s ID
column so the user can alter the ID.

Cut

Cut selection.

Copy

Copy selection.

Paste

Paste selection.

Delete

Delete selection.

Playlist Show

Inventory

Ctrl+I

Opens the Inventory panel.

Playlist Insert

New Story

Ctrl+N

Insert new story.

New Break

Insert new break.
23

The User Interface

Submenu

Menu Option

Shortcut Keys Description (Continued)

New Item
Playlist Channels

Playlist Playout

Insert new item.

Assign

Ctrl+R

Assign channel.

Lock All

Ctrl+L

Lock all channels.

Unlock All

Alt+L

Unlock all channels.

Add Existing...

Add an existing channel group.

Add New...

Add a new channel group.

Cue

. (period)

Cue Selection. Additional submenu options
include: Selection Cue All Channels
(Shift+hyphen), Last Played (Ctrl+hyphen),
and Home, Select and Cue All
(Alt+Home). The last submenu option
moves the cursor to the first available item
in the playlist and cues all channels.

The Alt+Home keystroke combination works only when the Home key on the keyboard is used, not the
Home (7) key on the numerical keypad.

Shotbox View

Play

Enter

Play media.

Pause

+ (plus)

Pause media that is playing. Submenu
options include: Selection and Last Played.

Stop

0 (zero)

Stops media from playing. Submenu
options include: Selection and Last Played.

Ctrl+Alt+Tab

Displays next shotbox

Previous
Set Focus

Displays previous shotbox
Ctrl+Alt+F

Maximize
Close

Maximizes the Shotbox Viewer panel.
Ctrl+Alt+W

Close All
Shotbox

Sets the keyboard focus to the active view.

Closes the current shotbox.
Closes all shotboxes.

Edit Selection

Ctrl+Alt+E

Edit Channel

Ctrl+Alt+*
Sets focus to current shotbox item’s
(asterisk on
Channel list so the user can manually
numeric keypad) assign a channel. This “pins” the channel to
that item.

Edit current selection in shotbox.

The User Interface

Submenu

Menu Option

Shortcut Keys Description (Continued)

Unpin Channel

Alt+Shift+*
Removes pinned channel assignment from
(asterisk on
all selected items in shotbox.
numeric keypad)

Cut

Cut selection.

Copy

Copy selection.

Paste

Paste selection.

Delete

Delete selection.

Shotbox Show

Inventory

Ctrl+Alt+I

Opens the Inventory panel.

Shotbox Insert

Item

Alt+Shift+Insert

Inserts a new item in a shotbox.

Shotbox Playout

Cue

Cue media. Submenu options include:
Selection, Last played, or Items 01-12.

Play

Play media. Submenu options include:
Selection or Items 01-12.

Pause

Pause media that is playing. Submenu
options include: Selection and Last Played.

Stop

Stops media from playing. Submenu
options include: Selection and Last Played.

Media

Play

Ctrl+Space

Play media.

Go To Mark In

Alt+Q

Go to the marked In point.

Go To Mark Out

Alt+W

Go to marked Out point.

Set Mark In

Alt+I

Mark the In point.

Set Mark Out

Alt+O

Mark the Out point.

Forward One Frame

Alt+.

Move forward one frame.

Forward One
Second

Ctrl+.

Move forward one second.

Forward ten
Seconds

Ctrl+Alt+.

Move forward ten seconds.

Backward One
Frame

Alt+,

Move backward one frame.

The User Interface

Tools

Submenu

Menu Option

Backward One
Second

Ctrl+,

Move backward one second.

Backward Ten
Seconds

Ctrl+Alt+,

Move backward ten seconds.

Restart

Alt+6

Restart media.

Eject

Alt+J

Eject media.

Options

Opens the Options dialog box.

System Settings

Opens the System Settings dialog box.
These options apply to the workstation only
and are not system-wide settings.

Enable GPI playout
Help

Shortcut Keys Description (Continued)

Ctrl+G

If selected, it enables the use of a GPI
keypad for playout control.

Command Help

Displays help information for users.

Support

Opens the Support dialog box.

About

Display information about iNEWS
Command.

Status Bar
The status bar provides status information regarding channels and channel groups. It also shows
an indication of GPI playout control and the name of the system’s alias.

For more information on the possible icons that appear on the status bar, see “Channel Group
Icons” on page 168.
Whether the status bar appears in the user interface is customizable.
To show or hide the display of the status bar and channels:

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
The Options dialog box opens.

Support Dialog Box

2. In Category, select Status Bar.
3. Do any of the following:
t

Select Show status bar to display the status bar in the Command window.

Deselect Show status bar to hide the status bar in the Command window.

Select Show channels to display status of channels on the status bar.

Deselect Show channels to hide status of channels on the status bar.

4. Click OK.

Support Dialog Box
The Support dialog box is provided for Command users to log information about any issues
encountered that might require contacting Avid.
To log support information:

1. Select Help > Support.
2. Enter a description of the issue in the Support dialog box.
The following example shows a sentence regarding a GPI device:
27

Support Dialog Box

3. Click Save.
4. Select the name and location where you want the zipped file to be saved.
5. Click OK.
The system saves your comments inside a zipped file that also contains other vital
information, such as system settings and software versions, which enable support personnel
to troubleshoot the issue. This file can then be e-mailed to support personnel at Avid.

2 Panels
The iNEWS Command interface is made up of panels, which provide information in various
ways.
This chapter contains the following main sections:
•

Working with Panels

•

Playlist Explorer

•

Inventory

•

Clock

•

Playout

•

Media Viewer

•

Alerts

Working with Panels
The iNEWS Command window contains numerous panels that a user can dock, undock, move,
resize, or even hide from view in the main window.
You can also dock the Clock, Playout and Shotbox panels above the Playlist. When there is more
than one panel docked at the top, you can switch between panels using the tabs. The following
illustration shows the Shotbox and Clock panels overlapping:

Working with Panels

Panels can be arranged so that they are tiled within available screen space, or layered so that only
one is visible and the rest are accessible via tabs. An example of tiled panels is shown in “The
User Interface” on page 20. The following graphic shows layered panels—as indicated by the
tabs at the bottom—with the Alerts panel on top. The layering option is helpful in conserving
screen space. Panels can be layered on either the left or right side of the main window.

Each panel is easily identified by its title bar that bears its name. The available panels are:
•

Playlist Explorer (shown below)

•

Inventory
30

Working with Panels

•

Clock

•

Shotbox Viewer (See “Shotbox Viewer” on page 91.)

•

Media Viewer

•

Alerts

Panels are docked by default.
To undock a panel, do one of the following:

Click the Restore button located on the panel’s title bar, next to the X button.

Double-click the panel’s title bar.

Click on the panel’s title bar and drag it from its docked location.

To redock a panel, do one of the following:

Click the Restore button located on the panel’s title bar, next to the X button. It will redock
in its previously docked location.

Double-click the panel’s title bar. It will redock in its previously docked location.

Click on the panel’s title bar and drag it to an alternative docking location—until the title bar
touches the border of the area to which you want it docked.

To layer panels:

1. Click the panel’s title bar and drag it to the top left (or right) corner of the window.
2. Repeat the process with each panel. Command will automatically layer the panels and
provide tabs at the bottom of the screen. A user can then click any tab to bring that panel to
the top.

Playlist Explorer

If layered panels include the Alerts panel, the Command system is designed to automatically
bring the Alerts panel to the top whenever an alert message is received. If this removes focus
from the Playlist or Shotbox Viewers in which you are working, you can restore focus quickly by
using the following keystroke combinations. Ctrl+F sets focus back to the Playlist Viewer.
Ctrl+Alt+F sets focus back to the Shotbox Viewer.
To hide a panel:

Click the X button on the title bar of the panel you want to hide.

To view a hidden panel:

Select View and then the name of the panel from the submenu.

To resize a panel:

1. Position your mouse pointer on the edge of a panel. The pointer will change to a resize
indicator.
2. Click and drag to the new size.

Playlist Explorer
The Playlist Explorer shows a list of:

•

Newsroom playlists that have been loaded to iNEWS Command from an iNEWS newsroom
computer system

•

MOS-based newsroom playlists that are MOS active and have been marked ready-to-air
from a MOS-enabled newsroom computer system, such as ENPS

•

Standalone playlists, including those set to air at a specified time of day

•

Disconnected newsroom playlists

•

Shotboxes

The Playlist Explorer can be configured to show MOS-based newsroom playlists that are MOS
active but have not been marked ready-to-air. By default, this feature is not enabled. The
procedure for turning it on is provided later in this section.
Depending on what newsroom system Command integrates with at your site, various icons will
appear to the left of playlist names. For instance, when iNEWS Command has received all items
and/or stories in the rundown from an iNEWS newsroom computer system, the “purple I” icon
will appear.
When Command is integrated with a MOS-based newsroom computer system, such as ENPS,
the MOS icon appears—either gray for a MOS Active playlist (when option is enabled) or black
for one that is both MOS Active and ready-to-air.
32

Playlist Explorer

When a lightbulb appears, the playlist is on air. Double-clicking one of the playlists (or
shotboxes) will open it with its stories, media, channels, and so forth in preparation of locking
channel groups and taking a show to air.

The icons used in relation to newsroom playlists also appear in the Playlist Viewer’s Playlist
toolbar. For more information about these icons and others in Command, see “Icon and Button
Quick Reference” on page 163.
The Playlist Explorer can be configured to open a playlist automatically when it’s loaded directly
from iNEWS or when it’s marked ready-to-air from a MOS-enabled newsroom computer
system.
To configure Playlist Explorer to automatically open loaded or ready-to-air playlists:

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
The Options dialog box opens.

Playlist Explorer

2. In Category, select Playlist Explorer.
3. Select Auto-open playlist.
4. Click OK.
To enable the display of MOS active playlists that are not ready-to-air:

1. Select Tools > Options.
The Options dialog box opens.
2. In Category, select Playlist Explorer.
3. Select Show all playlists (even if not ready-to-air).
4. Click OK.

You can disconnect a MOS active playlist, which would turn it into a standalone playlist
controlled by Command, by right-clicking on that MOS-based newsroom playlist and selecting
Disconnect. The option appears disabled when right-clicking on other non-newsroom playlists.
You can also delete a standalone playlist or shotbox from the Playlist Explorer via a context
menu option by right-clicking on the shotbox or standalone playlist in the Playlist Explorer
panel.

Playlist Explorer

Tabs
Whether the same playlist can be opened onto multiple tabs in the Playlist Viewer is a
configurable setting.
Changing this setting does not affect existing tabs already opened in the current session.
To turn on or off the multi-tab option for playlists:

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
The Options dialog box opens.

2. In Category, select Playlist Explorer.
3. Do one of the following:
t

Select One tab per playlist if you want any playlist opened from the Playlist Explorer to
appear on only one tab. If its already open, its tab will appear on top of other tabs. Avid
recommends using this setting.

Deselect One tab per playlist if you want a playlist to appear on a new tab each time it’s
opened from the Playlist Explorer.

4. Click OK.
35

Inventory

For more information on the Auto-open playlist option, see “Playlist Explorer” on page 32.

Inventory
The Inventory panel shows an alphabetical list of channel groups, a search bar, and the inventory
(media) for a selected channel group in a table or spreadsheet-style format. Below the inventory,
you can see the total number of inventory items displayed and any chosen media item’s
availability, clip ID, name (slug), duration, the time when it was last modified, and whether
media is protected from deletion.

You can also double click on a media item to open it from the Inventory panel.

Inventory

Opening items from the Inventory panel is dependent on having a playlist open that contains a
browse channel on the same device. If the user opens the playlist first, Command will
automatically select the first channel group in the Inventory panel.
For more information about channel groups, see “Working with Channel Groups” on page 74.

When controlling a third-party video device via the Avid Video device service (using VDCP), the
device’s inventory will appear in the Inventory panel only if the device service is configured to
use one port for inventory purposes. If the device service is configured with playback channels
only, the inventory will not appear; however, the playlist in Command will still reflect inventory
status, and an unavailable item promptly changes to available once it is transferred to the device.
The Inventory panel provides graphical indicators to show status of availability and delete
protection:
Inventory Status Icons

Available on all
Unavailable on some
Item is protected against deletion across all
devices in the channel group.
Item is partially protected. Problem with one or
more devices in channel group.

Detailed Status Icons

Available on specific device
Unavailable on specifc device

When no shield icon is present, that indicates the item is not protected, and therefore can be
deleted from the inventory.
When an item appears unavailable on some, you can view the specific devices by clicking the
plus (+) to the left of Availability in the Details section of the Inventory panel. When an item
appears partially protected, you can view the specific devices by clicking the plus (+) to the left
of Devices in the Details section of the Inventory panel.

Inventory

Command users can drag media directly from the Inventory panel to the Playlist Viewer and drop
it into an open, locked standalone playlist with the same channel group assigned to it. If a
different channel group applies, the system will ask the user whether to add the channel group to
the playlist.
To view inventory from a different channel group:

Select a different channel group from the list.

If you want to view items from more than one channel group, hold the Ctrl key down as you select
multiple channel groups in the Inventory panel. The list is provided in alphabetical order.
The user can select any column header to sort the table by that column. The user can also
rearrange the order of columns.
To sort inventory:

Select the column by which you want to sort, such as Slug, which is the name or title of the
item.

To rearrange column order:

Click on a column header and drag it to a new position.

Customizing the Inventory Panel
The Inventory panel is divided into multiple areas that display information, such as channel
group list, a search bar, inventory, and media details. A user can customize some features of the
panel by modifying the font or adjusting the size of each area within the confines of the panel.
For instance, a user can move one of two resize bars to adjust the areas of the Inventory panel to
view more inventory or longer channel group lists.
To resize areas of the Inventory panel:

Click either of the two resize bars, which are located in the pane between the channel group
list area and the search bar or between the inventory and details areas at the bottom of the
pane. Then drag the bar up or down to make your adjustment.

To modify the font in the Inventory panel:

1. Click Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
The Options dialog box appears.

Inventory

2. Modify the font by clicking the Change button. A sample of your settings is provided as a
preview.
3. Click Apply to save your changes.

Searching for Items in Inventory
Avid iNEWS Command lets users search for specific items in the inventory via the Inventory
panel. The search is not case sensitive.
To search for an item:

1. Use the drop-down arrow next to the Search field in the Inventory panel to select the filter by
which you want to search. Your options are: ID, Slug, or All (meaning both the item’s slug
and ID).

2. Type the ID or slug in the Search field.
As you type, the list of items shown in the Inventory panel is filtered to show only those
items with the criteria you specified. Also, when switching channel groups in the Inventory
panel, any entered search term will be reapplied to the newly chosen channel group.
39

Inventory

Deleting Items in Inventory
Avid iNEWS Command enables users to delete items in the inventory via the Inventory panel.
However, if an item is cued, playing, paused, or done, you cannot delete it from the Inventory
panel; if an attempt is made to do so, an alert will appear to provide an explanation.
To delete an item:

1. Select the item and then right-click on it.
2. Select Delete from the menu.

Hold the Ctrl or Shift key down as you click to select multiple items for deletion. If the menu
option is unavailable, see your system administrator who might have disabled this feature. When
multiple items are selected for deletion, the Delete Confirmation dialog box appears with a
confirmation question stating the number of items selected for deletion. For instance, the
question might appear as: “Delete the 10 selected inventory items?”

Protecting Items in Inventory
Avid iNEWS Command enables users to selectively protect items in the inventory from deletion
via the Inventory panel.
To protect an item:

1. Select the item (or items) and right-click.
2. Select Protect from the menu.

Hold the Ctrl or Shift key down as you click to select multiple items for delete-protection. If the
menu option is unavailable, see your system administrator who might have disabled this feature.
A silver shield appears in the Inventory panel next to protected items. Protection applies to
that item across all devices in the channel group (selected at the top of the Inventory panel).
If there is a problem with protecting the item on any of the devices, the shield icon appears
yellow and with an exclamation point.
You can view additional details for the specific devices by clicking the plus (+) to the left of
Devices in the Details section of the Inventory panel.
To remove delete protection from an item:

1. Select the item (or items) and right-click.
2. Select Remove Protection from the menu.

Clock

Editing Items in Inventory
Users can change an item’s slug or video ID from the Inventory panel. However, if an item is
cued, playing, paused, or done, you cannot rename it from the Inventory panel; if an attempt is
made to do so, an alert will appear to provide an explanation.

Renaming of the video ID is a feature that a system administrator can turn off.
To change an item’s slug:

1. Right click on the item in the Inventory panel.
2. Select Change Slug.
To change an item’s video ID:

1. Right click on the item in the Inventory panel.
2. Select Change ID.

Clock
The Clock panel can be used to display the current time based on the Command Workstation’s
time or times normally associated with the clocks featured in the Playlist Viewer, such as times
related to clips or a show.

In the previous example, the clock is configured to display the time remaining in a clip, such a
minute and eight seconds.

Because the Clock panel can be undocked, it may be moved to a second monitor in the control
room, if the Command Workstation is a computer with dual-monitor capabilities.
The font, background, and foreground colors of the Clock panel are configurable, and the time
can be set to display values in a 12- or 24-hour format.

Clock

To configure the clock:

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
The Options dialog box opens.

2. In Category, select Clock.
3. In the Time of Day Clock section, set the clock’s text color and background color.
4. Select the Display Time of Day check box if you want to display current time based on the
workstation’s time.
5. Set the clock to either a 12- or 24-hour format.
6. Click the Change button to set the clock’s font. A sample of your settings is provided as a
preview.
7. In the Channel Duration Clocks section, select the Display Channel Durations check box if
you want to display duration clocks. Command offers a Clock panel that automatically
displays up to two duration clocks—also known as count up/down clocks—for all video
channels in the active (open) playlist, and users can customize the size and color of the
clocks for that panel in this section of the Options dialog box.

Playout

8. If you want the clocks to flash during the last 10 seconds of an item’s duration, select the
check box called Flash red last ten seconds. This is a global setting. If selected, when a
playing item reaches 10 seconds remaining, the countdown clock will change the text color
to red and then alternate every second between that color and the standard pre-defined color.
9. Click the Change button to set the font for the duration clocks. A sample of your settings is
provided as a preview.
10. Select the text color and background used for channel names.
11. In each of the Left Clock and Right Clock sections, select the behavior of the clocks:
t

Hide—Choose this option if you do not want to display the clock.

Time elapsed in clip—Choose this option if you want to display how much time has
elapsed since the current clip began playing.

Time remaining in clip—Choose this option if you want to display how much time
remains of the clip that is playing.

12. Select the text color and background for each of the duration clocks.
13. When done, click Apply, then OK.

Playout
The Playout panel displays transport controls, thumbnails, duration information and IDs or slugs
for media items.
The panel has two main uses:
•

Lets users access channel specific transport commands from within the Command user
interface. This is most useful for sites with touch screen monitors.

•

Lets users monitor the currently playing item from a workstation that does not have the
channel group locked.

The Playout panel can display either video or graphics. The following illustration shows a
Playout panel with a sample video item.

Media Viewer

The following illustration shows a Playout panel with a sample graphic.

To view the Playout panel:

Select View > Playout.

