User`s guide

Chapter 13: Thumbnail Generation 207

13 Thumbnail Generation

The Viz Thumbail Generator (TnG) is a stand-alone application that generates

thumbnail images for data elements used in VCP and NrC for template

recognition. Template thumbnails are stored on the VCP database.

Note: Thumbnails are also visble in Viz Trio newsroom playlists.

To create thumbnails the following is needed:

• A connection to VCP’s database using an Oracle Runtime Client.

• A connection to Viz Engine.

• Standalone scenes, or front scenes for transition logic scenes, must have a tag

on the director named pilot1 (lowercase only).

Viz Engine must have the same setup and plug-ins as the playout engine. For this

reason, a dedicated Viz Engine is recommended. If connecting to a Viz Engine 2.x

version remotely, a Viz Multiplexer is also needed.

TnG sends Viz Engine commands for a saved data element to the Viz Engine, and

a thumbnail is returned. The thumbnail is then saved back to the database.

Thumbnails can be used for a basic VCP client embedded still preview shown in

VCP’s thumbnail column and in the playlist’s ImageBar column. It is also made

visible in VCP’s template and data element Resource Panel and NrC’s template

and data element panes.

From a scene design perspective, the scene designer needs to add a director tag

named pilot1

(lowercase only). This is treated as a “stop point” when previewing

the scene, and a snapshot of the scene’s state is sent back to the TNG. The same

goes for transition logic scenes that must have the tag set for the front scenes.

This section contains information on the following topics:

• Getting Started

• Configuration

• Command Line Options

• User Interface

• Logging