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Castaway

Get access to Castaway ...................................................................................... 2

Prepare the clip .................................................................................................... 4

Where to publish the clip ..................................................................................... 4

Upload the file ...................................................................................................... 5

Publish ................................................................................................................. 7

Editing or removing a published clip .................................................................. 17

Editing the clip ............................................................................................... 19

Remove the clip from the web ....................................................................... 19

Appendix ............................................................................................................ 20

Editing an image ............................................................................................ 20

Replacing the media ...................................................................................... 22

Latest version of this document:

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/academy/collegeoftechnology/docs/mm/castaway_non-news.pdf

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Castaway is a BBC application used to publish video and audio clips to the BBC website. It

was built by the same team that produced iBroadcast.

Get access to Castaway

Go to this URL (works best in Chrome):

https://castaway.tools.bbc.co.uk

You will see a security certificate dialogue box pop up. Click OK.

If you already have access to iBroadcast, then you will have access to Castaway as well.

If you don’t already use iBroadcast, when you go to Castaway, you will see this screen. Fill

in the form to get access. Processing your request may take a day or two.

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Once you’ve been given access, the Castaway URL will take you directly to the app.

The first time you use Castaway, in some browsers you may be prompted to install the

Signiant app. This is official BBC software, so go ahead.

Once that’s been installed, you will get to the Castaway upload page. Check the correct

iBroadcast group is selected (top left corner). It’s “London Factual” in the example below.

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Prepare the clip

First, you’ll need to edit your clip, and save it on one of your PC drives.

Castaway accepts audio and video in these formats:

Video .mp4 or .mov (QuickTime H.264)

Audio .mp3 (MPEG Audio - version 1, standard MP3 file, 192kbps);

or .wav (Wave - PCM – Microsoft)

Full details on file formats are here:

https://confluence.dev.bbc.co.uk/display/iBroadcast/File+formats

Where to publish the clip

Now you need to decide which web page you want the clip to appear on. For example, if the

clip is taken from an episode, it should be published to the corresponding episode web page.

Castaway publishes clips to programme pages at bbc.co.uk/programmes.

You must find the page PID (Programme Identifier), an eight character code which identifies

the page. Every programme page has its own unique PID.

The page PID appears at the end of the URL of the page, on the Programmes website, e.g.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00dzzdc

In this example the PID is b00dzzdc and it is an episode of Timeshift.

In the browser address field, copy the PID from the end of the URL

During the clip publishing process, you’ll paste the PID in to Castaway, to tell it which page

the clip should appear on.

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Upload the file

To upload your video or audio clip, go to Castaway in your web browser:

https://castaway.tools.bbc.co.uk

This is the Castaway upload screen:

The dropdown box specifies the type of

video you’re uploading.

For 16:9 video leave it set to Standard.

Tick Add DOG if you want Castaway to add a Digital On-screen Graphic (the BBC logo) to

the top left corner of your video clip.

Click Select File to upload your video or audio clip.

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A computer window will appear, and you can browse your computer drives to find and select

your clip.

As the clip uploads, its progress is displayed.

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Publish

When it’s finished uploading a form opens, which you fill in, in order to publish the clip.

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Media

The first section shows details of the audio or video clip. You can preview it in the player.

Click the green Edit button to reveal extra options: display as vertical safe; replace the

media with a new video or audio file; add subtitles.

Thumbnail Selector

In the second section, the clip needs a still image which shows on the clip player. We don’t

want to keep the default image, which is the BBC logo, or the BBC News logo.

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After a few moments, for video clips, a selection of pictures will appear - these have been

taken from the video itself. Choose one by clicking on it.

If you prefer, you can upload your own image (which you may want to do for audio clips).

It must be jpeg format, landscape, 16:9 aspect ratio, the recommended size is 1920 x 1080

pixels. Minimum is 1024 x 576 pixels.

Find the image file on your computer, and drag it in to the box:

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And your image will appear:

The image size and shape can be edited by clicking the Edit button. See page 20 for details.

N.B. You can also use the programme image as the clip thumbnail image. This option is

available once you have selected a parent programme page in a later step (see page 12).

Add the Alt text. That’s Alternative text - it’s for people who are visually impaired and who

use screen reader software. It describes the image.

Add the copyright details for the image.

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Basic Details

The Title (128 characters maximum) and Short synopsis (90 characters) are required.

The Medium and Long synopses are optional.

The Media Caption field is optional. It’s intended for use by News CPS users.

The language selector allows text input for right-to-left languages (Persian, Urdu, Pashto and

Arabic).

Tags

The Tags section is only for the BBC News website, so don’t touch it.

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Parent programme

This is where you specify which web page the clip is going to appear on.

Don’t leave it as default “Online Media Pipeline” - that’s only for publishing clips to the

News website.

You can select a web page you’ve used before, in the My Recently Selected drop down list.

Or to find a page you haven’t used before, click on Or search all Programmes and a

window appears:

Enter the PID of your programme page, which you copied earlier. Click Search.