For information on configuring this panel for use with touch screen devices, see “Setting up the
Playout Panel for Touch Screens” in the Avid iNEWS Command Installation and Configuration
Guide.

Media Viewer
The Media Viewer provides Browse controls within the Command user interface that you can
use to play, stop, and set mark in and out points of video on devices, such as an Avid AirSpeed
video server. The panel does allow for the display of static images, called thumbnails, which
represent media items, but an external video monitor must be used to watch the video.

Media Viewer

A browse channel must be configured in the channel group to browse video. Command supports
shared browse channels, too, so that users can open items in Media Viewer from multiple
workstations. For shared browsing, a second browse-only channel group must be created.
Editing the mark in and out points of video items and timecode graphics can be done from the
Media Viewer with or without a browse channel.
The Browse controls are:
Position Indicator

Set
Mark In

Set
Mark Out

Set Mark In

Set Mark Out
Eject

Timecode

Duration
Go To In

Play/Stop

Go To Out

The Play button changes to a Stop button when media is playing. The keyboard’s spacebar can be
used to play or pause the play of video in the Media Viewer. The clock on the bottom left of the
Media Viewer displays the timecode of current position indicated on the position bar. The clock
on the right provides the duration.

The duration between mark in and out points is shown on the item in the playlist. Setting a mark
in or out point for an item in Media Viewer is a “soft” mark, which means that the mark in or out
point only applies to that specific item in the playlist, but the original item in the inventory is
unchanged.

Displaying Thumbnails in Media Viewer
Thumbnails in Command are small graphical representations of the media, which could be a
character generated graphic or a frame of video. In regard to video, although sometimes referred
to as headframes, thumbnails are created from within the first five frames of video and therefore
might or might not be the first or “head” frame.
When thumbnails are displayed, a static image representing the media appears in the Media
Viewer above the Browse controls.

Media Viewer

To display thumbnails in the Media Viewer:

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
The Options dialog box opens.

Media Viewer

2. In Category, select Media Viewer.
3. Select Show thumbnails.
4. Click OK to save the settings.

Editing Fulfillment Data and Time Codes in the Media Viewer
The Media Viewer can also be used to edit fulfillment data in graphics, create standalone
playlists with time code playout, and override time code values from newsroom playlists.
By setting the start and duration times of a video item, you instruct Command to send Play and
Eject commands when the story’s video reaches the appropriate points. For graphic items, this
lets you overlap graphics by using start and duration times. For instance, you can set the start
time of a second graphic to happen before the end time of the first graphic, so that an Eject
command is not sent for the first before the second one plays, allowing for an update motion
when transitioning from one graphic to another.
Command display a Curled Arrow icon in the playlist to indicate when graphics overlap.

This feature works only with devices that support it. For a list of compatible devices, see the
latest Avid iNEWS Command ReadMe.

Alerts

To edit fulfillment data or alter time code values:

1. Open the item in the Media Viewer.
If the graphic has fulfillment fields, those will be displayed. If the item is a blank template,
you can use the Plus (+) button to add fields.
2. Edit the fulfillment data in the fields provided.
3. (Optional) Modify the time code values for Start and Duration.

All changes to the item are applied immediately and appear in the Media Viewer, so no
saving in necessary.

Changes made that override fulfillment data from newsroom playlists are not sent back to
the newsroom computer system, and would be lost if the story is floated/unfloated from
within the rundown.

Alerts
The Alerts window provides a list of recent alerts. The alerts contain these properties:
•

Title (mandatory)
48

Alerts

•

Text (optional-not shown in the list)

•

Alert type

The types of alerts include:
Icon

Alert Type

Critical
Warning
Information
Succeeded

The succeeded alert with its check mark icon will only appear as a followup to previously
reported warnings and critical alerts.
Each alert will appear along with a timestamp for when the alert was issued.

If the alert’s title extends beyond the size of the panel, resize the panel or mouse over the alert to
view the entire title in a tooltip. A user can also select any alert and view additional details as
well as clear alerts from the list.
To view details:

Select an alert and view the details below the list area.

Double-click on an alert to view details specific to that alert in a diagnostics dialog box.

To clear alerts:

Right-click and select Clear Alerts.
49

3 Playlist Viewer
The iNEWS Command interface provides an area known as the Playlist Viewer, with which
users can view and manage playlists for on-air playout.
This chapter contains the following main sections:
•

Types of Playlists

•

Overview of Playlist Viewer

•

Toolbars

Viewing Playlist Items by Component

Customizing the Playlist Viewer
-

Customizing the Cursor

Customizing Playlist Clocks

Customizing Columns in Playlist Viewer

Resizing the Playlist Viewer

Displaying Thumbnails in a Playlist

•

Locking and Unlocking Playlists

•

Working with Channel Groups

•

Working with Standalone Playlists

•

Working with Embedded Playlists

•

Using Time of Day Playlists

Types of Playlists
There are different types of playlists. For example, a playlist created at a Command Workstation
is considered a standalone playlist. It can be locked and managed from any Command
Workstation on the Command system.

Types of Playlists

A playlist created through a newsroom computer system and uploaded to the Command system
is called a newsroom playlist. When the newsroom rundown is uploaded to Command, the
resulting playlist can be viewed at the Command Workstation, but the newsroom system retains
the lock on the playlist.

Although the newsroom system retains the playlist lock, a user at a Command Workstation can
still control playout functionality by obtaining the locks on channel groups associated with the
newsroom playlist. Channel group locks for playout are not the same as playlist locks, which
prevent altering the structure of the playlist itself.

A user at a Command Workstation can obtain the playlist lock from a newsroom system, in
which case the newsroom playlist becomes a standalone playlist. For more information, see
“Locking and Unlocking Playlists” on page 67.
When a playlist is inserted into another one, the one inserted is called an embedded playlist. The
one containing the embedded playlist is known as the container playlist. A standalone playlist
can contain a newsroom playlist or another standalone playlist as its embedded playlist. A
newsroom playlist can contain a standalone playlist or another newsroom playlist.

Newsroom playlists that contain the word “shotbox” in the name can be loaded to Command as
shotboxes.
Finally, a playlist set to air at specific times is called a time of day playlist. For more on this type
of playlist, see “Using Time of Day Playlists” on page 83.
51

Overview of Playlist Viewer

Overview of Playlist Viewer
Among the many capabilities featured in the Playlist Viewer, a user can:
•

View existing playlists—standalone, time of day, or newsroom playlists

•

Choose to display playlist items based on component type, such as video or graphics.

•

Create standalone playlists

•

Lock channel groups

•

Control a playlist for broadcast

•

Embed a playlist into standalone playlists

When you double-click on a playlist in the Playlist Explorer, iNEWS Command will open it on a
tab in the Playlist Viewer to display all the stories with attached media, including character
generator graphics (CGs), if any.
You can have different playlists open simultaneously. All are accessible through tabs located at
the top of the Playlist Viewer.

The Playlist Viewer opens in the same area of the workspace as the Shotbox Viewer panel. If the
Shotbox Viewer panel is also open, the two can split the space, one atop the other. The Playlist
Viewer cannot be split to view multiple playlists simultaneously; only one tab can be viewed at a
time.
The appearance and some behavior of the playlist is customizable. For example, depending on
your system’s configuration, thumbnails or a film strip icon might appear for certain media
items. In the following example, the display of thumbnails are enabled. Other examples in this
chapter show playlists with that feature disabled. For more information on custom options, see
“Customizing the Playlist Viewer” on page 53. For more information on thumbnails, see
“Displaying Thumbnails in a Playlist” on page 63.

If a video item is unavailable, Command will display the video ID but not the item’s title (also
called the slug).

Toolbars

For more information, see “Toolbars” on page 47, and “Customizing the Playlist Viewer” on
page 53.

Toolbars
Below each tab in the Playlist Viewer are various toolbars, which might appear. The top one is
the Playout toolbar containing two clocks and several buttons for playout control. With the
Playout toolbar, a user at the Command Workstation can play, pause, or stop events.

Control buttons allow users to control playout of events on locked devices associated with the
loaded playlist. For more information about the clocks on the Playout toolbar, see “Customizing
Playlist Clocks” on page 60.
53

Toolbars

Below the Playout toolbar is the Playlist toolbar, which enables users to lock and unlock channel
groups to playlists. It also contains check boxes for each channel group that a user can select to
determine by component the display of items in a playlist. If no channel groups are associated
with the playlist, no Channel Group buttons or check boxes will appear. For more information,
see “Channel Groups Buttons” on page 50.
On the far right of the Playlist toolbar is another button used to lock playlists or disconnect
playlists from newsroom rundowns.

The icons on the buttons that appear on the Playlist toolbar will vary depending on variety of
factors: whether the channel group or groups are locked, whether the playlist is a time of day
playlist, standalone playlist, newsroom playlist, and whether it’s locked.
Beneath the Playlist toolbar is the Channel toolbar, which might appear when a channel group is
locked. It shows status icons on a per channel basis. To see the various types of icons you might
see on the toolbar, see “Channel Group Icons” on page 162. This toolbar can be turned off so that
it does not appear. Regardless, the status icons are also available on the Status bar at the bottom
right corner of the Command window.
Like the Playlist toolbar, the icons that appear on the Channel toolbar will vary depending on the
status of the individual channels in the channel group. When the tally signal is active, the color of
a channel on the Channel toolbar might also change color.
For a breakdown of the types of icons you might see on these toolbars, see “Icon and Button
Quick Reference” on page 157.

Hiding a Playlist’s Playout or Channel Toolbar
A user can choose whether to display the Playout and Channel toolbars.
To hide the Playout or Channel toolbar:

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
The Options dialog box will appear.

Toolbars

2. In Category, expand the Playlist and Shotbox Viewers.
3. Expand Playlist Viewer and select Toolbars.
4. Do one of the following or both:
t

Deselect Show playout toolbar.

Deselect Show channel toolbar.

5. Click OK.

Channel Groups Buttons
Channel Group buttons represent a channel group that is associated with the loaded playlist and
are used to individually lock channel groups for playout control and unlock them afterward.
When playlists are loaded to Command from a newsroom computer system, the Channel Group
button for the appropriate channel group associated with that playlist will automatically appear
in the Playlist toolbar. If multiple channel groups are configured for the playlist, then more than
one button will appear. For standalone playlists created at the Command workstation, a channel
group must be added to the playlist, which can be done when the playlist is created or added later
at any time.

Toolbars

If a user drags an item from the Inventory panel into a standalone playlist, Command will prompt
the user to automatically add the channel group associated with that item. For more information,
see “Working with Channel Groups” on page 69.

Customizing the Channel Toolbar for Tally
Avid iNEWS Command can provide a visual indication of when a channel’s tally signal is active.
This indicator appears as a color change on the Channel toolbar.
The following illustration shows two channels, A and B, and the tally is active for channel B.
The colors for the background and text are customizable.

To set the colors for tally:

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
The Options dialog box opens.

2. In Category, expand Channel and select Appearance.
56

Viewing Playlist Items by Component

3. Set the colors for both the background and the text.
4. Click OK to save the settings.

The settings for Tally High apply to the Channel toolbar in both the Playlist Viewer and the
Shotbox Viewer panel.

Viewing Playlist Items by Component
In some cases, a user might want to view playlist items associated with a particular component
and not any others, such as only character generator (CG) graphics or only video.
Command provides users with a way to do this via check boxes on the Playlist toolbar.
To display items based on component type:

Select the check box next to the channel group associated with that type of component.
In the following illustration, the channel group associated with a video server is selected, as
indicated by the black X, so only video items would be displayed in the playlist, not CG
items. If both were selected, then video and CG items would appear in the playlist.

The display of items is independent of whether the channel group or groups are locked.

Graphic Trigger Count
When integrated with a graphic component, such as certain character generator devices,
Command playlists can display the total number of triggers for graphic items with a trigger count
greater than one.

Devices using Chyron Intelligent Interface protocols will show the trigger count in the Trigger
column of a playlist. Third-party GDS plug-in implementation, such as Vizrt, may show the
trigger count in the Trigger column.
The graphic trigger count must be entered in the Graphic Inventory Editor (for CII
inplementation), or reported to Command by the Graphic device service’s plug-in.
For instance, when a graphic item is cued, Command displays values in the format 0/x, where x
is the numerical value for the item’s total trigger count. In the sample illustration, the display is
0/2, because the graphic item in this example has a trigger count of two (2).

Customizing the Playlist Viewer

Next, when the item is played, it goes to a paused state after completing the first trigger, and the
first numerical value changes accordingly. In this example, the graphic trigger count changes to
1/2.

Then, after the item is played again and executes its last trigger, it goes to a Done state, and the
graphic trigger displayed in Command changes to 2/2.

Customizing the Playlist Viewer
When first installed, Avid iNEWS Command uses default colors and fonts to display information
about playlist events; however users can customize how that data is displayed on the Playlist
Viewer tabs. For example, a user might want an unplayable event to appear in red so that it easily
stands out on the screen.

Changes made to the Appearance settings apply to the Playlist and Shotbox Viewers; only a few
settings are not applicable to shotboxes, such as Story, Embedded Playlist, and Break entries.
Additionally, the behavior of the cursor within the playlist can be set to perform in certain ways.
For example, a user might want the cursor to move when pressing the Page Up key. By default
the cursor does not move.
To customize the appearance and behavior of the Playlist Viewer:

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
The Options dialog box opens.

Customizing the Playlist Viewer

2. In Category, expand Playlist and Shotbox Viewers and select Appearance.
3. You can alter the font, as well as the color of text and backgrounds. As you click on each
entry in the Playlist section, your settings for that entry will appear in the Sample section at
the bottom of the dialog box. Using the Ctrl or Shift keys, you can select and modify
multiple entries simultaneously.
4. (Optional) Click Apply to save the settings without closing the dialog box, so further
modification can continue.

The Restore Defaults button is used to restore settings to the system’s original default settings.
5. Select Playlist Viewer.

Customizing the Playlist Viewer

6. Select the check box in the Playlist creation section if you want to enable item-only playlists.
This option is selected by default. You can insert breaks in item-only playlists. If you intend
to embed newsroom playlists or other standalone playlists, you must deselect this option to
keep stories in the playlist.
7. Select Show thumbnails if you want to view thumbnails of media in the playlist.

For more information on thumbnails, see “Displaying Thumbnails in a Playlist” on page 63.
8. Select whether you want a default icon displayed in the playlist for items that do not have
thumbnails.
Default Icons

Default icon for graphics

Default icon for videos

Customizing the Playlist Viewer

If this feature is turned on and Command is controlling video and graphic devices that do not
support thumbnails, then default icons for each are used as shown in the following
illustration.

9. In the Filters section, select the check box if you want story rows with no visible items to be
hidden in the playlist.
10. In the Unplayable description section, select a radio button corresponding to the manner in
which you want Command to display unplayable status information. Options include:
t

Showing the description before the title.

Showing the description after the title.

Hiding the description and not displaying it at all.

11. (Optional) Click Apply to save the settings without closing the dialog box, so further
modification can continue.
12. Select Behavior.

Customizing the Playlist Viewer

13. Select whether to allow use of arrow keys to move the cursor up or down a playlist to the
nearest media or next adjacent row.
14. Select whether to enable the Page Up, Page Down, Home, and End keys to move the cursor
up or down a playlist, scrolling as needed. By default, this feature is off, so pressing any of
these four keys would scroll the view without moving the cursor within the playlist.
15. The autocursor feature applies to cursor behavior in a playlist when using channel specific
playout—in regard to GPI or X-keys with actions assigned to indices. Set Autocursor to one
of the following options:
Option

Description

None

Select this option if not using channel specific playout. When set to
None, the cursor will follow standard movement patterns.

To next playable
Select this option if you want the cursor to move to the next available
after last-played item item after the one that’s just been played via channel specific GPI or

X-keys commands.
To last-played item

Select this option if you want the cursor to move to the item just played
via channel specific GPI or X-keys commands.

16. Select how many rows should remain displayed above the cursor. This will lock the cursor in
place—once it reaches the row specified—so that the playlist scrolls up or down instead of
the cursor moving up or down.
17. Select whether the autoscroll lock applies to the row containing the last-played item, instead
of cursor position.
18. Select whether double-clicking on an item should cue that item or open it into the Media
Viewer.
19. Click OK to save the settings.

Customizing the Cursor
In a playlist, the cursor can appear as a rectangle around a row or as a solid bar in all or specified
fields. Additionally, a drop indicator is provided when dragging copied rows to different
locations within a playlist. It appears as a solid line between rows.
A user can customize the colors for both the cursor and the drop indicator.

The behavior of the cursor when a user presses the keys Page Up, Page Down, Home, or End can
also be customized. By default the cursor does not move when any of the four keys are pressed.
For more on setting cursor behavior in a playlist, see “Customizing the Playlist Viewer” on
page 53.
62

Customizing the Playlist Viewer

To change the cursor’s appearance:

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
The Options dialog box opens.

2. In Category, expand Playlist and Shotbox Viewers and select Cursor.
3. Set the color of the cursor.
Setting

Description

Active

The color of the cursor when the focus is on the Playlist Viewer. By default this
color is black.

Inactive

The color of the cursor when the focus is on a different panel in the iNEWS
Command window or on another software application. By default this color is
gray.

Customizing the Playlist Viewer

4. Set the color of the drop indicator.
Setting

Description

Drop
Indicator

The color of the line used to indicate where copied rows will be dropped into
the playlist when dragged to a new location. By default this color is blue.

5. (Optional) Click Apply to save changes without closing the Options dialog box.
6. Expand Playlist Viewer and select Columns.

7. Set the Background options per column accordingly.
Options

Description

Cursor

The cursor’s color will also apply to the field’s background. This makes the
cursor in that column appear to be a solid bar.

Status

The cursor’s color only applies as an outline on the field. This allows the
background in that column to reflect status colors, such as playability or
transport status.

Customizing the Playlist Viewer

In the following example, the cursor’s active color is set to black, the Thumbnail and Trigger
columns are set to Cursor, while the rest is set to Status. The cursor—located on the video
item between story lines 04 and 05—appears as shown:

In the previous example, the display of thumbnails was turned off, so the cursor color is clearly
visible. A filmstrip icon appears for all video items instead of thumbnail graphics. When
thumbnails are displayed, the graphic fills each cell in the column; therefore, the cursor color in
that column appears more as an outline. For an example of a playlist showing thumbnails, see
“Displaying Thumbnails in a Playlist” on page 63.
8. Click OK to save settings and close the Options dialog box.

Customizing Playlist Clocks
The clocks on either side of the toolbar can be hidden or customized to provide certain timing
functions, which include:

•

Time elapsed in clip

•

Time remaining in clip

•

Time remaining in show

If an item is added to a playlist, the Time Remaining in Show will update immediately.
Each clock’s background color, as well as the font and color of text, can be altered from the
defaults, which are: black, 24 pt., bold MS Shell Dlg font on a yellow background. While the
font setting is shared by both clocks, the colors can be set independently of one another.
To change clock functions:

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
The Options dialog box appears.

