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Pages

About Pages

Pages are the most basic element in Audience.foundation. You can create as many pages as you need, and keep them in the Page Pane until you delete them or drag them into the playlist for playback.

They contain the content of the Playback. Without them a Playback only displays the Screen background.

A page can contain any mixture of graphics, text, video, audio, plugins, command and control triggers, flash files and animations.

Pages are created manually in Audience.foundation or automatically using a data service. They are also created remotely using Audience.billboard.

Pages can be scheduled for date ranges, time ranges, days of the week, and for other more complex events using plug-ins.

ClosedExample plug-ins

Example

The Compare plugin reads a string or numeric value in an external file. It can be used in conjunction with a store’s inventory data. If stock for an item is high, it could trigger a page that promotes the item; if the inventory is low, it can tell Audience.foundation not to play the page. It could also be used in a similar way to promote the sale of ice cream when the weather reaches a certain temperature.

With the Occasion plugin you can set a page to play on certain holidays or birthdays, including days which are not always on the same date, like Mother's Day or Easter Sunday.

The Moon plugin tells the page to play based on the phases of the moon. This is useful if you want to create a series of pages that show the phase of the moon along with the weather. It is also useful in creating pages that indicate tides.

See Audience.plugins for a complete list of plugins and what they do.

Create A Page

  1. ClosedCreate a Page
    ClosedCreate a PageTemplate Using Quick Templates
    1. Right-click in the PageTemplate Pane and select from one of the existing Quick Templates.
    2. Type the name of your new pagetemplate and select Save.
    3. Modify the Page Details (Settings) more... Closed see Page Details (Settings)

    See Quick Templates

    ClosedCreate a Page Using an Existing Template

    1. Select an existing template from the template pane and drag it into the page pane.

    2. Select Use the original page/template's layout when you want the new page or template to be linked to the original template. Select Have a unique copy of the layout when you want to modify the Corel layout of the new page or template without affecting the existing template (and all pages already sharing that template's layout). See Templates and Pages: Linked or not Linked for details.

    3. Type the name of your new page and select Save.

    4. Modify the Page Details (Settings).
    ClosedCreate a PageTemplate From Scratch
    1. Right click anywhere in the pagetemplate pane and select Create New PageTemplate then select Custom.
    2. Name the pagetemplate.
    3. Create the Corel layout:
      • For web-based systems: Create a Background in CorelDraw or create a Solid Colour Background (for Crawls). For Audience.playback.tv or Audience.playback.sign systems: do not create a background of any kind. This ensures that the background is transparent.
      • Optional: Create a Graphic Box in CorelDraw.
      • Optional: Create Text Fields in CorelDraw. We recommend using Paragraph Text fields (essential if you are using Audience.billboard) unless you are creating for a  Crawl zone, which requires Artistic Text.
      • Tag Fields in CorelDraw so that the fields may be edited within Audience.foundation.
    4. Save your changes using the Done icon (green checkmark) in Corel.
    5. Double-click on the newly created pagetemplate to open it in Audience.foundation Page Details View, and make changes by selecting the appropriate tab and completing the various fields as explained in Page Details (Settings). Hit refresh.

    If applicable, see Templates for Data Services and Templates for use with Audience.billboard for additional instructions.

    ClosedCreate a pagetemplate by Copying an Existing pagetemplate

    Note: A copied page must be pasted into a different magazine.

    Note: A copied template must be pasted into a different zone.

    1. Right click on a pagetemplate and select Copy.
    2. Paste into a new magazinezone.

    Note: If the pagetemplate includes paragraph text fields and it is copied into a different zone, you may have to open the pagetemplate in CorelDraw and modify the font attributes or the size of the paragraph box to accommodate the new zone size. See Create Text Fields in CorelDraw.

    ClosedCreate a pagetemplate by Duplicating a pagetemplate
    1. Right-click on a pagetemplate and select Duplicate.

    2. Select Use the original page/template's layout when you want the new page or template to be linked to the original template. Select Have a unique copy of the layout when you want to modify the Corel layout of the new page or template without affecting the existing template (and all pages already sharing that template's layout). See Templates and Pages: Linked or not Linked for details.

    3. Type the name of your new pagetemplate and select Save.
    4. Modify the Page Details (Settings).
    ClosedCreate a pagetemplate using Drag & Drop From Computer File

    Drag and drop an image, video or flash file from the computer directly into the pagetemplate pane (works with jpg, tiff, bmp, tga, png, swf and mpg files).

