The basic playlist setup requires a number of fields to be filled in:
- name
- broadcast period (start date and end date)
- days of the week
- broadcasting hours
The broadcast period means that the first specified date will be the first day of playback and the last day, respectively.
Days of the week - days in the playback period (on non-selected days within the period, the playlist will not be played).
Broadcast hours - hours in a day, during which the playlist will be played within the days of the playback period.
Advanced playlist options contain additional fields:
- category
- first day start at, last day end at
- quantitative restrictions
- type
- files order
- influence
Category - a field that is taken into account when planning several playlists on 1 screen. If several playlists of one category and several more of the different category are scheduled on one screen, then the scheduling algorithm will not place playlists of one category one after another. That is, if the user has scheduled 2 playlists of the "transport" category and 2 playlists of the "communication" category, then the playlist files will be scheduled in the order "transport", "communication", "transport", "communication".
first day start at, last day end at - the time on the first day of the broadcast period when playback starts and the time on the last day when it ends.
The playlist type is one of the following:
- fuzzy
- periodic
- floating
- block
- loop item
The fuzzy playlist type will cycle (in a circle from the first to the last in a circle) to fill the broadcast time.
Periodic playlist will schedule its files periodically for the specified interval. That is, if the user has scheduled 2 files with a frequency of 5 minutes, then these 2 files will be released every 5 minutes. Thus, the content critical for periodic reproduction should be scheduled as periodic and use fuzzy to fill the gaps between periods.
A floating playlist is similar to a periodic one, but the user specifies the playback period, and the number of outputs at the specified broadcast interval.
The block playlist allows you to set the duration of the block and the number of playback times of each file for the specified block duration.
Loop item algorithm process in few steps:
- all playlists are grouped by broadcasting time (so it is desirable that all have the same start time like 07:00:00)
- a common denominator of the frequency is sought for the group (if there is a playlist once a minute and once every 5 minutes, then the common denominator is 5, if once every 2 minutes and 5 minutes, then the common denominator is 10 minutes)
- a cycle with a length of the common denominator is formed (that is, if 2 playlists are played once every 1 minute and 1 once every 5 minutes, then the cycle will consist of 5 videos 1 and one 5)
- the daytime interval of the broadcast (from 07:00:00 to 23:00:00 for example) is filled with the formed cycle
Files order. For fuzzy, periodic and floating, it is possible to specify one of the following options:
- straight
- reverse
- random
- one of
Straight order - means that the files will be played in the order in which they are displayed, reverse - from the end, random - the files order will be mixed.
The "one of" order means that only one of the given files will be played during the playlist output. That is, when several files are loaded, the first file will be released in the first output of the playlist, in the second - the second. For example, a playlist of the type periodic with an interval of 5 minutes and the order "one of" is created, then only the first specified file will be shown in the first output, after 5 minutes the second and when all the files are played - again the first.
Quantitative restrictions allows to stop scheduling playlist by selected broadcasting period or by impressions count.
There is also current leftover shown for impressions restriction.
Playlist content
Content is audio, video files, images or html or zip containing html file.
Content can be downloaded from your local device or selected from the gallery.
Hovering over a file will show the controls.
In the upper left corner of the red basket - unpin the file from the playlist (but the file will remain in the user's gallery).
Further, in the upper left corner, an orange star - add to favorites (in the gallery, this file will be placed in favorites)
In the central part of the triangle - change the position of the file in the playlist.
In the upper right corner, a square is for the mass selection of files.
After selecting one or more files, the "edit" button becomes active.
Selected files using the drop-down menu of the edit button can be deactivated (the file will continue to be displayed in the playlist, but will not be scheduled), change the duration (for example, for video files, you can set the duration to half the duration of the video, then half will be played or set the duration for the image) and also delete (detach files from the playlist, but they will still remain in the gallery).
After all scheduling job is done and playlist attached to screens user may checkout by second daily schedule in «Schedule» tab.
There is also possible to connect foreign advertising providers.
Activating SSP Connector (manual) means system will checking than all main content is planned successfully and only in this case also plan such playlists. If playlists with activated SSP Connector don's allow broadcast other playlists - SSP Connector activated playlists would be removed from schedule. By this function it is convenient to upload VAST players from advertising providers.