Display Results on CG

This section describes how the Character Generator (CG) is used to display results during the election.

Set Options

Open the Air Control dialog by selecting the Air Control button in the Production ribbon.

If Preload is set to a value of 1 in the ELECTIONS.INI file, Air Control will display a button labeled Queue. This button can be used to send all of the races currently in view to the CG device.

If Preload is set to a value of 0 in the ELECTIONS.INI file, Air Control will display a button labeled Send Page 1234, where 1234 is the name of the next page to be sent.

Upon opening, the air control will display the first race of the default sequence ALL RACES in the viewing area of the control. The following table shows some of the choices you can select.

Field	Description
Only leader pages	Send only the first page in a series of CG pages for a given race Must be checked in conjunction with Leader on top. This option will not appear if CG information is being preloaded.
Leader on top	Send pages to the CG with the leader on top and all other candidates in descending order.
Display only races with votes	Sends only races with votes.
Automatically send next page	ENPS can automatically send election CG pages when the Preload mode is disabled (Preload=0 in the ELECTIONS.INI file). Set a duration between 1 and 10 seconds. Once the system goes through all available races, it will start again at the top of the loaded sequence. The Automatically send next page setting is designed for use with only one output template. If you have multiple templates selected, such as a lower third and a full screen, this setting will output the lower third page for a particular race, followed by the full screen page for that same race.
Always send directory commands	If unchecked, Elections sends a CG directory command only once when it's set. If checked, Elections sends the directory command before each race, in case someone on the CG console changes the directory manually.

Create a Sequence from Air Control Dialog

An election sequence can be created ad hoc from the Air Control by typing in a series of either comma or space-delimited CG Base Page numbers in the Race Sequence area. This sequence can then be saved by clicking in the second box, and typing a name.

This sequence will then be added to the list of previously created sequences and will be added to the dropdown box above the Save As area. To select a sequence for display, click on the down arrow to the right and select the proper timetable.

Send a Race to the CG

The race, along with vote totals, which is about to be sent to the CG will be displayed in the center portion of the Air Control. You will notice that some of the candidate names are highlighted in yellow. These are the names that will be sent if the producer clicks on the Send button, and the number of highlighted names depends on the template you have selected.

For example, if there are six candidates and a template is selected that shows four at a time, four candidates will be highlighted. Pressing Send will send that page to the CG. Pressing the Send button a second time will send the second set of candidate names. For example:

Race base page	0001
Max pages	3
# of candidates	6
# of candidates in fullscreen template	4
Fullscreen offset	1000
Lower third offset	2000
Squeezeback	3000

All tab fields must have the proper font and color; case settings should be empty. Tab stops must be ordered to output results. Pressing J will do this in the tab set-up utility box of the Chyron. The tab stop order in the ENPS templates must match the tab stop order in the Chyron. Chyron starts their numbering with 0 and AP with 1. Make sure both are in the same sequential order.

In this example, two pages would be sent for the full screen version of this race, since that template has four candidates per page (four on the first page and two on the second).

Producers may select a format in which to output CGs in a two-step process. You will note that the Output format in the lower left portion of the air control reflects the list that was entered for display options in the ELECTIONS.INI file. To do so:

1. Click in the area under CG Template and you will see a drop-down menu that will give you choices of available election templates. The CG operator must be "homed" to the group that contains the election, otherwise they will be unable to change templates or see the drop-down list at all.

   

   The only choices which will appear in this list will be those ENPS CG Templates which have elections fields associated with some of the template tab fields as described above

2. Click CG Output Format so the row turns blue.

   For each of these outputs a separate CG template can be selected.

   If the Preload option in ELECTIONS.INI is disabled, click Send. However, with the Production > Output on update ribbon button checked, you do not have to press Queue every time you want to send a race. If Preload is enabled, as soon as there is an update the Elections client will send the update to CG automatically, just as it would in a newscast.

