Creating AI newscasts

Newscasts can be created from one or more sources and structured to match your station's preferred style.

The editor allows you to create bulletins using several building blocks: news, weather, traffic, imaging, or custom text.

Once you have constructed your newscast, click 'Preview' to listen to it. Once you click 'Generate audio,' it will be published and treated as your latest newscast. Depending on your settings, it may be uploaded to your connected Dropbox or FTP server.

The duration of your newscast will only be deducted from your available minutes once a final version (with audio) has been generated.

📰 News

A news section is created from one or more sources, which you can select from the dropdown menu in the settings.

Each article from these sources will be transformed into a news story that a newscaster can read aloud, following the preferences set in the attached content model.

You can specify the number of stories you want to include in this section. Additionally, you can arrange the stories either by "publication date" or "randomly."

When ordered by publication date, the stories are selected from the sources in chronological order, regardless of the source itself. This means that it could potentially use only one source if the most recently published articles are all from that source.

On the other hand, when ordered randomly, the system chooses stories without considering their source. Consequently, it's possible that all the stories come from the same source.

If you wish to utilize multiple sources and want more control over which source is used, it is recommended to add multiple "News sections," set the "stories count" to 1, select only one source, and order the stories by publication date. This way, each section will fetch the latest story from its designated source.

🌤️ Weather

To incorporate a weather forecast into the newscast, choose "Weather" from the dropdown menu by clicking the plus icon.

You will then be prompted to either select an existing weather source or create a new one.

For additional details on weather sources, click here.

🚦 Traffic

To include traffic information in the newscast, pick "Traffic" from the dropdown menu after clicking the plus icon.

You will receive a prompt to either select an existing weather source or create a new one.

🎵 Imaging

You can include fillers or "beds" to play under your newscast.

These may or may not start with a jingle. When you add one, it will play in the background until it ends or until the next filler is added in the editor. Subsequently, the next filler will play in the background.

You have the choice of three built-in fillers, or you can upload your station's existing news bed.

Uploading imaging

To use your own fillers in a newscast, upload them in the "Imaging" section. Go to Imaging, click "Add Imaging" and upload your file.

After uploading, you can set the "start talk cue" and "volume at start talk."

• Start talk cue - This option determines when the talk starts. You can adjust this by clicking the "Start talk cue" button while playing the audio.
• Volume at start talk - This controls the volume percentage when the talk begins. Choose 0 or 100% to keep the volume unchanged and play the imaging as it is.

✏️ Custom Text

The custom text block is designed to add text that remains consistent across all newscasts.

Currently, three dynamically filled variables are available within the custom text block. It's important to enclose these variables in brackets in your custom text, as shown in the examples below:

For example, in a newscast generated at 7:55 AM, this custom text...

It's {nextHour} o'clock. {greeting+1}, I'm Toby Lerone.

...would become:

It's 8 o'clock. Good morning, I'm Toby Lerone.