Gears - BL Gears is an agent for Elector that reads the XPression xpf graphics package project file and populates the Elector database with scenes to be used to create playlists for broadcast in Flow. The Elector Player can output individual scenes from playlists, as well as the playlists themselves. See Display Graphics for the Player Gears reads the xpf file to get all available scenes to populate the database. The purpose is to allow scheduling of scenes into playlists and to make scenes available for one offs from the Player. After modifying the xpf, Gears should be run to update the available scenes in the database. To update the database, click the Update Scenes button. Scenes/Gears “When Gears runs on your scenes it will try to preserve the existing scenes in the database – this will ensure that if you have made playlists with these scenes you can make updates to the graphics in the scene while preserving the playlists you have setup with it. DO NOT RENAME YOUR SCENE if you wish for Gears to recognize it. Doing so will result in the deletion of the old scene and addition of a new one into Flow and it will be dropped from all your playlists.” details on outputting scenes and playlists. When the graphics package is ready in XPression, run Gears to update the available scenes in the Elector database. Those scenes will then be available in Flow to create playlists for broadcast. | Note |
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Note: Gears provides you with the ability to make changes to your graphics package and update the Elector database and Flow with those changes. When you create playlists of scenes in Flow, Gears updates those playlists with the latest scene data. However, Gears updates require all scene names to remain consistent between updates. If you rename any scenes in the graphics package, Gears deletes the old scene from the Elector database as well as Flow, and removes the deleted scene from all affected playlists. Gears then adds a new, renamed scene into the Elector database and Flow and you would need to add this new scene to every affected playlist manually. |
Gears is installed locally on the same system running XPression Studio as it uses an instance of the Ross XPression engine to run. Access GearsTo access the Gears agent, run it from its desktop icon on the XPression system.
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Note: The version of the Gears agent installed must match the version of XPression Studio installed. If your XPression installation is upgraded to a new version, you will need to upgrade your Gears agent as well. Contact Bannister Lake Support for assistance. |
Database ConnectionGears must be connected to your Elector database. Connection and user authentication values would have been correctly configured during the initial installation. Use caution when modifying these values. Contact Bannister Lake Support for assistance. - Run Gears to access the Elector Database Settings options. If Gears is already running, close it and reopen it.
Modify the database connection values and settings as needed. Click OK to save your changes.
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Run Gears UpdateWhen the XPression graphics package is complete, or when changes to the graphics package have been completed, use Gears to update the available scenes in the Elector database. | Note |
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Remember: Scenes added to playlists in Flow will be updated as long as the scene names have not changed. If you change scene names in XPression, that connection will be broken in the database as well as in Flow. |
Click the Update Scenes button to update the database and Flow. This process may take a few minutes to complete.  Image Added
When the process is complete, click OK.  Image Added
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