Combine parallel overlays

[hdradio]

I have set my time announce overlay to play at XX:00:00 and XX:30:00
I have set 90 secs in advance.
Also I have created advertising overlays to play at XX:00:02 and XX:30:02
I have also set 90 secs in advance.

As you see there is 2 secs difference because as you have said it's not correct to use the exact same time to multiple overlays.

There are moments that the time announce starts, a song plays and follows the adv overlay.
There are also times that the time announce starts, a song plays for a minute or so, fades out and the adv overlay starts.

I have checked "Combine parallel overlays" but it does not always work.

What to do ?

[radio42]

Please check v3.0.13.30, this version should fix it.

[radio42]

It is (in your case, as you are using the 'Allow Start Early' option) not always possible to combine parallel overlays
Let me try to explain:

In general 'Combine Parallel Overlays':
If checked, overlays starting almost in parallel will be combined within the current Overlay-Players playlist into one playlist (the new overlay tracks will actually be added to it).
In order to combine overlays certain conditions must be met:
1. the current overlay must be still waiting for at least 10 sec.
2. the new overlay can not be of type 'Input'
3. the new overlay can not have the option 'AsPlaylistInsert'
4. the new overlay must have the same 'Suspend Program' option

In general 'Allow Start Early':
If checked the overlay might start earlier than the actual 'Start Time' if a current playlist track ends just before it, but no longer than the 'Show in Advance' time.


Now assume, that the first overlay is triggered early due to a track ending almost before or ending at the same time when the 2nd overlay is triggered to be started.
In that case, the 1. condition (see above) would be evaluated as FALSE and prevents the second overlay from being combined with the first one!
The reason btw for that 1. condition is simple: to combine 2 overlays the entire playlist must be rebuild; but if the first overlay is not waiting anymore, that rebuild wouldn't be possible anymore.
From your debug logs you already send me I can see, that this happened several times already.

To make it short: when using the 'Allow Start Early' option, it can not be guaranteed to always combine overlays.

However, it should not make any real difference, if 2 subsequent overlays can not be combined. In such case the 2nd overlay would just be put in waiting mode and start right after when the 1st overlay finished without resuming the playlist in between.
In all my tests this is also the case!
So far I am unfortunately unable to reproduce your described cases...so I need to investigate this further to try to reproduce it...

[hdradio]

So far I am unfortunately unable to reproduce your described cases...so I need to investigate this further to try to reproduce it...

Investigate it... because it is happening here. Not very often though !

[hdradio]

Bernd it is not fixed and by my opinion it can not be fixed and I 'll explain to you why:

Suppose I have my Time Announce to play at 10:30:00 set 90 secs in advance. (It can start at 10:28:30).
My commercial overlay is scheduled to play at 10:30:02 also 90 secs in advance (It can start at 10:28:32).
My Time Announce has 1 to 2 secs length ! (Suppose it's 1 sec).
If a song finishes at 10:28:30 exactly, the Time announce starts and finishes at 10:28:31.
The commercial overlay can not start because it can start at 10:28:32, so a new song starts.
Depending on the length of the song it might play all and follow the commercial overlay or fade out after 28 secs depending on max delay time set for commercial overlay.
I told you that this issue is rare but it happens !

[radio42]

Then schedule your commercial overlay not 2 sec. later, but only 1 sec. later - this should absolutely minimize if not eliminate the case?!