I'm not trying to build crutches... I'm always the first to say... "Just put a note in your script during the weather segment that says prompter" and sometimes I say "dude, you do it everyday, just remember it" I am the production manager, but I was a "young director" only two years ago, and the prompter set up was different in both stations I have worked at (here, and a 80 market station as an ignite operator.) The main goal of the building a switch or whatever was going to be a teaching tool and project for us to work on together. I use every day situations as a way to teach "you can always improve upon your situation" by means of having a better understanding of your equipment, your work flow, and the theory behind technical directing. With the exception of one (who has been doing it a year and a half) none of my directors have done this longer than a year. They are technical directing, rolling their own vtrs, running their still store, directing the show, and running their own cg. I am not looking for a crutch I am looking for a way to make some things that may often be overlooked a little easier to remember. Thanks for everyones advise, thougths, and opinions. Ben.

Michelle - just different thinking here. Changing the prompter is not considered a director or td responsibility EVERYWHERE. Here its the prompter operator's responsibility. Now, in a shop where the talent is rolling their own prompter then why not give control of it to them? We NEVER have "oops, forgot to change the prompter" issues. If the mechanics were already in place for a simple switch then why waste switcher resources on it? On the other hand I like the idea of the prompter as a source on a switcher or router for other reasons like feeding to a remote or routing to a monitor somewhere else in the house to serve as a temporary prompter.

Solve your problem by having someone else do it? No that's not the answer. Directing/switching is not always an easy task but with time, and certainly in a news situation, you learn the format and what needs to be done and when. You don't get better at your job by letting someone else do it, you get better by doing. It doesn't hurt if the crew ie camera guy, audio op, gives a little friendly "prompter" reminder to the director. Whatever helps the show. That's my motto.

Let the anchors change it! Keep that little green button but put it out on the set! (thats what we do at my station)

"This way the directors will see that annoying little blinking light and know that they need to hit the button to make the blinking stop which in return will keep the anchors happy, and the directors not feeling embarressed for forgetting to do this step." If they are young directors they will learn to switch the prompter. They will have bigger things to be embarrassed about as time go by. Building a prompter crutch is not the answer. I have been directing for awhile and I still get the P sign language from talent. Besides they have scripts. Besides if I asked an engineer to build what is proposed to remind me to switch prompter I'd be laughed at out of the shop.

[quote="Brian Ford"]Ben, Tallies and GPIOs are both [b] standard options[/b] that you don't need to pay extra for..[/quote] A standard option... You don't happen to dabble in politics do you?

Ben, Tallies and GPIOs are both standard options that you don't need to pay extra for.. The only extra option that costs money is if you need serial tallies (that can provide mnemonics to under monitor displays etc); but for what you are trying to do you can get by with the standard free parallel tallies.

These all sound like great ideas. Before the teleprompter was routed into the board as an actual source, we had a simple wired up panel an engineer installed years ago that was a button that turned green when prompter wason camera. Then when you punched it to flip it to off air the light turned red. Problem was that it was far out of reach of the TD's and was really annoying. About Tally's... we do not have that feature on our board. I wish we had GPI/O control and Talley control but, those are unlockable features we don't have the money to buy :-( Anymore ideas, keep them coming! Thanks, Ben

[quote="froul"]If you put a hold at the end of the custom the light of the custom will stay on until another macro is press... like putting back the offair to the teleprompter with a custom[/quote] The only issue with that is that since this is a Synergy SD system they don't support Multiple Custom Controls. So while that custom Control is in a hold you could not run another without canceling the Custom that has a Hold in it. I would use a GPI OUT looped back into a GPI IN. Set the GPI IN to "tally on GPI" use an unused Tally to then perform the contact closure for a Light that signals the TD. You can then follow Brian's steps to include the Trigger on and Trigger Reset in your Custom Controls to turn it on and off.

If you put a hold at the end of the custom the light of the custom will stay on until another macro is press... like putting back the offair to the teleprompter with a custom

TD13: no, there is no way to make the macro button flash like that.. if you are good with simple electronics, you could have the macro raise a level triggered gpio that you feed to a circuit that makes a big light blink or a flashing police siren or anything else you want.. Then the Prompter On macro would reset the gpio to its non-triggered state. It would be fairly simple to wire up.. I think the gpo connectors put out a +5v signal when they are active; but you would need to feed that signal into a relay or transistor as the gpo can not supply much current. you could probably do something similar with the tally outputs.. I think you can cause a tally to be active when a specific source is active on a specific aux bus. Send that Tally signal somewhere useful and you'll be able to see what is on the prompter.

