Automatic info segments — weather, today in history, quiz, recipes, dedications

Automatic info segments turn a file channel into a small info channel that writes itself. Every day Castreon makes short videos (30–90 seconds, 1080p, sound at −23 LUFS) from your collections and from public data, puts them in a Library folder, and the playlist that watches that folder plays them. Nothing has to be edited by hand, and nothing repeats too often.

Available since Castreon 3.1.0, in the Enterprise edition. The segments are written to the Library, so the server also needs file channels.

What it makes

Each type can be turned on or off, has its own number per day and its own repeat pause (how many days an item rests before it can come back — history uses 300 days by default, quiz and recipes 90). Recipes, tips and quiz questions can be limited to some months (winter dishes in winter). The Today tab shows how long each collection lasts before something repeats, so you know when to add more.

Getting started

1. Info segments → Settings: turn the segments on, choose the Library folder (for example segments), the on-screen language, the hours when segments may run and the time they are made at night.
2. Set the look: a corner logo (PNG), the text at the bottom left and right, the closing line, the background and band colours, and one or more music tracks from the Library (the music ducks under the voice).
3. Turn on the types you want and give them on-screen titles if you prefer your own.
4. Add items in Collections — one by one with a live preview, or many at once by importing a JSON file (the Export button shows the format).
5. In the file channel, use a playlist that watches the segments folder. New segments appear in it by themselves; expired ones are removed with their prepared copies.

Folder names must not contain the words that give files another role in the Library (intro, ident, outro, filler, promo…).

Voice

Segments can be read by a synthetic voice: Google Cloud Text-to-Speech (your own API key, saved write-only — it is never shown again) or Piper running on the server, offline. Castreon writes numbers, years, ordinals, times and percentages out as words, and Pronunciations let you say how a brand or an acronym is read. Use Listen to test a sentence. Without a voice, segments run with music only.

Viewer messages (dedications)

Messages arrive in Messages as pending — from your website or customer portal through the API, or typed in by your team. Nothing appears on screen until someone approves it; the text can be corrected before approval. An approved message runs for 3 days unless you choose other dates.

Urgent notice

Urgent notice puts a text on the red alert band of your studios at once, for a duration you choose (up to 7 days), and can also play a card immediately on a file channel. It stops by itself. Add the Alert (urgent notice) graphic once to each studio that should show it.

Live graphics in the studio

3.1.0 adds to the studio graphics: Clocks (up to 6 cities in one band), a label on the single clock, an automatic notices ticker (the active notices from the collection) and an automatic Up next title that appears 20 seconds before the next programme of a file channel.

Public recipe page and QR codes

Recipes and notices with a link show a QR code. For recipes without a link, set Public address in Settings: the QR code then opens /s/<id> on your server, a simple page with the whole recipe.

API

The Segment content API key area (content:write) lets another system add notices and offers, send viewer messages (always pending) and start or stop the urgent notice: POST /api/v1/segments/items, POST /api/v1/segments/messages, PUT / DELETE /api/v1/segments/urgent. All routes are in the API documentation in the panel.