Key Concepts

Understanding the core building blocks of RundownHQ will help you navigate the platform confidently. This page explains Programs, Rundowns, Assignments, and how they relate to one another.

Content Hierarchy

Content in RundownHQ follows a structured hierarchy. Each level feeds into the next:

Assignments

An assignment is a story task given to one or more students. Each assignment links to a rundown cue, an event, or stands alone as a general task. Students work through their assignment inside the Assignment Workspace, a tabbed digital binder covering Research, Script, Media, and more.

Equipment

Equipment in RundownHQ is structured in three levels: Items (camera model), Units (individual physical cameras with serial numbers), and Checkouts (who has what unit and when it's due back).

Multi-School Architecture

RundownHQ is multi-tenant — each school's data is fully isolated. Super admins manage the platform across all schools, district admins oversee a group of schools, and school-level admins manage their own users and content.

User Roles & Permissions

RundownHQ uses a numeric security level system. Each user is assigned a level that controls which features and pages they can access.

Permission Levels

Managing Roles

School admins set user roles from Administration → Users & Teams. You can change a user's security level at any time. Changes take effect on their next page load.

Programs

A Program is the top-level container for all of your broadcast content. Think of it as your show — e.g. "Morning News," "Sports Report," or "Documentary Showcase."

Creating a Program

Program Types

RundownHQ supports four program types, each optimized for a different production workflow:

• News — traditional linear rundown with anchor reads and packages
• Sports — event-driven coverage with game coverage units
• Documentary — longer-form story structure with research-heavy binders
• Podcast — audio-first with a simplified cue sheet (Assignment / ROS mode)

Seasons & Episodes

Seasons group episodes by time period (semester, school year). Episodes represent individual broadcast sessions and hold the rundowns, assignments, and crew for one show.

Creating a Season

Inside a Program, click "Add Season." Give it a name (e.g. "Fall 2025") and a date range. All episodes for that time period live inside this season.

Creating an Episode

Inside a Season, click "Add Episode." Set the air date, episode number, and any notes. The episode becomes the container for your rundown and crew schedule.

Production Workflow Tracker

Each episode moves through 8 production stages automatically, from Pre-Production through Post-Production. The visual workflow tracker shows your team exactly where each episode stands on a winding path visualization.

Production Can

A reusable library of stories, banked assignments, backup segments, and stock footage. Save material once and find it again for another show.

Save material from Assignments

In Assignments, choose Add New Assignment or Edit, select Add to Can, choose the applicable labels, and save. You can apply more than one label. The Can library does not create assignments.

Choose labels

• Evergreen: material relevant beyond the current news cycle.
• Banked assignments / segments: work held for a future episode.
• Buffer / Contingency: options for a gap or last-minute change.
• Library / Stock footage: reference material or footage for reuse.

Browse and organize

Open Production Can from the sidebar or Assignments. Search titles and descriptions, filter by label, and preview the source before using it. Edit labels to organize material. Removing an item from the Can removes its library labels, not the source assignment or its existing uses.

Use material in a show or episode

• Rundown: open Rundowns, choose a show, then Build Show → Production Can. Select material and add/reorder it in the show. This retains the original assignment reference.
• Episode planning: in Producer Review, choose Add from Can, select a destination episode and source material. This creates a linked draft assignment; the original stays reusable in the Can. Review and approve the new draft through the normal workflow.

Check readiness and access

Saved in the Can does not mean ready to air. Labels do not change assignment status, approve scripts or media, or automatically schedule a broadcast. Check facts, dates, rights, runtime, script, and media with your producer before use. Program and season restrictions still apply.

Access depends on your school account permissions. If you cannot see the Can or an action, ask your teacher or school administrator. Students should work with an authorized producer rather than assume library access grants approval authority.

Practice this workflow in Module 11 of the Student Training Guide.

Rundown Builder

The Rundown Builder is a unified 5-step wizard that takes you from initial setup all the way to a live broadcast in a single workspace. No jumping between pages.

The 5-Step Wizard

Rapid Rundown

Need a teleprompter rundown on the fly? Use Content → Rapid Rundown to create a standalone prompter script that's independent of any program or episode.

