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Maestro6.0Whatsnewinversion6.0(Comparedtoversion5.2)

AboutMaestro6.0

Maestro isacompletesetof toolsprovidinganenterprisesolution forall thegraphicneeds in thebroadcastenvironment.

Maestro ismodularandcanbeadaptedtothespecificneedsofanybroadcaster.SeveralmodulesarepartofMaestro including:PageEditor,JStation,NLEplugins,NewProducerplugin,PageBrowserAx,GAM,butthemainelementofthesuiteisMaestroController,whichisagenericgraphicscontrolapplication.

Maestro6 isthebiggeststepforward inthisproductsince itscreationyearsago.Theuser interfacehasbeencompletelyredesigned,andplentyofnewfunctionalitieswithhighaddedvaluehavebeenadded.

KeyBenefits

FullsuitethatcanaddressallthegraphicneedsofaTVstation Modularandflexiblearchitecture Powerfulandyeteasytouseauthoringandplayouttools Advancedtoolsforexpertusersthatopenmanynewposibilites ThebiggestevolutioninMaestrosinceitsfirstversion

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Newfeatures

Inadditiontoallthefeaturesinheritedfromover5yearsofdevelopment,manynewfeatureshavebeenaddedtoMaestro.Theynotonlyaddplentyofnewoptionsforusers,butalsoopenaworldofpossibleevolutionsinthefuture.Someofthemostimportantnewfeaturesaredetailedbelow.

1. NewuserinterfaceTheuserinterfacehasbeenredesignedandthelookrefreshed.TheGUIhasbeenoptimizedforhighresolutionscreensthatareeasilyavailablethesedays.Themainadvantagesfortheuserarecustomizationpossibilities,soeachusercancreatehisownlayoutswiththedesiredlocationofeachmenu;andreactivityoftheGUI,whichisnowmuchfaster.

AnotheradvantageisthatthecodeisnoweasilyportabletootherOS,likeMACsOS,soforexample,aplugintoNewsroomsystemsonMACcanbeeasilyachieved.

Maestros GUI can be customized: Font size and style, colors, layout everything. For example, if a userconsidersthatthestandardtextfontandsizerendersChinesetextsillegible,thestylecanbechangedbyeditingthestylesheet.

Maestrosnewinterface:

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2. NewTimelineThemostimportantnewfeatureinMaestro6.0isitsnewtimeline.Ithasbeencompletelyredesignedanditisthebasis formanyothernew features. Theold single timelinehasbeen replacedby amultitrack timeline,whereeachtrackhasadifferenttriggercondition.Alsotimelinesaredisplayedonaneventbasisratherthanatimebasis.

Timelinesforcueandouthavebeenadded,toallowcustomizationofMaestrosbehaviorwhenaspecificitemiscued,andwhenitistakenoutofthescreen.

Maestrosnewtimeline:

Therearealsomoreeventsthatcanbecontrolledfromthetimelinethatcouldnotbeusedinpreviousversions,among them activate/deactivate scene, load/unload/play/stop clips, ticker start/stop, as well as the partialsending of exports (it is not necessary any more to send all the exports simultaneously), and the controlindividualkeyframes.

The posibility to add scripts for custom functions as part of the timeline opens a lot of new posibilities foradvancedusers.Itisimportantthatscriptingisnotrequiredfor95%ofthemostcommonusecases,includingallthefunctionssupportedbyMaestro5.2

Thisallowsaddressingproductionswithmoresophisticatedneedsthatinthepastcouldonlybeaddressedwith3DPlay.For example, a page that displays some chiclets that contain a title, and a crawl that displaysinformationaboutagivensubject.Onthesamepage,itwillbespecifiedthatassoonastheinformationhasleft

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thescreen,anotheranimationshouldbeplayed todisplay thenextsubject.Also, in the samepage itcanbespecifiedthatifabreakingnewsarrives,thegraphicshouldbebiggerandred.

RenderEngineCallbacksOneofthemostrelevantadditiontothetimelineistheabilitytotriggeronetimelinetrackusingRenderEnginecallbacks. Now the RenderEngine will send a callback to Maestro when a certain event has happened (i.e.animationhasstarted/finished,thetickerleftthescreen,etc),andMaestrowillreactbytriggeringagiventrack.

