What Is Cablecast?
Cablecast is broadcast automation and channel management software built for community media stations. It gives your team one place to manage everything your station does — from scheduling and playback to live streaming, video on demand, captioning, and more.
If you work at a local government access channel, a public access station, or a community media center, Cablecast is the system that keeps your channel running.
What Cablecast Helps You Do
Cablecast handles the core operations of your station through a web-based interface your staff can access from a web browser — whether they're on your local network or connecting remotely through an external IP or DNS address. Here's a high-level look at what the system covers:
Schedule and play content. Build your programming schedule, then send Autopilot to commit it to air. Autopilot translates your schedule into the precise instructions Cablecast needs to queue playback, make routing switches, and manage recordings and captions at the right time.
Stream online. Deliver your channel live and on demand through your Internet Channel, OTT apps, and social platforms like YouTube and Facebook.
Manage your media. Upload and organize video files, create Show Records to attach metadata and captions, and store content across local and network-attached storage.
Caption your programming. Add closed captions to your content using Cablecast Cloud Services, sidecar files, or third-party caption providers — and meet FCC and accessibility requirements in the process.
Automate repetitive tasks. Tools like Autoschedule and Workflows help your station run leaner by handling recurring scheduling and file management tasks automatically.
How the System Is Put Together
Cablecast runs as a web application — you log in through a browser, and your station's configuration determines what you see and what's available. Most stations run Cablecast on a VIO video server, which handles both the software and the playback hardware in one unit.
Here are the main pieces you'll encounter as you learn the system:
Cablecast (the core software) manages your show records, schedule, device configurations, and distribution settings. It's where you'll spend most of your time.
Cablecast CG controls the graphics that appear on your channel between programs — things like bulletin boards, crawls, and background audio. Cablecast CG runs alongside Cablecast but is configured separately.
Frontdoor handles user login and account security. When you log in to Cablecast, you're going through Frontdoor.
Note: Cablecast CG is covered here. The guides in Cablecast Academy focus on the core Cablecast system.
What Comes Next
The rest of Cablecast Academy walks you through the system level by level — starting with how to navigate the interface and get your bearings, then moving into scheduling, automation, captioning, and streaming.
If you're brand new, the best place to go next is Navigating the Cablecast Interface.