Tweet
Hi all,
I have finished the "Playout Audit" tool under my cinema-catcher-app (see: https://github.com/jamiegau/cinema-catcher-app)
Below is from the brief manual found in the application.
I would really appreciate if people could test this against numerous DCI-Players. It's difficult to get real-world feedback. Please log issues on the GitHub issue page if you find any bugs.
When I get time, I will make a video on how to use it as well.
Playout Audio Tool
This tool is used to pull all playout data from DCI-cinema-players (Barco, Dolby, GDC, Qube) and insert them into a database. From this database, you can Audit content a screen has played based on specific criteria.
For example, this tool can be used to search for certain activities on screens at a location. These reports can then be used for the following:
Reports can be scheduled to be sent in two ways:
This tool is expected to strengthen the advertisement industry in Cinema as auditing can now be performed and is now a very important factor as it is expected in Internet-based advertising.
The reports are sent based on a schedule the user defines (As often as every min to, per hour, per day, per week)
Setup
Each player must be set up under the menu Config -> Screens. This section is used for numerous other tools such as the AutoKDM tool, and the Player-Status tools. For the system to download the logs from the players, it must know its type, IP address, location, screen number.
The screen must also have the Audit Player option enabled, otherwise it will be skipped when scanning for logs.
Once the screens are set up, you must enable this tool under the Playout Audit -> Config menu. This screen also allows the user to set up the retention period (How long to keep the data) and how often the tool attempts do download the logs (Hourly or Daily)
You can also force an update from this page by pressing the Update NOW button.
Search tool
From the menu Playout Audit -> Search you can quickly search the collected data. This can be done by building a named filter and activating it or using the table-grid and entering search text at the top of the grid. This will filter the results down.
i.e. Only show data from a specific location.
Under the data grid is GRAPH OR ENTRIES PER DAY. Click on the Open button to show a graph to help identify trends in the data returned. This graph will update in real-time as you perform searches.
Playout Reports menu item allows you to create automatic periodic reports to send via Email or to a API endpoint.
Building and using Names Filters
Named Filters are used to build commonly used complex searches and to also create a reoccurring report that will be run against the data on a predefined schedule. See the Reports section below.
At the top of the Search page will be a section called FILTERS. Click the Edit button to open up the Filter Editor. Select Clear to clear any selected filter. After the Clear button, each of the created filters will appear as a toggle button allowing the user to enable the filter.
When you open the filter editor, you can create filters and apply as many search criteria as required to obtain the desired results. The filter can then be used to quickly active that specific complex search, or tunred into a report by selecting the Create Report button to turn the Filter into a report.
NOTE: if you change the characteristics of a filter, it will effect the results of the reports that use that filter going forward.
Reports
From the Playout Audit -> Reports screen, you can configure how each report will behave.
Select the report will allow you to edit the following:
I have finished the "Playout Audit" tool under my cinema-catcher-app (see: https://github.com/jamiegau/cinema-catcher-app)
Below is from the brief manual found in the application.
I would really appreciate if people could test this against numerous DCI-Players. It's difficult to get real-world feedback. Please log issues on the GitHub issue page if you find any bugs.
When I get time, I will make a video on how to use it as well.
Playout Audio Tool
This tool is used to pull all playout data from DCI-cinema-players (Barco, Dolby, GDC, Qube) and insert them into a database. From this database, you can Audit content a screen has played based on specific criteria.
For example, this tool can be used to search for certain activities on screens at a location. These reports can then be used for the following:
- Extract activity of certain CPL at a location based on any attached metadata. For example, Digital Cinema Naming Convention (DCNC) characteristics
- detect trends in player activity at a location such as, was a screen manually controlled or nonscheduled shows played.
- Detect if sessions outside of operation hours occured and email an admin when it occurs.
- Send reports for Advert-DCP/CPL playout from a specific advertiser. (Hourly/Daily) i.e. Advertisement Auditing.
- Engineer analysis of system behaviour during a fault.