3. Click Setup > Activate Wire updates (if you are expecting numbers from the wire).

4. Click Production > Output Active.

5. Click Production > Output on Update.

6. Select the output format under CG Templates, i.e., Full screen, Lower third. You may select multiple formats. If you enable this option, especially with All Races selected, you may create a backlog of races going to the CG and it will take some time to process them.

Manually Force a Sequence

You may load Air Control when Preload is enabled and it will briefly display each race as it is sent on to the CG. Since this occurs rapidly, Air Control will not be the primary mode of monitoring race totals in when Preload is enabled. You can manually force a sequence to be sent by choosing the sequence you want to send from the Race Sequence dropdown list, and clicking Queue. The system will queue that sequence for transfer to the CG following any updates that are currently underway.

Sending Results to Multiple CGs

In a situation where one CG is set for lower third format and another is set for full screen, the CG set for full screen display is usually set to preload while the machine that displays the lower third format is not.

However, there are some situations in which it may be preferable to have both machines preload. In this situation, it is important that the machines have identical [StatsCG] sections in their ELECTIONS.INI files even if their display formats are different. The DisplayFormats setting in the [StatsCG] must include all of the formats that both machines will use. For example, if you have two CGs and one machine displays lower third and the other displays full screen, this setting would be set to DisplayFormats=Lower Third;Full Page 1;Full Page 2 for the ELECTIONS.INI file on both machines. Remember that this will only be necessary if both machines are set to Preload=1.

Display Multiple Races

There are two methods for displaying multiple copies of a race:

• Place multiple copies of a race into an Elections sequence.

  This may be useful late in the evening, when a few races remain undecided and producers want to create sequences that include the closest contested race several times. To add a race more than once, simply highlight the race and then click the Copy button in the Sequences section of the Setup ribbon as many times as you want to add the race. The sequence can then be ordered by dragging and dropping.

• Have staff enter the numbers for individual counties and have the Elections client total those numbers into a "Summary” race.

  An example would be a state house or senate race that covers several counties. In some cases, the numbers you would receive by staffing the counties directly will, at least early in the evening, be higher than wire totals.

Use the Election > Details > Options tab to access settings that allow displaying more than one race simultaneously:

1. Create a race for each county in the cross county district.

   You may want to use the Copy Race feature to make this easier by selecting the Setup > Copy button.

   

2. Create the overall or summary race.

3. Select This race summarizes totals from other races in the race Options tab.

   This will uncheck and disable the neighboring Allow manual entries option.

4. Select Get results from other races.

   

   Once this choice is made, you can select one or more races from which this race will get its totals.

If you are tracking precinct counts, the Elections client will total up the precincts from the county level races into the overall race, however, you must add this total into the precincts total for the summary race.

Resetting CG Base Pages

Users with sufficient privileges in election-enabled groups may reset the election CG base pages. This may be done after all races are added to your election document using automatic race building from captured wire and/or manual race creation.

To do so:

1. Make a copy of the All Races sequence:

   1. Create a new sequence.

   2. Select all races in the election.

   3. Select Add Races from the ribbon, being sure to select the newly created sequence

2. Drag and drop to re-order the contents of the newly-created copy into the desired order

3. Select the Re-assign CG Pages button in the Production ribbon.

If resetting the CG base pages is executed from a sequence that does not include all races, CG base page numbers will be reordered from the subset sequence first and then any remaining races from the All Races sequence will be ordered. Therefore, it is recommended that this action only be done on sequences which include all races.

Manually Updating Race Results

In some jurisdictions, results are given out not as running totals, but as "additions" so you may need to manually update election totals. To do this, make sure that the race is marked as Manual Entry and select the Results button in the Election ribbon or double-click on a race.

You may enter a number of votes in the Add Votes column, and those votes will be added to the total for the race.

An edit lock similar to the Story edit lock prevents simultaneous changes to the Race Results by different users.