The BL Elector Player is a utility for Ross Video’s XPression graphic platform that outputs graphics using database elements and the XPression API. The Elector Player is installed locally on the same system running XPression Studio as it uses an instance of the Ross XPression engine to run.
The Elector player outputs all broadcast graphics, reads election data and playlists from the Elector database, and outputs individual scenes or playlists of ordered scenes that have been designed in Flow.
Access Elector Player
To access the Elector Player, run it from its desktop icon on the XPression system.
Database Connection
You need to connect the Elector Player 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.
To modify the database connection values, select File > Preferences.
Modify the database connection values and settings as needed.
Click OK to save your changes.
Additional Player Preferences
On the Preferences dialog, you can also configure the following global output settings. Configure these settings as needed and press OK to save your changes.
Enable or disable the player to group non-main parties as OTHER
Enable the player to fade or animate on hiding output
Enable the player or fade or animate off
Configure the Elector Player
Tab Setup
most of what the UI can offer is configured in one spot
pl tabs can be custom-named
Multiple Playlist Tabs
You can configure the Elector Player with up to four (4) playlist tabs using the File > Tabs Setup option.
Multiple playlist tabs allow you to set up a number of ready-to-use playlists and individual scenes for broadcast. For example, you may want one playlist tab to include only overview graphs, one for a specific region's playlist of ridings, and one playlist tab for a specific riding, where the forth playlist tab could be a catch-all where the operator will choose a playlist on the fly during broadcast.
In addition to being able to custom-name your playlist tabs, you can switch between those playlist tabs quickly using the mouse or keyboard. Each tab is assigned a shortcut key for easy access. Hover over each tab to see its assigned shortcut key.
On each playlist tab, you can configure the following independent options:
Option | Details |
|---|---|
Auto-refresh Playlists every x seconds | Specifies how often the playlist automatically refreshes, in seconds.
|
Hide Thumbnail/Info Tabs | Select this option to hide the Thumbnail and Info tabs. Clear this option to display the Thumbnail and Info tabs.
|
Play every x seconds | Specifies how often the playlist displays each scene in seconds.
|
Loop to first item at end | Select this option to configure the player to loop the output the scenes in the playlist. Clear this option to configure the player to stop output when it reaches the last scene in the playlist.
|
Name Keys Tab
optional tab if shown
Tickers Tab
optional tab if shown
groups optional as well
Fullframe Scenes Tab
optional tab if shown
boxes group optional as well
Election Results Dates
Hardware Setup
Display Graphics With Elector Player
Output Basics
Take
Clear
Show Preview
Refresh Scene Data
Clear All Output
The Elector Player provides three (3) ways to display graphics:
Show an individual Scene
Show a Playlist
Show a Party Totals Scene
Show an Individual Scene
All available scenes in the XPression project file are available when you want to show an individual scene.
Select scenes to show by clicking on individual scenes in the list or by using the Top, Back, Next, and Bottom buttons.
Select a scene to show and click Take (or press the CTRL + keys)
To clear the output, click Clear (or press the CTRL - keys)
Show a Playlist
select a playlist tab
select a playlist ID
For playlists and individual scenes, only one scene can be shown at a time.
update playlists (data?)
Show a Party Totals Scene
the Party Totals can be shown independent of any scene currently displaying.
To easily and quickly hide all graphics from the Player, a Clear Output button is provided. This clears individual Scenes/Playlists and the Party Totals scene simultaneously.
While displaying a scene from a Playlist, if the operator shows an individual Scene, it will hide the current Playlist scene. If an individual Scene is displaying and a Playlist is shown, the individual scene will be hidden.
To display an individual Scene, use the ‘Scenes’ tab.
To display a Playlist, use the ‘Playlists’ tab.
Only Party scenes are available when showing Party Totals. To display the Party Totals, use the Party Totals tab.
To show Breaking News or Name Keys, use the ‘Breaking News & Name Keys’ tab.
Show XPression GUI
Headshots Cache
Logs
In this section: