Pinnacle Systems iNews - 2.0 User Manual

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Avid

iNEWS™ Newsroom Computer System

Setup and Configuration Manual

Version 2.0

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Avid

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Footage

Arizona Images — KNTV Production — Courtesy of Granite Broadcasting, Inc., Editor/Producer Bryan Foote. Canyonlands — Courtesy of the National Park Service/Department of the Interior. WCAU Fire Story — Courtesy of NBC-10, Philadelphia, PA. Women in Sports – Paragliding — Courtesy of Legendary Entertainment, Inc.

Avid® iNEWS™ Newsroom Computer System Setup and Configuration Manual

Part # 0130-06339-01 Rev B • 25 October 2004

Using This Guide

Who Should Use This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

About This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Symbols and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

If You Need Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

...With the Syntax of Console Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Related Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

If You Have Documentation Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

How to Order Documentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Avid Educational Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter 1 Introduction

What is Avid Unity for NEWS? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

iNEWS NRCS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Third-Party Connectivity and Open Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

System Administrator Tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Basic Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

User Tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Database Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Security Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Customizing the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Storage Maintenance Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Device Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Reviewing Default Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Chapter 2 The iNEWS Console

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

The Console Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Standard Console Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Starting the Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

The System Operator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

The Console Superuser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Entering Superuser Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Exiting Superuser Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Changing System Administration Passwords. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Exiting the Console. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Troubleshooting a Frozen Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Types of Console Commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Server Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Console Control Commands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Console Function Keys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Assigning a Command to a Function Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Changing the Assignment of a Function Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Deleting the Definition of a Function Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Displaying Function Key Assignments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Selecting Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Selecting One or More Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Zooming in on One Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Console History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Viewing Recent Console History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Viewing Logged Console History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Using the Remote Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Dialing in to the Console. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Executing Commands Remotely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Logging out from a Remote Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Logging out a Remote User from the Main Console. . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

The Console Configuration File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Viewing the Configuration File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Sample Console Configuration File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Editing the Console Configuration File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Console Configuration Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Chapter 3 Getting Started

Starting the System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Shutting Down the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Starting a System in Single-Server Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Chapter 4 Users

Viewing User Accounts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Modifying User Traits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

User Traits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Changing a User’s Password. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

User Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Simplified Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Creating New Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Creating a New User Area in the News Database. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Adding a New User Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Enabling a New User to Receive Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Searching for User Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Removing User Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

User ID and User Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Type. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Edit Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Queues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Read Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Session/Configuration/Queue Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Password. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

User Preferences... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Get from Template... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Session Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Confirmations Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Backup Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Refresh Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Layout Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Search Results Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Workspaces Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Application Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Copying User Traits to Another User Account. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Creating a New User Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

iii

The User Manager Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

The Database Manager Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Logging Out All Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Chapter 5 Stories Queues, and Directories

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Adding a Directory or Queue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

A Few Restrictions: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Creating a New Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Creating a New Queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Setting up the Outgoing Mail Queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Setting up the Dead Letter Queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Creating a New Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Removing a Directory or Queue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Renaming a Directory or Queue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Viewing Database Traits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

From the iNEWS Workstation... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

From the iNEWS Console. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Sending Output from the List Command to a Printer . . . . . . . . 112

Getting Information about Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Finding out Who Moved, Duplicated, or Killed a Story. . . . . . . 114

Recovering a Killed Story. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Changing Database Traits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Database Traits Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Directory/Queue Properties Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Forms Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Groups Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Abstract Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Maintain Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

User Interface Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Locks Tab. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Locking and Unlocking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Identifying Locked Queues and Stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

From the iNEWS Workstation... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

From the Console... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Types of Locks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Unbusy Stories and Queues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Chapter 6 Groups

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Viewing Group Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

From the Console... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

From a Workstation.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Creating a New Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Step 1 - Choosing a Group Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Step 2 - Create New Group at Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Step 3 - Specifying Members of a New Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Group Checker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Group Checker Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Renaming a Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Step 1 - Change Group Name in System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Step 2 - Change Group Name in SYSTEM.GROUPS . . . . . . . . . . 164

Deleting a Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Creating or Modifying Multiple Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Adding Members to an Existing Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Users as Members of a Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Groups as Members of Other Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Workstations as Members of Groups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Group Access and Usage Restrictions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Access and Usage Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Group Traits for the Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Read Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Write Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Edit Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

User Lock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Order Lock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Production Lock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Avoiding Recursion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Combining Permissions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Setting an Automatic Timeout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Notification Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Restricted Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Restricting Both Reading and Writing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Transferring Group Assignments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Hiding Queues and Directories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Mail Aliases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Creating a Mail Alias. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Mail Aliases for Other Machines or the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Chapter 7 Keyboards and Macros

Understanding Macros and Keyboards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Customizing Workstation Keyboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Creating a New Keyboard Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Creating a Macro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Adding Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Assigning Macros to Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Predefined System Function Keys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

State Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Using Plain Text in Macros. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Repeating Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Notes of Caution for Creating Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Keyboard Checker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Warning Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Assigning a Default Keyboard to a User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Chapter 8 Forms

Form Names, Locations and Guidelines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Guidelines for Designing Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Creating Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Customizing Forms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Label Borders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Assigning a Form as a Queue or Story Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Form Field Types and Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

iNEWS MCS/ControlAir Fields and Forms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Standard iNEWS Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Account Queue Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Mail Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Print Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Find All Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Wire Story Form. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Chapter 9 Character Generator Title Entry

Overview of CG Title Entry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Title Entry Setup and Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Understanding CG Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

CG Template Backgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Required Bitmaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Capture Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Hardware Requirements for Capture Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Installation of Capture Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Using the Capture Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

CG Template Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Edit Title Entry Template Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Creating a New Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Using Font PreSets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Title Entry Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Access to CG Template Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Access to CG Title Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Chapter 10 System Configuration Files

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Making a Backup File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Viewing System Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Printing a Copy of a File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Licensing of iNEWS Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Viewing Information About Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

List C Message Columns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Configuration File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

vii

Changing the Configuration File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Testing the Site Configuration File After Changing. . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Incorporating Configuration Changes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Hosts File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

System Profiles Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Changing the System Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Listing Parameter Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

System Profile Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Adding Devices to Your iNEWS System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Adding a PCU or PC-PCU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

PCU Device Numbering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Adding a Workstation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Adding a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

Adding a Wire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Alternative Editing of the Site Configuration File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Intersystem Messaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Sending Intersystem Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Receiving Intersystem Messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Database Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

iNEWS Workstation Session Behavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

viii

Chapter 11 Printers

System Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

The Printer Profile Files in /site/printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Customizing Print Effects (Fonts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Defining a Font. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Combining Print Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Defining Print Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Defining a Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Combining Setup Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Font and Form Space Available. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Printer Profile Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Profile-Only Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Profile and Style Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Standard Header and Footer Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

User-Selected Headers and Footers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Profile Option Defaults. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Using Special Characters in a Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Using Nonprinting Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Avoiding Characters Used by the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Creating and Using Print Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Creating a Style Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Changing System Profile Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Selecting Forms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Identifying and Selecting Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Local Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Local Printing Dialog Box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Local Print Style Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Banner Format Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

Example Style Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

Managing Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

Removing a Pending Print Request. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

Restarting the Current Print Request. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Reordering a Pending Print Request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Cancelling a Runaway Print Job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Responding to a “Printer Offline” Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Chapter 12 Wires

Adding a Wire – Avid Data Receiver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Phase 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Phase 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Phase 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Phase 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Adding a Wire – PCU Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

Phase 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

Phase 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

Phase 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Phase 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Wire Profile Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Wire Profile Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

Using Special Characters in a Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Entering Nonprinting Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Entering Characters by Alias . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Entering Characters by Decimal Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Avoiding Characters Used by the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Converting Text with Accents and Diacritical Marks. . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Distributing Stories from the Wire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Defining Distribution of Wire Stories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Creating a Distribution Name. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

Identifying a Destination Queue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Changing Notification Priority. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Setting the Transmit or Always Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Adding a Distribution Line. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Avoiding Hidden Categories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Using the WIRES.ALL Notification Priority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Distributing Unknown Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

Maximum Number of Lines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Mailboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Purge Intervals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Internationalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

Operating Wire Keyword Searches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

Setting up Keyword Searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

Additional Information about Search Jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Suppressing a Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Default Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Keyword Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

Keyword Searching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

Using Parentheses in Searches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

Tips on Building Search Rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

User Notification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

Removing a Rule Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

Sending a Story to More Than One Queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

Default Directory Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

The Keyword Mailbox. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

Keyword Checker Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

Chapter 13 Servers

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

Adding a Server Program to the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

Job Lists: Queues, Stories, and Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

Defining Tasks for Servers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Defining Mailbox Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

Defining Timed-Interval Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423

Action Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

Adding an Action Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

Assigning Field Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

Mirroring Rundowns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434

Distribution Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440

Assigning Distribution Codes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Adding a Distribution Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

Parallel Wire Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

Adding a Parallel Wire Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451

Keyword Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458

Adding a Keyword Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462

System Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468

Adding a Scan Line in a Job List Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414

Defining a Server Command Set. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

Using Mailboxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

Assigning a Mailbox to a Queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422

Background and Possible Uses of Validation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

Using Validation with Action Servers or Tx Links . . . . . . . . . . 431

Using the Validation Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

Validation Job List Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

Polling for Action Servers/Tx Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

Configuring Rundown Mirroring. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436

Using Wildcards and the Destination Queue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442

From the Command Line. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

Using an Action Server or Tx Link. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

Instructions in the Wire Distribution Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Matching and Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

Matching and Order. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

Seek Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468

Installing a Seek Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469

Fast Text Search (FTS) Servers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

FTS Workflow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

Installing FTS Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474

...On the Windows-based Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

...On iNEWS Servers (Linux) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478

Batch Indexing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482

Archival and Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

Print Servers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485

Adding a Print Server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486

Mail Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

Disabling Mail to All Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

Using Network Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

Using 8-Bit Characters in Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489

Character Conversion Table for Underscore-Prefix Format. . . 490

Monitor Servers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495

Configuring Monitor Servers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496

Configuration Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496

Configuration Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497

Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519

Creating Styles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521

Using the Monitor Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 526

Network iNEWS Systems Using Rx/Tx Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

Sending Story Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 528

Setting Automatic Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

Updating Queue Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530

Changing Queue Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

Adding Rx/Tx Links. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

Adding Network Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532

xii

Chapter 14 Web Publishing and Access

Web Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

Setting Up Txnet to Send HTML. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

Default HTML Export Template and Queue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

Creating an HTML Export Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

Adding Story Entity References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

NSML to HTML Conversion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

Using Optional Format Strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

A Sample HTML Export Template. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555

Web Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559

The Web Server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559

Web Access Login . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559

Web Access Story Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560

Web Access Directory and Queue Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563

Template Entities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564

Web Access Configuration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572

Appendix A Command References

Programs Invoked by iNEWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578

Commands Used by Avid Personnel Only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578

Linux Commands Used in iNEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

Console Control Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580

Console Server Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584

Job List Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 627

Dialog Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633

Appendix B System Files

/etc/dhcpd.conf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642

/etc/hosts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642

/site/config . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 643

/site/printers/hplaser1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 647

/site/system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 647

/site/wires/anpa7. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 648

console.cfg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649

SYSTEM.CLIENT.WINDOWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650

SYSTEM.CONFIGURE.301-ACTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651

SYSTEM.MAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 652

SYSTEM.RESOURCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 654

SYSTEM.WIRES.DISTRIBUTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656

xiii

SYSTEM.WIRES.KEYWORDS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657

SYSTEM.WIRES.KEYWORDS-AP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 657

SYSTEM.WIRES.KEYWORDS-AP2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 658

Appendix C Standard Dictionaries

Using Dictionaries to Define Messages and Commands . . . . . . . . . . . 660

Customizing Dictionaries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662

Changing Default Dictionary Values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 662

Restoring Dictionary Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666

Utility Messages Dictionary (/site/dict/messages) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 667

DBServer Program Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669

Disconnect Program Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669

Category and Keyword Check Program Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . 670

Keyboard Check Program Messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671

Keyboard Check Program Messages for Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 671

Grpcheck Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673

Wire Program Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 675

Mail Server Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 676

Validation (Action) Server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 676

Seek Server Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 676

Last Login Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 677

Messages for Print Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678

Message for the Sony Barcode Printer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678

dbtraits Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678

ccumsgs Dictionary (/site/dict/ccumsgs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 678

PCU Messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 679

Commands Dictionary (/site/dict/ccucmds). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 682

Job List Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 687

Queues Dictionary (/site/dict/queues) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 688

Words Dictionary (/site/dict/words) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 691

Connect Dictionary (/site/dict/doac) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695

Telex Dictionary (/site/dict/telex) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 699

Dial Dictionary (/site/dict/dial) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 701

Keyboard Macros Dictionary (/site/dict/keymacros) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 702

Printer Messages Dictionary (/site/dict/printmsgs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704

xiv

Case-shifting Dictionary (/site/dict/shift) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 705

MCS Dictionary (/site/dict/mcs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707

Device Types Used by Monitor Servers and Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . 707

Special Strings Recognized by the Monitor Server . . . . . . . . . . . . 708

Error Messages for the Monitor Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 708

Error Messages Shared by Monitor Servers and Drivers . . . . . . . 711

Driver Errors Sent to MCT Only. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711

Driver Errors Sent to MCT and Possibly to Console & Mon User . 711

Driver Errors Sent to User Only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712

Status Reported in Device Status Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 712

Appendix D PCU Reference

Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714

PCUs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714

Resetting a PCU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715

PCU LED Displays. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 715

Connecting Devices to a PCU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717

Locating Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717

Connecting a PCU to the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717

Appendix E Character Maps

ASCII (7-bit) Character Set. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719

IBM Character Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725

dbrestore Character Map (Arabic) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 732

Sample Arabic Wire Profile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733

Appendix F Environment Variables

Registry Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738

Environment Variables (Registry Values). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 739

CCColor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740

DestinationOrder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 742

MailLookup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743

MsgMailAlert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744

PIColor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746

RGB Hexadecimal Color Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747

ShowTimingBar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748

SyncToServer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 752

Delete_Notify . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 754

Environmental Variables for Servers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 755

Appendix G Managing Traits at the Console

Viewing User Traits from the Console. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 760

Modifying User Traits from the Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761

Changing a Users’ Password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 762

Listing Users Who Do Not Have Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764

User Traits Console Command Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 768

Managing Database Traits from the Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773

Getting Basic Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 773

Getting Detailed Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774

Changing Database Traits from the Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775

Changing a Parent Directory Only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775

Database Traits Console Command Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 776

Sortfield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 785

Purge Interval. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787

Abstract Printing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 788

Mailbox. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790

The dis Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 791

Managing Group Traits at the Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793

Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793

Restricting Access Using Read and Write Limitations . . . . . . . . . . 795

Removing Directory or Queue Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 796

Appendix H The Line Editor, ed

Launching ed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798

Editing Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 801

Saving Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 804

Quitting ed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 805

Index

xvi

Specifying Lines to Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 798

Searching the File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800

Using This Guide

Congratulations on your purchase of an Avid iNEWS newsroom computer system. It is a vital part of the Avid Unity for News system solution that integrates with other Avid systems and third-party equipment to provide an ideal nonlinear workflow and optimize the news production process.

This manual provides information on how to manage the iNEWS newsroom computer system, consisting of:

•A console

• One or more servers

• Various clients, such as iNEWS Workstations and printers

The documentation describes software features and hardware related to the iNEWS newsroom computer system, which is extremely customizable. Your system may not contain certain features and/or parts that are mentioned in the documentation.

Who Should Use This Manual

This manual is written for system administrators who are managing the iNEWS newsroom computer system (NRCS). It is strongly recommended that system administrators have prior experience in or classroom knowledge of Red Hat Linux system administration. All iNEWS system administrators need to:

• Manage user accounts, security and permissions

• Start up and shut down iNEWS NRCS

• Perform file system maintenance, backup, and recovery

Using This Guide

• Maintain disks

• Monitor processes

• Configure and monitor the network

About This Manual

This manual is part of a two-book set designed to keep pace with current advances in the Avid system’s news production capabilities. The set—made up of this book and the Avid iNEWS Operations and Troubleshooting Manual—is a comprehensive resource of all the information you will need to take advantage of the many options available to you. This manual will lead you through even the most complex procedures with task-oriented instructions. The information provided here builds on basic news production procedures described in the help system and other user-based guides, while adding a complete explanation of all the tools and techniques required to manage the newsroom computer system, including useful tips, shortcuts, and custom options.

The Contents lists all topics included in this guide. They are presented with the following overall structure:

• The Introduction helps you get oriented with beginning concepts and general workflow and provides valuable pointers to keep in mind as you proceed.

• The main body of this guide follows the natural flow of your work, with clear and comprehensive step-by-step procedures.

• Finally, a detailed Index helps you quickly locate specific topics.

Symbols and Conventions

Avid documentation uses the following symbols and conventions:

Symbol or Convention Meaning or Action

Symbols and Conventions

> This symbol indicates menu commands (and

Margin tips In the margin, you will find tips that help you

Italic font Italic font is used to emphasize certain words and to

A note provides important related information, reminders, recommendations, and strong suggestions.

A caution means that a specific action you take could cause harm to your computer or cause you to lose data.

A warning describes an action that could cause you physical harm. Follow the guidelines in this document or on the unit itself when handling electrical equipment.

subcommands) in the order you select them. For example, File > Import means to open the File menu and then select the Import command.

This symbol indicates a single-step procedure. Multiple arrows in a list indicate that you perform one of the actions listed.

perform tasks more easily and efficiently.

indicate variables.

Courier Bold font

Courier Bold font identifies text that you type, such as commands entered at the console multiplexor. Output displayed on the console screen will appear in regular Courier font.

Using This Guide

Symbol or Convention Meaning or Action

Lengthy console displays may be edited to emphasize only the most

important information in this manual. An ellipsis (...) represents portions of the console display not shown in the text. The console can display each server’s prompt based on the system ID (typically a station’s call letters) and the server’s name. Examples in this manual use NRCS as the fictional station and system ID. For instance, the following is the console prompt for server A on the NRCS system: NRCS-A$

Click Quickly click and release the left mouse button.

Double-click Click the left mouse button twice rapidly.

Right-click Quickly click and release the right mouse button.

Drag Click and hold the left mouse button while you move

the mouse.

Ctrl+key Press and hold the first key, such as Ctrl, Alt, or

Shift, while you press the second key.

If You Need Help

If you are having trouble using iNEWS:

1. Retry the action, carefully following the instructions given for that task in this guide. It is especially important to check each step of your workflow.

2. Check for the latest information that might have become available after the documentation was published in one of two locations:

- If release notes are available, they ship with your application CD,

- If ReadMe files are available, they are supplied in your Avid

Release notes and ReadMe files are also available on the Avid Knowledge Center.

are in PDF format, and may be viewed from the CD using Adobe Reader, a program freely available on the Internet.

application folder. ReadMe files are also available from Help.

3. Check the documentation that came with your Avid application or your hardware for maintenance or hardware-related issues.

4. Visit the Knowledge Center at www.avid.com/support. Online support services are available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Search this online Knowledge Center to find answers, to view error messages, to access troubleshooting tips, to download updates, and to read/join online message-board discussions.

5. For Technical Support, please call 800-800-AVID (800-800-2843). For Broadcast On-Air Sites and Call Letter Stations, call

800-NEWSDNG (800-639-7364).

...With the Syntax of Console Commands

If you are at the console, and are unsure about the function of a console command, use the help command.

To view instructions about using a command, type help followed by the name of the command. For instance, type help dbvisit for an explanation of the dbvisit command. The following data appears:

dbvisit -<d or v or i> -{r or m name] -[s] [block# ...] ‘r’ for read only ‘s’ for ‘m’ for machine name to disconnect ‘i’ to just validate isam files

“

slow” to eliminate cache usage

If You Need Help

Because of the margin limitations of this manual, console command lines may appear wrapped to multiple lines. This does not necessarily indicate the need to press an Enter key. Unless otherwise indicated, console commands should be typed on a single line, allowing the computer to wrap the text whenever the command line stretches beyond the screen margin.

See “Types of Console Commands” on page 28 for more information.

Using This Guide

Related Information

The following documents provide more information about the iNEWS newsroom computer system:

• iNEWS NRCS Prep, Installation, and Upgrade Manual

• iNEWS NRCS Training Guide

• iNEWS NRCS Release Notes

The following documents provide more information about some of the other Avid products that integrate with the iNEWS newsroom computer system:

• iNEWS ControlAir Installation and Operations Manual

• iNEWS ControlAir User Manual

• iNEWS ControlAir Release Notes

• Avid Data Receiver Installlation and Operations Manual

• MOS Gateway Installation and Operations Manual

• MOS Gateway Release Notes

• Media Browse Installation and Operations Manual

• Media Browse Training Manual

• Media Browse Release Notes

For the latest information on all Avid products and documentation on other Unity for News products, such as the Avid AirSPACE video server, Avid Active ContentManager, or the Avid NewsCutter nonlinear editing system, see the Avid Knowledge Center: http://support01.avid.com.

If You Have Documentation Comments

We’d appreciate any comments or suggestions you may have about this document or any other piece of documentation. Please restrict your comments to documentation issues.

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Using This Guide

Chapter 1

Introduction

As part of the Avid Unity for News broadcast solution, the iNEWS newsroom computer system is an integrated, digital news creation, and production system. It provides journalists, producers, directors, writers, and technical personnel in a newsroom with an array of tools to make their jobs easier.

This chapter contains the following main sections:

• What is Avid Unity for NEWS?

• System Administrator Tasks

Chapter 1 Introduction

What is Avid Unity for NEWS?

The Avid Unity for News system is a nonlinear shared storage media network that enables the immediate and simultaneous availability of footage upon acquisition to both journalists and editors; the sharing of footage among teams for shot selection, script writing, and production; the parallel editing of news packages and promotions; and on-air playout, without dubbing back to tape, within moments of story completion. It is a truly integrated broadcasting solution that minimizes lag between processes, where even activities such as asset management and Web updating become concurrent tasks that facilitate production, without interfering with the primary objective of putting the news on the air.

In the Avid Unity for News workflow, the Avid iNEWS newsroom computer system provides up-to-date news data throughout the newsroom and seamlessly links all tasks in the production process, such as wire service, assignment desk, script writing, browse, editing, rundown, playout, and device control tasks.

The Avid Unity for News environment consists of integration between several Avid products, such as:

• The Avid iNEWS newsroom computer system

• The Avid Media Browse system, including Avid Capture Manager

• The Avid iNEWS ControlAir system

• The Avid NewsCutter nonlinear editing system

• Avid Active ContentManager

• Avid AirSPACE video server(s)

Your newsroom may have any one or all of these products and others not mentioned in this brief summary.

What is Avid Unity for NEWS?

The figure below shows a typical high- and low-resolution workflow, from capture to playout, in a shared storage environment with an iNEWS newsroom computer system:

iNEWS NRCS

An iNEWS newsroom computer system (NRCS) provides:

• News gathering from video, audio, and text sources

• News production, including:

- Story creation and script editing

- Show planning and creation

Chapter 1 Introduction

• News to air, including:

- On-air playback control

- File exporting

- Internet publishing

In an Avid Unity for News environment, Web production processes can occur in parallel with newcast production.

For more information, see “NRCS Components” in Chapter 1 of the

iNEWS Installation and Upgrade Manual.

Some primary components of iNEWS NRCS include:

• Linux-based computers running the iNEWS Server software. In this manual, these host computers are referred to as the iNEWS Servers, or individually as server A, server B, and so forth.

• An IBM/Intel-compatible personal computer (PC) running the iNEWS console multiplexor program. This PC is known as the console. See Chapter 2, “The iNEWS Console” for more information.

• Windows-based computer running the iNEWS client software. These PCs are known as iNEWS Workstations

• Other clients, such as printers.

Third-Party Connectivity and Open Integration

Avid’s commitment to open integration and conformance with industrystandard technologies is clearly demonstrated as a major feature of the Unity for News product set. Avid supports open integration by, among other methods, offering no fewer than 13 Applications Programming Interfaces (APIs) for Avid products to interact with third-party devices, software, and custom development, such as the general NRCS-MOS protocol agreement, or Transfer Manager APIs.

The iNEWS system is capable of interfacing with a wide variety of major control systems and servers with dedicated device interfaces, including Omnibus

™

and Sony®. The iNEWS system has an efficient Active-X implementation of the MOS protocol, which greatly extends its interfacing abilities. For instance, in conjunction with iNEWS, ControlAir provides a

System Administrator Tasks

central point of control for up to 32 production devices, such as video servers, character generators, and still store machines from third-party manufacturers; a sample of which is provided in Table 1.

Table 1 Third-Party Integration

Device Type Manufacturers

Video Servers Sony, Grass Valley

Character Generators Chyron, Aston, Pinnacle, Abekas, Quantel, and Pixel

Power

Still Store Machines Leitch

The Avid Unity Transfer Manager productivity tool synchronizes with the iNEWS rundown to determine file transfer priority—the story that appears sooner in the rundown will automatically be ranked higher in the queue, and playout order of the newscast matches the rundown precisely.

In addition to conforming to accepted, standard file formats, such as Open Media Framework (OMF), Avid systems accept media in more than 30 other file formats, allowing them to accept, use, track, and present any media, images, graphics, audio, scripts, or notes.

System Administrator Tasks

The following sections introduce many system administrator responsibilities and the system’s capabilities and functions.

and Quantel

™

, and Quantel

Basic Tasks

Before you can customize or maintain the iNEWS newsroom computer system, you must learn several basic tasks, which include:

• Start up or shut down iNEWS NRCS, which includes logging out users and taking the system offline.

Chapter 1 Introduction

User Tasks

• Backing up a site file before making file modifications.

• Send system administrator commands from the console to one or more of your system’s computers.

• Be a console superuser, capable of setting up special superuser permissions.

A user is anyone who can log in to the database and use iNEWS NRCS. Your responsibilities regarding users are:

• Monitor user information, such as users’ access privileges and which users are currently logged in.

• Customize the traits of users’ accounts to enable users to more effectively use the system.

• Provide a new employee access to the information stored in the iNEWS NRCS database by creating a new user account.

Database Tasks

• Remove user accounts of former employees to prevent improper access to the iNEWS NRCS database.

The iNEWS system database contains the information your oganization needs to function. A system administrator’s tasks associated with the database include:

• Design forms (that is, story templates) to display important information about stories in a queue.

• Monitor changes to files and queues in the database.

• Unlock or delete any item in the database, and recover items that were accidentally deleted or corrupted.

• Create new folders or queues in the iNEWS system database to meet your organization’s expanding needs.

• Remove a directory or queue from the database, if it is no longer used.

• Change the name or traits of an existing directory or queue.

Security Tasks

System Administrator Tasks

• Assign the mailbox trait to queues for configuring automatic story distribution into and out of queues.

There are many ways to ensure the security of your iNEWS system. Your responsibilities regarding system security include:

• Monitor and change passwords or force users to change them by setting up system checks and modifications.

• Monitor user login activity to guard against unauthorized use of the iNEWS system.

• Assign security to a directory or queue, limiting access to a specific group of users.

• Restrict database access by placing users into security groups based on job roles and need for information.

Customizing the System

Your responsibilities regarding customization include:

• Customize command names, message text, and other items by changing their entries in your system’s dictionary files.

• Remove your custom dictionary translations by reverting to the default settings for command names, message text, and other items.

• Create templates for the CG Title Entry tool.

• Design and assign custom keyboards for users with a unique set of keyboard macros.

Storage Maintenance Tasks

You will want to monitor the database regularly to ensure adequate storage. Storage maintenance tasks include:

Chapter 1 Introduction

Device Tasks

• Monitor how much free space is available in the database and, if necessary, increase the amount to prevent the system from running out of space.

• Perform preventive database maintenance by periodically running certain utility programs that can find and fix minor problems before they become serious.

• Backup the entire database or portions of it onto tape, so if necessary, the information can be restored to the database later.

• Make a backup copy of files, such as the site file, on tape any time you make important changes.

A device is any kind of hardware or software that performs a specific function when it is set up on the iNEWS system. Your responsibilities regarding devices include:

• List the parameters of any device running on your system or list all devices of one type.

• Add any type of device to your system, if you have the capacity and license permission.

• Edit site-specific files, to change the setup information for a device in your system’s configuration file.

• Reconfigure the system so it recognizes any changes you make to your system’s devices.

• Setup printer styles so that different tasks can be printed in predesignated formats.

• Setup servers which are utility programs that automatically perform various actions on the stories in your database.

• Change wire distribution and sorting of data coming into your database from a wire service to queues based on their category codes or content.

• Write dialogs (lists of instructions) for each service to automate the connection process. A service is a device that connects a user to a remote computer system.

Reviewing Default Settings

Your responsibilities regarding system profiles, default settings, and command syntax include:

• Changing a system profile setting to change your system’s operation.

• Reviewing default settings of all system profile parameters.

• Reviewing command syntax for edit, console, and job list commands.

Troubleshooting

Your troubleshooting responsibilities include:

• Transfer system activities from a halted computer to other system computers. If a computer connected to the system has been halted, bring the system back to operation using the remaining computers.

• Reconnect a computer that has been halted. Following routine maintenance, reintegrate a computer into your system’s operation.

System Administrator Tasks

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2

The iNEWS Console

The iNEWS console multiplexor serves as a “command center” that enables system administrators to monitor and maintain the iNEWS newsroom computer system.

This chapter contains the following main sections:

•Overview

- The Console Display

• Standard Console Operations

- Starting the Console

- The System Operator

- The Console Superuser

- Exiting the Console

- Troubleshooting a Frozen Console

• Types of Console Commands

- Server Commands

- Console Control Commands

- Console Function Keys

• Selecting Servers

• Console History

• Using the Remote Console

• The Console Configuration File

Chapter 2 The iNEWS Console

Overview

The iNEWS console multiplexor—commonly known as the console—is an IBM/Intel-compatible personal computer (PC) running custom-created Avid software. The console PC connects—via a serial link—to computers running the iNEWS Server software, and communicates with each server simultaneously.

With an external analog modem line, the console also provides a secure remote console feature, that allows a system administrator or Avid Customer Support personnel, if necessary, to do routine maintenance and diagnostic work while away from the computer room. See “Using the Remote Console” on page 40 for more information.

Figure 1 shows a sample layout for a dual-server newsroom computer system.

Console Multiplexor

Figure 1 Layout of iNEWS NRCS Console and Servers

Modem

Two Mirrored iNEWS Servers

The Console Display

Although the console can control multiple servers, your console has one screen, which is often divided into regions to separate the output from each server. The user can alter the display to show multiple regions or a single region.

Figure 2 shows a console display for a dual-server system; the console screen is divided into two regions. Your console screen has as many regions as there are host servers in your system.

Overview

“A” computer

region

“B” computer

region is selected.

Figure 2 Console Screen for a Dual-Server System

To identify which region belongs to which server, the console displays the name of the server that a region represents in that region’s lower right corner.

Each server’s name is based on the system ID (typically a station’s call letters) and the server’s name (usually a single letter, such as A, B, or C). Examples in this manual use NRCS as the fictional station and system ID, as shown in Figure 2.

Chapter 2 The iNEWS Console

In Figure 2, the top region displays the output from server A, and the bottom region displays the output from server B. The wavy lines (^^^) to the left of the identifier for server B indicate that it is currently selected or active. Each region will have its own server and command prompts, after which you may enter various commands. See “Types of Console Commands” on page 28 for more information.

Should data shown in a region extend beyond the size of the screen, the user may temporarily pause the display output. See “To pause the screen display:” on page 35 for more information.

Standard Console Operations

The following section contains information about basic console operations, such as starting the console, logging in, entering console superuser mode, and troubleshooting.

Starting the Console

If your console has been turned completely off, it should start the console program automatically when it boots up. If not, it may be started from the operating system prompt.

