Production Automation on the PRIME Live Platform

With the premiere of the PRIME Live Platform just two months ago, PRIME evolved into a single engine that provides an array of software-based modules to fulfill nearly your entire production workflow. You can drive production switching, real-time graphics, clip playout, branding, and much more from a hardware-independent platform that’s deployable on-prem, in the cloud, or on a virtualized machine. Now with the latest 4.1 version release, you can orchestrate virtually all PRIME Live Platform production modules from a single automation interface.

PRIME Commander is a new production automation layer that assumes control of PRIME Live Platform modules and other third-party devices in your workflow to execute your broadcasts precisely according to your Newsroom Computer System (NRCS) rundowns.

In today’s blog article, we’ll examine the automation capability of PRIME Commander, how it plugs into your MOS newsroom workflow and the advantage of creating an automated studio completely within the PRIME Live Platform.

An Automated Studio on a Single Platform

Automated production control pays big dividends for broadcasters. You can improve the quality of your content with beautiful, finely-timed sequences that are free of mistakes. You can increase the amount of live content you can offer your audience without a one-to-one increase in staff. And crucially, you can create streamlined, low-staff operations that generate higher revenues. What’s exciting about automation on the PRIME Live Platform is you can supercharge that ROI with a software-based, single-engine workflow that does away with rigid equipment demands and complex backends. Within the PRIME Live Platform, you can:

• Create a professional-grade control room with a 2ME production switcher, multiple channels of real-time graphics, clip servers, and audio mixer.
• Deliver up-to-the-minute branding elements such as headlines, sports scores, school closings, weather reports, financial data, social media, and automated promos
• Enhance on-set production value with augmented reality and video wall elements
• Automate all of the above elements with PRIME Commander

Next, we’ll examine how PRIME Commander controls these elements during your show.

[READ: The Future of Software-Based Production]

Command the PRIME Live Platform

When it’s time to go live, PRIME Commander controls the core of your production with switcher ME control of sources, cuts, and transitions – as well as load, cue, and playout commands of graphics and clips. Because the augmented reality, video wall, and branding modules share a common PRIME Live Platform foundation with the PRIME CG – PRIME Commander can recall and trigger these elements just like any other graphic during your production. Whether it’s loading up a new video wall scene for your next show or generating an augmented reality element for analysis, it’s easy to include in the PRIME Commander playlist.

One Interface for Your 24-Hour News Cycle

While PRIME Commander makes controlling broadcasts a hands-free affair, the interface makes it easy for a production automation director to monitor and manage the rundown. Running orders from your NRCS translate directly into an easy-to-read playlist sequence that includes events, scene contents, timing and duration, associated devices, and color-coded playout status. Because PRIME Commander is part of Chyron’s MOS ecosystem, working in tandem with the CAMIO media asset management and rendering system, you can get mouse-over media previews of graphics and media that are identical to what you see in the NRCS from the CAMIO interface.

For a truly hands-off experience, you can pre-program automatic load and play time-of-day sequences within PRIME Commander, which is great for driving a 24/7 news wheel. However, some shows still require a human director’s sense of timing, which is why manual sequence controls for Play, Pause, Stop, Skip Back / Next, Reset, and End Sequence are available in the interface.

Part of Chyron’s MOS Newsroom Workflows

As mentioned earlier, PRIME Commander is a new, tightly integrated addition to Chyron’s robust MOS workflows. To ensure graphics and clips are in the right channel at the right time, PRIME Commander works in tandem with our CAMIO media asset management system. Secure content and device validation between the two systems will alert you in the rare instance that a file isn’t where it needs to be or if a channel is unavailable.

For NewsTicker users, PRIME Commander leverages NewsTicker’s NAIL protocols to control ticker run levels, fire custom scripts on your Newsticker devices, and specify sponsorship and promotional elements for playout.

[READ: PRIME Live Platform for News]

Essential Third-Party Device Control

The PRIME Live Platform offers a lot of what you need to create an automated studio, but you may have some existing gear you’d like to leverage. PRIME Commander leverages industry-standard control protocols to drive your wider-circle production ecosystem, including:

• Management of additional signals and I/O with external router control
• Playout on external media servers via VDCP
• Initiation of simple commands on other external devices via GPI signals

And of course, all of these third-party commands are observable as part of the playlist interface.

Untether Automation from the Traditional Control Room

While much of this article covers the new features and functionality of PRIME Commander, the architecture of the PRIME Live Platform it lives on multiples the value of production automation tenfold. PRIME Live Platform is a hardware-independent engine, that allows for environment-agnostic deployment. There are plenty of flexible automated workflow opportunities at your disposal:

• Build out a broadcast-grade automated studio entirely in the cloud.
• Drive local productions with a small PRIME Live Platform flypack, with Commander pulling remote NRCS running orders to direct the show.
• Monitor sequence progress with an automation director at home, remotely accessing your cloud-hosted PRIME Live Platform via the Commander interface.

Another pillar of the PRIME Live Platform is its signal flexibility, supporting the gamut of video standards and formats you need to address today’s OTA, OTT, and streaming content. With such a dynamic architecture and a highly accessible automation price point, the PRIME Live Platform is perfect for bringing the power of automation to non-traditional OTT and streaming channels – where automation is usually cap-ex prohibitive.

[READ: Key Considerations for Live Production in the Cloud]

The Power of Software-Based Production Automation

With the introduction of PRIME Commander, the PRIME Live Platform makes it easy to realize the power of an automated studio within a smaller footprint than ever before. Be sure to subscribe to the blog because next week’s article will cover PRIME 4.1’s new audio mixer features – and more in-depth automation workflows coming after that!

If you have any questions about production automation on the PRIME Live Platform – get in touch with our team! We’re always happy to help.