Customizing the Playlist Viewer

2. In Category, expand Playlist and Shotbox Viewers.
3. Expand Playlist Viewer and select Clocks.
4. Set each clock’s behavior, text color, and background color.
5. To change the font used for both clocks, click the Change button.
6. If you want the clocks to flash during the last 10 seconds of an item’s duration, select the
check box in the Both clocks section. If selected, when a playing item reaches 10 seconds
remaining, the countdown clock will change the text color to red and then alternate every
second between that color and the standard pre-defined color.
7. When finished modifying the look and behavior of the clocks, click OK.

Customizing Columns in Playlist Viewer
A Command user can rearrange, rename, and hide any column or columns in a playlist.
To rearrange columns:

Click on the column header and drag it right or left to a new location.

Customizing the Playlist Viewer

To show, hide, or rename a column:

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
The Options dialog box opens.

2. In Category, expand Playlist and Shotbox Viewers.
3. Expand Playlist Viewer and select Columns.
4. Under Show, select or deselect the check box for each column you want to display or hide.
5. Under Header, double-click the text field corresponding to the column you want to rename
and type in the new name.
6. Click OK.

The Story Field option enables the user to display—in the playlist—certain metadata obtained
from the newsroom computer system related to a story. Options include: Page number, Story
slug, and Story ID. This data will appear only on a story line in the playlist in the specified
column.
The Background column setting pertains to the appearance of the column fields when the
cursor is on them in the Playlist Viewer. For more information, see “Customizing the
Cursor” on page 57.
67

Customizing the Playlist Viewer

Time of Day Column
There are two ways you can use the Time of Day column:
•

For the Time of Day column to display follow-on values, you must enable Assign follow-on to all
items in a playlist’s properties. If you want follow-on to continue through breaks as well, ensure
that Assign follow-on to all breaks is also selected. This turns follow-on on or off for all current
breaks in the selected playlist.
•

Lock the channel group and play an item in a playlist that contains follow-on items. If
displayed in a playlist, the Time of Day column will show the time all subsequent follow-on
items will trigger for playout. Manually playing another item will cause the Time of Day
column to update. Closing and reopening the playlist will clear the values in the Time of Day
column.

Right-click on an opened playlist and edit its properties by setting the playlist to
automatically begin playing at a specified time. That time will appear in the Time of Day
column. If a user changes the specified time in the playlist’s properties, the Time of Day
column will update.

Manually playing an item will overwrite the values set in the playlist’s properties.

Resizing the Playlist Viewer
By default, the Playlist Viewer splits the main portion of the Command window with the
Shotbox Viewer panel if both are opened. A user can adjust the division of the space for the
Shotbox Viewer panel and the Playlist Viewer by clicking on the divider bar between them and
dragging it up or down.

If the size is adjusted too small, some features will be hidden. More space is required if
thumbnails are shown in playlists.
The Playlist Viewer can also be maximized to fill the entire window.
To maximize the Playlist Viewer:

Type Alt+Z.

Select Playlist > View > Toggle Maximize.

Displaying Thumbnails in a Playlist
Thumbnails in Command are small graphical representations of the media, which could be a
character generated graphic or a frame of video. In regard to video, although sometimes referred
to as headframes, thumbnails are created from within the first five frames of video and therefore
might or might not be the first or “head” frame.
68

Customizing the Playlist Viewer

For video clips, the marked in time does not affect the creation of thumbnails, which are created
from within the first five frames of recorded video.
In a playlist, when thumbnails are available and displayed, they appear in the far left column.
The following example shows a playlist with thumbnails of video:

The thumbnails in the example are for SD media, but Command can display thumbnails for HD
media, too, in which case the HD media appears with a white matte across the top and bottom of
the thumbnail.
Resizing the Thumbnail column will also resize the thumbnail; the system retains aspect ratio.
When display of thumbnails are not enabled, or if Command cannot find or make a thumbnail for
a media item, an icon similar to a film reel is used to indicate a video item, as shown in the
following illustration.

Customizing the Playlist Viewer

In the following example, the playlist shows items with thumbnails for a different component, an
Avid Deko graphics device instead of a video server:

If Command is controlling video and graphic devices that do not support thumbnails, then
default icons for each are used instead, as shown in the following illustration, which is a sample
playlist displaying both default video and graphic icons in their default 16 x 16 pixel size.
70

Customizing the Playlist Viewer

If Command is controlling a device that supports thumbnails, the default size for icons in the
playlist gets bigger (up to 48 pixels) if the thumbnail column is widened. The following
illustration shows the larger size thumbnail and default video icon for a playable and unplayable
item:

To turn on the display of thumbnails:

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
The Options dialog box opens.

Locking and Unlocking Playlists

2. In Category, expand Playlist and Shotbox Viewers.
3. Select Playlist Viewer.
4. Select Show thumbnails if you want to view thumbnails of media in the playlist.
5. Click OK to save settings.

Locking and Unlocking Playlists
When a playlist is loaded from a newsroom computer system, iNEWS Command sends that
system updates any time changes occur to the playlist at the Command workstation and receives
updates from the newsroom computer system when changes are made to the rundown. The
playlist is controlled and therefore considered “locked” by the newsroom system. However,
should that connection be broken, the playlist is considered to be “disconnected”.
When a disconnect occurs, playout can continue from the Command workstation; however, any
changes to the playlist in Command will not be sent to the rundown in the newsroom computer
system. Also, the playlist will not display any modifications that might be made to the rundown.
At that point, it is equivalent to a standalone playlist.

Locking and Unlocking Playlists

If a disconnect occurs, reloading the playlist from the newsroom computer system will
restore the connection and provide the most up-to-date playlist in the Playlist Explorer or,
if configured to do so, on a new tab in the Playlist Viewer. The channel groups (devices)
locked to the original, disconnected playlist must be manually unlocked, and then relocked
from the reloaded playlist on the new tab.
On the far right side of the Playlist toolbar is the Playlist Lock button. Its appearance varies
depending on the status of the playlist:
This icon indicates that the playlist is controlled (locked) by an iNEWS newsroom
rundown. Clicking it will prompt the user with an Override Lock dialog box. The user must
type in the system administrator password to override the lock and disconnect the playlist
from the newsroom rundown.
Whenever the lock held by an iNEWS newsroom rundown is overridden, the icon will
change to one with a blinking red X to indicate the playlist is disconnected from the
newsroom rundown.
This icon indicates that the playlist is MOS active and marked ready-to-air by a MOS-based
newsroom rundown. Clicking it will prompt the user with an Override Lock dialog box.
If overridden, the playlist is disconnected; when this occurs, the icon will change to one
with a blinking red X to indicate the playlist is now disconnected from the MOS-based
newsroom rundown.
This icon indicates that the playlist is locked by the user at the Command Workstation.
When locked, the user can insert, move, or delete items in the playlist. Clicking it will
unlock the playlist at the workstation. When it is unlocked, the icon will change to indicate
the playlist is unlocked.
This icon indicates that the playlist is unlocked. Clicking it will lock the playlist at the
Command Workstation.

Working with Channel Groups

This icon indicates that the playlist is MOS active and marked ready-to-air by a MOS-based
newsroom rundown. Clicking it will prompt the user with an Override Lock dialog box.
If overridden, the playlist is disconnected; when this occurs, the icon will change to one
with a blinking red X to indicate the playlist is now disconnected from the MOS-based
newsroom rundown.
This icon indicates that the playlist is locked by the user at the Command Workstation.
When locked, the user can insert, move, or delete items in the playlist. Clicking it will
unlock the playlist at the workstation. When it is unlocked, the icon will change to indicate
the playlist is unlocked.
This icon indicates that the playlist is unlocked. Clicking it will lock the playlist at the
Command Workstation.

Whenever a playlist is locked by another user, and you attempt to edit the playlist such as
dragging and dropping an item into the playlist, Command will display a dialog box explaining
that you must first lock the playlist yourself before being allowed to make such edits.

Selecting Yes in the dialog box will lock the playlist by you and permit edits.

Working with Channel Groups
A channel group is a group of one or more device channels that might or might not be across
multiple devices.

Working with Channel Groups

Avid recommends that each channel group pertains to the same “type” of device. For example, a
channel group called AS is a grouping of channels from two or more AirSpeed video servers,
while a different channel group named CG is a grouping of channels on a Deko character
generator.
In this example, a station has two AirSpeed video servers, each with two channels that are
numbered 2 and 3. The first AirSpeed is called AS1 and the second one AS2. With channel
groups on Command, the station’s system administrator can set up numerous different channel
groups and call them anything, such as the following:
Channel
Group

Channel
Names

Actual Device Channels

Purpose

AS-Morning

AS1 - channel 2

Playout

AS1 - channel 3

Playout

AS2 - channel 2

Browse

AS1 - channel 2

Playout

AS1 - channel 3

Playout

AS2 - channel 2

Hotswap

AS1 - channel 2

Playout

AS1 - channel 3

Playout

AS2 - channel 2

Playout

AS2 - channel 3

Playout

AS1 - channel 2

Playout

AS2 - channel 2

Mirrored

AS1 - channel 3

Playout

AS2 - channel 3

Mirrored

AS-Noon

AS-5PM

AS-10PM

As shown in the table, some channels are used for actual broadcast while others are reserved for
off-air browsing, hotswapping, and mirrored playout purposes.

If the channel group contains playback and browse channels, double-clicking on an item in the
Media Viewer will lock that channel group.
Hotswapping is an automatic channel failover protection feature available at sites with more than
one video server. A hotswap channel takes the place of a standard playout channel in the group
should that channel fail. For playout purposes, Command displays in the Status area the channel
that replaces the failed one. It also displays an icon on the Channel toolbar to indicate when a
hotswap occurs. For more information, see “Channel Group Icons” on page 162.
75

Working with Channel Groups

Although the hotswap channel in Command retains the original name of the failed channel, it is
still a different physical channel. So, to achieve playout, the person at the switcher must be aware
of its physical channel location when taking the hotswap channel to air.
In the Playlist Viewer, users can add new or existing channel groups to standalone playlists, as
well as lock or unlock channel groups. For more information on assigning channels, see
“Changing Channels” on page 117.
To add an existing channel group to a standalone playlist:

1. With the playlist open, right-click on the Channel toolbar (anywhere in the gray area).
2. Select Channel toolbar > Channels > Add Existing....
3. Choose one or more of the channel groups from the list.

To select multiple channel groups, hold the Ctrl key down and click the groups.

4. Click OK.
A button or buttons for selected channel groups appears on the Playlist toolbar.
There is also another way to add an existing channel group to a standalone playlist. When
dragging and dropping media from the Inventory into a standalone playlist, if the media
belongs to a channel group not already added to the playlist, an Add Channel Group dialog
will appear (shown below) asking the user to confirm the addition of the channel group to
the playlist. Clicking OK adds the channel group.

Working with Channel Groups

To add a new channel group:

1. With the playlist open, right-click on the Channel toolbar (anywhere in the gray area).
2. Select Channel toolbar > Channels > Add New....
The Add New Channel Group dialog box opens.

3. When prompted for the administrator password, type it in and click OK.
The Add New Channel Group to Playlist dialog box opens.

Working with Channel Groups

4. Enter the name of the new channel group and any notes you want.
5. Click Add to add a channel to the group.
6. In the Channel Details section, select the Channel Type, Primary, Mirror, and Preview
options for that channel.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 as needed. You can use the Up and Down buttons to rearrange the order
of channels in the group.
8. Click OK.
To remove a channel group from a playlist:

1. Remove any media in that group from the playlist.
2. Right-click the button for that channel group on the Playlist toolbar.
3. Select Remove from the menu.
For more information, see “Assigning Channels in Playlist Viewer” on page 74.

Working with Channel Groups

Locking Channel Groups
Channel group locks are not the same as playlist locks. A channel group lock pertains to control
of playout on channels in a group. A playlist lock pertains to ability to modify the structure of the
playlist itself. Users can lock one or more channel groups for a playlist from a Command
Workstation.
To lock a channel group:

Click the Channel Group button associated with that channel group in the Playlist toolbar.
The icon on the button will change to indicate the channel group’s locked status.

To unlock a channel group:

Click the Channel Group button associated with that channel group in the Playlist toolbar.
The icon on the button will change to indicate the channel group’s unlocked status.

Channel groups are numbered by the system from left to right as they appear on the Playlist
toolbar, beginning with 1. This enables alternative keystroke combinations for locking and
unlocking individual channel groups. For example, to lock an individual channel group use:
Ctrl+1 for the first channel group, Ctrl+2 for the second, and so forth. To unlock, use the Alt key
instead of Ctrl.
To simultaneously lock all of a playlist’s channel groups:

Either press Ctrl+L or select Playlist > Channels > Lock All.

To simultaneously unlock all of a playlist’s channel groups:

Either press Alt+L or select Playlist > Channels > Unlock All.
When a channel group is locked, the status of those locks appears on the status bar at the
bottom right corner of the window, if configured to be displayed in the user interface. For
more information, see “Status Bar” on page 20.
In the following illustration, a closeup of the locked status for both channels A and B of a
channel group named AB is shown:

The per-channel status can also appear on the Channel toolbar, if configured to be displayed
in the user interface. For more information, see “Hiding a Playlist’s Playout or Channel
Toolbar” on page 49.

Working with Channel Groups

Assigning Channels in Playlist Viewer
After a channel group is added to a playlist, channels can be assigned to or edited for specific
items in the playlist.
For some sites, channels are automatically assigned when the playlist’s channel group is locked.
Whether this occurs depends on system settings in Avid iNEWS Command. Contact your system
administrator for more information.
There are other methods for assigning channels at a workstation as well.
To assign channels in Command:

Do one of the following:
-

Click the field in the Channel column of the playlist opened in the Playlist Viewer and
type the first character of the channel name, such as A, B, or C.

Type Ctrl+*, type the first character of the channel name, and press Enter.

Right-click and select Channel > Assign.

Type Ctrl+R.

Either of the last two steps will result in the assignment of alternating channels throughout the
playlist. For example, if there are two channels, A and B, then Command will automatically
assign A to the first item, B to the second, A to the third, and so forth. Auto-assignment only
applies to channels that are locked.
To assign a channel to multiple items:

1. Click the first item to select it.
2. Do one of the following:
t

Hold the Shift key down to select all items between your first selection and your last.

Hold the Control key down to select multiple non-sequential items.

In the following example, items for pages 06, 08, and 10 are selected, while 07, 09, and 11
are not:

Working with Channel Groups

3. Do one of the following:
t

Press Ctrl+* (asterisk) to set the focus on the Channel field, then type the first letter of
the channel you want. (This will change all selected items.)

With the Shift or Ctrl key still held down, as chosen in the previous step, double-click in
the last item’s cell located in the Channel column. This will give you a drop-down
arrow. Then, click the arrow and select the channel from the list, as shown in the
previous graphic.

4. Click anywhere else in the playlist. It’s at this point that the channel is reassigned to the
selected items.
In the following example, the user clicked on row 11 as indicated by the black outline, and
the channel assigned to items 06, 08, and 10 is now A:

Working with Channel Groups

Setting the Graphics Style for a Channel Group
Graphics styles are system settings you can assign to a channel group in a playlist or shotbox. If
the one you are looking for is not listed, contact your system administrator to have it added. A
graphics style can be set per channel group, allowing for multiple styles in a single standalone
playlist or shotbox.
To set the graphics style for a playlist:

1. Right-click on the channel group in the Playlist toolbar.
2. Select Edit Properties for this Playlist... (This option will not appear if you right-click on a
channel group associated with a video device.)
The Playlist Channel Group Properties dialog box opens.

3. Enter the graphics style.
4. Click OK.

Setting Workstation Alias
Command has a workstation alias that, once set, is displayed on the Playlist toolbar next to the
Channel Lock icons whenever a channel group is locked. This lets users see which workstation
has the lock on the channel group.
For instance, the image on the left shows the ABCD channel group locked by the local
workstation called TD. The image on the right shows the view from another workstation while
the same ABCD channel group is still locked by the workstation called TD.

To set the workstation alias:

1. Select Tools > Options > Startup.
2. Enter the alias for the workstation.

Working with Standalone Playlists

3. Click OK.

Command Workstation options are user specific; they are saved in each user’s Windows profile.
If users log in to a workstation using their own user names, they will not see the workstation
alias until they have set it for their own profile.

Working with Standalone Playlists
A standalone playlist is one that is not directly associated with (or disconnected from) a
newsroom rundown. Users can create or delete standalone playlists at the Command
Workstation. They can also edit them, add breaks, and even add placeholders into standalone
playlists.
Placeholders can be used to associate media with a story before the media is actually available.
Since each placeholder must have a unique ID to avoid playback of the wrong media, the format
of the placeholder should be predefined in System Settings. See the Avid iNEWS Command
Administration Guide for more information.

Disconnected newsroom playlists contain stories with items. By default, newly created
standalone playlists do not contain stories and are considered item-only standalone playlists.
This section pertains to the latter type of playlist. For more information, see “Inserting New
Stories” on page 119 and “Customizing the Playlist Viewer” on page 53.
To create a standalone playlist:

1. Select File > New > Playlist (or use the shortcut keystroke combination, Ctrl+Shift+N).
2. When the Create New Playlist dialog box opens, enter a name for the new playlist.
3. Click OK.
4. Assign a channel group or groups to the new standalone playlist by clicking the Add/Lock
Channel Group button. You can add either a new channel group or an existing one. For more
information see “Working with Channel Groups” on page 69.
5. Drag and drop items (existing machine control events) from the Inventory Explorer into your
playlist.
6. Repeat step 5 as needed.
After a standalone playlist is created, the items in that list can be modified as needed, such as
rearranging the order or deleting items.
To edit a standalone playlist:

1. Open the playlist.
2. Do any of the following:

Working with Standalone Playlists

Add new items to the playlist by selecting Playlist > Insert > New Item or by dragging
them from the Inventory Explorer. You can also drag items from a shotbox into a
playlist.

If the channel group associated with the item is not already assigned to the playlist, then a dialog
box will appear to confirm the assignment of the channel group to the playlist. Once confirmed,
the channels are assigned to the playlist and the item added.
t

Delete items by selecting the item and pressing the Delete key.

Rearrange the order by dragging and dropping items into new locations within the
playlist.

To add breaks between items:

1. Type Ctrl+B.
2. Select Playlist > Insert > New Break.
To add a placeholder in a standalone playlist:

1. Do one of the following:
t

Type Alt+Insert.

Right click and select Insert > New Item.

2. When the Insert Placeholder dialog box appears, click OK.
To delete a standalone playlist:

1. Select the playlist in the Playlist Explorer.
2. Press the Delete key.

To delete a playlist, it must not be on air.

Inventory Versioning
The ID field in a standalone playlist enables users to view (via a drop-down list) the inventory
available in two ways. By default, all available inventory for the channel group appears in the
drop-down list when a user clicks in the ID field. However, with Command’s Playlist Viewer
options, a user can configure the system to display only those versions of items matching a
defined prefix and separator.
For instance, an inventory has numerous items with various IDs, but one item has a video ID
called “clip”. In the inventory, there are three versions of the item, clip, which are clip-01,
clip-02, clip-03. By default the separator is a hyphen, and the numerical values are the versions.
So if a user clicks on the ID field for that item in a standalone playlist, the drop-down list will

Working with Standalone Playlists

only display the three existing versions of the item. If a user clicks on another item that does not
have anything in the ID to match the configured prefix and separator, then the entire inventory
will appear in the drop-down list.
To set options for versioning:

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator. The Options dialog box opens.
2. In Category, expand Playlist and Shotbox Viewers.
3. Expand Playlist Viewer and select Inventory Versioning.

4. Do one of the following:
t

Select Show all inventory for channel group.

Select Show inventory with matching prefix and separator. Then define the separator
and/or prefix. By default the separator is defined as a hyphen (-).

5. Click OK.

Working with Embedded Playlists

Working with Embedded Playlists
Avid iNEWS Command supports embedding playlists, which enables users to insert one playlist
into another one. In the following example, a newsroom producer is setting up a newscast in
which there will be a segment on sports. The ability to embed playlists enables a user to work on
one rundown without requiring access to another—the person setting up the sports segment no
longer needs full producer-level access to the newscast rundown. Instead, two rundowns can be
created: one for the overall newscast and another for the sports segment. The newsroom producer
can embed the sports rundown inside the news rundown, as shown below:

Another example of this workflow is a newscast that contains segments produced at different
locations. The primary rundown could contain one or more embedded rundowns from remote
sites.
A user can embed playlists from the Command Workstation or from the iNEWS Workstation.

When using Command Workstation, the playlist can be embedded only into a standalone playlist.
When using the iNEWS Workstation, the playlist can be embedded only into a newsroom
rundown, which appears as a newsroom playlist in Command once the monitor server is loaded.
For more information on monitor server, see “Loading Rundowns to Command” on page 111.
To embed a playlist using Command:

1. Open (or create) the container playlist in the Playlist Viewer.
2. Select a playlist you want to embed from the Playlist Explorer.
3. Drag it to the location in container (standalone) playlist. It must be dropped before a story,
not an item; otherwise, the system will display a warning to that effect.

Working with Embedded Playlists

This icon appears in the container playlist as the system is embedding the playlist.
If a problem occurs, This icon might appear to indicate that the system was unable to embed the
playlist, resulting in an error. Mousing over the row referencing the embedded playlist will
provide a tooltip with more deatils about the error. An example of an error is: This embedded
playlist was deleted.

When the playlist is successfully embedded, no icon appears, but the color of the top row is
different, as is a matching bar that continues down the left side to indicate all items included
as part of the embedded playlist.

In the previous example, the embedded playlist is called Special and contains four
items—the first of which is called China Trade and is playing, and the last of which is called
Closing Bell. The cursor is on the last item in the embedded playlist, as indicated by the
row’s black rectangular outline. The I-WORLDCUP story is not part of the embedded
playlist, as indicated by the absence of the bar on the left edge.
To embed a playlist using the Avid iNEWS newsroom computer system:

1. Open the rundown in which you want to embed another rundown.
2. Insert a new story where you want the other rundown embedded.
3. In the Title field (usually named Slug), type EMBED: followed by the pathname of the
rundown that you want to embed. For example: EMBED: SHOWS.6PM.RUNDOWN
The EMBED: token is configurable, so check with your system administrator.

Do not add machine control events to the story.

Using Time of Day Playlists

Editing Embedded Playlists
Embedded playlists are not copies of the original playlist. So, changes made to the actual playlist
will appear when viewing the embedded playlist. Like stories in an iNEWS rundown, embedded
playlists can be moved or floated.
Whether editing can be done is determined by the type of playlist regardless of whether that
playlist is a container for an embedded playlist or the embedded one itself. Users can edit a
standalone playlist (or a disconnected newsroom playlist) from the Command Workstation.
Newroom playlists locked by the newsroom computer system must be edited from a workstation
running the newsroom computer system software.
If the embedded playlist is a standalone playlist, to edit it, you must open the actual playlist in
the Playlist Viewer at a Command Workstation.

Do not try to edit it from its embedded location.

Using Time of Day Playlists
In Avid iNEWS Command, playlists can be set to air at specific times. These playlists are called
time of day playlists.

The playlist’s channel group must be unlocked so the time of day process can lock it for
playout. Otherwise, it will not occur as scheduled. For example, if the time-of-day playlist
shares the same channel group or if it's a different channel group but it shares an
individual channel with a group that's locked, the time-of-day playlist won't play.
To set a playlist to air at a certain time of day:

1. Open (or create) a playlist in the Playlist Viewer.
2. Select Playlist > Edit > Properties.
The Playlist Properties dialog box opens.

Using Time of Day Playlists

3. In the Time of day section, select the check box and set the time you want Command to
automatically begin playing the playlist.

Allow at least thirty second lead time when setting up time of day playlists.
4. Click OK.
A new button will appear on the Playlist toolbar along with the time the playlist is set to
begin.

You can click on the Time of Day button to open the Playlist Properties dialog at any time, such
as if you want to change the time setting or remove the scheduled time altogether.

4 Shotbox Viewer
The iNEWS Command interface provides a panel known as the Shotbox Viewer, with which
users can view and manage on-air playout of media for a single channel group in any random
order. For example, a newscast has segments with stories arranged to air in a specific order. For
this a playlist is used, but what if a portion of the show will consist of live interviews? Because
the live broadcast is not scripted, a more flexible arrangement for media playout is necessary.
This is where the Shotbox Viewer panel comes in.

Command supports the use of touch screen monitors, and Avid recommends a touch screen
monitor for all sites that heavily use shotboxes.
This chapter contains the following main sections:
•

Overview of the Shotbox Viewer
-

Toolbars

Configuring the Channel Toolbar

Customizing the Shotbox Viewer

Customizing the Shotbox Behavior

Customizing the Clocks

Resizing the Shotbox Viewer

•

Creating a Shotbox

•

Loading a Shotbox from iNEWS or NRCS

•

Deleting a Shotbox

•

Working with Channel Groups in a Shotbox
-

Locking a Channel Group

Assigning Channels in a Shotbox

Setting the Graphics Style for a Channel Group

Overview of the Shotbox Viewer
Among the many capabilities featured in the Shotbox Viewer panel, a user can:

Overview of the Shotbox Viewer

•

View a set of media items

•

Lock a channel group

•

Control playout of items in any order for broadcast

•

Pin a media item for playout on a specific channel.

The window can have different shotboxes open simultaneously. All are accessible through tabs
located at the top of the Shotbox Viewer panel. The following illustration shows three shotboxes
open in the panel, with the on-air one called 6PM News on top. In the example, thumbnails are
not displayed. For more information on how to view shotboxes with thumbnails, see “Displaying
Thumbnails in a Shotbox” on page 96.

In the preceding illustration, the channel group is AB. One item is playing on channel B, two
items are cued, and another called Hurricane flyover is stopped. Four items are pinned to specific
channels.

Similar to the Playlist Viewer, the Shotbox Viewer cannot be split to view multiple shotboxes
simultaneously; only one tab can be viewed at a time. However, items can be copied or cut and
pasted from one shotbox to another so long as the shotboxes use the same channel group.
The appearance and some behavior of the shotbox is customizable. For more information, see
“Customizing the Shotbox Viewer” on page 90.

Overview of the Shotbox Viewer

The cursor appears as an altered border around an item in the Shotbox Viewer. For example, in
the previous graphic, the cursor is on the F5: Block 1 item, as indicated by a bolder black border.
The color specified for the cursor is used for both shotboxes and playlists. For more information
on how to set or modify the cursor’s color, see “Customizing the Cursor” on page 57.
To open a shotbox:

Double-click on a shotbox in the Playlist Explorer. Command will open it in the Shotbox
Viewer to display the shotbox of media for a specified channel group.

By default, the Shotbox Viewer panel opens above the Playlist Viewer area. The Shotbox Viewer
can be moved, resized, and docked like other panels, enabling the user to customize the window
to suit his or her needs.
Shotboxes are identified in the Playlist Explorer by their icons. Newsroom playlists that have
the word “shotbox” in the name can be loaded to Command as shotboxes and therefore will
appear with different icons than those created in Command as standalone shotboxes. For
more information on these icons, see “Playlist Explorer” on page 163.

Toolbars
Below each tab is the Shotbox toolbar containing two clocks and several buttons for playout
control, as well as buttons for locking the channel group or shotbox. With the toolbar, a user at
the Command workstation can cue, play, pause, or stop items via the Control buttons.

Control buttons allow users to control playout of events on locked devices in the channel group
associated with the loaded shotbox. For more information about the clocks on the Shotbox
toolbar, see “Customizing the Clocks” on page 94. A user cannot choose whether to display the
Shotbox toolbar.
The Channel Group button represents the channel group that is associated with the loaded
shotbox and is used to lock the channel group for playout control and unlock it afterward. Unlike
playlists, multiple channel groups cannot be configured for shotboxes, so only one Channel
Group button will appear in the Shotbox toolbar.

Overview of the Shotbox Viewer

On the far right side of the Shotbox toolbar is the Lock button. This lock is obtained
automatically whenever a shotbox is created or opened. Similar to the Playlist Lock button, the
Lock button’s appearance varies depending on the status of the shotbox’s lock:
Icon

Description

This icon indicates that the shotbox is locked by the user at the Command Workstation.
When locked, the user can insert, move, or delete items in the shotbox. Clicking it will
unlock the shotbox at the workstation. When it is unlocked, the icon will change to indicate
the shotbox is unlocked.
This icon indicates that the shotbox is unlocked. Clicking it will lock the shotbox at the
Command Workstation.
This icon indicates that the shotbox is locked by a user at a different Command
Workstation. When locked by another user, only that user can insert, move, or delete items
in the shotbox. Clicking the icon will override the other user’s lock. The user must type in
the system administrator password to override the lock.
This icon indicates an unusual lock condition.

Configuring the Channel Toolbar
Below the Shotbox toolbar is the Channel toolbar, which displays an icon representing the status
of each channel in the channel group. For more information, see “Channel Group Icons” on
page 162.

The number of channels that appear on the Channel toolbar will vary depending on the number
of channels configured for the channel group associated with the shotbox.
The border around the channel on the Channel toolbar indicates the next channel on which an
unpinned item will be cued. Clicking another channel on the toolbar can switch the border to a
different channel. When tally is active, the colors of the border and the toolbar inside the border
can change. What colors appear are determined by an option in Command, which the user can
set. For more information, see “Customizing the Channel Toolbar for Tally” on page 50.

Overview of the Shotbox Viewer

Since the same per-channel status information that appears on the Channel bar is also available
on the status bar at the bottom right of the main window, a user can choose whether to display the
Channel toolbar.
To show or hide the Channel toolbar:

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
The Options dialog box opens.

2. In Category, expand the Playlist and Shotbox Viewers, then Shotbox Viewer, and select
Toolbars.
3. Do one of the following:
t

Select the Show channel toolbar option to display the toolbar.

Deselect the Show channel toolbar option to hide the toolbar.

4. Click OK.

Customizing the Shotbox Viewer

Customizing the Shotbox Viewer
When first installed, Avid iNEWS Command uses default colors and fonts to display information
about events; however users can customize how that data is displayed on the Shotbox Viewer
tabs. For example, a user might want an unplayable event to appear in red so that it easily stands
out on the screen.
Users can also customize the layout of shotboxes by adjusting other display options, such as
whether to show the video ID or the video item’s slug (title).

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
The Options dialog box opens.

2. In Category, expand Playlist and Shotbox Viewers and select Appearance.

Customizing the Shotbox Viewer

3. You can alter the font, as well as the color of text and backgrounds. As you click on each
entry in the Playlist section, your settings for that entry will appear in the Sample section at
the bottom of the dialog box. You can select and modify multiple entries simultaneously.
4. (Optional) Click Apply to save the settings without closing the dialog box, so further
modification can continue.

The Restore Defaults button is used to restore all settings to the system’s original default
settings.
5. Click OK to save the settings and close the dialog box.
To customize the layout for shotboxes:

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
The Options dialog box opens.

2. In the Main Label section, select whether you want to display the video’s slug or ID, then
click Change to set the font for that display. A sample of your settings is provided as a
preview.
3. In the Duration section, select whether to display the duration, and then click Change to set
the font for that display. A sample of your settings is provided as a preview.

Customizing the Shotbox Viewer

4. (Optional) Click Apply to save the settings without closing the dialog box, so further
modification can continue.
5. Click OK to save the settings.

For more information regarding thumbnails in shotboxes, see “Displaying Thumbnails in a
Shotbox” on page 96.

Customizing the Shotbox Behavior
Other features of the Shotbox Viewer that a user can define is how the system should behave in
regard to auto-assignment of channels and whenever a user clicks on items in a shotbox.
To customize the behavior of the Shotbox Viewer:

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
The Options dialog box opens.

2. In Category, expand Playlist and Shotbox Viewers, then the Shotbox Viewer and select
Behavior.
3. Do one of the following or both:

Customizing the Shotbox Viewer

Set what behavior should occur when clicking an item:

Option

Description

Play on first click

A mouse click on an item in the shotbox will cause it to
begin playing on the assigned channel.

Cue on first click, play on
second

A mouse click on an item in the shotbox will cause it to cue
on the assigned channel. The item would begin playing on
that channel with a second mouse click.

Set what behavior should occur when channels are automatically assigned:

Option

Description

One channel

All unpinned channels are automatically assigned to a
single channel in the channel group.

Alternating channels

All unpinned channels are automatically assigned to
alternating channels in the channel group. This could be
two or more channels, such as A, B, C, and D for a video
server.

4. Click OK.

Customizing the Clocks
The clocks on either side of the toolbar can be hidden or customized to provide certain timing
functions, which include:
•

Time elapsed in clip

•

Time remaining in clip

Each clock’s background color, as well as the font and color of text, can be altered from the
defaults, which are: black, 24 pt., bold MS Shell Dlg font on a yellow background. While the
font setting is shared by both clocks, the colors can be set independently of one another.
To change clock functions:

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
The Options dialog box opens.

Customizing the Shotbox Viewer

2. In Category, expand Playlist and Shotbox Viewers, then Shotbox Viewer, and select Clocks.
3. Set each clock’s behavior, text color, and background color.
4. To change the font used for both clocks, click the Change button.
5. When finished modifying the look and behavior of the clocks, click OK.

Resizing the Shotbox Viewer
By default, the Shotbox Viewer splits the main portion of the Command window with Playlist
Viewer if both are opened. A user can adjust the division of the space for the Shotbox and
Playlist Viewers by clicking on the divider bar between them and dragging it up or down.

Command is designed to adjust the size of the columns within the Shotbox Viewer so that no
partial columns are shown. If the size is adjusted too small, some features will be hidden, such as
the icon used to indicate when an item is pinned to a channel. More space is required if
thumbnails are shown in shotboxes.
To resize the boxes in the Shotbox Viewer:

1. Position the mouse pointer between two items.
2. Click and drag left or right to shrink or enlarge the box.

100

Customizing the Shotbox Viewer

The system is designed to adjust the height whenever the width is modified to maintain
aspect ratio of thumbnails.
The Shotbox Viewer can also be maximized to fill the entire window.
To maximize the Shotbox Viewer:

Select Shotbox > Maximize.
Like other panels in the Command user interface, the Shotbox Viewer can be docked or
undocked, as well as layered with other panels. For more information, see “Working with
Panels” on page 23.

Displaying Thumbnails in a Shotbox
Thumbnails in Command are small graphical representations of the media, which could be a
character generated graphic or a frame of video. In regard to video, although sometimes referred
to as headframes, thumbnails are created from within the first five frames of video and therefore
might or might not be the first or “head” frame.

For video clips, the marked in time does not affect the creation of thumbnails, which are created
from within the first five frames of recorded video.
The following is an example of a shotbox with thumbnails:

101

Customizing the Shotbox Viewer

In the preceding example, the panel is sized to display three items per row, but that is adjustable.
For more information on how to resize the shotbox, see “Resizing the Shotbox Viewer” on
page 95.
To turn on the display of thumbnails:

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
The Options dialog box will appear.
2. In Category, expand Playlist and Shotbox Viewers.
3. Select Shotbox Viewer.

102

Creating a Shotbox

4. Select Show thumbnails if you want to view thumbnails of media in the shotbox.
5. Click OK to save settings.

Creating a Shotbox
A shotbox is a set of media items, such as video or character generated graphics, that can be
played in any order. You can create shotboxes from any Command Workstation; however, unlike
playlists, there is no newsroom equivalent.
To create a shotbox:

1. Do one of the following:
t

Select File > New > Shotbox.

Type Ctrl+Alt+N.

2. When prompted, give the shotbox a name and select the channel group.

Each shotbox requires only one channel group, which will appear in the Shotbox toolbar but not
be locked. For more information, see “Locking a Channel Group” on page 102.
The new shotbox will open with its lock already set and twelve empty slots for media. More
than twelve can be added. Each of the first twelve slots aligns to a function key (F1-F12),
which can be used to cue and play the media.
103

Creating a Shotbox

When a shotbox opens, the Inventory panel automatically switches to the channel group for
the shotbox.
To add an item to a shotbox do any of the following:

Select a single item from the Inventory panel, then drag and drop it into the shotbox at the
position to which you want it to appear.

Using standard Windows-based keystrokes, copy an item from a playlist that uses the same
channel group and paste it into the shotbox.

Drag and drop an item (or items) from a playlist that uses the same channel group to the
shotbox.

Dropping an item onto a slot designated as an F1-F12 slot will position the item at that location.
Dropping an item after those twelve slots will add the item to the shotbox beyond those twelve
slots.

104

Loading a Shotbox from iNEWS or NRCS

To add multiple items to a shotbox:

Use the Shift or Ctrl keys and the mouse to select multiple items in the Inventory panel, then
drag and drop them into the shotbox.
If using the Ctrl key and mouse to select multiple, nonconsecutive items from the Inventory
panel, the order in which you click the items determines their arrangement once you drag
and drop them into the shotbox.

Loading a Shotbox from iNEWS or NRCS
You have the ability to load a shotbox from iNEWS or ENPS.
To load a shotbox from iNEWS or NRCS:

Make sure the playlist has the word “shotbox” in its name.
For example, if you had an iNEWS rundown called SHOW.SHOTBOX.6P, the rundown
would appear as a shotbox when loaded to Command, with new icons differentiating
between a normal rundown and a shotbox.

The Command shotbox still only supports a single channel group. The iNEWS/ENPS rundown
can only have one story, and all items (video or graphic) must be added to that story.

Deleting a Shotbox
A user can delete items from a shotbox or delete an entire shotbox.
To delete an item from a shotbox:

Select the item and press the Delete key.
You can select multiple items for deletion by using the Shift or Ctrl keys.

105

Working with Channel Groups in a Shotbox

Deleting an item assigned to a function key will leave that slot empty. The others will not shift in
the shotbox to fill in the slot. Deleting any item located after the twelve slots associated with
function keys will cause items to shift accordingly and fill in the vacancy. If you want to force a
shift within the F1-F12 slots, you must hold down the Shift key when you delete the item assigned
to a function key.
To delete a shotbox:

1. Right-click on the shotbox in the Playlist Explorer.
2. Select Delete from the context menu.
3. When prompted to confirm deletion, click OK.