To start up the console from your operating system prompt:

1. Type: console

2. Press Enter.

The console display will appear with multiple regions—as shown in Figure 2 on page 21—each region associated with a server and showing the following prompt:

The System Operator

System administrators must log in to iNEWS NRCS at the console differently than other users who log in at an iNEWS Workstation. Ordinarily, system administrators always remain logged in on each of your system’s servers as the system operator.

To log in as the system operator:

1. Select the server(s) displaying the login prompt. See “Selecting Servers” on page 33 for more information.

2. Type: so

3. Press Enter.

Standard Console Operations

To keep the password confidential, the console does not display what you type.

4. If your system has a password for this account—and most do—then type in the password when prompted, and press Enter.

The system operator password is set during installation of the iNEWS Server software on the iNEWS Servers. For information about changing the system operator password, see “Changing System Administration Passwords” on page 25.

The Console Superuser

A console superuser has special system privileges that allow more powerful (and therefore potentially more dangerous) commands.

The console’s server prompt is the visual indicator for whether you are logged in as a system operator or a superuser. The server prompt for a system operator login ends with a dollar sign ($). The server prompt while in superuser mode ends in a pound sign (#).

The system operator prompt looks like this:

NRCS-A$

The superuser prompt looks like this:

NRCS-A#

Chapter 2 The iNEWS Console

Entering Superuser Mode

To keep the password confidential, the console does not display what you type.

If a command example in this manual shows the superuser prompt —ending in a pound sign (#)—you must be a superuser to use the command.

Follow the procedures explained in the next section to get to the superuser prompt.

A console superuser password is required for entering superuser mode. This password is the same as the root user password, which is set during installation of the Linux operating system on the iNEWS Servers. See “Changing System Administration Passwords” on page 25 for more information.

To enter console superuser mode:

1. If you are not already logged in, then log in as a system operator, by typing: so

2. Type: su

3. Press Enter.

4. Type the superuser password at the password prompt, and press Enter.

After you type the password correctly, the console shows that you are a console superuser by changing the dollar sign ($) at the end of the server prompt to a pound sign (#). If you enter an incorrect password, the console displays an error message and lets you try again.

Exiting Superuser Mode

To prevent users from typing unauthorized commands, never leave the console unattended when in superuser mode. You should log in as superuser only when you need to type a superuser command, and exit console superuser mode immediately after typing the command.

To exit from console superuser mode and return to system operator mode:

t Press Ctrl+D.

The console shows that you are a console system operator by changing the pound sign (#)at the end of the console’s server prompt to a dollar sign ($).

Changing System Administration Passwords

When logging in to the console as either a system operator or console superuser, a password is needed. These system administration passwords are typically set by Avid Customer Support technicians during the installation of either the iNEWS Server software or the Linux operating system (OS). However, they may be changed later by system administrators at the console.

Keep a confidential record of password changes. Knowing the passwords is critical. If you forget your passwords, the operating system may need to be reinstalled from scratch by Avid Customer Support technicians.

Standard Console Operations

For more information on changing the password for the remote console, see “Editing the Console Configuration File” on page 44.

To change the system operator password:

1. Log in as a system operator, using the current password.

2. At the server prompt, type the password command, as shown:

NRCS-A$ passwd

3. Press Enter.

4. When prompted, type a new password, and press Enter.

If the system operator password is fewer than six characters or is based on a word in the dictionary, the system will issue a “BAD PASSWORD...” message, but it will accept such passwords. The system will not accept a blank password.

5. When prompted to confirm, retype the new password, and press Enter.

Chapter 2 The iNEWS Console

To change the superuser password:

1. Enter superuser mode, using the current password.

Changing the superuser password also changes the Linux root user password, which if set during the Linux OS installation, must be more than six characters, initially.

2. At the superuser prompt, type the password command, as shown:

NRCS-A# passwd

3. Press Enter.

4. When prompted, type a new password, and press Enter.

5. When prompted to confirm, retype the new password, and press Enter.

If the password does not match, the system displays an error message. Start over by retyping the new password in step 4. Also, if the superuser password is fewer than six characters or is based on a word in the dictionary, the system will issue a “BAD PASSWORD...” message, but it will accept such passwords. The system will not accept a blank password.

6. Press Ctrl+D to exit console superuser mode.

Exiting the Console

You should leave the console on at all times while the iNEWS system is running. However, the following situations may require you to exit the console:

• You need to edit the console’s configuration file. See “The Console Configuration File” on page 42 for more information.

• The console is frozen, and you are unable to unfreeze it using the methods described in “Troubleshooting a Frozen Console” on page 27.

To exit the console:

1. Press the Command key, as shown in Figure 3 on page 31.

2. Press Ctrl+E.

3. When COMMAND EXIT appears, press Enter.

After the console software completely shuts down, the prompt for your operating system will appear.

Troubleshooting a Frozen Console

If the servers on your system are not responding to commands and are not displaying messages, there are several possible procedures you can do to identify and resolve the problem:

To check and restart scrolling:

1. Ensure that you or someone else has not stopped scrolling. If that is the case, XOFF is displayed under the region where scrolling has stopped, as shown in Figure 5 on page 36.

2. Press Ctrl+Q to start scrolling.

It may also be possible that the server ports have stopped sending and receiving.

To restart sending and receiving from server ports:

Standard Console Operations

See “Console Control Commands” on page 30 for more information.

1. Press the Command key, as shown in Figure 3 on page 31.

2. Type: x

3. Press Enter.

If this does not restore the console, static electricity may have frozen one or more of the servers’ I/O ports.

In the previous two procedures, the XON command is shown being issued in two ways: first, by pressing Ctrl+Q and second, by pressing the Command key and typing x. Either way will accomplish the exact same thing.

To reset the servers’ I/O ports:

1. Select the affected server(s). See “Selecting Servers” on page 33 for more information.

2. Press the Command key, as shown in Figure 3 on page 31.

3. Type: r (for reset).

4. Press Enter.

Chapter 2 The iNEWS Console

Another possible cause of a frozen console is an application program that will not stop running. If you suspect this problem, you can stop the program, and log in again to the console.

To stop a runaway program:

1. Select the affected server(s). See “Selecting Servers” on page 33 for more information.

2. Hold down the Control key and press the backslash key (Ctrl+\). This stops the program on the selected server(s).

If this does not stop the program so that the console displays a system prompt, suspend the program by pressing Ctrl+Z—or whatever the suspend (susp) character is. The default is Ctrl+Z.

You can use the jobs command to list suspended programs and kill suspended programs by using the kill command along with a percent sign (%) and the job number, such as: kill %1.

If the console still does not respond, exit the console program and restart it as described in “Exiting the Console” on page 26 and “Starting the Console” on page 22.

Types of Console Commands

You can type two kinds of commands at the console:

• Server commands are sent to the iNEWS Servers.

• Console control commands are sent to the iNEWS console software that communicates with the servers.

Some examples of server and console control commands appear as part of procedures in “Standard Console Operations” on page 22. Further information on these commands are provided in the next two sections of this chapter. Also, see “If You Need Help...With the Syntax of Console Commands” on page 5 for more information.

Server Commands

The iNEWS system will not recognize server commands entered in upper case. Type server commands at the console in lower case after the prompt for the server to which you want the command sent. For instance, if you want to send a command to server A, type the command after the server prompt associated with server A.

Types of Console Commands

The console displays each server’s prompt based on the system ID and the server’s name, separated by a hyphen. Examples in this manual use NRCS as the system ID and single letters—such as A, B, or C—as the server name.

For instance, the server prompt may appear like this:

NRCS-A$

The appearance of the server prompt varies, depending on how the system administrator is logged in to the console. See “The Console Superuser” on page 23 for more information.

An example of a server command is the list s command—which when sent to an iNEWS Server will return information about who is logged in.

To send a server command to multiple servers simultaneously:

t Type the command followed by a pound sign (#).

The # character acts as a place holder for each server name. It is replaced with each server’s computer name, such as A or B, before the console sends the server command to all servers in the system. This allows system administrators to send commands to multiple servers without having to select each server and send commands individually. For instance, the connect # command sends connect a to server A, connect b to server B, and so forth.

list sessions command—or

To stop a server command:

t Press Delete.

Chapter 2 The iNEWS Console

If that does not work, press Ctrl+C—the stty interrupt character. Doing so will interrupt the command’s execution. As a last resort, pressing the Control and Backslash keys (Ctrl+\—the stty quit character) will stop the command’s execution. Avid recommends you should attempt to “interrupt” before trying to “quit” the execution.

If the server sends a message while you are typing a command, the console stops displaying your keystrokes to display the message. However, it continues to record what you type. After it has displayed the message, then the console will display the data you typed in its entirety.

If you are interrupted by a console display or have mistyped a command, you can cancel the entire command line and start over by typing Ctrl+U.

The character used to issue the command that cancels an entire command line—known as the “kill” character—may be customized, using the stty command. For instance, to set it to “at” character, you would type:

stty kill @. To reset it to the default Ctrl+U, type: stty kill ^U.

The same customization capability applies to the “intr” or “interrupt” character, which is used to interrupt a running program. For instance, to set it to the Delete key, type: stty intr ^?. To reset it to the default Ctrl+C, type: stty intr ^C.

To clarify, the ^U and ^C —shown above— mean to hold the Shift key down and press the 6 key, to get the ^ character, and then the U or C letter key respectively. The same applies to the ^?. You can view these settings by entering the server command: stty -a

Console Control Commands

The Enter key on the numeric keypad will be called the Command key throughout this manual to prevent confusion with the Enter key on the keyboard.

The Enter key on the numeric keypad is the console’s Command (CMD) key. See Figure 3. When you press it, the console displays the command prompt—also called the command line—from which you can type in commands.

The command prompt appears as shown:

COMMAND^

Types of Console Commands

To enter console control commands:

1. Press the Command key, as shown in Figure 3.

2. Type the console control command. Some of the most common console control commands are those used

to activate a region of the console display—by selecting an iNEWS Server(s)—and those commands used to view a record of messages displayed on the console, known as the console history. These commands are explained in “Selecting Servers” on page 33 and “Console History” on page 35. For a complete list of console control commands, see “Console Control Commands” on page 580.

3. Press Enter—also called the Return key—on the standard keyboard for the command to be executed.

Figure 3 shows the location of the two keys on a typical console keyboard.

Function keys

Return key

CMD key

Figure 3 Typical iNEWS Console Keyboard

If you make a mistake when typing a command, use the Backspace key to move the cursor back and then type over the error.

Console Function Keys

The system administrator may preprogram the keyboard function keys to execute commands. For instance, you may program F1 to select server A, F2 to select server B, and F7 to move up 200 lines in the console history buffer.

Standard keyboard

Numeric keypad

Chapter 2 The iNEWS Console

Assigning a Command to a Function Key

To assign a command to a function key:

1. Press the Command key.

2. Type the name of the function key you want to use, followed by the equal sign (=) and the command the key is supposed to execute. The following example assigns the command of choosing server A to the F1 key: f1=c a

3. Press Enter.

To assign a command sequence to a function key—that is, include the Command and Enter keys in the definition—use the open brace ({) to represent Command, and the close brace (}) to represent Enter. For example, to program the complete command sequence (press Command key, type computer command to select all servers, and press Enter) to function key F10, you would type: f10={c *}

Changing the Assignment of a Function Key

To change a command assigned to a function key:

t Assign a new definition to the key.

Deleting the Definition of a Function Key

To delete a function key’s command assignment:

t Assign it a null value.

Displaying Function Key Assignments

To find out the command (if any) assigned to a key:

1. Press the Command key.

2. Type the name of the key, such as, F9.

3. Press Enter.

Press Command again to clear the command assignment from the console screen.

Selecting Servers

On the console, you can select one server or multiple servers at the same time. For instance, some commands must be executed on all servers simultaneously, so on a two-server system, you must select both server A and B before typing in the command.

Selecting One or More Servers

To select only server A:

1. Press the Command key, as shown in Figure 3 on page 31.

2. Do one of the following:

t Type : computer a t Type : c a

3. Press Enter.

Selecting Servers

To select both the A and B servers:

1. Press the Command key, as shown in Figure 3 on page 31.

2. Do one of the following:

t Type : computer ab t Type : c ab

3. Press Enter.

To select all servers in the iNEWS system:

1. Press the Command key, as shown in Figure 3 on page 31.

2. Type: c *

3. Press Enter.

Selecting all servers enables you to send a command to all of them simultaneously. When you select all servers, each server region’s bottom line changes to a wavy line of caret symbols (^^^). Only one cursor appears, usually in the top region; however, the console commands you type appear simultaneously in each region of the console screen.

Chapter 2 The iNEWS Console

Zooming in on One Server

In addition to the computer command, you can also use the zoom command to select a server. Unlike the computer command, which operates in multiple region mode, zoom selects one server at a time and devotes the entire console screen to that server (or region).

To zoom in on one server, such as server B:

1. Press the Command key, as shown in Figure 3 on page 31.

2. Do one of the following:

t Type: zoom b t Type: z b

3. Press Enter.

Figure 4 shows the console screen after “zooming in” on server B’s region.

Figure 4 “Zooming In” On Server B

To restore the screen to its former multiple region state, use the computer command to select any server. It does not matter which one you select; the console screen will revert to a multiple region display, and the region for the selected server will have the cursor.

Console History

When output from a server command consists of more lines than can fit in a region, lines will be scrolled off the screen. To view this data—known as console history—in screen-sized chunks, you must pause the screen display.

Console History

The system may also be configured to log console history for viewing at a later time.

To pause the screen display:

t Press Ctrl+S. The console screen temporarily stops scrolling.

Pressing Ctrl+-S does not have any effect if you are using a remote console. A remote console is connected by a modem dial-in from an external location. See “Using the Remote Console” on page 40 for more information.

Chapter 2 The iNEWS Console

When the screen is full of text, XOFF appears at the bottom of the selected region, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5 XOFF Message Indicating Scrolling Is Paused

To manually resume scrolling:

t Press Ctrl+Q.

Even if you do not press Ctrl+Q, the console automatically resumes scrolling after a pause of 60 seconds.

Viewing Recent Console History

The console maintains a history buffer containing messages that have appeared on the screen. You can go back in “console history” to review prior activity on any of the iNEWS Servers.

Console Screen

Console History

Top of History

(Oldest Portion)

Bottom of History

(Newest Portion)

Pressing Enter is equivalent to down 1

Figure 6 Console History

As shown in Figure 6, the “top” of the buffer contains the oldest information; the “bottom” of the buffer contains the most current.

To view recent history on a particular server:

1. Zoom in to the server whose history you want to review.

2. Press the Command key, as shown in Figure 3 on page 31.

3. Type one of the console history commands: up, down, top, or bottom.

The top and bottom commands move the console screen to the top or bottom of the history.

The up and down commands by themselves move the console screen up or down one line in the history. If you follow the up or down commands with a number, the console screen will move up or down that number of lines in the history. For instance, up 10, moves up—or back in the console history—10 lines. If you follow the up or down

Chapter 2 The iNEWS Console

commands with a word, the console screen will search from the current position backward or forward for that word, and if found, moves to the line containing that word. The commands are not case sensitive.

Viewing Logged Console History

The pound character (#) is a wild card that can be included in the word to be searched for with the up and down commands. It is also used to search for numbers. For instance, up 10# is a numerical search, and is not the same as up 10, which will move up 10 lines in the console history.

4. Press Enter.

The print command may also be used to view lines of console history. When the command is followed by a number, the screen will display that number of lines of history, starting from the current position. When the print command is followed by the word, all, the screen will display all lines from the current position scrolling to the bottom of the history, or newest line of information.

The print command does not send console history text to the printer. The command for printing lines of history is list, followed by either a number or the word, all. See “Console Control Commands” on page 580 for more information.

You can configure iNEWS to log console history to disk for later review. The logs are written to the hard drive on your console PC, traditionally in the C:\Console directory. The logs are named as shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Log Names

Contains the following

File for server A: File for server B:

log.a1 log.b1 Most recent console history

log.a2 log.b2 Old console history

log.a3 log.b3 Older console history

information:

Console History

Table 2 Log Names

Contains the following

File for server A: File for server B:

log.a4 log.b4 Oldest console history

The log.a1 file is the most recent console history; you can also view it as shown in prior examples using the up command.

As the log.a1 file fills up, old files are renamed and a new log.a1 file is created as follows:

• log.a1 is renamed log.a2

• log.a2 is renamed log.a3

• log.a3 is renamed log.a4

• A new log.a1 is created

information:

The log files are ASCII text files that can be read with any word processing program. You must exit the console program if you want to edit the logs in any way.

You can use the console view command to view the log files without editing or exiting to DOS, but view only lets you start at the top of the file and scroll down. You cannot move back or search for words.

Both the presence or absence of disk logging and the size of the log files can be configured in the console.cfg file. See “The Console Configuration File” on page 42 for more information..

Chapter 2 The iNEWS Console

Using the Remote Console

The console should have a modem attached to it. This enables someone in another location to call up the console and log in, thereby turning the remote computer into a remote console. The primary use for a remote console is to enable Avid Customer Support technicians or system administrators to perform diagnostic and maintenance work on the iNEWS system from a remote location.

This section explains how to dial in over a modem line, what you can expect to see on the remote screen, and how to execute commands remotely.

Dialing in to the Console

To dial in to the console, you must have a computer that transmits and receives ASCII characters. You must also have set the following modem options:

If you do not see the prompt immediately, pressing Enter should display it.

• Eight data bits

• No Parity

• One stop bit

• Any baud rate supported by your console’s modem

To prevent unauthorized people from dialing in to the console, remote access is protected with a password. When you dial in, you see a PASSWORD prompt on the screen. After you type the correct modem password, the console connects you to the first server listed in the console configuration file, usually server A.

The modem password is set in the console’s configuration file. See “Editing the Console Configuration File” on page 44 for more information.

At the console, MDM is displayed at the bottom of the region representing the server that was selected from the remote console. Commands typed at the remote console are sent to that server and displayed on its console region. Likewise, output from that server are displayed both on the console and the remote console.

Executing Commands Remotely

After logging in, you can type commands and review history almost as if you were seated at the console itself. All commands except zoom are available from the remote console. Just as at the console, these commands can be abbreviated using the first letter in each command.

There are also some differences when using a remote console:

• The remote console displays screen input and output for only one server at a time, even if you have more than one selected.

When you select two or more servers, the order in which you list the servers in the computer command determines which server’s display you see. For instance, if you type c ab to select servers A and B, you see output only from server A on the remote console, even though what you type is sent to both A and B.

Using the Remote Console

• Use the Escape character instead of the Command key to display the console command prompt.

The Escape character, by default, is set to the Escape (Esc) key; however, the character may be customized, using the escape command in the following format: escape <char>

For instance, to set the Escape character to the keystroke combination of the Control and Y keys (Ctrl+Y), type: escape Ctrl+Y

The Ctrl in the above command means to hold down the Control key while pressing the Y letter key. It is important to remember that the escape command can only be used from a remote console and there must be a space after the escape command.

To reset the Escape character to its default, type the escape command, space, then press the Escape key. For instance: escape Esc

Chapter 2 The iNEWS Console

Logging out from a Remote Console

To log out after you finish using the remote console:

1. Press the Escape character.

The lowercased L in step 2 stands for logout.

2. Type: l

3. Press Enter.

4. When the remote console redisplays the PASSWORD prompt, hang up your modem.

Logging out a Remote User from the Main Console

If you are at the main console and discover that you or someone else has been using the remote console but did not log out when they were done, you can log them out from the main console.

To log out a remote console user from the main console:

1. Press the Command key.

The m in step 2 stands for modem.

2. Type: m

3. Press Enter.

Always follow this procedure before disconnecting the modem on the main console.

The Console Configuration File

The console uses information from its own configuration file—a text file called console.cfg—to set a number of parameters, such as:

• Whether or not disk logging is enabled

• Information about each of the servers connected to the console

• Information about the remote console

This section contains a sample configuration file, and defines the console configuration keywords and their parameters.

Viewing the Configuration File

To view the configuration file:

1. Zoom in on one server, such as server A: a. Press the Command key. b. Type: z a c. Press Enter.

2. Press the Command key.

3. Do one of the following:

t Type : view console.cfg t Type : v console.cfg

4. Press Enter to display the first line in the console configuration file.

The Console Configuration File

5. Continue pressing Enter to scroll through the file.

Sample Console Configuration File

Here is a sample console configuration file:

log c:log * 32768 computer ; name a label NEWS irq 3 hostess 2c0 speed 9600 ;

“A”

server

Chapter 2 The iNEWS Console

computer ;“B” server name b label NEWS irq 3 hostess 2c8 speed 9600 ;

computer ;“C” server name c label NEWS irq 3 hostess 2d0 speed 9600 ;

modem ;Remote console password turtle irq 3 hostess 2d8 speed 1200

The configuration file consists of a list of keywords, such as name and label. Most keywords are followed by parameters, such as a and NEWS.

The keyword modem identifies the start of the modem (remote console) section. The keyword computer identifies a server section. Each server—including the archive server, if your system has one—and the modem must have its own section in the console configuration file.

All keywords and their parameters are described in detail in Table 3.

Editing the Console Configuration File

Probably the only modification you will ever need to make to the console’s configuration file is to change the modem password, used when logging in from a remote console.

The Console Configuration File

The console configuration file is stored on a DOS PC, so you need to use a DOS editing tool, such as edit to change it. You could also copy the file to a diskette and take it to another location to edit using Microsoft’s program, NOTEPAD, on a Windows-based PC.

Console Configuration Keywords

Table 3 lists all the configuration keywords and their parameters, if they have any.

Table 3 Console Configuration Keywords

Keyword Explanation

computer Indicates the beginning of a server section. Must appear at the

top of each server section on the configuration file.

hostess <port-address> Indicates which port address (in hex) the console uses to

communicate with a particular device (that is, a server or the modem). This information, which is dictated by the hardware, was placed in the configuration file when your system was installed and should not be changed.

irq <interrupt-request-number> To get the attention of the console, each device (that is, the

servers and the modem) connected to the console must have its own interrupt request with which it can signal the console. The irq keyword tells the console which interrupt request to expect from each device.

This information, which is dictated by the hardware, was placed in the configuration file when your system was installed and should not be changed.

label <region-name> Defines a label that the console uses to identify each server’s

region of the console screen. The label can be up to 15 alphanumeric characters long, and is typically the system ID, a hyphen, and the server letter—A, B, C, or D.

Chapter 2 The iNEWS Console

Table 3 Console Configuration Keywords (Continued)

Keyword Explanation

log <drive:filename> [server(s)] [max size]

Enables disk logging. No matter what filename (for example, history) you designate here, the system always uses extensions like A1, A2, and B1, as indicated in “Viewing Logged Console History” on page 38. If you do not follow the filename with a list of the servers for which you want history to be recorded, the console records history for all servers. If you omit a log size it defaults to 16,384 bytes.

This example creates a history file on drive B for servers A and B: log b:history ab

modem Indicates the beginning of a modem section of the

configuration file.

name <computer-name> Names the server described in that section of the

configuration file. Each server must have A, B, C, or D as its name.

password <password> The modem password that must be typed when someone logs

in at a remote console. The password can have up to eight alphanumeric characters and is case sensitive.

portaddress <port> Selects the DOS address (in hex) the console should use to

communicate with a particular device, such as a modem. This information which is dictated by the hardware, is placed in the configuration file during installation and should not be changed. Each device must have a port address defined in its section. The portaddress keyword is used instead of hostess when your system has four servers and a modem. In that case, the modem must use com1 as its port. The port parameter should always be defined as 3f8.

speed <baud-rate> Sets the baud rate for communication between the console and

the server. The baud rate is the only communication parameter you can alter; the console ports always communicate at 9600 baud, eight data bits, no parity, and one stop bit.

The Console Configuration File

Table 3 Console Configuration Keywords (Continued)

Keyword Explanation

timeout <minutes:seconds> Allows you to set a time-out value for any modem connection.

The system automatically logs out a modem connection if there is no activity for a specified amount of time. For instance, a value of 6:00 would automatically log out a modem connection after six minutes of inactivity. This keyword, which should only be used in the modem section, provides added protection should a user forget to logout from a modem connection to the console.

With a value of 0:00—the default value—the feature is disabled, which means the system will not log out a modem connection regardless of inactivity length. The maximum value is 546 minutes and 7 seconds (546:07).

Chapter 2 The iNEWS Console

Chapter 3

Getting Started

System Administrators are responsible for knowing how to start up and shut down the iNEWS system. This requires logging in at the console multiplexor, which is done differently than other iNEWS users and provides access to features that others do not. Information on using the console, including logging in, is covered in Chapter 2. This chapter provides specifics on starting up and shutting down the newsroom computer system.

This chapter contains the following main sections:

• Starting the System

• Shutting Down the System

• Starting a System in Single-Server Mode

Chapter 3 Getting Started

Starting the System

The following procedure shows you how to reboot your servers and synchronize them. This is primarily for dual or triple-server systems. For steps on starting a system in single-server mode, see “Starting a System in Single-Server Mode” on page 56.

Because the following procedure applies to an entire system that has been shut down, you must perform all the steps on all servers, except where otherwise indicated.

To start your iNEWS system, do the following:

1. Power up or reboot servers in one of the following ways, depending on how you shut down your system:

a. If you turned off the servers when you shut down your system,

boot them to the login prompt by turning them on.

b. If you halted the servers when you shut down your system, boot

each server from the console. Servers that have their operating systems halted will display the following line ten times—one per second:

Press any key to continue.

If no key is pressed, the bootup will continue normally after ten seconds. If a key is pressed, the system displays a message similar to the following:

GRUB version 0.93 (640K lower/523256K upper memory)

Use the ^ and v keys to select which entry is highlighted. Press Enter to boot the selected OS, ‘e’ to edit the commands before booting, ‘a’ to modify the kernel arguments before booting, or ‘c’ for a command line.

Starting the System

The default is the SERIAL CONSOLE option, for booting to the iNEWS console. The other options should not be used for any reason, unless instructed to do so by Avid Customer Support personnel. Press Enter to continue.

If the system was not shut down as described in “Shutting Down the System” on page 53, check the console history for messages indicating that all servers shut down at the same time. Do not connect servers unless you are sure their databases are mirrored. If you cannot find messages indicating simultaneous shutdown, or are otherwise unsure whether the disks are mirrored, call Avid Customer Support for assistance before proceeding. If the servers are not mirrored, it will be necessary to bring the system up as a single-server system and go through the re-mirroring process. See “Starting a System in SingleServer Mode” on page 56 for more information.

If the system was taken through a normal shut down according to instructions, the databases would still be mirrored and you can continue the normal startup procedure.

2. Select all servers. See “Selecting Servers” on page 5 for more information.

3. Log in as a system operator by typing: so

4. When prompted, type the password.

5. Type: connect # The # character acts as a place holder for each server name, allowing

you to send a single command to multiple servers simultaneously. So, typing connect # will send connect a to server A, connect b to server B, and so forth.

When connected, each server displays status messages and the system prompt returns.

6. Messages similar to the following appear:

connect successful for NRCS-A, starting servers... A is OFFLINE. ID is NRCS. System is A. Master is A. Disk status is OK. The database is OPEN.

Chapter 3 Getting Started

Connecting servers provides each server with a unique name and causes each one to read and interpret the system profile. The servers can work together as a system after reading the system profile information.

7. (Optional) Check for edit and order locks if you are restarting the system after a power failure.

During a power failure, the system may not have had time to remove edit and order locks from the database before shutting down. When you restart the system, remove these locks.

Checking for edit and order locks may take time depending on the size of the database. In an emergency, bypass this step to get the system running. Go back later and remove locks to provide system access. The system can detect invalid locks and will ignore them.

To remove edit and order locks: a. Select one server. b. Type: dbclean -x .

-x

The

option tells dbclean to skip queues or directories marked

with a skip flag, reducing the time it takes to run.

The period (

) after the -x causes dbclean to start at the root directory of the database, so that it does not miss any part of the database not marked with a skip flag.

8. Select all servers. See “Selecting Servers” on page 5 for more information.

9. Type: startup Information similar to the following appears:

Checking free space... Sep 10 15:42:51 NRCS msg: System is being configured database size 10002352,free 9955000=100%,freelist 1991 Starting NRCS programs... booting device 100 on port 1 booting server 130

Shutting Down the System

The Startup command does the following:

• Causes the master computer (usually server A) to read the configuration file

• Brings each server online so users can log in

• Checks database free space (dbfree)

• Starts all devices and utility programs—called servers

The console displays device-ready messages (Hot-to-go) as each device starts up, indicating that the device is online and available.

Resources used for iNEWS Workstation sessions do not print any messages until a workstation establishes a connection.

Shutting Down the System

If you need to turn off your servers or reboot the system, first shut down the system. Shutting down the system:

• Saves any open stories

• Removes any remaining edit and order locks

• Ensures that each server’s copy of the database is the same

Because the system requires that you shut down all servers at the same time, most steps in this procedure are performed on all servers simultaneously. Except where instructed to do otherwise, ensure that you have selected all servers before performing each step. See “Selecting Servers” on page 33 for more information.

Chapter 3 Getting Started

To shut down your iNEWS system:

1. Log out all users, according to the procedures provided in “Logging Out All Users” on page 94.

You must ensure that all users are logged out if shutting down the system. If a user is in a connect session when the system is shut down, the user’s workstation stops, the session is disconnected, and any unsaved work is lost. Ensure any connect session users have logged out before you continue the shutdown procedure.

2. Ensure all servers are selected, then type: status This will display the systems current configuration status; verify that

the servers are still connected to each other and running in the normal AB configuration for dual-server systems or ABC configuration for triple-server systems. If they are, you may continue with normal shutdown procedures.

If the servers do not all display the same configuration settings—such as “System is AB”—then the databases on the servers are most likely not mirrored and must not be brought back up using normal startup procedures. Contact Avid Customer Support before proceeding.

3. Type: shutdown A message similar to the following appears:

WARNING! This will stop all devices on this computer, and close the database.

To prevent loss of work in progress, 'logout all' first.

Do you really want to do this (y/n)?

4. To continue, type: y Press Enter. The screen appears similar to the following:

Do you really want to do this (y/n)? y /exc/shutdown: Stopping all devices /exc/shutdown: Closing database

Shutting Down the System

The shutdown process stops all workstations, wires, and other devices, and no further changes can be made to the database.

5. Enter superuser mode by typing: su

6. When prompted, enter the password. The screen appears similar to the following

NRCS-A$ su password: SU: so/dev/console NRCS-A#

When the superuser prompt appears, shut down the system by using a form of the init command, as shown:

NRCS-A# halt Broadcast message from root (ttySO) (Fri ...) The system is going down for system halt NOW! INIT: Stopping atd: [ OK ] Stopping keytable: [ OK ] ... Turning off swap: Turning off quotas: Unmounting file systems: Halting system... flushing ide devices: hda System halted.

7. Turn off each server.

To start up the system again, follow the procedure in “Starting the System” on page 50.

Chapter 3 Getting Started

Starting a System in Single-Server Mode

If the servers were not operating in their normal system configuration, such as AB in dual-server systems, or if they were not shutdown using normal procedures according to instructions in this manual, the databases on the servers may not be mirrored.

If the databases are not mirrored, you must not bring the system up using normal start up procedures as instructed in “Starting the System” on page 50 or you will risk database corruption.

If non-mirrored servers, the system administrator must bring the system up in single-server mode and then go through the database re-mirroring process. This section provides the steps for starting a system in singleserver mode.

