TriCaster and Viz Vectar Plus support

• Viz Mosart can now record video clips in TriCaster and Viz Vectar Plus using the vizrt-ips video server driver (MOSART-11546).

• Viz Mosart can now play audio clips from the sound player in TriCaster and Viz Vectar Plus. This player is made available as a vizrt-ips selection under Audio > Sound Player in AV Automation's Device Properties (MOSART-11533).

Licensing

• The Viz Mosart GUI's License Configuration menu (located under Help) now shows a set of Viz Mosart features that will require a license in future versions of Viz Mosart. It is now possible to acquire licenses for these features, so that the Viz Mosart system is prepared in good time before the licensing is put into action. Your Vizrt account manager can assist you with getting appropriate licenses in place (MOSART-11466).

• As described in Viz Mosart 5.2.0, licensing will be activated only through the Combined Manus Administrator application, which was introduced in that version. In future releases of Viz Mosart the old Manus Administrator applications for iNews and for MOS will be deprecated and removed from the installers. To encourage use of the Combined Manus Administrator, notification messages have been added to the GUI and console windows of the old Manus Administrator applications (MOSART-11371).

PREVIEW: Flexible and future proof handling of Vizrt Graphics

Viz Mosart is being enhanced to more effectively control and automate Vizrt graphics through the Vizrt Media Sequencer (MOSART-11414).

With this Viz Mosart version, it is possible to include Viz Arc ( augmented reality control system) objects directly in a Viz Mosart rundown, enabling the automation operator to see and recall them at the required moment of a production.

In future releases of Viz Mosart and Viz Media Sequencer (MSE) the portfolio of controlled graphic object types will be gradually extended.

• If you would like to help influence the direction of this functionality by testing it in your own facility, please get in touch.

Combined Manus Administrator

• There have been several improvements to the Settings window that was introduced in the previous Viz Mosart release. These enhancements provide a more understandable and visually appealing operation (MOSART-11552).

Genlock status

• Status reporting for Genlock in AV Automation has been improved, giving more information about any operational issues (MOSART-11501).

Audio Mixer handling

• The MidiMixer driver for Yamaha QL and CL series audio consoles has been enhanced, so that maximum attenuation is now - ∞ (previously -120dB), and the number of supported faders has increased to 72 (MOSART-11030).

Engine Switcher

• An enhanced version of the Vizrt Switcher scene (which enables the Engine Switcher feature) is provided with this Viz Mosart version. As well as some minor bug fixes, the scene includes clip preview functionality and a user-friendly way to handle labelling with shared memory access using standard Datapool plugins (MOSART-11614).

Combined Manus Administrator

• Sometimes when opening the Settings window, it could come up just as a blank page, and the Combined Manus Administrator application would hang and stop operating. This issue has now been resolved (MOSART-11567).

Overlay Graphics control

• The graphics handling improvements for full screen graphics introduced in Viz Mosart version 5.2.0 broke some functionality for taking out Vizrt overlay graphics. This affected the OVERLAY_GRAPHICS control commands CLEAR, TAKE_MANUAL_OUT and TAKE_LAST_OUT when used for Vizrt graphics from either the GUI or a template. The issue also impacted the Clear button in the Overlay Graphics Interface. The issue did not impact any other Overlay Graphic systems than Vizrt graphics. This issue has now been fixed (MOSART-11541, MOSART-11600).

Audio Mixer handling

• Over time, commands from Viz Mosart to the DHD audio mixer would become increasingly delayed. The bug that caused this delay has now been fixed (MOSART-11496).

Template Database handling

• Fixed an issue with hierarchical template sets and the template database where the function Flatten Template Set would fail, so that the template database would contain incorrect data (MOSART-11442, MOSART-11117).

Video Server control

• In Viz Mosart 5.2.0 an issue was introduced which prevented playing video server clips if a video switcher was not configured. This regression bug has now been fixed (MOSART-11514).

• Fixed an issue with the Grass Valley K2 video server, where certain interlaced video formats did not work as expected with the control commands CUE or CUE_TAIL to start clip playout inside the clip, nor scrubbing in the Viz Mosart GUI to adjust clip start position. The clip would incorrectly start to play from half of the expected position in the clip. (MOSART-10454).

• When using Harmonic/Omneon video servers in Viz Mosart Media Administrator, in a certain video clip workflow where the clip file extension would not be removed when it should be, the clip would not be playable from Viz Mosart. This issue has now been resolved (MOSART-11287).

Video Switcher control

• With Ross Carbonite video switchers it was not possible to recall EMEM to MiniME. This issue has now been resolved (MOSART-11284).

Newsroom Computer System handling

• In Viz Mosart 5.2.0, the ability to use red text "presenter instructions" in Avid iNews was greatly enhanced. An unwanted side effect of this work was to make the commands case-sensitive. This issue has now been resolved, whilst retaining the ability for the content (for example, clip name) to be case-sensitive. (MOSART-11504).

• When using the Viz Mosart 4 or 5 ActiveX plugin in an NRCS to create rundowns used by earlier versions of Viz Mosart servers, there was a issue with some MOS objects created by the ActiveX. For these MOS objects the later ActiveX would not include the 'value' attribute for a field if it was by default empty (an empty ""). The missing 'value' attribute created a situation where the MOS object was not properly interpreted by older Viz Mosart server versions. This in turn resulted in wrong status being shown for the rundown item with this MOS object. This issue has now been resolved by reintroducing the earlier behavior where the 'value' attribute is present in the MOS object, and also when it is empty (MOSART-11222).

Web Applications

• When using Timing Display from the Mosart Web Applications 1.6 release on a Viz Mosart system running on another frame rate than 25 Hz, time counters in the Timing Display would drift away from the expected. This issue has now been resolved with a fix in the Mosart Remote Control Service, taking into account the frame rate configured on the Viz Mosart Server. Installing Viz Mosart 5.3.0, the timing will be correct, even with the current version of Mosart Web Applications 1.6 (MOSART-11491).

Previous notable changes

• 5.0.0: When using the Story Recorder feature (introduced in version 5.0.0), the created template set becomes incompatible with Viz Mosart version 4.x or earlier.

• 5.1.0: With the introduction of the Engine Switcher feature (in version 5.1.0), a Viz Opus can not be upgraded to Viz Mosart 5.1 or newer. Previously it has been possible, to upgrade at own risk Viz Opus to a newer Viz Mosart version than the official 3.8.1 version This is no longer possible.

Changes in this version

• From Viz Mosart 5.3.0, the .msi installers for Viz Mosart Server and Viz Mosart GUI will no longer be included in the set of installers for Viz Mosart. Instead the .exe installers should be used. This is to ensure that all necessary components that Viz Mosart relies on are present., and the .exe installers will check and install any missing components. For those who use Viz Mosart Installation Administrator (MIA) for upgrading Viz Mosart, this means that the Viz Mosart Server and Viz Mosart GUI will have to be installed (and uninstalled) outside of MIA.

Upcoming changes

• In Viz Mosart version 5.4.0, the MMTrio graphics interface will be deprecated. Customers should ensure that Overlay and Fullscreen graphics are configured using the OGI driver.

• In a future version of Viz Mosart (version TBC), both older iNews and MOS versions of Manus Administrator will be deprecated. Customers are encouraged to migrate to the new Combined Manus Administrator.

• In a future version of Viz Mosart (version TBC), support for the ActiveX NRCS plugin will be deprecated. Customers are encouraged to migrate to the HTML-based plugin (Mosart Web App NRCS Plugin) wherever possible. Vizrt are continuing to strengthen the web-based architecture which serves this newer plugin, and to enhance its functionality where customer experience exposes use cases which are not yet fully satisfied.

System Requirements

Upgrade

As a standard procedure, always make backups before upgrading. The locations are all files in the following folders:

• C:\channeltemplates

• %localappdata%\Mosart_Medialab

• %programdata%\Mosart Medialab\ConfigurationFiles

• C:\Program Files (x86)\Mosart Medialab\<Mosart application>\ConfigurationFiles

• All files with extension .exe.config in folders C:\Program Files (x86)\Mosart Medialab\<Mosart application>\ where <Mosart application> is the relevant Viz Mosart application (for example Mosart Server, Mosart GUI).

Windows registry settings for:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\\[Wow6432Node\\]Mosart Medialab

• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\\[Wow6432Node\\]Mosart Medialab

For the upgrade procedure, see the Viz Mosart Administrator Guide, section Installation.
You will always find the latest updated documentation for Viz Mosart 5.3 at https://documentation.vizrt.com/viz-mosart-5.3.html.

