Automation

Automation is a window of its own with three tabs. Auto Switching takes the right shot to Program from who is speaking, from silence and from a clock. Triggers fire one action when something happens in the show, such as recording starting or a caller joining. Macros are named sequences of actions that you record while you work or write by hand, and replay with one press.

Everything Automation does is made of the same actions you press by hand. A rule takes an input to Program, a trigger or a macro step runs an action from the External Control list, and each one meets the same plan checks and refusals as if you had pressed it yourself.

What you need

• You are signed in and Studio is open. See Studio.
• A plan with Studio auto switching for the Auto Switching tab, and Studio triggers and macros for the Triggers and Macros tabs.
• For auto switching, at least one input to show and at least one audio channel to listen to.

Open Automation

The status line

Under the tabs, one line says what Automation is doing, in words and never by colour alone:

Auto Switching

Auto switching works like a camera operator who cuts to whoever talks. You write rules. Each rule says "when this is true, show that input". Every moment, the rules that are true put their input forward as a candidate, and the best candidate wins. Studio then takes the winner to Program, with the same take you would make by hand.

The best rule wins in this order: the highest priority, then the loudest speaker, then the first rule in the list.

Switch and timing

Turn on Switch Program automatically to start the rules. It is a switch, off by default, and it stays off when you open a saved show. The rules themselves are saved in the show. A footer under the switch says "The best rule wins: the highest priority, then the loudest speaker, then the first rule."

The numbers below keep the picture from jumping on every cough. A change of shot happens only once the winner has held for Hold a new winner for and the shot on Program has been up for Keep a shot at least, whichever of the two ends later.

On macOS each number is a field with a stepper beside it (steps of 100 ms, 500 ms for Keep a shot at least, and 100 ms for the fade), and a typed value is held to its range. On Windows each is a number box with the same range.

Rules

Click Add Rule (Windows: Add rule) to add one. A rule is numbered Rule 1, Rule 2 and so on, with a remove button (Remove on Windows). A counter beside the list reads "2 of 32" (Windows: Rules (2 of 32)). Add Rule turns off at 32 rules.

What each When means:

• A channel speaks: the channel's meter peak is above Speaking above, or, with Use the noise gate, its noise gate is open. When two speaker rules are both true at the same priority, the louder channel wins.
• Nobody speaks: none of the channels that your A channel speaks rules listen to is speaking. This is the wide shot for silence.
• On a schedule: the rule becomes a candidate Every period after its shot last aired, or after the rules were turned on, and stays one until it airs again. It does not need anyone to speak.

If you remove an input from Studio, the rules and triggers that named it are removed with it.

Pause and resume

A shot taken by hand pauses the rules. Any change of Program that is not the rules' own take counts: a click, a key, a MIDI control, and also a take made by a trigger or a macro. While paused the status line reads Auto switching paused, and the tab shows a Paused row that says "A shot taken by hand holds the rules." with a Resume button.

To resume:

• Click Resume.
• Or turn Switch Program automatically off and on again.
• Or press the Auto switch action from External Control. It toggles, and while the rules are paused it resumes them. While they run, it turns them off.

When the rules resume, the shot on Program counts as theirs from that moment, so the Keep a shot at least time counts from then.

Turning auto switching off needs no plan feature, so you can always stop it.

Sound and the lock

Auto switching changes the picture, not the mix. The input it takes only brings its own sound with it if the strip has AFV (audio follows video) on, or the input's Audio follows setting sends that sound along. The channel a rule listens to does not have to be the input it shows: you can listen to a room microphone and show a wide shot. See Audio mixer.

Lock Switching freezes the switching controls in the Studio window so a stray click cannot cut away. It does not stop the rules, triggers or macros, which run in Studio's engine, not through those controls.

Triggers

A trigger is one line: when something happens, do one action. Each trigger fires once per occurrence.

On macOS the Triggers tab has a table with the columns When, Does and Value, and a form for the selected trigger below it. On Windows the list shows each trigger as "When, Does" and the form sits under it.

• Triggers fire is the table's own switch. On by default. The tooltip on macOS says "Macros run either way", and on Windows the label reads "Triggers fire (macros run either way)".
• Add Trigger adds one (Windows: Add). It starts as Recording starts with the first action in the list. It turns off at 64 triggers.
• Remove Trigger removes the selected one (Windows: Remove).

What starts a trigger

Pick the event in the Event menu (Windows: When).

What a trigger does

The Does part is any action from the External Control catalogue: the same list, in the same groups, as the Action menu of an External Control binding (Windows labels it Does). After you pick one, its settings appear (an input, a channel, text, a number or a choice).

How the action fires depends on its kind:

A trigger keeps the action as you picked it, not a frozen result. A trigger that takes "the input on Preview" takes whichever input is on Preview when the trigger fires. Settings that hold secrets, such as stream keys, cannot be part of a trigger.

Macros

A macro is a named list of steps. Each step is one action from the same catalogue as a trigger, with a wait before it. Run a macro and the steps play in order, each after its own wait. Macros run whether or not Triggers fire is on, and you can also run or stop one from External Control with Macro run and Macro stop, which take the macro's name as text.

The list on the left shows each macro with its step count, and Recording or a play mark beside the one that is recording or running. Pick one to see its steps on the right.

At the foot of the list a bar holds add, duplicate and remove. Right-click a macro for Run, Stop, Duplicate and Remove; Delete removes the selected macro. A copy is named " Copy", then " Copy 2".

Record a macro

1. Click Record Macro... (Windows: Record macro...) under the list. Cliqer asks for a Name in a dialog titled Record a Macro (Windows: Record a macro), with the note "Cliqer records the Studio actions you take until you stop." (Windows: "Cliqer records the Studio actions you take, with the waits between them, until you stop.") Click Record.
2. Work in Studio as you normally would. Each action you take becomes a step, with the wait since the step before. The first step's wait counts from the moment you clicked Record. The status line shows Recording and the step count.
3. Click Stop Recording (Windows: Stop recording). The macro appears in the list and is selected.

Good to know about recording:

• Only actions from the catalogue become steps. Anything else, such as saving a whole settings record, is left out and counted as skipped in the status line.
• Editing macros is never recorded, and neither is anything a trigger, a macro or the auto switcher does.
• A recording stops adding steps at 256. Further actions count as skipped.
• A name that already exists is replaced when you stop.

Write a macro

Click New Macro (the plus above the list, tooltip "New or remove a macro"; Windows: New), type a Name and click Create. A macro of the same name is replaced. The name is trimmed, and a macro may not have an empty name. Then add steps:

The step table shows #, Wait and Action (on macOS), and a counter reads "3 of 256".

Run a macro

Pick the macro and click Run. Stop ends it before its last step. The status line shows Running: while it plays. Running a macro that is already running does nothing, and a macro with no steps does nothing. Several different macros can run at once. A step's wait counts from the step before's due time, so a slow moment never stretches the timing.

If a step is refused (for example the plan does not include what it does), you get the same Studio notice as for a hand-made action.

The plan notice

Auto switching, triggers and macros are on the Studio and Enterprise plans. When your plan does not include a tab's feature, the window keeps its controls and shows a notice at the top of that tab. The core then refuses the change or the action, and the notice tells you why up front.

Stopping things never asks for the plan: you can always turn auto switching off, turn Triggers fire off, stop a macro or remove one.

Limits

Rules, triggers and macros are saved in the show. Auto switching itself always comes back off when a show opens.

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