Run the demo newsroom, step by step

This page walks you through the demo newsroom click by click: what to press, and what you see. Everything in it is synthetic: made-up systems, made-up stories. None of it is a real product or comes from a real newsroom.

• For publishers: the Demo newsroom page in your house.
• For vendors: RND's shared demo house, from Houses you're in.

For publishers

Who can press what

You are	You can
Viewer	Open the page and watch every play
Developer	Also press Play, and turn demo traffic on or off for a consumer connection
Admin or owner	Also reset the demo's stories, turn the ambient day on or off, and turn the demo newsroom off or on

1. Open the demo newsroom

In your publisher workspace, open Demo newsroom in the sidebar, under Houses. You can also start from the See it working card on your Overview: Open the demo newsroom → opens the page, and Take the five-stop tour opens it with the tour (step 6 below).

At the top: Meridian News (demo), a short description, and a Demo · synthetic data chip.

If the page says No demo newsroom in this house yet, an admin or owner presses Set up the demo newsroom. If it says The demo newsroom is off, an admin or owner presses Turn the demo newsroom on.

2. Read the systems and the skills

Scroll to The newsroom's systems: eight made-up systems, each with what it does and the producer it publishes as (sombus-demo-<system>). Each is marked Stand-in, a part RND's stand-ins also play in a rehearsal, or Demo, a part only the demo plays.

Then Skills in the demo. Each skill instance is marked:

• Live · reference executor: RND's reference executor evaluates it on each story snapshot as it arrives, with the values listed, and raises a warning only when the snapshot matches. In the demo these are the two raise-flag-on-match instances: one flags an unverified source, the other a story at HIGH priority.
• Scripted: its warnings are part of the scenario. Nothing evaluates them.

3. Play Storm day

Under Scenarios, the first one is Storm day, marked Flagship. Press Play.

A card for the play opens below the list, marked Demo, with its status. It fills in step by step as the demo's systems publish, in a table: Step, Played by, Sends and What happened. You don't need to refresh: the page keeps it up to date while it plays.

The count beside Scenarios says how many of your house's plays are used (30 in any 24 hours). Every play starts its own stories, so you can play the same scenario again at once.

4. Follow each step

Each row of What happened shows the bus's answer as a status and a verdict (for example 202 accepted), who received an accepted message, and, for a refusal, the rule behind it. What you see in Storm day:

Step	Played by	What happens	What the bus does, and why
1	Media store	A viewer's clip arrives on the tip line, from an unverified source	Accepts it as a story of its own. The skill executor raises a warning at once, marked Live · reference executor: the source is unverified
2	Newsroom system	The story breaks at HIGH priority, then the same message arrives again	Accepts the first, with a live warning that the story is breaking. The second is a duplicate: dropped, so nobody sees it twice
3	Media store	The press-conference feed lands	Accepts it
4	Newsroom system	The story attaches the feed	Accepts the newer version
5	Newsroom system	The story develops over five versions	Accepts each, in order
6	Newsroom system	A lagging copy re-sends an older version	Refuses it, with the rule sequence_number.not_increasing: nobody downstream sees a stale version
7	Graphics	Graphics books a lower third, then tries to clear its own gate	Accepts the booking. Refuses the clearance, with the rule producer.message_type_not_allowed: graphics may book, not clear
8	Standards desk	The standards desk clears the gate and records why	Accepts both
9	Playout	The lower third goes on air	Accepts it
10	Web CMS	The web page publishes the feed	Accepts both messages
11	Newsroom system	Landfall is confirmed, then a correction goes out as a newer version	Accepts both
12	Newsroom system	The story is killed	Accepts it
13–16	Graphics, playout, web CMS, automation	Everything the story reached comes down: the lower third, air, the web page, and a record of what was suppressed	Accepts each

Under an accepted message, Received by names the consumer connections in your house that received it, or the row says no consumer in the house subscribes to it. Demo messages reach one of your own consumer connections only if you turned on demo traffic for it (step 7).

5. Open the story, and follow a refusal to its rule

The play's card lists its Stories: the tip-line clip's story and the storm story. Click one to open it in your story timeline: every version the bus accepted, in order, with what changed between them and the refusals beside it. The story is marked Demo.

Back on the demo page, click the rule name next to a refusal, for example producer.message_type_not_allowed in step 7. It opens the rule's page in the rule catalogue, which explains the rule.

6. Take the five-stop tour

Take the five-stop tour on the See it working card opens the page with a tour box. Move with Next stop and Back; End the tour or Finish the tour closes it. The stops:

1. Play the flagship: press Play on Storm day. The tour moves to the next stop by itself.
2. The story timeline: Open the story opens the play's first story in your story timeline.
3. The skill flag: the row with the warning RND's reference executor raised live is highlighted.
4. The refused gate: the row where graphics tried to clear its own gate is highlighted, with the rule.
5. The routing map: a link to the routing map, which shows who publishes each message type and which connections receive it, and to Consumer connections.

Stops 2 to 4 point at a play: if nothing has been played yet, they ask you to play Storm day first.

7. Send demo traffic to one of your consumer connections, and pull it

By default no demo message reaches any of your consumer connections. To see the demo arrive in your own queue:

1. Open Consumer connections. If you have no connection yet, New connection + creates one; see Consumer connections.
2. Under the connection, tick Send demo traffic to this app. The page says demo newsroom traffic now reaches it within a minute. The same switch is on the forms that create a connection and edit its filters. See Demo newsroom traffic.
3. Wait a minute, then press Play on a scenario on the demo page. Its accepted messages that match the connection's message types reach the queue.
4. Read them over the HTTPS pull API with the connection's client secret (Get client secret on Consumer connections, if you don't have one yet; where the page says RND issues client secrets on this environment, ask RND). Demo messages carry originating_system.system_idsombus-demo-<system>, and their stories carry newsroom_id demo.
5. Untick the box when you're done. New demo messages stop reaching the queue; the ones already in it stay until you read them.

8. Hide the demo in your lists

On Story timeline and Activity, demo stories and messages carry a Demo mark. Tick Hide demo to hide them. The choice is kept in your browser.

9. The ambient news day

Today's news day lists the times, in the demo's time zone, when a few steps play by themselves while the ambient day is on. The chip says Ambient on, Ambient off, or Paused by RND; the next time is marked Next. It plays only while someone has viewed your house's demo page in the last 7 days, between 06:00 and 22:00 of that time zone. An admin or owner uses Turn the ambient day off (or on). Play works either way.

10. Reset the demo's stories

Admins and owners: under Reset or turn off, press Reset demo stories…, then Reset demo stories to confirm. It clears the stories the demo played, so the next play starts clean. Your own stories are not touched, and messages already in a consumer queue stay there. A reset can't start while a play is running.

11. Turn it off, or on again

Admins and owners: Turn off demo newsroom…, then Turn off demo newsroom to confirm. The Play buttons and the ambient day stop in your house. Turn the demo newsroom on brings it back. RND's updates to the demo never turn it on again for you.

Limits

• 30 plays and 5 resets per house in any 24 hours, counted apart from your rehearsals. The page shows how many are left.
• One play, rehearsal or reset at a time in a house.
• The demo's story state expires after 14 days. Like every story, its messages are in your story timeline for 7 days.

For vendors

Your vendor workspace has no house of its own, so RND runs the demo newsroom for vendors in one shared house, Meridian News (demo house).

1. Accept the invitation

Once your organisation is approved for a vendor workspace, Houses you're in shows an invitation from Meridian News (demo house), marked RND demo house · synthetic data and from RND, with its expiry date: it is open for 90 days. An owner or admin presses Read the terms and join, ticks I accept these terms for my organisation and presses Join Meridian News (demo house). Or Decline.

2. Connect a consumer app

On the house's card, a developer, admin or owner presses Connect an app:

1. Pick one of your consumer or skill apps. Producer apps aren't offered: the demo house takes consumer and skill apps only. Create an app first on Apps and credentials if you have none.
2. Enter the message types it receives, for example story.context, telling.*, and optionally a topic prefix.
3. Send demo traffic to this app is already ticked: in the demo house, the demo's messages are all there is to receive. Keep it on.
4. Press Ask to connect. The demo house grants what you ask for at once: the page says you're connected.

3. Get the client secret, and pull

In the connection's row, press Get client secret and copy it: it is shown once. Where RND issues client secrets on this environment, ask RND for one. Then read the queue over the HTTPS pull API, with the house's workspace id, as in any house. The secret panel shows every URL.

Messages arrive when the ambient news day plays in the house: a few steps at set times between 06:00 and 22:00 of the demo's time zone, while a vendor in the house has opened Houses you're in in the last 7 days. You can turn Send demo traffic to this app off in the connection's row, and on again.

What you can't do there

• Publish. Producer apps can't connect to the demo house.
• Press Play or Reset. Those are on a publisher's own demo page. In the demo house, only the ambient day plays.
• See other vendors. You see only your own connections there; other vendors see only theirs, and none of them can publish, so nothing reaches your queue from another vendor.

FAQ

Is any of it real? No. The newsroom, its systems, stories, clips, headlines and warnings are made up for the demo. What is real is the bus: every demo message goes through the same checks as any other message, so the verdicts, the refusals and their rules are what the bus actually answered. The skills marked Live · reference executor really run; the ones marked Scripted don't.

Does it cost anything? Demo plays and resets have their own daily limits, apart from your rehearsals'. Reading demo messages over the pull API is an ordinary pull, counted like any other. For pricing, ask RND.

Can I change it? Not its content: the scenarios, systems and skills are the same for every house and change only when RND updates the demo. You choose whether it plays in your house (on or off, ambient day on or off), what it looks like in your lists (Hide demo), and which of your consumer connections receive it (Send demo traffic to this app).

Who can press what? See the table above. In the demo house, vendors connect and read; nobody presses Play.

Does it count toward my first steps or my skill health? No. Demo messages don't tick your first steps, and the demo's warnings don't count in a configured skill instance's warnings.