A BIT OF BACKGROUND…

Lyric PRO is the core technology behind Channel Box. Its’ powerful real-time render engine provides us with features unavailable to channel branding devices prior to Channel Box’s arrival in 2007. Lyric PRO is used in many Chyron products including the HyperX², LEX² and MicroX…all powerful live event graphics platforms that are not necessarily best suited for use in the channel branding environment.

As a result, there are many features of Lyric PRO that are designed specifically to give operators in a live environment the ability to create dynamic and engaging animations easily with no need to create complex scripts and macros. For example, an operator can use the ‘Effect In’ transition in Lyric PRO to define how that message will animate on air. When the message is sent to air Lyric PRO will automatically trigger the ‘Effect In’ transition. Alternatively, an operator creating graphics for a live sporting event can easily create two versions of the same lower third graphic that will automatically transition in a particular way using the ‘Update In’ and ‘Update Out’ transitions. In a live environment, having Lyric PRO intelligently trigger these animations is an extremely powerful and time-saving feature.

However, in the channel branding environment it is not desirable to have anything happen automatically in the same ways that they need to happen in a live environment. Triggers often come from an automation system and need to be timed precisely based on the automation system’s log. It is for this reason that it is important when creating content in Lyric PRO for use in Channel Box that some simple guidelines be followed to ensure that the content air correctly and reliably.

LYRIC PRO TRANSITIONS

As was mentioned above, there are transitions available in Lyric PRO that do things automatically and without user intervention. Specifically, there are five:

· Effect In

· Effect Out

· Default

· Update In

· Update Out

It is not possible to avoid using the Default state, as that is always the starting point for all other transitions. We’ll come back to that in a moment. However, it is imperative that when creating content for Channel Box in Lyric PRO that the other four transitions (Effect In, Effect Out, Update In and Update Out) NOT be utilized. Using these transitions will result in unpredictable behavior when airing the scenes in Channel Box.

For example, if one scene contains Effect In and Effect Out transitions and is currently on output, a different message that contains an Effect In transition will cause the first message to automatically trigger its’ Effect Out transition. While this may be desirable, it oftentimes is not. We can achieve the same effect by using custom transitions and Intelligent Triggers in Channel Box…however with a considerably larger level of control over what happens and when it happens.

Therefore, when creating animations in Lyric PRO for Channel Box you must ensure that all of the transitions you create are custom-made transitions. For example, if you would like your station bug to come on screen create a transition called ‘BugOnScreen’ instead of using the ‘Effect In’ transition available in Lyric PRO. Create a second transition called ‘BugOffScreen’ to take it off air.

USE OF THE DEFAULT TRANSITION

It is not possible to avoid using the Default transition when creating content in Lyric PRO. However, it is important to understand how Lyric PRO utilizes the Default state when creating content for Channel Box. When the Effect and Update transitions are not used and a message is sent to air the Default state is always the first thing to hit the output. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is an important concept to understand.

Playing a scene in Channel Box equates to a user pressing ‘Cntl+Play’ in Lyric PRO. Therefore, if you’ve got visible items in your default state these will automatically be sent to air when playing a scene in Channel Box.

Note: When creating content using Channel Box’s Scene Builder application the equivalent to the Default transition is the Default action. In Scene Builder we have the ability to de-select ‘Start Of Scene’ as a trigger for the default action. When working with Lyric LNO files we do not have that flexibility.

So, what does all of this mean? From a channel branding perspective we want to have as much control over the triggers in each scene as possible. Therefore, when creating content in Lyric PRO for Channel Box it is recommended that the items in the Default transition be either made transparent or shifted off the visible part of the canvas so that when the scene is played to air there will be nothing visible on output until the custom transitions are then triggered.

DUPLICATE NAMES

When Channel Box imports a Lyric LNO file many of the attributes within that file are serialized into the Channel Box scene so that we can then manipulate those attributes as though they were native Channel Box elements. For example, we take the data in a Lyric transition and import it so that it equates to a Channel Box action. We also serialize the Lyric templates so that they are accessible to update by the end user via a Channel Box control panel.

As a result, it is absolutely necessary that all the objects within your Lyric message are uniquely named and numbered. Any layers, templates or transitions with duplicate names (or, in the case of templates, numbers) in an LNO will result in a failed import into Channel Box.

EXPORTING YOUR ANIMATIONS AS LYRIC NODE OBJECTS

Content created in Lyric PRO for use in Channel Box must be exported as an LNO file, or Lyric Node Object. This is a single object which can contain multiple groups, images, textures and timelines. When exporting an LNO from Lyric PRO, you must have all elements you want included in that LNO selected in the Scene Graph prior to the export taking place. With this in mind, it is recommended that users create a top level group to which all required elements belong. Selecting this top level group prior to selecting File>Export Selected Nodes will ensure that all the required elements are included in the file which Channel Box will subsequently import.

3D OBJECTS AND THEIR TEXTURES

One of the advantages of creating your content in Lyric PRO is the ability to create 3D animations that contain textures and reflections. These items are fully compatible with Channel Box. However, it is important to note that Lyric PRO does not by default embed the textures you have applied to 3D objects. This might not be a problem if you are creating the content on the same system that will be playing out the content…however, that is often not the case. Be sure to select ‘Embed Textures’ from the Surface Properties of any 3D object you create in Lyric PRO prior to exporting that object to an LNO file.