Contact Avid Customer Support for assistance with triple-server systems. It may be possible to start these systems in a dual-server mode, depending on the circumstances of the shutdown.

To start the iNEWS system in single-server mode:

1. Power up or reboot the server that you want the system to run on.

2. Select that server. See “Selecting Servers” on page 5 for more information.

3. Log in as a system operator by typing: so

4. When prompted, type the password.

5. Do one of the following:

t To connect server A as a single system, enter the following

command:

connect a single=a

t To connect server B as a single system, enter the following

command:

connect b single=b

Starting a System in Single-Server Mode

Notice in the sample message that the “System is A” not AB or ABC.

Messages similar to the following appear:

Sep 10 16:25:52 inews-a last message repeated 15 times ... Sep 10 16:26:44 inews-a work:[2034]workserver Hot-to-go connect successful for NRCS-A, starting servers... A is OFFLINE. ID is NRCS System is A. Master is A. Disk status is OK. The database is OPEN. NRCS-A$

6. (Optional) Check for edit and order locks if you are restarting the system after a power failure.

During a power failure, the system may not have had time to remove edit and order locks from the database before shutting down. When you restart the system, remove these locks.

To remove edit and order locks: a. Select one server. b. Type: dbclean -x .

-x

The

option tells dbclean to skip queues or directories marked

with a skip flag, reducing the time it takes to run.

The period (

) after the -x causes dbclean to start at the root directory of the database, so that it does not miss any part of the database not marked with a skip flag.

7. Type: startup

Chapter 3 Getting Started

The entire newsroom computer system will now be run off the single server. The commands entered on a single-server system for shutting down are the same as those used to shut down a dual-server or triple-server system. To return to a dual or triple-server system, it will be necessary to complete the database re-mirroring process.

Information similar to the following appears:

Chapter 4

Users

People in your newsroom must have user accounts to use the iNEWS newsroom computer system. Each user account has various user traits associated with it that capture information about the user’s interaction with the system—information such as passwords, keyboard preferences, and permissions for story editing.

This chapter tells how the system administrator can access and change user account information from any iNEWS Workstation. However, user traits can also be viewed and modified at the console. The procedures for using the console is covered in Appendix G.

This chapter contains the following main sections:

• Viewing User Accounts

• Modifying User Traits

• Changing a User’s Password

• User Preferences

• Simplified Users

• Creating New Users

• Removing User Accounts

• The User Manager Account

• The Database Manager Account

• Logging Out All Users

Chapter 4 Users

Viewing User Accounts

You must be logged on as a superuser or user manager (umanager) to change user traits. For an explanation of the umanager account and privileges, see “The User Manager Account” on page 92.

To view traits associated with a particular user account:

1. Select Tools > Options > Users. The Manage User Accounts dialog box appears.

2. Enter the user name in the User ID field.

An asterisk (*) in the User ID field will result in all user accounts listed when you click Search or press Enter. To search for all users with names that start with a certain letter, type that letter followed by an asterisk.

3. Do one of the following:

t Click Search. t Press Enter.

Viewing User Accounts

The results of the search appear in the User List field located in the center of the dialog box. The data provided in the field includes: User ID and Name, last time the user logged in, whether the user account has superuser privileges, and so forth. The scroll bar at the bottom of the field may be used to view the rest of the User Account data.

The Print User List button will send the User Account data for the results appearing in the User List field to the printer. There is no option to selectively limit what data is printed.

4. Do one of the following:

t Double-click the user name in the User List field. t Click the name once to select it, and then click the Modify/Display

button.

The Modify button will appear with the word Display on it if you do not have authority to modify user accounts. This applies to user managers (umanager) who cannot alter superuser accounts. Also, the traits shown in the dialog box will appear gray to indicate that the information is for viewing only.

The Modify User Account dialog box appears.

Chapter 4 Users

The dialog box shows user traits associated with the account you chose, such as the user’s name, read rate, and mail queue name. All user traits shown in the various sections of the Modify User Account dialog box are explained in detail in “User Traits” on page 63.

Modifying User Traits

You must be logged on as a superuser or user manager (umanager) to change user traits. The superuser account is an iNEWS user account with superuser type access privileges. It is not the same as the superuser mode used at the console. See “User Traits” on page 63 for more information. For an explanation of the umanager account and privileges, see “The User Manager Account” on page 92

To modify a user’s traits from an iNEWS Workstation, do the following:

1. Access the Modify User Account dialog box as explained in “Viewing User Accounts” on page 60. An example of the dialog box is shown in Figure 7 on page 63.

The Cancel button closes the dialog box without saving changes.

2. Select or deselect check boxes, as required. Fill in the fields in the Queues section of the dialog box. See “User Traits” on page 63 for more information.

You can click the Get from Template button to copy traits from another predefined user account. The template must be selected prior to the start of account modification or the button will be inaccessible (grayed out). See “Copying User Traits to Another User Account” on page 84 for more information.

3. Create or change the password, as explained in “Changing a User’s Password” on page 68.

4. Click User Preferences and modify settings, as explained in “User Preferences” on page 69.

5. Click OK to save modifications.

User Traits

Modifying User Traits

The Modify User Account dialog box—shown in Figure 7—divides each user’s traits into sections, such as Type, Edit Mode, Queues, and so forth. These sections are explained in the following summary of all user traits.

Figure 7 Modify User Account Dialog Box

User ID and User Name

The User Name field contains the user’s real name. It should not be confused with the User ID, which the system uses to identify account activity. For instance, a user may have an account with a User ID danielmi; his real User Name is Daniel Mitchell, but he will type danielmi, his User ID, to log on to iNEWS.

Type

The Type section contains the check boxes that determine what type of user account is assigned to the user, and consequently, what privileges. If the check box is selected, the type is applied to that user account.

Chapter 4 Users

Edit Mode

• Superuser – A superuser account allows the user complete

access to administration features, such as user accounts, the database, the System directory, and connect sessions to the console that controls the servers.

• Black Listed – A black listed account cannot be used to log in to

an iNEWS Workstation. This type is used for special accounts, such as umanager and dbmanager. It is not intended for standard user accounts. Another practical use for this trait is to quickly disable an account of someone leaving or someone who works intermittently.

• Simplified – A simplified account sets certain access limits,

such as the maximum number of iNEWS Workspaces allowed. See “Simplified Users” on page 78 for more information.

The Edit Mode section’s radio buttons set up the condition of the PC keyboard’s Insert key at log in.

• Insert – The Insert editing mode, when selected, means if a

user types text between two characters, the text is inserted at the cursor position without overwriting the character to the right of the cursor.

• Overwrite – The Overwrite editing mode, when selected,

means each character a user types replaces the next character to the right of the cursor as the cursor moves through the text.

Queues

Modifying User Traits

The iNEWS system provides a People directory in the database file structure that allows system administrators to set up a personal directory and two queues for each user as data storage. The Queues fields in the Modify User Account dialog box indicate the navigation paths (or locations) of the user’s personal directory and queues.

Read Rate

The actual directory and queues are not created here. See “Creating a New User Area in the News Database” on page 82 for more information.

• Home – The Home field contains the path to the directory

(folder) where the Destination and Mail queues are stored in the database file structure.

• Destination – The Destination field contains the path to the

queue provided for the user as a storage location, such as Notes.

• Mail – The Mail field contains the path to the user’s Mail

queue, which is where all e-mail to that user is kept in the database.

The Read Rate is the user’s spoken reading rate in words per minute. The average English reading rate is 180 words per minute. The iNEWS system uses the read rate of the designated user (presenter) to determine the audio (air) time of a story.

Chapter 4 Users

Session/Configuration/Queue Features

There are three sections of the Modify User Account dialog box pertaining to features.

The Session Features section defines access to other parts of the system.

• Media Browse – The Media Browse check box determines access to

• Broadcast Control– The Broadcast Control check box is a non-

• Connect Services– The Connect Services check box determines

the Media Browse application.

functioning option, reserved for future development.

access to Connect to Service.

The Configuration Features section pertains to the look of the iNEWS Workspace.

• Toolbars – The Toolbars check box determines whether the

user can create custom toolbars.

• Color Highlights– The Color Highlights check box determines

whether the user can customize the highlighting status colors in the queue.

• Highlight Read ...– The Highlight Read Stories check box specifies

that unread stories in the queue are highlighted on the user’s screen. The highlight is removed when the cursor is positioned on the story.

The Queue Features section pertains to access privileges in the Queue panel of the iNEWS Workspace.

• Reorder Stories – The Reorder Stories check box determines

authority to alter the order of the stories in a queue.

Password

Modifying User Traits

• Create/Kill ... – The Create/Kill Folders/Queues check box

determines authority to create or delete queues and folders (directories) in the database file structure, as seen in the Directory panel of the iNEWS Workspace.

• Kill All Stories – The Kill All Stories check box determines

authority to delete all stories from a queue at one time. The data is actually moved from the selected queue to the DEAD queue where it remains (and can be accessed) until purged.

See “Changing a User’s Password” on page 68 for more information.

User Preferences...

Get from Template...

• Password – The Password button opens a dialog box that you

can use to set up or change the password protecting access to the user account.

• Force Change – The Force Change check box determines whether

the user is forced to change the assigned password the next time he logs on.

The User Preferences button is used to view and/or modify a user’s preferences, such as keyboard, printer, and confirmation settings. See “User Preferences” on page 69 for more information.

The Get from Template button is only used when copying the traits of one user’s account to another. See “Adding a New User Account” on page 84 for more information.

Chapter 4 Users

Changing a User’s Password

To change a user’s password:

1. Click the Password button in the Modify User Account dialog box, shown in Figure 7 on page 63.

The Change User’s Password dialog box appears:

2. Type the password in the New password field.

3. Confirm the new password by retyping it in the Confirm new password field.

The password must be a minimum of five alphanumeric characters (and a maximum of 12 characters) with no spaces. Use the system profile to set or change a required length for all passwords for your site.

4. Do one of the following: t Click OK to store the password for saving after all modifications

to the user’s account are done. This will close the dialog box. The process of saving the password is only completed after the OK button on the Modify User Account dialog box is also clicked.

t Click Cancel to close the dialog box without saving changes.

User Preferences

To change user preferences:

Modifying User Traits

1. Click the User Preferences button in the Modify User Account dialog box, shown in Figure 7 on page 63.

The Preferences dialog box will appear, containing several tabs.

System administrators can use the Preferences dialog box to set up default preferences for users, such as a default printer. However, the Preferences dialog box is—by default—accessible to users, so they can alter these settings at any time. To learn how the system administrator can limit access to this dialog box and its features, see “Simplified Users” on page 78.

