How to Schedule Democracy Now! as a Series

If you rebroadcast the popular news program Democracy Now!, here is a tip on how to automate several steps in the process:

• licensing the show from the TelVue Connect Media Exchange
• transferring it to your HyperCaster
• creating a Series of TBD’s for scheduling at your convenience.

Subscribe to Democracy Now! In the TelVue Connect Media Exchange:

1. Log in to TelVue Connect
2. Click on the Media Exchange Tab
3. Click on the Series Tab
4. Search for Democracy
5. Choose SD or HD version
6. From the pulldown options on the right, choose to License the Series. You will be asked to Agree to the licensing terms.
7. After you license the Series, whenever DN! adds an episode, that video will automatically show up in your organization’s TelVue Connect Media Library.

Set up TelVue Connect distribution to HyperCaster

1. To integrate a HyperCaster with TelVue Connect, Follow these directions
2. Once integrated, your HyperCaster will show up in TelVue Connect, under the organization settings → Broadcast Servers
3. Click the Edit icon next to your Broadcast Server and check off “Automatic Distribution”. This will automatically push all new content from your TelVue Connect Library to your HyperCaster
   

Create a Series of TBD’s for Democracy Now

1. Log in to your HyperCaster
2. Follow these directions for Adding a Series of TBD’s for DN!, using the “Generate TBD’s” option. Some recommendations for filling the fields:
   

1. 1. Name and Describe the Series
   2. Check “Generate TBD’s” option
   3. Use the following variables in the Filename field:
      1. DN %A %B %e %y
      2. Note: you cannot use certain characters like !!! or commas in the filename field. When the HyperCaster imports from Connect, it will strip these characters out of the filename. Leave them out of the filename field.
   4. You can optionally use those variables – and put the troublesome characters back in – in the Program Name field, e.g. Democracy Now - %A, %B %e, %y, which will display in the Program Guide as “Democracy Now – Monday, October 16, 2017”.
   5. Duration: 01:00:00 for a one-hour show.
   6. Start: Choose the date when you want this Series of TBD’s to begin. The Time field indicates the time when you expect the content to be ingested every day. Democracy Now is usually uploaded to the Media Exchange by 10am on weekdays. We recommend, to be on the safe side, that you schedule it for playout after 2pm.
   7. End date (Required).
   8. Days of the Week: DN! airs only on weekdays.
2. Save your Series.

Now when Democracy Now adds an episode to the Media Exchange, it will auto-download to your TelVue Connect Library, auto-distribute to your HyperCaster, and auto-attach to your TBD placeholder.

The only thing left to do is schedule each TBD as you would any Playout Event. (If the program is not ready in time, you can be alerted with a configurable amount of time in advance of playout, using the missing files report and email notification feature.)