Thetimelineofonepage inMaestrocannowbedesignedtoreacttowhat ishappening inRenderEngine.Forexample, thedesignercancreate items thatwill sendadataupdateas soonas theanimationdisplaying thepreviousdatafinishes.

SignalingSignalingisanewtoolavailableinMaestro6stimeline.Itallowssendingasignaltoaspecificitem,playlistortothewholeapplication.Thissignal,whenreceivedbyitemsorplaylists,cantriggerotheractions.Forexample,itisused toanimateoutonegraphicwhenadifferent item isplayed in thesame location,or to triggercertainactionsinaloop,likeperiodicupdatesofagraphicincludinganimations.

ScriptsinTimelineAnewscripteventcanbeaddedtotracksinthetimeline.ThisscripthastobewritteninJscript.Scriptscanbeused to execute customized codes, and to control the timeline flow. One script can decide if one track isexecutedornot.

Alltheaboveopensmanyposibilitiestocreatemoreintelligentandcustomizeditems,includingplayoutlogic,.withoutaddinganycomplicationtotheplayoutprocess.

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3. NewpluginarchitectureMaestro6hasanewarchitecturethatallowstheadditionofplugins(nottobeconfusedwiththepluginsto3rdpartyapplicationlikeNewsroomorNLEthatarepartofthesuite).Thesepluginscancreatenew,specialtypeofitemsthatcanbeaddedtoatimeline.Somepluginshavebeencreatedforthisversion,butnewpluginscanbecreatedatanytime.Pluginsarepartofthebrowserwindow,andareavailableonallMaestromodulesusingthiswindow,includingintegrationtoNRCS.

Themostrelevantonesfollow:

MorphoPluginInorder to improve integrationbetweenMaestro andMorpho, aplugin forMaestrohasbeen created, thispluginsearchesforMorphopagessaved ina3Designerformat,andallowsMaestrouserstoaddanyoftheseitemstoaMaestrorundown,whereitcanbeplayedlikeanyotheritem.ThisisasmoothwaytoallowMorphocreated content tobeused inMaestrowithoutgoing through the template creation step inPageEditor.Themostcommonusecaseforthispluginiswhenanewunplannedgraphicneedstobecreatedandquicklyputonair.

TickerpluginTickersupporthasbeenimplementedasaplugininMaestro6.Itincludeslongawaitedfeaturesliketriggeringofananimationwhendataisupdated.

Theuser cannow reviewandmodify the contentsof the tickeratanymoment,even if the tickerhasbeenaddedtoarundown.

Asnapshotofthetickerplugininthebrowserwindowfollows

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4. ScriptingandMacrosAccesstoscriptscreationhasbeenenabledinMaestro6.ThelanguageusedisJscript,andthereisacontextualhelpinMaestrotohelptheusercreatetheirownscripts

This is availableboth in timeline events and in the formof standaloneMacros that canbe executed at anymoment.As support to scripts,variableviewshavebeenenabled, so ifone script is readingor setting somevariables,theycanbecheckedandmodifiedbytheuserintheGUI.

Ascriptcreatorwizardhasbeenadded inordertocreateautomaticallythemostcommonfunctions(likeplayitembyID)withoutanyneedtotypethescriptitself.Theresultingcodecanbemodifiedbytheuser.

Thereisscriptcontextualhelpthatassistsinthescriptcreationandindicatestotheusertheavailablefunctionsandthesyntaxrequired.

It is very important to understand that scripting is only required to access to some advanced features. Astandardproductioncanbecreatedandplayedwithoutanyuseofscripts.Thisisdoesaddcomplicationtothestandarduser,whileitopensadoorforadvanceduserstohavedeepercontrolofMaestro.

5. NewdatasourcesconnectionwizardsThe tool that allows connections to external data sources has been redesigned to improve usability, and

extendedtosupportnewdatasourceslikeXMLfiles.Additionally,newconnectionmethodshavebeenaddedto

severaldatasourcetypes,expandingtheusageposibilitiesofqueriestoexternaldatasoruces.

Differentconnectionmethodshavesomeadvantagesincertainenvironments,forexamplestoreprocedurescan

becalledfromMSSQLDBwhenusing.NETconnectionmethod,whileaccessExcelfileswillbepossiblefroma

MACenvironmentwhenusingMaestronativeconnectionmethod.

