Understanding the Basics for Getting Up and Running with Cablecast

If you're new to Cablecast, figuring out how to get started can seem a bit overwhelming. This article covers the basics: logging in, uploading video files, creating Show Records, scheduling those shows, and getting them onto your channel.

Prefer a visual walkthrough? All of the topics covered in this article are also covered in our Cablecast Basics — From Login To On Air webinar, available on our webinar archive page.

Logging into Cablecast

Your Cablecast Support representative or integrator should have provided you with your FrontDoor login credentials when your system was commissioned. FrontDoor is Cablecast's browser-based login portal. If you did not receive your credentials, reach out to the Cablecast Support Team, and we can assist you.

If you have an external address for Cablecast, you can enter that into any browser to access the FrontDoor login screen. If not, you'll need to use the internal IP address for your host server in any browser on a machine that's on the same network as your Cablecast servers. Enter the credentials mentioned above to log in.

Uploading Files

Once you're in Cablecast, go to Assets (the folder icon in the left-hand menu). This is where you can upload and manage files for playback.

To upload a new file, click the Upload button in the top right, just below the show search bar.

To upload a new file, click the Upload button in the top right, just below the Show search bar. Navigate to the file you want to upload. Once you've selected it, you can rename it if needed.

You'll also need to select a File Store to upload to. In many cases, your only option will be your video server's E drive (named something like VIOLite Playback or VIOLite Content), but if you have a network-attached storage device (NAS) or multiple Cablecast video servers, you may see additional options.

While a file is uploading, you can navigate to other areas within Cablecast, just don't reload the tab or close the page, as this will stop the upload. Upload time depends on the size of the file.

Once the upload completes, it can take a few minutes for the file to process and be marked as either valid or invalid. If the file is valid but not yet linked to a Show Record, it will be marked as Unlinked. The default filter in the Assets section shows unlinked, invalid, and processing files.

Once the file is marked as Unlinked, you can create a Show Record from it by selecting the file, then hovering over the blue Actions button on the far right, just above the media info box. Select New Show from the drop-down.

Creating a Show Record

A Show Record is Cablecast's way of organizing and tracking your content. Show Records are the backbone of your schedule in Cablecast. Each Show Record holds the metadata associated with a piece of content — such as the title, project, producer, and category — and links that content to a file for scheduling and playback.

Cablecast uses the file name from the asset as the Title and CG Title when creating a show from an unlinked asset. You can change these. In fact, updating the CG Title is often recommended - think of it as your public-facing title field. It's used for the CableDisplay bulletin in Cablecast CG and for displaying the schedule in Cablecast Internet Channels.

At a minimum, the Title and CG Title fields are all that need to be filled in to save the Show Record and schedule it. That said, we recommend also filling in Project, Producer, and Category. If you need to track additional metadata, you can create Custom Fields. You can also bulk update these fields later using the Bulk Actions feature.

Once you've entered your metadata, click the blue Save button at the bottom of the page. This links your file to the Show Record and assigns a Show ID number to the show.

Scheduling Programs

Once you've created a Show Record, you can schedule the show. Go to Schedule (the calendar icon in the left-hand menu).

On the right-hand side, you'll see a list of the 50 most recent shows based on the Event Date in their Show Records. You can also search for shows in the search bar just above the list.

There are two main ways to schedule shows:

• Click and stick: Select a show from the list on the right. This highlights it. Hover over an open timeslot and click to drop the show into it. The show stays selected so you can drop it into additional timeslots. Click the show in the list again to deselect it.

• Click a timeslot: Click directly on an open timeslot to enter a Show ID number or search by title. Select the show from the results and press Enter to place it in the schedule.

Sending Autopilot

Once you've built your schedule, you need to send Autopilot to commit the programming to air. If you don't send Autopilot, your programs won't output at their scheduled start time.

There are two ways to send Autopilot:

• From the Schedule section, click the Autopilot button in the top right. The button is red if you've made schedule changes that haven't been committed yet, and green if everything is up to date.

• From the left-hand menu, click Autopilot (the paper airplane icon) and select Send Autopilot.

Both options take you to the same Autopilot send page.

The default send range is one day of programming. Click the calendar picker to select an extended range. This is especially important when sending programming through a weekend — if you're sending at the end of Friday, make sure to extend the range through Monday so Saturday and Sunday programs go to air.

You can change the default send range in the Autopilot settings. You can also set up scheduled Autopilot sends as a fail-safe in case someone forgets to send before leaving for the day. For more details on those options, see the Autopilot KB article.

Next Steps

There's plenty more to explore in Cablecast. If you have training time on your account, you can book a 1:1 training session with our Training Specialist. If you don't have training hours but would like to purchase some, reach out to our Sales Team for a quote.