Avid DekoCast 4.3 User guide

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Avid
®
DekoCast
Products
User’s Guide
2
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3
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Avid DekoCast Products User Guide • 0130-07809-01 Rev B • April 2010
Contents
Symbols and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
If You Need Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Accessing the Online Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
How to Order Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Avid Training Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Chapter 1 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Why Use DekoCast?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
DekoCast Products and Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
DekoCast Workflow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Controlling DekoCast On-Air Video Output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Starting and Closing DekoCast Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Switching Between Video Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Configuring Your DekoCast System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Basic Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
DekoCast Main Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Scene Tree. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Object Editors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Actions and the Timeline Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Performance Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Parameters Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Log Pane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Adjusting the DekoCast Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Online Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Understanding Files and File Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6
Setting Up Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Scene Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Supported File Formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Copying Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Viewing Information About Your DekoCast System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Quick Start: Fading a Graphic On and Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Creating a Scene. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Adding Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Adding Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Playing the Scene in DekoCast Central . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Using the Sample Scenes and Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Chapter 2 Working with Scenes and Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Scenes Pane and Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Creating a New Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Renaming and Saving a Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Opening an Existing Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Working with Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Adding Objects to the Scene Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Objects Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Renaming Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Working with the Scene Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Expanding or Collapsing a Branch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Deleting Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Inserting a Scene within a Scene Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
How Objects Are Composited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Understanding Grouped Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Rearranging Objects in the Scene Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Understanding Parent-Child Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Selecting Scenes for Output. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Multiple Scenes and Stacking Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Chapter 3 Editing Objects in the Scene. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Using an Object Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
7
Editing Video Out Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Setting Background Color and Opacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Selecting a Custom Background Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Editing Video In Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Selecting a Video Input Port. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Changing the Opacity of a Video Input Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Using the Target and Position Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Arranging Objects for Video Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Using Screen Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Using Thumbwheel Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Using the Target Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Defining a Target Rectangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Scaling an Object in Relation to Its Target Rectangle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Using The Position Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Changing an Object’s Position and Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Cropping an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Designing Your Layout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Guidelines for Using Target Rectangles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Suggestions for Preparing Your Layout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Transferring a Layout to a Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Example: Defining a Target Rectangle for Video In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Using the Levels and Mixer Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Using the Levels Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Using the Mixer Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Understanding Color Coding in the Levels and Mixing Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Working with Deko Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Adding a Deko Object to a Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Example: Deko Object with Ten Text Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Guidelines for Adding Deko Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Editing and Updating Deko Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Naming Layers in PostDeko Lite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Positioning and Sizing a Deko Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Adjusting Opacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
8
Working with Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Using the Text Override Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Using the Contents Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Using Text Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Displaying Crawls and Rolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Transition Options for Deko Object Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Looping Options for Deko Object Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Managing Text Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Using Embedded Tags with Deko Object Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Displaying Clocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Displaying a Time-of-Day Clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Displaying a Count-Up or Count-Down Timer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Deko Object Clock Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Displaying Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Playing Back Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Capturing Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Playing Back Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Understanding Clip Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Managing Clip Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Clip Playback File and Compression Formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Adding and Defining a Clip Playback Object. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Clip Playback Object Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Playing and Looping Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Transcoding SD Clips to MPEG-2 MXF I-Frame. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Suggested Workflow for Transcoding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Transcoding Clips Through the Transcode Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Transcoding By Dragging Clips to the Transcode Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Transcoding Clips By Using a Watch Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Transcoding Through a Default Watch Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Transcoding Through a Custom Watch Folder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Transcoding Clips When a Scene Opens. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Capturing Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Setting Up Clip Capture (Corsica Systems) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
9
Setting Up Clip Capture (TARGA Systems). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Capturing a Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Creating Cel Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Rules for Creating Cel Animations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Defining the Source File for a Cel Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Controlling Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Controlling Playback Behavior Within the Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Controlling Cel Animation Playback Through Commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Controlling Cel Animation Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Displaying Individual Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Using Group Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Adding a Group Object. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Setting the Opacity and Softness for a Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Setting the Compositing Style for a Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Capturing Video Images (Frame Grab). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Working with VBI Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
How VBI Objects Work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Data Types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Field Identifier Strings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Creating Crawls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Creating Crawl Text Using the Crawl Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Creating a Roll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Controlling the Crawl Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Changing Crawl Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Using a Text File for a Crawl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Controlling the Crawl Text Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Changing the Appearance of Crawl Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Setting the Crawl Object Rectangle and Position. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Adding Non-Text Objects to Crawl Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Adding Non-Text Objects as Linked Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Controlling the Position of Non-Text Objects in a Crawl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Deleting and Replacing Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Example: Inserting Objects into a Crawl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
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Example: Applying a Parameter Value to an Inserted Object . . . . . . . . . 212
Using an Inserted Object to Trigger an Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Inserting Objects by Using Crawl Object Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Adding Non-Text Objects as Custom Typefaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Adding Plug-in Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Working with Charts and Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Accessing the Chart Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Basic Procedure for Creating Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Creating a Series. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Configuring Chart Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
