Overlay playlist

[XTended]

Bernd,

We have 3 overlays: news (with option lockplaylist), commercials (with option lockplaylist) and a welcome jingle without option lockplaylist).
Now in the overlay playlist only news and commercials are visible and you can see 1 is waiting. The one waiting is that welcome jingle overlay.
How can I combine all 3 overlays in the playlist without the 1 that is waiting? So our users can see all 3 overlays in the playlist.

Regards,
Bert

[radio42]

If you defined them as Overlay Scheduler entries - they are overlay Scheduler entries
As such they are being played and controlled by the Overlay Player...so I am not sure what you mean by 'visible' in the playlist...
Can you explain what your exact issue is?
Is a pure 'visibility' thing or are thing not correctly played?

[XTended]

Hi Bernd,

It's correctly played but not 100% visible.
First the user will see the overlay playlist with the news and commercials and second the welcome overlay which is playing the jingle.
You can see all settings in the picture I made.

Bert

[hdradio]

A few more questions on this subject.
I need to play all overlays not at fixed time but between -2 min to +2 min of actual time.
Can you help or suggest what are the best settings to have the following result with overlays:

Every Hour at (about) 00 (+-2) min :
Program "A" Closing track
Overlay "Time announce"
Overlay "News"
Overlay "Commercials" (Created by advertising module)
Program "B" Initial Track
Probram "B" normal script lines.

Every hour at (about) 30 (+-2) min :
Overlay "Time announce"
Overlay "Commercials" (Created by advertising module)

My question is about "start time" and "seconds in advance" of each overlay and how can I program a Closing track for each script?
Also do I have to set Program Start Time to 120 sec in General settings -> Scripts/Scheduler ?

Also sometimes when a new program is to play (when new hour has come) and there is also an overlay, it stops play back at the time the overlay has to play and I have to manually click Auto Play again. What do I have to set to correct this ?

[radio42]

I assume you have already enabled the Option "Combine Parallel Overlays" (see general settings, section 'Scripts/Scheduler').

If checked, overlay entries which are almost starting in parallel will be combined within the current Overlay-Player's playlist into one playlist (the new overlay tracks will actually be added to it).

In order to combine overlays certain conditions must be met:
- the current overlay must be still waiting for at least 10 sec.
- the new overlay can not be of type 'Input'
- the new overlay can not have the option 'AsPlaylistInsert'
- the new overlay must have the same 'Suspend Program' option

Note:
The first overlay defines the play out options!
The order in which overlays are shown determines how tracks are combined. NOT only the StartTime of the overlay is relevant, but also the 'Show in Advance' time is considered!

Looking at your screenshots I assume you picked some unrelated entries, as they start at 09:00:00, 12:00:00 and 11:02:00 and even at different dates...- but I assume (as they might have different recurrence settings) you mean the following:

1: Commercials - EndsAt @ 10:00:00 (starting 60 sec. in advance)
2: News - Fixed @ 10:00:00 (starting 60 sec. in advance)
3: Opener - EndsAt @ 10:02:00 (starting 60 sec. in advance)

Note the 'Show in Advance' settings:
Defines the time in seconds the overlay is shown in advance of the actual start time (e.g. giving the user time to cancel, delay or edit the overlay).
When using the 'EndsAt' start type you MUST set this value high enough, i.e. it should reflect the maximum duration of all items played by this overlay.
In your case the 'Commercials' can not be longer than 60 sec.!

Anyhow, in your Situation not all the above conditions seem to match!
While your first two entries (the News and the Commercials) do start at the same time, they can be combined - but the 3rd Opener entry effectively starts while the Overlay-Player is already running/playing the first entries - as such it can not be combined !!!
In addition the 3rd entry is set to the 'EndsAt' start type - which doesn't make much sense to my mind...as I guess it should be played right after the News/Commercials?

So in order to start all your 3 overlays at almost the same type, you might define them as given here:
1: Commercials - EndsAt @ 10:00:00 (starting 91 sec. in advance) -> effectively starting at 09:58:29!
2: News - Fixed @ 10:00:00 (starting 90 sec. in advance) -> effectively starting at 09:58:30!
3: Opener - Fixed @ 10:00:01 (starting 90 sec. in advance) -> effectively starting at 09:58:31!

Now all 3 overlays will effectively almost start at the same time (note, that the exact effective time also determines the order in which they are played).
As your commercials might be longer - you can adjust (e.g. increase) the show in advance time from 90 to e.g. 120 sec...as needed.

I hope this helps...and is what you are looking for.

[XTended]

Thanks Bernd, I will try this and inform you a.s.a.p.
And yes I have enabled the Option "Combine Parallel Overlays".

[radio42]

Another thing what both of you can try is to define one single script, which logically combines all three overlays.
As such you would only define one single overlay and assign that single script to it!
Within that script you might use the 'Advert' and 'News' actions to reference your news and commercials. Or define a script-line for your 'Closing Track', your 'Time Announcement', your 'Initial/Opener Track' etc.
Then simply assign that script to your single overlay.

If you want your overlay to start exactly consider the 'Fixed' or 'EndsAt' start type and specify the 'Show in Advance' seconds accordingly.
E.g. if you want the 'Time Announcement' to be exactly and this is only followed by a 15 sec. 'Opener Track' - just set the start to to 'EndsAt' and set the start time to e.g. '10:00:15' and specify a sufficient 'Show in Advance' time, e.g. set this to 180 sec.

If the over lay can start +/- 2 min. around the time, set the 'Show in Advance' seconds to at least 120 sec. and the 'Max. Start Delay' also to 120 sec. in addition set the 'Allow Early Start' option and use the 'Soft' start type.

[XTended]

Problem solved!

Your example work!
1: Commercials - EndsAt @ 10:00:00 (starting 91 sec. in advance) -> effectively starting at 09:58:29!
2: News - Fixed @ 10:00:00 (starting 90 sec. in advance) -> effectively starting at 09:58:30!
3: Opener - Fixed @ 10:00:01 (starting 90 sec. in advance) -> effectively starting at 09:58:31!

[radio42]

Another thing I noticed:
Why do play your OPENER via an Overlay?
It sounds much more logic to me to place such an 'Opener Track' track into the respective Program Script!
E.g. define as your 1st script-line an 'Execute' action using the given 'Uuropener' script as the entry reference.
And then set the script's 'Loop Line' option to 2!
Doing that would even avoid using a 3rd overlay.