Cue Sheet

The Cue Sheet is the professional-grade, column-separated view of a rundown. It mirrors how real broadcast studios display show structure during production.

Cue Sheet Columns

Each row in the cue sheet represents one segment of the show and displays:

• Cue # — the sequential number of this item
• Format Code — colored badge (VO, PKG, LIVE, SOT, etc.)
• Slug — the short identifier for this story
• Talent — the assigned anchor or reporter
• Duration — estimated time for this cue
• Back Time — calculated back-timing
• Script — expandable script content inline

Creating Assignments

Assignments are the core unit of student work in RundownHQ. Teachers create them, students complete them, and they link directly to rundown cues, events, or exist as standalone tasks.

How to Create an Assignment

Assignment Workspace

The Assignment Workspace is a student's digital binder — a progressive disclosure workflow with tabbed sections for developing a story from idea to broadcast-ready package.

Workspace Tabs

Section Approval Workflow

Each tab in the workspace goes through a status lifecycle: Draft → Submitted → Approved (or Revision Requested). Teachers review section by section, leave inline feedback, and approve before the student moves forward. Notifications are sent at each stage change.

Grading Assignments

RundownHQ includes a teacher-configurable rubric grading system with categories, milestones, and auto-awarded points — all aligned to real broadcast production standards.

Grading Workflow

Story Ideas

The Story Ideas system lets students pitch story concepts to their instructor through a structured 3-tab submission form. Approved pitches can be converted directly into assignments with one click.

Submitting a Story Pitch

Students click "Submit a Story Idea" from the Assignments page. The form walks through three tabs: the story concept, suggested sources, and the proposed format. Once submitted, the teacher sees it in their review queue.

Reviewing Pitches

Teachers open the pitch from the Assignments page and can Approve, request Revisions, or Decline. Approved pitches can be instantly converted to a full assignment, pre-filled with the pitch details.

Editorial Calendar

Use the Editorial Calendar to develop story pitches, plan publication targets, coordinate newsroom tasks, and keep interviews and shoots organized.

Open the Editorial Calendar

From the Command Center, choose Editorial Calendar. The newsroom Dashboard links to the Idea Inbox, planned stories, production tasks, and appointments. Use the Editorial Calendar sidebar to switch between those work areas.

Pitch and review stories

Follow the newsroom plan

• Editorial calendar: Review planned stories, target publication dates, teams, and story status. A target publication date is a planning goal, not a promise that a story will air.
• My tasks: Open work assigned to you, check its story context and deadline, update your progress, and share a note with your producer when plans change or you need help.
• Story workspace: Use the task and story workspace for next steps, interviews, notes, assets, and updates connected to the story.
• Appointments: Check scheduled interviews, shoots, and newsroom check-ins. Ask your teacher or lead producer if an appointment needs to change.

Equipment Catalog

The Equipment Catalog is where you define all the types of gear your program owns — cameras, tripods, microphones, lights, and more. Each item in the catalog can have multiple physical units.

Adding Catalog Items

Physical Units & QR Codes

Each physical piece of equipment is tracked as a Unit. Every unit gets a unique QR code that students scan to check out or return gear without needing to log in to the full app.

Unit Fields

• Serial Number — unique manufacturer serial
• Asset Tag — your school's internal tag number
• Condition — Excellent, Good, Fair, Damaged, Under Repair
• Purchase Date & Cost — for asset tracking
• Notes — any additional context

Printing QR Codes

From the Physical Units tab, click the QR Code icon on any unit to view and print its QR code. Print and affix it to the physical item. Students then scan it with any smartphone camera to start a checkout or return.

Checkout & Check-in

RundownHQ tracks every piece of equipment from the moment it leaves the shelf to the moment it's returned, including condition changes and overdue alerts.

Checking Out Equipment

Overdue Tracking

Units not returned by their due date are automatically highlighted in red on the Equipment Desk. Teachers can send reminder notifications directly from the overdue row.

