Overview

Adaptive Live Producer (ALP) lets Viz Engine act as the main content compositor for all production sources, under the exclusive control of Viz Mosart. Rather than just routing signals like a traditional switcher, Viz Engine composes live sources, DVE effects (box effects, picture-in-picture, butterflies, etc.), fullscreen and overlay graphics into a single program output. With ALP, you build an IP-based workflow that uses the power of Viz Engine to enhance the production with rich animations, layouts, and custom looks. The full show output is built as a single Viz Engine graphics composition that handles live sources, graphics, layouts, and transitions.

ALP runs under the exclusive control of Viz Mosart, but is not an integrated single unit. Viz Engine and Viz Mosart run in their own environments, and Viz Mosart templates drive a broad scope of traditional and unique switcher features. On the Viz Engine side, ALP uses superchannels to hold live sources, graphics and clip playback. Each superchannel has two internal sub-channels (A/B), so sources can be swapped with animated transitions for added flexibility and performance.

ALP succeeds the current Viz Engine as a Switcher, and is the way forward for running Viz Engine as a switcher in Viz Mosart, now driven through the Media Sequencer (MSE). Operators keep working the way they already do. Stories are cued and taken from the rundown, existing templates keep working, and the layout and look on air come from presets defined in the scene.

Info: Early preview. Adaptive Live Producer is an early preview feature in Viz Mosart 5.15. It depends on beta (pre-releases for selected customers) versions of Viz Engine, Viz Multplay and MSE that are not yet generally released, and it will gain more capabilities in later releases of Viz Mosart and the related applications. To evaluate ALP, contact Vizrt Support for the compatible component versions and setup guidance.

When to use ALP

ALP is built for creative production: shows where the program look is driven by graphics, animations, virtual sets, and custom transitions. Because Viz Engine itself is the switcher, the layout on air is a graphics scene, and the things a traditional hardware switcher cannot do become first-class:

  • Rich graphic animations as part of presets and preset transitions, not only hard cuts and crossfades.

  • Shaders and custom looks designed in Viz Artist (3D backgrounds, lighting, branded effects).

  • Custom content transitions authored as directors, per superchannel and per direction.

  • Built on Viz Engine, where virtual studio, AR and other 3D scene work are part of the same workflow.

  • Tight integration with the other Vizrt solutions (Viz Mosart, Viz Pilot Edge, Media Sequencer).

ALP is not aimed at replacing a hardware vision mixer where the show is essentially ‘route the program through’. A traditional switcher with purpose-built frame-accuracy, high reliability and inexpensive hardware switching, remains the right tool for this.

  • Use a hardware switcher for channel branding, playout, and master control workflows where the value is routing a finished signal.

  • Use ALP when the value is the creative composition itself.

How ALP differs from the existing Engine Switcher

The current Viz Engine as a Switcher holds its switching logic inside a custom script in the Viz Engine scene. This approach constrains graphic design and requires resources to support and upgrade.

ALP reaches the same goal with standard Viz Engine scenes built on superchannels, a powerful Viz Engine compositing feature that holds and switches all live sources, graphics, and clips, with no custom switching script in the scene. Everything runs under standard Viz Mosart control through the Media Sequencer. The result is more robust, easier to support, and easier to extend.

Features

Adaptive Live Producer in Viz Mosart 5.15 drives graphics and live sources through Viz Engine. All features below come with this version, any current exceptions are stated.

Video switching

  • Preset switching (1Box, 2Box, 3Box, BigSmall, …).

  • Live source switching on the background (SC1).

  • Set sources on split-screen boxes (any superchannel).

  • Synchronized preset and content switching (under the conditions in Templates and Show Design).

  • Preset transitions (cut, or animate with duration).

  • Content transitions on the background, Cut, Mix, Wipe, and Effects (on the main background, i.e. SC1)

  • Multiple mixer effects (PP, ME1, ME2, …).

  • Delay the mix and the transition on the main background (SC1).
    Works only with Mix Delay, and Transition.

  • Keyboard shortcuts and control commands (INIT, CLEANUP, SET_PRESET).

  • Clip playout.
    Works only with an external video server output entering as a live source into the Viz Engine, which in turn is acting as a switcher.

  • Connection status: Only the MSE connection is presented, not the individual Viz Engine connections.

Fullscreen graphics

  • Take a graphic on a specific superchannel.

  • Take a graphic in sync with other content (under certain conditions).

  • Cue and Preview; Continue (advance continue points).

  • Static graphic from a template.

  • Graphic content from the NRCS (as a Viz Pilot Edge MOS object).

  • Take out graphics with or without delay from a superchannel.

  • Prepare, Recue, accessory templates, initialize/cleanup playlist.

  • Fullscreen graphics concepts (design variants).
    For this version, set with a macro.

Tally: supported over TSL UMD v3.1. See Tally in the Adaptive Live Producer for more information, and Tally on how to set it up.

Abbreviations and Key Concepts

Term

Meaning

ALP

Adaptive Live Producer, a Viz Mosart switcher driver that turns Viz Engine into a software production switcher, driven through the Media Sequencer.

Superchannel (SC)

An abstraction on top of a Viz Engine media channel. Superchannels support various asset types like images, graphics, clips, streams, live content. Each superchannel has two sub-channels, so content in each channel can be played out over an A/B workflow. One sub-channel (A) is active, while the second (B) is inactive. New content can be prepared on the inactive sub-channel, a transition effect can then run the transition from the active to inactive sub-channel, switching their roles.

PP

Program/Preset, the main mixer output that goes to program.

Mixer Effect (M/E)

A Mix Effects (M/E) bank is the row or bank of source-selection buses on a vision mixer that are mixed into a single output. One M/E groups a Program bus (what is on air), a Preview bus (what is cued next) and one or more Key buses (keyers layered on top); a larger switcher has several M/E banks.

Video wall (Viz Multiplay)

A Viz Multiplay configuration object. In Viz Multiplay a video wall normally describes a physical screen layout built from Viz Engine's superchannels. In an ALP setup its main role is to produce the program (PGM) output for broadcasting a show, the way a switcher does. It can still target a physical video wall, but that wall is filled through Viz Mosart templates and actions, not from Viz Multiplay. In ALP there is one video wall per Viz Engine output (one Mixer Effect: PP, ME1, …). These pages use Mixer Effect, and mention a video wall only when describing the Viz Multiplay configuration.

KeyFill

A fill source placed on a split-screen box, on superchannels SC2 and up.

DVE

Digital Video Effect: a split-screen / box layout such as 2Box or 3Box. This is the broadcast meaning used across the ALP pages, and is not the same as the Viz Engine DVE mode below.

DVE mode (Viz Engine)

A Viz Engine output/render mode for the Matrox card, used in the clean and dirty setup and paired with Texture mode. It is unrelated to the broadcast DVE (box layout) above. See Clean and Dirty Output.

Texture mode (Viz Engine)

A Viz Engine render mode where the program is composited as a texture; used for the clean engine when animations, shaders or custom transitions are needed. Paired with DVE mode in the clean and dirty setup.

FGX

Fullscreen graphics.

Preset

A named layout and look (for example 1Box, 2Box, 3Box, BigSmall), defined in the scene. Mosart fills presets with content and takes them to program.

Preset transition

Animates the change of layout (for example 1Box to 2Box).

Content transition

Animates the change of the source playing on a superchannel (for example a crossfade on the background). These can be custom transitions or transition shaders.

Concept

A design variant of a graphics scene, for example a branded look per show, channel, or region.

Director

Content transition director in Viz Engine drives animated transitions between content on a superchannel.

MSE

Media Sequencer. The engine through which Mosart controls Viz Engine.
ALP plays out through the Media Sequencer using its superchannel arm/fire mode. For the full list of Media Sequencer commands and their behavior, open the profile command reference on your own MSE installation (replace the host with the address of your MSE server) at:
http://mse-server:8580/doc/profile_command.xhtml#command_for_superchannel_arm_fire

VDOM

Virtual Document Object MOdel . This is the Media Sequencer's data tree, browsable from the MSE home page at 
http://mse-server:8580/app/vdomconfig/vdomconfig.html.
More documentation can be found at http://mse-server:8580.

Arm

An MSE command which prepares a preset or a content element so it is ready to play out, without putting it on air yet.

Fire

An MSE command which plays out a single armed element on its channel.

Fire all

An MSE command which plays out all armed elements together in the same frame, so a preset and its content switch synchronously.

Take

An MSE command which puts an element straight to the output, without arming it first.

Cue

An MSE command which shows the first frame of an element.

Out

An MSE command which removes an element from the output.

KBS

Keyboard shortcut.

NRCS

Newsroom Computer System, the rundown source.

SFP

Small Form-factor Pluggable. It is a compact, hot-pluggable network interface module format used for both telecommunication and data communications applications.

CLN

Clean output. See Clean and Dirty Output.

PGM

Program output. Also referred as dirty output. See Clean and Dirty Output.

In this Section

The following pages introduce ALP in detail:

  • Setup and Configuration: End-to-end setup from Viz Engine scenes through Multiplay, the Settings app, AV Automation, and A/V Setup, plus the connection check.

  • Templates and Show Design: Template configuration (Switcher Plugin, graphics on superchannels, graphics concepts), keyboard shortcuts, control commands, synchronization rules, and the end-to-end verification.

  • Clean and Dirty Output: How to produce a clean feed (without overlay graphics) alongside the dirty program feed.

  • Tally in the Adaptive Live Producer: Why ALP relies on Mosart-generated tally and the ALP-specific rules, with a reference to the Tally section for protocol and setup.

  • Troubleshooting: What to collect when reporting an issue.