Syndication

In the vein of traditional media, Syndication refers to the act of distributing a single show, comic strip, or column to many different outlets. MashCast Syndicator enables you to distribute a single piece of content to a variety of online locations both inside and outside of our network in a powerful, automated fashion.

In This Section:

• Edit Video for Broadcast
• Broadcast to the MashCast Portal
• Broadcast to You Tube, Facebook, & Google Video (Out of Network)
• Add Captions and Descriptions

 

Syndicator

Playing and Editing Video

With the Syndicator, playing and editing videos become simple tasks. Suppose that you own this video that you think would be much better if a couple of seconds from the beginning and end were chopped off and the one boring section in between was completely gone. You can play the video through, start and stop or move to a certain position and play from there. You can also erase the bits that you don't want, all without affecting the original source video. Begin by opening up the Gallery and selecting the video to use.

Player Controls

Contrary to its name, the video player is both a player and an editing tool. The controls do the following:

Scrubber – Moves the video in time. To get to a certain point in the video, grab the scrubber and drag it to the desired position. As you drag, you can see the video move. Rewind (Double left arrows) – Moves the video to the beginning Frame Back (Single left arrow) – Moves the video one frame to the left (backward). You can use this button to view the video in slow-motion. Frame Forward (Single right arrow) – Moves the video one frame to the right (forward). You can use this button to view the video in slow-motion. Fast Forward (Double right arrows) – Moves the video to the end In Point (Left flag) – Moves the start of the video. If you wanted to cut off part of the start of the video and have a new beginning, use this control. Out Point (Right flag) – Moves the end of the video. If you wanted to cut off part of the end of the video and have a shorter ending, use this control. Eraser – Removes selected parts of the video. If you want to remove one second here or three seconds there, this is the control to use.

Trimming Video

Trimming video is simple with the build-in video editing tool. A video and a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the Player Controls is all that's needed to shorten the beginning or ending of the video. And don't worry about your original video. It won't be changed. So if you change your mind because you came up with an even better idea, you can start over again. Here's one way to trim a video:

Open the Gallery Select a video from the list or browse the hard drive for the video to edit Bring up the video in the Previewer by double-clicking the video or using the context menu option The video will play automatically Once the video has finished playing, or if the Stop button is pressed, the scrubber will go back to the beginning of the file To trim from the beginning: Grab the scrubber and drag it to the new starting position. The video will move along with the scrubber so you can see what's happening at that point in time. Hover on the left flag until the mouse pointer turns into a double arrowhead Drag the left flag until it matches up with the scrubber The beginning of the video has now been trimmed To trim from the ending: Hover on the right flag until the mouse pointer turns into a double arrowhead Drag the right flag until it is at the new end point of the video. The video will move forwards or backwards as you drag the flag. When you're satisfied with the new end point, release the mouse. The ending of the video has now been trimmed. After trimming the beginning and/or end of the video, click the Rewind button. The scrubber jumps to the new beginning. Similarly, the Fast Forward button jumps to the new ending. If you want, you can now save your edits.

Using the Eraser Tool

The eraser tool is what really brings out the creativity in video editing. A trimmed video is nice but an edited video can have a totally different feeling than the original. Here's how to edit a video:

Open the Gallery Select a video from the list or browse the hard drive for the video to edit Bring up the video in the Previewer by double-clicking the video or using the context menu option The video will play automatically Once the video has finished playing, or if the Stop button is pressed, the scrubber will go back to the beginning of the file Let the mouse hover in the area between the In Point and the Out Point. The cursor will change to an eraser. When the cursor is shaped like the eraser, clicking and dragging it will erase that piece of video. Don't worry if you make an accidental erasure, it can be undone. Move the Scrubber to the point where the erasing is to begin. It doesn't have to be exact. Fine-tuning will come later. Place the eraser on the time line and hold down the mouse button. The video image will appear as well as the the time. This is where you'll start erasing. Drag the mouse along the time line until you have erased the unwanted segment. When you have finished erasing, there will be a clear break in time. Next, fine-tune the erasure. Hover one of the lines created by the eraser. The cursor changes to the double arrowhead. This means you can move the line in these directions. Click and hold on one of the lines. The video appears as well as the time. While still holding down the mouse, drag the line to the position you want to keep or erase. Play the video. The part that was erased doesn't play this time around. You can repeat the process of erasing and fine-tuning on multiple sections in the video. To undo a section that was erased, simply grab one of the vertical lines and move it until it meets the other line. If you want, you can now save your edits.

