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A few questions about advert management

Posted: 25 Feb 2014 18:58
by hdradio
Why a copy of the audio file of a campaign is needed to partners folder ? I have a folder "advertisement" that has all the audio there.

In slot assignment the mouse wheel scroll does not work.

Can you explain what Sync Copy checks do ? I check - uncheck but whatever I do I don't see any effect.

In campaign the Packages button in disabled although I have created a package. Had to restart the application to enable.

Can not set the Tool tips delay for Adv. Management.

I wanted to start from scratch and instead of deleting Overlay.calendar and slots.cfg I deleted all the slots by Shift-Delete from slots list in Advert Management. This also asked to delete the associated overlays. Unfortunately it not only deleted the overlays created by adv pattern wizard but all the recuring overlays created from Overlay Scheduler. Only the initial overlay left but with 0 at show in advance field.
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Also I create an recurring time announce overlay starting 20:00 and show 70 seconds in advance.
In adv pattern wizard I create the slots overlays also starting at 20:00 and show 68 seconds in advance.
Which will play first? Because in Overlays screen appear first the adv overlay and next the (time announce) overlay.
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In Slot assignment screen would be nice if there is also a column (next to time) showing how may spots are scheduled at that time and when the mouse is over it, show those spots in a tool tip.
When there are no spots leave empty. (Showing so many zeros on screen is not so nice by my opinion)
Also an option to disable showing the column of slot name for every day. (Again seeing a screen full of numbers is not so attractive).

Re: A few questions about advert management

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 18:07
by hdradio
g) Two or more overlays should by default use a different start time! Else their execution order is NOT guaranteed!
So I setup a time announce overlay at 00 and +30 minutes with start early 90 secs in advance
Then I setup slots and overlays in adv manager starting +02 min and start early 90 secs in advance too.

Do I have to setup also Program Start Time 90 secs in scheduler settings ? I think yes because in my testing there were times where the time announce played then a song and then a new program started.

Re: A few questions about advert management

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 19:51
by radio42
Yes, as both schedulers are running in parallel they should be aligned to each other.

Re: A few questions about advert management

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 20:48
by radio42
Many questions...many answers...

a) "copy of the audio file needed":
This is simply the concept!
Advert Audio Files must reside inside a special folder of a partner-campaign.
This for the program to 'know' which audio files are assigned to which partner-campaign.
Note, that each campaign can/will have its own audio files assigned.
Each time the advert library is reloaded ALL campaign folders of ALL partners are rescanned automatically.
This allows you to dynamically provide new (external) audio files even automatically outside the advert manager.
And gives you actually more flexibility.
That's why I have chosen to handle advert audio files this way.


b) "In slot assignment the mouse wheel scroll does not work"
This is unfortunately also by design!

c) "Sync Copy" option: It is working just fine here!
E.g. select the 'Sync Copy' option for DAY-1 and then tick a Slot in the list for DAY-2...you'll see, that in this case the DAY-1 entry is also checked.
Of course it wouldn't make any difference if you tick a slot entry within the day DAY at which you selected the 'Sync Copy' option.
'Sync Copy': If checked any changes made within another day will be copied over to this day following the exact same time slot.
Note: This will check/uncheck the same time slots even if the advert slots are different!


d) "In campaign the Packages button in disabled although I have created a package. Had to restart the application to enable"
Yes, that looks like a minor bug indeed! And will be fixed in the next version


e) "Can not set the Tool tips delay for Adv. Management"
That option is also currently not available - but might be added to a next verison.
Note, that you can also click on the '?' icon at the top right of each window to get a help window with all tool tips.


f) "Delete Slots":
Yes, that works correct and as designed: When a slot is deleted and you specified to also delete the associated overlays...then ALL those overlays which are using/referenceing that slot are deleted - of course this doesn't make any difference whether or not the resp. overlay was created manually or by the wizard!
The show in advance field always shows a value of 0 in case that overlay was already triggered by the Overlay Scheduler (see ProppFrexx OnAir)!
This in order to ensure, that not by mistake you accidentally tigger it twice!
That is also the reason why it is highlighted by a red box - to make it really visible to you - that in case you want to trigger it again, you would have to specify a new in advance time manually!


g) Two or more overlays should by default use a different start time! Else their execution order is NOT guaranteed!
When giving different show in advance times they might effectively be executed in the order which shows up first!
But by design, each overlay should have a unique start time!
I.e. if they should run in parallel (see the 'Combine Parallel Overlays' within ProppFrexx OnAir) simply specify start times which just differ by 1 second to exactly define their execution order.


h) "a column (next to time) showing how may spots are scheduled at that time":
Such a calculation is quite complex! Especially, if it would need to be executed for ALL overlay-slots displayed!
That's the reason, why this calculation only exists in the context-menu (right-click) on an entry in the Slot Assignment dialog.

Note, that beside the direct 'Slot Assignment' it might also be more effective to use the Dynamic or the Single assignment.

Re: A few questions about advert management

Posted: 08 Apr 2014 11:51
by hdradio
Bernd I have a question about Opener/Closer Finalizer tracks.