Mobile Scan Sessions

Mobile Scan Sessions let teachers or managers conduct a batch scan workflow from a smartphone — inventory the room, check out multiple items at once, or process a class-wide return in minutes.

Scan Session Modes

Event Planning Desk

The Event Planning Desk is your central hub for managing all media coverage events — games, performances, meetings, press conferences. View them in Calendar, Planning Board, or Sports view.

Three Views

Coverage Plans

Coverage Plans define how your team will cover a specific event. They bundle the deliverable types, roles required, and equipment needed into Coverage Units that auto-generate assignments.

Coverage Units

A Coverage Unit is a first-class production block. For example, a "Game Day Package" unit might require: one reporter (PKG deliverable), one camera operator, and one tripod + camera kit. When you add that unit to an event, RundownHQ auto-generates the corresponding assignments and equipment reservations.

Event Workspace

Each event has its own dedicated workspace — a deep management hub with 8 tabs covering every aspect of event production from planning to post-event wrap-up.

Event Workspace Tabs

• Overview — event details, status, and key info
• Coverage Units — manage all coverage blocks and their assignments
• Assignments — all auto-generated and manual assignments for this event
• Equipment — gear reserved for this event
• Crew — crew assignments for event coverage
• Media — uploaded photos and footage from the event
• Notes — internal producer notes
• Rundown — link to or create a rundown for the event broadcast

Crew Scheduling

Crew Scheduling connects the right people to each rundown. Build multiple named schedules per rundown, drag-and-drop crew into roles, and send call sheet notifications — all within the Rundown Builder's Crew step.

Crew Roles

Crew roles are defined in your Production Crew Templates (under Administration). Common roles include Director, Floor Manager, Technical Director, Camera 1/2/3, Audio Operator, Graphics, and Teleprompter Operator.

Sending Call Sheets

Once the crew schedule is finalized, click "Send Call Sheet" to notify all assigned crew members via in-app notification. A printable version of the call sheet is also available for posting in the studio.

Production Templates

Smart Video Production Templates provide pre-built shot lists, production checklists, and suggested B-roll guidance for 8 industry-standard video formats. Every new school account gets these templates automatically.

Included Templates

• News Package (PKG)
• Voice Over (VO)
• Live Shot
• Sound On Tape (SOT) / Interview
• Sports Game Coverage
• Documentary Segment
• Social Media Short
• Studio Anchor Read

Using Templates in Assignments

Students open the Video Plan tab of their Assignment Workspace, select a template, and a dynamic production form appears — pre-populated with the shot list, timing guide, and checklist for that format. Teachers can customize templates under Administration → Template Hub.

Call Sheets

A Call Sheet is the printable crew schedule for a rundown — listing each crew member, their role, report time, and location. RundownHQ generates these automatically from the crew schedule.

Generating a Call Sheet

From the Crew step of the Rundown Builder (or the Crew tab of an event), click "Print Call Sheet." A formatted, print-ready page opens with all crew assignments, the rundown schedule, and production notes.

BPM Certification

The Broadcast Production Management (BPM) Certification is RundownHQ's DOE-aligned credentialing system. Students earn credentials by progressing through 5 role-based levels, culminating in a capstone project.

Certification Overview

The BPM Certification aligns with Department of Education standards for career and technical education (CTE) programs. Each level builds on the last, advancing from basic production awareness to executive producer-level skills.

Certification Pathway

Students track their certification journey from their personal My Certification page. Teachers manage and validate progress from the Certification Console.

Student View

Students see their current level, completed rubric requirements, pending capstone tasks, and a progress bar toward the next level. When all requirements for a level are met, they submit for instructor review.

Teacher Console

The Certification Console shows all students' progress across all 5 levels. Teachers can approve level advancements, leave feedback, and trigger the issuance of a digital credential badge.

Public Verification

Each issued credential has a unique verification URL. Students share this link with colleges, employers, or programs. The public verification page confirms the holder's name, school, level, and issue date.

Users & Teams

School admins manage all users from a single page — inviting new members, setting roles, deactivating accounts, and organizing users into teams for crew scheduling.

