Below you'll find our glossary of terms used in the Playout 2.0 product. Learning what terms are used in relation to this product is a great way to familiarize yourself with the product features and functionality to see how you can best leverage this awesome tool.
Playout 2.0: The enhanced version of Playout that uses the Scheduler Tool for programming. Available in April 2021.
Scheduler Tool: The tool used to schedule Playout Channel programming in Playout 2.0.
Add Feedback: Available in Playout 2.0 only. This button will allow you to provide product feedback without having to leave the tool.
Channel: A single linear live channel with the same programming capable of being broadcast simultaneously to any number of RTMP or HLS based destinations.
Channel State: The state your channel is in: on air, off air, published, or draft. Caution: Do not confuse with Channel Version.
- Draft State: The state of any pre-published channel. Channels in draft state can be edited freely. Draft state channels correspond to draft rundowns. You will see a red badge icon to indicate if you have unpublished drafts pending.
- Published State: The state of any published channel. Channels in a published state can only be edited by opening a new draft state and publishing the draft to apply updates. Published state channels correspond to published rundowns. Published channels can have a state of On Air or Off Air.
- On Air State - Also known as a Live Channel State. The channel state for published channels that are currently on air/broadcasting. Once broadcasting has initiated, channels will show as On Air on the All Channels view.
- Off Air State - The channel state for published channels that are no longer on air/broadcasting, because the broadcast has ended. Once broadcasting time has lapsed, channels will show as Off Air on the All Channels view.
All Channels: The control center for all Playout channels. Playout channels are displayed as cards on board with the ability to select individual channels to view the channel options.
Channel Configuration: The view to edit channel settings. Settings include the channel title, the start and stop time of the channel, and fallback slate set for the channel.
Fallback Slate: Also known as the Default Slate. The slate that will appear by default during any programming gaps. Zype will automatically fill a Zype-branded fallback slate in the event that you do not set one.
Channel Destination: The destination to which you intend to distribute your Playout Channel content. Zype supports the following destinations: HLS3, HLS4, HLS6, Hulu Live TV, Local Now, Plex, Pluto TV, Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus, Xumo, Zeazn and Zype.
- Ad Slate: A video you set for your channel that will act as a fallback if any ad play fails. Caution: Do not confuse with asset type “Ad” .
- Ad Decision Server: Also known as ADS. This is typically a VAST-compliant tag URL generated by your ad provider. This is the tag URL used by this channel when inserting ad breaks into the manifest.
- Custom Ad Parameters: Depending on your ADS, you can specify custom ad parameters to send in the request to your ad provider. These parameters help to identify the playback session and viewer so that ads can be more targeted.
Timeline: The linear, calendar-based view for arranging videos into a playout experience. The Timeline contains two tracks for programming, plus an indicator bar that represents important additional information about the Timeline, like when ads are to play.
- Base Track: The default track that plays during playout.
- Priority Track: The track that overrides the baseline. Any items on the priority track will play instead of what is on the baseline track.
- Indicator Bar: Contains important additional information about the Timeline, such as when ads are to play.
Wall Clock: This clock will match cursor movements within the Timeline to display the exact programming time (local and UTC) for a programmed item.
Change History: The dropdown list above the Timeline that shows the entire change history of your draft with a description of the change, author, and timestamp of the change.
Channel Version: Every change that is saved in the Timeline view corresponds to a new version of your draft channel. Version history is tracked in the Change History dropdown list. Caution: Do not confuse with Channel State.
Zoom Tool: Available in the top left of the Timeline, this provides the option to zoom in to view more granular programming or zoom out to view broader programming.
Asset: Video content or video content groupings that are stored in the Library, that can be added to the Timeline.
Item: Also known as a Track Item. An asset that has been programmed in the Timeline. When Assets are in the Timeline, they are referred to as Items.
Asset Types: Types of assets. This includes: videos, ads, bumpers, playlists, and program blocks.
- Videos: On-demand, Zype-hosted videos that are uploaded, transcoded, and delivered by Zype. Note: Only Zype-hosted videos are supported for Playout Channel creation.
- Ad: A video that has been set as a “playout ad” in the Zype CMS. When added to the timeline, SCTE markers are generated according to the duration of this video. Note: If ad playback fails, this video will not play, but rather the Ad Slate will act as fallback. Caution: Do not confuse with the Ad Slate set for your channel. See also Enabling a Video as Playout Ad or Playout Bumper in the Zype CMS.
- Bumper: A video that has been set as a “playout bumper” in the Zype CMS. Bumpers are useful as transitionary videos between Track Items. These videos do not generate SCTE markers and are not the same as ads. See also Enabling a Video as Playout Ad or Playout Bumper in the Zype CMS.
- Playlist: A curated, ordered list of videos that are organized into a playlist in the Zype CMS. Playlists can be conveniently added to a timeline, and any videos will play in the specified order of the original playlist.
- Program Block: A group of pre-programmed content that can be repeated and reused again, created from grouping videos, playlists, bumpers, or ads. These are filterable in the Asset Panel as asset type = “block”.
Asset Panel: The panel in the Timeline view that shows the list of content loaded into the Playout 2.0 Scheduler Tool from the Zype Library.
- Asset Refresh: The refresh icon at the top of the Asset Panel provides the option to trigger a manual refresh of the asset list, pulling in the most updated versions of videos, playlists, etc from the Zype Library.
- Asset Filters: Options to filter the asset list by duration (minimum of 5 seconds, up to a maximum duration of 72 hours) and type (video, playlist, block, bumper, ad), or sort the asset list by duration and title.
- Asset Search: The search feature in the Asset Panel finds matches according to Asset Type, Title, Source ID, Keywords, Categories (both category title and category value), Custom Attribute values, Description, and Short Description. Be sure to refresh the asset list after making updates in the Zype Library to ensure all metadata is up to date.
Inspector Panel: The panel in the Timeline view that provides the option to view and edit items programmed in the Timeline.
- Start & End Time: The start and end time of a programmed item, shown and editable in the Inspector Panel. This is used to schedule exact start and end times of programmed items. Changes made to this in the Inspector Panel will be reflected in the Timeline.
- Start & End Offset: The start and end offset of a programmed item, shown in the Inspector Panel. The start offset is set to 00:00:00 by default and the end offset is set to the duration of the item by default. Both offsets can be set to a desired length for clipping the beginning or end of a Track Item, to clip the duration. Changes made to this in the Inspector Panel will be reflected in the Timeline.
- Loops: A setting available in the Inspector Panel that provides the option to repeat or “loop” Track Items for continuous broadcasting.
Smart Insertion: Also known as Priority Smart Insertion. A method of inserting priority track items to play instead of base track items. Used commonly to program over base track content that has already initiated playback.
Gap: A gap created in your programming schedule, created by either inserting a priority track item over a base track item or by adding gaps between loops. Fallback slate content will play during all gaps unless programmed with other content.
Program Rundown: A linear view of the items in a Playout Channel, showing an estimated start and end broadcast time for each item based on the Playout Channel's scheduled broadcast time. View rundowns in draft state (draft rundown) for a channel not yet live or published state (published rundown) for a channel that is live.
- Draft Rundown: The program rundown for a channel in a draft state.
- Published Rundown: The program rundown for a channel in a published state.
Playout Destination: An IP-based location that a Playout Channel will be broadcast to.
RTMP: A common streaming protocol that stands for Real-Time Messaging Protocol, typically used when sending a broadcast to an encoder that will handle its own transcoding and delivery.
HLS: A common streaming protocol that stands for HTTP Live Streaming, typically used when distributing to endpoints where a fully encoded, viewer delivery-ready stream is needed.