The News Scroll Blurb / Commercial Break
Synchronizer is a device, or perhaps a
software module, that selects the
sequence of blurbs that appear on the
bottom of the screen on a cable news
channel based on an input sequence, such
that:
a) the last blurb to appear before the
cutover to
commercial break is displayed
completely.
b) the order of the input sequence is
modified as little as possible.
I think that the first criteria could probably
be achieved by changing the speed of the
scroll very slightly, as a one percent
change in speed over an eight minute
segment is almost five seconds. The
synchronizer could also change the
sequence of blurbs, for example, it could
delay a long blurb in favor of a shorter
one, the long blurb would be moved to
after the break, and the shorter one would
be moved from after the break to before
it.