I’ve worked with some pretty rotten software, but management software is easily the most user unfriendly, so my vote goes to HPSM.
I’ve worked with some pretty rotten software, but management software is easily the most user unfriendly, so my vote goes to HPSM.
Just out of curiosity do you have any examples of quirks or annoyances that you found to be especially egregious? If you can’t share due to NDA no worries
No NDA and no problem!
When I last used Overdrive, it was a fresh installation, but the system itself had been around for a few years. The UI was uncooperative, making changes required going into a script instead of just a quick fix in the on-air playlist or changing a few lines of typed coding (like with ELC and Ignite respectively). The program itself was crazy unstable… look, crashes happen with any computer program or system, but this was a daily occurrence (sometimes twice in an hour long show) which is completely unacceptable. Finally, compared to Sony and GrassValley, building new codes was a trial that often required access to the video switcher itself instead of just handling things through the code editor program.
While I haven’t worked on an Overdrive system in years, one or our competitor stations in town just got one; they’ve been having a hell of a time with it and it shows on-air. Been working in broadcasting for almost twenty years and I’ve launched all three automation systems at one time or another. With Grassvalley and Sony’s automation there’s seldom a problem at launch… Ross seems to always be a beast that needs to get wrangled. I seriously want to go to that competitor and help them (also, their studio is lit for shit and I want to fix that as well).
What do you do when those crashes happen during a live broadcast? Is that something is viewers might notice at home?
You drop up black and go to commercial. Hopefully, the system is back up when the break is over.