Understanding the Basics for Getting Up and Running with Cablecast

If you're new to Cablecast, figuring out how to get started with using your system can seem a bit overwhelming. In this article, we'll go over some of the basics, such as logging into Cablecast, uploading video files, creating Show Records, and then scheduling those Shows and getting them onto your channel.

For a more in depth overview of all things Cablcast, be sure to check out our New User Training video, as that not only dives into the topics discussed in this article in more detail, but it also covers all of the other areas of Cablecast.

Logging into Cablecast

Your Cablecast Customer Success Manager or your integrator should have provided you with your FrontDoor login credentials. If you did not receive those, reach out to the Cablecast Support Team, and we can assist you.

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

Uploading Assets/Files Within Cablecast

Once you're in Cablecast, head to the Assets section (the folder icon in the lefthand menu). This is where you can upload and manage files for playback within Cablecast.

To upload a new file, click the Upload button on the top right, just below the show search bar. You'll navigate to the file you want to upload. Once you've selected the file, you can rename it here if you need to. You'll need to select which File Store you want to upload it to. In many cases, the only option will likely be your video server E drive (named something along the lines of VIOLite Playback or VIOLite Content), but if you have a NAS or multiple Cablecast video servers, you may have other options here.

While the file is uploading, you can navigate to other areas within Cablecast, but be sure not to reload the tab or close the page. This will stop the file from uploading. How long it takes for the file to upload depends on the size of the file.

Once the upload completes, it can take a few minutes for the file to process and get 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 filtering in the Assets area of Cablecast shows unlinked, invalid, and processing files.

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

Creating a Show Record

Cablecast uses the file name for the Asset as the Title/CG Title when creating a Show from an unlinked Asset. You can change the name to something else. In fact, it's recommended, particularly for the CG Title field. That field is used for the CableDisplay bulletin in CablecastCG. It's also the field that's used for displaying the schedule in the Cablecast Internet Channels.

Minimally, the Title/CG Title fields are all that need metadata in order to save the Show Record and schedule it; however, we do recommend filling out the Project, Producer, and Category fields. You can also create Custom Fields if you require tracking of additional metadata and the standard fields don't meet your needs. 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 will link your Asset/File to the Show Record and assign a Show ID number to the Show.

Scheduling Programs

Once you've created a Show Record, you can then schedule the Show. To get to the schedule, click the Schedule menu item (the calendar icon in the lefthand menu).

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

There are two main ways to schedule Shows within the Schedule section of Cablecast. You can select the Show from the list on the right-hand side. This will highlight the Show. You can then hover over open timeslots in the Schedule and click and drop the Show into the timeslot of your choosing. That Show will remain selected, so you can continue to drop it into additional timeslots until you click it again in the Show list on the right-hand side of the schedule.

You can also click a timeslot, which will let you either enter the Show ID number or search for the Title of the Show. Once you select the Show from the list, you can press enter to put it in the schedule.

Sending Autopilot

Once you've built out your schedule, you'll need to make sure to send Autopilot in order to commit the program 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. If you're in the Schedule section of Cablecast, there is an Autopilot button on the top right of the schedule. It will be red if you've altered the schedule and haven't sent Autopilot yet. If all of the changes in the schedule have already been committed via an Autopilot send, the button will be green. You can click that button to get to the Autopilot send page.

You can also click the Autopilot button in the left-hand menu (the paper airplane icon). This will take you to a page with a few options. The first one is Send Autopilot. Clicking that will take you to the same page as clicking the Autopilot button within the Schedule page.

The default send range is one day of programming; however, if you click the calendar picker, you can pick an extended send range. This is particularly important if you're sending programming through the weekend, as you'll want to make sure to send it through Monday if you're sending at the end of the day Friday and want your programs on Saturday and Sunday to 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 it before leaving for the day. The KB article linked above goes over this in more detail. It's worth noting that if you send Autopilot for multiple days, but make changes to the schedule during the date range you've sent for, you'll need to send it again to commit those changes.

Conclusion

That's it! There's plenty more to dive into with Cablecast, so be sure to review the full length video for more info on the other features within Cablecast.

If you have training time on your account, you can book a 1:1 training session with our Customer Success Team to go over any questions you may have about using Cablecast. If you don't have training hours but would like to purchase training time, please reach out to our Sales Team for a quote.