Yes. Although Merlin has been designed to seamlessly ingest COVE Pro content, it is still important that stations monitor the objects that are being automatically passed from one application to the other. Even though the metadata information supplied by COVE Pro will be identical to what surfaces in Merlin, it could still be displayed in a less than ideal way. For example, if your COVE video titles are simply episode numbers, your station may want to consider revising its metadata to make title headlines more appealing when those videos surface in Merlin. Your station will also need to be sure that promotional objects are labeled properly and do not appear to be duplicates of other Merlin content.
If you have additional questions, you may find the answers in our Merlin Resource Center. You may also comment here or send us additional questions directly to pbsi_stationservices@pbs.org.
Yes. You can create Web Objects in Merlin that direct users to any interactive feature. Your station must simply submit that content via CMS feed, or manually using the Merlin Admin Tool.
If you have additional questions, you may find the answers in our Merlin Resource Center. You may also comment here or send us additional questions directly to pbsi_stationservices@pbs.org.
Within the Admin Tool, lists function as a way to organize web and video objects into groups that can be "pinned" to specific Merlin locations. Lists give stations the ability to determine what content will be surfaced in prominent locations - effectively allowing stations to highlight their best content or most important promotional campaigns.
If you have additional questions, you may find the answers in our Merlin Resource Center. You may also comment here or send us additional questions directly to pbsi_stationservices@pbs.org.
Stations will be able to set available dates and expiration dates for all content added to Merlin. This can be done through the Admin Tool or within the proper RSS feed elements. Merlin will also feature basic tools to control where station content should surface within Merlin.
If you have additional questions, you may find the answers in our Merlin Resource Center. You may also comment here or send us additional questions directly to pbsi_stationservices@pbs.org.
Tags can be separated using spaces, commas, or quotes. If tags are separated with spaces or commas, each word will result in a separate tag. Quotes should be used if you desire a multi-word tag. For example: Business Technology will result in two single-word tags (Business and Technology), but "Business Technology" will result in the multi-word tag of Business Technology.
If you have additional questions, you may find the answers in our Merlin Resource Center. You may also comment here or send us additional questions directly to pbsi_stationservices@pbs.org.
Tags function as keywords that are related to the topic of your content. Tagging is an essential step if you want your content to be easily discovered, recommended to potential viewers, or found through web searches. When tagging content, try to put yourself in the position of a potential user, and then think: what tags or keywords would you like your content to be associated with? To gain wider audiences for your video, make sure to strategically tag it with relevant terms that will interest your viewers and help drive traffic.
If you have additional questions, you may find the answers in our Merlin Resource Center. You may also comment here or send us additional questions directly to pbsi_stationservices@pbs.org.
No, stations can create video objects for content that is served by other video systems, such as custom station video players. However, it is important that video objects provide a video-centric experience. If video is only one of many different elements on a page, that content should be treated as a standard web object.
If you have additional questions, you may find the answers in our Merlin Resource Center. You may also comment here or send us additional questions directly to pbsi_stationservices@pbs.org.
Merlin checks for COVE Pro updates every hour. Any new videos added to COVE Pro - or any changes made to videos that have been uploaded in the past - will be transferred to Merlin within an hour after your COVE updates are made.
If you have additional questions, you may find the answers in our Merlin Resource Center. You may also comment here or send us additional questions directly to pbsi_stationservices@pbs.org.
In short, a content channel is defined as a group of content bound by an organizing editorial concept. Any web or video objects submitted to the Merlin database must be assigned to a specific content channel. Then, when content is presented to viewers, Merlin uses the content channels to associate links and content with their appropriate station or over-arching brand. For example, Chicago's WTTW can set up a content channel for Chicago Tonight, a local evening news program with a strong online presence. Any content from Chicago Tonight would then be submitted as web or video objects belonging to the Chicago Tonight content channel.
If you have additional questions, you may find the answers in our Merlin Resource Center. You may also comment here or send us additional questions directly to pbsi_stationservices@pbs.org.
Located below the featured videos module on PBS.org, the featured content area is a segment of the homepage that is designed to highlight marquee programs, unique online features, or other particularly compelling content.
If you have additional questions, you may find the answers in our Merlin Resource Center. You may also comment here or send us additional questions directly to pbsi_stationservices@pbs.org.
