Automation rules

A rule belongs to a source, and says: when something happens to it, after an optional wait, do one or more things. It runs the actions a hotkey or a Stream Deck button can, so anything you can press, a rule can trigger for you, all but Stop the show, which only a person asks for.

Add one

On a source’s Automations, press Add Rule. Choose When it fires (a source reaching or leaving Program, its overlay going on or off air, an item, a playlist or a carousel finishing, or a replay finishing playing) and, if you want, a Wait in seconds before it acts.

A new rule’s action starts as Select source and Select action, and does nothing until both are chosen, so nothing happens on air while you set it up. The Show’s journal says each rule added, removed, switched on or off, or changed.

A Cut or Fade to Program of a source that is already on Program does nothing.

What it can do

Then the first action runs, and And adds more after it: switching, putting something in Preview or as an overlay, playback (play, pause, restart, go to an item), replay (play a bucket or a clip, capture one, move the selection), muting or setting gain, switching an input’s Video FX on or off, moving through a data source’s rows, or starting and stopping an output. The actions are listed under the same headings as a hotkey’s, and typing in the list narrows it.

If a source’s type is changed, a rule that no longer fits it — a playlist’s ending on what is now a camera, or a camera preset on what is no longer an NDI camera — is kept, and says under it what does nothing. Change the type back, or the rule, and it works again.

Loops are refused, not run

A rule cannot trigger itself, however many other rules sit in between: InterDirector tracks the whole chain an action came from, back past whatever triggered it directly, so a cycle nobody meant to build cannot fire. Its own row explains why, in one of three ways:

• “This rule was reached by something it started, so it did not run again.” That is a genuine loop.
• “Too many rules ran one after another, so this one did not run.” That means more than four rules deep in one chain.
• “Its wait finished after the thing it was about had already ended.” That is a delayed action whose moment has passed, such as one tied to an overlay that came back down before the wait was over.

Next

The auto director, for switching between cameras on a timer instead of on an event.