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6. MaestroSync:anewExport/ImporttoolSync isanew standaloneexport/import tool forMaestro. Itallowsmovingassetsdirectlybetweendifferentdatabasesorbetweenonedatabaseandafiletobestoredasbackuportobesenttoaremotelocation.

MaestroSynccanbestartedonanycomputer,andconnectstolocalorremotedatabases.

MaestroSyncscreenshot:

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7. NewplaylistPlaylistdisplayhasbeen improved inMaestro6.Multipleplaylistviewmodesarepossible, like listmode,orthumbnailmode,andseveralplaylistcanbeopenedsimultaneouslyandbestackedas tabs,ordisplayedonenexttoeachother.

Itemparameterscanbeshownaspartof the item titleandchangedynamicallywithoutmoving focus to theBrowserwindow.

Therundownoperationisshortcutfriendly,soanormalplayoutproductioncanbeexecutedwithoutusingthemouse.

Thescreenshotbelowshowsseveralplaylistviewmodesshownsimultaneously:

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8. ExtendedautomationcustomizationposibilitiesAsparofthegeneralgoalofmakingMaestroaflexibleapplicationthatcanfitanyworkflow,somechangeshavebeenperformedintheimplementationofAutomationprotocolsinMaestro.Themainchangeistheposibilitytoforcecommands incomingonagivenporttobeassignedtoagivenVirtualSlot inMaestro.Thiseliminatestheposibilityofcollisionswhendifferentgraphicsareplayedbydifferentautomationports,andgreatlysimplifiestheproductionfromtheautomationstandpoint,thatcanconsidereachportasadifferentindependentoutputchannel,eveniftheyareallconnectedtoasingleMaestro.

Additionally,itisnowpossibleusingamixedmanual/automatedoperation,becauseautomationcommandsdonotchangeapplicationfocus,andthereforedonotdisturbmanualusage

9. RedesignedpluginsforNewsroomMaestropluginsforNewsroomsystemshavebeenredesignedtoaccommodatetherequestsofmanycustomersworldwide.Themostrelevantchangesarethefollowing:

RenderEngineisintegratedinthepluginandnotshowninaseparatedwindow,itcanbeshowneithernexttoit,ortabbed.

BehavioroftheplugincanbecustomizedtofitthespecificitiesofdifferentNewsroomsystems Communicationarchitecturehasbeenchangedtoallowaquickerwayofworking

10. RedesignedpluginsforNonlineareditingMaestropluginforNonLinearEditingsuiteshasbeenredesigned,mostlytoimproveitsperformance.Somenewfeatureshavebeenadded:

Inadditiontoemptytemplates,itemsthatarepartofarundowncannowbeusedinMaestroNLE. Autoscale timeline functionhasbeen added, sonow theuser can choose to automatically scale the

sequenceofaninmationstofitthesizeoftheeffectintheNLEtimeline.ThisoptionworksonlyinAvidsNLE

IntegrationwithAppleFinalCuthasbeendonenatively,notusingemulation. Aprograming interface isnowmadeavailable for3rdpartyNLEvendors interested in integratingour

graphicsintheirNLEsystem.

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11. NewPageEditorPageEditor isnow integralpartofMaestrosapplication (even thoughMaestro canbe licensed to showonlyPageEditortools).Amongthemostrelevantimprovementswecanhighlightthefollowing:

Differentdatacanbesenttothesameexportatdifferenttimes.Notallexportsneedtobesentatthesametime

Eachtimelinetrackcanbepreviewedseparately Animationscanbedirectlydraggedintothetimeline Moredefaultparametershavebeenaddedtopages,likedefaultcolorinthetimeline Morewidgetsareavailableinpages Multitabpageshavenowadifferenttimelinepertab Undoisnowpossible Sincenoweachpage canbehavedifferentlydependingon theplayoutenvironment,and sometimes

pagesneeds tobe tested ina rundown toverifyand tweak theirbehavior, it isnowpossible tosaverundown items as pages directly from Maestro, without having to move back from Maestro toPageEditortodoso.

12. PosibilitytotranslatetheGUItodifferentlanguages.Maestrosuser interface cannowbe translated intodifferent languages.Currently available translations arePolish,SpanishandChinese.Newtranslationscanbeaddedatanymoment

Theapplication is tested toworkonany languageor script.Languages likeArabicorChinesecanbeused ingraphiccontent,inelementsnaming,etc.