Inviting Users

For existing students using school Google Workspace accounts, configure their primary address in Student Google login email and follow the Student Google Sign-In guide. This does not replace their roster record or change their permission level. Super Admins preparing a new school should follow Administrative Setup & Welcome Emails.

School Settings

School admins customize their RundownHQ environment from the Settings section — configuring school details, notification preferences, grading systems, and feature flags.

School Profile

Set your school name, logo, contact information, and time zone. This information appears on call sheets, certifications, and exported documents.

Notifications

Configure which events trigger in-app notifications for your users — assignment due dates, section approvals, crew call sheets, equipment overdue alerts, and certification updates.

Plan & Feature Access

Your active plan (Standard, Premium, or Enterprise) controls which features are available. Premium adds Command Center and advanced event coverage; Enterprise adds BPM Certification, advanced rubric grading, and district integration.

Districts

RundownHQ supports a three-tier hierarchy — RundownHQ Platform → Districts → Schools. District admins oversee a group of schools, monitor certification trends, and manage shared configuration across their schools.

District Portal

District admins have access to the District Portal — a dedicated dashboard showing an overview of all schools in their district, user counts, certification progress, and plan statuses. From here they can also push shared global grading configurations down to member schools.

Global Grading Config

Districts can define a standardized grading configuration (rubric types and milestone structures) and allow member schools to adopt it. Schools can opt-in to the district config or maintain their own.

Production Project Management

Coordinate a full production’s people, places, work, and budget—from the initial brief to delivery and evaluation.

Create and define a project

1. Open Production Projects after signing in to your school workspace and create a project.
2. Choose the production type: video, live broadcast, documentary, commercial/promotional, podcast/audio, live event, or film/short-form.
3. Complete the Project Brief with objectives, audience, scope, and deliverables. Use Pre-Production to plan the schedule, equipment, permissions, risks, and shot requirements.
4. Use the phase’s save controls for planning notes. Continue through Budget, Crew & Resources, Production, Post-Production, Delivery, and Evaluation as the work progresses.

Connect people and locations

• Crew & Resources: assign named people to production roles, record planned/invited/confirmed/declined status, and capture call dates, call times, wrap times, and responsibilities.
• Locations: add candidate production locations, addresses, scouting ownership and dates, access status, and readiness notes.
• Link tasks and budget lines to the crew assignments and locations they depend on so responsibility and cost stay connected.

Manage tasks and schedules

Create tasks with owners, start/due dates, subtasks, dependencies, and recurrence settings. Keep task status current using To Do, In Progress, Blocked, and Done. Record dependency relationships explicitly rather than leaving them only in planning notes.

Open Production Management and select the project to review the same work in different views:

• Kanban: review work by task status.
• Gantt: compare dated task spans and owners; tasks without dates appear as unscheduled work.
• Timeline: review dated work in order.
• Calendar: see scheduled work by date.

Review and close the production

Record production issues, editing plans, delivery information, and evaluation notes. Review task completion, deliverables, and recorded actual costs before closing the project. Project and workflow actions follow your school’s permissions.

Next: Build the budget and client proposal.

Budgets & Client Proposals

Estimate production costs, record actual spending, and turn a project plan into a school-branded client proposal.

Build the production budget

1. Open a project in Production Projects and select Budget.
2. Organize costs into categories and add budget lines for the resources your production needs. Give each line a clear description and an estimated amount.
3. Where relevant, link a budget line to its crew assignment or location. Update lines as the plan changes and use the budget form’s save action to apply each change.
4. Record an actual amount when the cost is known. Leave actual cost blank when it has not been recorded—blank is not the same as zero.

Use reusable budget templates

Authorized administrators can manage production-type categories and example items in Budget Templates. Use these as a starting structure, then review the project’s real requirements and amounts. Templates do not replace estimating the resources needed for a specific production.

Understand estimates and actuals

• Estimated: the total of the project’s estimated budget lines.
• Actual recorded: the total of lines with an actual cost entered.
• Variance: estimated minus actual, calculated only for lines with a recorded actual. A positive value means those lines are under their estimate; a negative value means they are over.

