Glossary

The words this manual uses, in plain language, each with the page that explains it. For every topic by name, see the A to Z index.

A

airZ Engine — The playout server that plays graphics on a channel, over the programme. See From scene to air.

Animate mode — The mode for making keys on a timeline. Tab switches between Design and Animate. See Top bar.

Artboard — A frame that holds a graphic, or a part of one: a lower third, a row of a table, a component. A document can hold many. See Scenes and artboards.

Artboard list — An object that draws one artboard per item of a list: the rows of a table, the headlines of a ticker. See Artboard list.

Asset — Something a document carries and its objects use: a font, a picture, a script. See Assets.

B

Binding — A connection that makes an object's property follow a data property: a text showing name, a bar as wide as share. See Data and view models.

bindings.json — The list written beside an exported graphic, of everything the graphic lets someone change. See What export produces.

Bone — A line that bends the artwork bound to it, as a skeleton bends a body. See Bone and weights.

C

Component — An artboard placed inside another artboard, to use the same design more than once. See Reuse as a component.

Controller — The application the operator in the gallery plays graphics from. See The controller.

Converter — A short list of steps that changes a value on its way from the data to what it drives: round it, format it, count it up. See Converters.

D

Default — The artboard that opens first, and the Animation States that runs, when a graphic plays. Each is marked Default.

Design mode — The mode for drawing and arranging, where a change sets an object's own value rather than a key.

Document — What you save: an .airz file with every artboard, timeline, Animation States, view model, font and picture in it.

E

Enum — A property whose value is one of a named set: Live, Break, Off air. See Data panel.

Event — A named moment a graphic announces, for other parts of it to react to. See Triggers and events.

Export — Writing the playout file, .riv, and its bindings.json. Ctrl+E.

F

Fill — The inside colour, gradient or picture of a shape. See Fills and strokes.

Frame rate — How many frames a timeline plays a second. Match it to the channel's. See Timeline settings.

G

Group — Objects moved, turned and faded as one. See Group.

H

Hierarchy — The panel that lists every object of the artboard, front first, with what holds what. See Hierarchy.

I

Inspector — The panel on the right that shows and edits what is selected. See Inspector.

Instance — One set of values for a view model: the data a graphic shows today. See Data panel.

Interpolation — How a value travels from one key to the next: evenly, eased, or held. See Interpolation.

K

Key — The fill and the transparency of a broadcast graphic travel as two pictures: the fill and the key. See Monitor out.

Keyframe, or key — A value at a moment on a timeline. See Tracks and keys.

L

Layout — A box that arranges what is inside it, so a graphic fits its content. See Layouts.

Listener — Something that waits for a click, a hover or an event, and then acts. See Listener.

Live input — A slot for a camera or line coming into the playout server: input1 to input4. See Live video slots.

Live video — A slot for a clip, a camera or a channel of the playout server: video1, video2, …

M

Monitor out — The artboard sent to a broadcast monitor through a DeckLink card, while you work. See Monitor out.

N

Nested artboard — See Component.

O

Object — Anything on an artboard: a shape, a text, a picture, a group, a layout.

Operator — The person in the gallery who fills in a graphic's data and takes it to air.

Origin — The point an object turns and scales around, and that its position describes. See Transform and origin.

Overlay — A graphic that plays over the programme, such as a lower third. The other kind is full screen.

P

Placeholder — What a slot shows before a source fills it, and its shape. See Live video slots.

Preflight — The check that lists what would go wrong on air. See Preflight findings.

Property — A named value a graphic can be given: name, score, onAir. Also any value of an object, such as its opacity.

R

.riv — The playout file: the graphic as airZ Engine plays it. See File formats.

Rundown — The operator's running order of graphics for a show, in the controller.

S

Safe areas — The frames inside which text and movement stay visible on every screen. See View aids and zoom.

Slot — A place in a graphic where live pictures play. See Live sources.

Stage — The middle of the window, where the artboard is drawn and edited. See Stage.

State — A timeline the Animation States play, or a point it rests at. See States.

Animation States — The logic that decides which timeline plays when: in, hold, out. See Animation States.

Stroke — The outline of a shape. See Fills and strokes.

Sync — Sending a graphic to a controller as a template. See Sync to controllers.

T

Template — A graphic in a controller's library, ready to be put in a rundown. Also a ready-made graphic in the editor's template library.

Timeline — A stretch of animation: keys over time. See Timelines.

Transition — The wire from one state to another, and when it is taken. See Transitions and conditions.

Trigger — A property with no value that fires: take in, take out, next. See Triggers and events.

V

Version — A kept copy of the document's state, to come back to. See Versions.

View model — The set of properties a graphic lets someone change, with their types. See Data and view models.

Visible to controller — Whether a property is included in what an export and a sync describe. See Naming properties.

W

Work area — Markers on a timeline that limit what plays, in the editor and on air. See Work area.