Rotation of Advert Blocks

[radiodungog]

Hello Dmitry,

I am looking for a simple way to rotate advert blocks so that the same adverts are not put to air at the same time every day.  Example of current schedule is shown below - NOTE that advert blocks are broadcast at the same time every day which is not really a good outcome:

MONDAY
======
06:17am Block 1
Burns Earthmoving
Martin Thorsby Electrical
Chillbillies Cafe

06:30am Block 2
Hair Affair
Country Elegance
NRMA

06:47am Block 3
Norco Rural
R&R Property
Newspower

07:17am Block 4
Carriageway
IGA
Irwins

07:30am Block 5
Mahindra
Coffee Bean
Country Affair

07:47am Block 6
Reliance Motors
Kernaghans Butchers
Bottlemart


TUESDAY
======
06:17am Block 1
Burns Earthmoving
Martin Thorsby Electrical
Chillbillies Cafe

06:30am Block 2
Hair Affair
Country Elegance
NRMA

06:47am Block 3
Norco Rural
R&R Property
Newspower

07:17am Block 4
Carriageway
IGA
Irwins

07:30am Block 5
Mahindra
Coffee Bean
Country Affair

07:47am Block 6
Reliance Motors
Kernaghans Butchers
Bottlemart


We currently have 12 advert blocks which are stored in 12 playlists and the scheduler calls each playlist up at a specific time.

So a scheduler entry might look like this:

Advert Block 01

Day:  Mon / Tue / Wed / Thu / Fri / Sat / Sun

Time: 06:17 / 10:17 / 14:17  (Day time schedule)

Time: 18:00 (Night time schedule)


Advert Block 02

Day:  Mon / Tue / Wed / Thu / Fri / Sat / Sun

Time: 06:30 / 10:30 / 14:30  (Day time schedule)

Time: 19:00 (Night time schedule)


Advert Block 03

Day:  Mon / Tue / Wed / Thu / Fri / Sat / Sun

Time: 06:47 / 10:47 / 14:47  (Day time schedule)

Time: 19:00 (Night time schedule)


We could add more RB scheduler entries to come up with what we need but that would increase the number of scheduler entries from 24 to 168 entries.  The RB scheduler window is already small and cluttered - so this is not a good idea.


A thought we had was as follows:

1. Create master advert block playlists as we do now

Advert_Block_01
Advert_Block_02
Advert_Block_03
etc.
Advert_Block_12

2. Create and run a DOS batch file each day (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun) and copy and rename the blocks to apply the offset something like this.  The batch file would be run automatically by RB every night at midnight.

MONDAY BATCH FILE
==============
Advert_Block_01.m3u  >  Advert_Block_06_17.m3u

Advert_Block_02.m3u  >  Advert_Block_06_30.m3u

Advert_Block_03.m3u  >  Advert_Block_06_47.m3u

Advert_Block_04.m3u  >  Advert_Block_07_17.m3u

Advert_Block_05.m3u  >  Advert_Block_07_30.m3u

Advert_Block_06.m3u  >  Advert_Block_07_47.m3u

Advert_Block_07.m3u  >  Advert_Block_08_17.m3u

Advert_Block_08.m3u  >  Advert_Block_08_30.m3u

Advert_Block_09.m3u  >  Advert_Block_08_47.m3u

Advert_Block_10.m3u  >  Advert_Block_09_17.m3u

Advert_Block_11.m3u  >  Advert_Block_09_30.m3u

Advert_Block_12.m3u  >  Advert_Block_09_47.m3u

Advert_Block_01.m3u  >  Advert_Block_10_17.m3u

Advert_Block_02.m3u  >  Advert_Block_10_30.m3u

Advert_Block_03.m3u  >  Advert_Block_10_47.m3u

etc.

TUESDAY BATCH FILE
==============
Advert_Block_01.m3u  >  Advert_Block_07_17.m3u

Advert_Block_02.m3u  >  Advert_Block_07_30.m3u

Advert_Block_03.m3u  >  Advert_Block_07_47.m3u

Advert_Block_04.m3u  >  Advert_Block_08_17.m3u

Advert_Block_05.m3u  >  Advert_Block_08_30.m3u

Advert_Block_06.m3u  >  Advert_Block_08_47.m3u

Advert_Block_07.m3u  >  Advert_Block_09_17.m3u

Advert_Block_08.m3u  >  Advert_Block_09_30.m3u

Advert_Block_09.m3u  >  Advert_Block_09_47.m3u

Advert_Block_10.m3u  >  Advert_Block_10_17.m3u

Advert_Block_11.m3u  >  Advert_Block_10_30.m3u

Advert_Block_12.m3u  >  Advert_Block_10_47.m3u

Advert_Block_01.m3u  >  Advert_Block_11_17.m3u

Advert_Block_02.m3u  >  Advert_Block_11_30.m3u

Advert_Block_03.m3u  >  Advert_Block_11_47.m3u

etc.


Modify our RB scheduler so that the new blocks are played automatically which would require 12 x 3 = 36 scheduler entries for day time and 12 x 1 = 12 scheduler entries for night time - giving a total of 48 scheduler entries.

Does this sound okay ?


And, is there some way we can do this with the RB scheduler so that we can have less scheduler entries ?  I seem to remember that there is an event option that might help us here.

http://manual.djsoft.net/radioboss/en/scheduler_options.htm


Something like:

Advert-Block-hh-mm.m3u  OR  Advert-Block-hh-mm-ss.m3u  WHERE variables are hours-minutes-seconds


Which would let us create a single RB scheduler entry that would look after all our advert blocks - or maybe 4 scheduler entries at the very most.




Thanks,  Jamie C.

 

[djsoft]

The batch file approach sounds good for your situation.

All playlists can be started by 3 scheduler events:
- choose Hours and check the hours when ad should be started. Select "17" for minute (other events will only have a different minute: 30 and 47)
- filename (same for all events): C:\Path\Advert_Block_?hh_?mm.m3u - ?hh and ?mm will be changed to the current hour/minute and it will start appropriate playlist

And one more event for the night, select hours, select a minute and use the same file name.

Those 4 events should do it. Let me know if it doesn't work for some reason

 

[radiodungog]

Dmitry,

That's great news.  Thanks

Is there any chance the macro could be extended to cover seconds too ?  Reason being that we often use seconds to run one scheduled event at one tome then another scheduled event immediately after:

05:59:50 ..... next block of adverts

06:00:00 ..... news bulletin to be inserted before the adverts above

Hence the news plays first, then the adverts.

Does this make sense ?


Thanks, Jamie C.

 

[djsoft]

I don't think using seconds is a good approach. Sometimes (eg. when is system is heavily loaded) event can be started one or two seconds late.

Minutes are more reliable and I think it's enough to do what you need.

 

[radiodungog]

Dmitry,

We use the seconds feature in the scheduler all the time so that we can stack up two or more scheduled events in sequence - generally with a 5 or 10 second time difference.  If we only had minutes to play with in the scheduler we wouldn't achieve the same results.

Jamie C.

 

[djsoft]

If I understood correctly and you want to start two playlists one after another, let's say one at 01:59:45 and another in 01:59:50, you can do it like this:
- event for :45 starts playlist C:\Ads\Advert_Block_?hh_?mm_1.m3u
- event for :50 starts this playlist: C:\Ads\Advert_Block_?hh_?mm_2.m3u

As you see, we don't use seconds explcictly - instead we have _1 and _2 added to playlist file names.

Using seconds is not reliable, as I said above - in some rare cases event can be started one second later and ?ss will load incorrect, most likely nonexistent, playlist.