Sofie: The Modern TV News Studio Automation System

This is not the NRK-specific blueprints for the Sofie News Studio Automation System.

These blueprints work with the Rundown Editor or the Spreadsheet Gateway.

Prerequisites

Essential

• A Sofie Core release 53 setup.

Recommended

• A CasparCG setup with the Sofie Demo Assets installed.

  • This demo expects two channels to be configured in CasparCG: the first is used for media/VT playout and the second is used for graphics playout. Open casparcg.config in your text editor of choice and scroll down for more information on how to configure CasparCG. Your <paths> section should look like this:

  <paths>
  	<media-path>sofie-demo-media/</media-path>
  	<log-path>log/</log-path>
  	<data-path>data/</data-path>
  	<template-path>sofie-demo-template/</template-path>
  	<thumbnail-path>thumbnail/</thumbnail-path>
  	<font-path>font/</font-path>
  </paths>

Optional (for full demo experience)

• One of the following supported vision mixers:
  • Blackmagic ATEM
  • vMix
• A Sisyfos Audio Controller setup

💡 If you don't have a supported vision mixer, CasparCG setup, or Sisyfos setup, that's okay. You can still proceed with the demo setup and skip the steps for the pieces you don't have.

Installation

1. In the Sofie UI, ensure that all migrations have been run.
   • Navigate to http://[YOUR SOFIE CORE IP]:3000/settings/tools/migration?admin=1.
     • If you're on the machine where Sofie Core is running, this will be http://localhost:3000/settings/tools/migration?admin=1
   • Fill out all the fields and then click "Run automatic migration procedure".
   • If you don't wish to demo the Slack integration, enter http://localhost:3000 for the Slack webhook URL.
   • For this demo, we'll be using a media format of 1280x720p5000.
2. Ensure that playout-gateway is running and attached to the studio.
   • Under the Studios heading, expand your studio and click Attached Devices.
   • Click the plus icon (+) and attach the Playout gateway.
3. Head to the releases page and download the demo-blueprints-r*.zip file for the latest release.
4. Extract the zip archive and upload each of blueprints via the Sofie UI:
   • Back on the Sofie settings page, click the plus icon (+) to the right of the Blueprints heading.
   • Select the new blueprint and then click "Upload Blueprints".
   • Select system-bundle.js from the extracted zip archive.
   • Name this blueprint system.
   • Click the plus icon again to add another blueprint.
   • This time, upload demostudio-bundle.js, naming it demostudio.
   • Repeat for demoshowstyle-bundle.js, naming it demoshowstyle.
5. Assign the blueprints:
   • Select the system blueprint and click the "Assign" button.
   • Under the Studios heading, expand your studio and click Generic Properties.
   • In the Blueprint dropdown, select demostudio.
   • Under the Show Styles heading, expand your showstyle and click Generic Properties.
   • In the Blueprint dropdown, select demoshowstyle.
6. Run the blueprint migrations
   • Under the Tools heading, click "Upgrade Database".
   • Fill out any fields and run the migrations.
     • If there's a device you don't have, enter 127.0.0.1 for the IP address.
7. Add your vision mixer device to the Playout Gateway
   • Under the Devices heading, select Playout Gateway
   • In the Sub Devices section, click the plus button (+) to add a new device.
   • Click the edit button (pencil icon) to the right of the newly added device.
   • If using an ATEM, give it a Device ID of atem0. If using vMix, give it a Device ID of vmix0.
   • Select the appropriate Device Type from the dropdown.
   • Fill out the Host and Port fields.
     • For an ATEM, the port will be 9910.
     • For vMix, the port can be obtained from "Settings > Web Contoller". It defaults to 8088.
8. Go back to the Studio Blueprint Configuration page (http://localhost:3000/settings/studio/demostudio/blueprint-config).
   • Create and fill out the configuration for the devices you have.
     • If using an ATEM for your vision mixer, ensure that you have the following inputs configured: 2 camera, 1 remote, 1 mediaplayer, and 1 graphics.
     • If using vMix, ensure that you have all of the above and 1 multiview input configured. This input will be used for DVEs.
   • After filling out this configuration, you may need to run migrations again. On the "Upgrade Database" page, click "Reset All Versions" then click "Run automatic migration procedure".
   • Click "Reload Baseline" (just above the "Attached Devices" section in the Studio settings).
9. Restart the Playout Gateway.
10. Use the Rundown Editor or the Spreadsheet Gateway to add a demo rundown to Sofie.
11. Go to the Rundowns page (http://localhost:3000/rundowns) and click on the rundown you added in the previous step.
12. (Optional) If you wish to have accurate media/VT statuses in the Rundown view, as well as hoverscrub media previews, set up Package Manager.
13. Right-click the blue header bar and click Activate (Rehearsal).
14. Hit F12 to Take.

Documentation

In-depth documentation can be found here: https://superflytv.github.io/sofie-demo-blueprints/

Installation (for developers)

For developers, the installation steps are as follows:

git clone https://github.com/SuperFlyTV/sofie-demo-blueprints.git
yarn
yarn dist

The dist/*-bundle.js files can then be uploaded, assigned, and configured in the Sofie UI.

Development

This project builds with Rollup (via sofie-blueprint-tools) and can auto-upload on successful compilation.

Quick Start for Development

yarn build-sync-local --development  # Build and upload to local Sofie
yarn watch-sync-local                # Watch mode with auto-upload

Tip: Use the --development flag when uploading blueprints during development. Without it, you will need to manaully "Validate and Apply Config" from the "Apply blueprint upgrades" section of "Ugrade database" in settings.

Alternative Commands

yarn watch:blueprints # alias to upload to a local instance
# yarn watch --server="http://localhost:3000" # can be used to upload to a remote sofie instance

The --bundle=show option can be used with watch or build to only build a specific bundle. Currently, show is the only bundle defined in these demo blueprints (see blueprint-map.mjs). Warning: using this parameter with yarn dist will cause mismatched versions in the outputs.

For more information on defining blueprint bundles, see the sofie-blueprint-tools documentation.

There are some unit tests for the project, currently just to validate that the blueprints do not crash while executing. These can be run with:

yarn test:blueprints

When adding code that uses new fields on the MosExternalMetadata, make sure to add a new rundown to the tests, to ensure that code is covered by the few tests that have been added.

Acknowledgements

sofie-demo-blueprints uses many open source libraries, some of which include:

• caniuse-lite with data sourced from caniuse.com