Prepare the client proposal

1. Complete the project’s brief, resources, schedule, and budget first.
2. Open Production Proposals and select the project. Review the factual sections drawn from its plan.
3. Edit the client-facing narrative as needed and enter the proposed quoted price separately from the internal cost estimate. Narrative edits do not rewrite the source project plan.
4. Preview the school-branded proposal and use the print control for a client copy. Check the school identity, deliverables, schedule, and quoted price before sharing.

Related guide: Production Project Management.

Student Google Sign-In

Allow existing rostered students to sign in with their school-managed Google Workspace identity while retaining school control over their roles.

School administrator setup

1. Open Permissions and find Student Google Login.
2. Enable student Google login and enter the approved managed Google Workspace domains, one per line or comma-separated. Include applicable primary and secondary district domains; consumer Gmail domains and wildcards are not allowed.
3. Save the student login settings. Your district’s Google Workspace administrator may need to trust or allow the OAuth app.
4. In Users & Teams, edit each existing student and enter their Student Google login email. Use the student’s primary school Google sign-in address, not an alias.

How students sign in

1. Open the school login page and enter the primary Google address configured on the student’s RundownHQ account.
2. Select Continue with school Google account, then choose that same school-managed account in Google.
3. After successful verification, return to the normal school workspace. The account’s existing student permissions still apply.

Troubleshoot and revoke a binding

If sign-in cannot complete, ask the school administrator to check that the school is active, student Google login is enabled, the correct managed domains are allowed, and the rostered student account is active with the exact primary address configured. Archived or purged students cannot use this login.

The Google identity is bound at first successful sign-in. If that identity must be replaced, an authorized school administrator uses Revoke Google binding in Users & Teams before changing the configured email or role. Revocation retains the configured email; review it before allowing another sign-in.

Google sign-in is not a Drive connection

Student Google sign-in verifies identity only. It does not authorize the student’s personal or district Drive, and it does not connect their files. Student-visible Drive operations continue through the school’s teacher/administrator-configured Drive connection. Staff and Super Admin sign-in remain separate.

Administrative Setup & Welcome Emails

Super Admins prepare school access, review a personalized welcome message, and explicitly deliver administrator credentials after setup.

Prepare and activate the school

1. Sign in as a Super Admin and open the school’s Client Setup & Configuration screen from Registrations.
2. Review global seeds. Seed global data if needed, then verify it. Review company initialization and use Initialize Company Defaults where needed for segments, teams, and storage.
3. Ensure the school has been approved and activated. Add any setup notes, then use Complete Setup & Enable Onboarding once global seeds are verified.

School administrators manage their school’s users, student Google settings, and permissions after access is established. School staff do not inherit Super Admin setup authority.

Generate administrator credentials

In Admin User Access, review the administrator’s email, name, and username. If no administrator exists, choose Generate Admin User & Password. For an existing account, Generate New Temporary Password asks for confirmation before replacing its current password. An inactive administrator must be reactivated before a new welcome password can be generated.

Preview and send a test

1. Choose Preview Welcome Email. Review the recipient, administrator and school names, temporary password, login instructions, training information, and security notice.
2. For a test, enter an inbox you control and choose Send Test Email. Confirm the warning that the copy includes real temporary credentials.
3. The test subject starts with [TEST]. Preview and test copies are available before school setup is complete; real administrator delivery is not.

Send the welcome email

After the school is active and setup is complete, choose Send Welcome Email and confirm the administrator’s displayed address. Delivery uses the school administrator’s stored account email—not the test address. Generating another password clears the prior preview, and the server rejects stale credentials.

The subject is Welcome to RundownHQ — Your Account Is Ready. The supplied welcome template links to http://rundownhq.app and explains approximately three hours of administrator/instructor onboarding, in one session or split across two. Completing setup keeps this page open so the current credentials remain available for the welcome workflow.

Welcome emails are not sent automatically when an account is generated, a school is approved, or setup completes. If the mail provider rejects a message, the screen reports an error rather than a successful send; check the address and mail configuration before retrying.