Hello World Ticker for XPression
Step by step instructions for how to generate a ‘ticker’ using Chameleon on the Ross Video, XPression graphic platform.
Prerequisites
Before you begin, make note that this help page is designed for broadcast graphic operators, possibly engineers, that have been trained on how to use XPression CG. Following this document without the required knowledge base could make it difficult to follow. The following prerequisites are required:
Access to Chameleon (Flow login through a web browser)
Ross Video, ‘XPression’ installed with prior training/knowledge
Chameleon’s publication tool ‘Gears for XPression’ installed (check to ensure you have the latest version from the link below)
Chameleon graphic output tool ‘Ticker Player for XPression’ installed (check to ensure you have the latest version from the link below)
XPression installs can be found by contacting your Ross Video representative. The components: Gears & Ticker Player must match the specific version/build of XPression you are using. Links below contain sub-folders which are labelled with the XPression matching building number. Download the versions that match your XPression version:
http://bannisterlake.com/dl/installs/Chameleon/_ticker/xpr/
http://bannisterlake.com/dl/installs/Chameleon/_gears/
Create XPression Project
XPression is a powerful broadcast graphic CG produced by Ross Video. This section assumes you have sufficient knowledge of this graphic tool and understand how to build graphic scenes with animations.
Training and instruction on how to create graphics and animations using XPression can be found on the Ross Video web site: https://www.rossvideo.com/knowledge-center/ross-university/ or contact your Ross representative for more options.
Due to the complexity involved in building scenes in XPression the sample scene used in this example has been made available for download and can be found here: http://bannisterlake.com/dl/installs/helloworld/HelloWorld_Ticker.zip
Chameleon performs 2 functions when using XPression scenes as templates: 1) Updating the Data and 2) playing the appropriate animation or ‘Scene Director’ using ‘Transition Logic’
Updating the Data:
Chameleon uses a naming convention to match different data to the appropriate graphic object within a scene. Below you can see the scene canvas with text and graphics on it. Objects which are to be updated with Chameleon data are all named with a ‘^' symbol as it’s prefix. The name that follows this prefix indicates the specific data being pulled from Chameleon.
For a complete list of naming conventions available in Chameleon see: Ticker Tags
Transition Logic:
Chameleon uses ‘Transition Logic’ rules built into a scene to know which ‘Scene Directors’ to play. For example is the graphic going on, off or updating? Using transition logic you can create many different combinations of conditions.
Here we are showing the In/Out Scene Directors used or defined for this Rule. The Update Scene Directors will be defined in the ‘Back to Back’ transition rule.
The name of the rule or scene director does not matter. The rules are executed whenever the conditions match. In other words In/Out and On/Off are not keywords, you could use “TickerON” if that is preferred.
Publish Graphics using Gears
Once you have your XPression scene completed it needs to be published to the Chameleon database. This step is what links your different scenes and objects to the different data types based on the naming convention described earlier.
Configure Gears settings:
Launch Gears and confirm you have the correct settings for your system.
Publish:
Gears is a multi-purpose publication tool for Chameleon. It is used for publishing Branding, Election as well as Ticker scenes to the Chameleon DB. Here we will focus on publishing Ticker components.
Once Gears has opened follow the outlined steps to: load, name and publish your project.
Gears will interpret each scene and based on the naming convention of the objects within a scene it will determine what data that scene is designed for (ie. scores, stories, weather, etc). In this example it has interpreted that our template is a story scene. The zone is what the scene name contains in parenthesizes ( ) which in this case is ‘Lower Zone’.
Gears will provide confirmation of a successful publication
Create Show in Flow
Now that a graphic template has been published we can assign that look to many shows. To create one we first need to log into Flow and from the ‘Ticker’ section select ‘Shows’
Click on “Add A New Show” and note that the button for this might not be obvious:
From the ‘Add New Show’ dialog enter the name of what you would like to call your show. Also, from the ‘Project’ drop down find and select the project that was published from Gears.
Now that a show is created we can add content to it for play out. This is done from the Rundown page which you can navigate to either from the sub menu or from the main dashboard:
From the Rundown page, select the show created and type in a name for your Rundown. You can have more than 1 Rundown per show and to create a new Rundown simply type in a new name in this field.
Once there is a Rundown associated with your Show it will expose the Zone drop down, where if you have multiple zones you can select which one you are adding content to. Available content is shown in the left column. To add available content to your Rundown, simply drag that item over to the right column labelled ‘Assigned’.
Chameleon Ticker Player
Once installed the Ticker Player should launch automatically when you start your system. The Player runs as a service so to access the interface you need to ‘Right Click’ on the Ticker icon in the Window task bar tray or notification area.
On the Ticker interface click on the ‘Flow’ tab which is located in the column along the left. Enter your Flow credentials here:
On the Ticker interface click on the ‘Settings’ tab to set the folder path where your ticker projects are stored. Note that this is the root folder where all ticker projects will be saved. Optionally you can check the ‘Server’ to start on launch as well as automatically put graphics online using the ‘Always Online’ option.
On the Ticker interface click on the ‘Server’ tab to start the server.
On the Ticker interface click on the ‘Player’ tab. Here you can select your show from the drop down. If your new show does not appear click on the ‘Refresh’ button shown below. Once you have selected your show you can click on the ‘Change Show’ button.
After clicking on the ‘Change Show’ button the player might need a moment to load your template but your selected show (once loaded) will appear in the ‘Now Playing’ section. Once loaded you can click on the ‘Online’ button.
Your ticker should now be online and producing graphics through XPression. The ‘Online’ button will change to now read ‘Offline’ and the top right indicator will change from green to red meaning currently 'On-Air’