What is Harmonic Omneon?
Harmonic Omneon is a professional broadcast video server platform used for ingest, media storage, and clip playout in live production and broadcast environments. It provides reliable playback and media management for news, sports, entertainment, and other on-air workflows.
The Cuez Automator communicates with Harmonic Omneon using VDCP (Video Disk Control Protocol) over a TCP connection. It allows operators to cue clips by name or Clip ID, play, stop, pause, and resume playback on individual channels directly from the rundown, enabling seamless integration of video playout into automated production workflows.
💡 Harmonic Omneon integration (VDCP) is available from Automator Beta v1.28.0-beta.0 (6 July 2026) onwards.
Adding a Harmonic Omneon 'device' to the Automator
In the top right corner of the Automator, we see 'Devices', this can be either in red or green depending on the status of the configured devices. Click it and select 'Add device'.
Next, select 'Harmonic Omneon' from the 'Device type' dropdown list, then give it a name.
Once the device is selected and given a name, we will see all the fields needed to configure it so it can be used with the Automator.
Basic device configuration
You can enable or disable the Harmonic Omneon and enter the 'Host name' (the IP address or hostname of the Omneon server) as well as the 'Default TCP port', 'Channels', 'Frame rate', 'Drop frame', and 'Clip-name fallback field'. Once these settings have been entered, the device should show as online (green) in the top right corner.
Host name: The hostname or IP address of the Omneon server (e.g.,
192.168.1.10).Default TCP port: The designated TCP port number for the VDCP connection. Defaults to
50101.Channels: The channel identifiers or mappings for the Omneon server (e.g.,
Channel A:4, Channel B:8).Frame rate: The frames-per-second value configured for this device entry (e.g.,
25).Drop frame: The setting to enable or disable drop-frame timecode counting.
Clip-name fallback field: field name as it appears in the Automator's Harmonic Omneon device settings.
Media handling configuration
Next, check the box to indicate that this Harmonic Omneon will be handling media. More settings will appear, allowing you to configure where media needs to be downloaded and which media we want our Harmonic Omneon to download.
Download folder
The 'Download folder' is the folder where the Harmonic Omneon will download all media to, with its location seen as from the Automator. If the Harmonic Omneon and the Automator are installed on the same computer, then this will be a local folder. If they are on separate devices, this will be with an IP address on the local network.
Keep filenames
Automator offers the option to keep the original filenames of the media that will be downloaded from the Episode into the download folder. By default, Automator saves the files with a unique ID. In case you want to manually check the files in the download folder, it can be helpful to check the box to keep the original filenames to have the files be more recognizable.
Automatically delete files
We can also set files to be automatically deleted after 24 hours or a week. This way you don't keep all downloaded media in case it is not needed anymore.
Define Blocks with media
Finally, we can configure which Blocks will need their media downloaded for our Harmonic Omneon. For this, click 'Add media field' at the bottom, select your Block configuration (for example 'Clip') and then the field name of the media (usually 'Media'). Repeat this step for all Block configurations that need their media downloaded by the Harmonic Omneon you are configuring.
As soon as these final settings have been configured, the media from the Episode will start downloading to the folders that were defined. A green checkmark next to a thumbnail (in the Script) indicates the media was successfully downloaded.
Configuring actions
The next step is to configure each Item and Block with the (set of) functions you want to perform on the Harmonic Omneon when triggering that Item or Block — more on that in this article.
Available functions
The Harmonic Omneon integration includes 6 functions in total, covering clip playback and transport control.
Play
The 'Play' function starts playback on the specified channel.
Channel — the channel to start playback on.
Stop
The 'Stop' function stops playback on the specified channel and unloads the clip.
Channel — the channel to stop playback on.
Still
The 'Still' function freezes playback on the specified channel, holding on the current frame.
Channel — the channel to freeze.
Continue
The 'Continue' function resumes playback on the specified channel after a Still.
Channel — the channel to resume playback on.
Cue Clip
The 'Cue Clip' function cues a clip by name on the specified channel, loading it to its first frame and preparing it to play.
Channel — the channel to cue the clip on.
Clip — the name of the clip to cue.
Play Cue
The 'Play Cue' function cues a clip by its Clip ID on the specified channel and immediately plays it.
Channel — the channel to play the clip on.
Clip ID — the ID of the clip to cue and play.
Troubleshooting
Device shows as offline (red)
Verify the host name/IP address and TCP port are correct, and that Omneon is reachable on the network.
Confirm the port isn't blocked by a firewall.
Try restarting the Automator device connection by disabling and re-enabling the device in the configuration panel.
Clip not cueing or playing
Confirm the clip name (for Cue Clip) or Clip ID (for Play Cue) matches exactly how it's identified on the Omneon server.
Confirm the channel number entered matches a channel that actually exists and is configured on the Omneon server.
Check that the device is showing as online (green) before triggering.



