Broadcast engineers
They've built signal chains in the dark at 5am and can tell specs from marketing within a sentence. Give them numbers, protocols and limits.
Who it's for
Salvo sits between signal entry and content delivery: it ingests, routes, records and releases feeds during a live production. The people using it are working under time pressure, often at night, often on a show that can't be repeated.
Technical directors
They need the whole system on one screen and need to know it will hold for the length of the show.
Production teams
They won't read the manual beforehand. Whatever they need has to be obvious when they sit down.
How we come across
Direct
Precise
Calm under pressure
How we don't
Hype-driven
Vague
Consumer-cute
Self-congratulatory
The name
Salvo is a term engineers already use in the control room, and an ordinary English word to everyone else. Both readings describe what the product does: many routes, one action.
In the control room
Engineers recognise the router term and assume you've worked live before.
Outside it
Everyone else hears several things happening at once.
Shape
Five letters, two syllables. It fits a favicon, a tab title and a rack label, none of which LGL-OS did well.
Risk
It's a common word, so trademark clearance and search ranking are harder. Clear it before anything is printed.
Salvo and salvo
The product name and the router term will appear in the same sentence. Capitalisation tells them apart.
Correct
Capitalised Salvo is the product. Lowercase salvo is the action.
"When an operator fires a salvo, every routed source cuts together."
Incorrect
"Salvo fires a Salvo"
"salvo records continuously"
Naming and hierarchy
| Name | What it is | When to use |
|---|---|---|
| Let's Go Live! | The company | Contracts, about pages, legal |
| Salvo | The product. No hyphen, suffix or TLD | Everywhere else |
| Salvo [App] | An individual app or product | Product pages, in-app navigation, docs |
| ATEM Builder | The free ATEM planner. No Salvo prefix | Everywhere |
| salvo.network | The web address | URLs, footers, business cards. Not in running copy |
salvo | The CLI command, and the router term | Terminal, code samples, technical prose |
Apps
SalvoREMI
SalvoProducer
SalvoDistribute
SalvoProjects
SalvoVault
SalvoNodes
ATEM Builder
On first mention, use the full name and say what it does. After that, the short name is enough. The names follow the product catalog (orchestrate-core src/shared/products.js, salvo.network catalog.md).
Correct
Salvo Distribute takes your feeds in, records them and streams them everywhere. Once Distribute is running, every feed is recorded.
Incorrect
"LGL-OS Distribute"
"the Distribute module"
"Salvo's Producer"
The URL
Only the dot takes colour. The letters stay black or white.
URL lockup
Salvo.Network
In text
salvo.network
Mark and wordmark
A router matrix is a grid of crosspoints. The mark is the set of crosspoints that, closed together, spell an S. Every asset is SVG built from rects and outlined paths, so nothing depends on a font at render time.
Mark
Small sizes
16, 24, 32 and 48px. At 16px the open matrix reads as a shape, not a letter. Below 24px, use the tile.
Wordmark
Inter Tight 800, uppercase, −0.01em tracking. A plain, dense grotesque in the tradition of pro equipment, and it holds at 13px in a nav bar.
The mark sits at cap height and never taller, with one grid cell of clear space on every side. Don't tint letters of the wordmark or set it in another cut; colour comes from the mark and the URL dot.
Favicon and app icons
Full inventory: salvo-assets/README.md. Rebuild with node scripts/salvo-assets-build.mjs.
Product logos
Every app has its own glyph on the same 5×5 crosspoint grid as the S. The tile is the app icon and favicon; the open glyph is what Salvo Home and the dashboard draw next to the app name. Salvo itself, Salvo Home and the dashboard keep the S.
The glyphs come from the product catalog (orchestrate-core src/shared/products.js, editable on Dashboard → Products). When one changes, update it in scripts/salvo-products-build.mjs and rebuild with node scripts/salvo-products-build.mjs. Each folder in salvo-assets/products/ also holds mono, on-dark, favicon (ICO, 16–192px PNG) and touch-icon versions.
Voice
Write the way an experienced colleague talks on comms during a show: short, specific, no performance. The voice is the same everywhere; length and detail change with the context.
Lead with what it does
"Distribute records every feed" says more than three sentences on why recording matters.
Skip superlatives
"Reliable," not "ultra-reliable." "Fast," not "blazingly fast." Give a number if you have one.
Assume the reader knows the field
Our readers know SRT, RTMP and LTC. Don't define them or put them in quotes.
Before publishing, ask: would a TD at Pinkpop nod at this, or roll their eyes? And is there a shorter way to say it?
Product UI
Shortest possible, verb first.
Write
Recording started
Source disconnected. Retrying…
Clip exported · 00:02:14 · 1080p
Avoid
Your recording has been successfully initiated!
Oops! Something went wrong.
Your clip has been exported! Great job!
Errors
Say what happened and what to do next. Don't blame the operator.
Write
Ingest source 'CAM-02' dropped. Last frame: 4s ago. Check connection.
Export failed: disk full. Free 2.1 GB to continue.
Avoid
Something went wrong. Please try again.
Product pages
Explain it the way you would to someone across the desk.
Write
Salvo records, routes and releases every feed in your production at once. If the stream is live, the file is growing.
Avoid
Our state-of-the-art recording engine leverages cutting-edge technology…
Documentation
Start with the task. Write for someone reading at 2am before a show.
Write
To add an SRT source, go to Distribute → Sources → Add.
Avoid
In this section, we'll walk you through the process of configuring a new source…
Vocabulary
| Use | Instead of |
|---|---|
| stream, source, feed | input, asset (in live context) |
| record | capture (unless at ingest level) |
| fire a salvo | trigger the preset, execute the routing |
| extract | pull, grab |
| timeline | session |
| operator | user (in production context) |
| reliable | robust, rock-solid, bulletproof, seamless |
| use | utilize, leverage |
Color
Neutrals are shared with Let's Go Live!: paper, grey and ink. Cobalt is the accent, kept to one primary action, links and active states. Green, amber and red are reserved for status.
