EZNews Setup and User Configuration

Overview

EZNews is the news production and prompting software used by the Broadcast Journalism sequence. The software is available on Studio 4F systems, vDesk, and some faculty systems. In addition, it is used in a limited capacity at Texas Student Media.

EZNews is application for Windows that runs off a network share. The virtual machine that runs EZNews for the School of Journalism has the DNS name broadcast.communication.utexas.edu.

EZNews operation manuals can be found online at http://www.eznews.com/help/index.php

Setup

Setting up EZNews on a computer is less of an installation procedure and more of a registration process.
In Windows Explorer, navigate to \\broadcast\Newsroom\eznews

There you will find the executable RegisterWorkstation.exe (There is also RegisterDirector and RegisterPrompter but they are not used in the J-School implementation of EZNews). Run RegisterWorkstation and follow the on screen instructions. The installation will prompt for a UNC path which should be auto-populated.

If the UNC is not specified, enter \\broadcast\Newsroom\eznews

Once installation is complete, shortcuts are placed on the desktop and in the Programs menu for all users.

User Configuration

Users must be entered into EZNews manually by a designated EZNews administrator, typically the TA for the Broadcast sequence. Some Tech staff and faculty are also designated administrators and can add and edit users.

To add a user, open EZNews, choose Utilities menu, Administrative, Run EZNewsAdmin.exe EZNewsAdmin will prompt for a user name and password.

In EZNewsAdmin, click on Users in the menu bar. The User Administration window opens which allows you to create new users or edit existing ones.   Add users by clicking New, then entering their UT-EID in the Login Name field. For the typical user, the password should be left blank. As long as the user is setup within EZNews with their EID, they will be logged in automatically as Windows passes their EID credentials to EZNews and it opens without prompting for a password.

Other information is not required for operation, however Name and Department are important to quickly identify users during maintenance. Administrator, Producer and Talent rights can be enabled but can be left blank for typical users.   Administrators have the ability to add users, create rundowns, and otherwise administer the EZNews setup. Producers have the ability to manage and edit certain shows or rundowns that are assigned to them.

Click the Save button to complete.

The process differs a little for EZNews Administrators.   Any user that is designated as an EZNews administrator must enter a password in the Password and Confirm Password fields in the User Administration window. The password does not have to match that person’s UT-EID password and as a general security precaution, should not. It is easier if EZNews admins are present during setup so they can enter their own passwords.

TAs for the Broadcast sequence generally add new administrators for the new TAs that follow each semester. However, College tech services sometimes has to fill the void and create new EZNews admins.

Maintenance of the user base within EZNews should be performed periodically by the designated administrators. It has at times required that a technician sit down with faculty and go through the list to remove old user entries.

Troubleshooting

The Journalism license of EZNews allows for 30 workstations. It is possible to exceed that limit, typically during lab upgrades where whole groups of machines are swapped. If this happens, EZNews may fail to register new workstations. In this case, a support call must be placed with EZNews to re-register the product. There is a backup procedure and license code entry that their support technician will walk you through.

EZNews Support is: http://www.eznews.com/support.php 608-785-1415