Newscasts for NPR One

Transcription

1 Newscasts for NPR One There are several steps to successfully upload a newscast file for the NPR One app service. They are: Log into the audio skimmer and save the raw audio from the most-recently aired newscast Edit that newscast file in Adobe Audition Adjust the loudness levels in Audition and save the file Convert the file to the correct mp4 settings with Adobe Media Encoder Verify the file uploaded to NPR One Step 1 The skimmer steps The skimmer is a station tool which records our on-air programming and stores it for multiple purposes. For NPR One it is set to record the first 10 minutes of pretty much every hour of the day. The skimmer is also called the logger and archive player. It's a Windows-only application. (Read the detailed wiki instructions on the archive player.) Open the archive player from the menu under Start --> Telos Systems --> Archive Player Log into the primary kut account, choose Newscast from the top Archive drop down selector and select the Today date range and click OK.

2 Look through the listed recordings from today and select the most-recently-aired newscast from the list. By double-clicking it you'll open up the Cue list window. These recordings are the first 10 minutes of every hour. They are not edited. They include NPR programming as well as the local newscast that we insert into our broadcasts. Next you'll save the newscast file to the Temp Production folder on the desktop of the edit bay computer. Give it a logical name that you will remember because you're going to edit it next. The image below shows both of these steps. Step 2 Editing the newscast in Audition Open up Adobe Audition CS 6. There's a step coming up that requires CS 6 or newer, so make sure you're using the right software.

3 Find your raw newscast file from the Desktop > Temp Production folder and open it. Skim through your raw audio clip and trim it so it is just the local newscast segment. Typically it will begin around the 6:00 minute point and end about a minute and a half later. The length of the local newscast will vary from day to day. What you select to be the local insert for NPR One is an editorial decision. Review your new in and out points on your trimmed newscast clip to make sure it's clean and just our local content. Step 3 - Adjust the loudness levels in Audition and save the file Next you need to enable the Audition tool called Match Volume. It's under the Window menu. Select it to turn it on. Now drag your raw audio file down to the Match Volume tool. You'll see it analyzed by Audition and some measurements appear.

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5 There's a requirement for NPR One that the newscast file be at a particular loudness level. It's measured by an LUFS scale. Audition CS 6 has the industry standard matching tool built in. For the next step you need to select or verify the settings. They are: ITU-R BS.1770-S Loudness Loudness level of -17 for the mp3 Ensure the limiting box is checked Click the Run button in the lower right of the Match Volume tool

6 After you hit Run the audio file will be slightly modified by Audition to apply the loudness settings you chose. Now save your file to the Desktop --> Temp Production --> NPR One Newscast folder and call it newscast.mp3.

7 Save it as an MP3 file. It should default to the current settings of the raw file 320 Kbps, Stereo, Hz. It's going to be re-encoded at lower, but required settings next. Step 4 - Convert the file to the correct mp4 settings with Adobe Media Encoder Open Adobe Media Encoder 5.5 from the menu under Start --> Adobe --> Adobe Media Encoder

8 We have programmed the encoding settings and set the application to monitor the NPR One Newscast folder automatically. When you open the program it will do a few things: It will see your new newscast.mp3 file. It will convert the file from an mp3 to an mp4. It will upload the now newscast.mp4 file up to NPR. The below image shows all these things in progress. Highlighted on the image are the normal settings.

9 In theory, after the Encoder is done (it'll say Done and chime) the file is where it should be on the NPR One platform to be shared with app users. BUT it's a good idea to verify that the version of the newscast which you just completed did make it. Which leads us to... Step 5 - Verify the file uploaded to NPR One This is pretty quick. The steps are (images below): Open the FTP program called FileZilla from the menu under Start --> Filezilla FTP Client --> Filezilla Click on the Site Manager button Connect to the NPR One FTP site Verify the filename as newscast.mp4 and the date and time. It should be timestamped just a couple minutes ago. a. b. 5. Exit Filezilla. Every time the encoder is run it will overwrite the older version of the newscast.mp4, which may only be an hour old. The NPR One system will not play a newscast that is older than 6 hours.

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12 You're done!... Until the next hour