This article aims to define the settings most often used when setting up auto-dub with a vPPO firm.
"Display_Format" : "clientname - crtitle"
How the combination of the order's client name field and ISCI/Title are passed through the API. If an ISCI is present, that is used as crtitle. If no ISCI exists the spot title is used for crtitle.
This will simply say to the API what combination of text to present. It will not always line up with what the integration system maps into the automation system, however. One example is OpX which will sometimes work fine with "clientname - crtitle" or if presenting backwards in their system flipped to "crtitle - clientname". However, there are still mapping variables we can not control.
"No_Dubber_Assigned" : 1
By default, this is 1/on. That makes it so that when a spot has a Dubber assigned it is NOT considered for auto-dubbing. Turning this to 0/off means it will be auto-dubbed regardless of having a person assigned as Dubber. That is mostly used for multi-market orders or where managers need to delegate the QC portion of the workflow.
"Max_Display_Length" : 0
This is used when client names exist that are really long that mess up the formatting of logs. It will simply clip the total characters presented through the API for the client name.
"Length_Allowance" : 1
If a spot length's given time on the QO, is +/- this setting (in seconds) then the spot will be flagged as "out of spec" and will not be auto-dubbed unless the user overrides it by clicking the "reset" on the Auto-dub warning box. For example, if a spot is to be 30s (on the QO) and the actual spot is between 29.00 and 31.00 seconds then it will NOT error. If it is 28.99 or less or 31.01 or more, then it will error and make the user either fix the spot or override it. This option allows the user to change the deviation from 1 second (the default) to any other value, 1.5 for example. Values are in seconds or fractions of seconds.
"Pre_QC" : 1
Requires the QC step before auto-dubbing the audio. This is 1/on by default and highly suggested. Being set to 0/off means that all spots will dub and any quality checking or verification is done in the automation system.
"Ignore_Outsource" : 1
This setting being 1/on will allow spots to auto-dub regardless of a mismatch between the submitting user's market and the stations on the order. Most often used when there are dynamic connections or hubbing between production departments that cross multiple markets. This method should never be used when the configuration is enabled by firmid and the individual station IDs are declared in the options.
“Talent_Name” : 1
This will pass along the voice talent (or producer if no voice assignments exist) through the API. This allows the receiving automation system to know the talent involved. Not many integrations partners support this at the time of writing, however.
"firm2station" : 1
Mostly used when there are unique carts PER station in a market.
"firm_stations_only" : 1
For multi-market orders, this will ensure auto-dub is only marketing the stations listed on the request as "dubbed". Otherwise, it will dub for ALL stations in the firm.
"StationIDs" : "5134, 5136, 5136, 5137, 5139, 5140, 7283"
Forces listed stations to be considered as dubbed by vPPO. When a non-AM/FM station, like a network or HD station, needs to be auto-dubbed we can force this by listing the Station ID in the config. Without the "StationIDs" option, the system just targets the AM/FM spots for API exposure. Should the client have unique HD stations that are not simulcast or a Sports/Weather network that still needs audio to be dubbed, this can make sure those spots are also seen in the API. It is always best to place these in ascending order in the options.
"mapping" : {"clientname": "crtitle", "crtitle": "clientname", "iscicode": "clientname" }
This allows individual fields to be mapped with different information. This will allow displays that are hard-wired for certain fields to display different information. The following fields can be remapped with this setting; clientname, crtitle, iscicode, cartid, crlength, contractno, runstartdate, runenddate, rotationpercent, stations, outcue, and crid. In the eaxmple above, the clientname will actually have the crtitle in it and the crtitle and isci will be the clientname.
"DubAllStations": 1
Allows the system to ignore the individual stations in the configuration and mark all stations in the market as dubbed. The default for this setting is 0 and is used if the setting isn't present.
"kill_date" - "Kill_Date": " 10 days"
This allows the automation receiving the spot to set a purge date for expired carts. You may want to verify that the receiving system can actually USE this in the configuration. This option is not to be used for Wide Orbit systems using the direct integration path. It may work with AIM but has not been tested.
"String_Format" - "String_Format" : "upper"
Allows you to change the case of text sent to the automation. This is very handy if the folks in the studio prefer all caps when the information in the PO has been entered in lower or title case. This setting only impacts the clientname, crtitle, iscicode, cartid, and displayname. You can set the output to upper, lower, and title case. Upper and lower are self-explanatory. Title case capitalizes the first letter of each word.