Reports can be scheduled to be sent in two ways:
- An email with an attached CVS file
- JSON data sent to a Website EndPoint, i.e. http://advertiser.com/report_endpoint
This tool is expected to strengthen the advertisement industry in Cinema as auditing can now be performed and is now a very important factor as it is expected in Internet-based advertising.
The reports are sent based on a schedule the user defines (As often as every min to, per hour, per day, per week)
Setup
Each player must be set up under the menu Config -> Screens. This section is used for numerous other tools such as the AutoKDM tool, and the Player-Status tools. For the system to download the logs from the players, it must know its type, IP address, location, screen number.
The screen must also have the Audit Player option enabled, otherwise it will be skipped when scanning for logs.
Once the screens are set up, you must enable this tool under the Playout Audit -> Config menu. This screen also allows the user to set up the retention period (How long to keep the data) and how often the tool attempts do download the logs (Hourly or Daily)
You can also force an update from this page by pressing the Update NOW button.
Search tool
From the menu Playout Audit -> Search you can quickly search the collected data. This can be done by building a named filter and activating it or using the table-grid and entering search text at the top of the grid. This will filter the results down.
i.e. Only show data from a specific location.
Under the data grid is GRAPH OR ENTRIES PER DAY. Click on the Open button to show a graph to help identify trends in the data returned. This graph will update in real-time as you perform searches.
Playout Reports menu item allows you to create automatic periodic reports to send via Email or to a API endpoint.
Building and using Names Filters
Named Filters are used to build commonly used complex searches and to also create a reoccurring report that will be run against the data on a predefined schedule. See the Reports section below.
At the top of the Search page will be a section called FILTERS. Click the Edit button to open up the Filter Editor. Select Clear to clear any selected filter. After the Clear button, each of the created filters will appear as a toggle button allowing the user to enable the filter.
When you open the filter editor, you can create filters and apply as many search criteria as required to obtain the desired results. The filter can then be used to quickly active that specific complex search, or tunred into a report by selecting the Create Report button to turn the Filter into a report.
NOTE: if you change the characteristics of a filter, it will effect the results of the reports that use that filter going forward.
Reports
From the Playout Audit -> Reports screen, you can configure how each report will behave.
Select the report will allow you to edit the following:
- Report Name: the name of the report as is referenced in th Email/JSON data.
- Filter Name: the name of the Filter that this report utilises. NOTE, this cannot be edited
- Enable: To quickly enable or disable the report.
- Type: Either email or endpoint. Email will send an email with the data attached as a CVS file that can be loaded into Excel or similar tools. Endpoint will attempt to send the data to a Web address such as https://advtiser.com/endpoint as a POST request containing the JSON representation of the data. The Endpoint is expected to then import the data into a tool/database managed by the target entity (i.e. advertising agent)
- Increment: it is suggested this is turned on as otherwise, the tool will send ALL the data every time it runs. If you are storing a long history of logs, this could be very large. When Increment is on, it will only send data that has not yet been sent since the last successful send of data.
- Reset Increment Data: button will reset the increment date to None and force a resend of all data even if Increment is enabled.
- Email: is a comma seperated list of Email to send the CSV attachment to.
- Endpoint: is a website address that a endpoint is located at.
i.e. https://headoffice.com/logCPLplayback/endpoint.
This web address must be a php/node/python web application that reads the JSON body of the http request and processes the data. For example, into a local database for other business analysis. - Send At: is a UNIX CRON Syntax made of 5 sections.
Example: 1 6,18 * * * - Every day at 6:01am and 6:01pm
Section1: minutes of the hour. 1 indicates at 1 past the hour
Section2: Hours of the day 0-23, '6,18' meaning 6am and 6pm
Section3: Day of month 1-31, indicate 1 or more days a,b,c,d
Section4: Month of year 1-12, indicate 1 or more months a,b,c,d
Section5: day of week 0-6, Sunday=0 - Description: can be used to document the Report and what it is used for.
Comment