If you do not have Internet access to the above documentation, a quick guide for installation is given here:

1. Download all relevant Viz Mosart installation files to the preferred location.

   1. The default location is C:\Mosart\Installers. You are advised to make a sub-directory for the installers for a particular version/build containing all the MSI installer-files and any other supplemental files.

   2. This directory should be named using the Release.Version.Patch.Build naming convention, for example: C:\Mosart\Installers\4.1.0.24523 for Mosart 4.1.0 build 24523.

2. Stop all Viz Mosart Windows services.

3. Double-click the installation file, and follow the prompts to complete installation. Note that after completing this step for the Viz Mosart Server and the Viz Mosart GUI, the documentation is available in the installation folder's Documentation sub folder.

4. Repeat the above step for all relevant installation files.

5. As the last steps you need to start a set of Windows services to make Viz Mosart run properly. These are automatically started when the computer is started. The safest is to reboot the computer to verify that the automatic start of the services is working.

Upgrading FAQ

Some questions with answers around upgrading an existing installation, with respect to new features in Viz Mosart 4 and 5.

For other details see the System Requirements section in this document.

Installations with Viz Mosart in several galleries

If you have several galleries running an earlier Viz Mosart version, like Viz Mosart 3 or Viz Mosart 4, you can safely upgrade one of the galleries to Viz Mosart 5 while the others stay on their current version.

MIA (Mosart Installation Administrator)

If you use MIA, refer to the Viz Mosart Installation Administrator section of the Viz Mosart Administrator Guide for further details. Note that from version 5.3.0, MIA can not be used to install the Viz Mosart Server or the Viz Mosart GUI. These have to be installed manually, using the .exe installers.

Story Recorder

Currently Story Recorder is only supported for a limited set of devices. Contact Vizrt Mosart Support for more details.

Hierarchical template sets (introduced in Viz Mosart 4)

Do hierarchical template sets require a complete new set of templates or are they backwards compatible with template sets from a previous version?

• You can continue to use the existing channel templates without any modifications, so Viz Mosart 5 is backwards compatible.

Can I go back to Viz Mosart 3 after I have started using hierarchical template sets?

• Yes, you can, but with some limitations. The templates in the base template set (the template set that other template sets inherit from, either directly or indirectly) can be used with the previous version. Inherited template sets (a variant of a base template set) can in practice not be re-used in a previous version of Viz Mosart, as the variant only includes the (few) additional templates that override a base set template, plus templates specific for this template set.

I use Viz Mosart Template Database - what is the effect of upgrading from Viz Mosart 3 or Viz Mosart 4 to Viz Mosart 5?

• If upgrading from Viz Mosart 3, when starting Viz Mosart 5, the full template database (for all galleries), is automatically upgraded to a new schema. This upgrade is backwards compatible, so you can continue to operate towards the upgraded template database from galleries with earlier versions of Viz Mosart.

• After testing Viz Mosart 5 you can safely downgrade to an earlier version of Viz Mosart and continue to use the template database as before, although with the limitations that inherited template sets are not usable (as described in Can I go back above).

Viz Mosart ActiveX

Are the MOS objects the same in Viz Mosart 5 as in earlier Viz Mosart versions?

• Yes.

Can a rundown created with Viz Mosart 5 ActiveX be loaded in a Viz Mosart Server of an earlier version?

• Yes.

Can rundown elements created by Viz Mosart 5 ActiveX be edited in an earlier ActiveX, and vice versa?

• Yes.

Is this the same for all newsroom computer systems?

• Yes.

Newsroomsettings

• Before upgrading, make sure you take a backup of newsroomsettings.xml.

• If you are upgrading from a version before release 3.6.7, or before 3.7.0.23184, the newsroomsettings.xml file is upgraded to version 6 (you will be asked this when Manus Administrator is started first time after upgrade).

• If you for some reason need to roll back to an earlier Viz Mosart version, newsroomsettings.xml will not be downgraded automatically to the older version, so you have to manually replace the newsroomsettings.xml file with the backup file after downgrade. Alternatively, if no backup was done, you should remove the <graphicdestinationletters> tag from the XML file and re-add them using Manus Administrator Settings.

• If you are using Template Database, the upgraded newsroomsettings will also be automatically updated in the Template Database.

CasparCG

Binaries for CasparCG are no longer distributed as part of the Viz Mosart installers.

• Please contact Viz Mosart Support for further information.