Working with Channel Groups in a Shotbox
A channel group is a group of one or more device channels that might or might not be across
multiple devices.

Avid recommends that each channel group pertains to the same “type” of device. For instance, a
channel group called AS is a grouping of channels from two or more AirSpeed video servers,
while a different channel group named CG is a grouping of channels on a Deko character
generator.
In the following example, a station has two AirSpeed video servers, each with two channels that
are numbered 2 and 3. The first AirSpeed is named AS1 and the second one AS2. With channel
groups on Command, the station’s system administrator can set up numerous different channel
groups and call them anything, such as:
Channel
Group

Channel
Names

Actual Device Channels

Purpose

AS-Morning

AS1 - channel 2

Playout

AS1 - channel 3

Playout

AS2 - channel 2

Browse

AS1 - channel 2

Playout

AS1 - channel 3

Playout

AS2 - channel 2

Hotswap

AS-Noon

106

Working with Channel Groups in a Shotbox

Channel
Group

Channel
Names

Actual Device Channels

Purpose

AS-5PM

AS1 - channel 2

Playout

AS1 - channel 3

Playout

AS2 - channel 2

Playout

AS2 - channel 3

Playout

AS1 - channel 2

Playout

AS2 - channel 2

Mirrored

AS1 - channel 3

Playout

AS2 - channel 3

Mirrored

AS-10PM

In the Shotbox Viewer, users can lock or unlock the channel group. For more information on
assigning channels, see “Changing Channels” on page 117.
In the above examples, some channels are used for actual broadcast while others are reserved for
off-air browsing, hotswapping, and mirrored playout purposes. A hotswap channel takes the
place of a standard playout channel in the group should that channel fail, and it retains the
original channel’s name for playout purposes. Command displays an icon on the Channel toolbar
to indicate when a hotswap occurs. For more information, see “Channel Group Icons” on
page 162.

Locking a Channel Group
Channel group locks pertain to control of playout on channels in a group. Users can lock or
unlock the channel group for a shotbox from a Command Workstation.
To lock or unlock a specific channel group:

With the shotbox open, click the Channel Group button. The icon on the button will change
to indicate whether it is locked or unlocked. For more information, see “Playlist and Shotbox
Viewer Buttons” on page 157.
When a channel group is locked, the status of those locks on each channel in the group
appears on the status bar at the bottom right corner of the window, if configured to be
displayed in the user interface. For more information, see “Status Bar” on page 20. In the
following illustration, a closeup of the locked status for both channels A and B of a channel
group named AB is shown:
107

Working with Channel Groups in a Shotbox

The per-channel status can also appear on the Channel toolbar, if configured to be displayed
in the user interface. For more information, see “Configuring the Channel Toolbar” on
page 88.

Replacing a Channel Group in a Shotbox
Avid iNEWS Command does provide a way for users to replace a shotbox’s channel group with
another channel group.

Do not replace a shotbox’s channel group if that group is already locked. The replaced
group remains locked, but no indication of such will appear in the user interface.
Also, do not replace a shotbox’s channel group if the shotbox contains items from the
original group. If the latter occurs, those items will become unplayable. You can delete
them from the shotbox. You can also change the channel group back to restore playability
for those items.
To replace a shotbox’s channel group:

1. Right click on the Channel Group button in the Shotbox toolbar.
2. Select Replace.
3. Choose another channel group.
4. Click OK.

Assigning Channels in a Shotbox
For some sites, channels are automatically assigned when the shotbox’s channel group is locked.
Whether this occurs depends on system settings in Avid iNEWS Command. Contact your system
administrator for more information.
With shotboxes, items can be automatically assigned to playout on a single channel or on
alternating channels. If configured for alternating channel assignment, the items in the shotbox
will at first appear to be assigned to one channel, but the user can select a different channel to
begin with by clicking on the Channel toolbar. Also, the moment an item is played, all other
unpinned items in the shotbox will switch to the next channel in the group.

For more information on how to configure shotbox channel assignment behavior, see
“Customizing the Shotbox Behavior” on page 92.

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Working with Channel Groups in a Shotbox

In the following illustration, a shotbox is open in the Shotbox Viewer with the channel group
locked (and thumbnails turned off). At first, all channels appear set to A and the cursor is on the
F1: Hurricane flyover item in the top left corner:

In the following illustration, the channels for all items have switched to B after the user clicked
on channel B in the Channel toolbar:

109

Working with Channel Groups in a Shotbox

If the user then plays the first item in the shotbox, it will play on channel B, and the channel
assignment for the rest of the items—none of which are pinned—will automatically switch to C,
the next channel in the group, as shown in the following illustration:

110

Working with Channel Groups in a Shotbox

Pinning Channels
When a user pins an item’s channel in a shotbox that means the item will play on the pinned
channel and not be affected by any automatic channel assignments.
To pin a channel:

1. With the cursor positioned on the item, type Ctrl+Alt+* (the asteriskon the numeric keypad).
2. Type the channel name, such as A for channel A, B for channel B, and so forth.
3. Press Enter.

A user can also use the mouse to click on and select a channel from each item’s drop-down list;
however, care should be taken if the shotbox is set to single-click play. In such cases where
single-click play is enabled, the above procedure is preferred.
To unpin a channel:

With the cursor positioned on the item, type Alt+Shift+* (the asterisk on the numeric
keypad) and press Enter.

Setting the Graphics Style for a Channel Group
Graphics styles are system settings you can assign to a channel group in a shotbox or playlist. If
the one you are looking for is not listed, contact your system administrator to have it added.
To set the graphics style for a shotbox:

1. Right-click on the channel group in the Shotbox toolbar.
2. Select Edit Properties for this Shotbox... (This option will not appear if you right-click on a
channel group associated with a video device.)
The Shotbox Channel Group Properties window opens.

3. Enter the graphics style.
4. Click OK.

111

5 iNEWS Integration
The iNEWS Command system is a device automation system for on-air operations, which can be
integrated into the iNEWS newsroom computer system, or into another MOS-enabled newsroom
computer system. The interface between Avid iNEWS Command and the Avid iNEWS
newsroom computer system provides for rundown updates between the products. Command can
also operate in a standalone environment if the Avid iNEWS connection is lost.
This chapter contains the following main sections:
•

Overview

•

Inserting Machine Control Events into Stories

•

Using an NRCS ActiveX Plug-in

Auto-assigning Media IDs

Loading Rundowns to Command
-

Loading and Unloading Playlists from iNEWS

Event List Queue

Composite Queue

Item Status After Load

Changing Channels

Overview
This section provides an overview of the Avid iNEWS workspace and instructions on different
methods for inserting machine control events into scripts in iNEWS for the iNEWS Command
system.
The Avid iNEWS workspace consists of three main panels:
Panel Name

Description

Directory panel

The portion of the workspace that displays the directory or file structure of the
Avid iNEWS database.

Inserting Machine Control Events into Stories

Panel Name

Description

Queue panel

The portion of the workspace that displays a list of stories in a queue. Stories
are added, deleted, moved, and ordered through this panel.

Story panel

The portion of the workspace that displays the story text; however, the panel
might be split, as shown in the figure below, into the following three subpanels:
Instruction panel—for production cues and machine control instructions. It
appears on the bottom left side o the Story panel.
Story Form panel—containing fields for data typically appearing in the queue
(rundown). It appears across the top of the Story panel.
Story Text panel—containing the script of a story and production cue markers
also known as grommets that coincide with production cues and machine
control instructions in the Instruction panel. It appears on the bottom right side
of the Story panel.
The Story Text panel is the only subpanel that always appears; the other two
might be removed from view by users at iNEWS Workstations.

Inserting Machine Control Events into Stories
Users cannot add machine control events to a newsroom playlist from a Command Workstation.
This does not apply to standalone playlists, which could be a disconnected newsroom playlist.
For more on how to edit standalone playlists, see “Working with Standalone Playlists” on
page 77.
For newsroom playlists, the iNEWS Workstation provides a scripting function that places
unformatted stories into a split-screen script format with production cues, in the left column
(referred to as the Instruction panel) and story text in the right column (referred to as the Story
Text panel).Production cues might include the following: Take VO, On Camera, Take SOT, Take
Live, and so forth. When interfacing with iNEWS Command, production cues in the iNEWS
newsroom computer system might include commands for devices, such as character generators
(CGs) and high-resolution video servers.

By default, Avid iNEWS generally refers to all video playback devices—for instance, Avid
AirSpeed video servers—as “video” type devices.
A production cue containing a command for a device is known as a machine control event. Each
command is preceded by an asterisk (*) and should be written in a special format. The format for
machine control events, following the asterisk, starts with a code for the type of device the
instruction is for, such as CG for a character generator or Deko for an Avid Deko graphics
system. For Command, this “code name for the device” is the name of the channel group.

114

Inserting Machine Control Events into Stories

After the command, the format specifies a particular item or template. If additional comments or
information, such as replaceable text, is required it would follow on succeeding lines in the same
Production Cue text box. For example, in iNEWS, a machine control event for a 2-line character
generator graphic might look like the one shown below:
Instruction Panel
Production Cue
Text Box

Machine Control Event
for a Character Generator

Story Text Panel

In the above example, the Story panel is split to show both the Instruction and Story Text panels,
but not the Story Form panel. The Take VO production cue is information for the director; it is
not a machine control event. The machine control event for the character generator is in the
second Production Cue text box.

Machine control event formats will vary based on styles set up by your system administrator.
Check with your system administrator for a list of styles used at your location.

115

Inserting Machine Control Events into Stories

To insert a machine control event into an iNEWS story:

1. From an iNEWS Workstation, open the script into the Story panel.

2. Click in the Story panel at the location where the production cue is to be placed.
3. Type Alt+Insert.
An Instruction panel appears to the left of the Story Text panel.The Instruction panel has a
Production Cue text box where the cursor is placed so that a production cue can be entered.
A production cue marker (also known as a grommet) is inserted in the script text at the
cursor position.

Auto-assigning Media IDs
The default token name in Avid iNEWS to request auto-assigned IDs from Command is
ASSIGNID.
To auto-assign media IDs from an iNEWS Workstation:

1. Open the story from the iNEWS rundown.
2. In the story’s Video ID field of the Story Form, type ASSIGNID and press Enter.
Command will automatically generate an ID and send it back via the iNEWS monitor server
so the ID will be displayed in the iNEWS story, replacing the text, ASSIGNID, in the Video
ID field.

The monitor server (utility program) must be on for the chosen iNEWS rundown so it can
establish a connection to the Avid iNEWS Communication service on the Command Server.

116

Using an NRCS ActiveX Plug-in

Using an NRCS ActiveX Plug-in
Most graphic systems (such as Avid Motion Graphics, VizRT, or Chyron) support an NRCS
ActiveX plugin, which lets users view and fulfill graphics and drop them directly into the script.
When the rundown is loaded to Command, the graphics are added to the Command playlist. For
specifics about ActiveX plugin usage, see the graphic system’s product documentation.

Time-Code Triggered Graphics
Command supports the ability to trigger graphics automatically based on the video elapsed time.
When using an NRCS, such as iNEWS, this feature requires that the graphic system’s iNEWS
ActiveX plugin, such as AMG Journalist, support the ability to set an In and Out/Duration (some
graphic systems use Duration, and some use Out). When the rundown is loaded to Command, it
parses the itemEdStart and itemEdDur fields in the graphic. This feature is not supported with
hand-entered graphics. After the video is played, when the video elapsed time reaches the In
value, Command sends an Play command to the graphic device channel, and when the item’s
duration is reached, sends an Eject. If the In point of the next graphic is before the Duration/Out
value, Command sends a Play command for the next item, and does not send an Eject. This
allows the graphic device to execute an update motion, rather than having to eject and play
consecutive items.
Operators can override the In or Duration/Out value in the Command Workstation by opening
the graphic in the media viewer and adjusting the time. Likewise, users can create standalone
playlists with time-code triggered graphics. The feature requires Stories in the standalone
playlist, which can be turned on by going to Tools, Options, Playlists, and unchecking Create
item-only standalone playlists.

The video must be in the iNEWS story form, or if added as a production cue, it needs to be the
first item in the story.

Loading Rundowns to Command
This section provides some basic user information about the Avid iNEWS monitor server, which
is used to load iNEWS rundowns to Command. The monitor server is not an actual part of Avid
iNEWS Command software, but is a utility program on the iNEWS Server.
For iNEWS Command, it is used to scan stories in the iNEWS rundown, check that show’s event
requests for errors, and search for machine control events to build event lists (playlists) for the
production devices. It continues monitoring the rundown for changes to machine control events
and sends them to the iNEWS Command system until the show goes off the air.

117

Loading Rundowns to Command

The system administrator must set up monitor servers on iNEWS Servers to ensure proper
integration between Avid iNEWS Command and an iNEWS newsroom computer system.
The monitor server is turned on when a user at an iNEWS Workstation turns it on. When on,
monitor server checks its assigned rundown for machine control events, and builds playlists. It
continues to monitor the rundown for changes and performs as much error checking as it can
without communicating with any broadcast equipment, including Command. The monitor server
loads data to the Command system when a user instructs it to do so from an iNEWS Workstation.

It is recommended that producers or production assistants turn the monitor server on as show
time approaches so it can check the rundown queue throughout much of the show’s development.
Monitor server scans through the scripts and builds Event Lists for CG and video if these events
are present in the scripts. Monitor server will also create a Composite list if configured to do so.
Instructing the monitor server to load data should be done later, such as just before taking the
show to air.

Loading and Unloading Playlists from iNEWS
The monitor server is used to monitor playlists before broadcasting, load newsroom playlists to
Command and unload them.
To load a playlist from Avid iNEWS to Command, using the monitor server:

1. Log in to an iNEWS Workstation.
2. Open the appropriate rundown in the Queue panel.
3. Select Tools > Monitor.
The Monitor dialog box opens.

118

Loading Rundowns to Command

The system displays the current status for and name of all devices available for the opened
rundown.
The duration (or automatic quit time, if configured) appears at the bottom of the dialog box.
For more information, see “Duration” on page 114.
4. Select a monitor mode based on the following options:
Option

Description

Turns the monitor server on and creates an event list for each device in the
rundown queue.

Load

Instructs the monitor server to load event lists to devices you select. See “Monitor
LOAD” on page 114 for more information.

Unload

Disconnects from the selected device or server without turning the monitor server
off. (If all devices/servers are unloaded, the monitor server returns to the On mode.
See “Monitor Off and Unload” on page 114 for more information.

Off

Turns the monitor server off, overriding the Duration setting. See “Monitor Off
and Unload” on page 114 for more information.

If you select Load, specify the device or server to load from the Devices list, or select the All
Devices checkbox to load all devices associated with the rundown queue. To select up to
three devices from the list, without selecting all, press the Ctrl key while you click on each
item. If you select a server, the data will be loaded to all devices associated with that server.

119

Loading Rundowns to Command

Duration
Monitor server uses a large amount of system resources. If monitor servers are left on after the
end of their shows, they could degrade the efficiency of the Avid iNEWS system.
To protect system resources, a quit time or a duration can be set by the system administrator. A
quit time will automatically switch off the monitor server at the specified time, ensuring the
integrity of the system. A duration will automatically switch off the monitor server after the
allotted time is achieved. However, for the best results, Avid recommends that monitor servers be
manually turned off at the end of each show.
If configured, the quit time or duration time appears at the bottom of the Monitor dialog box. The
monitor server’s quit time or duration is determined by configuration settings in the SYSTEM.MAP
story of iNEWS. For more information, see the iNEWS documentation for system administration
and configuration.

Monitor LOAD
Before Command is able to view the list of machine control events (known as items in
Command) in an iNEWS rundown and control those events for playback, they must be loaded
from the rundown in iNEWS. For more information on using monitor server to load events from
a newsroom rundown to iNEWS Command, see “Loading Rundowns to Command” on
page 111.
Events are loaded from Avid iNEWS to Command and then communicated to appropriate
devices. After Command receives the entire list, it will notify the user that it has received the list
by sending a message to the iNEWS Workstation. Confirmation messages might look like the
following:
LIST RECEIVED “SHOW.5P.Rundown”
SHOW.5P.RUNDOWN: Download Complete

If the monitor server is not on, loading events will automatically switch the monitor server on.

Monitor Off and Unload
Monitor Off is used after the show is over. Switching the monitor server off stops the system
from scanning scripts for updates and sending those updates to Command.
If a user at a Command Workstation disconnects the show, the broadcast can continue with
playout controlled from that workstation instead of the newsroom computer system; however, no
updates to the rundown from Avid iNEWS will be received in Command and no changes to the

120

Loading Rundowns to Command

disconnected playlist are sent to iNEWS. Turning the monitor server off, back on, and loading it
will create a new newsroom playlist in the Playlist Explorer, which will bear the same name as
the original “disconnected” playlist.
Monitor Unload clears the playlist, if Command has not disconnected it from the show, but
continues to scan the scripts and update the event lists with changes.

Turning off the monitor server while the channel groups for the rundown are still locked in
Command creates a disconnected playlist. Such disconnected playlists must be manually deleted
by the user.

Event List Queue
After the monitor server is on for a few seconds, event lists are built. In iNEWS, the Event List
queues—each one representing a different channel group—are generally built in the same folder
as the rundown, such as:
Rundown:SHOW.6PM.RUNDOWN
CG Event List:SHOW.6PM.CG
Video Event List:SHOW.6PM.VIDEO

The name of the event list queue in iNEWS must match the name of the channel group in
Command for events to appear.
Any script or rundown changes will be picked up automatically by the monitor server, which will
then make the appropriate changes in the event lists. All changes must be made in the rundown
queue, not in the event build queues.
The following figure shows a CG event queue for a rundown, listing the CGs for that show:

121

Loading Rundowns to Command

Composite Queue
It is possible to configure Avid iNEWS to also create a Composite List queue. This is a single
queue that contains a list of all machine control events for all channel groups (for all devices
associated with a rundown) that are required during the show. This list represents what will be
seen on the newsroom playlist at a Command Workstation. The Composite List Queue is usually
found in the same folder as the rundown, such as:
Composite List Queue:SHOW.6PM.COMPOSITE

122

Changing Channels

Item Status After Load
Playability is shown in Command through a variety of icons that appear in the Playlist Explorer
and Playlist Viewer. For a quick reference on what each icon means, see “Icon and Button Quick
Reference” on page 157.

Changing Channels
Channel assignment can be accomplished from either a Command Workstation or an iNEWS
Workstation. In iNEWS, depending on how a rundown is configured, there are multiple locations
where channel assignment is displayed and therefore a variety of ways to assign channels or
change channel assignments.
Channel Column

Channel Field in Story Form

To assign channels in iNEWS:

Do one of the following:
-

Type the channel name, such as A, B, or C, in the Channel column of the rundown
opened in the Queue panel.

Type the channel name in the Channel field of story’s Story Form panel.

Type Shift-Alt-C and enter the channel in the Assign Channel dialog box, then click
OK.

123

Changing Channels

For more information on how to change channels from a Command Workstation, see “Assigning
Channels in Playlist Viewer” on page 74 and “Assigning Channels in a Shotbox” on page 102.

