Broadcast schedule for automation of professional broadcasting
A small description of the principles of the schedule for beginners or how not to mess things up.Please note that this description can be changed or supplemented at any time!
We have a unique scheduling system that is very flexible, but very sensitive to errors or broken logic. And so, let's start with the basic rules and terminology that should be followed:
1. Schedule is a list of tasks that are checked every minute and, if they match, are launched. If the trigger condition matches for several playlists, the first one in the list will be launched.
2. There are 3 types of playlist launch : on-air, playlist insertion, insertion of 1 track. It is very important to understand that an insert interrupts an on-air playlist, but an insert cannot interrupt another insert . Those. if an insert is playing, then until it finishes playing, other inserts will simply be ignored.
3. First of all, set up air playlists . On-air playlists are usually the main playlists that play most of the time. For example: daytime, nighttime, weekdays, holidays.
4. Then, if required, insert playlists can be specified. Inserts are playlists or tracks that temporarily interrupt the main broadcast. As a rule, these are short playlists or jingles that are inserted throughout the day. For example: jingles, intros, advertisements, hourly beats, stories, mini-playlists.
5. When specifying a task in the schedule, you should specify the way to include the playlist . For on-air playlists, you must always specify inclusion by time / date , while you can set several time conditions at once. The on-time is specified in the CRON style, where an unspecified value takes "any value". Consider the options skipping the asterisks:
****-**-10 **:00 Monday - the playlist will start every hour at 00 minutes, but only on the 10th of Monday, is that ok?
****-**-** 10:00 AM Monday - 10:00 AM on Mondays, now that's fine
****-**-** 20:15 - every day at 20:15
****-**-** **:00 - every hour
****-06-20 15:00 - June 20 at 15:00
****-**-01 15:00 - 1st at 15:00
6. Inserts can be specified not only by time , but also included every N minutes or after N songs . Those. if you want to play jingles every 15 minutes, or for example every 5 songs played, then these conditions are for you. It is better not to use such conditions too much.
7. In addition to the activation methods, there are additional options. You can change the queue of on-air playlists at any time. The fact is that if your on-air playlists are not very long, then they will play in a circle until another one is launched. If you specify a queue, then after the launched playlist, the next one in the queue will be included. The current queue can be seen and changed at any time in the files section - sometimes this is useful.
8. The next option is how the playlist is played, the playlist can be played in order, either randomly or in order with a shuffle at the end. The mode of the current playlist can be changed at any time in the Auto-DJ control.
9. A very interesting option is to specify the number of the song from which the playlist will start. If not specified - the playlist will play from the beginning, and if you specify not a number, but -1 , then the playlist will be included from the position where it ended before. This option is very interesting for example for inserting jingles. In this case, the jingles will be inserted one at a time, but continuing the order of the playlist.
10. Well, probably the most requested option is to wait for the end of the current song. By default, the playlist will be played at exactly the time the schedule fires, this is useful for accurate playlists or hourly hits. Otherwise, it is better to specify the option to wait until the end, then the new playlist will be included after the end of the current song without interrupting playback.
11. For PRO tariffs, it is also possible to insert a jingle over the stream . In addition, in the settings, you can specify the% volume of music at the time of overlaying the jingle on top.
Well, in principle, and all the basics of the schedule at the moment. Perhaps you will find other hidden features :)