2. Modify the preference settings on each tab as needed. The settings are described in detail in the next sections of this chapter.

3. Do one of the following: t Click OK to store the preferences for saving after all modifications

to the user’s account are done. This will close the dialog box. The process of saving the preferences is only completed after the OK button on the Modify User Account dialog box is also clicked.

t Click Cancel to close the dialog box without saving preference

changes.

Chapter 4 Users

Session Tab

The Session tab has two sections, which system administrators can use to set up default user preferences.

• Keyboard – The keyboard drop-down list contains a list of

keyboards (or sets of macros) that can be assigned to the user account as a default for when he logs in. The Reload button allows the keyboard assignment to take effect without having the user log off and back on.

• Printing – The Printing drop-down lists contain two lists: one

of Printers and another of pre-defined Styles that can be assigned to the user account as defaults for when he prints data from an iNEWS Workstation.

Confirmations Tab

Modifying User Traits

The Confirmations tab is divided into sections and contains check boxes that determine whether iNEWS NRCS prompts the user to confirm a request before completing the command.

• Saving Story – When Saving Story is checked, iNEWS

Workstation will display a confirmation message to save changes before closing an edited story. If you do not select the Saving Story check box, the system automatically saves changes before closing stories.

• Large Print Jobs– When Large Print Jobs is checked, iNEWS

Workstation will display a confirmation message before sending potentially large print jobs to the printer, such as the text of all stories in a queue.

• Exit – When Exit is checked, iNEWS Workstation will

display a confirmation message when the user attempts to close the iNEWS NRCS program at the workstation.

Chapter 4 Users

Drag/Drop section

• Story Operations– When Story Operations is checked, iNEWS

Workstation will display a confirmation message before moving a story when you use the mouse to drag it to its new position.

• Queue Operations– When Queue Operations is checked, iNEWS

Workstation will display a confirmation message before moving all stories in a queue when you use the mouse to drag them to their new position.

• Queue Reorder – When Queue Reorder is checked, iNEWS

Workstation will display a confirmation message before moving a story to a new location in the same queue.

Delete/Kill section

• Story – When Story is checked, iNEWS Workstation will

display a confirmation message before deleting a story or stories.

A production cue marker (shown here) appears in the Story Text panel. These markers are also known as grommets.

• Mail or Message – When Mail or Message is checked, iNEWS

Workstation will display a confirmation message before deleting e-mail or instant messages.

• Production Cue – When Production Cue is checked, iNEWS

Workstation will display a confirmation message before deleting a production cue and its marker from a story.

Backup Tab

Modifying User Traits

The Backup tab defines the settings for the iNEWS Workstation to automatically back up work in a current session to a specified location at specific time intervals.

Refresh Tab

• Interval – Interval specifies the number of minutes between

story backups. The default is 10 minutes. Set the interval to 0 (zero) minutes to turn off the automatic backup feature.

• Directory – Directory specifies the path name—the location in

which iNEWS Workstation should store backup copies of stories. The location should be a directory (folder) on the harddrive of the local PC/workstation. You can type the path in manually, or click the Browse button to select the directory from the Browse dialog box.

The Refresh tab sets the seconds for refreshing the screen at the workstation.

Chapter 4 Users

This preference is unique because it only affects the workstation on which it is set.

Set the number to zero (0) for instant updating—that is, if you do not want to delay refreshes.

Layout Tab

Modifying User Traits

The Layout tab is divided into sections and contains buttons and check boxes that determine the layout of panels and workspaces in the iNEWS Workstation main window.

• Start in Session – The Start in Session field specifies the default

session that will appear on screen when the user logs in to iNEWS Workstation.

• Get Current – The Get Current button will reset the preferences

on the Layout tab to what was set when the dialog box opened.

Arrangement section

•

– iNEWS Workstation, depending on which

Arrangement button is selected, will display the panels of the iNEWS Workspace accordingly.

• Zoom – When Zoom is checked, iNEWS Workstation will

display the iNEWS Workspace in zoom mode—that is, zoomed into one of the three panels: Directory, Queue or Story.

Chapter 4 Users

• Hide Form – When Hide Form is checked, iNEWS Workstation

will display the Story panel with its Story Form panel hidden. The user can choose to show the Story Form panel by selecting the option to show the form from the Story drop-down menu.

Gridlines section

• Horizontal – When Horizontal is checked, iNEWS Workstation

will display horizontal gridlines between rows in the Queue panel.

• Ve rt ic al – When Vertical is checked, iNEWS Workstation

will display vertical gridlines between columns in the Queue panel.

Preview Lines

• Use Default – When Use Default is checked, iNEWS

Workstation will display the default number of preview lines for each story in the Queue panel as defined by the queue’s properties. When Use Default is not checked, every queue will display only one line of information per story in the Queue panel.

Users can manually override the Preview Lines setting by selecting the Story Preview option in the View drop-down menu. In the Story Preview dialog box, the user can override the default setting by typing in a number in the Lines to preview field. This overrides the setting for the queue while displayed. Once the user exits the queue, the queue’s default setting is reinstated. If the user wants to return to the default setting manually (as defined in the queue’s properties), the user can click the Default button in the Story Preview dialog box.

Modifying User Traits

The following figures show the difference between Queue panel displays with and without Preview lines. The first is the display using the default of seven preview lines, as defined in the queue’s properties.

The second figure shows the Queue panel display without preview lines. This is the view when “Use Default” is unchecked, unless otherwise specified.

Chapter 4 Users

Search Results Tab

The Search Results tab allows you to set the default form used in the Queue panel of the Search Results workspace.

Simplified Users

• Use form – iNEWS Workstation will use the form selected

from the Use form drop-down list when displaying the results from searches in iNEWS NRCS. The forms you can choose from are those created and stored in SYSTEM.FORMS. See “Creating Forms” on page 204 for more information.

A simplified user is one that has certain limitations pertaining to the iNEWS Workstation. As the system administrator, you can define the limitations and then assign them to users. Only one set of limitations can be defined, which is then applied to all user accounts with the simplified user trait. In other words, either a user account has the simplifed user trait, with its designated limitation settings, or it does not.

Some of the Simplified User Settings lock the user’s preferences to those defined by the system administrator using the Preferences dialog box. See “User Preferences” on page 69 for more information.

Modifying User Traits

To set up or modify the simplified user limitations:

1. Access the Modify User Account dialog box as explained in “Viewing User Accounts” on page 60. An example of the dialog box is shown in Figure 7 on page 63.

2. Click the Simplified UI button. The Simplified User Settings dialog box appears.

Workspaces Section

The dialog box divides the settings into two sections, which are explained in the next sections of this chapter.

3. Select or deselect check boxes, as required.

4. Click the OK button to save the settings and close the Simplified User Settings dialog box.

Use the Reset button to discard changes and reset the check box settings to what they were when the dialog box opened.

The Workspaces section of the dialog box provides settings that pertain to the arrangement and quantity of workspaces within the iNEWS Workstation’s main window.

• Limit Number to:– When Limit Number to is checked, iNEWS

Workstation will prevent the user from opening more workspaces than the number specified. This limit does not apply to the workspaces opened using the Urgent Wire and Mail buttons. However,

Chapter 4 Users

this does lock the Urgent Wire workspace so the user is unable to navigate to other queues or directories in that workspace.

• Lock Arrange – When Lock Arrange is checked, iNEWS

Workstation will prevent the user from altering the arrangement of panels in the Workspace. This disables the Arrangement buttons on the standard Layout toolbar. The setting is locked into the default arrangement as defined in the user’s User Account Preferences.

• Lock Layout – When Lock Layout is checked, iNEWS

Workstation will prevent the user from altering the layout of workspaces in the iNEWS Workstation main window. This disables the Layout buttons on the standard Layout toolbar. The setting is locked into the default layout as defined in the user’s User Account Preferences.

• Lock Zoom – When Lock Zoom is checked, iNEWS

Workstation will prevent the user from altering the zoom of panels in the iNEWS Workspace. The setting is locked into the default as defined in the user’s User Account Preferences.

Application Section

The Application section of the dialog box provides settings that pertain to accessing certain iNEWS features at any workstation.

• Lock Toolbars – When Lock Toolbars is checked, iNEWS

Workstation will prevent the user from altering the display of toolbars.

• Lock Sessions – When Lock Sessions is checked, iNEWS

Workstation will prevent the user from creating or altering sessions. The user will be locked to sessions created prior to the Lock Sessions being applied to the user account.

Pinnacle Systems iNews - 2.0 User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Setup and Configuration Manual

Version 2.0

Copyright and Disclaimer

Contents

Using This Guide

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 The iNEWS Console

Chapter 3 Getting Started

Chapter 4 Users

Chapter 5 Stories Queues, and Directories

Chapter 6 Groups

Chapter 7 Keyboards and Macros

Chapter 8 Forms

Chapter 9 Character Generator Title Entry

Chapter 10 System Configuration Files

Chapter 11 Printers

Chapter 12 Wires

Chapter 13 Servers

Chapter 14 Web Publishing and Access

Appendix A Command References

Appendix B System Files

Appendix C Standard Dictionaries

Appendix D PCU Reference

Appendix E Character Maps

Appendix F Environment Variables

Appendix G Managing Traits at the Console

Appendix H The Line Editor, ed

Index

Using This Guide

Who Should Use This Manual

About This Manual

Symbols and Conventions

If You Need Help

1. Retry the action, carefully following the instructions given for that task in this guide. It is especially important to check each step of your workflow.

2. Check for the latest information that might have become available after the documentation was published in one of two locations:

3. Check the documentation that came with your Avid application or your hardware for maintenance or hardware-related issues.

5. For Technical Support, please call 800-800-AVID (800-800-2843). For Broadcast On-Air Sites and Call Letter Stations, call

...With the Syntax of Console Commands

Related Information

If You Have Documentation Comments

How to Order Documentation

Avid Educational Services

Chapter 1

What is Avid Unity for NEWS?

iNEWS NRCS

Third-Party Connectivity and Open Integration

System Administrator Tasks

Basic Tasks

User Tasks

Database Tasks

Security Tasks

Customizing the System

Storage Maintenance Tasks

Device Tasks

Reviewing Default Settings

Troubleshooting

Chapter 2

Overview

The Console Display

Standard Console Operations

Starting the Console

The System Operator

The Console Superuser

Entering Superuser Mode

Exiting Superuser Mode

Changing System Administration Passwords

Exiting the Console

Troubleshooting a Frozen Console

Types of Console Commands

Server Commands

Console Control Commands

Console Function Keys

Assigning a Command to a Function Key

Changing the Assignment of a Function Key

Deleting the Definition of a Function Key

Displaying Function Key Assignments