124

6 Working with Stories
In Avid iNEWS Command, when a newsroom playlist is loaded, it presents the machine control
events grouped by story according to the order of the rundown from which it was loaded.
During the final preparations and as a show goes to air, that order might change as producers add,
remove, or rearrange stories in the rundown to reflect the changing demands of late-breaking
news and production developments.
While a newsroom playlist is locked to the rundown in iNEWS, updates will appear in both the
rundown and the playlist whenever a change is made at an iNEWS Workstation. While the
newsroom computer system retains the playlist lock, changes cannot be made to the newsroom
playlist from a Command Workstation.
However, if a standalone playlist is created at a Command Workstation or if a newsroom playlist
is disconnected from the rundown and the lock obtained from a Command Workstation, then
changes to the stories in those playlists can be done from the Command Workstation.
This chapter contains the following main sections:
•

Inserting New Stories

•

Deleting Stories

•

Updating Stories

•

Rearranging Stories

•

Floating & Unfloating Stories

Inserting New Stories
New stories can be inserted in a disconnected newsroom playlist at a Command Workstation.

Since standalone playlists can contain items only, stories are not necessary. Therefore, by
default, the system’s settings do not permit stories in newly created standalone playlists.
However, should you want the ability to use stories in a standalone playlist, the feature can be
enabled so that any newly created playlist would contain one story and permit the addition of
more. For more information, see the procedure in “Customizing the Playlist Viewer” on page 53.

Deleting Stories

To insert a new story in a playlist in Command:

1. Position the cursor in the playlist on a story, not an item.

If a user attempts to insert a new story before an item, the system will display a warning
instructing the user to insert the story before another pre-existing story.
2. Do one of the following:
t

Press Ctrl+N.

Select Playlist > Insert > New Story.

The Create New Story dialog box opens.

3. Enter the name for the new story.
4. Click OK or press Enter.

Deleting Stories
Stories can be deleted in two ways:

•

From a standalone or disconnected newsroom playlist at a Command Workstation.

•

From a rundown at an iNEWS Workstation.

Deleting a story From a rundown at an iNEWS Workstation can be accomplished even after the
show’s newsroom playlist has been loaded to Command.
To delete a story from a standalone or disconnected newsroom playlist:

1. At a Command Workstation, select the story you want to remove.
2. Do one of the following:

Select Playlist > Edit > Delete.

Press Delete.

Deleting a story in a standalone playlist will remove all items (sometimes called events) in
that story from the playlist.
126

Updating Stories

To delete a story from a rundown:

1. At an iNEWS Workstation, select the story you want to remove by clicking on the selector
button to the left of the story.
2. Do one of the following:
t

Select Edit > Kill.

Press Delete.

3. When the confirmation dialog box opens. Click OK.

Deleting a story from a rundown (and therefore from its newsroom playlist) does not delete the
story and its machine controls events from the newsroom computer system’s database. It only
removes the story from appearing in the show’s rundown and newsroom playlist.

Updating Stories
Although a show’s newsroom playlist is loaded to Command, updates to a story in the rundown
can still occur, such as the need to add or alter a machine control event. For newsroom playlists
in which the playlist lock is retained by the iNEWS newsroom computer system, updating can be
accomplished only from an iNEWS Workstation, unless the newsroom playlist is disconnected
from the newsroom and therefore becomes a standalone playlist locked by the Command
Workstation.
For more information, see “Inserting Machine Control Events into Stories” on page 108.

Updating the text in the body of a story must be done from the newsroom computer system and
not Command.
For more information about editing iNEWS stories, see the Introduction to the iNEWS
Workstation Training Manual available on the Avid Knowledge Base.

Editing an Item’s Media ID
When media is created, a unique identifier is assigned to it to distinguish it from other media in
the Command inventory. This ID appears in the ID column of a playlist whenever an item is
inserted into the playlist, but a user can manually modify the ID from the Playlist Viewer.
To edit the media ID:

1. Do one of the following:
t

Double click on the field in the ID column.

Select Playlist > Edit > Edit Media ID.

2. Do one of the following:
127

Rearranging Stories

Use the Up or Down Arrow keys on your keyboard to select from the list.

Click and select from the list.

Type a new ID.

Selecting from the list can reduce the risk of mistyping an ID. Caution should be taken
when editing any item’s media ID.
3. Click elsewhere on the playlist or press Enter on the main keyboard.
It’s only at this point that the media ID is saved.

Rearranging Stories
Changing and updating the order in which stories appear in the course of a show is a frequent
task for a show’s producer. As new stories develop and urgent bulletins come in, a producer must
decide the sequence in which stories should appear in the course of a news program and update
the show’s rundown accordingly.
The integration between Command and the Avid iNEWS newsroom computer system provides
for seamless communication regarding the changes that occur in the iNEWS rundown and the
order of events in the newsroom playlist in Command. When the order of stories in a show is
altered after the monitor server has loaded its playlist to Command, the order of events
associated with each story is also rearranged accordingly.

This updating occurs in newsroom rundowns for which the playlist lock is retained by the
newsroom system. If the playlist is disconnected from the newsroom rundown, then
updates will no longer be communicated between Command and iNEWS, or vice versa.
To rearrange stories in a standalone or disconnected newsroom playlist:

1. At a Command Workstation, select the story.
The system will select all items associated with the story.

Multiple rows can be selected and include stories, playlist references, items, and breaks. If the
selection contains only items, the user must insert them only where items can be placed. If the
selection contains a story, break, or playlist reference, it must be pasted where such row types
can be inserted—for instance, not between items. The system issues an alert when an
inappropriate cut-and-paste or drag-and-drop action occurs.
2. Drag the story from its current location to its new location within the playlist.
A drop indicator, which appears as a solid line between rows, will show where the copied
selection will be dropped within the playlist when you release the mouse button. The color
of the drop indicator varies depending on customization. For more information, see
128

Floating & Unfloating Stories

“Customizing the Cursor” on page 57.
For standalone playlists, Avid iNEWS Command provides the standard copy and paste
functionality as options in the Playlist > Edit menu as well as via keystroke combinations,
such as Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V.

The system always attempts to paste above the current cursor location.
To rearrange stories in an iNEWS rundown:

1. From an iNEWS Workstation, select the story in the rundown by clicking the selector button
to the left of the story. (To select multiple stories, hold the Ctrl key down first.)
2. Drag and drop the story’s button to its new location within the rundown.

Floating & Unfloating Stories
The Avid iNEWS system provides producers with a way to “float” stories when they are unsure
where they should go in the rundown, if at all.
Floating stories can only be accomplished from the iNEWS Workstation, not a Command
Workstation. However, if the rundown’s playlist is already loaded to Command, then floating an
iNEWS story removes it, including any associated machine control events, from the newsroom
playlist in Command.

Floated stories appear in the iNEWS rundown in a different color (usually blue text) than other
stories, and their times are removed from the rundown’s show timing.
To float an iNEWS story:

1. From an iNEWS Workstation, select the story in the rundown by clicking the selector button
to the left of the story.
2. Select Story > Float.
To unfloat a story, repeat the above procedure.

Command prevents items that are in a Done state from being removed from the newsroom
playlist until the Done state has been cleared. This means graphic items that have been played
but not yet ejected will not be removed from the newsroom playlist in Command when a story is
“floated” from the iNEWS rundown. Command only keeps the Done item; all other items in the
story are removed. After the Done item is ejected, that item and the remaining story is removed
from the playlist.
This protection also applies to video items during the hold last frame period.

129

7 Command Tablet Application
The Command tablet application is a native user interface designed to run on your iPad® mobile
device and enable direct, secure access to your station’s newsroom computer system.
The following main topics describe basic user information about the mobile device and
application.
•

•

Connection Basics
-

The iPad

Setting up Your First Connection

Setting up Your First Connection
-

Viewing Command Settings

•

Starting the Command Tablet Application

•

The Sidebar and View Area

•

Locking or Unlocking Shotbox Channel Groups

•

Working with Shotboxes in Tablet Application
-

Working with Graphic Items

Connection Basics
You can use the Command tablet application to control playout from anywhere there is a wireless
connection.
There are various types of connections available when using the Command tablet application:

•

WiFi

•

Carrrier specific cellular service (such as 3G)

The application is designed to automatically select the first available connection from the list of
options according to the priority shown in the list.

Setting up Your First Connection

The iPad
Before using the Command tablet application, familiarize yourself with key features of the
touch-screen tablet on which the application is run.
There are very few exterior buttons on the iPad. Most navigation is accomplished with touch
gestures on the screen, such as touching an icon to start an application. Swiping your fingertip
across the screen can navigate you to other pages of additional application icons or do something
entirely different within an application.
Button

Description

The Home button wakes the tablet when it is sleeping and exits applications, returning
you to the home screen.

Remember, the more applications that you have running, the more memory and battery power
your tablet uses. To optimize the performance of your tablet, try to close applications when you
are finished with them.

Setting up Your First Connection
The first time you use the Command tablet application, some setup is required. You must create a
connection by providing specific information.

The following procedure is provided for first-time users of the Command tablet application. If
you already have at least one connection and are wanting to create another new one, see
“Viewing Command Settings” on page 126.

131

Setting up Your First Connection

To create a new connection:

1. Start the Command tablet application. If this is your first time, your only connection option
will be to Create New.
2. Tap Create New.
The New Connection information will appear.

3. Fill in the requested data according to the following table.
Setting

Description

Name

This is the name of the connection to your Command system, such Studio A.

Hostname

This is the name of the Command server or the computer running the Avid
Remote Communication Service.

Port

This is the port on the server.

4. Tap Done.

If you save the above settings, then attempt to connect, and receive a message stating that your
tablet has not been authorized, contact your system administrator to have connection from your
device to the Command workgroup authorized.

Viewing Command Settings
The Command tablet application lets users create multiple connections via the Command
Settings, which can also be used to define other configuration options as well.
132

Setting up Your First Connection

The following table provides information on the settings available for you to configure. Except
for the first, which is vital for connection to your Command workgroup, the rest of the settings
pertain to the look and behavior of the application.
Setting

Description

Connections

This section displays any connections already created and gives the option to
create new connections.

Before you can connect the first time, your site’s system administrator must authorize your
mobile device to connect to the newsroom system’s Command workgroup.

Item Description

Choose whether you want the item’s slug or ID to be displayed.

Orientation

Lets you lock the device’s screen orientation to landscape, portrait, or allow the
device to auto-rotate between the two depending on how you hold the tablet.

133

Starting the Command Tablet Application

Setting

Description

Item Resizing

Turns on or off the “pinch-to-resize” feature of the touch screen tablet as it
relates to resizing item cells within the Command tablet application.

Video Pause
Control

Choose whether you want to see the Pause icon when video items are playing.
This should only get turned on if you intend to pause video

To view or modify Settings at any time from within the tablet application:

Tap the Settings icon.

Starting the Command Tablet Application
When the Command tablet application is installed on your touch-screen tablet, an icon
representing the application is also installed.
To start the application and connect to your system:

1. Tap the Command icon.
The Connect screen will appear.

If this is the first time you have ever started the application, you will see Create New as your only
connection option. For more information, see “Setting up Your First Connection” on page 125.
2. Select the system (if there is more than one) and tap the Connect button.
When you are connected, a list of existing shotboxes will appear in the sidebar.

While the Avid iNEWS Command tablet application is open, it will prevent the tablet from
shutting down, regardless of any auto-lock setting.
134

The Sidebar and View Area

To view the help system:

Tap the Help icon.

To exit the application:

1. Press the Home button.
2. Select Close.

The Sidebar and View Area
After you connect to Command with the Command tablet application, you can view the sidebar,
located along the left side of the screen when displayed, and use it to access various shotboxes.
Use the Show/Hide button to toggle the display of the sidebar.

The look of this button changes depending on the display status of the sidebar.

Button

Description

Tap this button to display the sidebar.

Tap this button to hide the sidebar.

Shotboxes are only created at a Command Workstation.

While it is possible from a workstation to create shotboxes that have multiple channels, the
channel is not displayed in the tablet application. To avoid confusion, Avid strongly recommends
creating shotboxes that control only one channel.
In the tablet application, existing shotboxes are listed in the sidebar.
Different icons are used to distinguish between the various types of shotboxes available in
Command. When you open a shotbox, the icon representing that type of shotbox will also appear
in the title bar of the view area.
Icon

Description

This icon represents a standalone shotbox.

135

Locking or Unlocking Shotbox Channel Groups

Icon

Description

This icon represents a connection to an iNEWS shotbox.

This icon represents a disconnected iNEWS shotbox.

This icon represents a connection to a MOS-based shotbox.

This icon represents a disconnected MOS-based shotbox.

Items in a chosen shotbox are displayed to the right of the sidebar in what is called the view area.
The name of the chosen shotbox appears in a title bar across the top.

Locking or Unlocking Shotbox Channel Groups
From the Command tablet application, you can lock a shotbox channel group, see if the channel
group is locked by another user, and even override a channel group lock.
The following table shows the various icons used to indicate whether the channel group is locked
by you, by someone else, or is unlocked.
Icon

Description

Unlocked icon—the channel group is not locked.

Locked icon—the channel group is locked by you.

Other Lock icon—the channel group is locked by someone else.

To lock a channel group:

Touch and hold the Unlocked icon, located in the title bar of the view area.
You will see the icon change to the Locked icon and hear a sound when the channel group
lock is engaged.

136

Working with Shotboxes in Tablet Application

To unlock a channel group:

Touch and hold the Locked icon, located in the title bar of the view area.
You will see the icon change to the Unlocked icon and hear a sound when the channel group
is unlocked.

To override a channel group lock:

1. Touch and hold the Other Lock icon, located in the title bar of the view area.
2. Confirm your request to override the existing lock on the channel group.

Working with Shotboxes in Tablet Application
From the Command tablet application, you can cue, play, pause, and eject items from a shotbox.
Touch an item in a shotbox to select it and view the transport controls.
Transport Control

Description

Tap the Cue control to cue an item in a shotbox.

Tap the Play control, which appears centered over the shotbox image, to
play an item in a shotbox.
Tap the Pause control, which if enabled appears centered over the shotbox
image, to pause play of an item in a shotbox.
Tap the Eject control to eject an item from a shotbox.

Transport controls only appear when the shotbox channel group is locked. For more information,
see “Locking or Unlocking Shotbox Channel Groups” on page 130.
All items in a shotbox must be added or deleted from a Command Workstation. Neither can be
done from the tablet application; however, you can rearrange the order of shotbox items that you
view from the tablet application and do so independently from the workstation shotbox.

If you remove and reinstall the Command tablet application to your mobile device, shotbox items
will revert back to the order set in the Command Workstations, and the device will need be
reauthorized by your system administrator.

137

Working with Shotboxes in Tablet Application

New items added to a shotbox from a workstation will appear at the bottom of the shotbox items
in the view area of the tablet application, and a yellow Plus icon appears located in the title bar of
the view area until the screen is scrolled.
To rearrange item(s) in a shotbox:

1. Touch and hold the item you want to move.
2. Drag your fingertip to a new location in the shotbox where you want to put the item.
The item will be dropped into the new location when you lift your fingertip from the tablet’s
touch screen. Any item in the destination location will be moved down, right, or left to make
room for the item you move.
The following illustration demonstrates the moving of an item from the far right position of
the first row to the middle of the second row. In this example, the item located in the
destination position would move left, and the first item on the second row would move up to
the far right side of the first row to accommodate the rearrangement.

138

Working with Shotboxes in Tablet Application

To play an item:

1. Select the item you want to play.
Once selected, the item will have a thin yellow outline and show the transport controls.

When cued, the border around the video item turns yellow.

2. Tap the Play control.
While a video item is playing, the border appears red, and the count up and count down
clocks will roll.
If enabled, the Pause control will also appear centered in the box, and its circular outline will
change color to show the progress of the playing item.

139

Working with Shotboxes in Tablet Application

To pause playing video:

Tap the Pause control.
When paused, the border appears blue, the clocks stop, and the Play control will also appear
centered in the box. Its circular outline that changes color to show progress will also freeze
at the current position of status.

You can tap the Play control to resume playout of the video item.
To eject finished video:

Tap the Done icon to eject the item.
When a video or graphics item finishes playing, Command presents a Done icon, as shown
in the following illustration

140

Working with Shotboxes in Tablet Application

Working with Graphic Items
The Command tablet application uses colors to indicate transport status for graphic items as well
as video in shotboxes.
For instance, when a graphic item is cued, the border turns yellow.

To play a graphic item:

1. Tap the Play control.
If there are no multiple triggers in the graphic, once played, the item goes into a Done state
as indicated by a red border.

Multi-triggered graphic items automatically go into a Pause state, indicated by a blue border
and the appearance of the Play control centered in the box. To play the next trigger, tap the Play
control.

141

Working with Shotboxes in Tablet Application

When unplayable, the border around the item turns pink.

When there is an error, the border around the item turns purple.

142

8 Playout Control
Playout control through Avid iNEWS Command varies from site to site depending on workflow.
Some television stations might want to control playout through the software’s graphical user
interface, while others choose to use USB or GPI keypads.
This chapter contains the following main sections:
•

UI Controlled
-

Playout Media from Command Workstation

Resolving a Mismatch

Disabling the Keyboard at the Command Workstation

•

Looping and Follow-on Playout

•

USB Keypad Controlled
-

Channel-Specific Actions

•

GPI Controlled

•

Toggling Between GPI and UI Control

UI Controlled
Playout control from a Command Workstation can be accomplished through the use of the
tabbed workspace known as the Playlist Viewer. This section provides details on controlling
playout from the Playlist Viewer. Playout control can also be done via the Shotbox Viewer. For
more information, see “Toolbars” on page 87.
While some functionality is described in this section, for additional information on such features
as customization options, see “Playlist Viewer” on page 44.

UI Controlled

Command uses various icons, as well as customizable colors, to indicate the status of machine
control events (items) in the playlist. Some of these are shown below:
Cursor location can appear solid
or as an outline; varies by field.

This event is cued.

Icon representing a
“Follow-On Playout” event.

This event is unavailable.

Icon representing a
Looped event.

This event will loop twice.

Another possible icon is called a mismatch icon, which is used to warn users whenever two or
more video devices in a channel group contain different versions of the same clip. Other possible
icons indicate when video is only available on the primary video server or the mirrored backup.
For more information on the various icons for playlists, see “Icon and Button Quick Reference”
on page 157. For more information on what to do in the event of a mistmatch, see “Resolving a
Mismatch” on page 139.

144

UI Controlled

If a third-party video device is being controlled via the Avid Video device service (using VDCP),
the playlist in Command will reflect status of items on that device—an unavailable item promptly
changes to available once it is transferred to the device—regardless of whether the device’s
inventory is shown in the Inventory panel.

Playout Media from Command Workstation
Users can cue, play, pause or stop the playout of media from a Command Workstation, using the
Control buttons on the Playlist toolbar or keys on the numeric keypad. For information on the
buttons, see “Toolbars” on page 47.