  2. ClosedEdit the Page Details (Settings)

    Double-click on the page until you see the Page Details part of the screen and edit the relevant fields.

    ClosedText and Graphics

    You can modify the content of a page by selecting the Text and Graphics tab in Page Details. This tab displays the available fields in the page or template. See Text and Graphics (Content Fields)

    ClosedDescription

    The Description tab includes two fields: Title and Note.

    Title field in a Page: The page can have a user-friendly title. When the Title field is left blank, the page's title is its filename, which must contain only alphanumeric characters (for example, the following characters are not allowed: space _ + $ # -). There is no such constraint on Titles.

    Title field in a Template: The title field in a template serves a special purpose. When $headline is entered in the field, it makes the field available to Audience.billboard users, allowing them to enter a page title that appears in Audience.foundation and web-based systems.

    Note Field: The text in this field can be used for any purpose. Use it in conjunction with the Audience.foundation search function to easily find specific pages, or sort by this column in the page pane (in report view) to group pages together. The Note field in a Template serves a very specific function. When it is populated, a "help" button is generated next to the template when viewed in Audience.billboard. When the help button is selected, it is the text in the Note field that is displayed. You can also include a web link to an H.264 mpeg 4 video file. Once an individual page has been created using the template the Note field can once again be used for any purposes.

    See Titles in Pages and Templates and Note Field

     

    ClosedMisc (Duration, Client, Target page and Is Logged)

    Duration: The Duration of a Page is how long the page plays, including the time it takes for the transitions to play (see Page Details > Transition Tab > Duration). See Page/Template Duration

    Client: This field is used to idenfity the page's client - that could be the advertising company, the page creator, or whatever suits your needs. Use this field in combination with the Audience.foundation Search Pages function or with the column sorting in report view to quickly access information.

    Target Page:

    You can link one page (host page) to another page (target page) in another zone so that when the host page plays, it triggers the target page to also play in the other zones at the same time.

    ClosedExample

    You can have a "Happy Canada Day" page (in Zone 1) target an 'Events in the Park' page (in Zone2) and an advertisement for Ice Cream from the vendor in the park (in Zone 3). All pages play simultaneously whenever the "Happy Canada Day" page plays.

    See Target Pages

    Is Logged: Keep track of when a page plays for client billing purposes. When Is Logged is set to 'True', the page's filename, client field, display date and item is entered in the page log every time the page plays. See Is Logged

    ClosedSchedule

    You can schedule a template or page for weekdays, date ranges, or time ranges. You can also specify specific schedules using plugins, for things like "play when the moon is full" or "play when the temperature reaches 30°C" or "play on the hour every 2nd day during the Christmas Holidays".

    See Schedule a Template or Page 

    ClosedTransition

    Transitions control the way pages appear and disappear. Pages can flow into one another, they can snap, zoom, or wipe right off the screen.

    See Transitions

    ClosedAudio

    Pages can play audio files; a voice-over perhaps, or a jingle, or background music.

    See Audio Settings

    ClosedVideo

    Pages can contain video files like mpeg files or live broadcasts, or even flash files, depending on the kind of system you have.

    See Video Settings

    ClosedWeb

    A page can be set to play on the web differently than how it plays on the main Playback. For example, if the page is a long video, you can exclude it from playing on the web altogether, or you can play a different page on the web.

    See Web Settings for a Page

    ClosedInteractive

    This feature allows you to turn a page into a button on an Android touch-screen so that when it is pushed it triggers something to happen. Basically it turns an Android tablet into a kiosk. You can use it on a campus to touch a "map" button that triggers the school map to display, or it can be an "hours" button to see what's open nearby.

    See Interactive-settings

    ClosedExternal Device

    This feature is used to control External hardware devices via RS-232. The most common application is to control an external switcher. When a page plays, or is about to play, it can send a serial command to switch the switcher to a desired input. This can be used, for example, to switch between the Optibase MPEG2 digital video playback card, and a live video feed.

    See External Devices

  3. ClosedPut the Page in the Playlist

    Pages must be in the playlist to be displayed on-air or on the device, according to their schedule.

    To add pages to the playlist:

    1. Drag the page(s) from the page pane into the playlist.
    2. Using the mouse, order them in the sequence you desire for broadcast.

    To drag more than one page at a time use the Shift and Ctrl keys to select more than one page and then drag them all.