(Optional) Assigning Interactivity for the Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Assigning Data to a Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Working with Advanced Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Using Series Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Setting the Series Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Setting the Series Data Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Setting the Series Data Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Setting the Series Legend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Setting the Series Markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Modifying the Series List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Using Axes Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Setting the Axes Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Setting the Axes ConstLines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
Setting the Axes Gridlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Setting the Axes Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Setting the Axes Paging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Setting the Axes Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Setting the Axes Stripes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Setting the Axes Ticks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Setting the Axes Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Using Background Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Setting the Background Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Setting the Basic Frame Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
11
Setting the Image Frame Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Using Labels Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
Setting the Label Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
Setting the Label Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Setting the Label Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Creating the Label List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Using Legend Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Setting the Legend Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Setting the Legend Layout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Setting the Legend Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Setting the Legend Position. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Setting the Legend Titles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Using Walls Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Setting the Wall Appearance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Setting the Wall Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Using Watermarks Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Setting the Watermark Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Setting the Basic Frame Watermarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Setting the Watermark Position. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Creating the Watermark List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
Using Lighting Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Setting the Lighting Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Setting the Lighting Attenuation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Setting the Lighting Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Setting the Lighting Direction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Setting the Lighting Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Creating the Lighting Source List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Using View Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Setting the Global Setup View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
Setting the View Margins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
Setting the View Projection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Setting the View Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Setting the Text Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
12
Template Configuration Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Configuring Your Templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Chapter 5 Adding Actions to a Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Understanding Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Using the Timeline Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Creating Actions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Adding an Action to the Action List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Working in Animate Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Adding Action Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Adding Parameters from the Parameters Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Understanding Keyframes and the Timeline Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Adjusting Timing in the Timeline Bar Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Creating Trigger Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Creating Actions Over Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Creating Actions with Defined Beginning and Ending Parameters. . . . . . 312
Creating Time Capture Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Adding a Capture Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Preserving Passive Parameters for Scenes with Multiple Actions . . . . . . . . . 316
Reordering Parameters in the List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Playing Actions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Editing Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Copying and Pasting Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Copying and Pasting Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Detaching and Attaching Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Replacing One Parameter with Another . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Editing Curves and Keyframes in the Timeline Graph. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Editing the Motion Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Selecting a Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Adding or Deleting a Keyframe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Adjusting the Timing or Value of a Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Editing the Value of a Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Creating Actions Check List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Creating Sample Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
13
Example 1: Squeeze and Tease . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Example 2: Unsqueeze . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Example 3: Crossfade (Dissolve). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Example 4: Lower-Third Reveal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Chapter 6 Working with Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Using the Parameters Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Searching for a Parameter Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Editing a Parameter Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Creating User Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Creating an Action that Triggers Another Action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Replacing a Parameter with Results of a Database Query. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Chapter 7 Using DekoCast Central . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Understanding DekoCast Central . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Working with DekoCast Central . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Configuring DekoCast Central for Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Configuring Data Streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Configuring GPIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Configuring Local GPIs (Local RS-232 COM Port) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Configuring External GPIs (RS-232 GPI Box). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Logging DekoCast Central Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Automation Control Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Viewing DekoCast Central Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Using the Asset Viewer Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Viewing Automation Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Ports for Automation Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Triple i Command Formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
The M Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
The W Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
The Y Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Using Command Queues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Defining House IDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Playing Multiple Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
House ID Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
14
Overriding Object Parameter Values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Working with the Playback Controller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
Playing Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Copying Today’s Playlist to Tomorrow’s List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
Working with the Graphical User Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378
Setting the Size of Action Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Setting Up Scenes in the GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Working with Actions in the GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Prestarting, Starting, and Exiting Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Changing a Deko Object’s Text Value. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
DekoCast Central Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
Using the Sequencer Control Utility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
Using the Deko Page Recall Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Using the Temperature Probe Interface Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Configuring the DGH Temperature Probe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Configuring the Sensatronics Temperature Probe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Using the Aut File Sequencer Utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Using the Emergency Alert System Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Creating an EAS Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Starting and Configuring the EAS Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
Chapter 8 Using Sequence to Play Back Actions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Starting Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Creating a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Editing Sequence Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Editing a Sequence List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Deleting and Replacing Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Copying and Pasting Sequence Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Changing an Action’s Timing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Controlling Playback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Editing Action Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Using the Sequence Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
Appendix A Configuring DekoCast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Opening the Preferences Dialog Box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
15
Video Hardware Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Video Format Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Video Standard and Aspect Ratio Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
Dolby-E Passthrough Option. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
Encode/Decode Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
Hardware Configuration Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Video Output Configuration Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Audio Output Configuration Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
VBI Source and Extra Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
Horizontal Delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Video Input Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Audio Source Configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
Shape Input and Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
XML Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
Application Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
Output Frame Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
Transcode and Scene Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
Appendix B DekoCast Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
16
Using This Guide
Congratulations on your purchase of the Avid
®
DekoCast
application. Avid DekoCast
provides broadcasters with a wide range of on-air edge applications including channel
branding, in-program promotions and advertising, sophisticated credit sequences, and
weather and other data-driven alerts. The Avid DekoCast family consists of the Avid
DekoCast and Avid DekoCast Authoring Station systems, which are available as either
standard definition (SD), high definition (HD), or hybrid (SD/HD) models.The following
applications are included with all DekoCast and DekoCast Authoring systems: Avid
DekoCast, Avid PostDeko Lite, Avid Sequence, and Avid DekoCast Central.
This guide provides task-oriented instructions, conceptual information, and reference
material for using the features of the DekoCast family of products. This guide is intended for
all DekoCast users who develop, manage, and control edge applications in a broadcast
environment. The audience includes artists who create edge graphics, operators who control
video output, and video engineers who configure the DekoCast system.
The DekoCast products are installed and run on the Microsoft
®
Windows
®
XP operation
system. This guide assumes that you have a basic working knowledge of Windows XP.
n
This documentation describes the features and hardware of all models. Therefore, your
system might not contain certain features and hardware covered in the documentation.
n
If you are reading a black-and-white hardcopy printout of this document, you will find it
useful to view the color images in the online PDF version of this document, which is
available in the Online Library for your application.
18
Symbols and Conventions
Avid documentation uses the following symbols and conventions:
Symbol or Convention Meaning or Action
n
A note provides important related information,
reminders, recommendations, and strong suggestions.
c
A caution means that a specific action you take could
cause harm to your computer or cause you to lose data.
> This symbol indicates menu commands (and
subcommands) in the order you select them. For
example, File > Import means to open the File menu
and then select the Import command.
t
This symbol indicates a single-step procedure.
Multiple arrows in a list indicate that you perform one
of the actions listed.
Italic font Italic font is used to emphasize certain words and to
indicate variables.
Courier Bold font
Courier Bold font identifies text that you type.
Ctrl+key or mouse action Press and hold the first key while you press the last
key or perform the mouse action, for example,
Ctrl+drag.
If You Need Help
19
If You Need Help
If you are having trouble using Avid DekoCast:
1. Retry the action, carefully following the instructions given for that task in this guide. It
is especially important to check each step of your workflow.
2. Check for the latest information that might have become available after the
documentation was published.
- A ReadMe file is supplied on your Avid application CD as a PDF document
(ReadMe.pdf).
- The latest version is available online on the Avid Knowledge Base. To view the
online version, select ReadMe from the Help menu or visit the Knowledge Base at
www.avid.com/readme
c
You should always check online for the most up-to-date release notes or ReadMe
because the online version is updated whenever new information becomes available.
3. Check the documentation that came with your Avid application or your hardware for
maintenance or hardware-related issues.
4. Visit the online Knowledge Base at www.avid.com/onlinesupport. Online services are
available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Search this online Knowledge Base to find
answers, to view error messages, to access troubleshooting tips, to download updates,
and to read or join online message-board discussions.
Accessing the Online Library
The Avid DekoCast Online Library CD-ROM contains all the product documentation in
PDF format.
n
You need Adobe
®
Reader
®
to view the documentation online. You can download the latest
version from the Adobe web site www.adobe.com.
To access the online library from the Online Library CD-ROM:
1. Insert the Online Library CD-ROM into the drive.
2. If the opening screen of the library does not open automatically, double-click the
appropriate CD drive letter. If necessary, double-click the Mainmenu file.
20
How to Order Documentation
To order additional copies of this documentation from within the United States, call Avid
Sales at 800-949-AVID (800-949-2843). If you are placing an order from outside the United
States, contact your local Avid representative.
Avid Training Services
Avid makes lifelong learning, career advancement, and personal development easy and
convenient. Avid understands that the knowledge you need to differentiate yourself is always
changing, and Avid continually updates course content and offers new training delivery
methods that accommodate your pressured and competitive work environment.
To learn about Avid's new online learning environment, Avid Learning Excellerator
(ALEX), visit http://learn.avid.com.
For information on courses/schedules, training centers, certifications, courseware, and
books, please visit www.avid.com/training or call Avid Sales at 800-949-AVID
(800-949-2843).
/