The Control buttons are also available in the Shotbox Viewer, which is explained in “Shotbox
Viewer” on page 85. Also see “Toolbars” on page 87.
To control playout, using the numeric keypad on a keyboard:

1. Select the event in the playlist.
2. Do one of the following:

Press the Decimal key (.) to cue the media.

Press Enter to play the media.

Press the Plus key (+) to pause the media.

Press zero (0) to stop playing the media.

Playout options are also available by right-clicking on the event and selecting the options from
the Playout submenu.

Resolving a Mismatch
Avid iNEWS Command provides an indicator in both playlists and shotboxes to warn users
when two devices in a channel group have different versions of the same media. This situation
could result in the broadcast of either version depending on which channel is used at the time.
An example of how this situation might occur is:
You have two video servers in a channel group. Let’s call them Video A and Video B. Both have
a video clip called Clip C. As long as Clip C is not playing at the time a new version of the video
comes in, it will be updated on both servers without issue. However, if Clip C is playing on
Video A when a new version comes in, the system cannot update the on-air copy. It can only
update the version on the Video B server. The two versions are now mismatched.
The following illustration shows a closeup of a couple of mismatched video items, called
Pentagon and China Trade, in a playlist. The cursor is on the first item:

145

UI Controlled

The following illustration shows the same two items in a shotbox:

To view more details about the mismatch:

1. Do one of the following:
t

Select the item in the playlist and type Ctrl+I.

Select the item in the shotbox and type Ctrl+Alt+I.

Right-click on the item in the shotbox or playlist and select Show > Inventory.

2. The Inventory panel will switch to the proper channel group and display the details of the
mismatched item. View the last modification times and dates to determine which video is the
latest.
3. Reload that video when you are certain that the clip is not on-air or playing on any of the
devices in that channel group.
146

UI Controlled

Disabling the Keyboard at the Command Workstation
Some sites use alternative devices to control playout from Command, such as a GPI device or an
X-keys USB keypad, and therefore do not want the computer keyboard at the workstation
enabled.

Users at some sites might want to keep the keyboard available as an alternative should the need
to switch between GPI and UI control arise. Command provides a quick and easy way to do this
via a menu option or keystroke combination. For more information, see “Toggling Between GPI
and UI Control” on page 152.
To enable or disable the keyboard:

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
The Options dialog box will appear.

2. In Category, select Keyboard.
3. Do one of the following:
t

Select Enable keyboard.

Deselect Enable keyboard.
147

Looping and Follow-on Playout

4. Click Apply.
5. Click OK.

If the keyboard is disabled, the numeric keypad cannot be used to control playout from the
Command Workstation. Disabling the keyboard does not affect the use of the keyboard for
software on the workstation PC unrelated to the Command client software.

Looping and Follow-on Playout
Looping is the repeated playing of a media event for either a specified number of times or
indefinitely, which is continuous until manually stopped. Avid iNEWS Command provides users
with a way to loop a specific item within a playlist or an entire playlist. Loop count can be set
from an iNEWS or Command Workstation. After looping is set, a Looping icon is displayed
along with the current count and total number of loops in an X/Y format, where X equals the
current count and Y equals the total loop count set for the item. For example, when Command
displays 3/5, that means the item is in its third of five loops.

Users cannot cue another item until the last loop has started; Command will show an alert. Also,
item looping is not supported in embedded playlists.
When a looped item gets to its last loop, Command will automatically cue the next item in the
playlist.
Users can also set playout of an item in a playlist to automatically occur immediately following
the completion of the previous item. This functionality is called follow-on playout and is
indicated by an icon in the playlist that looks like a bent blue arrow.
Command supports follow-on playout with or without looping. If an item is set to follow-on
playout with looping, the total loop count is shown along with a Follow-on Looping icon.
Playout Trigger Icons

Looping (only)
Follow-on playout
Follow-on playout
with looping

Users must have only one playout channel set up for the follow-on feature to work. Both looping
and follow-on playout require Autocue be turned on in Command. Looping is supported in
Command with VDCP devices.
148

Looping and Follow-on Playout

To set loop count from iNEWS:

Add @ and the numerical value for the loop count to the end of the video ID in iNEWS. For
instance, to loop an item four times, add @4 to that item’s video ID.

To set loop count to infinity from iNEWS:

Add @888 to the end of the video ID in iNEWS.

For setting loop count from iNEWS to work, it must be enabled in Command. Instructions for
how to do this is provided in the Avid iNEWS Command Administration Guide.
To loop an item within a playlist from a Command Workstation:

1. Select the item you want to loop in the playlist.
2. Do one of the following:
t

Press Ctrl+Shift+L.

Right-click and select Edit > Edit Loop Count.

The Loop Count dialog box appears. By default, an item is set to play once.

3. Do one of the following:
t

Select Play this many times and set the number.

Select Play indefinitely.

4. Click OK.
When playout of an item is set to loop in a playlist, the Looping icon and the numerical
values set for looping—current count and how many times the item will play in
total—appear in the Trigger column of the playlist. If you do not see them, widen the
column. It must be set wide enough to view both the icon and the numerical values for
looping.
If the item is set to play indefinitely, the infinity symbol will appear in the Trigger column.

The previous procedure only applies to looping a single item in a playlist. To loop multiple items
within a larger playlist, Avid recommends creating a separate playlist of those items you want to
loop, set the properties for that playlist to loop, and then embed the looping playlist within the
149

Looping and Follow-on Playout

larger playlist. For clarity, Avid also recommends including the word Loop in the name of any
playlist set to loop in its entirety. For more information on embedding playlists, see “Working
with Embedded Playlists” on page 80.
To loop an entire playlist:

1. Right-click anywhere in the playlist.
2. Select Edit > Properties.
The Playlist Properties dialog box appears.

3. Do one of the following in the Looping section:
t

Select Play this many times and set the number.

Select Play indefinitely.

4. Click OK.

While there are visible indicators within the software that distinguishes a looping playlist from a
non-looping playlist, to avoid confusion, Avid recommends that users still include the word Loop
in the name of any playlist created with its properties set to loop in its entirety.
When a playlist (that is not embedded in another playlist) is set to loop, the numerical value
for how many times it should loop appears in the Playlist toolbar on the right side along with
a curved green arrow icon to indicate the looping status.
For instance, if a playlist is set to loop twice, the number 2 will appear on the toolbar next to
the curved green arrow.

150

Looping and Follow-on Playout

If the loop count is set to loop indefinitely, then an infinity symbol is displayed next to the
curved green arrow icon.

151

Looping and Follow-on Playout

To set follow-on playout for an item:

1. At a Command Workstation, in the Playlist Viewer, do one of the following:
t

Press the Ctrl+forward slash (/) keystroke combination.

Select Playlist > Edit > Edit Trigger.

Click the field in the Trigger column corresponding with the item that you want set for
follow-on playout.

The Trigger column is narrow, but can be resized, and usually has no label on its column
header. Its location in the playlist might also vary.
Trigger
Column

Status
Column

2. When the menu appears in the Trigger column, select Follow-On Playout. (The menu option
might appear truncated.)
3. Do one of the following:
t

Click elsewhere on the playlist.

Press Enter on the main keyboard.

Move the cursor with keyboard shortcuts.

It’s only at this point that the playout method is saved.
To set all or multiple items to follow-on playout:

1. Do one of the following:
t

Type Ctrl+A to select all items.

Use the Ctrl or Shift keys and mouse clicks to select multiple items.

2. Type Ctrl+forward slash (/) to activate the Trigger field.
3. Type F for follow-on playout.
4. Press the Enter key on the keyboard (not the numerical keypad).

152

USB Keypad Controlled

To set an item to manual playout:

1. At a Command Workstation, in the Playlist Viewer, click the field in the Trigger column
corresponding with the item that you want set for manual playout.
2. When the menu appears, select Manual Playout.
3. Do one of the following:
t

Click elsewhere on the playlist.

Press Enter on the main keyboard.

Move the cursor with keyboard shortcuts.

It is only at this point that the playout method is saved.
To set all or multiple items to manual playout:

1. Do one of the following:
t

Type Ctrl+A to select all items.

Use the Ctrl or Shift keys and mouse clicks to select multiple items.

2. Type Ctrl+forward slash (/) to activate the Trigger field.
3. Type M for manual playout.
4. Press the Enter key on the keyboard (not the numerical keypad).

USB Keypad Controlled
Avid iNEWS Command interfaces with the X-keys® USB keypad for playout control. The
X-keys USB keypads connect to the USB port the Command Workstation and offer up to
fifty-eight user-reprogrammable keys for one-button access to playout functionality.

153

USB Keypad Controlled

Some improvements to the X-Keys functionality has been added. To see the new options, go to
Tools > Options > Actions > X-Keys. The Choose Action dialog box opens.

•

Main Window, Keyboard - Up and Down: These options emulate the keyboard up/down
arrows, and support a press-and-hold functionality, where the cursor continues to scroll
when the key is pressed and held. These keys also function in other panels, such as Playlist
Explorer and Inventory.

•

Playlist, Selection – NextRow, NextItem, PreviousRow, and PreviousItem: These key
functions now support press-and-hold functionality, so that you can scroll through your
playlist by pressing and holding the respective keys.

•

Playlist Explorer – TakeFocus: This key moves the focus to the Playlist Explorer panel, so
that users can use the up/down arrow keys (via keyboard or X-Keys) to navigate to a
particular playlist.

•

Playlist Explorer - OpenSelected: This key will open the selected playlist.

X-keys is third-party hardware. Command natively supports a variety of X-keys devices, which
are configured through the Command Workstation application. Native support gives users an
added level of functionality that is not available through the X-keys Macro Works software. See
the Avid iNEWS Command ReadMe for the specific X-keys devices that are supported.
You can also use the Macro Works software, a keyboard emulator, with any X-keys device. For
more information on X-keys USB keypads, see that manufacturer’s documentation on
www.xkeys.com.
To program the X-keys from the Command Workstation:

1. Select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your
system administrator.
2. In Category, expand Actions and select X-keys.

154

USB Keypad Controlled

3. Select Enable X-keys.
4. Set the de-bounce period. Designed to avoid inadvertent repetition, this is the span of time
(in milliseconds) during which the system should ignore duplicated signals.
5. Click on a gray box that represents (or corresponds to) the key on the keypad.

Some sites might use key caps that cover 2 or 4 buttons on the keypad, turning a set of buttons
into a single key. If that is the case, select the left box to set the “2-button” key. For 4-button keys,
select the upper left box.
6. Assign an action to the key by selecting it from the list of those available in the Choose
Action dialog box.

155

USB Keypad Controlled

7. Click OK.
8. Repeat steps 5-7 as needed.
9. Click Apply.
10. Click OK.
The following illustration shows a closeup of the first row of keys after they were assigned to
the four playout control options of play, cue, pause, and stop:

Channel-Specific Actions
Keys can also be assigned to an action associated with a specific channel on a device. An
example of this would be for a key to initiate a play command on a single channel.

156

GPI Controlled

To assign channel specific actions to a key:

1. Complete steps 1 - 5 of the procedure “USB Keypad Controlled” on page 147.
2. In the Choose Action dialog box, under the Actions column, expand Control.
3. Select the action, such as Play.
4. Select the index, such as Channel 01, that corresponds to the device channel.
5. Click OK. The Choose Action dialog box closes.
6. Click OK in the Options dialog box.

Indices for channel specific actions in the list are pre-configured through system settings at the
Command Workstation, which requires an administrative password. For more information, see
the Avid iNEWS Command Administration Guide.

GPI Controlled
A GPI panel is another alternative keypad device that can be used to control playout through
Command. The GPI panel, which connects to a GPI card installed in the Command Server,
allows a user to select up to four channels, with each channel having its own set of Control
buttons for play, cue, pause, and stop functionality.
After configuration of the GPI card for the Avid iNEWS Command system is complete, and only
if the panel will be used for actions that go through the Command user interface, such as moving
the cursor, the GPI panel must be enabled to control a playlist.

This procedure does not apply to GPI panels (or Maney panels) with events mapped only to
actions chosen in GPI > Control—such as Cue, Pause, Play, or Stop—because those are sent
directly to the Playlist Controller and do not go through the user interface.
A user can enable a panel at any Command Workstation.
To enable a GPI panel to control a playlist:

1. At the Command Workstation, select Tools > Options. If prompted for a password, you must
provide it or contact your system administrator.
2. In Category, expand Actions and select GPI.

157

Toggling Between GPI and UI Control

3. Select a GPI panel from the list.
4. Click Apply.
5. Click OK.

System administrators must configure system settings to provide a list of panels in the Options
dialog box. For more information see the Avid iNEWS Command Installation and Configuration
Guide.

Toggling Between GPI and UI Control
Command can be set up to allow toggling between exclusive playout control from a GPI panel
and playout control from the workstation’s keyboard or mouse. This ability is helpful should the
need to switch between GPI and UI control arise. Command provides a quick and easy way to do
this via an option in the Tools menu.
To toggle between GPI and UI playout control, do one of the following:

Type Ctrl+G.

Select Tools > Enable GPI Playout.

158

Toggling Between GPI and UI Control

Look at the Command window’s title bar to see an indication of whether playout is
controlled by GPI or the workstation.

This feature can be disabled by your system administrator. If the menu option does not appear, or
the keystroke combination doesn’t work, contact your system administrator to ensure the feature
is enabled via the system settings.
When exclusive GPI control is enabled, a user can still cue an item using the keyboard or mouse;
however, the user must pause and play items with buttons on the GPI panel.

159

A Control Room Quick Reference
This appendix is provided as a quick reference guide to some of the most common icons and
alerts operators might see in the control room. It is not all inclusive.

For a one-page quick reference guide that you can view in the control room, print this page.

Playout Status Icons

Playability Status Icons

Cued

Primary Only

Playing

Backup Only

Paused

Unplayable

Stopped, Done

Unknown

Error

Mismatch

The background color for the Playability Status icon called Backup Only (shown above as
orange) is customizable, so it could appear different than the color shown here.

Failover
When a playlist is uploaded from a newsroom computer system, it is “locked” by the newsroom
system and receives system updates from Command. However, should that connection be
broken, the playlist is “disconnected”.
The iNEWS Command failover is an automated process, which is designed to be relatively
seamless for the operator. Failover can occur for a variety of reasons; the most common are
server failure and network/DNS problems. In the event of a primary server failure, the operator
will see the following:
•

The loss of playout control. Playing items will continue playing, but other items cannot be
triggered while the failover is in progress.

Failover

•

Disconnection from the newsroom computer system. In the Command Workstation, iNEWS
or MOS icons will change from connected to disconnected as shown in the following table:

Icon

Description

iNEWS is connected.

iNEWS is not connected.

MOS is connected.

MOS is not connected.

•

The iNEWS workstations will also show a MON status of Error as shown in the following
table:

Icon

Description

Monitor Error status.

•

The Command workstation will show the following alerts for disconnect and reconnect
messages:

•

The workstation will reflect the loss of playout control by putting a red x over the transport
controls (shown at right) and lock icon (shown at left) in the following example:

161

Failover

162

B Icon and Button Quick Reference
iNEWS Command has many different tools, icons, and buttons, which are used to alert you to
information and status as well as making your actions quick and precise. This appendix is
intended to serve as a quick reference to some of the icons and buttons used throughout your
Command system. It is not all inclusive.

Playlist and Shotbox Viewer Buttons
This section describes buttons in the user interface, some of which have icons on them that will
change depending on a certain status, such as whether a channel group is locked.
Control Buttons on Playout Toolbar

Cue

Play

Pause

Stop

Miscellaneous Buttons

Close Viewer

When a playlist’s channel group is not locked, these buttons on
the Playout toolbar appear gray, as shown below:

Playlist and Shotbox Viewer Buttons

Channel Group Icons

Locked by this Command Workstation

Locked by other Command Workstation or playlist

Unlocked channel group

Unknown

Locking

Unlocking

Playlist Icons

Playlist is locked by this Command Workstation.

Playlist is locked by other Command Workstation.

Playlist is locked by the iNEWS newsroom computer system. If the icon appears with a
blinking red X over it, the playlist has been disconnected from the newsroom rundown.
Playlist is MOS active and marked ready-to-air by a MOS-based newsroom computer
system, such as ENPS. If the icon appears with a blinking red X over it, the playlist has
been disconnected from the newsroom rundown.
Playlist is MOS active but has not been marked ready-to-air. This icon appears only if
the option to show all playlists in the Playlist Explorer is enabled.
Unlocked playlist

164

Playlist Viewer Icons

Playlist Icons (Continued)

Unknown lock condition (Newsroom connection down)

Time of Day playlist

Playlist Viewer Icons
This section describes icons that can appear in the Playlist Viewer. Many are similar to those
seen in the Shotbox Viewer.
Playout Status Icons

Cued
Playing
Paused
Stopped, Done
Warning
Error

When Command is in the process of cueing, pausing, stopping, etc. the Playout Status icons (in
both playlists and shotboxes) appear with a small green clock face over them.

Playability Status Icons

Primary Only
Backup Only
Unplayable
Unknown

165

Shotbox Viewer Icons

Playability Status Icons (Continued)

Mismatch
Timecode graphic playout impacted by change to video ID version

The background color for the Playability Status icon called Backup Only (shown above as
orange) is customizable, so it could appear different than the color shown here.

Playout Trigger Icons

Looping (only)
Follow-on playout
Follow-on playout with looping
Timecode triggered graphic
Overlapping graphics
Infinity

Miscellaneous Icons

On Air
Embedding playlist
Embedding error

Shotbox Viewer Icons
This section describes icons that can appear in the Shotbox Viewer panel. Many are similar to
those seen in the Playlist Viewer.

166

Shotbox Viewer Icons

Playout Status Icons

Cued
Playing
Paused
Stopped, Done
Warning
Error

Playability Status Icons

Primary Only
Backup Only
Unplayable
Unknown, Mismatch
MOB ID Mismatch (Interplay only)

The background color for the Playability Status icon called Backup Only (shown above as
orange) is customizable, so it could appear different than the color shown here.

Miscellaneous Icons

On Air
Pinned Channel

167

Channel Group Icons

Channel Group Icons
This section describes status icons that appear on the status bar at the bottom of the Command
window as well as on the Channel toolbar when displayed in the Playlist or Shotbox Viewers.
Channel Status Icons

Ready
Availability uncertain
Unavailable
Hotswap

Inventory
This section describes the icons that can appear in the Inventory panel.
Inventory Status Icons

Available on all
Partial availability
Partial availability (warning)
Item protected against deletion across all devices in the channel group
Partially protected. Problem with one or more devices in channel group.
Transfer underway. This icon appears for inventory being transferred to third-party
devices, such as an Omneon Spectrum, that communicate with Command via the Avid
Video device service. It requires the device service be configured to show transfer status.

