Playlist Items

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Cinegy Studio can manage items grouped into three categories based on the type of devices used to bring them on-air:

Video – media files in formats supported by Cinegy Air, Cinegy Archive clips, and Sequences, as well as special items like live feeds or placeholder (dummy) items.
Graphics – Cinegy Title templates and images in formats supported by Cinegy Air.
Text – text files in supported formats controlled by the Prompter device.

MCRitem

The MCRitem is the XML file that defines a separate playback element in the playlist with the set of metadata that describes the given item. It can represent a simple clip or a comprehensive Sequence with effects, pictures, and voice-overs inside. The MCRitem also includes descriptive metadata (name, description, comment) and the data, defining the processing and display of the given item.

This allows you to use a prepared Sequence in the local playlist of Cinegy Studio without rendering the media file. The rendering will be performed on the fly.

To create an MCRitem in Cinegy Desktop, follow the steps:

Select the desired Sequence, Cinegy Title template, or clip from the Roll/ClipBin and choose the "Send to inventory…" command from the context menu:
The common "Save as" dialog box appears. Navigate to your dedicated inventory folder and enter a file name into the text field.
Press the "Save" button to create the ".MCRitem" file with the name you specified.

Use Inventory Browser in the inventory browser mode to add *.MCRitem(s) to a Cinegy Studio local playlist. Alternatively, you can simply drag and drop it from the folder where it is stored.

Important

See the Inventory Browser article for details on using Inventory Browser to compose playlists.

Live Item

A Live item is an object that refers to the live broadcast signal. In other words, it represents the content that is being streamed live as opposed to pre-recorded.

Signal for a live item can be received from an input device configured via the Cinegy Playout configurator, or it can link to an RTP/UDP/SRT stream.

add_live_item

Press the "+Live" button on the item editor panel to add a live item after the currently selected item.

A live item is marked with the video camera icon in the playlist grid:

By default, the live item duration is 2 minutes, but you can change the default duration in the "Preferences" dialog. The duration of the currently selected live item can be changed in the "Duration" field on the Item Editor panel. The duration of an item cannot be less than 0.5 seconds. For live items, the In point is always set to 00:00:00:00.

Changing the parameters of the live item is not possible when it is on air.

RTP/UDP/SRT Source Selection

There are two ways to define the source URL for a live item: either by using Cinegy Route Browser or through the "Item parameters" dialog box.

If Cinegy Route Browser is installed on the computer running Cinegy Studio, you can drag and drop a physical source or virtual destination from Cinegy Route Browser directly into the playlist. This action will create a new live item with the corresponding URL.

Tip	You can update the link of the existing live item using Cinegy Route Browser by dragging and dropping the physical source or virtual destination onto the live item entry while holding the `Ctrl` key down.

You can edit the source for the currently selected live item in the "Item parameters" dialog. This dialog is accessed through the "Parameters" command in the "Item" main menu or via the context menu of the live item.

Check the "RTP/UDP Live Source" option to use the IP signal as the live feed for a live item playout and define the RTP, UDP, or SRT URL for the live input stream. If Cinegy Route Browser is installed on the computer running Cinegy Studio, you can do this by simply dragging and dropping the source URL or virtual destination from the Cinegy Route Browser into the "URL" field.

Another way is to press the "Browse" button and select a video stream registered on the specified server by Cinegy Route Directory Service using the integrated Source Browser that appears. Cinegy Route Directory Service can be installed on any dedicated PC and can be used by all playout stations.

Select the required video stream and press "OK". It will be automatically converted to RTP/UDP/SRT URL.

Alternatively, you can enter the URL address using the keyboard.

Selecting an Input Device as a Source

The input device providing the source signal for a live item is specified in the "Input number" field of the "Item parameters" dialog box. Here you can specify the number of the input device. The input number values start from 0; specifying 1 means that the input device signal is the second in the list, 2 means that the input device signal is the third in the list, and so on:

Caution

Changing the input number is not allowed during the broadcast.

Note	RTP/UDP/SRT live input defined in the "Item parameters" has priority over another input (SDI, NDI, etc.) if it is configured.

Dummy Item

The dummy item is a reserved "empty" item without media material with a specified duration. It is used to allocate a specific amount of time in the schedule, which will be filled later with one or several clips of the corresponding total duration.

add_dummy_item

You can insert a dummy item into the playlist by pressing the "Dummy" button.

A dummy item is shown on a white background in the playlist and isn’t broadcast:

By default, the duration for dummy items is set to 2 minutes, but it can be changed in the "Preferences" dialog. The duration of a dummy item in a playlist can be manually adjusted in the "Duration" field. A dummy item, like any other playlist item, must be longer than 0.5 seconds.

To fill in the dummy item, select the actual item(s) in the integrated Cinegy Browser or clip(s) in the third-party file managers (e.g., File Explorer), hold down the Ctrl key, and drag-and-drop the item(s) into the selected dummy item position. The item(s) will be inserted into the playlist, while the dummy item will either disappear if the total duration of the item(s) matches/exceeds its duration, or it will be cropped to the duration of the item(s).

If the duration of the inserted item(s) is shorter, the dummy item is correspondingly cropped and positioned after those items.

If the duration of the inserted item(s) is longer, the following dialog appears, allowing you to define the rules for item(s) insertion:

The operator must fill the dummy item in with appropriate clip(s) before sending it on air. If it is not completely filled when the previous item in the playlist is on air, the dummy item is not marked as cued and is automatically skipped; the next valid playlist item is marked as cued and is broadcast instead.

Note Item

A dedicated note item is used to add any additional information or annotations related to the playlist item, or Story, such as special instructions, personal comments, contextual information about the item, or important reminders.

add_note_item

Press the "+Note" button to add a note to the playlist above the currently selected item. Adding a note does not affect the time scale.

To edit a note, double-click it and enter the text. Hit Esc to cancel the operation.