RunPlanner
The RunPlanner system is designed to support and enable seamless cooperation of all departments involved in the production of the news and current affairs programmes. The application consists of modules designed and specifically tailored to the needs of particular groups of staff involved in the programme production process: the newsroom staff (editors, producers, journalists/reporters) and production staff (vision and sound directors, VT editors etc). The system can support many co-working newsrooms.

The system gathers the contents of the agency wires and makes it accessible. It enables the receiving, gathering and accessing to the materials worked out by the correspondents, or sent by other TV centres.

Within the framework of the system the running orders are being produced for the individual news shows. The system generates the interfaces for the studio devices.

The system possesses the expanded functionality of the Flash-2001 and Runner systems.

Wires
Agency Wires Subsystem consists of sophisticated search engine which enables the journalists to perform searches according to different search criteria, e.g. by keywords, domains, time, language, wire identifiers, agencies, priorities and user-defined categories. It enables searching for any phrase within the text of the wires themselves

Story editor
The RunPlanner system contains a specialized editor for preparing the materials to be ready for inclusion in the running order. It enables the creation of a story - a running order element, with all the necessary playout information attached. Each story consists of the slug text and the story text elements where each element encompasses the information about its intended form for presentation (read in vision, out of vision). Other elements that can form a story are: the package, markers identifying relevant video material (including th time-codes), special instructions for playout staff and directors, captions and other graphics information as well as all timing information for the entire story and for each element (distinguishing estimated and actual timings).

Grouping and the data flow.
The stories being prepared are collected into the story containers. Their number and purpose can vary according to the needs. The role of a story container is to organize the flow of the information from the authors to the editorial team, enabling the adjustments and the acceptance of stories as well as their selection for inclusion in the running order. Such container are in particular:

	the author's private containers,
	the container with packages of the stories dispatched by regional centres,
	the containers destined for stories to be adjusted by the editors who are responsible for domestic domain, foreign domain, etc.,
	the containers of finished stories, waiting to be included in the running order,
	the containers of stories which were "dropped" off the current running order and which are ready to be used later on.

The stories in the containers can be searched and filtered according to various criteria, such as authors, target running order, story title or its fragment, key words, or duration.

The system also enables to create, store and search the auxiliary text information such as schedules of events, background data etc.

Running orders
The main purpose of the system is the creatiion of the running orders of the news progammes, which is achieved by the Running Order Editor. The running orders are presented in the system in various ways - depending on their show preparation stage as well as the needs of the participants of the editorial team (editors, producers, newscasters). In particular the system has got the running orders layouts used for:

	initial planning of the running order,
	running order preparation proper,
	editing of the runnig order's components (e.g. by the story author, newscasters),
	entering time-codes and playout comments by the producers, VT editors etc.

The shape and the number of such layouts can be adjusted flexibly depending on the needs of the newsroom. The way in which the running order layouts as well as printout layouts are presented is defined with the XML files interpreted by the system.

New running orders are created basing on the templates. The running orders can be built in various ways e.g. by taking stories from the container of finished stories, from other running orders, from the container of dropped stories or through creating the stories "from scratch". The stories or their elements may be re-edited, removed or moved to the "drop-off" container. The sequence of stories can be changed.

During the work with the running order editor the timetables and various indicators enabling the constant control over the time balance and following the advance of the work are displayed. The editor enables to run the procedures for verification of the integrity and completeness of data.

The running orders current state images can be sent sequentially to the RunnerWWW system for presentation in the Internet browsers.

Studio profile
The story description created with the RunPlanner system (stored on containers) does not depend on any studio devices. Such approach makes the process of story editing independent of a programme or a channel in which it will be broadcasted. It also enables transferring the stories between various newsrooms and centres without making any changes, which could be required to accommodate requirements of particular studio equipment.

Linking with particular broadcasting devices takes place through indicating the appropriate studio profile. Various sets of broadcasting devices are described as studio profiles (for the same studio many profiles can exist describing various sets of devices used during the playout). A link between particular running orders with a specific studio profile can be changed even shortly before the emission.

MOS - integration with production and playout
RunPlanner uses the MOS protocol which is a present-day standard for the communication between newsroom and production systems. RunPlanner can exchange the data independently with different systems. Depending on the possibilities offered by these systems, the integration with the use of MOS protocol can enable for:

	updating RunPlunner instantly with the video and graphical objects and their status,
	linking the objects with the elements within running orders and story containers,
	creating the objects using RunPlanner on journalist's demand,
	instant running order synchronization,
	viewing and editing video and graphical objects within RunPlanner.

RunPlanner has flexible possibilities of defining the MOS interfaces, so it can cooperate with different systems using different revisions and variants of the MOS protocol.

Playout data
For the devices which are not supporting MOS protocol, the system generates the data for broadcasting devices according to a specific studio profile assigned to a certain programme. The system handles the interface file formats for many broadcasting devices used in Polish TV (e.g. prompters, character generators). The system allows to complementing with the new data formats for new devices that are being introduced.

The system creates different kinds of printouts for the broadcasting team - these are customized for types of functions performed by different people (e.g. editor, sound and vision director, newscaster, VT operator).

Other system features
RunPlanner contains many useful features and functions

	word processor and the text bases designed to store various data e.g. time tables, film descriptions, background materials,
	the archive of already aired themes,
	a module enabling assessment of the theme authors' work and the staff preparing the editions,
	a message transmission subsystem makes easer to communicate between people who work together,
	possibility to browse the history of changes in the themes, as well as in scripts, enabling to clarify when, by whom, and what kind of changes were made in the individual editions,
	data transmission to different computer systems, and especially: information pertaining to royalties for financial programs and data for archiving systems.

Access, authorization
The system enables limiting the data access, as well as setting different authorization level for its users, especially:

	assigning particular persons to the particular teams,
	authorization for containers and text bases in respect of viewing, editing, approving, copying, deleting the stories etc.,
	authorization for access to the roles performed in particular teams,
	authorization for editing individual running orders (with defining the scope of such edition),
	making available the scripts for browsing to persons outside the newsroom.