Overview

Sponsors are images found in the XPression project that are enabled to be scheduled and associated with groups of commodities such grains and livestock. The finance app will read the schedule and automatically display a matching sponsor when a commodity chart or quote table is displayed on air.

Sponsor Category Naming

The name of the sponsor categories is the chain that links all the pieces together. The name of the sponsor categories must be used for:

1. Image sub-folder names

2. XPression scene name and quad names

3. Category symbol lists

There are more details about each of these pieces in the sections that follow.

Software Requirements

The process involves multiple pieces of coordinated software packages working together.

1. XPression

   1. the main XPression project file used by the finance app with sponsor images

   2. a second XPression project file can be used to create Asset templates

2. Flow for Chameleon and supporting apps

   1. Gears for XPression

   2. Logos Updater (optional)

3. RFD-TV Finance Client and XPression Control apps

Sponsor Image Requirements

1. They are stored in a sub-folder of the XPression project folder “Images\SOURCE”

   1. Each sponsor category must place its sponsor images in folder of the same name

      1. Example: put all Grains sponsor images into “Images\SOURCE\Grains

2. They are of type PNG

3. Ideal dimensions are:  500 x 250

Examples:

D:\RFDTV\Images\Source\Grains
D:\RFDTV\Images\Source\Livestock
D:\RFDTV\Images\Source\Other

Adding New Sponsors

The list of available sponsor logos needs to be imported into the Chameleon system. This enables a Flow user to select the sponsor from a drop down list of available sponsors specific to the sponsor category.

Manually using Gears

This can be done manually using the Gears for XPression app. You would need to run the update in Gears each time you added or removed sponsors from the folders.

Automatically using Logos Updater

You can use the Logos Updater app to monitor a folder with the sponsor logos. Then when there are changes detected it will automatically update the Chameleon system with the available logos.

The Logos Updater needs to be configured with the info to connect to the Chameleon system and the path to the folder it’ll monitor.

Open

Open

The app uses a Flow login to connect to retrieve the list of available content groups.

Sponsor XPression Project

To enable the scheduling of the sponsor assets the first step is to push templates into the Chameleon database. To do this create a XPression project file that contains:

• 1 scene per sponsor category

  • its name must be the name of the corresponding category

    • Example: Grains

• 1 quad per scene

  • its name must be the name of the corresponding category prefixed with a ^ symbol

    • Example: ^Grains

Example in XPression branding project file:

Templates are pushed into the Chameleon database via the Gears app and then can be seen like this:

Sample XPression project file:

Open

Flow for Chameleon

The sponsor schedule will be defined using the Asset Scheduler in Flow. To achieve this you will need to:

1. Create a channel for the Finance App Sponsors

2. Create client and associated campaigns to assign to your scheduled sponsor assets.

3. Use Gears for XPression app to make sponsor templates and logo lists available in Flow for scheduling.

4. Create assets using the published sponsor templates.

   1. Be sure to create them as bugs

5. Schedule the sponsor assets.

Schedule Sponsor Assets

The sponsors will be scheduled in Flow via the Asset Scheduling module. This module enables you to add your sponsor groups using a variety of scheduling options. You can define more than one sponsor category for a single time slot. You can schedule both grain and livestock sponsors for the morning slot and then the Finance app will choose and display the correct sponsor based on the the commodity it is showing data for.

Sponsors Should Not Overlap

When scheduling your sponsors you want each group to have non-overlapping sponsors. You don’t want to have sponsors that overlap for the same category. The Grains category should only have one sponsor in the schedule at a time. The Livestock category should also only have one sponsor in the schedule at a time. This will help to ensure that the expected sponsor displays.

Recurring Sponsors

You can create one-time entries or recurring entries that repeat. To add a recurring sponsor category you click on the Recurrence checkbox to open the recurrence editor. From there you can define how often it recurs and when it ends.

The recurrence options include:

• Hourly

• Daily

• Weekly

• Monthly

• Yearly

Be sure to explore what each option offers you by clicking on the option and seeing how it’s available parameters change.

View As Run Reports

You can view the as run data generated by the Finance app via the As Run reports in Flow. The report includes:

• Channel

• Reconcile Key

• House ID / Name

• Campaign

• Start Time

• End Time

The report can also be exported via the Chameleon BLADE module in JSON, XML, and CSV formats.

Reports can be filtered by channel, campaign date and more.

Users in Sales, Traffic, Producer, Super Producer and System Admin groups ave access to the As Run reports.

Finance Client App

The client app:

• defines which commodities apply to each sponsor category (grains, livestock, etc)

• reads the sponsor (asset) schedule from the Chameleon database

• writes as-run records into the Chameleon database

Define Sponsor Categories

You need to define which commodities apply to each sponsor category.

Edit a Category

Select a category from the list and then click the Edit button to open the list of symbols. Note that root symbols are used in this list.

Add A Symbol

1. Type the root symbol into the text box between the name box and the Add button.

2. Press the Add button or click the Enter key. If the root symbol is valid it will be added to the list.

Remove a Symbol

Right-click on a symbol and select Remove OR select a symbol row and then press the Delete button.

Add a New Sponsor Category

You can add a new category by pressing the New button beside the Edit button in the Sponsor Category section. This will open a new empty list to which you add the name and list of root symbols that apply.

When done editing click the Save button.

Remove a Sponsor Category

1. Select the category from the Sponsor Category list.

2. Press the Edit button.

3. In the sponsor category list window press the Delete button at the bottom of the window.

4. Confirm you want to delete the category.

Copying the Entire Sponsor Categories File

If you want to copy the sponsor categories you have a couple of options.

The categories are saved locally in an XML file on the client machine so you could view/copy this file directly.
C:\ProgramData\Bannister Lake\RFD-TV Finance Client\SponsorCategories.xml

There is also a feature in the client app that allows you to copy the data to and from the XPression machine. You could use this feature to push the category data onto the XPression machine after confirming the lists are correct. Then a backup copy of the client app could pull that data from the XPression machine. This feature is available in the Sponsor menu - Save Sponsor Categories to Server and Get Sponsor Categories from Server.

Setup Connection to Chameleon Database

The client app will need to be configured to connect to the Chameleon database to read the Sponsor (Asset) schedule and write as-run records. To do this there is a configuration window accessible from the File menu - Flow for Chameleon Connection …

You will need to provide valid user and password credentials to allow the app to connect, retrieve necessary database connection details and access a list of available channels. The flow user you login with here must have access to the Content Group of the scheduling Channel you want to use.

1. Confirm or provide the correct Flow URL

2. Enter Flow user login name and password

3. Press the Get Database Info… button

4. Select the channel from the drop down list near the bottom of the window.

5. Click the Save Settings button

Note the Flow user password is not saved by the app.

Optional: The User ID and Password option for the MySQL database can be set manually if the default settings are incorrect for your configuration.

Enable Sponsor Schedule

After a connection is established a final step is to enable the use of the Sponsor Schedule. In the Sponsor menu enable/check the Sponsor Schedule Enabled option. It is on when it shows a check mark beside it.

Active Sponsors

The Finance client app displays the active sponsor images in a section called Assigned Category Sponsors. When a category has a scheduled sponsor the name of the logo will be displayed while it’s active.