TITLE panel is used to display text and image overlays on top of the video image. This control lets the operator add a variety of layered objects over the video. Examples include JPG images to show scores and music information, fixed texts, animated logos (gif image files), banners, and news tickers.

 

Whenever we refer to TITLE we are thinking of a preset button containing layers of objects that will be place in front of the video (the SET). The purpose of having separate presets for SETs and TITLEs is that they can be activated independently from one another. For example, the operator can configure a TITLE preset button to displays the legend "LIVE" in one corner of the screen. This text layer can be activated independently from the SET chosen at any given moment in time. These TITLE presets can be automated, so that captions like: "You're listening to: Madonna - Material Girl" or "Weather Info: 72F' appear during specific moments in each show. Below we are going to look into the functionalities provided by the TITLE panel.

 

TITLE presets: similar to the SET presets, these preset buttons display a thumbnail image displaying the graphic layers contained. Each TITLE preset may contain a variable number of layers. For changes in the TITLE panel to go on-air the operator has to press the PREVIEW/PROGRAM bar button (located in the TRANSITION panel).

 

TITLE presets are always toggle buttons. Are activated when pressed once, and deactivate if they are pressed once more. When a specific preset button is on air, the button's name background turns red. Selected buttons display a green frame around them. These framed objects will go on-air as soon as the operator clicks on the PREVIEW/PROGRAM bar button.

 

The user can have as many preset buttons active at once as he needs (up to 30 layers in total): One button may hold the isologotype image of the radio station or TV channel, another may display the name of the show currently on the air, a third one can display a news ticker on the bottom of the image, another could hold weather information, etc.

 

The order in which HDVmixer displays the preset buttons in the panel (left to right and top to bottom), is the order in which the layers are stacked one on top of the other in the final video composition. When two layers overlap the one on top will be displayed above the other ones.

 

LIST OF ACTIVE LAYERS

 

On the righthand area of the TITLE panel a list of all currently active layers is shown. The layers displayed here correspond to all the objects found on every preset button currently selected. So when there is more than one preset button selected simultaneously, the layer list will append all the layers corresponding to all preset buttons in the correct order in which they should be displayed.

 

Each layer in the list on the left has a box that lets you show/hide each layer independently. This feature is useful to have pre-configured text layers that are not visible, until the user updates it's text field with new information. It is therefore possible to have generic presets for LIVE COVERAGE, TELEPHONE INTERVIEW, etc, and only time-specific info of each particular event has to be filled just before going on the air. Avoiding the need for the operator to be working out layer configurations when he has to be focussed on the live coverage underway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EDITING TITLE PRESETS

 

Double-clicking on a preset button will bring up the TITLE edit window. Each of the layers contained in the preset can be individually modified. New text and image layers can be created, or existing layers can be reordered up or down in the layer stack, or simply deleted. 

 

The existing types of layers in HDVmixer are:

• Text
• Images
• Ticker: scrolling text (used for news)

To simplify operation, layer properties have been divided into tabs to sort properties by function: Text, Image, etc. Additionally there is a tab called 'General' with the properties common to all types of layers.

 

LAYER PROPERTIES

 

The 'General' tab displays the following common attributes to all layer types:

• Visble: Whether the layer is hidden or not
• Width: Width of the layer
• Height: Height of the layer
• X: Horizontal position of the layer inside the scene
• Y: Vertical position of the layer inside the scene
• Opacity: Transparency Level of the layer
• Global: Sets weather the layer has local scope to the current scene in particular or global scope. All layers which have animation and that the animation should not restart from the start when switching scenes should be defined as global. Since this allows an animated logo, or news ticker to continue the current animation sequence even when changing scenes
• Global Allocation: Indicates the global identifier assigned to the layer (HDVmixer supports up to 10 global text layers and 10 global image layers)

 

In addition to common attributes, there are specific attributes for each object type. The specific attributes of text layers are:

• Title: Short name describing the layer. It's used to refer to the layer in the Layers list area
• Font: Font type and size
• Text: Text to be displayed in the layer. The user can use 'metanames' (tags) that are automatically updated with information from AUDICOM's data base. Information such as the Title/Performer of the song currently been played, current time, temperature, RSS news feed, or several other data fields can be used to assemble text layers
• File: Used to define an external text file used to import the layer's text from
• Color: Text color
• BackColor: Text background color (if any)
• Align: Text alignment options (left/center/right)
• Opacity: Sets the degree of transparency of the text. 100% indicates a solid object, whereas 0% indicates that the text is completely transparent
• Border: Defines a border around each letter of the text. This functionality is frequently used to ensure that the text's visibility is optimal both over light or dark backgrounds
• Border Width: Defines the thickness (in pixels) of the font's outline border
• Border Color: Sets the color used by the font border
• Border Opacity: Sets the degree of transparency of the font's border
• Speed: News headlines are often displayed as scrolling text. A text layer can be configured to scroll at a specific speed. Scroll speed is given in pixels per second

 

The specific attributes for image layers are:

• Path: Image file to be displayed (supported image file types: BMP, PNG, GIF, JPG)

 

• Color (optional): Color used to tint the image. It can be useful to match a specific color set during some shows, while not having to create separate logos and captions for each program. If color is set to white, the feature is overridden

 

• Chroma Key: Activates the chroma keying for this particular layer

 

• Chroma Color: Sets the color the user wants to chroma key out of the image (make transparent)