When you see the programme appear, click on it.

Once you choose a parent programme, you get the option to use the programme image as

the clip thumbnail image. It will appear in the Thumbnail Selector section above. This is

useful for audio clips.

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The parent page is set. This page is where the clip will appear.

Rights and Scheduling

Here you specify how long the clip will be available for, and whether it’s available

internationally or just in the UK. The default setting is International, Forever, Embeddable.

You can choose different settings if necessary, subject to the rights you have for the clip.

Embeddable means the clip will be shareable on other websites.

The publishing time is set to Now – but you can choose Custom if you want the clip to

publish at a future date and time, or end at a particular time.

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Warnings and guidance

Add warnings if you need to. These appear as written warnings on the clip player, and also

activate the parental guidance lock.

Tick this box to add warnings, and these options appear:

You can select one or more of the “Tier 1” warnings.

“Flashing images” is available here.

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There are also these “Tier 2” warnings available:

The “Grey bar” warnings don’t do anything, so ignore them.

Notes

You can add notes if you want to. They’re not visible to the audience, just internal notes for

BBC use.

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Publishing

Read through the form to check it - and click the Publish button at the bottom of the form.

Tick the box to agree to the compliance guidelines. Make sure you’re familiar with the

compliance process in your division – compliance must be completed before the clip is

published.

And click Publish again.

After a few seconds, at the top left of the screen, you will see “Currently publishing”.

It may take a few minutes before your clip appears on the web page.

Once published, the clip has its own PID,

shown at the top left of the Castaway

screen.

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Editing or removing a published clip

Once a clip has been published, it can be removed or the metadata may be edited.

Go to the Castaway URL - https://castaway.tools.bbc.co.uk

To find the clip, either…

find the PID of the clip (it appears at the end of the URL on the clip page)…

e.g. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p012z6qn

Copy the clip PID and search for it in the Castaway search box (top right of the screen):

The clip form appears, and you can

either edit or revoke the clip (see

page 19 for instructions).

Or…

If you don’t know the clip PID, click on the palm tree (top left of the screen).

This screen appears, showing clip files which have been uploaded, by you, or by everyone in

your group:

Each tab can be changed to either show “My” or “All” clips (“All” means everyone in your

group, not the entire BBC).

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Drafts - files which have been uploaded, but haven’t been published yet.

Publishing – files which are currently being published.

Published – files which have been published.

Click on the tab titles to choose either “My” or “All”.

To find a published clip, click on the All Published tab title, and set it to “All Published” or

“My Published”, depending on which clips you want to see.

You can filter by time as well. Click on the All time button (top right) to find clips published

on a specific date, or in a particular time period.

When you’ve found the clip, click on its title:

The clip form appears, and you can either edit or revoke the clip (see below).

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Editing the clip

To edit the clip details, click Edit (bottom right of the screen):

You can edit the text, the image, the parent programme page, scheduling and warnings, or

replace the video or audio file with a new one.

Click the Update button to publish your changes. You will be prompted to agree to the

compliance process again.

Remove the clip from the web

Click the red Revoke button:

You will be prompted to agree to the compliance process:

Tick the box and click Revoke again. After a few moments, the clip will show as “Revoked”

(top left of the screen). The clip will no longer be playable on the BBC web site.

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Appendix

Editing an image

Whether you use one of the keyframe images taken from the video, or have uploaded an

image yourself, it can be edited. This is useful if an uploaded image isn’t 16:9 aspect ratio,

so won’t fit the media player.

Click the green Edit button, and the edit window appears:

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The edit controls allow you to select a landscape (16:9),

portrait (9:16), or square (1:1) section from the image.

In most cases you will need 16:9.

Scale the image, effectively zooming in or out. NB: Be

careful not to zoom in to the image too much. It may become

pixelated and blurred if it’s over-magnified.

Move the image position within the selection area (use the

arrow keys or drag the image with your mouse), or rotate it.

You can reset the image if your adjustments don’t work, or

choose to use the original without editing.

Positioning example: the 16:9 aspect ratio is selected, and the image has been scaled

(zoomed out) and repositioned, so that the figures and dalek fit into the selection area.

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Replacing the media

The clip media file (video or audio) can be replaced with a new one. This can be done either

before the clip is published, or after it has been published, or after a clip has been revoked.

You can’t replace audio with video or vice-versa.

Find the clip page, either by searching for the clip PID; or click on the palm tree (top left) and

find your clip in the Drafts or Published lists:

On the clip page, click Edit (bottom right of the screen):

Then, in the Media section, at the top of the page, click Edit.

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In the window which appears, click the green Replace Media button. Now you can upload a

new video or audio file.

When the new file has uploaded, click Apply to make the replacement.

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In the warning window, tick the box, and click Apply.

Once the replacement file has been applied, you can pick a new key frame picture if you

need to, or upload a new one.

You can edit other metadata, such as the title and description.

Finally, click Publish to make all your changes live: