Metadata and Tags

Metadata and tags in Falcon Play help teams find the right assets faster, keep naming consistent across shows, and make rundown building more reliable.

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What you will learn

How Falcon Play stores and uses metadata and tags across Video, Graphics, Inputs, and Functions.
How smart search works, including field filters, negation, and OR queries.
How to maintain a clean tag strategy that scales across productions.

How Metadata Works in Falcon Play

Falcon Play uses metadata from multiple sources, including Media Server data, local configuration, and item-level properties. In the Director UI, metadata is used for search ranking, facets, filtering, and asset inspection.

Area	Metadata usage	Why it matters
Video	Search index fields, external IDs, source/location/person fields, and metadata view in modal.	Fast editorial lookup and safer reuse of clips across rundowns.
Graphics	Template variables, descriptions, tags, and searchable context fields.	Reliable retrieval of templates in high-pressure live workflows.
Inputs	Input name/type/subtype and operational descriptors.	Faster source selection and fewer operator mistakes.
Functions	Function tags plus searchable function metadata and descriptions.	Consistent automation discovery and reuse.

How Tags Work

Tags are shared across modules and managed through the global tag registry (known tags). This ensures one consistent vocabulary instead of disconnected local tag lists.

Tags are shown on items and in filter bars.
Tags can be renamed centrally and propagated to all supported asset types.
Tag usage is countable, which helps cleanup and governance over time.

Smart Search Syntax

Falcon Play supports smart metadata/tag search with free text and field-specific filtering.

Query example	Meaning
`tag:PrimeTime`	Find assets tagged PrimeTime.
`source:HTTP`	Find assets where source metadata contains HTTP.
`location:Aarhus`	Find assets related to location Aarhus.
`person:Henrik`	Find assets with person/people metadata matching Henrik.
`interview \| b-roll`	Match interview OR b-roll.
`-archive`	Exclude assets matching archive.
`tag:Interview source:HTTP`	Combine field filters for narrower results.

Search facets (for example tags, source, location, and person) are generated from result sets to help users narrow results faster without rewriting queries.

The Video modal includes a dedicated Metadata tab where metadata is listed as field/value rows. Nested structures are flattened for readability so operators can quickly inspect full context before cue or play.

Recommended Workflow

Define a small, stable tag vocabulary per production domain (show, segment, priority, rights).
Use metadata fields consistently (source, location, person, external IDs) during ingestion.
Use smart field search first, then refine with facets.
Review tags and metadata quality regularly to remove duplicates and stale values.

Best Practices

Prefer a few meaningful tags over many overlapping tags.
Keep naming and capitalization conventions consistent.
Use field filters for precision and free text for exploration.
Document team query patterns (for example person/location/source templates) for repeatable operations.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	What to check
Expected assets do not appear in search	Missing or inconsistent metadata fields	Open item metadata and verify field names/values.
`tag:` queries return partial results	Tag spelling variance or stale tags	Review known tags and normalize naming.
Too many results	Query is too broad	Add field filters (for example `source:`, `person:`, `location:`) and use negation.
Different operators get different habits/results	No shared query conventions	Standardize team search patterns and tag governance.