There are too many:
Opener/Closer Finalizer tracks for each campaign.
Opener/Closer Separator and Finalizer track for each adv slot
and
Opener/Closer for every Overlay entry.

In the following example what is the order that will play if both Campaign1 and Campaign2 are assigned at the same time (eg at 12:00).

Campaign1:
C1Opener.mp3
C1Closer.mp3
C1Finalizer.mp3
C1AdvTrack.mp3

Campaign2:
C2Opener.mp3
C2Closer.mp3
C2Finalizer.mp3
C2AdvTrack.mp3

Ovelay: (at 12:00)
Ov1Opener.mp3
Ov1Closer.mp3

Slot: (at 12:00)
Sl1Opener.mp3
Sl1Separator.mp3
Sl1Finalizer.mp3
Sl1Closer.mp3

Re: A few questions about advert management

Posted: 08 Apr 2014 12:01
by radio42
The full sequence of an advert slot look like this:

- Slot-Opener
- Campain1-Opener
- Campain1-AdvTrack
- Campain1-Closer
- Slot-Separator
- Campain2-Opener
- Campain2-AdvTrack
- Campain2-Closer
- Slot-Separator
...
- CampainN-AdvTrack
- CampainN-Closer
- Slot-FinalizerSeparator
- Campain1-Finalizer
- Slot-FinalizerSeparator
- Campain2-Finalizer
...
- CampainN-Finalizer
- Slot-Closer

Re: A few questions about advert management

Posted: 08 Apr 2014 12:11
by hdradio
If I use Opener and Closer for the overlay, I suppose that they will play :

- Overlay opener

- Slot-Opener
- Campain1-Opener
- Campain1-AdvTrack
- Campain1-Closer
- Slot-Separator
- Campain2-Opener
- Campain2-AdvTrack
- Campain2-Closer
- Slot-Separator
...
- CampainN-AdvTrack
- CampainN-Closer
- Slot-FinalizerSeparator
- Campain1-Finalizer
- Slot-FinalizerSeparator
- Campain2-Finalizer
...
- CampainN-Finalizer
- Slot-Closer

- Overlay Closer

Am I right ?

Re: A few questions about advert management

Posted: 08 Apr 2014 12:14
by radio42
Yes correct, sorry I forgot to mention the Overlay Opener/Closer - these are added at the very beginning/end.

Re: A few questions about advert management

Posted: 08 Apr 2014 21:01
by radio42
Let me try to explain this the other way around:

In general a certain Overlay (Entry) uses a certain Advert-Slot via the play out mode ‘Advert Slot’.
There are now different ways to assign a campaign…

1) Assigned Slots: Assign a campaign directly to one or more advert sots (this is the dialog you used so far!):
Every overlay, which uses any of the (directly) assigned advert slots will now use that campaign.
(when you right-click on a campaign this is used with the ‘Edit Slot Assignment…’)

Note: That you can also assign a campaign to a so called slot package (which is nothing else than a group of slots, as such instead of using single individual slots you use a slot package – which is then in the end resolved to all slots contained in that package).

So this method is a very generic but also very global assignment mode – as once a slot is assigned, that campaigned will be used – regardless of any date and time!


2) Dynamic Overlay Assignment: Assign a campaign to a particular overlay occurrence (date/time and overlay name).
This allows you to assign a campaign directly to certain overlay occurrences! I.e. the campaign is used with exactly the overlays scheduled at the given date/time.
The initial dialog allows automatic (random) distribution/selection of overlay occurrences based on patterns (filter, playouts per day or week).
You might also use the ‘Multi Overlay Assignment’ dialog (which looks similar to the slot assignment dialog, but it uses only exactly the overlays at the displayed date/time!).
Or you can use the ‘Single Overlay Assignment’ dialog to pick an individual overlay occurrence.
Finally you might also select the ‘Single Slot Assignment…’ option here, which instead assigns a campaign to a certain slot name at a certain date/time!
(when you right-click on a campaign this is used with the ‘Dynamic Overlay Assignment…’ resp. ‘Single Overlay Assignment…’ resp. ‘Single Slot Assignment…’)

This dynamic mode therefore always assigns a campaign to either an overlay or slot for a certain date/time and is therefore very specific (as it always uses a particular date and time for its assignment)! This is the most flexible but also the most time intensive way of assigning campaigns, as here you would have to assign every individual campaign to any resp. target date/time.


As a result…
…for a particular Day/Time (when the overlay is effectively triggered) that overlay plays the following is happening (which I call ‘GetSlotCampaignsAtDateTime’):

1. Get all active Partners at the given date/time
2. For each active Campaign of all these active Partners
- check, if the given advert slot is contained in the list of directly assigned slots
- check, if for exactly the given date/time there is either the slot or the overlay assigned (dynamic)
3. If one of the above checks matches, that campaign is potentially used
4. Now all potential campaigns (as retrieved from steps 2 and 3) are sorted by its Priority
5. Further the campaigns are validated by its Key (to make sure, that the same keys are not used subsequently)
6. Finally the list of campaigns is now used to gather the related advert tracks and compose the overlay playlist:
- campaigns having a Fixed-Price might get skipped, if their max playout is reached
- campaigns at the end of the list might get skipped, if the maximum slot length is reached