How to: OnTheAir MOS Gateway and iNews Setup

Warning: For NRCS systems, there are a lot of configuration and challenges for each install. It is best to leave installs to a system administrator with experience on your system. This guide is meant to help those of you who are experienced with iNews to the best of our ability. Any questions about iNews should be directed to Avid. 

It is recommended that you read our article on the OnTheAir MOS Gateway settings before setting up the NRCS. This will familiarize with the settings page and the features included. 

How to: OnTheAir MOS Gateway Settings

In the OnTheAir MOS Gateway settings, you will need to configure these settings:

• Gateway MOS ID - can be custom created, but needs to be all capital letters and no spaces. This name is important as it has to match what you enter into iNews. 
• Server IP Address
• Server Name - typically iNews uses station call letters. Do not add the "-A" or "-B". 
• MOS Version 2.8.4 - disabled for iNews
• Avid iNews Program ID - detailed below

iNews 

MOS-MAP

While logged in as an iNews Superuser, go to the iNews tree - System>MOS-MAP. There you can add the Gateway MOS ID we made in the NCS/MOS page. Then click tab and write a more user friendly name for the MOS device. The below image shows "KSHB.ULTRA.MOS" with a common name as "softron". 

In the MOS-MAP, you can also have the variable "replaceTime = YES" or "NO". When set to yes, MOS Objects dragged into a story will have the MOS Object duration written as "runs=xx:xx". Excerpt from the iNews Manual:

Replace Time is a global setting that prevents MOS item durations from being entered in rundowns. If set to YES (or if not present in the story), a MOS item with a duration will have a Runs=xx:xx entry put in its production cue whenever a user drags the item into a show’s story; if dragged into the Story Form panel, the duration will be placed in the mos-duration field.
When set to NO, the system suppresses duration information for all devices.

Config File

There is a config file for each MOS Device connected to iNews. This is typically located on a separate MOS server dedicated for iNews. It is best to leave this managed by your Avid representative or properly trained iNews Superusers, and precaution should be taken before editing MOS config files. 

For your convenience, we have an example config file attached at the bottom of this article. Make sure to edit the values for NCSID and HOST that currently have the value: "YourStationName". 

HTML-Plugins

While logged in as an iNews Superuser, go to the iNews tree - System>HTML-PLUGINS. There will need to be a row added in the document for OnTheAir MOS Gateway. 

Inside the story body, there will be a URL to the webpage, and then multiple Program IDs that iNews uses for user interactions.  The URL will be the OnTheAir MOS Gateway IP address and the port number. You will need to type the URL as follows:

URL = http://<YourIPAddress>:8090/

Then you will define the Program IDs. You might have already defined this name in OnTheAir MOS Gateway application under Settings>NCS/MOS... Avid iNews Program ID. This is a custom name, but the name must match between the two solutions. The program ID tells iNews which MOS Device's plugin is being called. As the plugin for OnTheAir MOS Gateway acts as a solution for browser, editing, and playing, we define all three program IDs.

mosItemBrowserProgID=Softron.MOSPlugin
mosItemEditorProgID=Softron.MOSPlugin
mosItemPlayerProgID=Softron.MOSPlugin

System Map

Each rundown in iNews needs to have an assigned mailbox to monitor the show. 

This document resides at SYSTEM.MAP. If you had a 8am show folder rundown, the path in the SYSTEM.MAP might look like this:

show.8am.rundown.    -    -    -   0300

The 0300 represents the time the MOS will automatically become active. Underneath there is an entry that generally looks like this, though there can be different configurations based on your needs. 

mossvr  softron  -          mos events
            mos softron - storytext
:

When rundowns are sent via iNews, they will have the full queue path and the rundown name such as "show.8am.rundown". These rundown names can have an alternate name known as an "roSlug". This can be configured in the iNews config file. That will change how the rundown's name shows up in OnTheAir MOS Gateway as well. This example comes from the attached OnTheAir MOS Gateway config example at the bottom of this article:

<roSlugMaps>
 <roSlugMap>
   <iNewsRunningOrderName>iNEWSSYSTEMNAME/SHOW.5P.RUNDOWN</iNewsRunningOrderName>
   <MOSroSlug>5P</MOSroSlug>
 </roSlugMap>
 <roSlugMap>
   <iNewsRunningOrderName>iNEWSSYSTEMNAME/SHOW.6P.RUNDOWN</iNewsRunningOrderName>
   <MOSroSlug>6P</MOSroSlug>
 </roSlugMap>
 <roSlugMap>
   <iNewsRunningOrderName>iNEWSSYSTEMNAME/SHOW.10P.RUNDOWN</iNewsRunningOrderName>
   <MOSroSlug>11P</MOSroSlug>
 </roSlugMap>
</roSlugMaps>

In the below image, the 530P show has a defined roSlug with a very concise name. As opposed to the other tabs in the playlist with names like "SHOW.1700.RUNDOWN".

  

Common issues

Playlist available, but not opening in OnTheAir Video

If you can see the playlist in OnTheAir MOS Gateway, except OnTheAir Video reports it cannot open the remote playlist, check the OnTheAir MOS Gateway server name settings. The server name must be the iNews server name without the specific host name, such as "-a", "-b", etc. For instance, iNews (server name: NEWS) sends the rundown name as "NEWS/show.8am.rundown". OnTheAir MOS Gateway uses the provided server name to remove the "NEWS/".