Services
In Bionics Talkshow terminology, a Service is a group of lines. The group can be a single line on its own (for example a Jamline) or a group of lines (for example a main on-air group of say 6 lines). Bionics Talkshow allows separate control of services, so for example, the main on air line group could be forwarded to another number, while the Jamline service remains routed to the studio as normal.
Hybrid
A hybrid is the device that links the Bionics Talkshow system to a
mixer. A Bionics Talkshow system could have anywhere from 1 to 100 hybrids and different hybrids may appear on different Bionics Talkshow workstations depending on how the system is setup. Hybrids are also called TBUs or Telephone Balance Units in some regions.
TBU
see hybrid above
Person
A Person is an entity in the Bionics Talkshow database that is connected to a telephone number, but other people may also be connected to the same number. The Person concept allows (for example) different members of the same family to appear separately in the Bionics Talkshow database.
Call
A Call is an individual occurrence in the Bionics Talkshow database. If a listener calls the station and then hang-ups, and calls again, that will generate 2 calls entries in the Bionics Talkshow database. The fact that the call may have been on exactly the same topic, and for the same purpose is immaterial. Bionics Talkshow will class this as 2 separate calls.
Message
In most cases a Message reviews to a non-verbal contact from a listener or viewer. This could be an email, a letter, an SMS text message, a fax, or even the salient points from a phone-call in written form whereas listener or viewer doesn’t wish to go on the air. Messages can be edited and queued in Bionics Talkshow as part of the programme content, like phone calls.
Call conference
A call conference is the name given to the routing of two or more calls to a single hybrid device, so that two or more callers can be heard simultaneously on the same fader.
Devices
Devices are either hybrids or telephone handsets. Bionics Talkshow treats the routing of calls to hybrids or handsets in exactly the same way.
Line layout
A line layout is a visual grouping of certain lines on a Bionics Talkshow screen. One line layout could contain only (say) the FM lines, while another might contain (say) both the FM and AM lines. Some stations use different line layouts on the same Bionics Talkshow workstation at different times of the day, depending on which programming is being transmitted. Line layouts allow Bionics Talkshow users to pick and choose which lines they wish to take control of at any given time.
Show
A Show (or Programme) is the way Bionics Talkshow distinguishes between calls and messages received for different Presenters. This means that Users on one Show can see only calls received historically for their Show and not the calls received for other shows. This makes it much faster to find (for example) a call from the previous days show. Shows also allow us to offer much better reporting in our Statistics Package as call statistics can be broken down by Show. Shows also have a private Call log of useful numbers associated with them which other Shows can cannot view.
Device layout
Device layouts allow certain hybrid and handset combinations to be defined which can then be easily accessed within Bionics Talkshow. For example, if a backup studio is used some of the time as a screening area, you may wish to have a device layout at that time that only includes the local handset. However, if and when that studio goes on the air, you would probably want to include the hybrids in the studio. This choice can be easily achieved using device layouts which determine which devices appear on screen in what circumstances.
Device Selection
Some customers pool their hybrids so they do not need to allocate dedicated hybrids for every studio. The device selection options allow a User on startup to pick certain devices to use for their programme from a tick list.
Active device
The active device is the default device which is used when any of the call routing buttons on the telephony tool bar are accessed. For example, if the Dial button is pressed, the call will by dialled on the Active Device set at that time. The active device is the device with the yellow highlight around it. There may only be one active device at a time.
Queue
A queue is a predefined sequence of calls and/or messages within Bionics Talkshow. Both calls and messages must be added to a queue manually. The order is set to determine the sequence in which they should be used on the air. Queues are ideal for competitions where you wish to quickly access a number of wrong answers followed by a right answer in a specific sequence. A queue may be ‘built’ on one workstation (i.e. a Producer terminal) and cycled through from another terminal (i.e. a Presenter position).