Saving Your Edit

After getting a video from the Gallery, trimming the beginning and/or end as needed, using the Eraser tool to get it just right, you might want to save your work.

From the Main menu, select "Save to Gallery". A window will open up to the default Gallery directory. Enter in a name for the new file and save. The Save window will disappear and the save process will begin. Watch the progress bar to see when you can start editing again.

If you forget to save your edits and click the close button on the window, you'll get another chance to save your edits.

A confirmation window will appear asking if you want to save your edits. Selecting Yes will open a window to the default Gallery directory. Enter in a name for the new file and save. The saving process will begin.

Send to Stage/DB

At present, there is no direct way to send a video to the stage or the database. However, an SMV can be sent to the stage or database. To get the video to the stage or database, first convert it to an SMV.

With the video in the player, from the Main menu, select "Convert to SMV" The "Convert to SMV" window will appear Select the Capture and Playback frame rate Note the number of frames in the video. The more frames in the video, the more memory the SMV will use when put on the stage. This could cause performance issues on some machines. Save the SMV parameter changes. The Save window will open up to the default SMV directory. Enter in a name for the new file and save. The Save window will disappear and the save process will begin. When the saving is complete, the SMV will play. You can stop it or let it play. On the toolbar of the player, the "Add to Database" and "Send to Stage" buttons will be enabled. Click on the "Send to Stage" button The File Import window will open Enter in a name and optional keywords Import the file and wait for the images to appear on the stage.

The "Add to Database" button works the same way except nothing is automatically put on the stage.

Selecting a Target - Network Tab

Targeting In Network

The network tab is where you select the channel or station to which you are going to broadcast.

There are several ways to select a target in the Network. One way is to select Broadcast from the Tools Menu. The other way is to select Broadcast from Gallery. Let's examine both of these options. Select Broadcast from the Tools menu. Select a picture or a video by opening a file open dialog. Observe that your selection displayed in the Preview. Next, navigate to the Network tab. In the Network tab you will be presented with the list of channels. Double-click on a preset or nodes under any Network. It will bring you to the Transmit Tab. When you right click on selected channel it presents the options to select Broadcast or create a Station. Another way to select the Network is to navigate to it from the Gallery: Open the Gallery Select a video, stills, SMV or Flash from the list Double click on your selection or select Broadcast from the context menu option or from Gallery Main Menu The Network tab will open and you will be presented with the list of channels. Double-click on a preset or nodes under any Network. It will bring you to the Transmit Tab.

Targeting Out of Network

Targeting Out of Network works the same way as Targeting in Network. 3rd Party Networks which appear under Affiliates are at the same hierarchical level within the Network as other channels and it enables posting to 3rd Party sites such as Facebook, Google Video and YouTube. To be able to publish to any of the 3rd Party Network, you need to have an established login and password for these sites. If you don't have the user name and password yet, you need to complete a registration process and create your account. Remember your user name and password, because you will need to enter them here in order to login. There are several ways to login to 3rd Party Network. One way is by selecting Settings and Connections from Main Menu. The other way is by navigating and selecting the 3rd Party Network in the Network tab.

Facebook

Select Facebook channel. If you are not logged in, you need to do so. If you did not select auto-login in Settings, you may select to login from context menu by right-clicking on the Network. You also may double-click on Facebook. The Sign in window will be displayed. Double-click on a preset or any nodes available in Facebook. It will bring you to the Transmit Tab.

YouTube

Navigate to YouTube is the same as navigate to Facebook.

Google Video

Navigate to Google Video is the same as navigate to Facebook.

Captioning and Transmitting

With the video created, you're now ready to send it off into the world. Before it goes, though, you'll need to specify where it's going to go. It's also nice to add a few words to let viewers know what the can expect from the video. First select a network and a destination on that network.

Click on the Network tab If you are logged in, you will see all the networks available to you Expand the network to see the areas available for publishing Double-click on the selection or click on the Transmit tab.

Adding a Title

When the Transmit tab appears, there will be an entry field to enter in a Title for the video. Enter the text there. Tip: When entering a title, try to make it descriptive enough so that others know what it is about. This can build excitement about the video and make people want to see it. Also, the words in a title are used for searches. If you have a title and it's descriptive, it is likely to show up when someone is searching for content.

Adding a Description

The Description of the video is where you can put as much or as little as you want about the video. When the Transmit tab comes up, it will have a Description field that you can fill. Remember that words from the description are used in searches. People read the descriptions so write the best description of the video that you can write.

Initiating Transmission

After filling in a Title and a Description on the Transmit tab, you are ready to send your video. Click on the Broadcast button and watch it go!