The DL, or Dynamic Lead, is the horizontal-scrolling list of images that appears immediately below the global header and What's On banner on the PBS.org homepage. Currently, the DL is intended to be an area to feature upcoming programs and promotional campaigns.
If you have additional questions, you may find the answers in our Merlin Resource Center. You may also comment here or send us additional questions directly to pbsi_stationservices@pbs.org.
Since PBS is focused on video content, Merlin has been designed to treat online videos differently than other web objects. When video objects are added to the Merlin database, PBS stores additional information, such as length, which may be unique to video content. PBS.org and future Merlin applications may use this extra information in a variety of ways. On PBS.org, for example, video objects include play buttons and other visual indicators so users can distinguish them from other web objects.
If you have additional questions, you may find the answers in our Merlin Resource Center. You may also comment here or send us additional questions directly to pbsi_stationservices@pbs.org.
PBS is utilizing Facebook's Social Plug-ins on the PBS.org homepage and topic pages. These off-the-shelf solutions provide personalized activity streams and content recommendations to users based on their personal settings. The recommendations widget considers factors such as what you and your Facebook friends have "liked" on PBS.org or interacted with on the PBS Facebook Fan Page. Over time, the recommendations widget will become more intuitive and will display more accurate recommendations. Users will always see the widget, but it will only make personalized recommendations if they are logged into Facebook. If they are not logged into Facebook, the widget will only display generic and popular content recently shared on Facebook.
If you have additional questions, you may find the answers in our Merlin Resource Center. You may also comment here or send us additional questions directly to pbsi_stationservices@pbs.org.
Social media is key to our product development strategy and integral to everything we do at PBS.org. From an editorial perspective, PBS will promote social media products on the PBS.org homepage and encourage stations to program social media elements into their respective Merlin content areas. PBS also plans to launch homepage modules in the future that integrate Twitter, Flickr, and other social media sites.
If you have additional questions, you may find the answers in our Merlin Resource Center. You may also comment here or send us additional questions directly to pbsi_stationservices@pbs.org.
If the links to your local TV schedule, Support PBS, and PBS Programs pages are not properly working, please update your Local Content Forms on the Station Remote Control site by clicking this link http://www.pbs.org/remote.control/toolsindex/forms/index.html.
If you have additional questions, you may find the answers in our Merlin Resource Center. You may also comment here or send us additional questions directly to pbsi_stationservices@pbs.org.
Located below the featured videos module on PBS.org, the featured content area is a segment of the homepage that is designed to highlight marquee programs, unique online features, or other particularly compelling content. Stations will soon be able to pin one content object to the featured content area of the PBS.org homepage. The pinned object will always appear in the fourth content slot. This location should be used to highlight your station's best content - the content you most want viewers to see. Every local content module on PBS.org will be branded with the call letters or common name of the appropriate station. This information will be displayed below each object's image, between the program title and date.
If you have additional questions, you may find the answers in our Merlin Resource Center. You may also comment here or send us additional questions directly to pbsi_stationservices@pbs.org.
The 'What's On' banner is an expandable module located immediately below the navigation bar on the PBS.org homepage. Once users have localized, the banner will automatically scroll through the scheduled primetime programming in their location. If users are localized to a zip code or region, the banner will automatically scroll through each station in that area. If users are localized to a single station, the banner will only show information for that station. When users click the 'Tonight's Line-Up' link on the right side of the 'What's On' banner, the module will expand into a full matrix of that night's local primetime programming. If a user is localized to a region, the matrix will include separate tabs for all nearby stations. These tabs are sorted in order of market share.
If you have additional questions, you may find the answers in our Merlin Resource Center. You may also comment here or send us additional questions directly to pbsi_stationservices@pbs.org.
PBS will continue to update/upgrade the Merlin infrastructure and PBS.org with exciting enhancements for stations and producers. Internal feedback and the feedback of visitors will determine the updates to come. Shortly after launch, PBS will start to upgrade the technology that powers the site search, begin to promote local content on every page of the site, and open the Merlin API to developers across the system for use on mobile apps, social widgets, and station sites.
If you have additional questions, you may find the answers in our Merlin Resource Center. You may also comment here or send us additional questions directly to pbsi_stationservices@pbs.org.