Detailed Status Icons

Available on specific device

168

Alerts

Detailed Status Icons

Unavailable on specific device

Alerts
This section describes the icons that can appear in the Alerts panel.
Message Type Icons
Information
Critical Error

Playlist Explorer
This section describes the icons that can appear in the Playlist Explorer.
Playlist Status Icons

iNEWS newsroom playlist is locked and ready for air
MOS-based newsroom playlist is locked and ready for air

If the MOS-based newsroom playlist exists but is not marked “ready-to-air”, then the icon
appears gray instead of black.
On Air
Connection Down

Type Icons

Standalone playlist
Shotbox

169

Playlist Explorer

Type Icons

iNEWS playlist loaded to Command as a shotbox
iNEWS playlist loaded to Command as a shotbox

170

C Action Quick Reference
iNEWS Command enables users to assign actions to X-keys, which can speed up frequently
performed tasks. This appendix is intended to serve as a quick reference to those actions
available in the Options dialog box—accessible through the Tools > Options menu of your
Command system—and the Choose Action dialog box (shown below), which opens when you
select an X-key to assign an action to in the Options dialog box. The reference list here is not all
inclusive.

The system administrator can restrict access to the Options dialog box. If you select
Tools > Options and are prompted for a password, you must provide it or contact your system
administrator.

Actions
This list of actions available are shown in a tree-style format that contain categories,
subcategories, and actions. The reference list here is not all inclusive.

Actions

Category/Subcategory Subcategory/Action

Description

Alerts

Clear

Clear alerts.

ShowDiagnostics

Open the Alert Diagnostics dialog box.

Cue/Index 01-16

Cue the media on specified channel.

Enable GPI playout

Enable playout from GPI keypad.

Pause/Index 01-16

Pause the media on specified channel.

Play/Index 01-16

Play the media on specified channel.

Stop/Index 01-16

Stop the media on specified channel.

Copy

Copy selection.

Cut

Cut selection.

Delete

Delete selection.

Paste

Paste cut or copied data to current cursor location.

The Edit actions apply to current focus within the user interface and whether
editing functionality is supported.

Control

Edit

Inventory

MainWindow

MediaViewer

Browse

Browse the inventory.

Edit/Delete

Delete an item from the inventory.

Edit/DeleteProtect

Protect an item in the inventory from deletion.

Edit/DeleteUnprotect

Remove protection from deletion of an item in the
inventory.

Exit

Exit the application.

Shotbox/Show

Show the Shotbox Viewer panel.

BackwardOneFrame

Navigate back one frame of video.

BackwardOneSecond

Navigate back one second.

BackwardTenSeconds

Navigate back ten seconds.

Eject

Eject media from viewer

ForwardOneFrame

Navigate forward one frame of video.

ForwardOneSecond

Navigate forward one second.

172

Actions

Category/Subcategory Subcategory/Action
(Continued)
(Continued)

Playlist/ChannelGroup

Description
(Continued)

ForwardTenSeconds

Navigate forward ten seconds.

GoToMarkIn

Navigate to the marked In point.

GoToMarkOut

Navigate to the marked Out point.

Play

Play media (in the Media Viewer).

Restart

Restart media.

SetMarkIn

Set In point at current timecode location.

SetMarkOut

Set Out point at current timecode location.

AddExisting

Open the Add Channel Group Playlist dialog box.

AddNew

Open the Add New Channel Group Playlist dialog
box.

AutoAssign

Initiate auto-assignment of channels in the
playlist.

EditPropertiesGroup/1-9

Edit the properties for specified channel group.

Hide/1-9

Hide the specified channel group.

Lock/1-9

Lock the specified channel group.

LockAll

Lock all channel groups.

Remove/1-9

Remove the specified channel group.

Replace/1-9

Replace the specified channel group.

SetChannel/Index/01-16

Changes the channel of all the items to the
channel specified for the index as configured in
the System Settings dialog box.

SetChannel/Name/A-Z

Changes the channel of all the items to the
specified channel, whose name is a single
character of the English alphabet. Won’t work if
channel isn’t in group.

SetGroup/1-9

Switches all selected playlist items to the
specified channel group.

Show/1-9

Show the specified channel group.

Unlock/1-9

Unlock the specified channel group.

173

Actions

Category/Subcategory Subcategory/Action
(Continued)
(Continued)

UnlockAll

n
Playlist/Control

Playlist/Edit

Playlist

Playlist/Selection

Description
(Continued)

Unlock all channel groups.

The numeric values correspond to the Channel buttons as they appear from
left to right on the Playlist toolbar (or from right-to-left depending on your
locale). For more information, see “Channel Groups Buttons” on page 55.

Cue

Cue selected item.

Pause

Pause selected item.

Play

Play selected item.

Stop

Stop selected item.

Copy

Copy the selected item(s) in the active playlist.

Cut

Cut the selected item(s) in the active playlist.

Delete

Delete the selected item(s) in the active playlist.

Paste

Paste the selected item(s) in the active playlist.

EditProperties

Open the Playlist Properties dialog box.

Export

Export the playlist.

Import

Import a playlist.

InsertBreak

Insert a break before the selected row in the
playlist.

InsertItem

Insert a new item in the playlist.

InsertStory

Create a new story in the playlist.

Lock

Obtain the playlist’s lock.

EditChannel

Opens the channel list for the topmost selected
item. This is the same as clicking in the Channel
column of a playlist.

EditSelection

Edit the selected row. (For video items with a
browse channel, the In and Out points can be set
using the Media Viewer.)

End

Move cursor to end of playlist.

Home

Move cursor to top of playlist.

174

Actions

Category/Subcategory Subcategory/Action
(Continued)
(Continued)

Playlist

Playlist/View

PlaylistExplorer

Shotbox/Channel Group

Description
(Continued)

ItemInFollowingStory

Move cursor to the next item after the current
story.

NextItem

Move cursor to the next item.

NextRow

Move cursor to the next row.

PageDown

Move down one page in the playlist.

PageUp

Move up one page in the playlist.

PreviousItem

Move to previous item.

PreviousRow

Move to previous row.

ShowPlaylistInventoryObject

Opens the Inventory panel (if not already open)
and displays the item selected in the shotbox.

Unlock

Release the playlist’s lock.

Close the active playlist (topmost tab) in the
Playlist Viewer.

CloseAll

Close all playlist views (tabs) in the Playlist
Viewer.

Maximize

Maximize the playlist.

Switch to the next playlist view—the next tab in
the Playlist Viewer.

Switch to the previous playlist view—the next tab
in the Playlist Viewer.

SetFocus

Sets the keyboard focus to the active view.

ToggleMaximize

Toggles the display of the Playlist Viewer.

Unmaximize

Restores a mmaximized Playlist Viewer to its
original size.

DeleteSelectedPlaylists

Delete the selected playlist(s) in the Playlist
Explorer. The system will ask for confirmation.

NewPlaylist

Create a new standalone playlist.

New Shotbox

Create a new shotbox.

EditPropertiesGroup

Edit the properties for specified channel group.

175

Actions

Category/Subcategory Subcategory/Action
(Continued)
(Continued)

Shotbox/Control

Shotbox

Shotbox/Selection

Shotbox

Description
(Continued)

Lock

Lock the shotbox’s channel group.

Replace

Replace the shotbox’s channel group.

Unlock

Unlock the shotbox’s channel group.

Cue/Items 01-12

Cue item designated 01-12.

Cue/LastPlayed

Cue last played item.

Cue/Selection

Cue selected item.

Pause/LastPlayed

Pause last played item.

Pause/Selection

Pause selected item.

Play/Items 01-12

Play item designated 01-12.

Play/Selection

Play selected item.

Stop/LastPlayed

Stop last played item.

Stop/Selection

Stop selected item.

Copy

Copy the selected item(s) in the active playlist.

Cut

Cut the selected item(s) in the active playlist.

Delete

Delete the selected item(s) in the active playlist.

Export

Export the shotbox.

Import

Import a shotbox.

InsertItem

Insert a new item in the shotbox.

Lock

Obtain the shotbox’s lock.

Paste

Paste the selected item(s) in the active playlist.

EditChannel

Edit the selected item’s channel.

EditSelection

Edit the selected item in the shotbox.

UnpinChannel

Unpin the channel for the selected item in the
shotbox.

ShowShotboxInventoryObject

Opens the Inventory panel (if not already open)
and displays the item selected in the shotbox.

Unlock

Release the shotbox’s lock.
176

Actions

Category/Subcategory Subcategory/Action
(Continued)
(Continued)

Description
(Continued)

Shotbox/View

Close the active shotbox (topmost tab) in the
Shotbox Viewer.

CloseAll

Close all shotboxes (tabs) in the Shotbox Viewer.

Maximize

Maximize the Shotbox Viewer panel.

Switch to the next shotbox—the next tab in the
Shotbox Viewer.

Switch to the previous shotbox—the next tab in
the Shotbox Viewer.

SetFocus

Sets the keyboard focus to the active view.

About

Display information about the application.

Alerts

Show the Alerts panel.

Clock

Show the Clock panel.

Help

Open the Help system.

Inventory

Show the Inventory panel.

MediaViewer

Show the Media Viewer.

Options

Opens the Options dialog box.

PlaylistExplorer

Show the Playlist Explorer.

Support

Open the Support dialog box.

SystemSettings

Opens the System Settings dialog box.

Versions

Display software version.

View

177

Index

locking in tablet application 130
Channel toolbar 47, 88
hiding 49
show or hide in shotboxes 88
tally indicator 50
Channels
assigning 103
assigning in Command 74
assigning in iNEWS 117
pinning 106
Channel-specific actions 150
Clock 35
Columns
rearranging in a playlist 61
rearranging in Inventory panel 32
Thumbnail 59
Trigger 146
Command
action quick reference 165
Architecture 11
Features described 13
introduction 11
panels 23
Playlist Viewer 44
Shotbox Viewer 85
System overview 10
tablet application 124
locking channel groups 130
override channel group locks 130
settings 126
shotbox, types of 129
start application 128
unlocking channel groups 130
working with graphics 135
Command Workstation
alternative keypad device 151
changing channels 117
deleting a story 120
disabling keyboard 141

Action, list of 165
AirSpeed
channel groups 69
shotbox channel groups 101
Alerts window 42
Alerts, types of 42
ASSIGNID token 110
Auto-assign IDs 110
Autocursor 56
Avid
how to order documentation 7
online support 7
training services 8
Avid iNEWS Command 11
Avid Video device service, inventory 30

B
Background option 59
Browse controls 38, 39
Buttons
channel group 47, 50, 87
control 47, 87
restore defaults 91
Show/Hide in tablet application 129
time of day 84

C
Channel group
add to playlist 69
buttons 47
defined 69, 101
locking and unlocking 102
viewing inventory 32
Channel group buttons 50
Channel groups
178

Index

menus explained 15
UI control 137
user interface explained 14
using X-keys 147
Composite List queues 116
Container playlist, defined 45
Cursor 57
customizing appearance 57
customizing behavior 53
in a playlist 59
in a shotbox 87
Customer Support, log support information 21

Function keys 98
deleting shotbox items 101

G
GPI
autocursor feature 56
card 151
enable playout menu option 152
panel, defined 151
toggling 152
Graphics in table application 135
Graphics style 76, 106

D
Dialog boxes
Add Channel Group to Playlist 71
Choose action 149
Create New Story 120
Monitor 112
Options 20, 27, 29, 32, 36, 40, 49, 50, 53, 57, 60, 62,
66, 89, 90, 91, 92, 94, 97
Playlist Channel Group Properties 76
Playlist Properties 83
Shotbox Channel Group Properties 106
Support 21
Directory panel 107
Disconnected playlist 67, 68
Docking panels 25
Drop indicator 57

E
Embedded playlist 80
defined 45
editing 82
Event List queues 115
Events
follow-on 139
inserting in iNEWS story 108

F
Features list 13
Float iNEWS stories 123
Follow-on playout 139
Fulfillment data, editing 41
179

H
Hotswap 70, 102, 162
example 70
icon 162
Hotswapping, defined 70

I
iNEWS
auto-assign IDs 110
changing channel assignment 117
deleting a story 121
Directory panel 107
embedded playlists 80
floating a story 123
inserting machine control events 108
Instruction panel 108
integration 107
machine control event 109
monitor server 110, 111
overview 107
Queue panel 108
rearranging stories in rundown 122
reordering rundowns 122
Story Form panel 108
Story panel 108, 110
Story Text panel 108
updating stories 121
using plug-ins 111
iNEWS Command
Architecture 11
defined 10

Index

Instruction panel 108
Inventory
deleting 33, 34, 34
editing 35
removing protection 34
sorting items 32
status icons 31
versioning 79
viewing items 32
Inventory panel 30
iPad 125
Items
adding 78
adding breaks between 77
deleting from inventory 33, 34
deleting in playlist 78
enabling items-only standalone playlists 119

viewing details 139, 140
Monitor Load 112, 114
Monitor modes 113
Monitor Off 115
Monitor server, defined 111
Monitor Unload 112, 115
Multi-tab option 29

N
Newsroom playlist, defined 45

O
Online support 7

Panels
defined 14
docking and undocking 25
hide or show 26
in Command 23
in iNEWS 107
layering 25
resize 26
working with 23
Pinning channels 106
Placeholders 77
Playlist
add channel group 69
autocursor 56
channel groups 70
creating new ones without stories 54
disconnect caution 68
embedding 80
hide empty rows 55
icons 137
inventory versioning 79
loading 112
lock channel group 102
lock status 68
locking and unlocking 67
looping 142
multiple tab option 29
rearranging columns 61
reconnecting to newsroom 68

Keyboard
alternative keypad device 151
disabling 141

L
Layering panels 25
Loading playlists 112
Lock and unlock channel groups 102
Lock and unlock playlists 67
Lock button 87
Locks
in tablet application 130
Looping 142

M
Machine control event, defined 108
Manual playout 139
Media ID 121
Media Viewer 38
fulfillment data, editing 41
thumbnail images 39
time codes, editing 41
Menu bar 15
Mismatches
resolving 139
180

Index

delete a story 120
display items based on component type 51
Display or hide status bar 20
display thumbnails in Media Viewer 39
docking or undocking a panel 25
edit a standalone playlist 77
edit fulfillment data 42
edit the media ID 121
embed a playlist in Avid iNEWS 80
embed a playlist in Command 80
enable a GPI panel to control a playlist 151
enable or disable the keyboard 141
exit tablet application 129
float an iNEWS story 123
hide the Playout or Channel toolbar 49
hiding a panel 26
inserting machine control events 108
inventory
delete an item 33, 34
editing slug or video ID 35
protect an item 34
remove delete protection 34
sorting items 32
layer panels 25
lock or unlock a channel group 102
log support information 21
looping a playlist 144
looping a playlist item 142
maximize the Shotbox Viewer 95
open a shotbox 85
playlist
add a new channel group 69
add breaks between items 77
assign a channel to multiple items 74
assign channels 74
lock a channel group 73
lock all channel groups 73
remove a channel group 69
set the graphics style 76
turn on thumbnails 63
unlock a channel group 73
unlock all channel groups 73
programming X-keys 147
rearrange columns in a playlist 61
rearrange Inventory column order 32
rearrange stories in a newsroom playlist 122
rearrange stories in an iNEWS rundown 122

resolving a mismatch 139
resolving a mistmatch 139
showing thumbnails 41, 54, 67
toolbars explained 47
types of 44
unloading 112
Playlist Explorer 26
configure to auto-open playlists 27
multiple tab option 29
Playlist Lock button 68
Playlist toolbar 47
displaying workstation alias 77
time of day icon 83
Playlist Viewer
multiple tab option 29
overview 46
toolbars 47
Trigger and Status columns 146
Playout
follow-on 139
looping 142
manual 139
resolving a mismatch 139, 139
Playout control 137
Playout toolbar 47
hiding 49
Plug-ins 111
Procedures
add a channel group to a playlist 69
alter time codes 42
assign channel specific actions to a key 150
assign channels in iNEWS 117
auto-assign IDs 110
change an item’s slug 35
change an item’s video ID 35
change clock functions 60, 94
change cursor appearance 57
clear alerts 42
configure Playlist Explorer to auto-open 27
configuring the clock 35
control playout with numeric keypad 139
create a new story in a playlist 119
create a standalone playlist 77
customize behavior of Shotbox Viewer 92
customize Playlist Viewer 53
customize Shotbox Viewer 90
delete a standalone playlist 77
181

Index

replace a shotbox’s channel group 103
resize the Shotbox Viewer 95
resizing a panel 26
set a playlist to air at certain time of day 83
set follow-on playout 146
set manual playout 147
set multiple follow-on playout items 146
set multiple items to manual playout 147
set options for inventory versioning 79
set the colors for tally 50
set workstation alias 77
shotbox
add an item 98
add multiple items 98
create a shotbox 98
delete a shotbox 100
delete items 100
pin and unpin channels 106
set graphics style 106
turn on thumbnail images 96
show or hide the Channel toolbar 88
start tablet application 128
starting Command 14
tablet application
create new connection 126
lock channel group 130
override channel group locks 131
pause playing video 134, 134
play a graphic 135
play an item 133
rearrange shotbox items 132
unlock channel group 131
toggle between GPI and UI playout control 152
using monitor server 112
view tablet application help 129
view tablet application settings 128
viewing a hidden panel 26
viewing details about mismatched media 139, 140
viewing inventory from a channel group 32
Production cue marker 110
Production cues 108

Restore Defaults button 91

S
Shortcut keys 15
Shotbox
adding items 98
adding multiple items 98
alternating channel assignment 103
assigning channels 103
Channel toolbar 104
creating 98
deleting 100
deleting function key items 101
deleting items 100
function keys 98
in tablet application 131
lock status 87
opening 85
pinning channels 106
replacing a channel group 103
showing thumbnails 98
single-click play 106
toolbars explained 87
Shotbox Viewer 85
resizing 95
Show/Hide button 129
Sidebar 129
Slug, editing from Inventory panel 35
Standalone playlist
defined 44
deleting 77
editing 77
editing embedded 83
inventory versioning 79
Status bar 20
Status icons 47
Story
create new one in playlist 119
deleting 120, 120
floating 123
inserting 119
rearranging in iNEWS rundown 123
rearranging in newsroom playlist 122
rearranging stories 122

Q
Queue panel 108

182

Index

updating 121, 121
working with a 119
Story Form panel 108
Story panel 108, 110
Story Text panel 108
System architecture 11

USB keypad 147

V
VDCP 30
Video ID
auto-assigning 110
editing from Inventory panel 35

T
Table application
working with graphics 135
Tablet application 124
connection basics 124
iPad 125
locking channel groups 130
override channel group locks 130
set up first connection 125
settings 126
shotboxes 131
shotboxes, types of 129
sidebar and view area 129
transport controls 131
unlocking channel groups 130
Tabs 29
Tally 50
Thumbnail column 59
Thumbnails
defined 63, 96
displaying in Media Viewer 39
Playlist Viewer options 54
Time codes, editing 41
Time of day icon 83
Time of day playlists 83
Toolbars
customing for tally 50
hiding 49
types of 47
Training services 8
Transport controls 131
Trigger column 59, 146
Troubleshooting 7

W
Workflow 11
Workstation alias 77

X
X-keys 147
autocursor feature 56
channel-specific actions 150

U
Undocking panels 25
Unloading playlists 112
Updating stories 121
183

Avid

Technical Support (USA)

Product Information

75 Network Drive
Burlington, MA 01803-2756 USA

Visit the Online Support Center at
www.avid.com/support

For company and product information,
visit us on the web at www.avid.com

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