Light surfaces
Base
Page background
#F7F8FA
Panel
Cards, surfaces
#FFFFFF
Raised
Subtle fills
#F0F2F5
Divider
Borders, hover
#E4E7EC
Primary text
#101828
Secondary text
#344054
Muted text
Metadata, timestamps
#667085
Cobalt
Salvo's own accent; Let's Go Live! orange stays on company material. Keep it under a tenth of any screen. Buttons carry white labels; small cobalt text on paper uses the darker step.
Fill
Primary button, mark, URL dot, active states
#2F5BEA
Text
Links, small copy on paper, button hover
#2348C4
On dark
Links, mark and active states on dark
#7B9BFF
Fire salvo
Preview
Status
Cobalt never signals status, and no status uses blue, so an accent is never mistaken for a state. Status chips are filled squares, always paired with a word. On light backgrounds, status text uses the darker step.
#1FA463
#E8A317
#E0362C
2 streams ingesting
Export queued
Source dropped
Type
Two typefaces. Schibsted Grotesk for headings and text. Martian Mono, shared with Let's Go Live!, for readouts, labels and buttons. The wordmark is drawn from Inter Tight and never used as text.
Headings
Schibsted Grotesk 700
Sentence case. Capitals are for the wordmark only.
Text and interface
Schibsted Grotesk 400 / 500
17px on pages and in docs, 13–14px in the product. Tabular figures on.
Readouts
Martian Mono 400 / 500
Timecode, addresses, bitrates, logs, buttons and short caps labels.
Two densities
Pages are read; operator screens are scanned. Same family, different sizes. Nothing goes below 12px.
Pages and docs
Page heading · Schibsted 700 · 52 / 1.05 (mobile 36)
Continuous recording for live shows
Section heading · Schibsted 700 · 34 / 1.1
Ingest sources
Lead · Schibsted 400 · 20 / 1.5
Salvo records, routes and releases every feed in your production at once.
Body · Schibsted 400 · 17 / 1.6
Distribute records continuously across active streams. If the stream is live, the file is growing.
Operator screens
H1 · Schibsted 600 · 24
Continuous recording
H2 · Schibsted 600 · 18
Ingest sources
Body · Schibsted 400 · 14 / 1.55
Distribute records continuously across active streams. If the stream is live, the file is growing.
Label · Schibsted 500 · 13
Program
Timecode · Martian 500 · 30 · tabular
01:14:32:18
Readout · Martian 400 · 13
srt://ingest-01.salvo.network:9000 · 12.4 Mbps · 180 ms
Tally · Martian 500 · 12 · +4%
PROGRAM · PREVIEW · STANDBY
Rules
Sentence case
Headings explain; they don't shout. Left-aligned, natural line breaks. Capitals belong to the wordmark, buttons and short labels.
No microtype
Nothing under 12px. Small type has to be readable at the size it ships, not just look technical.
Mono for values and controls
Martian Mono where digits must line up, a string must be copied exactly, or an operator presses it. Never for running text.
Let the product carry the page
Real equipment and real screens do the visual work; type identifies and explains them.
Retired faces
Retired · IBM Plex
The v1 Salvo family (Sans, Condensed, Mono). Replaced by Schibsted Grotesk and Martian Mono in v2.
Retired · Syne
Its widths move between weights, which makes a headline feel unstable.
Retired · Inter, JetBrains Mono (as text faces)
Fine faces, but as the interface type they make the product look like every other dashboard on the operator's screen. Inter Tight lives on only in the wordmark.
Dark surfaces
Light is the default: pages, docs, sign-in, admin and every default view. Dark is for screens operators watch in low light: the program view, the multiviewer, a panel in a truck at midnight. Same tokens, same status colours, same type.
Dark ramp
Base
Page background
#121212
Panel
Cards, sidebars
#1A1A1A
Raised
Borders, hover
#222222
Elevated
Dropdowns, modals
#333333
Primary text
#EDEDED
Secondary text
#CCCCCC
Muted text
Metadata, timestamps
#999999
Preview
REMI
Distribute
Producer
ON AIR
Program
01:14:32:18
CAM 01 · Wide12.4 MbpsLIVE
CAM 02 · Close11.8 MbpsSYNC
SRT · Remote180 msDROP
Fire salvo
Preview
Rules
No pure black
#121212 is the darkest surface. Pure black reads as a hole in the screen.
No pure white text
#EDEDED for primary text. Pure white on dark tires the eyes over a long show.
Elevation is lightness
Base, panel, raised, elevated: each step is lighter. Shadows don't read on dark, so we don't use them there.
Cobalt steps up on dark
Links, the mark and active states use #7B9BFF. The #2F5BEA button fill stays the same, with a white label.
How the interface talks
Every label, tooltip and notification is copy. Write it with the same care as a product page.
Buttons
Verb first. Name the action, not the destination.
Write
Fire salvo · Start recording · Add source · Export clip · Open timeline
Avoid
Click here to start · Submit · Go · Recording options
Empty states
Tell the operator what to do, not what's missing.
Write
No sources connected. Add one in Distribute → Sources.
Avoid
Nothing here yet! Get started by adding your first source 🎉
Confirmations
Say what happened, in the past tense.
Write
Clip exported · 00:02:14 · 1080p
4 crosspoints armed · released 01:14:32:18
Avoid
Your clip has been successfully exported! Great job!
Words we don't use
Revolutionary
Seamless
Leverage
Solution
Simply
Game-changing
Ecosystem
Utilize