I have a question for you Ross Cats as well. We use a Ross Synergy 3 and it hasn't been upgraded software wise in atleast 3 years. I'm not sure of the version number right now, but I can look later and tell you if it is an issue. We run our teleprompter display through the production switcher as a source. We have it as an Aux Assign and this way we can "flip" the camera's prompter display from the actual teleprompter, or route program into the monitor during Weather Wall segments so the Weather Talent can see themselves. I set up a couple of macros on the Custom Control to do the following 1. Prompter On - Teleprompter is Displayed 2. Prompter Off - Routes ABC Air into display 3. Fox Prompter Off - Routes FOX Air into display 4. PGM Prompter Off - Routes Production Switcher PGM directly in (Used when we are taping a newscast because of Sports or Political or anyother Network Pre-empts on Fox (we have a 9:00 Fox and then a 10pm ABC so we can't go live during pre-empts on Fox Some of my young directors are bad about remembering to hit the button that switches the prompter display back to Prompter On after Main Weather. Because of this the talent always kind of freaks out when they start trying to read the sports bump and the prompter isn't there. So after all that explanation here is my question for you guys: Is there a way I can set the Custom Control Prompter buttons to where when the prompter display is switched to any PGM or AIR feed (pretty much anytime the prompter is "off camera" the macro button that was hit will blink constantly until the prompter is put back "on camera" This way the directors will see that annoying little blinking light and know that they need to hit the button to make the blinking stop which in return will keep the anchors happy, and the directors not feeling embarressed for forgetting to do this step. Any ideas? Did I make ANY sense with this? Thanks :-) Ben

If it is version 17.11 then you can for sure go into the Bus Map and assign the Bus Hold button to a crosspoint. You can then use those to lock out the bus. One of the first switchers I ever used (first in High School and then on an OHL Game) was an RVS-216. It had the ability to set which buses would recall with memories and which would not. I think it even had a Recall to Preview mode that worked pretty cool as well. never actual used a 630 saw one but never switched on one.

Les ... sorry for the delay. It's a Synergy 2 SD running v17.11. For recalling the stills as part of my replay move, I've got a scenario that I'm pretty happy with, but might adjust it to use e-mems and the "keys only" rather than the way I have it set-up now. Thanks for the help!

Matt, What version of Synergy? SD or MD? And what software is it running (seen on the Home screen)? There are different ways to do Holds in SD Version 17 or 18 you can add a xpt to the switcher much like a shift button that becomes source hold. In MD I think it was added in v8 software. You also can use the "Keys Only" recall to change sources in the Keyers and configure the transition area. Again with the Still Store recalls this depends on which type of synergy. The old SD had the Still store in the DVE so you kinda did it with memories. In MD you can use the Keypad to type in the still ID. In MD I usually build a macro where I select the Channel of Still store and then type in the id # or just "cue" it through the menu. I go back later edit it and delete all of the commands that don't need to be there except the Still ID for Still Store entry.

We use our Synergy 1 at one of our remote church remote campuses. Its unique for us in that there are always 3 screens visible, with content to the outer two the same and the center screen different. Both "feeds" are actually set up as Aux outputs, so that I can ship Program around to whichever screen needs it. Using custom controls, I have looks for Preservice (changes aux outputs to predefined); Service Start (takes PGM to black, clears keys and reroutes auxs appropriately) and Message (again another reroute, clearing keys). Since volunteers run it, I also have Custom Controls that change Aux outputs, so they don't have to dig through the menus. Program/Preview outs only go to the control room, all other outputs (decks, internal TV) run through Auxes as well, so that I can control all (in theory) with a single button push. Since we use Powerpoint for graphics (to produce that jagged edge on text) I also have customs that fire off the DownStream Key, using self source, and filling it with a matte, so that one custom clears keys, loads text as white and fires it, another clears keys, loads text as black and fires it. This is in case there is a light background, use black text, a dark background uses white text, and the graphics people don't have to worry about changing everything, they just have white text on black. Also control all the tape roll ins from 3 different decks via the Ross. With all the button presses, and directing cameras, I'm trying to get them to go to a director/td setup.. but no one is used to it, oh well. Should actually get a chance to see a Synergy in an Overdrive application in a couple of weeks. Did the Jerry Lewis Telethon (local inserts) on a RVS-460... Director does news on the overdrive, so that'll be cool to see. How bout you? How you use it? b

Thank you, Bwatts! I appreciate it. How are you using your Synergy 1 ... is it part of an Overdrive system, or part of a more conventional control room set-up. You know, I gave-up on the "special" menu when I saw the CG and robotics interface sub menus ... I thought that for sure a "pause" wouldn't be there, when that should have been my clue to keep looking! As for the Xpt hold, it was a choice in the 'attribute' menu on an old Ross RVS-630 that I used to switch on, but I didn't see it on the Synergy, so I thought I'd ask. Thanks again for the help! Matt

1. Adding A Pause - Edit Custom Control > Insert Special > Special.... scroll all the way down 2. Cross point hold.... sorry can't help, we have the Synergy 1, it doesn't have xpt hold.... you can hold the program bus while executing the custom control though