Paul Curtis's dashboard

Paul Curtis shared an idea in Tightrope Media Systems on November 03, 2009 13:45:

Additional Web Services: Create Shows, Force Matrix

There are many applications already in use at various stations that could be better integrated with Cablecast if some additional functions were available through the web service. For example, production work flow would benefit from the ability to create a show entry or update a show entry. Other equipment or applications would benefit from the ability to access the control module via Auto Pilot Force Matrix.

Given that these functions are restricted, the web service would also have to provide a mechanism to authenticate users. The web service would allow only those users who can perform these functions through the normal interface to perform them using the web service.

Here's a wish list of web service functions:

Authenticate(....) [user and password, get back some sort of session ID]
CreateShow(.....) [provide title, etc., and get back a Show ID]
UpdateShow(....) [update run time, etc.]
ReadMatrix(....) [to allow you to examine the status]
ForceMatrix(....) [to change a specific channel]

I'm sure others will chime with more suggestions ... I would program these, but I have zero experience with ASP programming.

Paul Curtis replied on November 03, 2009 13:27 to the problem "Live Video Feed getting stuck" in Tightrope Media Systems:

For RTSP feeds .... perhaps a forced time out? For example, if a live stream is included in a bulleting, force the bulletin to end after ten (or 15 or 20) seconds.

Paul Curtis started following the problem "Live Video Feed getting stuck" in Tightrope Media Systems.

Paul Curtis replied on August 27, 2009 12:18 to the idea "Advanced Search Enhancement" in Tightrope Media Systems:

I agree that most of what I'm looking for is available through the user interface, however, not all of it is available through the web service.

Here are examples of the kind of search we're looking for ....

Show me all the shows by producer Y with upcoming air times.
Show me all the programs with upcoming air times in project X.

The problem is we can't isolate the search to programs that will be airing in the near future.

Paul Curtis started following the idea "Custom Cable Display Bulletins for Individual Programs" in Tightrope Media Systems.

Paul Curtis started following the idea "Direct Upload of Video File during Bulletin Creation" in Tightrope Media Systems.

Paul Curtis started following the idea "Scheduling Carousel Bulletins as Cablecast Shows" in Tightrope Media Systems.

Paul Curtis started following the problem "Bumping (length of interstitial) after CG Exempt programs" in Tightrope Media Systems.

Paul Curtis shared an idea in Tightrope Media Systems on August 12, 2009 20:11:

Advanced Search Enhancement

It would be extremely powerful to allow the “Advanced Search” to actually search fields other than the “CG Title”. Having only the event date and the “Title” field doesn't allow the search to be restricted by, for example, air date or format disposition.

Paul Curtis replied on August 11, 2009 18:49 to the idea "Biblographic Show Info Defaults" in Tightrope Media Systems:

“sprucing up in terms of series/episodic programming” ... a couple of ideas ...

Assigning a single show ID to a series (weekly, let's say) keeps the scheduling easier and the searches quicker and faster, but at the cost of losing exactly how long/how many times each episode ran.

Individual show IDs keeps all the pertinent data, but when searching for “Episode Name” the user would get many, many results ... most of which are no longer applicable.

A combination of utilizing projects for episodic programs with the ability to better control searches and search results would be helpful. Perhaps all this along with using the disposition would make it all work together.

Think of monthly city council meetings ....

The project is City Council Meetings. There are N episodes. Some are actively being aired (within 90 days or something). Search for City Council and you get the City Council project with the “active” (perhaps based on disposition) episodes. Change the project information, you change the all the NEW episodes created.

I would love a bulk update mechanism, but that's for another thread.

Paul Curtis started following the idea "Biblographic Show Info Defaults" in Tightrope Media Systems.

Paul Curtis shared an idea in Tightrope Media Systems on August 07, 2009 15:47:

Restrict Schedule Changes?

Is there a way to restrict schedule changes in Cablecast after a certain date or time? For example, if the schedule for the following week is published, can that schedule be “locked in” so that only an Admin (or someone with sufficient access rights) could make a change? Any ideas for a work around?

Paul Curtis replied on April 07, 2009 20:53 to the question "Displaying Upcoming Events from iCal" in Tightrope Media Systems:

OK ... I have set the number of days properly. Now the second part of the question is: How can I avoid having a new bulletin for each day? Right now, three meetings are scheduled on three days in the future ... this produces three bulletins.

Paul Curtis asked a question in Tightrope Media Systems on April 07, 2009 13:10:

Displaying Upcoming Events from iCal

We have several iCal feeds that have event information. Rather than having a bulletin that says "No Events Scheduled for Today", is it possible to display the next two or three events that will occur? Think of meetings that are scheduled several weeks in advance ... we would like to have a bulletin that shows the next two or three meetings from the iCal feed, whether or not they are occurring today.

It would also be useful to have a mapping of iCal fields to Carousel fields. There are several items here in the forum that describe the various fields, but no single source for this information.

A comment on the question "Final Cut export settings for Cablecast compatibility" in Tightrope Media Systems:

I forgot one thing .... you should check to make sure your version of Cablecast will do this. We operated on Cablecast 4.7.x using QuickTime for more than 18 months. – Paul Curtis, on April 02, 2009 14:24

Paul Curtis started following the idea "Suggested Interface Modifications" in Tightrope Media Systems.

Paul Curtis replied on April 02, 2009 14:21 to the question "Final Cut export settings for Cablecast compatibility" in Tightrope Media Systems:

As Cablecast will directly play QuickTime encoded movies, we do not really do much from Final Cut. Currently we are exporting our timelines using "QuickTime Conversion", format "QuickTime Movie', using the "LAN/Intranet" use setting. The only caveat is to make sure you set the video size (click the "Options" button) to NTSC 720x480 4:3.

This produces very good quality H.264/AAC QuickTime movies at about 600MB per hour.

Paul Curtis started following the problem "SSL on CableCast" in Tightrope Media Systems.

Paul Curtis replied on March 18, 2009 23:57 to the question "No audio for H.264 files" in Tightrope Media Systems:

We uninstalled QuickTime 7.6, and then installed QuickTime 7.5.5. Use the Add/Remove Programs in the Windows XP control panel to remove the newer version of QuickTime.

Paul Curtis started following the question "No audio for H.264 files" in Tightrope Media Systems.