Automation
The actions your operators run by hand, written down once. A microphone, a button or the schedule can all fire the same one, so what happens every show stops depending on somebody remembering it.
Radio studio automation for what every show repeats
Automate
The cue nobody has to remember.
An automation watches for a condition and fires one command when it becomes true, and a second one when it stops being true. The condition can be a scheduled show starting, an open mic, what the switcher is showing, the clock, or someone putting the studio on air.
When the talk show starts, camera 2 moves to its own position, and a release command can send it back when the show ends. The clock condition has a Full Hour button for everything that happens at the top of the hour.
Chain
A sequence with the timing built in.
A macro is a list of commands that run in order. Between steps it waits a set time, a random time between two limits, or until the step before it has actually finished.
Random waits keep a run of camera moves from looking mechanical. Any step can carry its own condition, or end the chain right there.
Connect
Your console can press it too.
The same command fires whether a mic opens, a camera angle is taken, someone presses a dashboard button, or a GPIO contact closes on an Ember+ or Livewire device. Put it on a dashboard button and anyone can fire by hand what the automation would have fired.
The switches for automatic camera switching and for Camera Assist are signals, so a system of your own can turn either one off and back on.
Technical specifications.
- Commands
- Camera angle Switcher Studio state PTZ preset MacroPTZ presets and macros come with higher licence tiers. There is no HTTP or webhook action.
- Triggers
- Microphone Camera angle Dashboard button GPIO MQTT Schedule
- Conditions
- Ten types on a station automation, among them the show on air, an open mic, switcher state, the clock, studio and server state, radio automation now playing, GPIO and signals, some depending on your licence. One AND or OR across a flat list, no nesting. Runs station-wide or in one studio.
- GPIO
- Ember+ Livewire (LWRP)Inputs fire automations. Outputs are set on, off or pulsed by hand from the GPIO page, not by an automation or macro. Discovered paths, adjustable reconnect and timeout. Licence-gated.
- Signals
- Named on/off, number or text values, per studio or station-wide, written by VRA or by your own systems. Each value records what wrote it and when. Every studio has two built in: the switches for automatic camera switching and for Camera Assist.
- Studio bus
- MQTTTopics for microphones, the switcher, now playing, the schedule, macros, GPIO, automations, Core, signals, commands, outputs and the legacy studio bus. Scoped per studio by a signed RS256 token that lasts one hour by default.
- Dashboards
- Twelve panel and button types, among them macro, camera and signal buttons. Tabs and panels can be shown or hidden by a condition.
Other platform surfaces.
Hand the routine to the studio.
We start from what your operators do by hand every show, then automate one of those jobs in the demo.